Luciferase

Doctor Anastasia Hendrikson sighed slowly as yet another specimen wilted and died under the experiment. She pushed herself away from the table, rubbed her eyes slowly and stared at the computer screen. Why wasn’t the program working? It has been years since she first started the experiments on the bioluminescent fungi Mycena luxaeterna, also known as the ‘Eternal Light Mushroom’. However none of the experiments has born any success, and it already cost her her marriage and a relationship with her daughter.

The faint green light from all the specimens lent the laboratory an eerie glow and she walked over to the observation window. She stood with her hands behind her back, staring at the project they were trying to create.

A vast underground cavern lay before her. One that has been dug and prepared for this particular research. Ten different species of mushrooms were present in this particular cavern and she was in charge with cultivating them for a specific reason. Her benefactors seemed to believe that the enzyme called ‘luciferase’ was capable of allowing humans to live underground. The bioluminescent light from these mushrooms combined with the shiitake and oyster mushrooms that can produce vast amounts of Vitamin D when exposed to UV light, would allow humans to, theoretically, survive and live underground.

Doctor Hendrikson slammed her fist against the window and swore under her breath. The edible mushrooms were not reacting to any of the stimulus she has been granted to expose them to. While the luxaeterna does not give enough light to even illuminate the ground beneath them. None of the nutrients she has given them worked, they either never grow bright enough or they emit the perfect amount of light and then they expire in a short time, too short a time for them to propagate successfully.

The door behind her opened and the doctor turned around, smiling faintly at the person who had entered. Her colleague was a gaunt and pale man, Doctor Phillip Gunther, an expert in biochemistry and bioengineering. He shuffled into the room and looked down at the wilted specimen on her table.

“I take it another dead end for us?” He sounded tired, more tired than usual. She also noticed that his color was even more pallid than normal.

She walked over next to him and held up the protein he had created for her to feed the luxaeterna. “Supplement Number 2843 seemed to have stimulated the luciferase to such an extant that it completely consumed the body.”

They both stared at the wilting specimen, still giving off the faint green light, before Doctor Gunther turned to her. “I have something to show you, something I have been working on in my lab. I think it might be the answer we seek.”

“At this point, Phillip, I am willing to try anything. We have been doing this for years and our funding will be cut soon.” She stared as the last light fading from the mushroom and followed the gaunt man as he led her from her laboratory to his. She realized she had not been into his working space for over three months at this point. Her own experiments have become more and more frantic and time consuming.

His working area was not nearly as neat as hers. Papers littered the floor and faint smells of bio-chemicals tinged the air. Glass boxes with specimens were stacked in every corner and the window to his personal experiment cavern was darkened and no light was near it.

He turned to her and produced a remote from his pocket. Gesturing for her to follow him he walked to the window that overlooked his cavern. “Now then, Doctor Hendrikson, I need you to see this. Do not be alarmed or afraid. Just be silent and observe.”

Anastasia frowned and raised her eyebrow. “What are you talking about, Docto-”

She was interrupted as the man pushed a finger against her lips and shushed her. He pressed a button on the remote and the entire laboratory went dark instantly. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she saw a bright green light coming from inside the cavern. The glow much stronger than anything she had been able to produce and yet it was too far away to distinguish the source.

The hushed whisper next to her in the dark almost made her jump. “Please do not be afraid, she is not aggressive.”

Before Doctor Hendrikson could react, Phillip slammed his fist on the window a few times. The sound of his blows sending hollow sounds through the cavern. The light seemed to flicker and become stronger. However in truth the green light was moving. The light stopped and then made its way to the window. As it drew closer and the source became visible, Doctor Hendrikson put her hand over her mouth and stifled a scream.

What walked towards the window was vaguely humanoid figure. It stood six feet tall and had arms and leg, the head was that of a mushroom and seemed to have grown from a humanoid form. The organisms entire body was made up of mushrooms, all glowing and pulsing with the green light.

“What. . .what have you created, Phillip?” Anastasia whispered to her colleague. “Is that thing. . .alive?”

The man whispered back to her, his voice fevered and hushed. “Our main problem with the enhanced luciferase enzyme is that it requires more biological tissue that what the host has. So I. . .found a fresh cadaver to gestate our specimens and after a few days. . .this came to be.”

Doctor Hendrikson stood in the dark and stared at the humanoid form of the mushroom creature before her. The light was stronger than anything she could have produced. The living mushrooms’ head turned from side to side and seemed to be listening for something.

“What is it eating?”

“Her name is Lucy, I named her that from the enzyme. What she has been eating is, well she has been eating rotting humanoid cadavers I have been sourcing.” Doctor Phillip Gunther sounded proud and pleased like a parent bragging about the academic abilities of their child. “So far the more protein rich the cadaver, the longer her light will shine.”

Anastasia shook her head slowly. “Have you reported this thing- Lucy, to the board? Do they know what you have created? How do you know she will not be hostile?”

“She has shown now interest in living tissue, I have put rats and other animals with her in the cavern. She is only interested in the rotten remains of humans.”

Doctor Hendrikson stared and the slow moving fungus creature on the other side of the glass and ran a hand over her face. If this creature was indeed not hostile towards living humans, then it could very well be the answer to what they were looking for. It emitted a large amount of light and she could feel actual heat coming from it. That would mean the shiitake and oyster mushrooms would not even be needed, this amalgamation of human and fungi might be able to give light and Vitamin D at the same time. As horrific as it was, it was doing exactly what they have been trying to accomplish for so many years.

“I must think about this, Doctor Gunther.” She turned away from the window and nodded towards him. “Rest assured I will not tell the board about this, however I feel we should draft a report of it as soon as possible and inform them.” Before he could answer she had already made her way out of the dimly lighted lab and away.

The following morning found Doctor Hendrikson making her way into the underground complex later than usual. Her night was filled with nightmares of humanoid fungi taking over the world and consuming the dead and alive as well, her last image before she awoke with terror sweats was that of her daughters face, cover in glowing green mushrooms. She had made her mind up to close down the experiment and have this parody of life named Lucy removed from existence.

“Doctor Gunther, I believe we must sto-” Her voice caught in her throat as the door to Phillips laboratory opened. The room was dark and the smell of fungi was stronger than the night before. She slowly made her way into the lab and called again. “Phillip? Are you in here? Security upstairs claimed to have never seen you leave last night?”

Her voice echoed in the room and she heard it carry towards the glass observation window. She stepped closer towards the window and grunted as her feet slipped under her. Her hands splatted in something wet and sticky on the floor and as she raised her hands closer to her face, she could see it was red and smelled coppery. It was the smell of human blood, lifting her head she could see the observation window was shattered and the source of the blood was a heap of organs and bone laying on the floor, below that gore a white lab coat could be seen on the floor. The mass of flesh was covered in fungi, pulsing green light like an obscene heartbeat.

She staggered to her feet, slipping in the blood while trying to keep her balance. The light from the mass was faint but for some reason the room had become more brightly lit. Green light flooded the room and the smell of rotting plant matter stung her nostrils.

She spun around to run to the door but stopped abruptly as she ran into something spongy and clammy. Her scream froze in her throat as she stared into the faceless visage of Lucy. Green light stung her eyes and before she could react, the thing slammed a hand over her mouth. The taste of mushrooms and dirt filled her mouth and throat and she felt her throat contracting.

Doctor Anastasia Hendrikson died a quick death of suffocation, as the new mushrooms grew inside her throat and mouth. Green light filled the laboratory as the experiment finally became successful.