When finished Jack decided to promote his site. He posted announcements to all the biology magazines that had an online presence and an open blog. Finally, he made the announcement on a biocoder blog page, a page that a lot of the DIY biology community outside academia and some academics frequented.
He hoped that his open software approach would attract researchers with whom he could establish a relationship and maybe encourage to pursue his complete program. The response was encouraging, especially from the biocoder community, which led to his next problem.
11
Jack's return visits to the doctor were going well. The gene therapy had repaired the damage caused by the mini-stroke and all the tests pointed to complete recovery. The doctor noted that Jack seemed more relaxed and cheerful. Jack agreed, he had also noticed he had more energy and was enjoying his work again. The reward of doing the job his way and the interaction and thanks he received from other researchers made the hours fly. He was focused and much more able to take things in stride, a trait he would soon find useful.
________
Jack was awakened early one morning a few weeks after he had posted his software by a call. It was from Phylicia. “Jack we have a problem,” she said.
“Oh, hi Phylicia what's up,” he said sleepily.
“Your website, access is above normal, my friend tells me it's under investigation by the administration. She doesn't know how much longer it will be allowed to remain online.”
“Phylicia the website can't go down now, it is making a significant contribution to the independent research community.”
“I know Jack, I’m sorry.”
“Isn't there some way to placate the administrators?” he asked.
“Well,” said Phylicia. “According to my friend they are going to want to meet the 'high school student' who created it. What are we going to do?”
“First, tell your friend that I’m sorry for the trouble,” said Jack. “I'm also sorry I got you involved in this, I never expected there to be so much interest in the software. I thought it would take months not weeks before I made any headway with the research community. Second, tell your friend to give the administration my name and phone number, I'll explain as best I can. And I'll do my best to minimize the involvement of anyone else.”
“Okay Jack,” said Phylicia. “I'll keep you informed, and don’t worry about me I can take care of myself, bye.”
Things moved fast, less than a week later a meeting had been scheduled between Jack and the university administrators. Jack knew that he needed to present a convincing case that would persuade the administrators to fund the website for the good of the research community.
________
When Jack had finished his presentation the university's Head of Information Technology spoke up, “Mr. Jackson we are not here to argue the worth of your research. But that you have used the resources of this university in a somewhat deceptive way I believe can also not be argued. You have used a public outreach program setup by the university to encourage high school students with their research and you have used it for personal reasons. We understand that your proposal passed our committee's approval but this website on our server is supporting researchers without recognition of the university's resources being used. We also believe that your promotion of some discredited methods of synthetic biology reflects poorly on the university. We think we have been very understanding so far. But because of the reasons I have just stated we must now advise you that you have one week to move your website to other servers or we will be forced to shut it down without your cooperation. Do you understand Mr. Jackson?”
Jack felt defeated. “Yes,” he said.
Back in his apartment Jack posted that the website would need a new home and that he only had a week to find one. He received words of encouragement from the researchers using his software. Most of them weren't even involved in viral research but were using it for biological redesign, synthetic bio-bricks, and a host of other applications. But unfortunately, even with all the well wishes, no one offered him a host server.
Jack sighed: Oh Miri, won't I ever learn?
12
At first it didn’t seem like much of a problem. A few sailors returning from a six month tour of duty in the Indian Ocean reporting to the hospital at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. Doctors begin cataloging their flu-like symptoms and treating them for a viral infection although they didn't know what virus was involved.
________
As a young child Sal Jeremy had played with his father's old Navy hat. His father had worked his way up to ship's captain before he was killed in the Third Gulf War. Sal had determined early that he would join the Navy when he was old enough.
He had just returned from an Indian Ocean cruise and was looking forward to traveling home when he began to feel a little run down.
“Hey Milton,” said Sal. “You want to go over to the base gym and workout a little?”
George Salton was called Milton because of his penchant to read poetry. “Sure,” said George, “let's go.”
The base gym was almost empty that morning. Sal and George worked adjacent treadmills for almost an hour. Suddenly Sal's knees buckled, he caught himself from falling.
“What's wrong Sal?” asked George. “Did you trip?”
Sal had stopped his treadmill and was leaning against the stand. “No, I just felt extremely weak for a moment.”
“Maybe we better take a break,” said George.
They walked over to the coffee bar and sat down. After a cup of coffee Sal said, “Milton I'm still not feeling right, maybe I should go see a doctor.”
“Sure,” said George. “Can you walk okay?”
“Yeah,” said Sal.
George was walking beside Sal and conjecturing about all the things that might have caused Sal to feel sick. “ … And that food we had last evening, I for one felt sick just looking at it, maybe that's the problem.”
Just then Sal's knees started to buckle again, George caught him.
“Sal, Sal!” exclaimed George. “What's wrong?”
Sal didn't answer, so George bent Sal over his shoulder and took off in a jog towards the hospital.
Besides Sal, others were being treated for the same symptoms, three were released within twenty-four hours. But Sal and the rest weren't responding to treatment. The medical personnel were becoming worried.
Thirty hours after George had brought Sal into the hospital he was dead. George had called his family to tell them Sal had entered the hospital, Sal's commanding officer now called to give them the bad news.
The day after the first men had reported sick to the base hospital two dozen more men, including Sal, showed up. On the third day another twenty men came in sick. The fourth day was more crowded with nearly forty men coming in. Within a week half the crew from that particular ship, nearly one hundred and seventy sailors had visited or were in the hospital. Then other sailors showed up that had not been on the stricken ship. By this time the death toll had risen to forty-five with twice that number in serious condition.
There were some who died only hours after contracting the disease. The symptoms always started as a headache and burning eyes. If the infection continued to progress as Wesley Williams had witnessed in South Sudan months before, it would not be long until they started coughing up blood, and then gasping for air they would drown in their own body fluids. The doctors tried everything, nothing helped. Whether it took hours or days the results were the same for more than fifty percent of the infected. But if they could survive more than a few days they almost always recovered.
The CDC was alerted and they sent a researcher, Dr. Hughes. She took samples that the Navy doctors had prepared back to her lab. There she discovered that they were dealing with a new strain of the flu that had been seen a few years before. It seemed also to have elements of the virus Wesley Williams had found in South Sudan and the influenza she had caught in Vietnam.
Roberta wondered if it could be
a MGE (mobile genetic element) moving from one virus to the other. That would be a first, she thought, anyway a vaccine was needed and fast.
Almost immediately the entire medical establishment of the country was alerted to the problem. An effort to develop a vaccine was begun. A study of the possibility of a MGE being the genesis of the new virus was started. Field canvassing to find others infected began.
But even with the assurance from the medical community that a vaccine was imminent, the constant barrage of media reports and the memory of the last outbreak caused fear to grip the public.
Many movie houses, restaurants, shopping centers and other public spaces closed due to the fear of exposure to the flu. Government had declared martial law in some places. Face masks of doubtful efficacy were required by law for anyone venturing into public. In urban areas National Guard troops accompanied morgue runs that picked up dead bodies. To maintain quarantine the government banned private burial services and instituted public burials, mass graves became common.
People that still worked tried to stay home and were living off what savings they had amassed. Those that didn't work were impacted when services provided by human workers began to fail. Robotic workers were able to make up some of the labor shortage. But even so there was often a lack of needed public services.
Without shoppers the commercial retail system struggled to continue functioning. The government began to make up for the faltering commercial systems. Automated convoys guarded by manned military vehicles moved food and other goods from producers to local distribution centers. Other troops accompanied the usual robotic delivery vans to see to it that the food stuffs were distributed safely to local markets or homes. The government printed the money it needed to keep the system from collapsing although hyper-inflation was a worry.
People providing services the government considered essential that weren't yet provided by robots were drafted into the employ of their country. Essentials included food stuffs, transportation, law enforcement, energy, and network communications among others. Trade between countries started to fall as goods considered non-essential were allowed to sit in warehouses and factories. Network connections became the basis for staying in touch with relatives and friends.
Streets empty, routine interrupted, the mounting worry paralyzed entire nations. Only a few brave (or criminal) souls went out in public.
13
Jose loved to ride his bicycle. He had wanted this particular model since he was ten years old. He had worked hard to save money, taking out the trash, cleaning his room and lately keeping the yard robots in line. And now at the age of eleven, with the help of his dad, he had his bike. The only problem, he hadn't been able to ride it for the past few weeks. Because of the virus outbreak his mom wouldn't let him leave the yard. He talked to his dad but he told Jose to listen to his mom.
But this Saturday morning in Los Angeles while his mom and dad slept late he was determined to take his bike out for a ride. He applied the tube of 'Secure Skin' his mother had bought to his arms and other exposed areas. 'Secure Skin' was a virus repellent made out of aligned carbon nanotube channels which were small enough to keep out viruses (and chemical agents) but still allow air molecules to pass. He sealed his helmet to his shirt with duct tape and spread 'Secure Skin' on that also. He carefully and quietly rolled the bicycle out the side door of the garage. He waited until he got to the end of the driveway before mounting and riding towards his school.
The built-in heads-up display of his helmet used GPS to show his location in relation to the surrounding streets. It also showed vehicles equipped with locators which was required by law during peacetime. He could focus on an area of the screen to ID the other traffic. The display was relatively quiet except for some vehicles near the school. He focused and the screen identified the vehicles as belonging to the west coast unit of Homeland Security, Urban Task Force. He would have to avoid the school.
Jose turned left on Manzanita Street. He would go down to North Hoover and take Burns Street. He was half-way down Burns Street when he saw some fast approaching vehicles on the display. They would cross just ahead of him on North Virgil. Focusing, he found them to be Department of Defense troop transports. This would be cool, he thought. He would hide behind the parked SUV ahead and watch. He shut down his display.
The rumble increased, he felt the ground shaking, and a roar as the first vehicle passed. From his game play he identified it as a robotic ground sweep. Its duty was to scout ahead of the convoy for any enemy activity, or in this case, cross-street traffic. As that roar settled down there came another roar and rumble as he saw troop transports passing. He counted ten transports each with a capacity of twenty troops. The rumble was just quietening when he heard a vehicle approaching. Another sweeper brought up the rear.
He was just about to arise when he heard the buzzing overhead. He ducked back down ending up flat on his back under the SUV. Skyward were robotic drones searching for movement below. He stayed as still as he could for as long as he could until he thought the drones must have moved on.
Jose got up slowly. Cool, he thought. He was just about to jump on his bike when the doors of the SUV flew open.
“What we got here, who you junior?” said a man. Two others emerged from the SUV.
“I'm Jose, who wants to know?” said Jose defiantly, though he was backing away and looking for a way out.
The man laughed and said, “Who wants to know? I'll tell you shrimp, I wants to know. Me and my friends wants to know. We wants to know if you carrying any money?”
Jose had ten dollars in his pocket. “No,” he said, “Who you think I am, a Rockefella?”
The man laughed again and said, “You're a funny kid, gonna be a shame messing you up.” He lunged at Jose.
Jose spun ninety degrees to the charging man and started to run mounting his bike on the fly.
He jumped the sidewalk on the other side and headed for the alley between buildings. Except it wasn't really an alley more like a narrow opening. Jose moved his hands in on the handlebars to avoid having them scrap the bricks on either side. He heard the men yelling behind him and the SUV starting.
Jose popped into the open and turned sharply left onto a narrow parking lot. He heard the screech of tires behind him as he made it to the end of the lot. Darting to the right under a tree and onto a lawn, Jose didn't slow down.
He emerged onto another parking lot and once past an open gate turned left on the sidewalk of Normal Avenue. Jose began looking for another open gate and made an almost immediate left between some low buildings. He zig-zagged his way back north to Burns, not slowing until he got to the sidewalk.
He carefully peddled to the corner of Burns and N. Virgil where the SUV had been parked on the other side of the street. His heads-up showed no traffic on Burns or N. Virgil but it could be the SUV was blocking its signal. He stopped and pushed his bike to the corner of the building and looked slowly up and down N. Virgil. Seeing no vehicles he took off in a hurry crossing N. Virgil and flying down Burns.
His heads-up showed no traffic on the cross-street Madison so he blew through the intersection without slowing down. He turned left on N. Vermont Avenue and was soon at his destination, Osteen Drugs.
Jose had met the owner, Jason Osteen, at the cafe on the corner where Jose liked to buy milkshakes. Jason was reading the same old-school comic as Jose except in paper. Jose couldn't believe that such an old guy would be reading the same comic and a paper comic at that. They got to talking and Jason suggested to Jose that he should come over to the store and see Jason's collection of paper comics. Anytime he wanted he could pick out a comic and take it home to read. Jose had been going there every few weeks since.
Jose noticed the yellow ribbon across the entrance to the store. He tried the door but it was locked. The glass in the door had been broken and plywood covered the opening. Jose looked up and down the street, for the first time he felt the strangeness of the outbreak, it wasn't just news on the TV now. Jos
e felt a shiver, he turned his bike and headed back home as fast as he could.
14
One evening as Jack was still searching for a host for his website there was a knock at the door.
It was Phylicia and she had been crying. “Hi Phylicia,” said Jack in a concerned voice. “Come in, what's the matter?”
“I’ve been suspended from the lab. Professor Camble said I had been using my time in an unauthorized manner, I guess he means the time I've devoted to your project.”
“I’m so sorry Phylicia. I can’t believe this is happening to you. Just because you were trying to help me.”
Phylicia said, “It’s those non-disclosure agreements we signed, they are written in such a way that we are nothing but slaves to the university, we haven’t rights to anything.”
From the Earth: A Future Chronology Anthology Page 5