There were an easy ten thousand women and girls who had already physically changed, perhaps a thousand men and boys. Nearly two thousand men and five thousand women, mostly non-ethnic Japanese residents, suspected of being contaminated were likewise quarantined.
The number was not something to be easily dealt with given the limited space Japan had. The result was a highly crowded and isolated island where the victims were poked, prodded and researched.
And now, the final findings were being reported.
"We can't figure out how the physical transformation was even accomplished, much less reverse it," the doctor said with a sigh of finality.
"And the other matter?" one of the medal-bedecked officers about the table asked.
"Since quarantine began," said the doctor, a weary and thin man who appeared to have pitted himself against all the forces of nature and was just now giving up, "There have been several incidences of pregnancy among all variations of the spiders. Even among driders, though we're uncertain of how. We suspect the reproductive organs are hidden by some sort of muscle action."
"All we need to know is that they can reproduce with humanity," the officer said.
"From all we can tell by their DNA," the doctor said. "They are human."
"Thank you, doctor," the officer said, dismissing him. As soon as the man was gone, the military and black-suited officials looked about each other. "Well, gentlemen."
"There are still numerous...applications for their various...adaptations," one military officer said.
"Acceptable if the situations were otherwise," a black-suited man said. "These....creatures present a danger to our culture. There are the Arachnes to consider. If we let them back into society now that we've found that contagion is no longer a factor, how soon will it be before these spides have replaced us?"
"The alternative is not something that would be supported by either the public or the powers that be," a military officer cautioned.
"Your objection is noted," the suited-man said. "But that should not ever be a concern, as long as we control the flow of information."
There was a pall of silence about the room.
"It is settled then?" the man asked. "Begin working up a new report, the quarantined plague victims died due to the unstable mutations inflicted upon them."
No one noticed anyone leaving the area, but then, that was the whole point of the umisen.
Ranma slipped past guards and technicians to return to the quarantine region, he looked about at the collection of spider-girls about and gave his news.
"They're going to kill everybody."
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(Posted Sat, 02 Apr 2005 03:19)
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