Hybrid Helper - Part Two

I watch as Mrs Mawab takes a deep breath, her hazel eyes closing in deep thought for a moment. The whistling from the window grows sharp and loud as wind pounds the window, a slight pitter patter of rain beginning to build against the glass as well.

After almost a minute of sitting in silence I watch as Mrs Mawab's eyes snap open, her gaze darting to the needles as she searches for some kind of distinguishing marks. Finally she snatches one from the desk, giving it a more close reading before she hops to her feet with an unsteady jiggle rippling through her body.

"Okay..." she chuckles, waddling around the desk and towards me. "So... I think you would be great as our new embedded student support. We can't just hire back a teacher that we recently fired simply due to their... You know, you understand" she explains, waving her hand in a circular gesture as her words falter while the large needle jostles unnervingly close to my face. "And getting rid of Mr Lowe this way? No no, that was a terrible idea."

"Uh..." I wheeze, my eyes glued to the large shiny metal casing of the syringe. A string of numbers and letters are printed on the side, their meaning lost on me entirely as I struggle to read them in the poor light filling the room. "Can I... what about..."

"I suppose we could make you an assistant to one of the lecturers" she says with a smirk, glancing back over at the needles on the desk as she looks for one in particular. "I'm sure you'd love dong all of their photocopying and handing out papers or reading material day in day..."

"Fine fine, not that one I..." I begin to grumble back, only to be cut short by a phlegm filled chuckle from the older woman beside me.

"Well if you don't want to shuffle papers all day then we simply can't make you our new office administrator. And I suppose that would be a large part of working in the student hub and as a club officer for..." she explains, smiling the whole while as she seems to enjoy slowly breaking down my rapidly diminishing options.

Hybrid Helper - Part One

My feet tap against the wooden legs of my seat, the aging piece of furniture creaking under my weight after years and years of constant use. The fabric seat is worn down within an inch of its life, the once lustrous red material now dull and fraying to the point one can see the foam padding within.

The sound of whistling fills the pale yellow room, the windows within the cramped office not sealing properly against the elements outside. Books and papers pile up high on the cheap desk at the far end of the narrow room, the bookshelves flanking it sharing a similar overcrowded fate. Dust and the scent of rose water cling to the air, the smell of the usual occupant's perfume and the other self evident from the lack of cleaning.

Suddenly the door behind me creaks open, the floor board squeaking under the heavy footfalls that soon follow.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting Jordan" sighs the voice of my former manager, Mrs Mawab, her Turkish accent just barely slipping through after years away from her country of birth. "I swear, I don't know how they expect us to handle all these meetings after making us cut our..." she continues, pausing her complaint before clasping my shoulder with her soft and pudgy fingers in an attempt at comfort.

Swapping R&D - Part Three

"I'm going to check on the other teams" she states, ducking her larger frame out the door frame. "Let's start Mr. Hughes off with... Six animal traits" she calls out, sliding her head out of view as she moves further away. "We'll pay a bonus for the extensive cha..."

My eyes dart around, watching as the researchers in the room look back and forth at each other for a moment in shock. All but the tiny Filipino woman seem concerned at the number, the short scientist simply watching me excitedly as she waits for the changes to start.

With a shrug one of the researchers begins to select traits, carefully picking them in an effort to not too heavily overlap anything and accidentally trade out something or a similar feature. The key of frantic keystrokes barely manages to reach me inside the chamber, the crackling electricity and the young woman squealing with excitement doing their best to drown out any other noise.

Swapping R&D - Part Two

"Oh..." Rachel chirps, smiling over at me. "Well this team is testing putting physical animal traits into people to help ethically produce products like milk and cheese" she chirps giddily, her tongue poking out for a moment as she quickly licks at her lips.

My stomach sinks as I turn to my right, my back to the entrance of the wide machine, watching as a large four-legged figure stubbornly refuses to inch any further into the room. The light brown leathery hide appears to be patchy and aging, the cow well beyond its prime mooing loudly as a group of researchers try to shove it into the machine.

"You're wanting to give me some... some old udder or..." I manage to choke out, my train of thought derailing as I listen to the sound of a goat bleating angrily from down the hall.

"No no no" Rachel chirps, shaking her head and waving a hand dismissively. "There's no need to give you udders, your chest already has mammary glands... just not useful ones, you know" she explains, her own thoughts sentence being cut short by a loud screaming coming from somewhere deeper in the building.

Swapping R&D - Part One

I kick my legs beneath me as I wait in the all too familiar foyer, the slightly chipped dull yellow paint taking me back to my days of study and my former job teaching in the nearby buildings. The old teaching building, a central point on my old campus, was well overdue for a renovation and in fact one was planned so long as the right funding could be secured.

It was why I had been called in today, despite being made redundant several months ago, the college needed money and knew I needed it as well. The email had been bare to say the least, mostly just confirming the time to come and the forms to fill out if I was interested in earning some ongoing cash.

Looking around the foyer, not seeing a single soul aside from myself, I quickly fish my phone from my pocket. With an uneasy feeling I pull up the email, the fear I had come at the wrong time slowly sinking in.