The Announcement made in the Lunchtime News had certainly been interesting for Clemens Patten. True, there wasn’t anything available to keep the Animatrix Serum running through his veins from being passed onto anyone else right now, but they had at least devised a viable means of attaining that goal, along with making certain that the Serum could be modified to not be contagious in the first place. The only problem was that they hadn’t had a lot of time to work on it just yet, so it would likely still be a good while yet before they could move even to the testing stage.
However, he’d already made clear that whatever decision Jenny made, it would be hers and he’d be there to support her whatever she chose. If she chose to take the serum, then she would take it, and if not, she wouldn’t. And that’s all there really was to it.
True, a sexual relationship wouldn’t be possible until either they finished developing and testing the means of ‘shutting down’ the Retrovirus, or if she chose to take the Serum herself, but they had already lasted this long without it, and he knew they could last a lot longer without it in their lives.
Right now though, he had just made it back to their apartment, and there had been some welcome silence on the part of the Church of Lord Jesus, which had given him time to think about what they could want with him. He didn’t know the reason yet, and was now beginning to suspect that he would either have to wait for them to call again, or call them himself if he wanted to find any answers to that particular mystery.
It was something he decided could wait a little while longer this Friday Evening as he called out, “Jenny, I’m Home.” With the taste of cooking meat hitting his tongue when he flicked it out.
“Hi Dear. Dinner will be a few minutes.” She replied from the kitchen. “Did you see that report?”
“Yesss, a lot of information given.” He answered as he joined her. “Cccertainly, it’ll be a while yet before they have anything sssafe for ussse, but ssstill, it’sss a good development they’ve made.”
“That it is.” She left the still-cooking dinner to hold him close. “And I’ve been thinking about it, what to do.”
“Well, how about we talk the matter over asss we eat?” Clemens suggested.
That’s why twenty minutes later, they were seated opposite each other at their small dinner table. As was their habit, neither of them were wearing anything in their apartment, though they kept their dressing gowns within easy reach in the event of unexpected visits. Jenny had opted for a beef dinner this time and Clemens was making certain to cut his pieces small enough to swallow whole, his teeth no longer built for chewing and his lack of desire to try and swallow something so large that it would bulge his throat out as it was pushed to his stomach. They were almost finished when Jenny decided to raise the issue.
“Well, they’ve said that while they have a plan of action, in that they know how to stop the Virus from being an infectious one, and how to stop it from being such for those like you, even if it’s going to take them a while to do it…” She faltered for a moment.
“About a year or two isss the sshhortessst that can be hoped for.” Clemens supplied.
“Yeah, a year or two. Well, the way I see it, that’s a year or two to make the decision, since if I go for it, I think it’d be best to wait until the improved version is ready, since from what I saw, that’s about the same time needed to stop the current one from having its drawback.”
“Well,” Clemens began. “Desssigning the Retrovirusss to die out after a given time, and desssigning sssomething to disssable it exxxternally are two different thingsss, but I think they’d be based on each other, and from the current Ssserum asss the parent, ssso to ssspeak. Which meansss there will likely be a few monthsss differenccce in them, depending on what getsss the priority.”
“So what would get the priority?”
“I’m not sssure.” Clemens answered honestly. “But given that the Ssserum is already available, I would think the latter of the two isss the more likely one to have the bigger budget.”
“I see.” Jenny replied quietly as she thought deeply to herself for a time.
“Ssso, isss there a decisssion you’ve reached?”
“I think. I think I can leave it for the time being, it’ll be a while before any new Serum is ready, and by then, there should be more information out, so I think I’d be able to make a better decision then.”
Clemens nodded. He knew that Jenny was still not completely sure as to what she wanted to do with regards to the Animatrix Serum, and what it would, and could mean for her. He knew he’d been ready, and made the preparations for it, but had still rushed into it without anticipating all the consequences. Something that Jenny was doing with her own thinking the matter over.
But for him, he was perfectly fine with deferring the decision to a later date, since as Jenny had already stated, it would allow additional information to come to light with regards to the new hybrid species that Humans now shared this world with, and the critical matter of how the children of such people would grow up and develop.
As he slid round the table to hold Jenny in a loving embrace, everything else was pushed away and for a little while, nothing else mattered to them. Not the Serum, not what others would think of it, not the Church of Lord Jesus, nothing.