15.
- “Humbug Mountain state park”. - Read sign Ninork – Perfect name, considering circumstances. What is there?
- I have a small cabin here, purchased through my friend, and it listed under his name, so no worries, no one can trace our location.
- Not anymore. – Grinned Feather. – Your car was bugged, but I took care of it, before we left.
There was no other car tracks on the snowed curvy narrow road that led them soon to a small house with a cedar shingling’s and red metal roof, covered with snow almost up to the top of brick chimney. Luckily some wood was on the porch under the tarp. Pretty soon small cabin started to feel more welcoming and all three of them are finally were able to relax and stretch their legs.
Ninork knew his friend very well, and he could tell, that Domenic is barely can contain himself not to ask Feather any questions. Only after a while, when everyone looked more or less rested and consumed all the food, quickly prepared on the small stove, he allowed himself to unleash his writer’s curiosity:
- I being told by Ninork about your problems, Feather. I know, how much he worries for you, but if you will continue keeping both of us in the dark, we will not be able to help you. Of course, if you even will be willing to accept our help.
Feather was silent. She looked tired and wore out, but Ninork could sense it, that she is debating, if she still able to keep going on her own. Then, still holding mug with a tea in her hands, as if she still having chills, she looked at him first, and the moved her eyes at Domenic:
- I do need help. I clearly understand it now. And, I think, it would be just fair to let you know, what this all about.
She took a deep breath, looked directly into Ninorks eyes and started:
- I am not sure, if you ever heard about Vernadsky Science station at the Antarctica. It belong to Ukraine. The station, named Faraday, was established by British Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey on Winter Island in 1947. In 1996 it was sold to Ukraine for symbolic one pound.
As one of the longest operating bases in Antarctica, Vernadsky Station has been the subject of scientific research studies on long-term temperature trends that indicate global warming. In 80th there was a discovery of a hole in Ozone layer with the help of the spectrophotometer Dobson. The number of Ukrainian expedition is typically less than 15 people, mostly scientists. The most important among them are Geophysics and Meteorologists - the station is focused primarily on the study of climate.
Officially. But not many people were aware of some other projects and experiments, which was conducted there. Yes, there are a laboratories, that a conducting medical experiments. They were looking for a cure from cancer, using Antarctic microorganisms, that lives there in extreme conditions, and because of it, they have an incredible powers and incredible possibilities. And they did find a cure, even for a stage 4 cancer. It called “Melovit” and was successfully tested on pigs, but not available to a public consumption quit yet.
Feather closed her eyes and leaned her back to a warm side of the wood stove. Fire was almost gone, but Ninork and Domenic both were so intrigued by her story, that totally forgot about it. Finally Domenic got up and went outside and return with a new pile of firewood.
- Storm is coming. – He said. – But please, continue Feather.
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- Along the way, while working on research of cancer cure, scientists were continuingly discovering new methods of working with human DNA. They knew, that without understanding mechanism of genetic mutations, will be impossible to prevent those that are leading to a cancer. As you may know, human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes and each of the chromosomes has a molecule of DNA, where all the genetic information is stored. It look like a spiral. But if you unscrew the spiral, then you can see that all the normal pair have a clear geometrical structure, except those with mutation. They look abnormal. Scientists call them “humpbacked”. Until now we had no idea how they manage to fool around DNA itself, and how they inserted themselves into spiral, which was indeed leading to changes and disease in human body. We figure out the appropriateness of them. Those mutations continuously happens, encouraging body to get adapted to a new changes or more complex life conditions. At same times mutations in some cases can lead to developing of cancer or other genetic disease. So, clearly, it was a huge breakthrough in understanding, how DNA works. Unfortunately, some other discoveries were made along the way.
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- Unfortunately? Why? – Domenic looked genuinely surprised to hear that. – Isn’t it a great thing? I lost so many patients due to cancer complications. If we would of know how it work and how to prevent or cure it..
- Unfortunately, because, even the most brilliant scientific discovery can be a double edge sword, all depends in which hands it will end up.
She looked at Ninork:
- We already talked about it in the past. And, it’s not about cure for cancer. I am talking about other things, like gen responsible for intelligence. By now we find out, that there at least 52 gens, responsible for that, and some others, that we call curiosity gens, CG.
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- But wait, Feather, what you have to do with all of it? How did you get there? Are you a Russian spy? Ukrainian? Do you speak their language? – Ninork had so many questions to ask!
At that moment strong gust of wind shacked small building to the core. Light bulb flickered for a second or two, and then power was gone. And in the pitch dark all they could hear was the ominous roar of the storm, and then heavy door unexpectedly got slammed open.