Partly out of the seriousness of the situation, and partly because this was a downright fascinating little deviation from her plans, Karen only moved slowly and smoothly until she had gotten far enough away from Becky to not spook her, and after that, she bolted, hurrying back into the stable. Eileen, after a few moments finding that she wasn't collapsing into some pile of mutagenic goop, took the time to put the mare away before following after Karen. Normally, she was the kind of boss to step back and let an employee or subordinate do their work, trusting them to not need her standing over their shoulder. Normally, however, she wasn't facing some sort of potential biological nightmare at the hands of untested genetic fuckery.
Thus she was soon taking a seat in a room of the stable that was totally at odds with a normal farmhouse. This room had been converted at Karen's behest, and with Eileen's money, transformed from a simple storage space into a well-furnished, surprisingly sterile little lab, a slice of cutting edge technology in the middle of a hokey ranch building. Inside, Karen was already elbow-deep in her computer, hastily inputting data for her simulations. She turned and gave Eileen a regretful look before resuming her work, not wasting any time with apologies that could be spent looking for a solution. The blonde had taught her that lesson.
It took only a few minutes for Karen to run her simulations, though for Eileen, those few minutes seemed to drag on for hours. Constantly her gaze flittered around, lingering quite often on her hands, half-expecting them to start turning into hooves. There wasn't anything visibly wrong with her... yet, anyway, but that didn't stop her from worrying as she spun back and forth in an office chair, heart pounding hard inside her chest. She was suddenly very, very aware of why these sorts of experiments were supposed to happen in carefully controlled environments - assuming this didn't kill her, she was going to reconsider funding genetic recombination research out of a goddamn horse ranch.
"Okay!" Karen's sudden announcement was almost like a jumpscare for the anxious Eileen. The girl pushed up her glasses as she stepped over with a printout. "Okay, I... the good news, is, I think I know what'll happen! Ninety-nine percent certainty!"
Eileen swallowed audibly, not liking the descriptor Karen used for the news. "And... what exactly is going to happen...?" She trailed off at the end, rubbing her stomach as it started to feel upset.
"That is... the bad news." She squinted, guilt etched on her face, but pushed through. "The proto-SPLICR you swallowed was supposed to prep Becky's genetic structure for the addition of the narwhal DNA. That meant I had to create some gaps where the insertion could occur. The RNA is programmed to target specific sections of her genetic sequence that I identified as non-essential, so as it spreads through her cells, it would create the openings needed for the second half of SPLICR. It's going to follow the same instructions with you, but the thing is, your DNA is much different in structure compared to Becky's, so-"
One hand came to Eileen's head, cradling it through a headache, as the other raised to indicate Karen to pause. "Please... the layman explanation."
"Uh... right." Karen shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. "Basically... it's cutting major gaps in your DNA, and it's fast acting, and... well, with those gaps... your body is going to start to break down." She swallowed, running an unsteady hand through her own messy hair. "I... I have a solution, but, it's...."
She trailed off, pursing her lips as she focused on giving the less technical explanation as Eileen started turning pale. It was moving fast, much faster than anticipated. Probably a result of Eileen throwing back a concentration meant for a horse. "You... should stabilize, i-if I fill those gaps with the other part of SPLICR. But... I don't have a sample of your unmodified DNA, a-a-and we need to do this quick, so... I... I have to use something else!" She swallowed again. "I... I could run simulations, to see what would happen, but..."
Eileen's cough, and the blood that came splattering onto her hands, were proof that she didn't have that kind of time. "Sh... shit..." She looked up, her eyes getting glassy as they only remained half-open. "I... I..." She was still keeping up, mostly - just enough to try and make one more snap decision. "What... are... the... o-options..."
"Out of what I've got on hand..." Karen pushed up her glasses, struggling to keep it together as she watched her mentor break down in front of her. "My DNA... or Becky's... or the narwhal." She winced. "My DNA would be... well, it's the closest in species to yours, which might minimize complications. Becky's... I... I don't know what it'd do to you, but it'd probably be most compatible with what was already in the proto-SPLICR you drank... but I'd need a minute still to prep either, and the narwhal sample is about ready to go, so it'd be fastest..."