The stairwell carried the cold up like a slow tide.He followed the painted stripe
along the corridor—yellow first, then white—until the signs changed from
STORAGE and CANTEEN to ANIMAL WING and PRIMATE HOLD. The lights
here were dimmer, set low to keep something calm that no one had calmed in a long time. He found a viewing gallery with spidered glass and a bench polished
smooth by hands.The journal rested on his knees again, the leather warm from
the heat he didn't feel.He turned the page and read what came after the mice.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 26 May 2032, 07:32 hrs—Rationale for Primate Use]
We begin with primates because they are close to us in the ways that matter to the experiment: neuroanatomy, social cognition, motorcomplexity, aging.Success here is not a proxy; it is a rehearsal with nearly identical instruments.I submitted an ethics addendum last night,a full column on intent.I wrote that the point is not to make something live longer but to make it live the way it remembers.If the vector can
restore a network older than the damage, then it is not a patch; it is a return.Cohort A comprised of aged subjects with degenerative neuropathy and confirmed cognitive decline.They looked at me with the exhausted distrust of the old.I promised nothing and felt like I was lying.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 26 May 2032, 18:11 hrs — InitialInoculation]
Intrathecal dosing under anesthesia for A-11 through A-18 completed
without incident.We mapped lesions first, then delivered HRV-13 at reduced concentration to minimize off-target spread.Monitors registered a transient rise in metabolic activity, then settled.I stood at the glass while they woke.In the first minutes after recovery, there is always a silent stutter in the body, a negotiation between the old pattern and the new.It passed like a held breath.By 17:50 hrs, A-14 tracked a hand across
the enclosure and reached for the food tray without missing.I wrote down
the step count, then erased it, then wrote it again.The survivor lifted his head.On the other side of the gallery window, a clipped paper notice had curled at the edges until it looked like a tongue: NO FLASHPHOTOGRAPHY.
He could see the reflection of his own lamp in the glass.He lowered it and kept reading.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 27 May 2032, 06:46 hrs — Motor Recovery]
By morning, measurable change in four of eight.A-12 grasp strength increased by 18 percent; A-16 performed a two-step reach-to-grasp sequence not seen since baseline six months prior.Gait in A-17 no longer shows the characteristic hesitation at turns. We attached EMG
leads and watched conduction speeds climb across previously silent pathways.Under the microscope, filament scaffolds now integrate with
existing axons rather than sitting across them like bridges; this looks like
a true splice.Replication restrained to lesions and degenerative zones
as designed.If the loop continues to down-regulate when conduction
normalizes, then we have a tool and not a fire.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 27 May 2032, 21:15 hrs — Cognitive Markers]
EEG shows modest but consistent restoration of frontal activity in A-
13 and A-17 during task observation.A-14 responded to her caretaker's voice with orientation and a soft vocalization not recorded in weeks.I am careful writing this, but it felt like recognition.In the evening, A-17 traced
a circle on the glass with one finger, then another beside it, smaller—like
a circle holding a second thought.I refuse to ascribe meaning.I wrote it down anyway.
He paused again and listened to the building's breath—fans turning some-
where far, ducts expanding as air warmed by machines tried to find a path
back to cold.The journal waited at his hands, heavier than its pages.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 28 May 2032, 05:59 hrs —Senescence Panel]
We ran an aging panel out of curiosity and habit.Telomere shortening
indices in peripheral samples stabilized; senescence-associated beta-
galactosidase staining decreased in tissues adjacent to treated sites.No
one cheered out loud, but someone dropped a pen and didn't pick it up for
a very long time.The vector is not reversing time.It is refusing to respect
it.If this holds, degeneration is not a sentence; it is a negotiation we can
reopen.I wrote that for the report.
For myself I wrote: I wish I could bring a page like this to a kitchen table I no
longer have.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 28 May 2032, 23:08 hrs — Night Behavior]
Two subjects stood motionless for extended periods while facing the
same corner of the enclosure.Not sleep: eyes open, respiration low,postural micro-adjustments consistent with static balance. I reviewed the footage and slowed it until every small tremor became a sentence. This is not intention.This is circuitry finding new ways to be efficient when the cortex stops speaking. Dormancy as practice.I wrote that phrase and did not like it.
The survivor turned the page and felt the paper catch at the lower corner,gummy with age.He freed it carefully.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 29 May 2032, 10:22 hrs — Adverse Events]
One brief seizure in A-12 during feeding, self-resolving within twelve seconds.Two incidents of coordinated tremor during rest.No aggression,no disorientation, no distress beyond the ordinary unhappiness of being observed.We are teaching an old orchestra to play again and the percussion section is eager. Every metaphor here is irresponsible, and yet metaphors are how we tell the truth to ourselves when numbers feel too clean . I filed the adverse events.The oversight committee wrote back with a single line: Proceed with caution.We will.The important part is that we can proceed.
[Excerpt — Doctor's Journal — 29 May 2032, 19:47 hrs — Summary and Intent]
Primate outcomes mirror rodent results with better integration and fewer off-target artifacts.Motor recovery meaningful, cognitive markers
tentatively improved, replication still self-limiting.Aging signals softened at the edges where the vector worked.I believe we are ready for human protocol submission.If I write this sentence ten more times perhaps it will feel less like standing at the rail of a deep pool at night, waiting to decide whether I meant to jump or merely to look.Tomorrow I present to the board.Tonight I will check the animals one more time and then sit alone in the observation gallery until the lights turn themselves down.If they stand again, I will stand with them to see how still a body can be.
A faint sound climbed the duct above him—metal knocking softly, evenly,
as if the building had developed a heartbeat.He turned the flashlight off and
listened until it stopped.When he brought the light back, his reflection in the
glass had moved closer without moving at all.He closed the journal, the leather
whispering against his palms. Somewhere below, a door sighed shut the way doors do when they are tired of being open.On the last line of the open page,the doctor had written in smaller, steadier script:
"We are close. And I am beginning to be afraid of what that means"
The survivor looked toward the corridor marked ANIMAL WING.Then he looked the other way, toward SECURITY ACCESS and LABS.He chose the sign
that named the future.He carried the book into the hall.