Ryker slipped onto the other side of me. They cocooned me between them, both purring softly, like two massive beasts trying to soothe a wounded thing. And I lay there, tears falling, my mind spinning with questions and truths too heavy to hold alone.
Who was I?
Chapter 20: Melker's Journal
December 23rd
Spectacular. There are no other words to describe her.
I have designated the northern shifter an alpha team captured, Patient Zero. Her striking appearance is the least interesting thing about her. She exhibits numerous abnormalities that differentiate her from documented shifter populations.
First, she does not display the typical glowing yellow irises associated with most shifters. Second, her shifted form presents with an unusual copper-colored coat, a shade not previously recorded in any official documentation.
She may have gone unnoticed if the alpha team had not witnessed her shift during the raid on their party. That night, they captured three shifters. Two males agreed to take part in the Arca Reconditioning Program before enlistment. The female, however, is an omega, and we have never secured an omega shifter specimen before.
She requires extensive study.
Her DNA may hold the answers to her deviations, and potentially to the anomalies we have long theorized. Unfortunately,she remains uncooperative, resisting every attempt to secure samples. There is also the matter of the pup. Dr. Russell estimates she is approximately three months pregnant, which presents a unique opportunity to examine shifter reproduction at its earliest stages.
If we are fortunate, this omega wolf may be the key to isolating and replicating the shifter genome.
Time will tell whether the secrets we seek lie in Patient Zero’s blood.
January 31st
The test confirmed it. Patient Zero’s pup carries shifter genetics as well. An amniocentesis test verified the same anomalous markers found in the mother. Patient zero still proves to be defiant, requiring full restraint and sedation for samples to be retrieved.
Traditionally, the shifter mutation is non-heritable, a spontaneous, non-genetic anomaly; no one can track, predict, or pass it down. However, our findings suggest that this is not the case for Patient Zero and her fetus.
Her shifter markers appear to affect an entirely different portion of her DNA, forming what seems to be a genetically inheritable strain of the shifter mutation, one never before documented. If this is accurate, then any offspring carried in her womb will inevitably inherit the shifter genome.
The implications are extraordinary.
Command is already reviewing potential alpha candidates to impregnate her once the pup is born. They believe Patient Zero may be the key to producing entire units of elite, genetically stable shifter soldiers.
Additionally, Command has requested that we investigate whether Patient Zero’s unique genome could be used to develop a serum capable of inducing controlled mutation, essentially creating shifters from alpha soldiers at will.
It is a compelling theory, and one I am eager to explore.
February 14th
Two weeks ago, Patient Zero sank her teeth into one of our research assistants. Within several days, the assistant was dead. Unfortunate for him, but fortunate for our research, as it allowed us to identify a venomous compound present in her saliva.
The venom appears to delete healthy segments of DNA, rapidly breaking them down. When this venom combines with a sample of Patient Zero’s blood, an entirely different effect occurs. Her saliva initiates degradation of the DNA, and her blood appears to rebuild and alter the sequence, creating early-stage shifter markers.
Fascinating.
We have been using a combination of her saliva venom and blood as the foundation for our experimental serum.
Unfortunately, progress has stalled. Every attempt to force the shifter mutation in alpha test subjects has ended catastrophically. In controlled injections administered to prisoner alpha subjects, the serum begins working as expected: the saliva component breaks down the DNA, and the blood introduces the mutated shifter chains. But the process never completes. Instead, the subject’s DNA collapses entirely. They die before any transformation can take place.
There is a crucial piece in the process we are missing. Perhaps there is some stabilizing factor within Patient Zero’s genome that completes the “recipe.” Without it, the mutation cannot progress into a functional shift.
Command is growing impatient. They have begun to doubt whether a mutation serum is even possible. In response, they are planning to breed Patient Zero indefinitely, relying on her inheritable shifter genetics to pass the mutation to future generations. But such a strategy will take decades to produce the numbers they desire.
Turning trained alphas is far more efficient.
If only we could stabilize the mutation.
