Trying Vegetarian

After an hour, someone from the security force came to their hiding spot and gave them the all clear. This was the first time Matt has seen such a futuristic high-tech exoskeleton. It was a lot different than seeing it in a game. The suit did not have any extra paint on it than necessary. It was designed to be sleek and agile. He couldn't tell which design this was since all of the weaponized suits in the game had unique color schemes. It seemed that in reality they are more practical.

The suit covered every part of his body and increased his height to three meters. He simply opened the facemask and checked everyone with the visor underneath. When the 'All Clear' was given, everyone was able to return to their duties. In actuality, Matt didn't have a lot of work to do normally. He would check all the animals, draw blood once a week, and run various tests. His main experiment was on the eggs and sperm of each pig and goat.

The question of virility in hyper speed was one that has plagued scientists since such travel was unlocked. It was not sustainable to bring tons of stored food, and it wasn't enough to simply grow plants. Additionally, rearing animals on a new planet is one of the criteria of colonization set by the Federation. Although his work was light in nature, Matt O'Connely spent a lot of time assisting the other scientists in their experiments. Due to this, he became the universal assistant.

"Dr. O'Connely, if you aren't busy, can you help me analyze the genome of some mutated plants?"

"Sure, I was just finishing up when the drill started."

Matt followed Dr. Bradshaw to his botany lab. Outside, there were a few bags filled with some sort of nut he had never seen. When he picked it up to examine it, Dr. Bradshaw explained what it was.

"One of the plants we're testing today produces those nuts. Out of a hundred nuts, only one is fertile. The AI has already analyzed the nut under spectrometry and determined they are safe to eat. They have a nice texture and unique flavor. Take a bag or two with you and try them out."

Matt was curious so he popped open the bag and took one of the nuts out. However, what happened next surprised him.

[Genetic Material Detected. 22% compatibility. Grade 0. Consume for 1 Evolution Point.]

The notification appeared when he opened the bag. His instinct was telling him that he needed to consume ever nut in this two-kilogram bag in order to gain the evolution point. However, this made him realize he made an incorrect assumption. The genetic material he had been focused on acquiring was from meat. It is easy to think about blood and flesh being related to DNA, but obviously plants have DNA too. This was not something possible in the game since the only sources of evolution points are the specimens, aliens, and humans.

Matt placed the bag back in the basket and planned to take all of it. There were five bags in total and he didn't feel ashamed to take them all. Additionally, Dr. Bradshaw said the plant that produced these was what they would be analyzing today. Matt wondered if consuming genetic material directly would make it easier to absorb. If that was the case, he could order a bunch of reagents and start isolated DNA in his lab. However, it would be difficult to explain where all of his samples were going.

"And there's the plant we'll be working with. I call her Martha."

Matt didn't have much expectation, but this was really not what he expected. Inside the botany lab specimen room was a plant that had grown to cover over half of the total space available. Its various branches had flowers on them with different degrees of blooming and fruiting. The fruit's in question were those nuts from earlier. When the doctor entered the room, the plant seemed to move slightly and dozens of nuts fell to the ground. There was a small machine on wheels that drove over the floor and picked up the nuts before sealing them in bags for examination.

"Did it just respond to you calling it out?"

"Remarkable isn't it? The plant seems to have developed basic intelligence."

'Perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe the requirement for DNA Absorption isn't just having DNA, but having intelligence.'

Matt slipped on some lab gloves and put-on safety glasses. He approached the plant carefully and examined it closely. He saw that in the center of the plant between a wall of branches and leaves was a soft membrane. He reached out to touch it, but the leaves suddenly closed around to protect it. However, just from observing the membrane he was able to discover something.

[Genetic Material Detected. 22% compatibility. Grade 1. Consume for 3 Evolution Point.]

This startled him more than the plant closing. This membrane was rich in genetic material. It was the first thing he had ever encountered that gave more than one evolution point, and the compatibility was extremely low as well. Matt wondered why a plant would have such a membrane and turned to Dr. Bradshaw. He had been watching Matt examine the plant and was happy to see his expression.

"That membrane is very special. We do not know the purpose of it yet, but we have several scrapings of it. Under the microscope, it seems to be composed of cells without any organelles in them. That is why I needed your help. I want to clean up the scrapings and then sequence them. If my assumption is correct, this membrane is composed entirely of cells filled with only genetic material. The reason for this, I do not know. These could be some form of stem cell or something like a brain."

"Brain… brain… you mean to suggest this plant is storing memories using a four-character sequence in the form of DNA? If that is true, it would change computing forever… Imagine if we could reverse engineer this process for Artificial Intelligence?"

"It seems you have quite the imaginative mind, Dr. O'Connely! Truly a great scientist. Now, lets quickly get to work as to not waste this incredible discovery."

Although he was externally excited, he could not help but lament. Although this plant didn't exist in this form in the game, something similar did exist. In the specimen lab, there was a puzzle combination that needed to be completed by the players. Once very specific items were brought, the machine would give them a chip. This chip was an upgrade for the AI called 'Biotronic Brain' which gave the AI a huge boost in performance.

Matt had to guarantee this technology would never be discovered. This would be his first ever sabotage. In order to protect his safety on this ship for the next four years and then, however long he'll survive on Exveus, the AI could not receive an upgrade. While sabotaging the AI, this would also give him an opportunity to gain some evolution points and test his theory about purified genetic material.

"Dr. Bradshaw, you have used up all of your remaining work extensions for this month. Please cease working immediately or the Rest Protocol will be instated."

"Dammit machine, don't you understand important science is happening here—"

"3… 2…"

"Alright, alright I'm leaving. Dr. O'Connely could you please cleanup for me here?"

Dr. Bradshaw quickly left the lab. Matt appreciated how devoted to his work he was. Since he was alone here the only thing keeping him in check was the AI security cameras. But Matt noticed something. Inside of the specimen room, the central camera was being covered by overgrowth. The only camera that could see what was happening was the one outside and the scope of vision barely covered a fifth of the room.

Matt went to Dr. Bradshaw's lab notebook and began to read through the experiments he had been doing. Normally, this is considered to be improper behavior, since many scientists have lost their valuable research due to leaks like this. But Matt had no intention to publish this research, and he was sure Dr. Bradshaw wouldn't mind. After he found the section about collecting samples from the plant named Martha, he carefully read the procedure and retrieved a sample bag and a scraper tool.

Once inside the sample room, the large plant seemed to flinch and check who entered. Seeing that it was an unfamiliar person, there was no reaction from it's branches like before. Matt walked over to where the membrane was and looked for the thickest sections. He gathered samples for half an hour and managed to acquire quite a bit of plant matter. The leaves he was holding back covered the membrane once he released them and began trembling.

"Whether or not you feel pain, I can't really confirm. However, this is too important. At least you are still alive."