SCENE 1. CAPTIVE.
It is a bright, sunny, clear spring day at the zoo. A tall, broad, swarthy man is gently holding the hand of a young, petite and frail looking blond girl. They stand on the concrete walkway looking into a large barred enclosure of large trees, and meadow grass with flowers.
“Daddy, I see a big kitty cat standing there, behind a tree, it is staring at me. I am afraid.”
“Don’t be afraid, Susie, we are safe. It is in its enclosure, on the other side of the moat and the fence. Let’s read what the sign says it is.”
“The tiger, known by its scientific name, Panthera tigris. It is the largest member of the cat family (Felidae), rivaled only by the lion (Panthera leo) in strength and ferocity. The tiger is endangered throughout its range, which stretches from the Russian Far East through parts of North Korea, China, India, and Southeast Asia to the Indonesian island of Sumatra.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“I imagine so. They are known to be legendary dangers in the wild. The sign says that these specimens are the third generation for this zoo. This tribe is used to breed with tigers at other zoos to keep the species alive in case they become extinct in the wild from hunting, but mostly from the destruction of habitat.”
As the father daughter pair watch, a large female tiger walks from the small group over to the fence to face her admirers, assuming a couched position and staring at the pair out through the bars, motionless, like the Sphinx.
Susie grasps and pulls at her father’s shirt, and moves behind at the tiger’s approach. The father takes his phone camera from his shirt pocket, taking a picture of the tiger’s, motionless, regal face-on pose. Then he starts scribbling notes on the device’s screen.
What a specimen, what I would give to know her thoughts. What is it that you are asking me?
Scene 2. Employee.
The father lifts the young girl from the car-seat and sets her on her feet, standing in the driveway of their spacious ranch style home.
“You aren't going to have nightmares about the big kitty cat tonight, are you, Susie?”
“I hope I dream of the big kitty cat tonight, so big, orange and so bright. I want a pillow like that.”
They walk up the driveway and into the front door. The telephone message light is blinking red in the back.
Oh joy, I can’t even take my daughter to the zoo without being buried in important messages, decisions, and personnel matters. Yuck! Never for science!
“Daddy, let’s go play. I want to play zoo. I’ll be the tiger.”
“Daddy can’t play right now, daddy needs to catch up on the work he skipped to go to the zoo with you today. Maybe later.”
“You always say: ‘Maybe later’!”
Moreau slowly scans the expanse of his large living room, decorated with expensive furniture, and complete with a huge entertainment center along one wall. He is thinking.
I gave up my modest town-home and my peaceful college professor life for this. My family likes it here in ‘Got-Rocks’ estates. We have a lot more stuff now, I am uncertain if this is necessarily a good thing. But I miss writing my leisurely research papers and giving a conference presentation once in a while. I truly miss my office practice, with all of my mentally disturbed patients that had become my friends. Now I am a wage slave to a large corporation and expected to produce living products on a schedule. At least I am a well-compensated wage slave.
I guess I need to pick up my messages if I want to keep living here.
Moreau nods towards his disappointed daughter and walks down the expensive long hall carpet into his home office, a small odd shaped room located in the very back of the mansion, under the back stairwell.
Why is it that when I close my eyes, I see that tiger staring at me?
SCENE 3. LEGACY
‘Daddy’ is, of course, Dr. Moreau, who is forever walking in the long shadow of his infamous great-great-grandfather, known to history as, Dr. Moreau.
Great-great-grandfather, Dr. Moreau, was once regarded as a famous London physician and world renowned scientist of the mid nineteenth century. He authored many textbooks, gave many lectures, taught medical school, and performed state-of-the-art research, rich with many discoveries from his London laboratory.
His successes were forgotten when he ran afoul with the nascent antivivisectionist movement. Apposed to all research with animals, they spread hideous rumors about his experiments, his treatment of animals, and he was subsequently driven out of London by the bad publicity. His wife divorced him, and he retired alone to a small remote island in the South Pacific, he said, to study the unique wildlife found there.
Dr. Moreau’s ex-wife emigrated from England to America to escape her husband’s controversy, raising her family and working as a nurse in a Union military hospital. While there, she used her knowledge of surgery to save the limbs of wounded Union soldiers, and she also used the medical leaves and mold, sent to her by her ex, to successfully treat deadly wound infections. Her contributions to medicine were ignored at that time because, of course, she was a ‘woman’.
Dr. Moreau, alone and isolated on the unnamed island, is rumored to have gone insane, becoming the legendary mad scientist and genius villain. He and his assistant are rumored to have created fantastic hominoid monsters in his rebuilt laboratory, terrorizing anyone shipwrecked or visiting there.
This occurred during the time of the American Civil War of the mid-nineteenth century, so little news about it was reported at the time. The few survivors that were said to have escaped from Dr. Moreau’s island refused to talk about it beyond the initial reports. The sailors from the freebooter ships that supplied the doctor with food and equipment were the primary rumor mongers, but none were eyewitnesses or had even been ashore. The doctor and his assistant unloaded everything, allowing no visitors.
The doctor leased the island from The Crown, so after the affair its care returned to the Protectorate. Zoological and Botanical societies petitioned for the island to become a sanctuary to protect the island’s unique plants and animals. Permanent human settlement was prohibited, but the Pacific Islanders feared the island anyway. Occasional scientific expeditions were sent to study the island, paying for their missions by selling a few cabins to tourists fascinated by the stories.
Dr. Moreau’s large residence, laboratory, and plantation all were burned to the ground during the scuffle with the British navy. The jungle quickly reclaimed the land. Dr. Moreau and his assistant were never seen again, and no remains of humans or monsters were ever found.
However, the genius trait was inherited by the succeeding generations of Moreau men and women who went on to become successful medical doctors and scientists, without the villainy, and through the years, the legend of Dr. Moreau was forgotten. The modern descendant, also Dr. Moreau, is a respected college professor, medical doctor and scientist, well known for his contributions to medicine, psychiatry, biology, chemistry, and computer science in the specialties of data analysis and simulation.
Presently, Dr. Moreau is working as a well regarded industrial research scientist, credited with the creation of useful, living, products.
Scene 4. Competitor.
Moreau notes that, in addition to a pile of messages from his assistants and co-workers, are several messages from his supervisor and the business division manager.
Oh, no! Did the factory burn down while I was gone? I had better call a co-worker first and find out with this is all about.
“Hi Ernie, this is Herbert, what’s going on there, my message box is overflowing.”
“Haven’t you seen the news? We are being scooped by ‘The Ice Berg Gang’. They released a pre-announcement today touting their soon-to-be released living ‘assistants’ product line.”
Moreau reflects on ‘The Ice Berg Gang’ who are researchers and product development teams for an industrial competitor, The Trantor Corporation. These researchers were usually referred to as ‘The Ice Berg Gang’ as they worked under the frozen-food division of their corporation. This group was rumored to be working to produce synthetically cultured meat and vegetables, without the need for large traditional farms, among other things.
Ernie continues, “These ‘Ice’ guys say they have produced animals that can perform many household, personal care and industrial tasks. These animals can even communicate with spoken words and read written instructions. The director has already said that if we don’t announce something spectacular very soon, the board of directors is going to close our whole division down and fire everyone.”
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“Calm down, Ernie, they can’t be that far ahead of us. They were working with frozen slop from the brewery, last I checked. How does that research translate into ‘personal assistants’?”
Ernie is still hyperventilating, pausing only to gasp, “They bought a small start-up biotech company, ‘Clean Genes’, I think was their name. This start-up claimed to have made a breakthrough in bioengineering monkeys, making it possible to domesticate them.”
“People have been unsuccessfully trying to domesticate apes and monkeys for millennia. Except for a few carnivals and movies, most have found them to be too dangerous, scheming, and smart to be trusted once they mature. What kind of ‘breakthrough’ could possibly change this? Their announcement must be hype. Have they given any live demonstrations?”
“They showed videos, but now that I have talked to you, I realize that the animals did not do anything beyond what you see at the circus. But I don’t think they would dare make this announcement unless they thought they were close, their corporate masters are very conservative. Is there anything we can do?”
“Well, I had better call my boss now that I know what the issue is. Thank you, Ernie, we’ll come up with something.”
And I don’t want to lose my house.
Scene 5. Visionary.
It is time to call the bosses. I had better have something in mind before I talk to them.
“Good afternoon, Ralph, I hear that the competition is ‘shaking the chains’ again.”
“This is serious, the entire corporation is up in arms and threatening to shut us down tomorrow unless we immediately come up with a spectacular announcement.”
Moreau stares at a poster diagram hanging from the far wall of his small home office. It is a family tree-diagram labeled, The Evolution of the Placental Mammals, then closes his eyes from stress, he once again has the vision of the crouching, staring tiger.
“Call the division manager. Tell him that I have a perfect idea. I will present it tomorrow afternoon, with visuals, in the auditorium. He can invite the whole division, if it suits him.”
The doctor immediately begins to gather diagrams and photographs for tomorrow’s presentation.
Of course, he includes his telephone picture of the zoo tiger.
Scene 6. Proposal.
The small division lecture hall auditorium is full, as the division manager sent out a meeting notice to the entire division, and it appears that everyone showed up.
Moreau scans the audience. This is like the old times. I usually had a good crowd for my scientific conference presentations.
The division manager walks out onto the stage to the lectern and taps the microphone,
“Good afternoon everyone. I know that you all are as excited as I am to hear the latest ideas from one of our foremost scientists here at Tyger Ltd. Today, Dr. Moreau will be presenting his latest initiative proposal, Doctor. ”
The director raises his open hand towards Dr. Moreau, and the doctor walks to the lectern,
“Good afternoon everyone. Today I will outline a proposal for a project that will be a first for the division, an ‘expedition’ to the forests and jungles. This expedition will be to the wilds of the world to collect specimens of plants and animals.
Other expeditions have been made to these regions for similar purposes in the past, but this will be the first time that entire breeding populations of wild animals will be sampled for genetic material. The goal is the production of domestic versions of animals found to be suitable for a variety of military, industrial and household tasks.
Once we have collected and processed these samples, development should progress quickly to the desired results.
On the first slide, I have a photograph of a tiger. I took this photograph this week when I took my daughter to see the local zoo and all of you were calling me. The reason that samples from an entire population are necessary can be seen in this photograph. This female tiger is much smaller than her wild counterparts. It is well known that tigers are difficult to breed in captivity, so zoological populations are from a few breeding pairs. Because there are so few in captivity, continuous access to living specimens is difficult.
Because these animals are critically endangered, permission to take an adult from the wild is difficult to get. However, since we will have built an encyclopedia of tiger genetic information, we will offer to share it with the world to enhance genetic variety in captive and wild populations of tigers to ensure their survival.”
“In the following slides, I will detail the destinations for the expedition as well as the methods we will use to collect the specimens, including one live adult female tiger.
At the end of this presentation, I present charts estimating the budget required for each part of the expedition, as well as the subsequent research and development to complete this project through the goals of phase 1.”
Scene 7. Expedition.
Moreau regards his imposing form in the morning mirror with a frown. He has been told many times that he looks like a demon, with his black hair in wisps, resembling horns, thick black eyebrows, with deep set dark eyes below. His swarthy complexion, broad nose and broad shoulders, corpulent form all contribute to the ‘demon’ image.
At least I don’t scare my daughter.
“Good morning, sweetheart, did you sleep well?”
“I had a dream last night. I dreamed about the tiger.”
“Oh no, did you have a nightmare?”
“Oh daddy, it was a happy, beautiful dream. I dreamed I was standing in the center of a city like ours. But it was a city of animals, not eating each other, but living together in peace. The animals were all walking around in clothes and on two legs like us, like animals in the cartoons, but still animals. There were all kinds of animals, there were dogs, cats, horses and cows, but also wild animals: deer; wolves.”
“And tigers.”
“Perhaps you will see them one day.”
“Are you going to make them for me?”
“Perhaps.”
“Daddy is going away for a while. Will you be a good girl while I am gone?”
“Where are you going? Take me with you.”
“I am going to the jungle to catch a tiger, so I can’t take you with me. It will be too dangerous.”
“Will you call me?”
“I will call you every day, from the jungle. You will hear the sounds.”
…
Moreau is standing in the front of a large preparation room, with assistants and co-workers gathered around.
“Hello everyone, I know you know what my question for you all will be today: ‘Who wants to be away from family for six weeks or more, live in the hot, humid jungle, get bitten or eaten by bugs and other things, eat rations and sleep in bags under the most uncomfortable and primitive conditions?’
No need to raise your hands, just write your name down and sign it on a scrap of paper.
I will provide you with legal release and medical history forms for you and your family to complete in confidence.
You will need to provide an unexpired passport, so apply for one now if you don’t already have one.
The company travel office will arrange for your travel, food, and lodging. They will also provide expedition clothing and safety gear that must be worn at all times on the trail, for safety.
I will provide suggestions for civilian clothes for visiting the villages, towns and cities, but the expedition uniform clothes can be worn anywhere and anytime on this trip, but is mandatory on the trails.”
The doctor is not surprised that the dozen names he receives are mostly the younger, unmarried, adventurous, co-opt students and assistants.
Scene 8. Sail.
Moreau stands at attention on the marine dock of a large navy transport ship next to a mountain of luggage and scientific equipment. He is met by his wife and their daughter for 'bon voyage' farewell kisses. The two are in tears.
“Stop it, you two. I am not going off to die, I promise, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
Moreau stares at his scandalous and beautiful young wife, who was once his graduate student at his college. She is now working on completing her PhD and has recently returned from a research sabbatical in Europe, just in time to care for their young daughter during her father's absence.
“You are aging backwards, my dear wife. You will look to be my daughter’s sister by the time I return.”
A long low horn sends out its message, indicating that it is time for all travelers to board the ship. A team of sailors spaces out over the gang plank to a lower deck, they begin quickly passing the luggage and equipment into the ship. The large vehicles and equipment were loaded a few days ago, the baggage loaded now is for use during the voyage.
…
It is a beautiful, cold, clear night. Moreau looks up at the stars that the ancients once used for navigation and enjoys the feeling of the sea wind on his face, cooling his large bovine body. He stands and looks down at the water, watching the ship’s bow wake as the strong navy ship cuts its path for the long trip through the ocean. A wrapped, ghost-like figure approaches him on the deck.
“Ernie, I was surprised to see your name on the expedition roster. Unlike the rest of us, you have a good family life, why in the world would you volunteer for this trip?”
“How about you, Moreau? You have that cute wife and that adorable little daughter. I came along on the trip to keep you in line, of course. Your wife called me and offered a nice bounty if I was successful in keeping you alive. By the way, how did you know that the company would approve your expedition?”
“Selling this idea to the board of directors was easy. They need a spectacle, and this expedition will provide them with one. No one can resist the romance of an expedition, and since this expedition is my proposal, I have to go, too. I want to go anyway, to see the tiger in the wild.
We don’t even have to accomplish any of our goals to be successful because it is all about the trials of the ‘journey’. Any goals we accomplish or ‘treasure’ that we find will only be a little extra ‘icing’ for the cake.
The company established an online channel dedicated to our expedition, and my first report got over a million views. All I did was post a low-detail map and photographs of the expedition team. And for the sound, I read your resumes and a description of the expedition, perhaps exaggerating the dangers we might face during our noble mission.”
“What! Do you read our resumes to the world? All that personal information was supposed to be confidential!”
Moreau grins widely at his friend, exposing his large teeth. His teeth sparkle white in the moonlight, framed by his large round dark face, looking his most ‘demonic’.
“I guess you didn’t read the ‘fine print’ on the release form you signed…”
End of Chapter 1.