The Hope

The sun's orange glow streamed through the window of the office.

Alexander was standing in the middle of the room, the light penetrated through the thin cotton of his shirt. He was trying to organize his thoughts and draw up a plan for the legislative body of the Ruthenia Empire.

He's only been trying since one o'clock in the afternoon, but he felt like he's been going in circles. He's not getting anywhere with his plan.

"Dammit..., he slumped down on his chair and continued writing.

He racked up his brain up to the fullest. Trying to remember every details of the constitution he once read when he was passing the time in his company's legal office.

What he knew about the United States constitution is that it has three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. Each one of these branches is supposed to impose checks and balances on one another.

But writing up laws and constitution is not his forte so, at this moment, he can't really think of a constitution, nor apply the US constitution in Ruthenia Empire because of the difference in governance.

Alexander's hand paused for a moment as an idea strike his mind.

"What if I just adopt the Empire of Britannia's constitution? It's just the same where the executive branch would be the Emperor."

Coming up with that thought, Alexander stopped writing and gave up, crumpling the papers he had initially written and dumping them in the trashcan, frustrated, and decided to take a break, he needed to clear his mind.

He'll just ask for counsel from the people who know. With that, he leaned back in his seat, feeling refreshed as he found an easy way out of his struggle.

Not everything can be done by him, he needed people who have expertise in every field next to him to help him govern.

He's certain that if he asks Sergei about the new constitution the people wished, he'll come up with something.

Moments later, there was a knock on the door.

"Open," Alexander called out. The door slowly creaked open.

A silver-haired woman stepped inside the room with her eyes wandering around the office.

"Christina..."

"Brother...you look exhausted."

Alexander shrugged, "I'm just trying to come up with a new constitution, but it's not as easy as I thought."

"Ah...what's a constitution?" She tilted her head to the side, curiously.

Alexander's mouth dropped ajar after hearing her query. "What? You're seriously asking about that?"

Christina pouted at him. "I'm just asking brother...I don't know about it though I heard the word once..."

Alexander sighed. "Basically, the constitution is the rule of how the country is governed, how the law is written, how the country is run, and how the people should act," he explained simply and continued. "The people demanded participation and representation in the government called a legislative."

Christina tilted her head to the side. "So what does the legislative do?"

"The legislative is composed of elected representatives. These elected representatives will propose and approve the law. Discuss the work of the Emperor's government, and they will be able to look at the budget." Alexander concluded.

Christina gasped softly as if she was enlightened. "If you know that much dear brother how come you're struggling?"

"Well, it's because they are composed of ten to twenty well-written and concise articles which I can't basically come up with."

The room fell silent for a moment as the two can't come up with a new topic of conversation. Alexander decided to break the silence as he finally spoke up.

"Oh, I just remembered I need to go to the lab to see the incubated bacteria for Ana's medicine."

"Is that so? May I come with you," Christina asked.

"That's fine by me, I'm gonna need help anyways."

"Then it's settled."

Christina followed her brother as they walked to the lab.

"Okay, put on a lab coat and a mask, you know the drill," Alexander ordered as he went over to the incubator.

Christina nodded and did as she was told.

Alexander took out a petri dish, each containing spores that come in a variety of spore colors.

"Okay, we're going to use a microscope to scan each of the Petri dishes. If you see a threadlike net called mycelium...Oh never mind, I found it." Alexander hailed by glancing at one of the Petri dishes.

He lifted the petri dish containing the Streptomyces griseus strain.

"Oh I'm so lucky...well never mind what I just ordered you and help me concoct a medium."

"A medium?" She looked at him, puzzled. "Brother you have to slow down and dumb the process down for me."

"Okay okay, I'm sorry, I got carried away by my luck." He chuckled.

"I need your help to mix the medium, I will explain how the process goes," Alexander began explaining the process of developing a medium.

The medium he used before was a nutrient agar, a general medium. But today he'll create a medium used specifically for growing Streptomyces griseus in a large scale. However this time, for the fermentation process. Well, there are two industrial media for streptomycin production, Woodruff and McDaniel, and Hockenhull.

Alexander decided to use Hockenhull since they already have the ingredients ready for it. He began relaying his orders to Christina.

"Okay, extract 2.5 percent of glucose from the glucose vial, 4 percent of soy meal, 0.25 percent of sodium chloride..."

"Wait stop, stop!" Christina snapped, stopping Alexander from speaking.

"What?! What's wrong?" Alexander looked at her in surprise.

"You're going too fast," she compained. "Slow down."

"Hmm...okay, just watch me." Alexander took over her work and proceeded to concoct the Hockenhull medium.

"Wait..aren't you going to teach me?"

"Hmm...maybe next time, this requires precision."

"Ah..." She sighed. "Understood, I'm just going to watch."

After mixing all the ingredients, Alexander transferred 4 percent of inoculum from the petri dish into the medium.

Next, Alexander cleaned the fermentation tank with water to avoid contamination from bacteria.

Once it was completed, Alexander fed the substances into the fermenter tank and switched the machine on.

The motor inside the fermentation tank started to spin and produced a whirring sound that it's unpleasant for the two to hear.

Christina covered her ears with her finger as she asked about the situation. "What is happening?"

"The blades inside the fermentation tank are starting to convert the primary metabolites to the secondary metabolites..."

"Brother...dumb it down for me again please!"

"It means the production of streptomycin has begun," Alexander answered. "Now I'm going to set the temperature at 28 degrees celsius and add proline for a high yield of streptomycin. Now it takes five to seven days for the fermentation to complete as it undergoes three phases."

"And what happens after the fermentation is complete?"

Alexander's lips curve into a smile. It only meant one thing. "Once it's complete, we'll obtain the streptomycin."

"The cure for Ana? Do you speak the truth dear brother?" Christina looked him in the eye, brimming with hope and joy.

"Of course, it'll have to undergo filtration and purification before it can be used as medicine. But I'll explain the process once the fermentation is complete."

Christina's eyes widened, smiling radiantly. That means in seven days, the cure for Ana will be completed, and she will be saved!

"Thank you, brother!" Christina jumped and hugged him tightly.

"Ouch...ouch...you're hugging me so tight...okay okay I know you're happy but please get off me."

"Sorry, sorry," she said as she released him from her embrace. "I just can't help it. When the doctor said that there was no cure for her disease, I was heartbroken and was praying to the Lord for a miracle...Now it had come!"

"It's too early to celebrate Christina..." Alexander said and saw Christina's enthusiastic behavior slowly turn into sadness.

Concerned, Alexander gripped her shoulder gently. "Sorry I didn't mean to."

"Brother," she looked up to him. "Your cure is going to work right? It's going to save Ana right? Please brother, says that it's true."

Alexander nodded. "Of course, it will work. Sorry for killing your hopes up all of a sudden."

Christina shook her head as she placed her hand on her ample bosom. "No, I should be the one to say sorry. I got excited after you said it'll be done in seven days."

"Good thing that we can finish it earlier than scheduled."

Christina's gaze off to the fermentation tank that was vibrating from the spinning of the motors. Inside that tank is the miracle drug that will save her sister Ana, a drug that will change her outlook in life.