The Black: Arrival

by Paul E. Cooley

  His heart hammered in his chest. Did he feel anything? Had he? He’d been so focused on Marie that he hadn’t—”

  “Mr. Strange?” the suited figure asked.

  “Sorry,” Darren said. “No. I’m fine.”

  “You look pale.”

  “Of course I look pale,” Darren said. “One of my coworkers is very sick and you fine folks ambushed us wearing fucking moon suits!”

  The woman in the suit cracked a ghost of a smile. “Sorry for the dramatics,” she said. “But we need to make sure this isn’t an airborne microbe.”

  Airborne? Darren cringed. “If it was, everyone at the lab would be sick. Well, except for the bio-lab.”

  “You have a bio-lab at your company?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. They work on animal strains and DNA analysis.”

  The woman frowned. “Do they work with any biologically hazardous specimens?”

  Darren let the words sink in. “Um, no. Nothing like that. They just look at animal and plant samples from drilling sites and occasionally do work for the museums.”

  She nodded. “Okay. Mr. Strange? I’d like you to follow me.” She turned her laser stare at the EMT. “You and the driver stay put. Another member of my team will be with you shortly.”

  The EMT sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Come with me.” She stepped aside so Darren could exit through the rear.

  He shuffled out of the ambulance and put his feet on the ground. The rain pounded the pavement beyond the overhang and a cold wind tore at his clothes. Should have worn a jacket, he said to himself.

  He turned to follow the blue-suited woman and stopped. A large plastic tunnel led from the ER entrance and into the hospital. “What the hell?” he asked.

  She turned back to him. “If you please, Mr. Strange.”

  “Darren,” he said. “Please call me Darren.”

  “Okay, Darren.” She gestured to him and walked into the tunnel. Darren followed.

  The plastic was translucent enough for him to see the scared, dazed faces in the ER waiting room. Nurses and doctors continued their walks through the halls, but every one of them paused in their steps to look at him through the plastic.

  His flesh erupted in goose bumps. He wanted to think it was the cold biting through his thin sweater, but he knew it was fear. Plain and simple fear. Did Marie have Ebola? Or maybe some devastating form of bubonic plague? Darren’s head filled with scenes from zombie movies. He shivered and continued following the blue moon-suited figure.

  His shoes crunched on the plastic and for a moment, he thought he would slip. Darren gritted his teeth and continued down the long tunnel. Up ahead, he made out an impossibly bright room. As the blue-suited figure stepped out of the tunnel, the brightness intensified. Darren shielded his eyes and stepped out.

  When his eyes adjusted, the shivers returned. They were in an operating room. Marie’s body twitched beneath glowing blankets. Strong lamps were pointed at her face while another hazmat suited figure checked her eyes.

  “Darren?”

  He turned to his escort. She had a pen and clipboard in her hands. “Yes?”

  The woman’s face was once again hard as stone. “I’m Doctor Harrel from the CDC.”

  He gulped. “CDC? What the hell is—”

  “Please. I have a couple of questions for you and then you can ask me some. Okay?”

  Darren nodded.

  She asked him if he worked for HAL. She asked him if he’d been exposed to any biological contaminants. She asked how Marie had been exposed. When he mentioned the barrel from PPE, she raised an eyebrow.

  “So she cut herself opening the barrel?”

  Darren nodded. “That’s what the other chemists told me.”

  She wrote something down on the clipboard. Darren wondered how she could write while wearing those thick gloves. “So you didn’t see her get cut?”

  “No. Hell, I don’t even know what the barrel looks like. I just know where it came from.”

  She blinked. “And where did you get it?”

  He rolled his eyes. “It’s a sample. From an offshore oil platform called Leaguer.”

  She scribbled. “And where is this platform?”

  Darren shifted his feet. “I don’t know. Somewhere in the vicinity of Papua/New Guinea.”

  Her eyes flicked up from the paper. “Okay.” She pointed to a bed against the other wall. “We need you to pull that curtain, undress, and put on a gown. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll examine you for contaminants.”

  “Contaminants?”

  Dr. Harrel frowned. “Yes, Darren.” She gestured to Marie’s stretcher. “We need to make sure you don’t end up like her.”

  His lip quivered. “Is she dying?”

  “Yes.” She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. “We’re doing everything we can, Darren. We’re close to stabilizing her, but we don’t know how much damage the infection has done.”

  Darren wiped a tear from his eye. Marie. Marie had been the youngest scientist HAL had ever hired. She was sweet, shy, and barely talked unless it was about chemistry. At least with other people. With Darren, however, she’d opened up. He glanced at her twitching form on the stretcher.

  “Can’t let her die,” he mumbled.

  Dr. Harrel nodded. “We’re doing our best.” She pointed at the bed. “Let’s make sure you’re not infected, okay?”

  He wiped another tear from his eye and nodded. On numb feet he headed to the bed and pulled the curtain closed. He took off his sweater and the room’s cold bit through his undershirt. By the time he pulled off his underwear, he was shivering. And this time, not from fear.

  Socks, gown, and blankets lay on the bed. He dressed as quickly as he could. He could hear the doctors talking to one another as they tried to keep Marie alive.

  “This is Dr. Harrel. I want a quarantine team set up at ground zero immediately.” Darren peeked around the corner and saw Dr. Harrel staring at Marie’s blanketed body. She cocked her head as she listened to a voice on the other end of the radio. “Yes. Full quarantine. No one in or out without a suit. And I don’t want anyone inside until we make contact with those labs.” She paused again. “No. We don’t know if it’s airborne. I’ll have to finish examination of Mr. Strange and the EMTs before I determine that.”

  Darren pulled on his socks. His stomach churned with nervous fear. The doctor kept talking into the radio, but he’d stopped listening. HAL was being quarantined. He was quarantined and the ambulance crew would be as well. It was past midnight, and he’d never felt more awake and terrified in his life.

  *****

  Kate’s skin itched. The comfortable lab coat hung on a hook next to Jay’s. She had stripped off her normal lab gloves and replaced them with a heavier pair. While the others were designed for possible interactions with toxic chemicals, these were made for probable encounters. In other words, she was counting on getting M2 on her.

  The suit she wore zipped over the gloves. Her comfortable running shoes had been replaced with heavy booties made of the same substance as the gloves. A heavy hood covered her head and hung down past the top of the suit. The faceplate was made of Pyrex.

  The chem-lab, unlike the bio-lab, didn’t have oxygen hoses for the suits. Instead, the chem suits had filters for short term exposure to toxic substances. But really, if something like hydrogen sulfide gas broke out in the lab, the chemists would have to hit the purge fans and get the hell out of the lab as quickly as possible. The suits would protect them for a minute or two, but beyond that, death was certain.

  “You hear me okay?” she asked.

  Jay nodded. “Yup,” his voice said through the radio. “Hear you just fine. And you’re panting.”

  She grinned. “Damned suit is hot.”

  “Yeah. I noticed. It’s ball-sweat bayou in here.”

  Kate chuckled. “I’ll take your word for it.” She walked to the distillation tower. “How do you want to do this?”

  Jay stood next to her,
his eyes focused on the bottom tank. “Like we always do. Just goddamned carefully.”

  They locked eyes for a moment. Jay looked calm, but she knew better. The color in his face was off and his eyes sparkled with nervous energy. “You ready?”

  Jay gritted his teeth and then nodded. Kate nodded back to him and then put her hands around the top of the boiler assembly. Jay grabbed the bottom and twisted.

  The click of the lock disengaging echoed in the lab. Kate looked down as Jay slowly lowered the boiler section. She drew in a deep breath. “Oh. My. God.”

  Jay quickly put the iron bowl on the floor and stepped back. Kate stepped back too.

  “What the hell is that?” The color had completely drained from his face. Kate barely heard his words as she stared into the remains of the oil.

  It’s not oil, she told herself. Oil doesn’t do that.

  Threads of burned, black material rose up the sides. Each thread ended in a hook like shape. That was bad enough. But it was the center of the bowl that chilled her to the bone.

  The oil in the middle of the iron bowl was burned into a solid shape. Kate’s mind struggled to put it into context and finally succeeded. She wished it hadn’t. An appendage. It was the only word that came to mind to describe the tentacle-like shape rising from the bowl. Its end was razor sharp and curled into a hook like the threads on the bowl’s sides.

  “What the hell is that?” Jay asked again.

  Kate raised her eyes to his. “I don’t know,” she said at last. Her mouth had gone dry and the words came out in a croak. “It’s not a liquid anymore.”

  “No,” Jay agreed. “It’s not.” He lowered himself to his haunches, but stayed a few feet away from the bowl. “At least not on top. But from the coloring, I’d say the M2 became a solid through and through.” He looked up at her. “Boiling it changed its structure.”

  “But into what?”

  Jay stood, eyes flicking to the equipment hanging on the wall. “Let’s find out. We can take a sample and put it in the NMR. Maybe even get a slice for Neil’s team. That electron microscope might tell us a few things.”

  “Okay. And how do you propose we get a sample?” She took another step away from the bowl. “I don’t think I want to get near that shit.”

  “Yeah. About that.” Jay walked to the shelves housing dozens and dozens of different sized beakers as well as various sized forceps and other lab tools. He picked the longest and smallest pair of forceps and turned back to Kate. “I might be able to grab a chunk with this.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “You’re crazy.”

  “Sufferin’ succotash, lady! We have to do something!”

  Kate saw flecks of spittle cling to the inside of Jay’s faceplate and laughed. Jay blushed. “You might want to try Elmer Fudd when you’re wearing that suit.”

  “Um, yeah,” Jay said. He walked toward the bowl, forceps extended. He had to get on his haunches again, only much, much, closer to the bowl. His faceplate fogged from his rapid breathing.

  Kate walked until she was behind him. “Calm, Jay. Calm.” She placed her gloved hands on his shoulder. His raspy breathing in her headset slowed and diminished.

  For a moment, she wasn’t sure he could muster the courage. And then, without warning, his hands reached forward and the tool closed around the tip of the brown, crusted shape. The material crunched as the metal prongs tightened. Both she and Jay flinched at the sound. Particles of the substance crumbled into the bottom of the bowl. Jay slowly pulled the tool backward.

  “You got it,” Kate said. She hissed a sigh between her teeth as Jay lifted the pincers. The bottom portion of the hook-like shape was between the metal prongs.

  Kate stepped back and Jay stood with his prize. He walked in slow steps to the stainless steel examination table.

  She made her way to the equipment shelves and pulled a deep, stainless steel tray into her hands. Then she turned and put it on the table. Jay lowered the sample.

  “Here goes.” He released pressure from the handles.

  The sample thumped into the tray. Bits of mass crumbled like dried mud and peppered the tray’s gleaming surface. The hook, however, remained mostly intact.

  Kate grabbed a magnifying glass from the collection of tools on the table. She focused it on the sample and leaned over to get as close as she could. The soft light made it nearly impossible to see. “Jay? A little more light?”

  He reached for the gooseneck lamp and swiveled it until the bulb was above the tray. He flicked the switch.

  A cone of bright, white LED light shined down on the tray. The exposed steel reflected the light back into her face. She blinked as her eyes adjusted and then held the magnifying glass back to the sample. She took in a deep breath.

  The material looked like a burned brownie or sedimentary rock. The hook and its base were little more than crumbs still clinging to one another. Kate looked at Jay and offered him the magnifying glass.

  Jay took it and studied the sample. “Hmm.” He lifted the magnifying glass and then reached across the table for a pair of tweezers. “Let’s see just how fragile this shit is.”

  Kate held up a hand. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  His teeth flashed in a grin. “No such thing as good ideas, Kate. Only varying shades of bad.”

  “What?”

  Tweezers gripped in his fingers, he closed the metal tines around the base and then pinched. The base crackled and then crumbled into chocolate colored grit.

  Kate let out a deep breath. When Jay had touched the sample with the tool, her heart rate spiked into a sprint. A bead of sweat ran down her cheek. “No liquid.”

  Jay looked up at her. “No liquid,” he echoed. “Which means it underwent a phase change.”

  “That’s not possible. It would have produced gas. The analyzer would have picked that up.”

  He placed the tweezers down on the table next to the tray and put his hands on his hips. “Science explains everything. Until it doesn’t.”

  “Bullshit,” Kate said.

  “You misunderstand.” Jay raised his gloved hands. “Ancient man thought the sun rising every day was magic. The starlight, mere pinholes in the blanket of night. That was the extent of their science.” He peered back down at the tray. “Maybe we just don’t have the tools to understand this.”

  She took the tweezers from the table and clicked them between her gloved fingers. “I haven’t given up yet. We still have the NMR.” She jerked a thumb toward the glass partition separating the chem lab from the bio lab. “And maybe the SEM will show us something too.”

  Jay chuckled. “Then let’s see what else our science can figure out. Because right now, I feel like we’re in the damned twilight zone.”

  *****

  After all of Jay’s warnings about the substance’s corrosive qualities, Neil had decided to treat the sample like a bio-contaminant. The protocols in place for dealing with potentially hazardous chemicals were essentially the same as with hazardous biological contaminants. The difference? Neil’s team wore positively pressured suits. The oxygen hoses attached to their backs made movement awkward and Bill had more than once nearly pulled his out of the ceiling. Neil just hoped Bill remembered their bio-hazard training.

  Bill was stooped over a stainless steel table with a syringe. Because they only had the underside of the metal lid to work with, they’d suck up what they could into a Pyrex syringe and then create an emulsion with water. If it reacted to the water, then they’d have to try something else.

  “Okay, here we go,” Bill said. Neil watched his colleague touch the thin, metal needle to the jet-black film on the lid. With his free hand, he pulled back the plunger.

  The metal needle squealed against the lid. Neil was afraid it would snap, but it held. As Bill’s fingers pulled the plunger further back, obsidian liquid entered the glass enclosure. “Got it,” Bill said.

  Neil hissed through his teeth. “Not much.”

  “But enough.” Bill held the s
yringe upside down, the needle pointing toward the ceiling. “You ready to create an emulsion?”

  Neil nodded. He’d already put out the glass dish used for the SEM and coated it with water. “Just make sure you don’t put too much of that crap in there.”

  Bill chuckled. “Wouldn’t worry about that. It’s not like there’s much M2 in the syringe.” He placed the needle into the shallow water and slowly pushed the plunger.

  A viscous, black drop oozed out of the needle and into the dish. Neil watched as the drop floated atop the water. When there was no reaction, he blew a sigh through his teeth. “Okay. So far so good.”

  Bill clapped him on the back. “Told you. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Whatever, man. If Jay’s not on crack, that shit eats plastic. If it eats plastic, there’s no telling what else it will dissolve.” Neil glared at his partner. “Take this seriously.”

  Bill raised his hands, the syringe pointed at the ceiling. “Okay, okay.”

  “Good.” Neil lifted the glass dish in his gloved hands and turned to the scanning electron microscope. The sampling case, a large cube of beige-painted metal, sat on a table next to the actual microscope. Neil touched a button on the side and the sample case split in the center. The front moved silently forward. He placed the glass dish in the sample case, made sure it was snug, and then pressed the button again.

  The sample case shut with a barely audible click. A green LED started to glow on the side of the case. Neil walked to the keyboard and display next to the SEM. He touched the screen and it came to life. By tapping and sliding his fingers, he quickly went through the various screens to set up the sample. He labeled it “M2-Emul-01.” The screen flashed and a dialog box appeared. Neil glanced at Bill. “We ready?”

  Bill grinned behind his faceplate. “Should I get the fire extinguisher?”

  Neil rolled his eyes, shook his head, and stabbed the green “run” button. The SEM motors whirred to life. The word “Scanning” blinked on the screen.

  *****

  Two tests. There were only two tests he and Kate could think of: NMR and light fluoroscopy. At least while the NMR was running, they could get the fluoroscopy test prepped and see what kind of funky colors M2 gave off.