Mortal Pathosis (819 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.95 on 25 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by screamfeeder (View user info) at 2005-02-23 22:13:23 EST
WENDSDAY, JULY, 23 1998
0930 HOURS
1800 KILOMETERS S.SOUTH WEST OF HAWAII
Dr, Feyman awoke as the plane lurched through a thermal air pocket, causing the converted military cargo jet to drop about 25 feet straight down. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looked out the window of the C-9A/C Nightingale as it cruised at 28,000ft above the Pacific. A quick check of his watch showed about another hour of flight time before his transport arrived at Palmyra Atoll. He reached to the seat next to him and opened his Hardigg laptop case.
The manufacturer stated that the olive-drab computer case featured state-of-the-art polyethylene rotomolding, recessed hardware throughout; molded-in tongue-and-groove gasketed parting lines, positive anti-shear locks and was bulletproof as well as water and airtight. He had room in it for a laptop, folders and even a small case to carry sample petri dishes in.
He smiled, wondering if the tax payers knew how much the case cost. At least this was functional, he thought, unlike those leather Kenneth Cole bags his colleagues insisted on carrying around.
Taking out the manila folder from the back of the case, he opened the file that had been sent to him yesterday. It looked and read just like the other summons he had received from the United States military over the years. Large chucks of useless data that tried to obscure the true meaning of the particular assignment. Dozens of pages showing the subject charts and the accompanying graphs displaying brainwaves and genetic details all the way down to the receptor blockages. He smiled having already identified the cause of the subjects' brain damage.
Doctor Richard Feyman, Genetics and Microbiology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held 5 degrees ranging from Biology to Anthropology. He was regarded as, if not one the smartest men alive, surely one of the most dedicated. He had spent over 4 decades of his 57 years to the study of science and the human body. Never married and with no living family, Dr. Feyman was used to getting phone calls and knocks on the door at all hours of the night. He was most often called in to assist with on-going studies by United States military; most of them dealing with neurotoxin and genetic anomalies. This one seemed to be some sort of unknown virus that had infected the staff at the U.S. run nature preserve on Palmyra Atoll.
He had received a phone call early Tuesday morning from the office of Lieutenant General Thomas Astley. They needed him to get any information he had on the Mononegavirales Order of viruses and be ready for a car in 1 hour. Next thing he knew he was rushed from his estate in Cambridge to Logan International airport where he boarded a brand new C-37A, a military version of the Gulfstream V.
A gentleman on board handed Dr. Feyman the manila folder and informed him that he should review its contents before getting to his destination. He then walked out the door and down the stairs before the doctor could even ask what his destination was.
After a cross country flight, he boarded another Air Force jet and after a few hours sleep he arrived at Honolulu International. He had been island hopping in the Nightingale for hours after that.
From the information provided, he gathered that the staff at the nature preserve on Palmyra had come down with a form of measles that the Army doctors could not identify. His briefings mentioned "independent experts" that had been brought in already but did not give names.
The military presence on Palmyra wanted confirmation of what exactly it was before they would lift the quarantine on the island and continue whatever sort of exercise they had been doing previously.
"Hope it isn't too shaky for you Doc."
Dr. Feyman looked up from his papers and shook his head at the young Naval officer standing above him.
"Not at all Ensign. I have been on far bumpier rides that this."
"You let me know if there is anything we can get for you. We should be touching down in about 50 minutes."
"I don't suppose you have any whisky on board?" the doctor probed.
"If we had anything worth drinking on board, I would have already offered Doc."
Smiling at the young man, Dr. Feyman shrugged and asked that he be woken up once the plane reached the island. Aroused from his bed at 2:00am the previous morning had thrown off his internal clock, and while he didn't want to admit it, the doctor needed more sleep than usual these days. Might be time for a long vacation, the doctor thought as he drifted back to sleep.
The landing gear hitting pavement jolted Dr. Feyman awake. Gathering his things he walked toward the front exit as the jet taxied off the small newly paved landing strip. Stepping outside onto the stairs, he was hit with the 103° heat and suddenly remembered why he liked doing lab research back in Massachusetts. Seeing a familiar face, Dr. Feyman waved to the young Army officer standing below the jets left wing.
"Welcome to Palmyra Dr. Feyman. We made sure to import as many insects as we could just for you." joked 2nd Lieutenant Roland Kiersted as he grabbed the cargo manifest from the young Ensign standing below the jets small cargo hold.
"I hope these Seamen have treated you well Doctor, because your life is about to get a shit load more difficult here."
"What are you talking about Lieutenant?" Dr. Feyman asked.
"Lets me get these supplies unloaded and I'll meet you at the preserve. I will round up Mr. Saito and Dr. Swane and let them give you the Intel on the situation here. It's a real fucking shit storm we got on our hands. Hope you brought an extra pair of shorts!"
Letting a big Private take his rolling suitcase, Dr. Feyman held onto his armored laptop case and followed the young man to a waiting Land Rover Discovery that was parked on the edge of the runway. Keeping his case close in the seat with him, Dr. Feyman watched the jungle as the SUV rolled off the runway and onto a dirt road leading to the small dock at the south east of the island.
The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the 11.9 square kilometer atoll in 1862, and the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the archipelago in 1898. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not include Palmyra Atoll, which is now privately owned. It has been run by the United States as a nature preserve but was also used as a staging area after World War II for different military projects. The atoll was made up of over 30 islands, most too small for habitation. Of the two largest islands, the long skinny northern one held the airstrip and communications tower, while the squared shaped southern island was home to the nature preserve staff and their research center.
Currently it was being used by the Army as a training ground for a biological and chemical weapon detection team. Dr. Feymen thought it was a strange place for this kind of exercise, but knew it was not his place to question the military on such matters.
A 5 minute drive through dense vegetation, coconut, and balsa-like trees brought Dr. Feyman to the small dock where a powerboat was already waiting with two rough looking Army Specialists standing by on the dock. Dr. Feyman got out of the Land Rover and declined any help getting situated in the center of the boat.
He watched as the two Specialists and the driver loaded half a dozen boxes into the back of the boat. The boxes had been sitting on the side of the dock and had escaped the doctors' notice till now. He glimpsed the side of one and noted that it read "Retinoic Ac. BetaC". Retinol and other forms of Vitamin A are a known "cure" for measles and Dr. Feyman assumed it was being brought over to treat some of the victims.
The powerboat started off for the other island located to the southeast. Dr. Feyman leaned back and closed his eyes for the 1.2 kilometer trip. A sharp click jarred his eyes open and he saw one of the Specialists in the front of the boat, scanning the incoming shore with his weapon.
"Is there a problem?" the doctor asked.
"Not sure sir. Sergeant Gutierrez is supposed to be waiting for us at the other dock. I just don't see him. It's possible he is still en route but it is only a mile or so to the research station so I don't see why he would be taking so long."
The young man turned back to the doctor and gave him a small grin as he reached into an orange box next to his feet. He withdrew a small 26.5 mm flare pistol and raised it up over the prow of the boat. The doctor jumped as the small gun fired into the air over the dock. The white starburst looked pale and yellow in the fading sunlight but it was sure to be seen by anyone on the waiting dock or adjacent shore.
As the watercraft slowed close to shore the Specialist in the front jumped up onto the small wooden dock and dropped to his knees. He was scanning the dense jungle 30 feet in from the shore while the other man loaded the boxes off the boat onto the front of the dock. Dr. Feyman stepped off slowly and stood behind the kneeling man, feeling very overexposed. If there was some sort of danger, the doctor wanted to be down and out of the way, rather than standing up, surrounded by his luggage.
After the last of the boxes were unloaded the second Specialist walked up and down the beach, about 100 feet in either direction. Dr. Feyman was beginning to feel a bit nervous about what exactly these two young soldiers would be so worked up about. That's when he heard it. A low rumbling that seemed to come from straight ahead of the landing dock. There was a road there that the doctor had not noticed before. It looked half overgrown with vines and leaning trees. The noise was coming right at them and getting louder. It almost sounded like a large car or truck, but the doctor thought he might have heard someone screaming as well as a loud grinding.
The two enlisted men were now both on the dock, behind the boxes with weapons at the ready pointing straight at the road, waiting.
User Reviews
Submitted by ChronicMasturbator (user info) at 2005-09-25 21:34:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-03-25 14:19:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
woop!
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-01 08:17:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I can't wait to see where this is going.
If you don't finish this I shall have to staple your face to your ass.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-01 08:16:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by TheMidnight12AM (user info) at 2005-02-23 23:57:50 (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
----------------------------.
weren't you just bitching about the lack of content on uber?
moron.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/57399
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-02-25 10:02:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-02-24 16:04:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
*bump*
And just for shits and giggles, post the entire story in one post. Hey, a few hundred pages isn't too long. Really.
Submitted by ariseymour (user info) at 2005-02-24 09:10:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Finish it!
Submitted by A_D_Sweetmeat (user info) at 2005-02-24 08:51:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
So awesome.
This belongs somewhere better than Ubersite.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-02-24 07:31:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice. Takes a while to get interesting, but worth the wait. The research you put into it gives it a nice flavour, like oregano on catflesh.
I have no idea why I said that.
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2005-02-24 07:14:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
what? you can do serious stuff? I had no idea.
Submitted by Thored (user info) at 2005-02-24 01:14:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by CookieLass (user info) at 2005-02-24 01:02:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
WTF, I'm not reading all that!
Submitted by TheMidnight12AM (user info) at 2005-02-23 23:57:50 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2005-02-23 23:16:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
holy fucking christ. I should fine you for not posting the entire thing.
I loved the factual backdrop... history and fiction go well together, not many people can write like this.
What's next, a story about clowns?
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2005-02-23 23:07:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The kind of stuff that makes Uber great in the first place. I hope there's more to come.
Submitted by polyamorousaj (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:38:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ghey (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:36:31 (#)
Ranking: 1
Another +1 when you finish it
ALTER ALTGER ALTER
Submitted by ghey (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:36:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Another +1 when you finish it
Submitted by Naery (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:32:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Interesting it's set in 1998.
Submitted by Joemama (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:32:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"nice touch" with the map
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:29:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Whoa.
Submitted by Saxon (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:24:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is interesting screamy, well researched and well writtin. ill be watching for the next one.
Submitted by polyamorousaj (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:22:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I AM ETH FASTEST READER EVER
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:19:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Love this.
Screamy rocks my face.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:17:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good ending.
And I would like to reiterate my threat- nay, my warning- about the consequences of not finishing this story.
Submitted by polyamorousaj (user info) at 2005-02-23 22:14:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
looks long here