Mortal Pathosis 3 (739 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by screamfeeder (View user info) at 2005-02-28 18:02:11 EST
1) http://www.ubersite.com/m/60461
2) http://www.ubersite.com/m/60557
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WENDSDAY, JULY, 23 1998
1710 HOURS
PALMYRA ATOLL
UNITED STATES NATURE PRESERVE AND
OUTSIDE LEVEL 4 BIOHAZARD LABORATORY
The two men left the air-conditioned building and walked across the dirt road that ran down the center of the island, ending at the living quarters. The front of the lab was guarded with barb-wire, and two Marines stood in front.
"Why the security?" Dr. Feyman asked.
"Since the incident I mentioned previously we have taken measures to assure that no one has access to the lab that poses a potential risk. These good men are simply here to stop anyone from leaving in too great a haste."
Nodding to the soldiers, Mr. Saito and Dr. Feyman entered the front office of the laboratory. A level 4 biohazard lab is made up of 2 sections, one being the "dirty" section and the other being "clean". A front office is usually built to check identification before moving on into the changing area and clean sweep room. Yutaka and Dr. Feyman passed unobstructed through the office and into a white room with a hermetically sealed door on the other end. Glass cases held ILC Chemturian 3525 containment suits. The suits are fully enclosed and are fed a steady air supply by either a walk-along air tank, or ceiling mounted air hoses. Exhaust valves on the knees and arms keep the air fresh and the suit at a cool temperature.
Dr. Feyman and Yutaka both sat down and took off their shoes. Stripping down to just pants and white undershirts they climbed into the suits and were zipped up. At that time another person entered from office and helped the two of them get the air-tight gloves and helmets on and checked the pressure on the back-pack filters. The suits are designed to be impervious to most nicks and tears that older suits had trouble with. The downside was that the suits were hard to maneuver in, due to the tough chlorinated polyethylene material.
After they were both fully suited up, Yutaka pressed a large green button on the doors that lead into the sweep room. The metal doors opened with a hiss and tearing sound akin to ripping a sheet of paper in two. One at a time, Dr. Feyman and Yutaka were subject to a light chemical bleach wash that cleared any debris or outside toxins that may have been on the suits. After the 2 minute wash the second set of air-tight doors opened into the actual lab.
"This took us over 6 months to build and get fully operational. We had a Level 3 mobile lab here from the military, but it was too crude for our work. We also needed as clean an area as possible to prevent outbreak."
Yutaka opened another set of metal doors and walked into a long room with centrifuges and sample dishes spread out over the countertops. Dr. Feyman noticed another person in a small room to the left. Even in the light blue biohazard suit Dr. Feyman could tell it was Dr. Swane. She was taking samples from a large tube and placing them in smaller dishes behind her.
"We actually have four electron microscopes. One is in the room to the right. Dr. Swane over there has been working hard in here trying to get the molecular structure correct." It was hard to hear another person's voice through the clear vinyl helmets. It sounded like Yutaka was almost yelling.
"Who were the first people back here after the Spartan crashed, and for that matter why did they bring you in here so quickly?" Richard often wondered why his old friend from MIT always seemed to know just a little more than he was letting on.
"To answer your second question, I was brought in by Astley right after the military found compelling evidence of a viral outbreak. The first people to come back here was a group of subcontractors working under the military. They were tasked with locating the cause of the planes disappearance since it was their people that were flying them."
"Who was the subcontractor?"
"Dynsec."
"Dynsec? The Swedish company? I thought they did executive business security training?"
"They do. They are also a huge United States military subcontractor. They supply what some have called, "highly trained mercenaries" for different projects around the world. Since it was their people that went down with the Spartan, they were the first ones to send a team out."
"Were they infected?"
"No. As I said before the virus does not survive well outside in the sun. By the time an army bio-chem team got here, the Dynsec people were already gone. They had taken some of the bodies of the victims and a few other things from the facility, but we recovered all of it when we threatened to pull their federal funding."
At the back of the room was a single door that looked heavier than the rest. There was an alphanumeric keypad to the right of it. Yutaka punched in a lengthy code and walked into the room. A liquid Nitrogen fog covered the floor up to the men's knees and obscured anything below waist level. The room was filled with large glass tubes set in heavy metal racks. The tubes were marked with color coded stickers and had a date emblazoned on the side in large black stencil. Sliding one out that dated 10-01-97, Yutaka carefully held the tube in both hands in front of him and walked back out into the main lab.
"Wait," said Dr. Feyman. "You said that there was an initial virus here that killed all of the Nature Preserve staff. What then was I looking at with Dr. Swane? Did you find an unknown virus here or was it planted here?"
Yutaka stopped with his back facing Dr. Feyman. His shoulders shrugged and he continued walking back to the room with the electron microscope.
"Richard, I do not know how many times I have to tell you. The U.S. government, the military and I knew absolutely nothing about what was going on here."
Yutaka kept his back to Dr. Feyman and his shoulders slumped just a little. He stepped aside to let Dr. Feyman open the lab door in front of him.
"You know something."
"There was a report done in 1936 that did mention Palmyra Atoll." Yutaka sighed and motioned for Dr. Feyman to open the door. "It was a report written by a Hawaiian astronomer that somehow made its way into Project Blue Book in 1951."
Dr. Feyman opened the door to the small room and allowed Yutaka to walk in and place the glass tube on a smaller rack under the microscope. Dr. Feyman noticed that the tube was triple layered and in the center was a small disk, similar to the one Dr. Swane had carried with her before. This one was missing the black clad covering that allowed for safe travel.
"What was in the astronomers report? Did little grey men crash here too Yutaka?"
Richard was chuckling despite himself. Yutaka glanced at Dr. Feyman and gave him a ghoulish smile, made worse by the sheen on the suits clear visor.
"No nothing like that. The report was simply astrological readings of meteor activity done on a boat near here. Why it was in Blue Book, we have no idea. You see we had full access to anything the public may not have seen. All of the reports dealing with Palmyra were untouched and not blacked out. William Voigt was the astronomer and apparently he liked to sail and look at rocks falling out of the sky."
Yutaka spoke as he made small adjustments to the microscope via the keypad on the side. When it seemed he had it correct he stepped away and offered Dr Feyman a look at the screen.
"Tell me what you see here."
Dr. Feyman leaned down and looked at the screen.
"Looks the same as the other sample Dr. Swane showed me earlier."
"Keep looking for a second, you should see some change."
Dr. Feyman watched for about a full minute before he noticed it. The small phosphor-proteins, shaped like fat footballs began to rotate in the opposite direction. They were also pulsing, swelling up and down like breathing lung. The more Dr. Feyman looked the faster the pulsing. Soon they seemed to be vibrating and the rotation of the lipid bi-layer, the shell around the virus, began to rotate faster.
"What is it doing? This is amazing!" Dr. Feyman gripped the sides of the screen and as his pupils shifted, he noticed the phosphor-proteins shifted with him. Thinking he had maybe just bumped the lens with his hands, he let go. Looking left, the proteins shifted right, looking right, they shifted left.
"They are reacting to you Richard. In other tests we have found that certain strains of the virus have actually killed themselves off when looked at for too long. They are fine when in stasis, but after 5 minutes of examination under a microscope, all nucleocapsid activity stops. Some have even duplicated themselves. We have a total of 12 different strains. All found within the bodies of the preserve staff."
Dr. Feyman was moving his head around the eyepiece watching the different reactions from the proteins. They would vibrate faster if he pressed as close as he could, and slow down if he started to pull his head away.
"If the 12 strains were all found native on the bodies, then what genetic work are you doing in the states?"
"Well most of that will stop, now that we have a capable lab here. The studies done back in the states were mainly subject tests on the different strains. The one that Dr. Swane showed you earlier was one of the first we found and sent off for study. After making sure that a subject was properly protected from the debilitating skin disease, we they began cultivating new strains and injecting them into soldiers."
"They did what?" Dr. Feyman looked up and stared hard at Yutaka.
"This is not measles or any other know virus. As to what happened to the staff here we are unsure, which is why we are taking such precautions. The men injected with the new cultivated strains were willing subjects. They were told of the risks. We made sure that only ones with no family and shady records were selected. The results were...amazing to say the least. Come with me. I have showed you what I wanted you to see. You see we are taking very special care that nothing leaves here. What I show you next will make your jaw drop. It did the first time I saw it."
Yutaka took the tube back and Richard walked toward the exit. He glanced across the main lab hall and noticed Dr. Swane staring at him. He gave her a wave and a slight smile. She made a grimacing smile and went back to her work. Even from across the room, Dr. Feyman could see the black circles under her eyes and the tautness of her face. She is young, the doctor though, she will learn to take it easy someday.
Dr. Swane watched as the two men left through the metal doors. Once they were shut she pulled out a tube she had kept hidden below the work desk and slid out two black covered sample dishes. Placing one under the microscope and the other in a small centrifuge, she began her work.
User Reviews
Submitted by ChronicMasturbator (user info) at 2005-09-25 21:34:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-03-25 14:31:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm really digging these
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-01 12:52:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Amazing knowledge of genetic/microbio vocabulary.
This is excellent!!!
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2005-03-01 00:51:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice. I'm particularly compelled by how you end each post... leaving me hanging.
Let me tell you, it's great fun.
Will you sign a copy of the book for me?
It should read:
"Corrine, YOU ARE AWESOME ABACAUSE YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD GOOD WOMAN"
(Thats what aj told me when he was drunk the other night... has a ring to it, doesn't it?)
Submitted by Saxon (user info) at 2005-02-28 22:45:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-02-28 22:37:06 (#)
Ranking: 2
Good lord man! How much research did you put into this?? It sounds like you know your stuff. I am thoroughly impressed by the depth of your knowledge. Mind you I know jack about genetics, so you could be making it all up...but it sounds good regardless.
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My sentiment axactly.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-02-28 22:37:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good lord man! How much research did you put into this?? It sounds like you know your stuff. I am thoroughly impressed by the depth of your knowledge. Mind you I know jack about genetics, so you could be making it all up...but it sounds good regardless.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-02-28 19:47:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
But do the individual particles spell out "STOP LOOKING AT US YOU CUNTS" when stared at for too long? Because that would rock.
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2005-02-28 18:47:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Feed me more Screamy!
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2005-02-28 18:45:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
why does it react to being looked at?
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2005-02-28 18:04:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I keep looking behind myself when I read this series. Raagh.