3

 

The way he said specimen I shivered.  What did he mean by that?

 

The smaller beta male got to his feet and he finished chewing before putting his hand forwards gently.  "It is a delight to meet another lovely beta female, Miss Spitz.  It's wonderful to have your energy added to our team.  I always think feminine should balance the masculine energies."

 

"I couldn't agree more."  I tried to smile to diffuse the tension between the who of them.  I tried to look at the other artwork around the room, I was finally doing the job I had dreamed of for the last week.

 

"But why would there be a gender difference in research. If so wouldn't it make more sense for me to work under him?"  I wondered, turning from Dr. Igarashi to the man who was claiming to be my mentor.  "I know the documents were heavily censors so I assume that I have joined when we are going to be starting human trials?  It seems quite a late stage in which someone should be joining a research team.  I'm trying to make sense of things so I apologize if this is insubordination."

 

Dr. Igarashi snorted into his cup of water.  "I'm not the alpha here, no need to grovel to me.  I can see you are properly paying attention to everything going on."

 

Dr. Dawson looked annoyed at him for a second as he paused before handing me a plastic cup with water that someone had handed him.  Livia looked down into it and sighed.

 

Dr Dawson cleared his throat.  "Being aware of one's species will always be valued here.  It makes us have a better lab environment if we keep to the heirarchy.  I'm glad that you have interest in these types of things.  I can see you have interest in my project then?"

 

It was disappointing that I wasn't going to work with meteroites after all.  I wanted to get along with everyone so I agreed.  "Of course, sir."

 

"That's nice to hear.  I can see by the emptiness of the break room that the assistant have probably gone out with some sponsor so we'll have my lab pretty empty today.  Why don't we head on down there and I will give you the run through on my project as a whole?  You've already signed the non-disclosure agreement and the work contract so officially you do belong to us.  You can definitely nurse that cup of coffee as there is no need to suit up.  It will be cold anyways by the time we get there, no risk of contamination."  He bared his teeth in what I assumed was supposed to be a reassuring gesture.  "I know your background is in astrochemistry."

 

The thought of bringing stale coffee into the chemistry lab made the smile leave my face.  At my university lab, during after hours, they usually let us bring whatever we wanted into the lab as long as the students didn't see me doing it.  But, this was my job now so I sighed and then refilled the lukewarm coffee with boiling water, it was going to be water down now, but at least it would be warmer for a little bit longer.

 

Hopefully that would make this whole experience, a lot less depressing.

 

Dr. Dawson, seemed to like my idea, as he filled his own cup with boiling water as well.  But, unlike me, his cup did not have any coffee grounds.  I wondered if he was insane as I followed him out of the door, I nodded slightly to Dr. Igarashi who raised his eyebrows playfully at my expression as if this was something that he was used to.

 

"It's been the focus of this project to work on a way for the soldiers on the front lines, to not wear out as easily.  We're particularly interested in the next evolution."  Dr. Dawson's hands moved around wildly as he lead me down the corridor.  The wall was the same as before, seamless, until we stopped in front of another random panel.  Here, he pushed aside a small panel to reveal a scanner.  I was surprised to see it there as he swiped his key card and pressed a code into the room.  I felt goosebumps as the door slid open and revealed there was a red tiled staircase leading towards into the underground.

 

"You know, Ms. Spitz, I wonder what you know about soldiers or the war which is going on outside of our current borders."

 

I swallowed.  "I know that in school that I was taught the snipers and the soldiers on the front lines are usually alphas."

 

"Right you are.  Solely alphas.  This gives us a single species in which we are seeking to find some way to augment the aggression.  My current objective is to find the DNA difference between the three that exist in a heirarchy in our society: alpha, beta, and the elusive omega.  We want to use the hypothesis of finding this biological adaptation which differentiated the alpha men from the best of the betas in terms of their physique and their mating drive."  He paused as he said this.  "I want to be straightforward when I talk about this as it is important not to sugarcoat this with equality as it is without question that alphas dominate.  I have found the very pure alpha instincts which exists within my species.  The result is obviously confounding as I haven't subjected myself to the changes."

 

My smiled faded as I followed my mentor down the stairs and through more security as his passion for his topic started to increase.  I had the luck where my university had a non-discriminatory policy to not disallow someone on the basis of their species.  It had been a little bubble where the alphas in the vicinity reined in their dynamic in order to not get fired or written up based on the aforementioned policy.  I had never felt fear when I saw aggression as I knew that security was something coming quickly afterwards.