“I have to think about all this.”

With these words, Chris ended their conversation with Shirokawa and Erzketau.

Although he promised to think, he really did not want to, because as soon as he began to think, an inexplicable anxiety hit him immediately. He did not remember how he got to his studio. The truth was unexpected and thick which made it harder sinking in. Chris just wasn’t sure how did he feel about the given information. No, he wasn’t going to run moping around and blame himself upfront for the refusal he was so eager to voice. After all, he is a free man born in a free Coalition. He believed that no one would look at him askance. Everyone has their own worries, there are enough volunteers, and plenty of those who want to devote themselves to the experiment to the fullest. However, something incomprehensible, something strange, some elusive feeling that he could not identify, the haunting sensation that did not immediately let him to say “no”. It was not about curiosity – a common thing for Chris to feel. He also had it somewhere in the back of his head, waving banners “Do it!” But not only that.

The first thing Chris did when he got home, was plugging in the neural drive to the monitors and go filling in the gaps in extracurricular education. Josh was absolutely right, the promo was exceptional. He “went” around the entire building from the first to the sixth floors, took part in all quests, from fertilization of the proto-cell to nearly transplanting the module to a digital dummy. He also observed the embryo evolution in the module up to the tenth week – this is all that the module autonomous operation allowed; for further development, much more was needed, something that was difficult to provide without a “carrier’s body”. They also provided many theoretical points. The tour “group” was led around the floors and rooms by Madame Marie Francois – the chief physician of the complex, a scientific adviser specializing in the development, improvement, and application of medical technologies, remedial and hardware, both in the earthly race and in Zirkaazte. This woman is a doctor of biological, medical, chemical sciences, who has written more than just one mandatory dissertation and is probably working in the meantime on few more. The only woman, and maybe the only human individual, recognized by an extraterrestrial race as an honored specialist. And, while moving from one location to another, she voiced basic information like how the surgeries will be conducted, who can take part; she talked a lot about safety-for-humans, both of the module itself and of the whole procedure.

Hmm...? Chris thought to himself. They actually visualized almost all of the theoretical material that students were allowed to access. Though, I can’t fully grasp the mechanism of ovum release. Whom should I ask? Can the coordinators know how this will work exactly?

The module is something in between, or rather combining the features of the uterus of the earthly woman and the female Zirkaazte, since their race has undergone gene modification for much longer and already more adaptive to any new changes executed to the genome.

Doctor François explained the differences between the uterus modules – created with advanced biomodelling technology, and the women’s reproductive system, the alterations in the conception processes, for example, the fact that sexual intercourse alone is not a way to become pregnant. Therefore, those who want to actually have a child will need to resort to IVF technology. In addition, natural births are not an option. Besides, what is important to know for those who are not ready to become a dad – such as Chris – this whole party is not mandatory. The experiment is vital, but any, even minor assistance, as a result of which data will be obtained on the basis of which it will be possible to make more specific predictions and continue to improve developments in this project, will be considered a huge contribution. One can refuse or agree, can stop their participation at any point. In fact, hearing it aloud again, Chris realized that he had made a decision. Nevertheless, one more small idea had occurred to him that he wanted to realize on the sly.

The next day after lunch, they had an hour in the laboratory, and then were supposed to engage in the self-study for the rest of the day. While in his studio, Chris devoted some time to the thesis. After working on it a couple hours, he left to the kitchen corner to make some snack, thoughtful, at the same time recalling the vital conversation he had with the professor earlier this morning. Although, no matter how many times he scrolled through it, his plan did not seem to him either bold or audacious. Even more than that, it seemed to him that they were expecting from him something of the sort.

“Shirokawa-san, I’m sorry for the intrusion,” Chris apologized for coming uninvited and with no prior notice.

“Stop the nonsense, Chris. On the contrary, it’s good you came just now, I need to leave today for a short while to the mainland, so we clearly could miss each other,” professor explained and then encouraged, “Come in, sit down, say what you wanted.”

“Shirokawa-san, I’ve come to tell you that I’ve thought it over,” Chris began.

“Yes,” the professor made clear that he was keeping up.

“I agree with you and with coordinator Erzketau, this is not the case when one can stay away.”

“Chris, I really appreciate that. Not only I, really, as you already know that. I wanted to hope that you would make such a decision,” his words were filled with warm gratitude; he even jumped up from his chair and almost rushed to hug Chris.

“But I want something in return,” Chris said in a rush surprising both himself and Shirokawa.

Professor raised his brow scrutinizing Chris with suspicious eyes, a slight smile in his gaze. He was silent for two seconds, then grunted, rounded the table, stood in front of Chris, and, slyly squinting his eye, said:

“That’s intriguing. Come on, spill it.”

“Sir, please do not consider this as rudeness, but I would like to participate in the experiment not only as a test subject, but also as an assistant,” he blurted out.

Professor watched him, hesitating with an answer.

“I’m not asking for any serious tasks right away, just to observe, to help with sorting the data, I don’t know... to serve you water in the surgery room! However, I want to be in a team, I need to be there when the experiment enters the active phase, I want to understand the whole process and learn from you, and be useful not only with my hormone diagram and all potential benefits,” he suddenly felt embarrassed and shut up. “Sorry,” he muttered, his eyes dropped to the floor.

“Chris, I don’t know what to say. I’m afraid I’m just not ready to give you any answer at all. But, you do understand that in fact we will be assisted by graduate students who...”

“Yes sir. Excuse me, sir, I understand all this and...” He was embarrassed even more, grasping the meaning of what he was going to do right now. “Sir, only knowing that I will be allowed to observe the implantations and have access to analytical data I can do this – go for the implantation myself.”

“Bwa-ha-ha!” a roaring laughter shook the office and rang in Chris’s ears. He squeezed into a chair so hard that his legs went numb, not sure whether to give in to excitement that he was courage enough, or to fear that he would simply be expelled for such behavior. “You’re a dark horse, Mister Newman, aren’t you? Not as easy as you pretend to be!” Professor beamed at him, putting hands on his hips. “So it’s either my ‘yes’ or your ‘no’?”

Not giving too much trust to his vocal chords, Chris simply nodded, staring firmly, or rather squinting.

“Hmm. This should be curious. Let’s do it.”