Chapter 2

"Who was here?" Professor Bennett stormed out of the laboratory, screaming in panic, everybody he encountered asking this question. It didn't take long before he encountered Cala.

"Yes. Cala cleaned room." She smiled.

"Did you empty the beaker? The glass on the table," he added, since Cala didn't know what a beaker was.

"Yes. Cala thirsty. Cala drank."

"Oh, no...", Professor Bennett moaned. She had drunk the experimental potion. One he had only ran tests with on cells bred in the lab especially for that purpose. And the results had been inconclusive yet. He had changed the formula over and over in the past few years, and every time he was sure the potion would work the way he wanted it to. But the cells he experimented with never showed the results he always hoped for. Sometimes, the cells died. Another time they became like cancer cells, and sometimes there was no reaction at all. He had just developed a new formula for his potion, but was called to the operating room when he was about to test it. He didn't know what effect the stuff had on living tissue, let alone on a human being. It could be poisonous for all he knew. Professor Bennett grabbed Cala at her upper arms. The girl looked startled.

"Cala, you have done something bad. You shouldn't drink what is in my lab... my room. You have to go to the doctor now." he said, looking intensely at her.

"Me bad? No, no, Cala nice...", she stammered. Tears welled up in her eyes, as usual when she was scolded for something.

"We have to empty her stomach," prof. Bennett thought. "When did you drink?" he asked. Maybe it was not too late yet.

"Err, small digit on one... large digit on nine..." Cala said after some hesitation. It was her way of telling the time.

"That's almost two hours ago...", Prof. Bennett thought, not happy at all. "But it might not be too late."

Holding Cala at her wrist, he ran with her towards the operating room, with had just been cleaned. The patient was being transported to the main hospital of Denver for further surgery. There was more equipment there and more possibilities. Because the accident had happened near prof. Bennett's clinic, the young man had been brought there first.

"Ready the room," he cried out. "She has drank something standing in my lab, and needs her stomach pumped clean!"

"Cala now ill?" the girl asked, looking frightened. She understood she had done something bad, but all this crying and shouting was even more frightening for her. That was all her brain could make of it.

Cala was given a light narcotic, because she could be restless while her stomach was being emptied. As soon as she was out, the professor explained his assistants what exactly had happened.

"I didn't have time to lock it away... she was thirsty and drained the entire beaker. Let's hope we can still get it out of her stomach. Oh, damn! If she dies, we are in deep trouble." Prof. Bennett was nervous now. And this feeling grew when he found out Cala's stomach was empty. The liquid had been absorbed by her body already.

"Damn! Now what?", he asked, wiping sweat off his brow. He looked at his patient, who lay dozing on the table. She looked all right. Not ill at all. As a matter of fact, she looked very healthy. Almost as if... no, that couldn't be. Were his eyes deceiving him? Professor Bennett rubbed his eyes and looked again. A scream from one of the nurses confirmed that what he saw was real.

Cala was growing.