Age of Cosmic Exploration

Needless to say, Yao Yuan rejected Saburo’s insane offer. This was not only an issue of safety but also Saburo’s unique importance. Even though Zhang Heng, Ren Tao, and the likes were exceptionally important to the Hope and were mankind’s heroes in their own right, Yao Yuan couldn’t just add another Whisperer to the death toll for the sake of an experiment.

If there was no other way forward but human experimentation, Yao Yuan would opt for civilian volunteers, or if all else failed, inmates... Yao Yuan knew it was immoral and inhumane, but to him, Saburo’s life was much more important than all the inmates’ combined.

However, Saburo said directly, "I’m sorry, Captain, but before I came, I ingested a sample of the planet’s air and took a shot of the vaccine. In about 30 minutes, we’ll know definitively whether the vaccine is successful or not."

"You?!" Yao Yuan stood from his chair and yelled at Saburo, an angry finger pointing at his face.

Saburo continued firmly, "This vaccine is not infectious. After it enters the human body, it’ll react positively with our immune system to create new proteins to kill this planet’s viruses, bacteria, and microbes. Of course, if it fails, the disease contracted via exposure to this planet’s air could still spread via my bodily fluids. Therefore, I shall place myself under quarantine right this moment following the protocol. I’m sorry, Captain. Hopefully, we shall meet again..." Saburo then bowed deeply at Yao Yuan before turning to head towards the electromobile waiting outside of central command.

Yao Yuan stood there dumbly, his finger still in the air. He finally sighed. "The command rights will be handed over to Major Guang Zhen. I... have to step down temporarily to deal with the development regarding the planet’s virus. Reach out to the Major and ask him to return to the Hope immediately. Over." Yao Yuan then left central command and headed towards the quarantine rooms.

In the next 30 minutes, even though Saburo was kept in quarantine, his situation was wildly different than others. Since he was essentially a lab rat, his body was wired to many machines and his bodily reactions were recorded on a screen outside of his quarantine room.

"His lymphoid system already shows signs of infection, but why hasn’t the vaccine given any response?"

A researcher looked at the screen and mumbled to himself.

This had puzzled not only him but the whole room of researchers. This was because the vaccine should have already displayed its effect several minutes into the experiment since it took that long for the vaccine to react within the ZH mice. Naturally, there is a metabolic difference between mankind and mice, but even after taking that into account, some sort of a reaction should have happened at the 30 minutes to 1 hour mark. Weirdly enough, there were no conspicuous changes to Saburo’s life signs even though it had already been more than 1 hour since the experiment started.

Suddenly, Saburo, who had been lying quietly on a cot, started to shiver. What followed, as shown on screen, was a spike in his body temperature.

"He’s now at 39 degrees, and it’s still increasing... We’re over the 40 degree danger mark! It’s still not slowing down!" a researcher yelled.

A scientist beside him added hastily, "Give him a shot of Potion A. It should be able to neutralize the vaccine’s negative effects. He must have taken a dosage that’s too high. This is bad; if this continues, I worry his body will not be able to take it."

After a shot of Potion A was administered by a mechanical arm, Saburo’s temperature finally got under control. However, it still hovered at around 39.5 degrees Celsius, and it showed no signs of decreasing beyond that. Saburo by then was already unconscious. If this situation continued, his body would die from overloading before they could even find out whether the vaccine was of any use.

Yao Yuan paced outside the quarantine rooms. Every time news about Saburo came, his frown deepened. He was reading a report on the vaccine’s components and their relationship to the virus handed to him by a group of scientists when he heard someone whisper into his ears...

He quickly waved over a soldier, saying, "Go to the Homo Evolutis Faction immediately and ask them to bring over 3 doses of Formula X. Here, take my ID. Be quick."

The soldier accepted Yao Yuan’s ID and saluted. He then took an electromobile and sped to his assigned destination.

The researchers who overheard Yao Yuan were dumbfounded. One of them asked, "Captain, what is this Formula X? Some kind of new medicine?"

"No," Yao Yuan elaborated, "It is a mysterious component secreted by the Homo Evolutis when they use their powers. They help neutralize the load that was placed on our bodies and increase our various bodily functions like reaction time when we’re in the Homo Evolutis state. To put it simply, it’s a kind of stimulant."

The bunch of researchers looked at one another curiously before one of them said, "But Captain, I don’t think it’s wise to inject a stimulant into Professor Saburo’s body at this juncture... His body is already under a lot of stress, and I fear adding the stimulant into the mix will only make things worse."

Yao Yuan replied firmly, "I know, but doing nothing is not going to help his situation either. The man is stupid enough to use his own body as an experiment, so the least we can do is not let him die foolishly and wastefully like this. We might as well make the most out of it. Furthermore, he is a Homo Evolutis, so the formula should do nothing more than increase the component that is already naturally occurring in his body which in turn will hopefully help stabilize his body conditions..."

10 minutes later, Saburo was injected with Formula X, which was secretly researched by the Homo Evolutis Faction. The shot was clear and looked very much like distilled water. A single dosage of Formula X was only several micrograms in volume. It contained components that was secreted by the human brain when the Homo Evolutis entered his or her superhuman state. Thus far, animal experiments done using Formula X had caused the animals to die from hyperethism within 10 minutes after injection. Such ghastly results were why Formula X was kept a secret.

It was also why there hadn’t been any Formula X human experimentation. Yao Yuan held firm that they would not toy with the sanctity of human lives.

In a twist of fate, Saburo also became the first human test subject to try out Formula X...

Time slowly passed by. At the 30 minute mark before the flash frozen troopers would suffer from irrevocable body damage, Saburo’s conditions showed drastic changes.

First, his body temperature gained a sudden rise, stopping at 44 degree Celsius. The temperature was high enough to be lethal. It would burn out internal organs and sever brain synapses. This was no laughing matter because even if Saburo was to survive, his IQ would be seriously damaged.

However, the researchers realized right then that his immune system had started to kick in. Initially, after the Saburo was exposed to the planet’s virus, his immune system had completely shut down. However, at this moment, his immune system suddenly decided to start working again, and it began coding special proteins that could combat the pathogens in his body...

In the next 10 minutes, the screen showed that the viruses, microbes, and bacteria in Saburo’s body had been completely annihilated. Simultaneously, his body temperature started to drop back to normal levels. The result also showed a high amount of Component X in his body, about 10 times the amount he was injected with. However, weirdly enough, this Component X wasn’t secreted by his brain but... by his immune system.

"The reason the ultimate vaccine is dangerous is because it is not a simple antibiotic. In other words, its main purpose isn’t to directly engage the pathogen but to evolve the human body’s natural immune system. Yes, it’s an evolution medicine, one that could evolve mankind’s immune system to gain the capability to naturalize to its environment, to create immunity."

"Absolute immunity is scientifically impossible because normally, one antibiotic or vaccine could only react to one or several disease strands. Nonetheless, bacteria as a form of living organisms are always evolving. They become drug-resistant. Our medicine will need to keep on evolving as well to keep up with the bacteria’s evolution. However, this limits our research to a single environment, and this means that we won’t have the time and resource to focus on the viruses, microbes, and bacteria from other environments."

"The danger of such tunnel-vision in science is obvious. The troopers we have in quarantine are prime examples. Therefore, instead of following such linear research progress, I believe it is more beneficial that we focus on our immune system instead. If our own defense is strong enough, we won’t have to worry about the attacks from different bacteria, microbes, and viruses. Instead of researching for a new vaccine whenever we land on a new planet, with the evolution instigated by the vaccine, our immune system will be able to adapt to the planet’s environment and create immunity. I dare say if this experiment is successful... this will be the last time mankind will ever hear of epidemic and disease!"

Yao Yuan read carefully the elaboration on the ultimate vaccine that was left behind by Saburo. He sighed. "Unfreeze all the infected troopers, inject them with the vaccine and Formula X."