And Another Smile

Carla Fritz, a German doctor specialized in zoo-biology and biotronic -which is a branch of genetic engineering science that focuses on the use of microchips and electronic equipments on unicellular- , and an English chief engineer by the name Steve Blake are on mission organized by The Strategic Research Organization of United Europe (S.R.O.U.E) to grow intellectual (DNA) s in the form of unicellular in some apt tropical climate conditions, and to make them yield to initial nervous stimuli. To achieve this goal, at first they are trained to live alone in adverse cut off conditions for eight weeks, and then they are sent to a remote region in the central African Sahara, a protected area of Batangato, far from civilization, by an automatic pilot system aircraft. Their mission is to terminate in twenty weeks' time. The purpose of planning the mission in this way is, in general, to train efficient human resources for the organization, for the future conquests of far away worlds of the solar system. There is a close competence among the scientists of the European Community and their colleagues from the developing countries who are contributing in this project, such as China, India, Malaysia, and Iran. A colleague of Steve Blake, chief engineer Saeed Saalvar from Iran, who has a seven space voyages in his record, is also involved in this project. Carla Fritz, proud of her pompous pedigree and ambitious, holds herself superior than the best members of the organization. She has some preoccupations beyond her job. With the aid of her brother Michael Fritz, another scientist of the organization, she has designed and made an apparatus called Radio Telesthesia, a device with the ability to transform various animals' behavioral patterns into basic factors of human behaviors. In order to test the efficiency of the device before obtaining a patent for her invention, she takes it with her, almost secretly, to the field of her mission. She has already done some extensive research which indicated the probability that she would encounter with disabilities of some African kings of the beasts (lions); a probability that will be realized, incidentally, by her own reckless exit from the provisional camp site. It has been for her occasional lapses of prudence that the password of the Research Satellite which is one of the tools of the mission is entrusted to Steve Blake, despite Carla's being the commander of this two-members-team mission. Steve Blake is notified to keep a close eye on both Carla and the missionary affairs. Carla tries to underrate Steve's role in the mission by elaborate arguments and broils, but later she finds that this doesn't help, and that by some small efforts she can make Steve cooperate with her. Steve saves Carla from the paws of a huge lion, inflicting a fatal injury to one of the lion's paws during the event. Carla seizes the opportunity, and by a preplanned scheme, performs a surgical operation on the wounded animal and transplants a very efficient artificial paw. The beast is left at large, and his natural behavior in his new condition is monitored by satellite. The lion transforms into an arch-killer of the African Sahara, even attacking the animals that he didn't dare to confront before. He also kills all the rival males of his tribe. The sense of killing grows in him by and by. He fights with a crocodile deliberately, and his one natural paw is badly injured. This time the beast comes towards the lab site voluntarily, so that a second unparalleled artificial paw may be bestowed on him by human beings. Carla and Steve can hardly believe what they see. They watch the events with much wonder and notice that by his shattering blows of his artificial paw the lion has destroyed the laser chargers which were serious barriers against any intruders, and has entered the lab site. They have to kill the fierce creature, despite Carla's boundless feeling for the feline, and this lion in particular. Carla, who had been monitoring the behavior of this supposedly extinct lion of African Sahara by her Radio Telesthesia, adoring his behavioral factors such as fear, spite, anger, and so on, holds her apparatus in her hands to observe the lion's last behavioral factor just before Steve can finish him by shooting at him. She notices that the lion's full gallops turn into long leaps, as he charges at Steve. Carla manages to record the lion's behavioral pattern. She remembers that she had seen that pattern before, during her first encounter with the beast, when she was nearly dominated by him. That was, a smile, then …, and another smile.