Now, by all means, he had to finish his thesis as soon as possible, despite Shirokawa’s assurances that this was not necessary if he will accept the offer and proceed with the experiment. Such condescension never comforted a young man; forcing events is only a small difficulty, and such challenges never frightened him. The fact that he might soon join the Shirokawa’s group meant a lot to him. This is not just a step forward, rather a huge leap. If he continued to work on the seeds and attended lectures, it would take him at least another year before graduating and entering postgraduate school in order to get the head coordinator’s approval to take a place among the students who are ahead of him now. He didn’t even want to think of the gap in knowledge if implantations were launched now, before he could join! Chris shuddered imagining how much he will miss out.

So in fact, he needed to do the impossible. First, get the theses done ahead of all his cohorts. Second, to brush up and move heavily forward in several subjects to reach the level of postgraduates-to-be and pass the first stage of exams for Shirokawa, that is, catch up with the seniors in three months. Professor will consider his request if Chris can get at least 70% for the test. Third (and thinking this point through, Chris felt strong anxiety for in his understanding this idea was doomed to failure as soon as it flew out of the mouth of the Japanese old man) he must convince Erzketau-kri. Without him and his materials on transplantology, Chris will not be able to get a pass score in any way, well, also without this knowledge; he has nothing to do in the surgery rooms, and even in the examination rooms. In fact, what most likely meant that old cunning professor, if greenie gives the go-ahead, then everything else no longer mattered. Nauseated and panicking as he was, he understood clearly that it was too late to back down. Anyway, he already decided this for himself, dealt with the implantation application, and it was purely his own trouble how to get his place in the group. It was just another test. That’s why Chris consumed the précises, formulas, theories and hypotheses provided by Shirokawa during the day, and after the lectures, he set out his own theories on botany, substantiating, and backing up with his laboratory data, and for about 56 hours he hatched a plan for cracking up the zirka in question.

“I will fail before he counts to ‘two’,” Chris muttered sulkily under his breath, while the zirka continued his lecture, “Or maybe even ‘one’...”

“What are you mumbling there?” Josh asked absently, not taking his eyes off the screen in the center of the audience.

“Josh, how can you bribe the lizard?”

“What? What are you talking about?” a friend cast a wild glance at him. “Are you writing science fiction?”

“I need to get something… from the zirka… what he is unlikely be happy to grant... certainly not. But I need it desperately,” Chris whispered hysterically. “Who in our group is the best in ‘Zirkaazte culture and behavior’?”

“Are you kidding? You mean, is there anyone better than you are?” Tumblin laughed. “Wait... hold on, are you talking about this zirka in particular? You need to press Mr. Grinch, or what?” He motioned his head towards the rostrum.

“Yes.”

“Listen man, no advice will help you, because if it’s something you think he won’t give you, then there’s not a chance any of us will succeed. He doesn’t take us as adults or trustworthy or worthy of his time and attention until we graduate, as if we’re not human enough to go and talk to him at all. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t let us dissect flat worms before we obtain PhD. He despises us; that stare of his is… chills me out, it wouldn’t even occur to me to go to him with a request. You’re crazy as... Oh, crap...” Josh fell silent, stiffening in his chair, his eyes fixed on the lecturer.

Chris followed his gaze and bumped on a professor’s who stared at them slightly grinning. All students were busy taking notes, so it wasn’t something extremely hard to spot the source of excessive noise in the auditorium. They got busted. Teachers usually took it easy. Performance, attendance, and general commitment to the knowledge and studying process were entirely on the students’ conscience, but... this one glowering at them in this instance was of other type. He just stood there, staring at them with his black gaze, and from the look, it was clear that he already had a vile plan how will he deal with troublemakers.

All of his insides froze. He will surely screw this up; was there even a point in asking him today? Even if he’d consider that Josh is right and greenie is more lenient to Chris for some reason, now it was clearly not the best moment. However, there was no time to wait for a better moment – it was essential to get every piece together!