Jeanette jumped, just a little. "Yessir!" she said, hurrying off down the hall. So much of her wished she'd never investigated those rumors. But no, in a rush of idealistic enthusiasm, she'd jumped into what she'd thought was her chance to change the world.... Well, it was true, but not in the way she'd hoped. One false step, no matter how minor, and she'd find herself in one of these cubicles, awaiting experimentation....
She supressed another shudder as she scurried into the center room. This was not the time to dwell on that. No, just focus on what was being done now. A new method of transformation, the necessary chemicals cunningly concealed in what looked like a completely innocuous lunch. The materials were in all the items, though eating even one of them was enough to change the consumer. Theoretically, anyway. Quantity didn't matter so much as the simple ingestion of the substance.
Jeanette checked over the materials one last time. A collection of innocent brown paper lunch bags. All contained a tuna fish or turkey sandwich on plain white bread, a piece of fruit, a cookie of some variety, and a bottle of juice. She'd tried cartons at first, but it was too hard to get the serum into them without the tampering being obvious. By using more old-fashioned screw-top bottles, that could be circumvented, thus leaving the consumer poerfectly unaware. Yes, it risked squashing some of the food, but that was a regular risk anyway.... And it was still edible, squashed or not.
Stop woolgathering and just do it. Jeanette's scentific ethics internally rebelled against experimenting on unknowing and unwilling subjects like this, but she had no choice. Trying not to think too hard on what she was doing- again- she loaded the bags onto the chutes. Pulled the lever. It would sent the bags jettisoning into the little chambers, designed to land on a small soft spot that would cushion the landing and not break the bottle. Yes, that was it.... Now, just close it- tightly, tightly, the first time these had been used by her predecessor for simple feeding, a subject had tried to escape through a partially-open chute. That hadn't gone well at all.... She'd seen Jenkens now. Or rather, Jenny, as she was now called. Lost in a world of jingle bells and catnip, a far cry from the scientific genius from before....
The chutes were closed as tightly as she was physically able. Jeanette wiped a bit of sweat from her forehead, tried to roll out kinks in her muscles. To no avail, as it was all tension. Someday this was going to be the death of her. If not worse.... But either way, this part of the job was done. She wended her way back towards where she had last seen the boss.
Katty wrote:"Yes. I want them changed within the hour. I then want you to take me on a tour of our little project when they are done. I do understand that the food method is new, so I will not punish you if the food does not work. But if it doesn't work, gass them." I say to Jean.
". . . . . . . . . WELL?! What are you standing around for?! MOVE!"