"Now, with that done..." Dr. Kelly fished around in a drawer and produced a pair of information packets, which she handed to them. "Well, I'll let this speak for itself."
They took a moment to look over the summary, and their eyes widened almost simultaneously. "Demi-human transformation!?" Mike said, incredulously. "I, uh, what...what does that even mean, here...?" Admittedly, he could put the words together to form a basic conjecture, but that was crazy talk, wasn't it?
Joe blinked. "Hell, for that matter, what's this 'second-order' business about!?"
The doctor got a self-satisfied little I'm-glad-you-asked smile on her face. "Just what it says," she said, folding her hands and giving them a knowing look. "We're testing a combination of advanced gene-therapy techniques and hyper-accelerated regenerative treatments to turn subjects into hybrid forms: something part-human and part...well, several other possibilities."
"You mean, like...monsters?" Joe said, looking simultaneously intrigued and a little queasy at the thought.
"If it's convenient for you to think of it that way, yes." She picked up a pen off the desk and pointed one end at him. "Though the term does carry...unsavory connotations. Our goal here is to explore the boundaries of what it means to be a person without necessarily being a human; we're not trying to create mindless, destructive beasts here."
"But...I mean, you can't be serious!" Mike protested. Something inside him felt...strange...at the thought of becoming something else, but he had bigger concerns - firstly, the sheer insanity of the concept, and secondly, the practical implications if she did mean it. "How're we supposed to finish school as...as monsters!? It's not like we can just go back to the dorms and be all hey, how was break, funny story but we're, uh..." He trailed off and bit his lip, feeling uncomfortably like he was setting himself up for one of those Gilligan's Island ironic cutaways. "...you're serious, aren't you?" he said quietly, after a moment.
"Perfectly," Dr. Kelly replied. "As a matter of fact, we've already had some of our first test subjects integrate successfully back into human society. That, incidentally, is what 'second-order' means; in-house, we classify demi-human transformations by the extent of their departure from human norms. First-order changes are what you might call 'human with extras' - animal ears and tails, that kind of thing. Second-order changes, like what you'd undergo, involve a final form that departs substantially from the human body-plan."
Joe thought about it. "So...you're trying to push the envelope...?"
She nodded. "We've been pleasantly surprised by how well our first-order subjects fit in, particularly in a college environment. Between the human tendency not to think too much about things that don't pose an issue - what's been referred to as the 'someone-else's-problem field' phenomenon - and the fact that college students are already living in a novel, unfamiliar environment with people they don't know, it went considerably smoother than anticipated. We're hopeful that this means we can 'get away with' something more...exotic...without causing a huge uproar."
Mike looked like he was going to say something, then hesitated. "But...why!?" he asked, after a moment.
The doctor shrugged. "As I said, to test the capabilities of our technology, to see how readily we can get 'normal' society to accept something well outside the norm...and, ultimately, because we can. Pushing the boundaries of transhuman research for its own sake is something we're greatly interested in, here." She smiled coolly. "Even a number of our own staff have taken up that banner."
She gave the pen a little twirl. "To lay out the terms of the study: you would become a hybrid creature, and remain that way for a year. The first six months, you'll receive treatment to induce and sustain the changes; the next six months, you'll be off the treatments while we monitor to make sure they 'stick.' We'll have you come in once a month for a checkup and interview; we're interested to see what the long-term psychological effects of living as something distinctly different from baseline human might be. At the end of the study, you'll have the option to become human again, if you so desire."
Mike blanched - a whole year as something that couldn't even pass for human, on top of everything else they had on their plates!? - but before he could say anything, she continued. "As for finishing school, we do have a fair bit of pull with the administration; we can arrange things one way or another. The goal, of course, is for you to fit back into the college environment in your new forms, but if that proves uncomfortable or unmanageable for you, we can make arrangements for you to attend remotely, and can provide accomodations if needed." She tapped her pen on the blotter. "We can even arrange for you to attend under a pseudonym, if you prefer; we'll see to it that your real identities receive full credit and you can complete your degrees as normal."
Joe eyed her skeptically. "And...we won't get chased around with torches and pitchforks, or anything? I mean, no offense, but what you're talking about is pretty crazy, even for a college town."
"You might be surprised," Dr. Kelly chuckled dryly. "As I said, our first-order subjects reported some confusion and disbelief in their interactions with ordinary humans, but less suspicion or hostility than we initially feared. It seems the human psyche may be more adaptable than we give ourselves credit for."
Mike frowned, turning it over in his mind. She'd indicated that there'd even been transformees at their college - when was that, this past year? He certainly didn't recall seeing anyone on campus with non-human traits, but thinking about that just drove home how little he paid attention to the people around him, outside of his small circle of acquaintances, teachers, and lab partners, and of course his roommate. He was here to study, not socialize, or so he'd told himself; well, maybe he really had just failed to notice...
"And...you're serious about not becoming some ravenous, slavering marauder?" he asked uneasily; it wouldn't do him much good to pay off his college loans if he ended up getting shot down from the top of a skyscraper by the Army or something.
She steepled her fingers and looked him straight in the eye, nodding firmly. "I won't lie," she said, "you may find yourself experiencing unusual instincts in your new form; that's one of the things we hope to learn about from the monthly interviews. But you will retain your reason and self-control, as much as any human. We take that very seriously, I promise you."
"And if that wraps up the questions," she said, pulling another sheaf of papers from her desk and offering them to the two, "let's talk about your choices. We have a few different forms you could choose from; the payout is the same in any case."
Mike shot Joe an uncomfortable glance, wondering if they were really gonna do this. Giving up their very humanity for an entire year, that was crazy, wasn't it? But they did have their student loans to think about; the payment for declining to participate was no small sum itself, but he was painfully aware of how far it'd go towards his total debt load. If it really was true that they could function in a college environment as...as something other than human, maybe it'd be worth it, just for the year...
Joe glanced back at him with a look that said he was thinking the same thing: think of the payout. With a soft sigh, Mike began to rifle through the papers, looking over their options...