I've already sent it, but what do /you/ people think of it?
That's what really matters to me. XD
My answer to the assigned question
By: lol vix
Kit sighed as he looked at the blood cells through a microscope. Finally, he had it just where he wanted, with a good, defined view of the cell. “Alright, now, to-”
“Kit!” a woman's voice called.
Startled, he bumped the adjustment knob, and the cells blurred out of focus. He cursed under his breath, then asked, “What?!”
“Oh... is this a bad time?” she asked quietly. Her hands shook a little with nervousness, as she was the kind of person who was sensitive to emotion.
“No, no, what is it?” Kit asked with a sigh.
“Oh... Well, the trainee is here!” she said happily.
“... The what?”
“The trainee!”
“For what?”
“For our test program?”
“Oh... That.”
“Yes, that.”
The program that Kit was not fond of, was a test to see if scientists could learn better in the environment they were destined to work in, rather than a classroom. There were risks, of course, there were always risks, but they had only selected one student.
“According to his profile, he's a bit of a slacker, and he claims he lacks motivation,” she read off. To which, Kit replied with a simple 'Hmph'. He waved his hand, and told her to bring the student in.
“Uh... Hi,” the boy said. He looked to be roughly fourteen, most likely just starting high school.
Kit stared at him for a moment, then motioned the boy over to the desk which the microscope stood on, and picked up some sketches of infections. “Tell me, boy, what's this?” he asked, pointing to a basic sketch of a malignant tumour. “It... it looks like cancer... sir?” the boy said tentatively. “Hopefully, for the patient it isn't, but you're probably right,” Kit sighed. “Now, boy, tell me: Have you ever had to deal with someone or something that proved harmful? Extremely dangerous, even?”
“No... Not really. I mean, nothing like-”
“I don't want hear what it's not like, I asked you a straightforward question,” Kit snapped. “What's your name?”
“William Slade, sir.”
“Right, William; No need for that 'sir' crap, either, I'm only a scientist.
“Now, before you go off thinking this is like 'Dexter' or 'CSI', let me tell you, you're wrong. You should know by now, life isn't that great. No one here has been held hostage, we've never been robbed, there's no guys on computers hacking into our database, so get all of that out of your head. Putting it bluntly, life here doesn't get better than the average murder case.” Kit explained.
The boy, William, could pretty much grasp the concept of it. “Right. You're saying, it's not as the media makes it out to be?”
“Precisely,” Kit said with a grin.
William hesitantly smiled a little.
Just then, the woman who had come in before, (her name was Susan) entered the room again, looking flustered. “Here,” she said, giving gloves, feet covers, and more stuff that would keep evidence clean to Kit and William. “We've got a serious case here,” she said briskly, heading in strides out to the garage, Kit and William close behind.
Kit got into the driver side of the undercover car (it was the closest vehicle), and asked where the incident was. “At the Whicketer Line intersection, in the plaza parking lot,” she said quickly.
Kit put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot, turning on sirens and taking the shortest way there.
William, in the back seat, was delighted that the first outing had happened so soon. He put on what had been given to him, careful to cover everythong.
Kit pulled up to the scene, and was thankful that there wasn't a massive crowd just yet. Officers Francesca and Allison were by the scene, taking pictures of the area, and had roped it off. Kit motioned silently for William to follow, and William stayed right behind in in quick, eager, but careful steps.
It was obvious that the perpetrator had tried to burn the corpse, but the flames had blown out before they could do their job.
Kit carefully made his way to the corpse, scanning for any crucial evidence. Susan also came over, handing him a few baggies and starting to search as well.
After a few minutes of silence, while William nervously licking his lips and peering at the body in shock, Kit and Susan straightened out and began walking away.
“Bag'em and tag'em,” Kit ordered. Officer Francesca nodded, and signaled the paramedics.
Kit handed William baggies holding fingerprint snapshots, hair samples, and a lighter. “Here. Hold these,” he said briskly, and got back into the car, Susan close behind.
After a quick drive back to the lab, Kit took the baggies from William, and very carefully put the small fingerprint stickies they had copied from the lighter, onto a glowing, smooth screen. 'ANALYZING...' the screen read.
“Come on, this could take a while,” Kit said. He took a single strand of hair, carefully snapped it into a slide, and slid it under the microscope. “Now,” he said to William, “this is a highly advanced microscope, nothing like your school hand-me-down magnifying glasses. This is state of the art technology, and there's more than just this. Tell me, Will, when you look through, what do you see?”
William peered through the lens, then withdrew. “It looks like... Kind of like a wall.”
Kit nodded, then adjusted the knob. “Now look,” he said.
William looked through again, and was momentarily stunned. It looks like and individual cell...” he said, transfixed. Kit smiled again. He took the slide out, and slid the another of the same hairs out of the bag. “Obviously, we aren't dealing with an incredibly bright criminal; he or she shed scalp hairs all over the place. The hairs are long, so it might have been a woman. Or a man who kept his hair long. We'll see soon enough.”
“How, sir?”
“What'd I tell you about the 'sir' crap?'
“Oh, yeah. Sorry...”
“Fine. Now, you may be here for the program, but I have to dissect the follicle myself.”
“... Pardon?”
“Just watch and learn”
Kit took the hair sample delicately with a pair of tweezers, over to the micro-dissection machine. “Now, see this? This is a Leica AS, or LMD. We use it for laser micro-dissection, or, in a simplified manner, to 'cut' cells. Do you follow?”
William nodded.
Kit snapped the new hair sample into another slide, and slid it under what looked like the most impossible microscope. “Using a UV laser, we can cut a cell, identify a part of the genetic sequence then scan it in our database by entering the same sequence we recorded, which may have been previously entered, perhaps for someone with a criminal record. Let's hope that happens.”
While looking through the lens of of the Leica, he explained, “Now, there's always, always, always a chemical we call 'keratin' on these kinds of cells. Using laser micro-dissection, we can cut all this away to get at the DNA in the mitochondria (there's a small amount of it in them) or in the chromosomes.”
After a while on the Leica, then smiled. He wrote down the sequence with a pad of paper and a pen. William stared almost incredulously at it. He thought it so... Out of place. In a lab, with highly advanced equipment, scientists recorded genetic sequences as moms recorded grocery lists. Kit noticed William's stare. ”We keep our database in a separate room,” he informed. William nodded.
Kit then walked to where the had the fingerprint scanner. 'MATCH OBTAINED' read the screen. Kit pressed a small button on the keypad below the screen. A picture and profile of a man appeared, named 'Micheal Bolton', followed by previous crimes he was wanted for. His hair was long and dark, just like the strands found at the scene of the crime and what they had been examining earlier.
“Well, there you have it,” Kit laughed. “There's our culprit right there. Now, all we have to do is send this information to Officer Francesca, and he's good as gone.”
“Oh,” Will said.
“I told you, kid, this isn't your Sunday night entertainment, this is real life, and this is about as good as it gets,” Kit said. “Just be glad it was this easy.
“Now, when you go home tonight, I want you to start a journal of everythong that went on today, and everythong I've told you. Keep it accurate; I'm quizzing you at the end of this little program.”
“Mhmm,” William said with a sigh.
“Don't give me that look. What other kids in your class have seen technology this advanced in person, or even looked through a decent microscope?”
William smiled a little.
“That's right, you'll be smarter than all the nerds and geeks in your class by the end of this. Now, get out of here, I have work to do. Main exit is down the hall, make a right, in the lobby.”
Hours later, Kit was in his office, taking his documents and such home. Susan knocked on the door, and came in.
“So, how do you like the program?” she asked.
“Like a vegetarian likes steak.”
“Oh, come on, I saw you smiling once or twice. You liked to show of your knowledge, I know you do.”
“Are you kidding? I'm the most modest man you've ever met. Humble as a peasant, honest.”
Susan smiled wryly, and Kit gave in.
“Well, I guess I'll have to admit, it was bearable,” Kit sad, a trace of a smirk on his face.
“See, I knew you'd like it,” Susan said, her own smile widening.
“Oh, leave me be, woman, thou hath tormented me enough.”
Susan laughed.
“Come on,” Kit said, now grinning. “I'll buy you a coffee.”
Subject: P: MAH SCIENCE PROJECT. 
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:46 am