This story is (was) an entry for a competition run by J.T. MartenTaur, it is suppose to be unpredictable and I hope it sort of classifies as that. It is always hard writing something unpredictable because as the writer you have to at least know where you are headed.
Anyway, here it is (it is very short) I hope you don't guess the
ending too easily.
Orang-utang. By Wolphin. Dr Brohnon gave the equipment one last check over. Everything appeared normal. This was a good thing because if this experiment failed he was going to loose his funding and that was something he did not want to happen. He had spent the last fifteen of his years researching molecular biology at a secret US Government Research Laboratory. He specialised in re-arrangement of DNA, more specifically human DNA. Tonight he was going to attempt his crowning achievement, to reconstruct the DNA of a living human. The tests he had conducted on mice and monkeys had worked almost perfectly and after a year of lobbying he had succeeded in getting permission for human testing. His first problem was obtaining a specimen. Luckily he knew of a abundant supply of them via the Internet. In recent years he had found the Internet to be able to provide him with any number of people who wished to be subjects in testing. After carefully screening the people who applied he made his selection. John never knew what happened. One moment he was walking to work, then a black car had drawn up beside him, five men had jumped out, injected him with something and he woke up naked and strapped to a table. Dr Brohnon moved to where Subject H1 was lying. Looking down at him he stared at the panic stricken face of the young man. "Don't worry," he said. "I won't hurt you. I'm just here to grant you a wish or two." Lying on the table, John tried to say something, but his mouth refused to work. All he could see was some white medical looking equipment and he could hear a machine beeping in time to his heart beat. For some reason he was reminded of the Monty Python sketch featuring the machine which goes ping. The doctor moved over to his computer console and began to run the sequence. He knew the subject had enough tranquillisers in him not to do anything, but he stilled hoped the boy would not panic too much. From his table, John heard a soft but powerful hum begin almost all around him. Then without warning, the machines suddenly sprang to life and began to move towards his body. Instinctively he braced himself for something, but felt nothing as the equipment moved over him. Back at the console Dr Brohnon watched the screen slowly fill with numbers as the computer processed the information. The subject's body was slowly scanned and processed by the computer and not for the first time the doctor wondered what some would give to get their hands on his equipment. Once the scan had finished, the computer began to work its way through its collection of DNA, looking for a suitable match. After a few minutes the possible choices flashed on the screen. Brohnon did not want anything too complicated for a test subject so he chose the third option from the list, the DNA from an orang- utang obtained from a semen sample from one of the endangered animal breeding programs. As soon as he pushed the button, the computer began its processing. This usually took up to five minutes as the computer had to determine exactly what changes needed to me made and where, but the similarity in the DNA sequences reduced that down to under three. A window popped up on the screen with the message "Proceed Y/N?" and with out hesitation Brohnon pushed the "Y" key and sat back and watched. First off the computer began another scan of the human brain. This was a particularly complex task, but necessary to ensure the specimen retained its human consciousness after the experiment. Once that was complete the computer got to work on the actual transformation. Beginning at the human's feet it began to change the very structure of his DNA. On the table, John felt a very strange numbness literally inside his head, then the machine seemed to focus his attention on his feet. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then he became aware of a strange tingling. He was unsure at first, but he was sure his toes felt longer and his feet, well, wrong in some way. Dr Brohnon held his breath while he watched the machine forces its changes into the human's body. First his feet changed, growing longer and more flexible, then his legs shortened. Like rubber putty, the computer sculpted changes over his body. The boy's chest and stomach grew smaller, but his shoulders increased and his arms lengthened while his thumb slipped slightly down his enlarged hand. Finally, the human head was twisted and pushed into a different shape, the jaw growing out and the nose flattening while the rest of his skull shrank slightly. Then wispy orange fur spread out over the remains of the human and his hands and feet gained large black pads. From the table, John felt the changes, but sort of absently dismissed them. It was not until he felt his head reshaping that he began to feel concerned, then everything slowly faded to black. Behind the console, Brohnon looked at the orang-utang lying on the table before him. That part was over, it was now time to upload the stored brain pattern of the human. He tapped the required keys and the machine moved over the head. On the screen in front of him a window with "Uploading..." popped up. He sat back to wait. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a shower of sparks from a power cabinet against the wall. The lights in the building dimmed while entire bank of indicator lights for the computer flickered. Then, just as quickly everything powered itself backup and the familiar hum returned. He grabbed the phone and punched in a number. "What the hell just happened?" he barked down the line. "Lightening strike we think," came the answer. "We're on backup power at the moment, but should be back to normal in a few minutes. Nothing vital was hit." The doctor nodded to himself and hung up. "But what about my experiment?" he thought. He spun around and looked at the screen. The words "Upload complete" where flashing at him. He looked down at the orang- utang. It was not moving. There was no familiar beep from the machine beside it and the flat line indicated it was dead. The doctor muttered to himself. "Upload complete? But where did you upload to?" he wondered aloud. From his new home on the Internet, part of John's consciousness sent a message to the bewildered doctor. It simply said, "I didn't wish for this, but I hope I am year 2000 compliant - Subject H1." They found it on the doctor's computer as they were clearing away his stuff. "It is strange," they said. "He was a brilliant man, but one day he just lost it. Started rabbitting on about human's on the net or something. For a while, they ignored him, but when he began to blow up computers they had to lock him up..."