Under the watchful eyes of the research team, Jeanne converted the fresh slabs of pure Prime Originium into translucent, chalky residue. Once she finished processing the minerals, the crowd lost interest in her presence and immediately rushed back into the adjacent observation room.
Outside, the Doctor had finally finished managing the onlookers along the corridor and walked into the cleanroom alongside Alina. Finding Jeanne standing alone, the Doctor eagerly pressed for details.
"How did it go? What's the situation?" the Doctor asked, her curiosity overflowing. "Is it good news or bad news? How far along is the process? It's so rare to see Kal'tsit looking this worked up, I..."
Her chatter was relentless. Had circumstances permitted, Jeanne would have gladly stuffed something into her mouth to gag her.
"I don't know the specifics yet," Jeanne explained, shaking her head. "They only called me over because they ran out of testing materials. But judging by Kal'tsit's earlier words, the preliminary trials were going rather smoothly—"
Before Jeanne could finish her sentence, the Doctor anxiously pulled open a side hatch and led the two women toward a observation window looking down into the main laboratory.
Inside, Kal'tsit stood over a sterile workstation with a grave expression, carefully measuring a series of volatile components. Among them were refined Originium dust and a microscopic fragment of tear stone—a sliver so small it could easily be overlooked.
Beside those primary components lay an assortment of strange ingredients: rare plant extracts that Jeanne couldn't identify, alongside peculiar minerals that looked nothing like conventional medicine. Kal'tsit blended the substances together in precise measurements.
Had this not been taking place inside a high-tech Rhodes Island laboratory, surrounded by elite medical operators assisting with every step, Jeanne would never have believed this concoction was a pharmaceutical product.
Rather than medicine, the mixture resembled a volatile brew cooked up through dark sorcery. Could crushed minerals and raw plant extracts truly be injected into a living organism without causing fatal internal damage?
As those doubts crossed Jeanne's mind, Kal'tsit fed the compound into a series of automated processing units. Moments later, a pale red liquid trickled into a sterile vial—a shade strikingly similar to processed Originium solution.
"Those automated machines..." Jeanne asked softly, studying the sleek metal housings, "did Rhodes Island bring them along from the original excavation site?"
Even with her limited knowledge of medical technology, Jeanne recognized how exceptional these instruments were. She had never seen machinery capable of turning raw mineral dust and plant extracts into a refined liquid compound within minutes.
"They are native components of the landship," the Doctor explained in a low voice. "They belong to the rare class of original mechanical systems that remained fully functional after activation. How machinery buried underground for centuries managed to stay in pristine condition is something even I can't answer."
With the Doctor's explanation complete, silence settled over the three observers. They watched nervously as a clear acrylic enclosure was placed onto the central testing platform, containing a swarm of white lab mice scurrying across the floor.
These white rodents—a small beast species related to Zalak stock—were the primary test subjects across major continental laboratories. They were inexpensive to maintain and displayed an exceptionally sharp physiological reaction to active Originium exposure.
Within rodent colonies, any individual that contracted Oripathy was immediately ostracized and driven out by the group. If the infected mouse refused to leave, the colony used physical aggression to expel it.
Furthermore, a mouse infected with Oripathy would succumb to rapid crystalline proliferation within a matter of days. Whether a subject had contracted the infection could be conclusively verified in under an hour.
In many ways, the behavior of these small creatures mirrored human society across Terra—the same instinctive fear, immediate rejection, and harsh ostracization of infected individuals.
Perhaps that was precisely why research facilities favored them. Flocks of these little creatures lived comfortable lives in laboratory enclosures right up until the moment trials began.
Rhodes Island maintained its own breeding colonies for research purposes. However, as medical trials intensified over recent weeks, their numbers had been steadily declining.
Sense the tense gazes fixed upon it, one mouse panicked, pacing rapidly along the base of the enclosure in search of an escape route.
Yet in Kal'tsit's practiced grip, escape was impossible. A rodent trying to outmaneuver a Feline was a hopeless endeavor.
Kal'tsit retrieved the mouse from the box, secured it on the workbench, and drew a precise dosage of the pale red solution into a syringe. As the needle pierced its skin, the creature let out a sharp squeak of pain.
None of the researchers flinched. Warfarin, standing nearby, observed the subject's every twitch with intense fascination, her eyes gleaming with an appetite that looked almost predatory.
After administering the compound to the entire group of test subjects, the team placed them inside an airtight chamber. With the press of a switch, active Originium particulates were slowly pumped into the glass enclosure, flooding the air with a high concentration of dust.
"A direct exposure trial?" the Doctor murmured, resting her hand against her helmet as she watched the chamber. "The baseline formula must be finished, then. Now we see if it actually works."
Within minutes, dark Originium crystals began erupting across the bodies of several subjects. The infected mice shattered into crystalline dust, raising the environmental concentration inside the chamber even higher.
Disappointment settled over the observation room. The trial had failed. Engineering a reliable prophylactic against Oripathy was far more complex than blending reactive minerals.
At the center of the lab, Kal'tsit remained perfectly still, her eyes locked on the chamber as her mind systematically reviewed every step of the chemical design. Where did the calculation break down? Did I misjudge the catalytic reaction?
She subtly tightened her hands into fists before releasing them, forcing her disappointment aside. Breakthroughs in this field were never achieved easily.
A failed trial simply meant an undetected error remained in the formula, or perhaps the overall direction required a fundamental shift.
"Dr. Kal'tsit! Come look at this subject!"
Folinic, acting as Kal'tsit's research assistant, stared in astonishment at the solitary survivor inside the sealed chamber. The small mouse remained remarkably active, scurrying across the floor without a single trace of crystalline lesion.
Spotting Folinic's face pressed against the glass, the mouse seemed to recognize the person who had stuck it with a needle earlier.
The little creature bared its tiny teeth, squeaking aggressively at her. Had the thick reinforced glass not stood between them, it looked ready to sink its sharp teeth directly into her nose.
"Look how energetic it is!" Folinic pointed eagerly. "It still remembers the injection I gave it earlier! Could its cognitive awareness be the reason it resisted infection?"
Kal'tsit walked over and studied the subject through the glass. The mouse showed no physiological symptoms of Oripathy; an infected rodent would never display such vigor.
"Oripathy bears no correlation with intelligence," Kal'tsit noted coolly, dismantling her apprentice's wild hypothesis. "If higher intellect granted immunity to Originium assimilation, humans—possessing far greater cognitive capacity than rodents—would not suffer from the disease."
Despite dismissing the theory, Kal'tsit kept her eyes fixed on the lively subject. Exposed to a concentration of active particulates that would drive a human to despair, the creature remained entirely unscathed.
Still, claiming total success was premature. Only after analyzing its physiological data could they understand how the compound had altered its cellular response.
"I was merely speculating," Folinic murmured, scratching her head sheepishly. "Besides, who's to say the gap between human and rodent intellect isn't negligible in the eyes of Originium? We still don't understand how active particles evaluate biological hosts."
Folinic grew more enthused by her own line of thought. "If we follow that logic, mechanical entities like automated AI possess the highest 'intellectual' stability, and machinery never contracts Oripathy! My hypothesis might actually have merit!"
"You are welcome to submit that hypothesis to a Columbian academic journal," Kal'tsit replied dryly, her tone devoid of humor. "See if those sensation-seeking publishers appreciate your wild imagination. It holds zero practical value in this laboratory."
Turning toward the diagnostic platform, Kal'tsit added crisply, "Draw blood samples and run a full assay on that subject immediately. I need to verify whether sub-clinical assimilation has occurred. Move."