Post by Fernpelt on Jun 4, 2011 16:49:21 GMT -6
I've been writing this book on and off for half a year, and still haven't gotten past the 4th chapter. >.< I have the whole story planned out, it just seems that the basis of it is wayyyyyyyy too childish. I keep trying to adultify it a bit more, and it seemed I could only do it through a prologue. I know it still needs to be more mature, but I don't know how to do that without changing the fact that they can morph into animals. Ideas? Please read.
Prologue
Necessity is the mother of invention. The heavily pressured Dr. Packwood knew this saying well, constantly trying to fulfill this latest need. Only a select few from each country was boarded onto the ships. The space crafts could hold only so many. Dr. Packwood wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, concentrating hard on his work. He had a general idea of how he might preserve the animalistic essence, but it would require experiments. Experiments involving sentient humans.
Could he possibly find a way to safely fuse human and animal DNA? If they were able to preserve the animals DNA in humans, it would be extractable at a later time; possibly used to re-create the animals and breed them on a host planet. Of course, this was largely relying on unproved theory. Would the body accept the DNA? If it did, what side effects might take place? How dangerous might these alterations have on the experimented one?
These consequences couldn’t be dwelled upon much longer. The overseer was constantly reminding him about the limited time. Only a month longer before takeoff, and that was the longest delay they could afford.
Dr. Packwood inhaled deeply, exhaled with a whoosh. He quickly wrote down some figures that he hoped were correct, for the human guinea pigs’ sake. Picking up his phone, he carefully, deliberately, dialed the number. The one pounded into his head. The one that no one was allowed to forget.
“Bring them in.”
The door opened immediately, almost before he said the last word. Dr. Packwood wasn’t too alarmed at this, however. He knew the whole fleet had been waiting on him.
Four people, standing with emotionless faces, hoping that they would live long enough to get back to the ship. Metal, lightweight chains linked them together, with strong, young men holding each end. It was obvious the test subjects weren’t coming willingly. The doctor wasn’t ecstatic either; he had four lives in his hands, and he wasn’t entirely sure about the next step.
The silent room, air heavy with the anticipation of the next move, felt overwhelming to all its inhabitants. Stepping forward quickly, the doctor raised his syringe. The first one, chimpanzee DNA. They were very sentient creatures, so it wouldn’t be too big of a change for the human. He swiftly injected three of these into the same arm in succession. He did the same for the other three, now using dolphin, elephant, and wolf. All four of those animals were close enough to the intelligence and emotional advancements that humans possessed.
The subjects stared at one another, now letting panic show on their faces. Their calm charade was up, and panic was seeping through.
“You,” Dr. Packwood directed at the Chimp-Human, “do you feel any different?”
The answer was no, for every single one of them. This experiment was considered a failure for a few weeks after, and Dr. Packwood was sent away for a while, to a place he does not speak of. The supervisor, who shall here on out be referred to as The Boss, gave up on trying to bring along human-preserved animals. There was not enough room on the ships to keep that amassment of animal DNA.
Until a few weeks later. The four experiments had been released back onto the ship, but soon were reported as behaving strangely. The Chimp-Man loved brushing hair, the Dolphin-Woman was nervous when water wasn’t in sight, the Elephant-Woman tried using her nose as a food utensil, and the Wolf-Man would only let his cabin-mates into the room. Anyone else was stared down and growled at. When excited, or provoked, a few gave accounts on the people changing.
This changed everything, Dr. Packwood was brought back and his name cleared. Many more people were brought in, each with slightly altered DNA infused into them. Everyone had their new side to them, but it was now regarded as normal. The Boss himself was a bit envious of the commoners, but he didn’t want any strange, unforeseen side effects.
The ship set off, with every specimen of animal discovered by man with them. Later on, through offspring, it was noted that personality and animal form often matched. It couldn’t be proved that the form was determined by the personality, or that the personality was determined by the form, but it was general knowledge to never trust a Fox-Woman or Man.
An unspecified time later, they still live in space. The new Boss knows just about everything about Earth and why they no longer live there, but the citizens have a quite different version.
Prologue
Necessity is the mother of invention. The heavily pressured Dr. Packwood knew this saying well, constantly trying to fulfill this latest need. Only a select few from each country was boarded onto the ships. The space crafts could hold only so many. Dr. Packwood wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, concentrating hard on his work. He had a general idea of how he might preserve the animalistic essence, but it would require experiments. Experiments involving sentient humans.
Could he possibly find a way to safely fuse human and animal DNA? If they were able to preserve the animals DNA in humans, it would be extractable at a later time; possibly used to re-create the animals and breed them on a host planet. Of course, this was largely relying on unproved theory. Would the body accept the DNA? If it did, what side effects might take place? How dangerous might these alterations have on the experimented one?
These consequences couldn’t be dwelled upon much longer. The overseer was constantly reminding him about the limited time. Only a month longer before takeoff, and that was the longest delay they could afford.
Dr. Packwood inhaled deeply, exhaled with a whoosh. He quickly wrote down some figures that he hoped were correct, for the human guinea pigs’ sake. Picking up his phone, he carefully, deliberately, dialed the number. The one pounded into his head. The one that no one was allowed to forget.
“Bring them in.”
The door opened immediately, almost before he said the last word. Dr. Packwood wasn’t too alarmed at this, however. He knew the whole fleet had been waiting on him.
Four people, standing with emotionless faces, hoping that they would live long enough to get back to the ship. Metal, lightweight chains linked them together, with strong, young men holding each end. It was obvious the test subjects weren’t coming willingly. The doctor wasn’t ecstatic either; he had four lives in his hands, and he wasn’t entirely sure about the next step.
The silent room, air heavy with the anticipation of the next move, felt overwhelming to all its inhabitants. Stepping forward quickly, the doctor raised his syringe. The first one, chimpanzee DNA. They were very sentient creatures, so it wouldn’t be too big of a change for the human. He swiftly injected three of these into the same arm in succession. He did the same for the other three, now using dolphin, elephant, and wolf. All four of those animals were close enough to the intelligence and emotional advancements that humans possessed.
The subjects stared at one another, now letting panic show on their faces. Their calm charade was up, and panic was seeping through.
“You,” Dr. Packwood directed at the Chimp-Human, “do you feel any different?”
The answer was no, for every single one of them. This experiment was considered a failure for a few weeks after, and Dr. Packwood was sent away for a while, to a place he does not speak of. The supervisor, who shall here on out be referred to as The Boss, gave up on trying to bring along human-preserved animals. There was not enough room on the ships to keep that amassment of animal DNA.
Until a few weeks later. The four experiments had been released back onto the ship, but soon were reported as behaving strangely. The Chimp-Man loved brushing hair, the Dolphin-Woman was nervous when water wasn’t in sight, the Elephant-Woman tried using her nose as a food utensil, and the Wolf-Man would only let his cabin-mates into the room. Anyone else was stared down and growled at. When excited, or provoked, a few gave accounts on the people changing.
This changed everything, Dr. Packwood was brought back and his name cleared. Many more people were brought in, each with slightly altered DNA infused into them. Everyone had their new side to them, but it was now regarded as normal. The Boss himself was a bit envious of the commoners, but he didn’t want any strange, unforeseen side effects.
The ship set off, with every specimen of animal discovered by man with them. Later on, through offspring, it was noted that personality and animal form often matched. It couldn’t be proved that the form was determined by the personality, or that the personality was determined by the form, but it was general knowledge to never trust a Fox-Woman or Man.
An unspecified time later, they still live in space. The new Boss knows just about everything about Earth and why they no longer live there, but the citizens have a quite different version.