The Gallant by J.J. Green

Author:J.J. Green [Green, J.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N26
Publisher: InfiniteBook
Published: 2021-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Things were changing on the Bres, as Hale had warned, but not in the way Lorcan had feared. The arrival of Camilla and Anders had injected a breath of fresh air into the place. He hadn’t realized it until he noticed the change, but the atmosphere had grown monotonous and stale over the years.

He’d thought Hale’s presence would encourage slacking off and insubordination. It would be hard for her to rein in her resentment of his earlier treatment of her. But she and her scientist friends were consummate professionals once they got their heads down, and their attitude prompted new vigor and attention to detail in Kekoa, Jurrah, Steadman, and the rest of the heads of departments.

He had a feeling the effect wasn’t what Hale had meant, however, and he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In the meantime, he was enjoying the better working environment. He was particularly enjoying the presence of Camilla Lebedev. He’d made a habit of visiting her and Anders in their respective laboratories every day, learning about their disciplines and their ideas on how to solve the potential problems colonists might encounter on their new planet.

Camilla was trying to develop a drug that would suppress the human immune response to external stimuli but not affect the body’s ability to detect and destroy anomalous cells of its own, that is, cancerous cells. Many treatments already existed, but she was working on one that could be easily synthesized from common, readily available substances.

Anders’ work was more innovative. He was trying to create a protocell, a cell containing the basic components for self-sustaining life that could be genetically engineered into any number of different life forms. If the conditions on the colony planet were not suitable for farming any Earth plant or animal species, the protocell could be programmed to survive and reproduce in the existing conditions, perhaps as an algae, cereal crop, or even livestock. Because it wasn’t native to the new world, the new life form would also be unlikely to provoke an allergic reaction in humans.

Though Anders’ work was more interesting to Lorcan, he found Camilla more interesting as a person. He’d chided himself for his foolishness over and over again, but he couldn’t shake the impression of her similarity to Grace. What was even more affecting was the fact she was around the same age his wife had been when she’d died. That had been decades ago, and now, in comparison to her, he was an old man. And yet...

“Penny for them,” said Camilla pleasantly, peering at figures on a screen.

“I’m sorry, what?” Lorcan replied, startled out of his reverie. He’d been hanging about in Camilla’s lab for an hour or so, checking her latest results. He’d offered up his own blood and bone marrow for her to use, so he felt a personal involvement in her experiments. That was his excuse for being there, anyway, and he was sticking to it.

“Penny for your thoughts,” she said. “Haven’t you heard of that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.