The gathered scientist stared at the dead rat, not understanding what had gone wrong. They’d had their calculations correct, and the dead animal appeared to be an exact copy of its living breathing donor.
This now became a problem for the scientists to solve. Three of the software specialists decided to leave the citadel and introduce CAIN to the outside world and, after a huge party they left the following day, promising to keep the citadel a secret. Now it was the task of Rumble and Ngem to solve the riddle, along with their sons, daughters in laws and remaining scientists.
Boran named the project: Ophiuchus, the new beginning.
****
Ophiuchus, the 13th sign of the zodiac which was well known through 15-1700’s as the centre of the universe The constellation, situated in the dark rift between Sagittarius and Scorpio was speculated to have been removed from records by the Catholic Church in the late 16th century, during the inquisition periods. It was predicted that when three solar eclipses occurred in the same lunar year, and when the sun rose in alignment with Ophiuchus, it would mark the return of the Antichrist and Armageddon. This date was worked out on the Gregorian calendar by Nostradamus and the ancient Mayans as 2012.This is also the reason the number 13 is considered to be unlucky.
This prediction Boran also firmly believed in. He had studied, and became interested in, the works of Nostradamus. However he’d interpreted the scriptures completely differently to the doom and gloom merchants. Boran saw it not as the end of civilization, but with a little help from the human race, it could be a new beginning for the little blue planet that we fondly call home, and the only planet we know that has chocolate.
****
They performed an autopsy and microanalysis on the dead rat and took countless tissue samples but could find no reason why the animal had not lived. They repeated the process several times over the next few months using different specimens, monkeys, dogs, cats but all produced the same result, a perfect replica but dead. Even their attempts to artificially ventilate and shock start the heart, failed to animate the animals.
Then, in the August of 2007 Norman Junior had an idea and explained to the team.
“Maybe the problem is, we have just thrown the thing all together into a mix and not done it the same way as nature; in other words, slowly and piece by piece” Norm Junior continued, “maybe we should start at the beginning with a plain canvas and we can add the picture later. And simplified his theory by comparing it to a computer,” build the machine the circuits and hardware, then add the memory and programs”. The other scientists listened to Norm Junior’s analogy, Boran and Rumble looked at each other and smiled.
“That should work” said Rumble “It made perfect sense, well done son,” and patted his son proudly on the back.
“Ok,” said Boran, “back to the drawing board”
It only took several more weeks for the Ophiuchus project to be tried again, although this time with some changes. The oven made the cells first for the skeleton and within a few days a skeleton appeared on the centre pad, then added muscles, white cells, red cells and platelets.
After several more days, a rat began to take shape on the centre pad. The rat was covered by a layer of transparent membrane, and through this skin you could see all the organs and muscles forming, which looked like someone had skinned the poor creature. The visible heart and lungs started to function.
They developed a way of injecting all the cells into the body at specific times, by an apparatus that resembled a small rubber blanket with 1000’s of tiny needles, which could be enlarged, or reduced in size depending on the region they are trying to implant, this they called the ‘shroud of life’
“Right,” said Rumble, “now add the paint.”
The oven injected through the shroud, the synthesized DNA cells that contained the characteristics.
Then they waited.
It only took several hours for the cells to bind with the plain DNA cells and once the shroud had been removed, a white, living breathing rat stood motionless on the pad.
“Right,” said Rumble, “let’s program it.”
A small robotic syringe swung over and injected the rat at the base of its skull and injected 100000 Neutral’s, RNA enhanced neurotrophins cells into the rat’s hypothalamus.
There was silence for several moments. This they expected, it would take some time for the Neurals to convert to Neurons. However, after 90 minutes, the rat twitched into life and as its short term memory returned, it started to look around, then slowly walked on the pad, looked around at its new surroundings, then dropped dead.
There was a silence as the scientists just stared at the rat.
“Well,” said Boran breaking the silence, “at least it works and, I think I know the problem. I suspected this could happen, but we will have to autopsy the animal to confirm my hypothesis.”
The team, although a bit deflated, gathered up the dead creature and started more tests. A few weeks later they were ready to try the experiment again. The same process as before skeleton, muscles and blood, only this time they had altered the cells to a create a synthetic oxygen carrying cell, which adhered better to chromosome and enzymes more efficiently. They discovered from the post mortem, that most of the original blood cells in the previous test had died before the DNA characteristic cells had been added, also, as Boran suspected they could not use a live subject, as it was shock that had killed the first test subject.
The memories were the same, so as the neurons grew, and the short term memory returned the poor creature couldn’t fathom out why it was in two places at once. The shock on its new brain tissue proved to be too much for its unready new body that resulted in the internal carotid artery in the centre of its brain exploding, resulting in instant death. Boran suggested that the samples must be taken at a place that would not shock the new life form would be created, unless they created something that could understand speech so they could reassure them.
****
25th December 2007 was not only a special day in the Christian calendar, but also in the citadel as a living breathing walking rat, now happily chewed on some cheese in the centre of the oven pad, with the sound of Mozart playing in the background and a happy cheering team of scientists who praised one another for their contribution in creating ‘Adam’ the first synthetically created creature
They gathered up Adam and put him in a cage outside in the pasture. All the inhabitants stroked him and petted him, and the little creature, although confused, enjoyed the attention. His last memory was of being in a glass case and smelling a strange substance, and then falling asleep, waking up a few hours ago, a little unsteady. Rumble and Ngem returned to the lab and started the process again this time using a monkey hair from a macaque, commonplace in the jungle surrounding Ta Prohm. The result was the same, and after a fortnight the created monkey scampered around the lab, with the two old professors trying to catch and cage it. With the continued success of the Ophiuchus project, Professor Rumble and Ngem sat down and in deep discussion on whether to give their process to the world. They were joined by their sons and other scientists involved in the project. Except for professor Rumble the others agreed that the world was not yet ready for this technology and, knowing the superpowers they would use the project for military use.
Rumble disagreed, because he wanted the process available and credit his dead mentor Rosalind Franklyn as playing a large part of this find, as her original research had started the whole thing off and she deserved the recognition that Rumble had always considered had been stolen from her.
The team discussed this long and hard and eventually came to the conclusion the outside world neither could, nor would ,use the process for the correct reasons, but if they could educate and bring together the world and make it a more peaceful place to be, only then they would allow the process to be shared.
Norman Rumble, almost 70 years old, had remained alone, and had devoted his entire life to science and spent his middle age researching this field to give Rosalind recognition. Since his beloved Theary had been gone, he had worked tirelessly in something that he never dreamed could be achieved in his lifetime. But it was, so now, he wanted something for his tireless and unselfish work, he wanted something that, because of his achievement, he could now obtain. He wanted his life back.
“We will make a human being,” he announced.
“What?” said the gathered scientists’.
“We will make a human,” Norman repeated
“We aren’t ready for that step Norm,” said Boran, knowing who Rumble wanted to reincarnate.
“We are,” said Rumble “it would be the same for any living creature, we can create anything, the process, as we know is successful and therefore, theoretically we can make anything, or anyone.”
“It’s too soon,” said Boran.
“Too soon!” bellowed Norm “We are generations too soon. We’d never expected to achieve what we have in our lifetime, therefore we have no reason to wait, and I say we do it, now.”
The team looked shocked, especially Boran and Norm Junior, who had never seen his father lose his temper before. Boran went over to the enraged old professor and put his hand on his shoulder.
“I understand old friend,” said Boran.
They had been colleagues and friends now for most of their adult life and Boran had to make Norm understand that now was not the right time
“Why?” said Norman and kept on asking the same question, which the group could only reply we need more tests. Norm stated that this would be a test, just like any other and called them all short sighted. After a few hours of lengthy and heated debate, and private talks with Boran and Junior, the team finally relented.
“Okay,” said Boran. “You have done so much for us, so we will grant your request to create a human. The playing God card came into the equation, which Rumble shrugged off saying it was too late for that and, if God had given them the knowledge to create the machine, he must have a plan.
“There is a stipulation though,” said Boran
“Well! What is it?” said the now jubilant Rumble.
“We will choose who is to be cloned,” said Boran.
“That’s obvious” pointed out Norman “Someone recently deceased, someone whose life touched so many others in the citadel, it is obvious who it will be” exclaimed Norm. “My beloved wife, his beloved mother and Cain’s grandmother,” Norm continued and looked at Norm Junior for a back up.
The backup never came and the rest of the team left the room leaving Norman, Boran and Norm’s son all holding hands, the sadness now etched in the tearful old eyes of Rumble.
“Why son, why my old friend?” he pleaded.
Boran and Norm Junior had tears running down their faces.
“Because father,” whispered Junior “I don’t want to risk losing my mother again should we fail, lets first try somebody else, and if we succeed then we can then bring back mum, but if we fail we can continue to perfect the process.”
Rumble thought hard, he felt that he wouldn’t be around for much longer, so this would be his last chance. They were however, uncertain of the time-frame to create a human and, because of the complicated human brain structure whether that it would even be possible.
Professor Rumble pondered, and then replied,
“You are right my son and you my old friend, I am sorry for my outburst,” croaked Norman. “But if not Theary then who?” asked Norman
That answer came several days later as they input instructions into Theory for creating a human blueprint, Patty walked into Norman’s office, along with Norm Jnr, Tu, Anne and Boran.
“Here is who,” said a smiling Patty and tapped at the keypad on Norms, desk top computer and linked with hers.
The screen filled with old newspaper articles from the Bangkok post dated 26 December 2007, about a sacred holy relic that went on display to the public that day. It went on to describe the bejewelled box and its 2500 year old contents, stating the box had not been opened for over 2000 years.
Norman read the article with interest
“How can we get cells after 2000 years?” asked Norm, now intrigued.
“It’s a well known fact” said Patty “teeth enamel lasts for millennia, archaeologists will tell you that cells have been found in tooth enamel, and if the box has been sealed for two millennium they should contain at least a few cells for the cell sniffer.” Boran nodded his agreement,
“and,” continued Patty, “what better person to introduce back into the world, it was what the Ophiuchus project was designed for, to bring peace and tranquillity back to the world, a new beginning, and what better person to return to the planet than the ultimate enlightened human being; Prince Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha:”
“Plus” added Junior “from what the history books tell us, he was an educated man who died peacefully in his sleep, so if we find someone who had knowledge of ancient Pali language, we should be able to reassure him, until he is able to grasp his incredible situation, thus avoiding any shock.
****
Siddhārtha Gautama, in Sanskrit, or Siddhattha Gotama, in Pali, was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism. He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians date his lifetime from circa 563 BCE to 483 BC. Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni (Skt.; Pali: Sakyamuni; English: “sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were said to have been summarized after his death and memorized by the sangha. Passed down by oral tradition, the Tipitaka, the collection of teachings attributed to Gautama by the Theravada, was committed to writing some centuries later.
*One of the most anticipated targets for cloning was once the Woolly Mammoth, but attempts to extract DNA from frozen mammoths have been unsuccessful, though a joint Russo-Japanese team is currently working toward this goal. In 2002, geneticists at the Australian Museum announced that they had replicated DNA of the extinct Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), from DNA extracted from a fossilised canine tooth.