"Have we isolated the virus?" Leama stood in the conference room with the new head of the study. Officially it was to understand the virus and the mechanisms which so thoroughly wiped out Qwortar's flora, to become better equipped in case something similar started happening again. Unofficially, the only funds left for scientific studies was from the military.
"Yes." Talhou’s beak bobbed.
"And?"
"Preliminary tests with Planet Jaeger crops are inconclusive.” Talhou pointed to the screen behind them. One corner had the pictures of Jaeger’s crops, at various stages of infection. The opposite corner had graphs of the data. The middle had a diagram of the virus and the gene sequence important for the study. “Sometimes the plants become flaccid and rot, other times they become flaccid, but they do not completely lose their ability to yield crops."
"Any ideas why?"
"The current virus holding the destructive gene is ineffective at infecting their crops."
"Plans to improve?"
"Insert the defective gene into a new virus. Or insert new genes to improve infection rate."
“Timeline?”
“Hard to say. Timosh encrypted all their notes, and it seems like they used multiple keys.”
“Figure it out quickly Talhou, impatience grows quickly.”
“Yes Leama.”
“You are dismissed.”
Talhou scurried away on four tentacles, eye resting atop their head. Leama looked at the data, gas bubbles collecting on the underside of their skin. Whatever their superiors had planned, it gave them the equivalent of what Raymundo called goosebumps.
Word count: 243
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