Zed sat perched on the windowsill of the high-speed rail train, nibbling on a packet of crispy soy chips. The crunch of the chips filled the otherwise silent compartment, while the scenery outside rushed by. As the sun set in the distance, it cast a warm orange glow over the towering grey walls in the distance.
There was something serene about the scenery that Zed found deeply soothing, and he allowed his nerves to loosen up for the first time since escaping captivity.
As a mouse, Zed had inherited a natural jitteriness that had plagued his kind for countless generations. It couldn't be helped. Them rodent-kind had many natural enemies and they needed to remain on the lookout for potential predators at all times.
Despite his drastic modifications and being far from his rodent ancestors, the deeply ingrained awareness was still present in his genetic code, causing him to have a cautious personality and easily startled. But now, he felt a rare sense of calm, allowing the peace of the moment to permeate his being.
Beside him, Alan sat engrossed in his hologram watch, reading from a book titled "Insights of a Master Gene Designer: Everything You Need to Know About Enzyme Synthetics." Every so often, he would furrow his brow and mutter to himself, as though he was struggling to grasp a particular concept.
"What are you doing?" Zed asked, turning his attention away from the window.
"Studying." Alan replied distractedly. "I'm preparing for the Intermediate Gene Designer exam next year."
"What's a Gene Designer?" Zed's ears twitched in curiosity as he asked.
Alan blinked and looked up from the book, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "You don't know? They're like the rock stars of the world!"
Zed couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You mean to tell me lab rats were running around with newspapers and radios?"
Alan chuckled, shutting off his hologram watch. "I don't know what newspapers and radios are, but gene designers are the most important people in the world. They specialize in manipulating genetic codes for people, and society pretty much revolves around them. The Augmented rely heavily on them to enhance their abilities, and even commoners need them to cure genetic diseases."
Without missing a beat, Alan continued, "They're the most elite and respected people in society. Without them, the world as we know it would simply cease to exist. Of course, I'm not saying that Augmented people are not highly respected, but their status is nothing before Gene Designers. After all, Gene Designers are the ones who gave them their abilities in the first place. Many important positions in the government are held by Master and Grandmaster Gene Designers. They're all capable of influencing public policies."
"I'm an Acolyte Gene Designer," Alan added, trying to downplay the significance. But his inflated sense of pride was already showing on his face.
"I see." Zed nodded, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. "So all those old snakes from the lab should be Gene Designers as well." Before he escaped to the outside world, Zed was actually quite content with life in the confines of his spacious cage. But now, after experiencing the wondrous world from which he'd been denied his entire life, he began to develop a sense of disgust toward his jailers and thought of them as old snakes.
"Dr. Daniel Peterson is a Grandmaster Gene Designer." Alan's voice dripped with bitterness as he spoke the name. He nodded slightly and turned his gaze to the window.
His eyes reflected the rapidly passing scenery outside, which seemed to merge and jumble into a complete picture, as if playing out the scenes of that fateful day.
The sound of gunfire blasting through the serenity of the desert still rang in his ears, accompanied by the cold, piercing laughter of the mercenaries behind his back. The terror in the mercenaries' eyes as they were mercilessly slaughtered by the seemingly weak professor was etched vividly in his mind, and the crunch of the sand under the latter's feet as he stepped forward to crush his skull was still palpable.
It had been a narrow escape, and the fact that Dr. Peterson was still out there, somewhere, made Alan's skin crawl.
"Thank you for saving my life." He said in a sincere tone, after a long moment of silence.
"No problem." Zed yawned, his long whiskers twitching as he stretched out lazily on the windowsill to bask in the warmth of the sun.
Alan smiled and stretched out a finger to stroke the little mouse's furry tummy, causing it to squirm with pleasure and let out an audible "Ah."
"In a sense, you're an Augmented too." Alan suddenly said, "The First Augmented."
Zed raised an eyebrow, intrigued. The profession of Gene Designers had only emerged around 70 years ago. Zed had been born over a century ago, before the initial batch of Gene Designers had ever come into being. It wasn't wrong to call him the First Augmented.
"The First Augmented..." Zed repeated lightly to himself, savoring the sound of the title on his tongue.
He reached out with a paw to shovel another mouthful of soy chips into his mouth. Then, he asked through a mouthful of crumbs, "Sho, wfat's n Afolyke?"
"What's an Acolyte?" Alan cocked his head in confusion.
"S, wad I asfed." Zed nodded, spraying crumbs everywhere.
"There are five ranks in the Gene Designer profession: Acolyte, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, and Grandmaster," Alan began to explain, ignoring Zed's noisy crunching.
"Acolyte is the lowest rank, kind of like a beginner or an assistant. They're not allowed to work with mutated beast genes or Augmented individuals independently. They usually work with an Intermediate or higher rank Gene Designer as an assistant, collecting DNA samples and conducting genetic analyses."
Alan paused for a moment, lost in thought. "I got a lot of good offers from companies and private institutions after I passed my Acolyte exam. But I decided to sign on with the government. They assigned me to the facility in the desert to work with Dr. Daniel Peterson." Alan let out a deep sigh. "Who would've thought that on my very first day..."
As they couldn't work with mutated beasts genes and Augmented individuals independently, most Acolytes would generally join a company and attach themselves to an Intermediate or higher rank Gene Designer and assist them in their projects to gain experience. Their job would only be limited to things like collecting DNA samples, conducting analysis on the genetic makeup of the target, so on and so forth. However, the pay was good, and they would get plenty of exposure to the process of making viral vectors, or Vector Serums as they call it. This would later be very helpful when they reach the next rank and start working with their own clients.
Signing on as a government scientist was a very different path. The job came with less monetary remunerations and exposure to the public. Not to mention, there were very stringent requirements on the applicant's background, so it was hard for the application to go through. They had to be clean enough because most of the projects were highly confidential.
However, it was seen as a more promising path due to the government's influence and resources. They could come into contact with high-level knowledge and research results not privy to the public. This was a path that would open doors to higher ranks and greater opportunities. Government Gene Designers could reach the high ranks faster and would not face the problem of being unable to advance due to a lack of knowledge.
In Alan's eyes, the long term gains were much more significant in comparison to the short term losses.
His ambition didn't stop at the Acolyte rank.
He may not have lofty dreams of changing the world through his research, but he wanted to reach higher and bring his family deeper into the Stronghold where they would be better protected.
"That was a hoot of a first day at work." Zed wagged his tail and remarked as he flipped around to groom his front paws with his tongue.
Alan chuckled despite his melancholic thoughts. "Indeed. I'm glad I went to the lab that day now. Wouldn't have met you otherwise. Then, who knows how things would have turned out?"
"You got that right, buddy!" Zed replied cheerily. "Positive thinking! Anyway, even if everything goes to sh*t, we can still travel the world and taste everything. Whatever knowledge that the government has, I can school you just as well." Zed appeared to be much more excited by the prospect.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up a sec!" Alan said, his eyes wide with surprise. "What did you say just now?"
Zed looked up with a quizzical expression. "Positive thinking?"
Alan shook his head. "No, not that. The other thing."
Zed shrugged his furry shoulders. "Tasting the world together?"
"No, no, no. The knowledge part!" Alan exclaimed.
Zed: "Oh, that."
Zed rolled his eyes and resumed grooming his paws. "Listen, kid. I've lived *lick* over a hundred *lick* *lick* years *lick* in the lab. If there's *lick* anything I know, it's gene *lick* *lick* *lick* science."
Ever since he'd awakened his intelligence, this was the subject that every human around him were discussing, every single day. This was also all Iris ever talked about. Zed practically held the entire gene science database in his mind.
For Zed, all of this was mundane stuff, but Alan was over the moon about it.
"Master! Please accept a kneel from your disciple!" Alan exclaimed as he fell dramatically to his knees.