Chemical X

The next morning, when I arrived at my research counter, I spotted two familiar faces discussing with each other.

"I heard she's the newest project partner for one of Liz's personal projects."

Tom whispered not so softly to Ralph, who had his arms crossed in a very serious pose.

"And a good thing too. That means that she'll compensate us by being a little more lax on our budget. I've already been trying my best to fight for our department, but because of our low success rates and long development time, the higher-ups are pressuring us to cut our budget."

Ralph sighed, deep wrinkles forming between his eyebrows.

"Relax. I know you've tried your best for us! Everybody knows."

Tom patted Ralph on the shoulder, comforting him, before he spotted me. Nudging to Ralph, the both of them turned to my direction as I reached the counter.

"Good morning Tom, Ralph."

I stretched out my hand, greeting the both of them with firm shakes.

"Good morning to you too, Ms Alex. We have heard the details roughly from Kyle, but we would like to know the nitty and the gritty from you yourself."

Grabbing the replica from the table, I passed it to Ralph.

"This is what I believe to be the closest replication of the original preservative. Yesterday, Kyle helped me analyze it at the Chemistry department, thus we have a list of its chemical components. However, I'm afraid that I need help interpreting this data."

Opening my personal terminal, I was prepared to show them the data or at least send it over. But Tom held out his hand to stop me.

"Don't worry about the data, we received it yesterday already. Rather, how detailed do you want our interpretation to be? Do we need to explain the interactions between each chemical? It's causes? Its chemical make-up? Or-"

Ralph slapped a hand over Tom's mouth before he started speaking too much.

"We will explain the important chemicals that cause the preservative to be toxic. As well as how they affect the body. Then after that there will be a lot of theories about existing medicine that may be related or have an effect on lowering the toxicity in the body after intake."

Ralph listed the whole syllabus that the two of them were going to teach me about, as Tom struggled to pry Ralph's hand from his mouth. It wasn't until Ralph finished speaking that Tom could finally talk.

"You don't have to worry too much about any of this anyway! We discussed the syllabus with Kyle and we will be here until you leave. Liz gave us permission to basically take a work vacation."

Tom piped up from the side and the two of them surrounded me as we peered over the data.

Ralph pointed to one of the chemicals.

"This chemical over here, chemical A, is known for lowering blood pressure. It is quite harmless. Chemical B over here also helps in lowering blood pressure, it can be prescribed together with chemical A because they don't usually affect each other. Chemical C increases the osmolality of your blood. To put it simply, your blood is more concentrated."

Writing on my personal terminal as he lectured, Ralph gave a brief explanation of around 10 different chemicals that he said was significant enough to be talked about.

"Usually, these chemicals are safe even if you have a cocktail of 8 of them. But the moment you have 9 or 10 of these at once, it can cause a chain reaction in your body that prevents signals from your brain from reaching the rest of your body. This makes your body stop. And then after a while you will die."

Ralph pulled out a diagram of a general body with 'lines' flowing from some purple blob on the head to the rest of the body.

"This is the brain." Ralph pointed to the purple blob.

"It controls your entire body through signals. These signals travel down these lines all over your body to help you stay alive."

Ralph then pointed to another blob, but this one near the center of the body.

"This is called the heart. It receives the signals from the brain, then sends its own signals to several other organs that help produce some chemicals that keep you alive and well."

Next was a very large tube-like blob that was next to the heart.

"This is the lungs. It lets us breathe. It receives signals from the heart."

Ralph then repeated the chemicals again and explained how each of these chemicals are used by these organs to cause a change in the body.

"Usually the body is kept under very tight control. There are many reactions in the body that will be affected if this control is lost. These 10 chemicals, when working together, accidently create this extremely toxic chemical that erodes the lines from the brain to the heart. This stops the body from being able to do anything."

Ralph used a white color to cover the line that was connecting the brain and the heart. He then glanced at Tom, passing over the lecture to him.

"How that chemical, let's call it chemical X, is created is through this complicated cycle of chemical reactions starting with chemical F reacting with chemical D to produce intermediate 1 together with 3 more intermediates. Intermediate 1 reacts with intermediate 4, which is formed by the reaction between chemical G, chemical A and chemical B...."

Getting carried away, Tom didn't even seem to stop for breath as he drew a big web of reactions upon reactions upon more reactions. Until Ralph became fed up and covered his mouth again.

"Anyway, the important reactions can be narrowed down to three. The first would be the reaction between chemical F and D. Then you can gloss over the rest until the stage where there is a reaction between intermediate 8 and chemical C. After that it would be the reaction between intermediate 15a and intermediate 3b. These three reactions are usually where we focus on when we want to create a drug that will stop chemical X from being formed. This is due to them achieving 3 criteria. The first is that when we stop the reaction, the reactants that are left are harmless to the body. The second is that the reaction is a necessary reaction, meaning that there are no alternative routes that can be made if we stop this reaction. The third is the most crucial criteria for making a drug. It has to only stop this reaction, but not touch any of the reactions that the body requires to live."

Writing these three rules in big red letters, Ralph then pulled out his personal terminal and showed me an encyclopedia article about a certain drug.

"The most lucky thing is that the chemical X has been studied for many years since it has been found in certain wildlife on several planets. This is one of the most successful drugs on the market that can combat chemical X."

Once Ralph was finished speaking, Tom made his presence known again by wrapping an arm around Ralph.

"Ok, now it's my turn! Kyle said that your project is to destroy the preservative. Or turn them into a form that can be safely disposed of. This is new territory! Since most research has been made in the direction of how to prevent poisoning, not how to safely dispose of it. And this is where I come in! As the chemist in this team, I'll help you with the many chemical equations and reactions that will occur at this research counter. So before you add anything, tell me what you want to add and I'll add it for you!"

I looked at Tom's cheerful smile and Ralph's scowl. Kyle had mentioned he would send someone who majored in chemistry and biology yesterday, so that meant...

"Are you a biologist Ralph?"

Tom's smile froze at my question and Ralph gave an irritated sigh as he pushed Tom's arm off.

"I bet that's what Kyle told you. But ignore him. I'm a food pharmacist! Which means I deal with food and its reaction with the body as nutrients. Kyle's a little elitist with several different majors, especially majors that aren't directly related to food."

Ralph rolled his eyes and pushed Tom's arm off his shoulder again.

"Anyway, back to work, Tom and I will be handling all the chemicals. It's a little too dangerous for untrained personnel to touch many of the chemicals that we will be using. However, we will only be assistants. Since you were the one who recreated it, I think it's only right if you call the shots."

Winking, Tom nodded his head in agreement with Ralph.

"We will go and retrieve some of the chemicals needed right now. In the meantime, you can try to absorb as much information as you can."

Pushing Tom towards the corridor, I was abandoned at my research counter by the two men. But before he left, Ralph wrote down a long list of chemicals for me to look over.

"The list of chemicals, in case you are interested." He said.

Beside me, Sazzy was already pulling up her personal terminal and searching up these words on chick.

[I guess it's time for us to search all these up!]