Unexpected Result

Drip, drip, came the raindrops. The new hot morning sun rays poured inside of Anna Sullivan's apartment. The alarm suddenly went shrieking. Anna pulled herself out of bed and looked out the window. It had rained last night. Clumsily, she slammed her hand on top of the alarm clock. With a groan, she got up and from the bed and headed to the bathroom. The bright light stung her eyes and she cursed underneath her breath as she pulled back the shower curtains and turned on the hot water.

When she emerged from the shower, she stopped in front of the mirror for a few minutes before finishing. After another few minutes had passed, she was finished dressing for work and moved onto her hair. Her light brown hair hung past her shoulders and stood out against her slightly tanned skin. Anna then pulled her hair behind her ears and into a clip. As she brushed her teeth, Anna began to wonder what exciting new adventure was coming her way that day.

Because of her profession, she almost never had a day off from the pressures of her superiors. She was a scientist, and was almost at a breakthrough for Alzheimer's disease, which would most likely be coming that day, or sometime in the not to distant future at least. But for the meantime, Anna's thoughts were preoccupied with waking up and actually getting to work on time and staying awake. Leave all the technical stuff and big words for later, was her motto in life, and actually helped her out in the morning.

'Another boring day in the lab' she thought to herself, 'Searching for answers to questions that no one ever asks. Let's get this over with as quickly as possible. Maybe I'll even get out early'

At 7:24 am, Anna finally threw herself into her car, with a large cup of strong coffee in her hand, and pulled out of her driveway. After a long, dull drive across a busy highway, Anna finally pulled up in her science department. She sighed as she prepared for another long day of work which left her emotionally exhausted by the end of the day. The building was called, 'Cures of the future'. This building was where the top scientists and researchers from around the globe came to further practice their studies.

Anna had arrived at the building at the end of the year 3018, and now, it was almost six years later, 3024. Her team had discovered a cure for Parkinson's disease back in 3021. When she had been younger, she had perceived that it would be much more interesting than it actually was. Everything she had read in her school days made this place sound very intriguing. But, it was very dull and nearly lifeless, to her.

Even the building she worked in was very drab. The walls were nothing but white, and the chairs were hard and very uncomfortable. In her department, she shared her office with a fellow colleague. The rest of her department was really on big room with experimentation dorms. Even the waiting room for the families of the people involved in the experimentations. Although Anna didn't agree with experimentations on other humans, she was sometimes forced to take a part in them, or lose her job over it.

"Hey, Anna" Rob greeted her at the check out station.

He was majoring in human cloning at the time. He had been able to successfully clone a gorilla back in 3023, and the gorilla still lived in the laboratory, for further observations on it's health. Rob was making much progress in learning how to clone a human by mapping the genetic code in the DNA, and was learning about it to actually keep it alive to infancy and from they're on.

"Hello" Anna said as she checked in and passed him. Secretly, she envied him for being so successful in his field.

"Anna, how are?" came another greeting from Tammy.

Tammy was busy on finding a cure for the Sems Virus. She was well known by the government officials and by the Health Department for discovering the cure for Aids back in 3022. Anna waved back at her, hoping that her day would come where she would be the one honored for discovering a cure for a disease, and her case was Alzheimer's.

"Hey, are you going to get any major breakthroughs today, Anna?" Tammy called out to her, "I hear that your field had been working really hear to find the right specimens for the experiment that'll take place either this week or next week"

"Well, I can't promise anything, but we should be soon" Anna replied as she turned the corner, "I've got several of my best people working on it even as we speak. Just keep your fingers crossed"

Once Anna finally got to her wing of the building and into her office, she flung herself into her chair and turned on her computer. Quickly, she drank what was left of her coffee and pulled out her notes from the day before. Before she could even breathe, Chloe, the lab assistant, came bouncing into office, full of giggles as usual.

"Hey there, Dr. Anna" Chloe said good-naturally, "I have some ideas for your animal brain stem experiment to find a cure for that what's it called disease of the mind, and a location where you could perform the experiment and test it too on several subjects. Want to hear it?"

'Do I really have a choice?' Anna thought to herself.

"Well, I was thinking that we should use sharks for one of our experimentations!" Chloe said excitedly as she continued on about her discovery, "We have a research facility down in the Keys, if you'd like to try it out for yourself! All we need to do is enlarge the sharks' brain mass, and their body size too, of course, and well, there you go! What do you think of my idea!"

Chloe then twirled one of her blonde curls with her finger, anticipating Anna's answer to her suggestion. Anna rolled her eyes at Chloe. The rest of the office, who had heard Chloe's loud giggles, stopped talking to hear what Anna had to say to Chloe, and they held their breaths in anticipation.

"Gee, that really sounds like a great idea to me, Chloe" Anna said sarcastically, "That is, it's a great idea, for someone who wants to end up like the people in the movie, 'Deep Blue Sea'. Well, for one, I don't want three sixty feet long, two thousand pound angry mako sharks after my rear because of some lab experiment! So, for the mean time, I shall keep my feet on dry land, thank you very much. Oh, but nice try anyways! Keep it up, and you might actually be right one of these days. Something to look forward too!"

There were several snickers in the office. Chloe turned the shade of dry blood, smiled nervously, and bounced out of her office. The girl really reminded Anna of one of the girls from a cheerleading squad. Ray, Anna's lab partner, came in a minute later to discuss some more information with her. He was still chuckling about what Anna had said to Chloe. Everyone was very familiar with Anna's sarcasm by then, so no one took it personally if she made a remark or two about them. Most of the time, she was right.

"Whose bright idea was it to hire that girl!" Anna muttered, "Probably someone as dumb as she is!"

"Uh miss, that was me" Ray said, feeling insulted. Anna didn't take back a word she said, so Ray went on, "She really is very good at keeping this place organized, whether you'd admit to that or not"

"But we don't need a janitor, we need a lab assistant!" Anna told him loudly, "Not some ditsy girl who's more likely to mix up solutions! That girl said that we use shark brain tissue and enlarge their brain mass and there body size too harvest more stem cells. To top that off she then said that we should do this experiment out in the ocean on top of that! Then that would most likely leave us with the 'Deep Blue Sea' true life story! Now, I'm not so sure about you, Ray, but that doesn't sound very appealing to me"

"Well that won't happen to us Anna, because of, of..." Ray paused for a moment to regroup his thoughts. He then turned back to Anna. "No, no, you do got a point there. It's not that big of a deal. We just won't let Chloe handle any of the stem cells or any of the solutions. Happy now Anna? Problem solved! Let's move on, shall we!"

"Yes, that's a better idea" Anna said as she picked up some papers, "Any ideas about what kind of animals to use though?"

"As a matter a fact, yes I do" Ray answered her as he sat down, "And no, it's not sharks this time! Judging by the memory of certain animals, I'd say for one, we should use a mature elephant"

"No, I'd say an immature elephant" Anna said, "A juvenile. Their brain cells haven't fully developed yet. By taking a few of those and implanting them into the tissue of an Alzheimer's patient, hopefully, the reaction we want will be the result"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea" Ray said thoughtfully.

"What else is there" Anna asked him, bored out of her mind, "I know there has to be more then just that this world has to off us"

"Ah yes, well, I'd say that we should use a dolphin too, because they have such excellent memories as it seems" Ray said, "If we succeed, we shall be the first ones in history to use animals for a cure to a deadly disease that strikes many of our middle aged and elderly citizens"

"Yes, they are intelligent creatures" Anna said thoughtfully, "Perhaps, their brain tissue could be of help to us. And you don't need to remind me of what our job is and whom it is going to affect. What else is there?"

"I also say we use another person's brain tissue" Ray said, "No harm in trying! Just a few things I'm curious about. How many types of brain tissue do we need? What are the risks of these experiments and what will the cost be for us? How much will we be paid if we do find a cure?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" Anna muttered, "I mean, since you've asked me about four in the last two minutes"

"Uh, the first one" Ray answered her, "And then you can continue on from there to the other questions"

"Well, we need three or four, in case one doesn't work" Anna responded slowly, "We've already got three, so that's enough of that. If we get permission from the head of the department, then we can use human brain tissue, if necessary. The costs of these experiments should run about two thousand dollars, at the least. The only risk that we face is not finding the cure and wasting all that money, and possibly our jobs as a result. Not to bad. The reward will vary in price ranges and how quickly we get the results"

Ray turned a little pale when Anna told him the consequences. Anna saw this and kept on going with a plan that she was making up in her head.

"And, I do not think we should do this experiments around here. Not this time. We have another facility a couple miles east" she said, "I also got one of the assistants on the job. Bill will be getting the specimens for us, hopefully. I think with him on our team this time, we shouldn't have much difficulty discovering this cure any time soon, if our theory is correct, which I really hope it is. It really would be just our luck if we had been just our luck if we turn out to wrong about this theory, don't you think so, Ray"

Ray couldn't believe what she had just said. Of all people, she wanted Bill to be the one helping them on an experiment that could cost them all their jobs. Ray waited for a moment, to see if she was kidding. When he finally realized that she was being perfectly serious, he nearly had heart failure. He leaned forward so that no one else could hear them talking.

"But, Anna, you do know that Bill is not, well you know, exactly sane, don't you" Ray said to her in a hushed tone, "He could really mess us up badly here. He might get the wrong specimen, or cell, or something of that sort. Then what would become of us, might I ask you?"

"Ray, you know that unless he wasn't smart, he wouldn't even be here today" Anna replied flatly, "Sure might have some peculiar behaviors and some issues, but don't we all have some odd things we do. Maybe not out in the open, but hidden carefully from the eyes of others. You and I and the rest just choose to keep them, hidden. He is more open with is odd behaviors is all. Besides, he's going to be the one who carries out the experiment this time. I and some others agree that he is capable of this kind of task now"

Ray turned around, just in time to see Bill walking by with a huge folder underneath his arm. Bill was a large, burly man with several noticeable chipped and stained teeth. It was known that at times, he would go without showers for three days at certain times. He speech was slow, jumbled, and unintelligible, and filled with many grunts. At times, people would seem him walking around muttering to himself. Finally, the head of the department came down and told him to put and end to it, or he was out.

"Anna, are you aware of how many times he's infuriated and got in the way of others trying to get a break through on their research" Ray asked her, hoping to change Anna's mind about it. His plan didn't work, however.

"And are you aware of how many times he's helped people complete their research and experiment" Anna retorted back, "Without him, their research wouldn't have been possible"

To this, Ray had no answer too because he knew she was right, even though he didn't want to admit to it. He looked over at Bill through the office window, just in time to see him talking furiously to a coworker. It was impossible to understand anything that he was saying, and the coworker looked very confused.

It was true, there were also several occasions when Bill was rather useful. When another department needed to catch an alligator for certain studies, it was Bill that was sent out to do the job, and he was successful. He had passed high school with advanced placement in all his classes, including calculus, and graduated early. Once, several of them were trying to put together a group of elements to see what the results were from the chemical reactions were, it was Bill who solved the problem, and was allowed to stay.

Because of this and several other achievements, Bill was allowed in the science department, and his odd ways were forced to be overlooked. He was also highly respected, for the most part, by his colleagues. But to others, such as Ray, he was regarded as an idiot savant more or less.

As they continued talking, Bill suddenly appeared again, with a small vile in his large hands. Anna and Ray stared at it for a moment.

"What is that you got there?" Anna asked him.

"Uh, well let's see here, uh, um, it's those, uh, specimens that you wanted me to get for you, the one, uh, Ray, uh, told you about" Bill stuttered.

"So, you've already told him about the assignment? You didn't tell me that part" Anna asked Ray, feeling a little confused.

"No, I didn't say anything to him about it!" Ray said loudly, feeling aggravated, "Bill, did you go looking through my files again? Or were you eavesdropping on us?"

"Uh, you just left, uh, them out there, uh, and I just, um, couldn't help myself," Bill answered him. He then turned to Anna with a silly grin on his face. "Uh, what were we talking about?"

"I can't take this!" Ray cried as he put his hands over his ears, "Bill, you're acting like this is all one big joke! Don't you know that our job is a stake here! Cut it out and act like you're thirty three, for once!"

"I'm getting to old for this" Anna muttered, even though she was only twenty-eight and a half years old, "Shall we get started on this?"

"Are you kidding me!" Ray nearly screamed at her, "This man is just barely capable of trying his own shoes, much less fulfilling the lab"

Anna didn't seem to hear him, and Bill didn't even bother saying anything back to him in his own defense.

"Yes, I believe we shall" Anna said as she glued on a fake smile that she was very famous for, almost as much as her sarcasm, "Mr. Davis, or shall I say Bill, you may want to begin working very soon"

For the next several weeks, the group continued to make documents while Bill conducted the experiments in a private location. At times, they wouldn't hear from him for days. Chloe continued to bounce back and forth, and Anna learned to keep a good percent of her sarcastic comments to herself more. While Bill was out in some faculty or another, Anna and Ray continued on for the possible results. The progress they made was very good, and all they had left to add were the results.

After a month had passed since Bill had been appointed for the job, Anna and Ray both got called in by the head of the department, Andrew County, for a little chat about the progress they were making. Ray was startled, since Mr. County only called people in if they were about to get fired real soon. The both of them were nervous about the meeting, since Mr. County was known for being very notorious with everyone who crossed his path. He was also a rather large man which made him more intimidating.

"So, Ms. Sullivan" Andrew said with a scoff, "How is that little project of yours coming along now. I hear it's very expensive, and if accomplished, could bring in many rewards for the entire company"

"To be honest, I'm not so sure" Anna said.

"And why is that now" Andrew asked them, with a sneer curling his upper lip, "Don't tell me, your slacking on the job already. You must have some information on the results by now, unless you're slacking off"

"No sir, we most certainly aren't. Because we left the project into the hands of Mr. Davis, who hopefully is making some head way on the experiments by now, has all the information from the project in his files" Ray replied, casting a sideway look at Anna, "At least I hope that he is"

"Well so do I, for your sakes" Andrew sneered even harder at Anna and Ray, "Because if he doesn't, then the three of you will be out on the streets, you hear. Now, the deadline is next month, on the third. My boss is expecting those results. If you don't have him, your all fired. Now, that's all I have to say to you two. Now, if I were you, I'd go find Mr. Bill and see how he's doing. And if you don't mind, I'd like to have my lunch, so you both may be excused. Oh, and you better not disappoint me on this. Good day"

The pair got up, and went hurriedly to the office. There, Ray picked a fight with Anna over her choice of an assistant. Anna, of course, still had her faith firmly in Bill, and ignored his comments. It did little to appease Ray's temper.

"That man has better be doing something back in that lab!" Ray fumed as he paced back and forth around the office, "Because if he takes away my job, then I'll be going after him!"

"Oh he'll come through for us, I'm sure of it, trust me okay" Anna assured him, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure that he's nearly done by now with it"

"You mean that Mr. Bill hasn't given you any of his new information at all yet?" Ray inquired, getting frustrated, "I can't understand why. It not like he has to hide anything from us"

"No, he won't let me near the lab at all" Anna replied, "I've tried once or twice, but he always kicks me out and bolts the door shut, and locks it. Sheesh, he's even locked the windows and out curtains on them so no can see through them! That's just ludicrous!"

"What! What do you mean he won't let you near the lab ever!" Ray nearly shouted at her out of anger.

"It mean exactly as it sounds Ray" Anna said curtly, "And don't you even dare to take your anger out on me! Just because your doesn't mean I have to suffer for it, okay. You think I'm all that happy with the way this is going? If I could, I'd change it"

"Why can't you just go in there and see what he's up too when he's not looking!" Ray suggested, feeling agitated, "You could do that Anna, can't you?"

"Uh, if I could, don't you think I would've along time ago" Anna huffed loudly, "That guy literally guards that thing like a mother bear"

"You never should've let him on the job" Ray groaned.

"Look, he was going to do it, whether we invited him or not" Anna said evenly, "You remember that he went through your files and got started on it before I even called him over with the proposition"

"This has got to be one of our slowest projects ever!" Ray moaned in misery, "Normally, we'd be done by now. It's been more then a month and we're barely even half way through with it. How thick is the file on this case now anyways?"

Anna then turned around and clicked on a small red button that was located right over her drawer, and she punched in a number in the pad that was situated next to it. Instantly a single row of files opened. Anna reached down and pulled out the files that had their records of the experiment in them. Not surprisingly, it wasn't as thick as the rest of their files were. Carefully, Anna thumbed through them, commenting on how they needed Bill's results as soon as possible. She looked at Ray with another phony smile.

"You know what Ray, I was hoping to get those results in earlier" Anna said, "That way, we could show Mr. County that we were working extra hard and putting forth much time consuming energy that went entirely into this project. If we could achieve that goal, then Mr. County would take back everything he said to us before"

"And your nuts" Ray said amusingly, "With him, I'd be surprised if we turned in the conclusions on the exact date. This project isn't as easy as I had originally expected it to be. Right now, I wish we were in another field, such as crossing animals, like Charles and Beth are doing. That would be so much easier"

"Yes, that does seem a bit easier" Anna agreed with him, "But even they haven't found which animals to cross yet"

For the next several days, they continued to be patient, waiting for Bill to come through for them. Every time he passed by, they would stop him and inquire about the progress he was making and if he took notes. All he ever said was that everything we would be all right, which would aggravate Ray even further. By now, even Anna was losing her patience with him. More then once, Mr. County would stop by and smile at them from afar. Anna and Ray could practically hear the laughter twinkling in his eye.

During the middle of the fifth week since the project, Tammy came in to see how everything was going. They chatted for a while, and she could see that Ray had dark bags of skin hanging under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Even Anna seemed to be tired, worried, and anxious. She didn't know what to say, since her team was working very quickly and making huge progress with the work. After a few minutes, a small robot came in with several coffees. The three of them were silent for a while as they sat.

"Were all done" Anna told her, "All we need now is for Mr. Davis to give us the results to turn in. I just hope he doesn't wait until the last minute to do it, or were in serious trouble here"

"For your sake, I hope that would be soon" Tammy said to them sympathetically, "I just can't believe you have Bill working on it and that you've put your jobs into his hands, praying that he won't fail you. If I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have let him even begin helping in the first place!"

"Believe me, I can't believe that I'm working with him either" Ray grumbled underneath his breath.

Anna elbowed him in the ribs. He growled at her and she just sat there and glared at him. Eventually, he backed off and turned back to face Tammy, who looked deep in thought at the moment.

"Look, we are going to be okay here" Anna said again, "Trust me. And Tammy, don't go telling everyone about how were getting behind on this project. The last thing that we need right now is any snide remarks about how we should start applying for new jobs, since everyone here is famous for doing that"

"Trust me Anna" Tammy said brightly, "I wouldn't do that to you guys ever. And, if I were you, tomorrow you should go looking in Bill's lab. He's going to be leaving it for a little while for some errand. I heard his loud voice saying it to himself, since no one else was around"

"You serious?" Ray asked her, "I can't believe he would leave it unguarded ever. It would be a miracle to get in there"

"You bet I am" Tammy said cheerfully, "I got to go now. I promised Charles and Beth that I'd help them out, since they seem to be stuck. See you later!"

Tammy then bounced out of the room, which reminded Anna of Chloe. She and Ray exchanged looks.

"That's your job to find out what he's doing in there" Ray said quickly to Anna, "It was your idea to have him on the job"

The next day, Anna watched the lab as Bill left it, unguarded. He even forgot to lock it, which she found amusing. Once she was sure he was gone, Anna crept into the lab and looked around. It was a completely white, sterile looking room with a messy desk in the far corner. On top of it was a microscope and a little Petri dish. Closing the door behind her, Anna walked over to it and sat down to take a look in the dish. The label on it was human and dolphin tissue. A little to the left was another Petri dish.

What Anna saw in the dish was enough to make her lose her breathe for a second. She didn't hear the lab door open nor the heavy sound of boots that were coming towards her from the other side of the room. Anna was too lost in thought to hear them anyways. She did, however, hear the angry voice when she was discovered sitting in the lab room and going through things without any permission.

"What are you doing here?" came a gruff voice from the back.

Anna jumped out of the chair and spun around to see Bill's angry face staring hard at her. However, she wasn't scared of him. Instead, she was more devastated by what he had done.

"What have you done to them?" Anna gasped, "You mixed the DNA of the human and animal sex cells. Bill, you were supposed to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, not create an entirely new species. And mixing a human embryo is wrong too. How, no why did you do this to us?"

"I heard I was suppose to make a new species, and from your partner's folder, I saw the specimens I was too use, so don't change the story on me!" Bill said angrily, "How could you even ask such a question anyways? Sounds like you've been living in your own little world the whole time that we've been working on this project, and I'll bet that you never heard a word I said when I was explaining this to you before! Boy, I can't believe that Mr. County is even letting you stay here!"

Anna turned back to the microscope for a better look at it. In the Petri dish was a small human embryo. There was a distinct tail fin coming from where the legs should've been growing from. Anna then slid the other Petri dish underneath the microscope. It was a rather odd looking embryo. But any embryo that was crossed between an elephant and a human would look odd anyways. Both embryo's where a little over a month and a half along into their development. Anna slowly turned back to Bill.

"Bill tell me, who do you think I and my partner are?" she asked him curiously, "And what wing are we working in?"

"If your going to keep asking me more dumb questions Beth, you can leave then" Bill answered her briskly, "You and Charles have been trying to create a new species to replace the ones that have become extinct. You asked me to help since you weren't sure how to do it, and I did it for you. I did two! And I don't even get a thank you from either one of you. In fact, Charlie has been doubting my abilities for quite some time now, from what I heard. Calling me an idiot savant. I'd like to see what he'd have to say now!"

Anna smiled at him, and her whole face lit up. But this time, it wasn't phony like fake fruit. Her smile was genuine and had laughter sparkling in her eyes. She shook her head at him, and she let the clear laughter in her voice ring out. At first, Bill was confused and demanded to know why she was laughing at him.

"Bill, Bill" Anna said as she laughed, "I'm Anna, and partner is Ray. We're trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. You got confused is all"

Bill stared at her with his small mouth hanging open in shock and confusion, which made Anna laugh even harder. Ray heard the laughter and came running in to see what was so funny.

"What's going on in here?" Ray roared as he burst in.

Anna tore her three eyes away from Bill and focused them and Ray. As she explained what was happening, Ray's two antennae's twitched about in wrath. Eventually, even he started to laugh. It was then that Mr. County came in. His orange skin grew very dark as his one eye glowed down at them.

"Poor Bill got confused about which wing he was suppose to work in" Anna laughed again.

Mr. County looked at Bill, and even he started laughing as Anna explained to him what Bill had done with the embryos.

"Well, at least Beth and Charles's work will be finished for them" Mr. County said as his one eye brightened, "Three endangered species mixed together. Now that's something I've never even thought of. At least he used humans to. They are the rarest of all, even if they aren't all that bright"

It was then that Chloe, the human assistant, came bouncing back in just as he said that about her kind. She was horrified at the news of Bill crossing the species together.

"So, what are we going to do now with them" Ray asked them.

"Why don't we let Chloe take care of the human and dolphin one, okay" Anna said humorously, "After all, they are humans, so they could be related"

Anna then opened the blinds in her office when she finally left. It was turning into a beautiful sunset on Planet Venus, the first sunset she ever noticed. She and Ray might not have reached their goal, but they were now going down in history for being the first Venetians who ever created a human, even if it was only part human. In a wordless gesture, she silently thanked Bill for what he had done for them.

The End