บท 27: Ethics

"So, Dr. Sharon, what is it that we couldn't discuss at the meeting?" Blake stood inside an old laboratory in the civilian section of the ship with XO Ford in confusion.

"Well, there are some things to show you first before you decide what to do with the information." Dr. Sharon said as she brings up a display terminal.

"Look here, this is the video footage taken from the marine's headcam." Dr. Sharon shows the 2 senior officers.

A 1080p HD video recording of the fight inside the ruins plays itself. Lots of camera shake, muzzle flashes and screaming. Dr. Sharon paused the video at one point and highlighted a portion on the video. "Look, you see that flash of light?"

Both Blake and Ford nods as they watch the video playback. "Watch closely." Dr. Sharon says before playing the video.

"Is that some kind of energy weapon? Blake asks he and Ford leans closer to take a look.

"No," Dr. Sharon gestures both officers to a side table, where a long matt black crate sat. She keys in a password at the lock pad and opens the lid. "This is what that green skin was using."

A 1.2m long spine, inscribed with silvery runes all along the vertebral column with a reddish crystal set on the top rest on a layer of foam padding. Blake and Ford immediately recognize the crystal as a mana stone.

"This bone staff uses some kind of creature's backbone as its main structure, the bones are fused together by silver and some other materials. The inscriptions are also very detailed," She shows a magnified image of the characters. "It is inked mostly in silver and some unknown substances. And of course, we don't know what language it is in."

"The mana stone at the top is similar to the blue ones we have, the difference is just the color or something I haven't found out yet." Dr. Sharon than plays another video from the same camera. "If you look here, we managed to capture the sounds the green skin made when it tried to blow the marine away. I managed to get the sounds isolated from all the background noise and chatter."

She plays an audio file and a series of harsh sounds play out. "It sounds like a kind of chant, from the tone and pitch of the sounds it made." She plays the video again, showing the green skin chanting and forming a fireball before it flew towards the camera.

"Why does it feel like its magic?" Blake looks at Ford, who shrugs. "Wait did you try it?"

"Oh!" Blake smiles when he sees Dr. Sharon face turns red. "You did, didn't you? Hahaha, did you pose like a wizard or what those Japanese anime girls are called? Magic girls?"

"It's magical girls!" Dr. Sharon stomps, and seeing both of them laughing there,

"Ok, now I know why you didn't want to talk about this in the meeting! Hahaha." Blakes teases while laughing. She angrily elbows Ford hard in his stomach.

"Ooof! Why me?" But Ford kept on smiling even as he rubs his tummy.

"Because he's the Captain! Alright! Back to the serious topic!" Dr. Sharon tries to steer the topic back. "Watch this." She plays another video, this time it shows the lab that they were in. Dr. Sharon could be seen standing in the middle of the room holding the staff with 2 hands.

She could be heard speaking directly to the camera, "Time, 2:44 pm. Date, 2113 August 7th. Starting with experiment number 9." The video shows her she starting to recite the chant, sound by sound, just as she finishes the last verse, a faint glow flare from the mana stone for a split second before Dr. Sharon collapses onto the floor.

"I was knocked out for like 20mins, woke up feeling weak and giddy." She explains. "When I finish the last verse, I immediately felt tired and lightheaded, before I know it, I woke up from the floor."

"Are you alright? Did you do a checkup on your self?" Blake and Ford look worried, all traces of merriment gone.

"Yes, just fatigue and a minor dose of radiation. Nothing serious." She waves off their concern. "My theory is, to use it like casting a spell, you will require a certain amount of aptitude or mental strength, which clearly I'm lacking in it, that's why I fainted."

"Interesting, so if we got the aptitude, the mental strength, the chant and a mana stone, we can cast fireballs like that?" Ford lifts the staff up and examines it. "Magic."

"I will not recommend doing any of that yet until I run more tests." Dr. Sharon snatches the staff out of Ford's hands before placing it back into the crate.

"Ok, for now, we keep this quiet, and also do not place yourself in such a dangerous situation!" Blake lectured. "Keep at least 1 or 2 trustworthy assistants to help you. We can't lose you and your skills."

Dr. Sharon nods, she turns around and says, "Oh yes, the report for that giant humanoid is out too!" Pushing past the two officers, she keys in some commands at the console and a new image appears on the screen.

"I decided to name it a Troll since it looks like one. Body composition is very similar to the green skins, except that its skin toughness is almost as good as steel. DNA for the troll and the green skins almost match at 99%. They should be from the same family tree but developed different, like monkeys and apes." She types in more commands. "Here is a very interesting thing I found. It has a separate organ which secretes a type of adrenaline, that I have never seen before. It actually increases healing of cells by a factor of over 1,000 times!"

"What? Instant regeneration?" Blake and Ford were shocked! "What kind of lifeform is that!"

"I won't say instant regeneration, just very fast healing." Dr. Sharon explains further. "These are the bullet wounds made by the marine before it died," She points out some barely visible puncture wounds on the screen. "While these are wounds made after it died."

The bullet entry wounds made while the creature was still alive, have started to heal and close up, while the wounds made after the creature died, did not heal at all. "I found the gland to contain traces of a type of chemical that appears to speed up the natural healing of the body, much like our medical nanites."

"So this creature has a gland inside that is like some kind of wonder drug that heals all wounds?" Blake was seriously amazed. This planet has plenty of valuable resources!

"Yes. If possible I would like to harvest these glands from these creatures, preferably alive." Dr. Sharon states. "As you know, our stock of biomaterials is very very low. The medical properties from these creatures can provide us with the biomaterials for our critical medical needs!"

"Sir, I will like to raise an issue. Is this ethical?" Ford asks. "It is a living creature with some form of intelligence. Are we to farm it for its medical properties like some animal?" Ford looks at Blake directly.

"Is it a right thing to do?"