"Um, are you sure this is safe, Dr. Powell?" asked Angela nervously.
"Oh, I'm not a doctor," said Ashton.
"What?! You can't be serious?"
"Oh, absolutely. I don't need a fancy title to conduct my research. Real scientists don't waste their time in a classroom regurgitating the theories of some stuffy old academic just to satisfy their ego. No, they spend their time out here, in the lab, getting their hands dirty, elbow deep in real science!" said Ashton.
"You didn't answer my question, MR. Powell, " said Angela.
"Your question? " said Ashton, trying to remember what she asked. His academic credentials were a sore spot that often sent him on wild, long-winded rants. But after a short while it came to him.
"Oh, yes. You are perfectly safe. That suit should protect you from any harm. I designed it myself, " said Ashton proudly.
That didn't inspire Angela with much confidence as she moved through the sealed chamber in the baggy paper-thin modified biohazard suit. When Ashton had told her that he was going to find her something more appropriate to wear, Angela had assumed it was going to be some business clothes or maybe even a lab coat. But certainly not the strange apparatus she found herself in now. It looked like it had been cobbled together by a child. The stiff white fabric couldn't be thicker than a plastic bag. What possible protection could it offer? And why did she need any protection in the first place?
"And what am I supposed to do again?"
"Just take the item out of containment and expose it to the specimen. I need to record the effect it will have on living tissue," said Ashton.
His voice sounded strange coming from the amplified speaker on the wall. She could hear a loud click as Ashton released the button that allowed him to speak from behind the thick window that separated the control room from the testing chamber. The control room was filled with a wide variety of machines and monitoring equipment, almost obscuring Ashton from view. The adjacent testing room that Angela found herself in was a stark contrast. The room was empty, save for a small metal capsule on a metal table and the specimen sitting on the far edge of the room. The room was dazzlingly bright, with smooth bare white walls.
Angela walked over to the table. She carefully twisted the metal capsule open, revealing what appeared to be a small brightly glowing rock. The color was hard to describe. It was like nothing she had seen before, something that didn't look natural. The closest approximation was the color green, but even that didn't seem to accurately describe it.
Angela used some long metal tongs to carefully lift the rock out of its metal case. She held it at arm's length as she turned and slowly began to walk towards the specimen at the other end of the sealed white room.
"And just what is this thing again?" asked Angela.
"It's a new element. Something I discovered myself, so I call it 'Powellenium'. Catchy, huh?" asked Ashton.
Angela remained silent, focused intently on her task and deathly afraid she might drop the thing in her tongs. She was sweating profusely and desperately wanted to wipe her brow. But she knew it was useless in this suit. Her face was trapped behind a thick plastic shield, out of the reach of her gloved hands.
Ashton continued, a little perturbed at Angela's lack of enthusiasm.
"Anyway, this element emits a type of energy that has a remarkable effect on living tissue," said Ashton.
"This thing is radioactive?" asked Angela, almost having a heart attack as the rock slipped a little from her grasp.
"Not exactly. It does emit a form of energy that effects living tissue, energy that does have similar properties to radioactive energy. But the energy cannot harm you. In fact, it has been proven to be quite beneficial. In plants, it causes rapid cell division and growth, even replacing irreversibly damaged tissue. In animals, the outcome is a little more .....unpredictable. The animals do seem to respond favorably, but the growth is not always stable and has sometimes resulted in a few unexpected structural alterations. As of yet, I cannot explain this discrepancy. But each test is another small step towards ultimate success," said Ashton.
"And the effects on humans?" asked Angela.
Ashton scoffed.
"I don't really know. I would never dream of testing it on humans, not yet at least. It is far too early in the development process. But hopefully, in a few years, after we learn more about how it works. Hence, our little test today," said Ashton.
If Angela wasn't holding an experimental element with mutagenic properties, she would have felt a bit silly approaching the test subject in the corner of the room. After all, it was just a .....