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They were closer together in the photograph than it had seemed at the time. The department staff room was bubbling with giggles at the unfortunate incident which had taken place at the moment of capture, where Dr. Syd had been dusting lint off the back of his protégé's lab coat. From the front, it naturally appeared as if his hand was up to something rather less innocuous.
Someone had made copies of the newspaper available to everyone as Laura entered the room with bed hair and bags under her eyes. She sighed at the blown up photo taped to the coffee machine.
“So how did it feel, Ken? Peachy?” Dr. Carter beamed as he awaited an answer from Dr. Syd, who had arrived moments after Laura.
That woke her up. She rounded on him, sending a slop of her coffee to the floor, and jabbed a finger at Dr. Carter’s chest.
“YOU! Give it up, already. No-one cares about your stupid gossip or your damn photo. We’re doing important work, trying to save the entire species, and all you can do is stalk me and clown around the department because you know fine well your scientific achievements aren’t going to get you any attention.”
Dr. Carter recoiled at the furious jabbing, and made a show of hiding behind his newspaper. “Dr. Syd, who let your dog out?”
“Ughhhh!” Laura groaned. She stormed out, leaving Dr. Syd to sigh in her wake.
“Can’t leave it alone, can you, John?”
“Nope,” Dr. Carter said. “But I could say the same thing about you.”
Dr. Syd cast a scowl around the room, and a half dozen heads went back to reading their papers. He stormed out too, but with more maturity mustered in his raised nose and quick steps.
“Keep trying, maybe someone actually will get pregnant around here someday,” Dr. Carter called after him.
In Dr. Syd’s office, Laura was battering the keyboard with as much fury as her finger had jabbed Dr. Carter. Characters flooded the screen as her anger melted into the work, her eyes turning to a blur of pixels and light. A hand held hers, and she stopped.
“Don’t let him get to you,” Dr. Syd said, for the hundredth time.
“He’s never forgiven me.”
“That’s his problem,” Dr. Syd replied, crouching at her side. “Look, the story is out now, correspondence will start flowing by tomorrow. We better have the numbers ready to back it up. Maybe we can convince a few of them that respond to us. Someone with the right connections can put pressure on the government, and the Project can begin.”
“Making babies in a lab? Making eggs? You really think that will happen under this administration? Humanity will kill itself to please its god.”
“We have to try,” Dr. Syd pressed. “With the right funding I’m sure we can have the artificial conception process perfected within... a decade. Maybe seven years. We just need a little luck.”
Laura turned back to the computer. “Start praying.”
“Oh, God,” Dr. Syd breathed, the irony lost in his despair. Laura had navigated to a news website, where the primary headline confirmed her suspicions about the government’s lack of support for the Project: Executive Pledges Opposition To Artificial Life Project. “Fuck.”
“No amount of fucking is going to make babies, Ken.”
Dr. Syd rested his head on his sleeve, inwardly groaning. “What do you want, John?” he said, with enough tension to launch an arrow through lead. He turned to find Dr. Carter in the doorway, his hands behind his head in a gesture of pure relaxation. But his face was tense, his eyes bleary.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry about the Project.”
“It’s not over yet. We still have the Select Committee hearing. They can at least get us the funding to get started.”
“I know,” Dr. Carter said, lowering his hands and stuffing them in the pockets of his lab coat. He gave a shrug. “Hope you make it.”
Dr. Syd made a face unbecoming of a man of his age and credentials. It felt good though. “Sure you do.”
“Come on, Ken, I don’t want to see you two go broke. I’d be bored stiff. You need that money.”
“For your personal amusement?” Laura said, unaware she was gripping the keyboard in her anger. Plastic creaked under her fingers.
“Well not just me,” Dr. Carter chuckled, ducking his head between his shoulders in a mockery of modesty. “The interns do love a good gossip. They’ve started their own magazine.”
“I don’t care,” Ken said.
“They even call you Doc Oc because of your wandering tentacles,” Dr. Carter added with a waggle of his eyebrows. He sighed wistfully at the spirit of youth, and took on a more sombre tone. “I really do hope the Project succeeds.”
“Why?” Laura demanded. “You don’t believe a word we say.”
Dr. Carter nodded. “No. No I don’t. Not about this nonsense fairy planet spirit thing that’s trying to kill us all because we’re bad little carbon puffers. I don’t believe the Why, but I believe the What. What you’re proposing to do... it could make a real difference. To real people. Real families.”
“You’ve been called to speak to the Committee haven’t you?” Dr. Syd said, cutting right through the warm sentiments.
“Yup. And I’m going to be honest.”
“Wouldn’t ask anything else of you.”
Dr. Carter nodded again, and spun on his heel. He strode out the door, leaving Laura perplexed. He had been her lecturer, tutor, mentor for years before she decided to complete her internship under Dr. Syd, but every time she thought she knew him...