Elliot was going to be a star. In the realm of theoretical genetics. So maybe not movie star famous, but his discoveries were going to change the face of humanity. Literally, he was creating cutting edge genetic therapies that could alter people's appearance without plastic surgery. Of course, it would take years and years of testing before these procedures were available to the public, but, someday, he was going to be too rich to know what to do with all that money.
Elliot smiled just thinking about it. 'Just you wait fortune, I'm coming for you.' Not that he was doing badly, he had a respectable tenured position in the University, he ran a huge lab there, and consulted for numerous large biotech firms.
"Professor. Professor," a young man said, rushing towards Elliot. He was on the plump side, and looked very frazzled right now. "Oh, I'm so glad I caught you. The Dean is coming up with some alumni and investors. Apparently they asked to see you and the lab," the man was huffing a little now.
"Calm down Steve, the Dean popping by is normal," Elliot said. Sure, it wasn't an everyday thing, but the lab had a lot of good press lately, so it made sense for the Dean to use it as part of the dog and pony show. "Why don't you meet them at the doors so they can bypass the security more quickly?" 'And be out of my hair,' he thought. Steve was smart, a great researcher in his own right, but all the ass kissing was tiresome. Elliot knew the Steve's of the world always thought they were smarter than they really were, and always complained of being under appreciated. Given the chance, Steve, and a few other researchers on his teams would gladly stab him in the back and take over if they could. 'Fat chance, they have the people skills of a wet fish. They are built for grunt research, not discovery and pushing the boundaries of science,' Elliot mused.
He decided to meet them in his new Cryo-Lab, so he could properly thank the Dean for the addition, and show off some of the experiments they could now do. He got giddy thinking of the Cryo electron microscopy and CRISPR gene editing trials he was running.
The Cryo-Lab wasn't cold, not all of it at least, but it did have a number of stations designed to create near absolute zero conditions so they can study perfectly preserved and unmoving cellular and genetic structures. Professor Elliot was a little paranoid about his results being hacked or leaked, so the entire Cryo-lab was cut off from all external networks, including wifi and mobile. It had a faraday cage like system the kept outside signals from entering, and inside signals from leaving. That was how important, and sought after, this research was.
He surveyed the large space, his sealed world, or so he liked to think. It was filled with the best equipment, massive cell banks of every kind of animal and virus known to man, culture pods to grow specimens and test his theories, and more. 'If the world wasn't always crying about the ethics and morality of my research, we might already have solved cancer and other scourges of humanity. Baby steps, we'll get there in the end,' he told himself. Still, this lab was capable of growing a genetically modified person, it wasn't that complicated.
"Professor Elliot? May we come in?" the Dean asked as he walked in anyways with a group of five other people, and Steve following behind rubbing his hands together.
"Welcome Dean Proust, always a pleasure to have visitors see what we are working on," Elliot said. He meant it too, he was proud of the work they had done, the studies they published, the funding they secured and the contributions they were making to science.
"Well, I know how busy you are, but I have a few distinguished guests and they would be interested to hear about your latest work up for publication. A bit of a sneak peek, if you will," Dean Proust said.
"Well, the paper's title is pretty boring, Zygote-in-vivo-viral-gene-editing-of-physical-structure, but let me show you what it means," Elliot said, motioning the group to follow him deeper into the Cryo-Lab towards a glass partition. On the other side was a sea of incubators. Most were empty, but the closest to the window housed a dozen baby chimpanzees. "It took a long time before we could show the validity and safety of these techniques, and we are finally at the primate trial stage," Elliot said, his voice proud, but a noticeable undercurrent of frustration. He'd spent months arguing with ethics boards and committees and bureaucrats, but, now that he was on the verge of breakthroughs, the people that slowed him down are lining up to take credit. So typical.
Everyone approached the window, and immediately a few gasped. "As you can see, these baby chimps have undergone some seemingly radical plastic surgery," he said, pointing to the incubators. Several looked like normal baby chimps, small and cute. Further down the line though, and one had a bony crest on its head, like a skin mohawk. The next two looked normal, but when their eyes opened they were a startling blue. Another had blonde hair on its head and face, the next had a human shaped nose. The last one, when they reached caused cries and muffled swearing.
"Dear god."
"What have they done?"
"As you can all see, through exhaustive and relentless study, we have mapped out the genes, proteins, and structures of these chimps so well that we can affect nearly any change we want," Professor Elliot said, pointing at the last chimp and the main subject of his soon to be published paper.
There was no other way to describe it, but in the last incubation chamber was a small blonde haired, blue eyed human baby on the body of a hairy chimpanzee.
Elliot was still smiling when he was struck in the back of the head, hard. As he fell to the floor he heard a ruckus in the room.
"You'll burn in hell for this abomination. Only god can control life!"
"Security, yes, security come to the Elliot lab now. Call paramedics, we have a protester and an injury."
"Stop, no one move."
"Die you devil worshiper..."
It all faded to black for Professor Elliot though.