Tabula Rasa

She stared intensely at the screen in front of her, watching the rows and rows of data flicker past her screen. She was frowning - something wasn’t right. The lab was dark aside from the screen in front of her, bathing her in an ethereal glow. The occupancy sensors had clicked the lights off hours ago, unaware of her motionless body. She glanced at the time. 11 minutes until the first ever in-vitro brain was harvested and implanted into a body, but the data in front of her was clear. The brain was conscious. If it was conscious then it could feel pain and the harvesting process would be unimaginable agony. They had never thought to use anaesthesia on this lump of fleshy matter. Her hand hovered over the telephone. She knew she should stop the procedure, but this would kill her funding for sure. That would set her back years. There must be sacrifices for science, she reasoned, bringing her hand back from the phone, this was the right thing to do. Sensing her movement the lights flicked back on, illuminating her in its harsh, unforgiving light.