Thwarted Dreams -- Chapter 5

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Colonel Lydecker, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Caroline, etc.).

About eight months later...

“Why have you been looking so bummed out all day, Caroline?” Caroline’s roommate, Stephanie, asked. “You weren’t laughing when I was making fun of the professor in Early Military History behind his back like you usually do and you weren’t even smiling during physical training and you normally love that. What’s going on?”

Caroline sighed. “My mom called me yesterday when I was here last night working on my Calculus homework. She’d taken my car over to the grocery store that day because her car was getting an oil change and as she was paying for the groceries she heard a loud noise and when she and most of the other people in the store went out to see what had happened, it turned out that some moron had tried to fix his parking job but had ended up backing straight into my car instead. The back of my car was completely totaled.”

“But your parents are getting the car fixed, though,” Stephanie said. “Aren’t they? It’s the fair thing since it wasn’t even your fault.”

“No, they’re not,” Caroline said. “They said that since I’m here at West Point for most of the year and I don’t need a car here and I’m barely home, there’s no point in getting my car fixed. I got really pissed off when Mom told me that, but I calmed down a little after she told me how much it would have cost to get it fixed.”

“More than the car cost them?” Stephanie guessed.

Caroline nodded. “Bingo. I couldn’t argue with my mom after she pointed that out.” She sighed. “I guess it won’t be so bad borrowing a car from one of my parents when I’m home.” She smirked. “Do I sound like a spoiled brat or what?”

“Not at all,” Stephanie said. “You just sound like any other frustrated teenager. Hey, I’m from Southern California. I’ve seen the real spoiled brats in action and on a scale of one to ten of spoiled brat-ness, you don’t rate on it.”

“That’s good to know,” Caroline commented. She took a look at her homework and sighed. “Why did I decide to take Physics my first semester here? Do you remember what made me come to that decision? I sure as hell—oh yeah, because I wanted to get this crap done and over with.” She glared at the textbook. “I think that was a good decision.”

“Whether it was a good decision for you or not and I’m willing to bet that it was a good one, it’s definitely making me glad that I decided to go with biology for my science,” Stephanie said. “I’ve got to get going to my study group. Try not to burn your brain out too much while I’m gone, okay?”

“I won’t make any promises,” Caroline said. She smiled. “Have fun.”

“Yeah, right,” Stephanie remarked. They both laughed and Stephanie left the room.

Caroline sighed once more and continued to stare at her textbook. “If the force exerted on a—“ She groaned in frustration when the phone rang. “Great, I can’t even have two minutes to concentrate on my homework. This has just been a super twenty-four hours.” She walked over to the phone and picked it up. “This is Caroline. How can I help you?”

“Hello, Caroline.”

“Oh, hello, Don,” Caroline said in surprise. “How did you get this number?”

“From your mother,” Lydecker told her.

“Oh.” Caroline blinked. “What do you want?”

“I’m here in Columbus for a few days at a conference and I stopped by to see your parents and your mother told me about what happened to your car,” Lydecker said. “That has to be frustrating. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Caroline said skeptically.

“Listen, Caroline, I can help you get a new car if that’s what you want,” Lydecker offered.

“What, you can swipe a Jeep for me and doctor the books so that nobody notices that it’s gone?” Caroline quipped.

“No, but I can help you earn enough money for one,” Lydecker said.

“Really? How?” Caroline asked.

“The research facility that I’m in charge of the military units for,” Lydecker said. “They’re about to run trials on a new drug that is supposed to promote cell regeneration. I was talking with some of the doctors the other day and this is fascinating stuff, Caroline. I’m not just talking a medication that targets one specific group of cells, like liver or skin, for example, but something that can work with any part of the body. Can you imagine what it would mean if this drug is to go on the market?”

“Yeah, I can definitely imagine it,” Caroline agreed. “Something like that would be nothing short of amazing. I can see why the military would want to guard something like that.”

“Exactly,” Lydecker said. “Anyway, the research into this drug involves harvesting or having various types of cells donated and then them actually damaging the cells before applying the drug. They’ve done a few preliminary tests on skin cells and I was told that it looks extremely promising. They want a variety of different cells to test the drug on, though.”

“So they can test the drug’s range?” Caroline guessed.

“Yes,” Lydecker confirmed. “They’ve collected skin cells, they’re collecting blood cells, they’re harvesting cells from organs, and they also want reproductive cells. That is where you potentially come in. Caroline, how would you like to donate some eggs to this research.”

Caroline was quiet for a moment. “Donate eggs? Don, is that even safe?”

“It’s safer than you think it is,” Lydecker assured her. “This facility is at the absolute cutting edge of medical technology. We have equipment and techniques that are years beyond what is available to the public.”

“I’ve met a few conspiracy theory fanatics who would love to hear that,” Caroline said dryly.

“I’m not surprised,” Lydecker said.

“Okay, so you want me to do the ‘poor college student does the medical research thing to earn some money’ deal,” Caroline said. “Don, I really don’t know about this.”

“Please, Caroline?” Lydecker asked. “I want to help you out. You know that Chris would want me to help you if there was a way that I could.”

Caroline sighed. “I know. Okay, I’ll do it. How much will I get?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” Lydecker said.

Caroline’s jaw hit the ground. “Twenty-five thousand dollars?! Donald Lydecker, you better not be shitting me or I swear I will fly back to Columbus right now and murder you while you sleep in your hotel room.”

Lydecker laughed. “I’m not kidding. This is high-priority research so they’ve got the payroll to match.”

“I can see that,” Caroline said. “So how is this going to work? I don’t want to miss too much school if I can help it.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Lydecker told her. “You won’t be needed until two days after Thanksgiving. You can fly out to Wyoming the day after Thanksgiving and then the donation will be made the next day. The actual donation will be made at one of our satellite medical facilities, which is located in Casper. You’ll stick around town for a few days, just to make sure that you’re fine, and then when you’re cleared you can go back to West Point. I can get you excused from any classes that you might miss. You don’t have to worry about that. You should be able to return to West Point no later than three days after the donation has been made. You could probably go back the day after, but we want to take as many precautions as we can.”

“That’s understandable.” Caroline nodded, though she knew Lydecker wouldn’t see it. “Okay, I’m in.”

“Excellent,” Lydecker said. “I’ll send you information on where to go and your plane ticket later. Do you need me to find you a hotel room as well?”

“No, I can handle that,” Caroline told him. “Thank you, Don. I really do appreciate this.”

“It’s no problem,” Lydecker said. “Take care.”

“You too,” Caroline said. She hung up the phone and sighed in relief. “That’s one problem down. Now back to these problems.” She turned her attention back to her physics homework.

Lydecker hung up the phone and looked at the papers spread out on his desk and smiled. He reached for the phone again and picked it up and dialed a number. “It’s Lydecker. Yeah, we’ve got another donor. Egg donor, yes. I know this one personally. Her medical history is spotless, she comes from a military family, her I.Q. is practically off the charts, she’s a born leader, in short, she’s absolutely perfect. I would, actually. I want to try to make sure we get a leader first one out. I know it won’t be ready for implantation for at least another year, possibly a little bit longer. The scientists here in Gillette are putting the finishing touches on the X5 sequencing and we should be running the final tests on it in a few months. If those final tests work well, we can begin to put the first individual soldiers together by October of next year and then begin to implant them by Christmas of next year at the latest. Yes, every test so far indicates that the X5 series is by far and away the best one created so far. Excellent. Good-bye.” He hung up the phone and went back to his paperwork, whistling as he did so.

TBC