Bioterror! (an Ell Donsaii story #14)

by Laurence Dahners

  The three grad students looked at one another, then Rick turned to her and said, “My schedule coincides with his more than Alice or Carley’s, so maybe I should take this one.” He shrugged, “He really hasn’t asked for any help. He checked in with me a couple of times to make sure he understood lab policy about how we do things here. I think he asked Carley a few of the same kinds of questions, right?” He turned to get Carley’s confirmation and after Carley nodded, he continued, “I haven’t even had to show him how to order stuff, his AI managed to handshake with the lab’s AI and placed all his orders, no problem.”

  Reggie’s heart sunk, “So all he’s done so far is order reagents?”

  Rick looked a little surprised, “Oh, no, he’s had his fluorescent yeast for quite a while now. I’m not sure exactly how long, because he didn’t make a big deal out of it like I did when I finally got it to work my first year… it’s kind of embarrassing, actually.”

  Reggie blinked. “How many tries did it take him?” she asked, thinking back to how she’d had to start over several times on a similar project back when she’d been a grad student herself.

  Rick looked at the other two grad students, then turned back to Reggie, “I’m pretty sure he got it to work the first time.” He grinned, “At least he didn’t do any cussing like when I’m trying to get an experiment to work.” He shook his head, “The little guy’s pretty amazing. It’s like he’s done this kind of stuff before, but he’s just pleasantly tolerant of the fact that we’re making him prove he can do it again.”

  “So, having him around hasn’t been a big pain?”

  All three of the grad students shook their heads. Carley diffidently said, “He’s… actually been a big help to me.”

  Reggie frowned, “He has?!”

  “Um, yeah,” Carley said, looking kind of embarrassed. “I was having trouble with the X-200,” she said naming one of their DNA assemblers. “He told me that my problem was pretty common with that module and that there was a workaround posted on the company’s website.”

  “Oh crap!” Alice burst out. “The problem wasn’t…” she put her head down and squinched her eyes shut as if steeling herself against the answer, “that sometimes the output DNA’s denatured, was it?”

  Carley gave a slow nod.

  Rick looked like his head was about to explode. Alice threw her head back and moaned, “I thought I was doing something wrong!”

  “Me too,” Carley said quietly, “and I guess I was, since I hadn’t thought to go on their website or ask anyone else about it myself.”

  At first Reggie didn’t want to admit she’d had the same problem herself, then she realized she couldn’t hide the issue since she really needed to get the workaround herself. She cleared her throat, “Maybe you could send me that workaround too?”

  Her three students had the decency to look surprised that she’d been caught up by the same issue they had.

  Reggie said, “It sounds like you think maybe he’d be ready to take on a piece of one of the grants?”

  “Sure. He’s welcome to my part of the protein folding grant!” Alice said. “I’ve been getting nowhere!”

  Reggie felt a little disheartened to hear that. Using its DNA sequence to predict the final three-dimensional structure of a protein after it folded had been a problem since way back in the 1960s. There were a number of disease states, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and others that resulted from incorrect protein folding. The badly folded proteins often precipitated into clumps called amyloid rather than performing their intended functions. Clumps of amyloid in the brain were a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and were even found in the islets of the pancreas in patients with type II diabetes. Understanding the causes of misfolding would be a huge step forward.

  Reggie’d developed a hypothesis that folding could be computationally predicted if they generated large numbers of short, artificial sequences, determined how those folded, and developed “folding rules” based on those outcomes. She hoped to be able to determine why certain types of misfolding occurred and perhaps develop therapies from that understanding. At the least, perhaps she could find peptide sequences that’d be found on the exterior of misfolded proteins and then design antibodies or enzymes capable of attacking or breaking down such misfolded proteins before they actually agglomerated.

  Unfortunately, problems with the project were legion. The small segments they generated in the lab hoping to determine the rules frequently didn’t seem to fold in the same fashion as that same sequence was known to fold in a full-sized protein. Alternatively, even if it did fold in the same fashion, it never folded in the incorrect fashion that sometimes occurred in large proteins when they misfolded. They hadn’t even gotten to the point of working with chaperones, specialized proteins which were very important for the correct folding of some peptide sequences.

  Reggie said, “Maybe instead of throwing him into the deep end of protein folding all by himself, we could have him work with you for a while Alice. Sometimes just getting a fresh perspective can get you started down paths you hadn’t considered.”

  Alice agreed readily enough, a certain sign that she was feeling really frustrated. They went on to discuss each of the grad student’s projects and consider possible solutions for whatever obstacles they were encountering.

  As Reggie left the meeting, her mind went back to the protein folding problem and her own frustrations with it. Young eyes often find solutions that older eyes failed to consider… but I never thought I’d be hoping for help from eyes that were only five years old!

  ***

  AJ felt a little bit weird, walking out onto a Colorado ski slope after years back in North Carolina. The prices still rocked him back and he had to keep reminding himself that he could actually afford it on the salary they were paying him out at D5R. The Kinrais family had been really nice to him and, to his surprise, he and Morgan had a room that Mr. Kinrais had reserved and paid for. He’d been thinking that perhaps Morgan’s parents would be expecting them to sleep separately until after the wedding.

  AJ’d decided to retire his old skis because his boots had developed cracks in their padding since he’d last used them. He’d rented some because he didn’t know whether he’d be skiing often enough to make it worth buying another set. Just as he finished putting on his rentals, Raquel and Zage came up behind him with their own rental skis.

  Raquel was pointing to the bunny slope and explaining to Zage how to put on his skis. AJ realized the kid apparently hadn’t ever been skiing before, not surprising at age 5. Wanting to make conversation, he asked “This his first time?”

  Raquel nodded. “I hope he likes it. It’d be good for him to have something else physical to do.”

  AJ thought it sounded like his mother thought the kid was kind of a couch potato. Learning to ski could be quite an ordeal if that was true. Trying to be encouraging, he said, “You look like you’ve been losing some weight Zage. You been sticking to your diet?”

  Zage nodded, however he looked like he was a little uncomfortable with the conversation. His mother said, “He’s been taking a martial arts class. Maybe that’s helping burn off a few of the calories too.”

  AJ said, “If it’s his first time skiing, maybe I could take him over to the bunny slope and get him started? When I was in high school, I used to work winter weekends teaching kids to ski.” He looked at Raquel, “A lot of people think it’s better if kids learn from somebody else besides their family.”

  Raquel looked a little conflicted, as if she might want to teach him herself, but also recognized the wisdom of having someone else do it. Then she glanced up at AJ and gave him a little grin, “I thought you were about to become part of our family?”

  “Well, yeah, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

  “Really, you should be skiing with your fiancé, shouldn’t you?”

  Morgan and AJ’s sister Tina had come up behind him without his knowing it. Now Tina spoke past his shoulder, “You should let him teach Z
age, Raquel. He was really good with kids back when he was teaching skiing.”

  Raquel leaned back down to speak to Zage at his level. “You okay having uncle AJ teach you how to ski?”

  The kid didn’t look thrilled, but he said, “Sure,” and turned to give AJ an expectant look.

  Before Raquel stood back up, she said something AJ didn’t really understand, “Be sure to watch the other kids and see how they’re doing, okay?”

  Zage nodded and said, “Got it,” as if it were an instruction he’d heard before.

  AJ watched for a moment as Raquel, Morgan, Lane, and Tina moved off toward the lift, then he turned back to Zage, “Ready to try skiing?”

  Zage nodded and started clumping his skis off toward the bunny slope. AJ couldn’t help notice that, oddly, rather than watching his own skis like most beginning kids, Zage seemed to be watching the other little kids on the slope as he made his way over to the belt that’d take him up the gentle incline. AJ felt a little surprised that he hadn’t had to point the conveyor out to the kid, but after all, the kid seemed pretty smart. He’d probably figured it out by watching the kids who were out there ahead of him.

  Zage shuffled onto the belt without any trouble and AJ shuffled on behind him. As they slowly rode up the bunny slope, AJ noticed the kid was still turning his head to watch the other kids out on the slope trying to learn. Taking advantage of this, AJ pointed out how the kids were making their way down the slope and talked about what some of them were doing wrong.

  When they got to the top, AJ moved up behind Zage, ready to grab his collar if he stumbled getting off the belt. However, Zage didn’t have any trouble with it. Like he had when he was teaching classes, the first thing AJ did was show Zage that falling down didn’t hurt. When AJ encouraged Zage to fall back on his butt himself, Zage somehow did it gracefully as opposed to the clumsy collapse most beginners usually produced. He probably learned to fall in martial arts, AJ thought.

  They started off down the gentle slope, AJ skiing backwards in front of his pupil. With virtually no instruction, Zage made slow turns back and forth across the slope as he went down. He didn’t fall. There was nothing really surprising about it, except AJ’d seen a lot of kids learn to ski and it usually took them several runs to look as smooth as Zage did. In fact, Zage seemed to ski just like most of the other kids, but looked like he was completely in control. There were no jerky staggering motions where he nearly lost his balance and then caught it again. When they got to the bottom, AJ decided it was silly to make another run on the bunny slope. “I don’t think we need to have you do that again. You want to try going up on the lift?”

  Zage glanced quickly up at him and AJ had the feeling that he looked a little apprehensive… or perhaps chagrined? “You think I’m ready?”

  AJ nodded, “You bet. I’ve done this a million times. Kids who can ski as well as you do fine. We’ll just go down one of the easiest slopes.”

  Riding up the lift, AJ noticed that Zage spent his time hanging over the edge of the chair watching the other skiers, though he mostly seemed to be focused on the other kids. Quite a few of the kids down below them were pretty good.

  They got off the lift and started back down. Zage started out as if he were perfectly in control, but then fell down.

  Gracefully.

  AJ had the distinct feeling Zage fell on purpose.

  The rest of the run down the mountain followed the same script. Zage would ski smoothly, seeming to be perfectly in control, but then fall anyway. He never fell forwards, always softly back onto his buttocks. Looks to me like the kid’s a little couch potato, intentionally performing badly in the hopes he can say he’s tired and quit early.

  When they got to the bottom of the slope AJ said, “That was a good run for a beginner. Let’s go down again, I’m sure you’ll do a lot better.”

  As predicted, the kid did do a lot better on his second run. Way better. He only had two falls this run. Once again, AJ thought the two falls looked like they’d been staged for AJ’s benefit.

  On the third run, AJ decided to try the kid on an intermediate slope. He didn’t mention that they were going to try a slope with a higher degree of difficulty, just steered Zage onto it, telling him that he thought he’d do even better this run. Zage didn’t fall at all on the third run, though a couple of times AJ got the feeling he was trying to act like he’d almost fallen.

  Even though AJ had the distinct feeling that Zage was in no danger of falling and never had been.

  I swear, I think he only fell on those first runs because he thought he was supposed to!

  They went up again. AJ took him down another intermediate slope, this time leading the way and skiing pretty fast.

  The kid kept up, essentially skiing in AJ’s trail, copying his every move! AJ skied harder, going as fast as the slope would take him. He hit an abrupt stop at the top of a short segment of black diamond slope. He turned to see what Zage’d do and found the kid slamming to a hard stop just like he had.

  Perfectly!

  There were no bobbles. No moments when it appeared as if he might lose control. Though AJ felt a little cross eyed, nonetheless, he calmly said, “You’re doing just fine. It’s not as hard as everyone makes it out to be, is it?”

  Zage shook his head, “You’re a good teacher.” He looked down over the black diamond slope which was covered with moguls, “Wow, that’s really bumpy.”

  Wondering just what the hell he was thinking, AJ said, “Yeah, the bumps make it a little harder. You want to try going down it?”

  Zage studied his face, then said uncertainly, “You think it’s okay?”

  “Yeah, I’ll just go down a little ways and you can follow me. If it’s too hard, I’ll just put you on my back and carry you down this section. I’ve done that for other kids in the past” Even though he hadn’t been skiing for years, AJ felt sure he could make it down this short stretch of black diamond with a five-year-old on his back as long as he took it slow.

  Zage looked over the edge, then shrugged, “Okay, I just do what you do, right?”

  “Right,” AJ said, then pushed off over the edge and traversed across the bumpy slope at a shallow enough angle to keep his speed down. When he stopped and turned to watch Zage, the kid was right behind him. “Um, if you’ll wait a little to start skiing, then I can watch how you’re doing and give you advice, okay?” At Zage’s nod, he continued, “It looked like you did okay on that section. Shall we try going down a little faster?”

  “Okay,” the kid said with a shrug.

  AJ went straighter down the mountain this time, using the moguls to control his speed with many quick turns. He didn’t go very far before stopping and turning. This time, Zage was waiting until AJ waved for him to come on. AJ had the distinct feeling that Zage followed the exact same track AJ had on the moguls. At least as close as a small person on short skis possibly could. Despite the bumpy ride on the steep slope, Zage never looked like he was out of control.

  And, of course, he still didn’t fall.

  AJ turned and gazed down the final section of the little run of black diamond, a bizarre feeling growing in him. I’ll bet if I went down the rest of the way as hard and fast as I could, the kid’d just copy me! For a second, he was tempted, then reason returned, And if the kid has a spectacular wipeout and breaks something, his parents’ll never forgive me!

  AJ took the final section of the run in two pieces. After all, getting too tired was a common cause of injury on the slopes. Zage made both of those sections look… easy. AJ didn’t know what to think. You had to be a very good skier to make a black diamond look easy. He knew the kid had some advantages due to his small size and low mass. Those factors would make skiing less difficult—but it was supposed to be his first day! He turned to Zage, “Okay, that’s the last steep and bumpy section. Do you want to lead the way back down to the lodge? We can have some hot chocolate and catch your mom on one of her runs—tell her you’ve had your lesson and done just fine.”
/>
  Zage looked up at him curiously, then said, “Okay, as long as it’s a small hot chocolate.” He pointed at the intermediate slope that made a pretty straight course on down to the lodge and said, “We go that way?”

  AJ said, “Yep, or a different way if you want. All three of these slopes wind up at the lodge.”

  “Okay,” Zage said heading off down the slope. He went fast and hard for an intermediate slope, but then stopped at the top of the next steep section.

  When AJ caught up, he said, “You okay?”

  Zage nodded, “I just don’t have very good endurance. Is it okay if we stop pretty frequently, like you’ve been doing so far?”

  “Um, sure,” AJ said, thinking, I was stopping so I could teach you, not because I thought you needed a rest. He glanced back up the slope, How could someone who skis this well be tired after such a short run? Then he thought about how the kid had been pretty fat. He was still overweight. Maybe he just isn’t actually in very good shape?

  “I’m going again,” the kid said, shooting down the steep section and out onto the flat below. He stopped before the next steep area. They went down the rest of the way to the lodge the same way, stopping at the top of each steep section for a rest before going on.

  As they climbed the stairs into the lodge, AJ tried to assemble the kid’s performance into a whole that he could comprehend. Could Zage actually have been skiing before? Could he have a lot of skiing experience? That’d jibe with his astonishing performance. But, if so, why was his mother having to explain to him how to put on skis and talking about taking him over to the bunny slope? Was there something about studying martial arts that gave him better balance than other kids? “Better balance than other kids?!” If this’s really his first day, he’s got better balance than anyone I’ve ever seen!

  AJ had a sudden thought as they got in line for the hot chocolate. He’d had some kids who learned skiing really fast in the past because they already knew how to skate. There were quite a few similarities between the two skills. Looking down at Zage, he said, “Are you a skater?”