Short Story: Radioactive power

In a sexist 1870s France invaded by Prussia, chemist MC's genius is finally recognised. Shame that it is by the enemy and that this place her in the center of both the Franco-Prussian war and the Prussians' own political conflicts.

Background

Winter 1870. Prussia vanquished the French emperor who abdicated. Some traitorous French politicians hurriedly declared a new republic and capitulated to Prussia, then when the Parisian refused to recognise both the defeat and the legitimacy of such a dishonourable government, they started a siege on Paris.
Meanwhile, Prussia is staying nearby, watching over the proceedings and making sure that France cannot rise again. Their current base of operations is in Lille, where the Prussian emperor's nephew is leading the general staff.

The radiation

Radiations were discovered in the 1860s. Prussia also discovered a class of chemical compounds that, when ingested by humans, can protect the body from radiation—although not everyone survive the first exposure. Those who do get a series of different mutations depending on the exact chemicals taken, and from these they gain special powers.
They way to gain different powers is by being injected with different chemicals before being exposed to radiations. However, there is a limit to how many new mutations an individual can gain before dying, and not all powers are compatible with each other. People's own biological differences also helps develop different types of powers. Once a new kind of power has appeared, its owner can contaminate others with it through bodily fluids.
Prussia has used this new technology to create an elite military branch. They have a big archives were they keep bottles of all of the protective chemicals and blood samples with which to contaminate people. They also have a catalogue from which to choose your future abilities.
So far, Prussia has managed to keep all of this secret from other countries, but rumours and contradicting information have been spreading.

Impact on imperial family

Because the powers gained from the radioactivity are so important, it does not seem as if anyone can really stand against his elite soldiers that they have created. This was very threatening to the imperial family's power.
To prevent this, the emperor ordered the cousin branch of his family to be exposed to the radiation. The eldest of his brother's three sons survived, but his two younger brothers did not. The emperor's brother, sister-in-law and surviving nephew are now furious at the emperor for his.
This also created tension at court and in the army because this gave the emperor's nephew more legitimacy that his own two sons have. The emperor resisted for a while before ordering the exposition of his youngest son, but he ended up in a coma. The emperor's nephew is pressuring and taunting his cousin, the imperial heir, so that he exposes himself in the hope that he will die and that the nephew will get the throne.
As a result of al of this, there are two political sides in Prussia: the emperor's and the cousin branch's. They are both pitching their influence against each other, and one of their way to compete is by finding new "powers" that the other side does not have access to.

Characters:

MC

A chemist working as a lab assistant in Lille, in the north of France. She managed to get a PhD despite being a woman in a very sexist society, but now her career is going nowhere as her boss does not let her claim credit for her own work.
She loves France and wants to be loyal to it, but when the Prussian emperor's nephew invades Lille, take over her lab, and puts her in charge of a research team, she does not feel very sad at being forced to collaborate with the enemies.
The reason for this sudden interest in her lab is that she invented one of the radiation-resistance chemicals and that the Prussian managed to get their hand on a bottle of it. However, they do not have its formula or synthesis pathway, and so they came to Lille to demand the information. MC's supervisor claimed all of the credits as usual, but it did not take look to the prince to guess who was the real inventor.

The emperor's nephew

A very intelligent and charismatic man. He was a "gentleman scientist" before the emperor forced him in the army to annoy him and push him away from court. Unfortunately for the emperor, this turned against him as the prince became extremely popular and won the loyalty of many soldiers and officers.
Thanks to the radioactivity, he is known to have gain a unique and powerful set of mental abilities among others powers.
He is determined to get revenged on the emperor for what he did to his family, however he will not be satisfied with so little. He was already ambitious before the emperor betrayed him, but now it has been made clear that he will not be safe so long as he is not the one with the ultimate power in Prussia.

Emperor

A shrewed man who managed to establish himself as emperor. He is still ready to make hard choice to maintain his political might, including sacrificing his own family. He is especially warry of his nephew who is too clever and ambitious and does not know how to properly respect the elder branch of the family.

Imperial Heir

The Emperor's first son. He is very arrogant and full of himself and absolutely cannot stand that some people respect his cousin more than him.

MC's lab supervisor

An asshole who keeps stealing the merit from MC's experiments by pretending they are the fruits of his own work and by refusing to put her name on the resulting scientific publications.