Jeremy sat quietly in the main laboratory area where Horizon was working on Project Mesozoic, essentially Horizon's latest plan to further break down what was "normal" in the world. He personally didn't approve of mistreatment of Animalians, and felt some of the rants from people like "Ih8ulibs" online were racist and didn't show humanity's best side, but in many ways neither did he support Horizon's and Animalia's ideas on expanding the project and making more Animalians.
Particularly when their primary businesses were either related to tourism or farming. They weren't bad businesses, but he also knew they were the most vulnerable businesses. A bad economic year would mean fewer tourists and that would no money coming in. A drought and the farmers would lose money too. That then left Animalia playing to the physical bodies of Animalians in many cases, but stripping wasn't going to be sustainable, particularly as eventually the novelty of naked Animalians would were off and the humans that went to the "Meat Market" would eventually dry up. Not to mention that most of the Meat Market's patrons were Animalians, themselves, which meant that they weren't generating NEW funds. That wasn't sustainable, and Jeremy knew that. Now, some Animalians did have jobs in other industries, but from what he'd managed to monitor, most of them had last names, which meant they were converted humans who simply hadn't been fired from the jobs they had.
That was what had him feeling that Polly would need to be human to have a real future. From his point of view, Animalia was too reliant on the lucky gold/silver finds that they'd had and Horizon's generosity to them. And while the Animalia Virus had become something of a cash cow for Horizon, thanks to all the furries that wanted to become Animalians, neither was going to be sustainable in the long term. They were going to run out, and from what he'd seen so far, Animalia really didn't have ANYTHING that was going to carry them once their lucky breaks stopped happening. But, he had no real choice.
If he made a protest, he'd likely end up in jail and would never see Polly again. For the moment, with Horizon wanting Project Mesozoic to succeed, they had him working under tighter supervision and limited time at home. It made coming up with anything that would get Polly back difficult. He'd gotten a couple of calls from a family in Lyre that left messages wishing to speak with him about Polly, but he never answered. Animalia had already stolen her and they wouldn't about to realize that Polly was happier as a human and was only an Animalian because of his mistakes. He was certain they weren't going to return Polly to him and just wanted to gloat and as such didn't answer, not knowing that the calls were specifically about how to handle returning Polly to him when his "punishment" was relaxed enough that he could officially take custody of his sister again.
"Anything interesting?" a voice asked to him making Jeremy jump a little.
Jeremy jumped and turned, expecting to see all the attendees to the work that had been done on Project Mesozoic, and much of which were unwanted in Jeremy's opinion. Heather Wilcox's presence was understandable, as she had been needed for blood and tissue samples as part of their testing on how she had managed to do what Horizon hadn't. The fact that she succeeded through dumb luck was probably something that Horizon would want to keep buried when it came to moving the project forward. However, Sophie's presence was unwelcome on every level in Jeremy's opinion. The girl was relatively smart and definitely passionate about Animalia's defense, but what she knew was equal to what a typical smart high school student would know. The most she'd actually contributed to the project was actually keeping Heather calm, but nothing else. In many ways she did catch on fairly well, which was where Jeremy had to admit that she was smart, but she hadn't brought any theory or idea that Jeremy hadn't already learned, which meant that the girl's contribution was rather limited.
To Jeremy's surprise, it was only Doctor Stein and a Japanese man in a suit. In the other man's arms was a large plastic terrarium with a small amphibian in it. It was a salamander of some kind with a broad looking head, white skin with a series of structures that looked sort of like dreadlocks sticking out from the back of its head. These "dreadlocks" were tinged with a red fringe, completing the animal's gills. He recognized the salamander as an axolotl, leading Jeremy to conclude that the man was Mister Miyamoto and had come from Japan's Horizon offices with his idea to advance Project Mesozoic.
"Anything interesting?" Doctor Stein asked again.
"No... not really," Jeremy spoke, making sure that he didn't reveal exactly what he'd been thinking on, "just thinking over some things."
Doctor Stein then slowly nodded and looked over to Mister Miyamoto as the Japanese scientist moved to place the terrarium on a nearby examination table.
"Well then," Doctor Stein, "I'd think today we can talk and compare notes. This is Doctor Miyamoto from our Japanese offices. He's come with his own theories on the issue of the incomplete nature of most fossil DNA... particularly those going back to the Mesozoic Era."
Doctor Miyamoto offered Jeremy his hand. Jeremy reluctantly took it.
"I've been told you were the one who found this "snake-heart" gene as being part of the means to safely bond the fossilized DNA to the Animalia Virus in a way that is safe," Doctor Miyamoto commented as they shook hands.
"Safe as in the transformation won't kill the volunteer," Jeremy spoke, "though, most of that is really in explaining how Heather Wilcox was able to achieve what she did. It was dumb luck on her part, and if she didn't that gene... then either nothing would have happened or the transformation would have ripped her cells apart... Though for the moment, it's still in theory."
"And testing this theory?" Doctor Miyamoto asked.
"We've called Heather Wilcox's grandmother... she has agreed to come and surprisingly to even participate in Project Mesozoic," Doctor Stein spoke, "but right now we're in the process of arranging her transport here."
"From Costa Rica?" Doctor Miyamoto asked.
"Alabama, actually," Doctor Stein spoke, "Heather Wilcox, apparently, had made it quite a ways from home in search of the money to become an artist... She had some good luck that got her the job at the dig and museum in Costa Rica, but that was still far from home for her..."
"Not to mention that she didn't think she'd gotten a lucky break," Jeremy commented, "which then lead to her causing trouble here."
"But her genetics would allow the window as to how she was able to do it, even if she didn't intend it," Doctor Stein commented, "the real thing right now is looking at the degradation of the fossil DNA. In many cases it's degraded a lot, which means we'd need either several bones from the same species or multiple bones of closely related species in order for the Animalia Virus to knit the DNA strands together."
Doctor Miyamoto slowly nodded, as this repeated what he'd been told when Doctor Stein provided him some of their notes as part of an "outsider's look" at Project Mesozoic, and likely under the suspicion that Jeremy was dragging his feet with the project. He then smiled and then gestured to the terrarium where his axolotl moved about, seemingly focused on the activity outside its confinement.
"And that is where I present a possible alternative to imposing the "snake heart" gene onto a human volunteer," Doctor Miyamoto spoke, "the Axolotl, an amphibian known for its regenerative properties, and with immature ones is also exceptionally fast. They can heal from almost anything with complete regeneration. It's a level of healing that is not possible elsewhere in the Animal kingdom. In a way, it is an animal that naturally uses the Animalia Virus... given how well it has worked with various ailments and particularly in many genetic diseases that Project Phoenix has healed."
"The axolotl can heal from quite a lot," Jeremy commented, "but given its neotenic nature of growth... it doesn't go through the dramatic metamorphosis that other amphibians go through."
"But it has been noticed that with the introduction of some outside agent, the axolotl WILL go through a metamorphosis that will make it look like the Tiger Salamander in many ways," Doctor Miyamoto answered, "which would present some alternative in letting it bond with the Animalia virus. It could be used as the bonding agent to then allow the Animalia virus to safely bond with a human as it would accept the Animalia virus as that sort of outside agent... and in pure theory would also help complete the DNA sequences that were lost in the fossilization process."
Jeremy frowned heavily as he looked between Doctor Stein and Doctor Miyamoto. In pure theory, he would have preferred the entire project be declared a failure or impossible due to the degradation of the fossil DNA and that Heather's transformation was a huge fluke that was best not repeated. But Doctor Stein looked on with some interest and Doctor Miyamoto was also clearly interested in the project as he was the one to bring it up.
"Wouldn't this represent the potential for the same problems that were discovered when Project Chimera failed? That the DNA of dissimilar animals, even with the Animalia Virus, then reject each other?" Jeremy pointed out, "combining degraded fossil DNA with fully active amphibian DNA?"
"It is a possibility," Doctor Miyamoto admitted, "but in many ways... that issue is also something of a mystery. After all, the Lungfish is NOT closely related to sharks or many of the other bony fishes Horizon has uplifted, and in the case of the eels we've uplifted, they've been uplifted with not only the DNA of another fish but a different vertebrate altogether. Just because snakes and eels are both naturally legless that doesn't mean they are closely related. Similar appearance doesn't matter with regard to genetics. In this... that's where everyone in Horizon is trying to pin down the specific reasons why Project Chimera failed. But genetic differences, in my opinion, is NOT why it failed."
"Maybe it was the fact that so many genetic strands were introduced for Project Chimera," Doctor Stein commented, "there were simply too many for the Animalia Virus to safely knit together."
Both Jeremy and Doctor Miyamoto nodded at that. After all, prior to Project Chimera, most uses of the Animalia Virus were either to uplift an animal into Animalian status or to convert a human into an Animalian. In this, only one strand of DNA was used, usually the animal the human would become. In this it was entirely possible that there were limits to what the Animalia Virus could do, though the fact that it could stabilize various DNA strands of fossilized DNA could be a problem. Jeremy didn't mention that, as Heather had used the DNA of various theropods, all of which were relatively closely related, more closely related than the lungfish and krait DNA used to uplift an eel on Mieni.
"And it is in that where the adaptable DNA in the axolotl could then allow for fewer fossils to be used as part of the conversion process," Doctor Miyamoto then insisted.
"But that's still going to be an issue that will relate to the degradation of the DNA in the dinosaur fossils and create other unforeseen problems," Jeremy commented, "If this salamander's DNA is so resilient and thus able to heal... and thus would be able to knit the incomplete DNA together... or fill in the sequence gaps, how much do you think it would be able to do this?"
"Pardon?" Doctor Miyamoto wondered.
"While we can extract the DNA from fossils, the process is rather destructive to the fossils in question, and in this, many natural history museums have been unwilling to share large numbers of their bones with Horizon," Jeremy commented, "Now... some of that may change with Project Thylacine's success... but still... if not, we're reliant on a limited number of bones that we can gain access to."
"Yes, but my point is that the axolotl DNA would allow Horizon to rely less on fossil DNA," Doctor Miyamoto insisted, "its DNA would fill in the sequence gaps resulting from the degradations of time and its adaptability would leave capable then bonding the fossil DNA to human DNA and thus a new Animalian."
"But how do we then make sure that the Animalian in question is still a "Dinotopian" variant?" Jeremy than asked, "after sixty five million years, dinosaur DNA has degraded quite a lot, and it'd be an even LONGER period of time if you go back to the Jurassic or Triassic periods. In this, with what we've had access to, if we are to use one bone, while the axolotl DNA MIGHT fill in the gaps... the gaps would be so extensive that the Animalian produced might end up being an axolotl with some dinosaur features rather than a true dinosaur Animalian. As even if parts of the axolotl's DNA is used, that doesn't mean they won't show up. I mean... that's ALREADY happened with regard to Teela on Mieni..."
"Pardon?" Doctor Miyamoto blinked.
"When the Moray Eel, Teela was uplifted, Horizon included DNA from Kirana a Sea Krait who'd been uplifted earlier," Jeremy pointed out, "the theory was that Kirana's snake DNA would enable Teela to have the strength needed to balance on her tail and move on land, since eels lack the additional fins that would morph into legs thanks to the Animalia Virus. And they accomplished that part. As far as I know, Teela is quite capable of moving on land. But they found that it also carried over the alternating bands that Kirana has over to Teela... Not to mention that Teela's hands are not webbed to any degree the way any of the other fish Animalians are, but clawed the way the various snake Animalians are. Now, some of this may simply be something minor, but the fact that additional snake traits appeared in an eel, with the DNA strands both being complete and not degraded at all... that would mean that if we use the axolotl DNA to fill the gaps in the fossil DNA, we are going to run the risk of an Animalian that would be more axolotl than dinosaur... which ISN'T the point of this exercise, right?"
"The point with Project Mesozoic would be to produce a dinosaur Animalian... a Dinotopian..." Doctor Stein said firmly, though his voice fell off a bit at the end.
"It may mean we still need to make sure that there few sequence gaps to fill," Doctor Miyamoto admitted slowly.
"But how many bones would that take?" Jeremy asked, "and how can we confirm that the resulting Animalian would be mostly dinosaur? Right now... about the ONLY way we're going to get enough fossil bones delivered to Horizon... with the bones obviously being copied and replaced with "artificial" bones to replace them in the museums first, of course... is that Horizon can promise these museums and paleontologists some access to Animalia to then study the resulting Dinotopian. They want to do that with Heather, and while we've listed that we have a volunteer... though we can't say who it is... because LEGALLY we can't convert her at all. She's under eighteen and while her parents are allowing her to help and be friends with Animalia, they HAVEN'T given consent for the conversion. But because these outside groups don't know that... they want to study her too once she's converted..."
There was a short silence with Doctor Miyamoto looking over to the terrarium he'd brought.
"And if it turns out that by using axolotl DNA to fill the gaps and the resulting DNA is at least 49% axolotl... the museums and paleontologists are going to withdraw what little support they have as too much of what they'd be studying is already living in the wild today," Jeremy spoke.
"It'd be clear that we'd need to test to see how degraded the fossil DNA is and how many bones would then be needed to put together enough of a DNA strand that any axolotl features that translate over are minimal," Doctor Miyamoto sighed slowly, "but in pure theory, that same case would be true for the use of the "snake-heart" gene. It may mark a connection between humans and our distant ancestors, but it wouldn't mean that the resulting Animalian wouldn't have DNA sequences that aren't human in nature. Shoot... even with the standard Animalia Virus and uplifting a modern animal... we've found that the resulting Animalian has DNA sequences that are remarkably human like, even if human DNA was never introduced in the virus."
"True... but at least working with the snake heart gene... we'd at least be working within what we've already found and would limit the crossing of DNA strands," Jeremy pointed out, "both would require testing... but using a modern amphibian to fill the gaps and make the dinosaur DNA capable of mixing with both the Animalia Virus and then human DNA safely... that would require MORE computer tests and some tissue sample tests, which would be difficult to do given the access to fossil DNA that Horizon has."
"Do we have any samples that we can do at least some testing on?" Doctor Miyamoto asked, "even if it's only testing on samples?"
"That will depend on what you want to test," Doctor Stein commented, "If it's filling the sequence gaps... I'm afraid Jeremy is right there. In order to insure that the Animalian is mostly dinosaur and that whatever axolotl features appear are minimal, we'd still need to bring together a large amount of fossil DNA and rely on the Animalia Virus to knit the various strands together, as it was able to do with Heather... and THAT is where a lot of the resistance to the project comes from. Museums don't want to risk the loss of the fossil or the loss of the DNA within it... what DNA there is. It's there way of being able to prove that what they have is real and not faked, like the guys often claiming to have shot and killed bigfoot and have a gorilla suit stuffed with frozen pork."
"What on the ability to see if the adaptability and regenerative abilities in the axolotl DNA would have in allowing any Dinotopian strain to successfully bond with humans, even if they don't have the snake-heart condition... or carry the potential for it?" Doctor Miyamoto asked.
Doctor Stein rubbed his chin for a few moments and then said, "There we might be able to try some things with Heather's DNA. She's been a bit snippy with the lab technicians that wanted to administer the vaccine and has generally only backed down when she's seen that the Rhino Guard remains on hand and MORE than ready tackle her... but that said, she hasn't been vaccinated yet. Perhaps we could convince her to provide some samples and see how well your theory might work with her particular virus strain, since so far, we've noticed no direct infectiousness with her... though that is likely more due to her having the snake-heart gene, even if she's only a carrier, and thus it can't go over to those who don't at least carry the genetics for the potential for that condition."
"Few do, as it's rare," Jeremy commented.
"We could then do tissue sample tests?" Doctor Miyamoto asked.
"In a sense, yes," Doctor Stein nodded, "It might also let us provide some signs as to how much of the axolotl's DNA will cross over with what will essentially be true saurian DNA."
"Provided she agrees to go along with it," Jeremy pointed out.
"I'm sure her present conscience that Animalia is employing to try and help her overcome all the instinctual issues and go through how Animalia has sought to apply the issue of "corrections" with her, she may agree to it," Doctor Stein commented, "As she's done a lot to insure Heather's cooperation so far."
And there Jeremy knew Doctor Stein was referring to Sophie. He could only sigh and nod at that, as she had managed to keep Heather remarkably calm and even was able to manage some semblance of conversation with her. While Heather still displayed a great deal of irritability with many things, she had calmed down to levels that in many cases would probably be considered tolerable. Some of it was rather surprising, as Jeremy didn't think that Heather would actually be so calm around the same girl she'd tried to kill and eat when she made it to Lyre/Animalia. Of course, a lot of that also had to do with the Rhino Guard being present, and while Heather was bigger than the two converted White Rhino Animalians, it wasn't by that much and unlike Heather, they had actually had some combat training so as to help them deal with poachers before they became Animalians. Perhaps the threat of a fight she couldn't win was enough to keep Heather from causing trouble.
"Her conscience...?" Doctor Miyamoto asked curiously.
"The girl she attacked, Sophie Albers," Doctor Stein commented, "has a stated interest and wish to join Animalia as a Pterodactylus... and has agreed to act as a sort of conscience with regard to Heather and test to see how the sentence that was handed down on Heather will "reform her." As... the theory is that Heather might be more prone to faking it if the only one she interacts with are the Rhino Guard."
"Makes sense," Doctor Miyamoto commented, "is this the same girl from the series Animalia has been running... sort of as a news/information/advertisement series for Animalia?"
"Yes," Doctor Stein answered, "but remember... what she wishes to be is a pterosaur, not a theropod."
"Of course..." Doctor Miyamoto answered, "just tissue sample tests. When can we begin?"