I stared at the screen before me as the curve was being drawn. I no longer felt the nervosity I used to during this procedure; too many failed experiments had diminished my hope, and with it any sense of anxiety. The screen was the only source of light, illuminating my face with a dim blue light in an otherwise dark, sterile room. This was standard procedure, but judging from my past success, or rather lack thereof, I didn’t think this was the cause of failure.

As the result came up, I was still staring at the screen but no longer looking at it, my vision was focused on a point far beyond the walls which defined the room. It only took me a second of focus to see that the reaction had, once again, failed. I sighed, turned the machine off, and took out my samples and threw them in the biohazard waste.

“Another late night?”

I turned my head and saw Chris at the doorway. He was wearing gloves but no lab coat, and his brown hair was tied up in a bun atop his head like usual. I hadn’t noticed that he had pushed the door open.

“But nothing to show for it.” I answered. “How’d you know to find me in here?”

“I didn’t.” He held up a small tube as to indicate why he had entered the room and walked towards the freezer. “But I’m not surprised.” The freezer hissed as he opened it and white smoke poured out like an eerie waterfall. He put the tube on a rack and closed the door. “Come on, let’s take a break, you work too hard.”

I sat down on one of the orange plastic chairs as Chris walked over to the kitchen counter. The break room was small and sparsely decorated. I was sitting in the center by the white table, and opposite me was a rudimentary kitchen consisting of white counters with black tops, some appliances, a small stovetop, and a dishwasher.

Chris handed me a steaming cup as he sat down. He took a sip of his, scowled by the heat, and then looked at me as he put it down on the table. “So, another failure?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “I’m out of ideas at this point. Maybe I should just cut my losses.”

“Maybe you’re going about this the wrong way, maybe the synthetic approach is not the way to go.”

“What do you mean?”

“What if what you’re looking to create already exists, what if nature has already created it?”

Typical biologists, I thought, always put their trust in nature. I took a sip from my cup and then looked at him. “Fusion of earth DNA and xeno-DNA has not once been observed in nature. If possible, it would require thousands of years. Where would that have occurred?”

“Tens of thousands.” He said with a wry smile. “I still think such a place exists; someone just needs to find it.”

“I know you do.” I said with a tired smile and got up. “I wish I shared your optimism. I’ll get going now, see you on Monday.”

I awoke the next morning feeling barely more energized than I had as I had gone to bed. I sat down by my laptop to quickly check my inbox as I drank my coffee and saw a message from Chris. It had no headline. It was a message from the WHO sent to Chris, and a short message from Chis which read:

“We need to talk.”