Chapter 4 Research Findings

Upon thorough examination, it was discovered that the petri dish lid had been pushed open from within. The slime mold subsequently colonized the entire laboratory within twelve hours.

The organism autonomously located water faucets, nutrient solutions, and even began infiltrating the concrete sink used for mop cleaning. Yet what alarmed Maeve Chen most was its light-seeking behavior (phototropism).

"Could it be capable of photosynthesis?!"

"What implications would photosynthetic slime mold have?" Lin Feng's understanding of microbiology remained limited to high school biology.

"That fundamentally alters its ecological niche!" Maeve Chen responded with uncharacteristic gravity. "Slime molds are decomposers by nature. If they develop photosynthetic capacity, their survival constraints would disappear entirely. This constitutes a critical situation." The unfolding phenomena had transformed scientific curiosity into genuine apprehension.

Lin Feng nearly voiced that the situation had already reached this point, but ultimately restrained himself.

Maeve Chen then conducted a water immersion experiment demonstrating that the slime mold could indeed perform photosynthesis, releasing measurable oxygen bubbles. The reproductive fruiting bodies simultaneously served as photosynthetic organs.

Following standardized laboratory protocols, she extracted pigment compounds from the slime mold biomass and introduced potassium thiocyanate solution. A characteristic dark red flocculent precipitate formed at the base of the reaction vessel. "Iron content in the pigment matrix!" Maeve's voice carried scientific urgency. "It's biosynthesizing a novel photosynthetic chromophore sharing structural similarities with both chlorophyll and phycoerythrin. This mutated strain employs silicate mineral dissolution for inorganic salt acquisition and iron extraction for pigment synthesis. The rapid colonization pattern becomes explicable - its metabolic versatility enables survival across extreme environmental gradients!"

"So this entire city has essentially become its macroscopic culture vessel!" Lin Feng exclaimed, his voice tinged with biosafety concern.

"Precisely." Maeve Chen enunciated with controlled urgency, her gloved hands stabilizing the spectrophotometer. "We must initiate emergency containment protocols immediately. Contact your liaison - Inspector Quinn Cheng. Her security clearance enables direct escalation to biosecurity authorities before this myxomycete colonization reaches critical biomass."

Lin Feng leaned against the sole uncontaminated lab bench, his posture rigid with biocontainment protocol awareness. "The authorities must have known," he stated with methodical despair, gaze fixed on the bioluminescent colonization patterns.

"But why no containment measures?" Maeve's biosuit rustled as she gestured toward emergency decon equipment. "We could implement controlled incineration at 800°C, deploy broad-spectrum biocidal agents, or..." Her gloved hands made frantic gestures across the hazard mitigation console.

"Protocol non-compliance speaks volumes." Lin Feng activated the sterilization log display. "Recall your advisor's abrupt comms blackout last Thursday."

Maeve's hazmat gloves trembled as she redialed through encrypted channels. The persistent 'signal not found' alert echoed through the negative-pressure chamber. Pacing within the decontamination airlock's strict radius, she finally collapsed against the emergency shower station, her face shield misting with rapid respirations.

"Maeve." Lin Feng engaged the emergency power coupling with clinical precision. "We must execute Protocol Omega-Ragnarok. Assume Tier-4 biological hazard parameters."

"Ragnarok-level...?" Her voice emerged as a hoarse whisper through the suit's comm system, ocular sensors reflecting crimson emergency lighting.

"Confirmed. Full biospheric collapse scenario." His fingers moved across the containment override panel with grim finality.

The designation hung with biocrisis gravitas, compressing Lin Feng's respirations into shallow, monitored intervals.

Biospheric collapse meant systemic disintegration of anthropogenic stability - energy grids failing, pharmacopoeias obsolete, Homo sapiens reduced to unshielded participants in primal trophic webs.

"Impossible!" Maeve's biosuit servos whined as she achieved full orthostatic posture. "Our infrastructure... CDC's antimicrobial resistance database... This protist shouldn't outcompete Tier-4 containment!" Her gloved hands smeared optical sensors with sterile saline residue.

"Anopheles mosquitoes remain uncontrolled despite CRISPR-9 vectors." Lin Feng's bitter observation triggered hazard-alert vocal modulation. He immediately engaged apology protocols: "Negative affect contamination noted. My neural predictions skew catastrophic."

"Parameter reset accepted." Maeve's sudden laughter oscillated between stress response and determination. Her quaternary-gloved hands established firm interface contact with his forearm actuators. "Probability curves still permit containment breakthroughs. But your Bayesian survival models... they warrant emergency preparation protocols."

"Precondition: Full spectral analysis of the adversary." Lin Feng initiated Raman microscopy calibration, the laser array humming with diagnostic intensity. "We need genomic cartography of this... this hyperadaptive plasmodium (the slime mold’s gelatinous core) before next sporulation phase."

Maeve's posture shifted into a determined stance Lin Feng recognized from their high school days — the same resilience she'd shown after failing chemistry midterms, transforming setbacks into study marathons. He almost joked about her "stubborn optimism" again, a callback to their old dynamic.

Their gloved hands moved in coordinated decontamination patterns, scrubbing the lab surfaces with ethanol-based sterilants. Though airborne spores already saturated the ventilation system, the visual eradication brought psychological relief — a temporary win against the creeping biomatter.

In the adjacent archives, decades of research papers glowed on dust-filtered monitors. Maeve typed "myxomycete" into the global database, triggering a waterfall of publications. Most entries recycled the same tropes: "slime mold maze-solving intelligence!" or "protist collective memory!" — sensationalized studies from questionable journals chasing viral headlines. None addressed the hypermutant strain devouring their city.

"Filter by publication date. Last 72 hours," Lin Feng ordered, eyes scanning for breakthrough research. The screen refreshed to show three new entries — all flagged with ominous government clearance warnings.

The mouse emitted two crisp clicks. As the page refreshed, the top entry seized Lin Feng's focus.
"This one!"

Maeve leaned in, squinting at the screen. "『Study on Slime Mold's High Affinity for Foreign Genetic Material』... This was published in Nature? A month ago?!" Her finger trembled over the authors' names. "First author Derek Zhong, second Miomi Guo! Derek Zhong — he's the head researcher at our city's Microbiology Institute! My advisor failed his doctoral entrance exam three times — he's a leading authority!"

"Read the paper," Lin Feng urged in an urgent tone.

Scrolling through the Chinese version Maeve downloaded, dense biological jargon filled the screen. While Lin Feng couldn't grasp the technical details, the conclusion leaped out: genetic sequencing revealed the slime mold's DNA contained foreign fragments from fungi, bacteria, even plants — all fully functional. Though the study didn't explain how the organism absorbed these genes, it perfectly aligned with their crisis.

"So this mutant slime mold stole fungi's rapid replication," Maeve muttered, pacing before the spectral analysis charts, "combined with... what? Some deep-sea algae's iron-processing tricks?"

"Essentially biological piracy." Lin Feng rotated the 3D gene model onscreen, its stolen DNA segments glowing red.

Maeve's stylus froze mid-annotation. "I'll map its metabolic bottlenecks. Study its growth cycles." The words rang hollow — if government labs with billion-dollar budgets failed, what could their makeshift lab achieve? Her shoulders sagged against the DNA sequencer.

Lin Feng blocked her retreat path, emergency lighting carving shadows across his face. "Knowing what it can't digest matters more than what it can. Remember Day 3's corrosion tests?"

A beat. Then Maeve's gloves slammed the lab bench. "Polyethylene. The storage bags showed zero degradation. We could—"

"If it comes to that..." Lin Feng's voice dropped, memories of their high school shelter drills resurfacing. "We stockpile. We seal. We wait it out. Together."

The unspoken pact hung between them, warmer than the UV sterilizers' hum.

"Together," Maeve echoed, finally smiling — not her usual frenetic grin, but something steadier. The kind that survives.

The lab's tension dissolved into awkward warmth. Maeve abruptly stood, her biosuit crinkling as she ushered Lin Feng toward the airlock. "Go prep supplies. I need the mass spectrometer cleared!"

At the containment threshold, her gloved hand caught his sleeve's radiation tag. With sudden vulnerability, she pressed her rusted Honda keys into his palm — a relic from simpler times. "Haven't driven since your license test, right? Twenty mph max. No heroics."

Memory flashed — summer after high school graduation, dual enrollment at Driver's Ed. Maeve acing parallel parking while Lin Feng stalled three times.

"Still bitter I aced the road test?" he teased, rotating the keychain's faded Totoro charm.

"Ugh, insufferable!" She mock-swatted through the plastic curtain, but her eyes softened. "That instructor praised my three-point turns for weeks."

"Show-off."

The jab hung comfortably between them, an old rhythm resurfacing beneath the biolab's red emergency glow.

The stairwell exhaled damp concrete breath as Lin Feng emerged. Under the streetlamp's jaundiced glow, the rain had softened to needle-thin drizzle - silver filaments slanting through bioluminescent spores that coated every surface. Even the light fixtures wore grotesque fungal crowns, their glass globes pulsating with internal vein-like growths.

The Honda's interior greeted him with thrumming silence. Two forgotten milk teas sweated condensation in the cup holders, tapioca pearls settling like time capsules from pre-outbreak normalcy.

He detoured to the 24-hour convenience store, its flickering sign bleeding neon onto spore-caked pavement. When he returned to the lab with emergency rations and the resurrected drinks, Maeve was already elbow-deep in petri dishes - her posture confirming his prediction. All-nighters never died, just evolved.