2199 Extinction

Another Ten Years later...

        "I definitely suggest that we err on the side of caution. I did attempt to warn her away from him, but I know she did not listen. She was angry about being here, I can't blame her but still." I shrug my shoulders to emphasize my point. I guess it's possible she was coerced, somehow. I sigh, disappointed that my years-old plan failed.

        "I'll tell you what, I'll take the first dose, if I die, or it doesn't work, then you can rework the formula."

     Twenty years have passed since I held my first baby in my arms. I made it through my ten years of military training and have spent the last ten years trying, desperately, to come up with a vaccine to stop Malum's disease. I was about five years into my military training when I ran into my former mother. Just bumped into her at some space station out on the outskirts of the Nibshaa system.

        She was there because of some sort of ecological disaster. There was no light of recognition in her eyes, only anger. Her not recognizing me hurt, I had to remind myself that in this timeline she doesn't know me, didn't raise me. While I'm sure that despite her anger at the Copaie for kidnapping her; she would never release that virus.

         But I'm still worried that will happen. Malum is Malum. And I saw him that day, by her side. I wanted to shake her and ask her why she married him again, but that wouldn't solve any problems, only make things worse. So, instead, I went straight to Cequill. He started working on an antiviral to try to keep us all alive. As soon as my required five years with my spouse were up, I joined him. Day and night we work, determined to keep our race from extinction.

       "And if the formula is wrong? If you should die? I would have to leave Saltu. Your grandfather and mother would both have my head. No. I'll take it first." Cequill says, picking up a syringe full of green liquid, and inserting it into his left arm.

        "We are running out of time!" I say, picking up another needle, jamming it into my arm, and emptying its contents before he can stop me. "Have a little faith in your work, in our work. Besides, if it doesn't work, my mother and grandfather are the least of your concerns."

         According to the notes I memorized, the virus not only stops the cells from reproducing, but it causes some sort of rapid heating that destroys the cells completely. The notes were incomplete, and I wasn't able to get ahold of another researcher. After that day, they quit leaving Talfar, altogether. I made sure they never saw me, and I left their notes as I found them. Talfarian researchers have always been paranoid, but the memory blackout probably made that paranoia even worse.

        "Well, it's been ten minutes and I still feel fine. Let's draw some blood and find out." He says, grabbing an empty needle. I watch him draw his own blood and then insert a droplet unto a slide. He sticks the slide under the microscope, places his eyes to it, and begins to play with the settings.

         "Anything?" I ask, impatiently. I fold my arms across my chest and wait.

          "Hm." He grunts, still playing with the dials. "Maybe. Just maybe. Okay. There we go." He says backing up. Here's the blood I just took."

          I uncross my arms, walk over and look into the microscope. "I can see a lot of roundish discs." I back up and look at Cequill.

       "Yes. Yes. Those 'roundish discs' are the blood cells. Did you see it?" He asks, impatiently.

         I look back into the microscope again. "Um. No. What am I supposed to be seeing?" I look back at the doctor again.

         He sighs, clearly annoyed. "Maybe from my many years of being a doctor. Hold on let me get something." He goes to the nearby refrigerator, pulls a slide out, removes the one with his blood, and puts the new one in. "This is the blood I took earlier, just so we could have a comparison. Now have a look."

        I look again. "What am I looking for?"

             "The difference. The difference. Here." He says, switching out the samples.

            I look away, blink, and look again. "I'm sorry, I still don't...wait. Is that? It looks like the fresh sample has some sort of blue outline. Is that normal? Put the old blood back under." He swaps them out again. "Now swap back to the new." He does, and I look closely at the sample before looking up. "The blue outline, is that from our antiviral?"

         "Yes. I would think so. Looks like it might have possibly worked. I need to be sure, though." Cequill says, digging through drawers and muttering to himself. He pulls out a small square piece of metal, from one of the drawers, and walks away, leaving the drawer wide open. He takes the square metal to the slide, flips a switch on it, and flames appear. He holds the flames to the slide, just enough to slightly heat the blood. After a few seconds, he turns the flames back off and looks under the microscope. "It worked! Come see!" He shouts and waves me over.

         I look under the microscope but don't notice any changes. "Cequill, I really don't know what I'm looking at. Everything looks the same."

       "Exactly! That heat should have killed the blood cells, but it didn't!" He clicks the flame back on and holds it back to the slide. He's looking under the scope again when I hear a faint pop sound. He turns off the flames and looks up.

        "What was that?" I ask. ​

         "Just the slide. I got it too hot, and it popped. Yes. Yes. I figured that would happen. No problem. I can fix it." Cequill puts the small flamer, away and pulls a fresh slide out of a drawer. He adds another drop of blood from the vial, he took earlier. "Now to find...I know I have it somewhere...." He starts muttering to himself again.

          I just back up and watch as he digs through the refrigeration unit. He is definitely excited. Maybe we have succeeded. Maybe we will be able to protect my people, after all. After a few minutes of digging, he comes up with a small vial and walks back to the microscope.

          "We have to be very careful with this. It's the poison of the Venvos plant. It attacks the cells and kills them almost instantly. Very few creatures can survive its poison. That's why I keep it. Trying to find a cure. If this works...." Cequill trails off. "Oops. Safety first. I got carried away."

          He carefully sets the vial into a holder and rummages around until he comes up with a thick pair of gloves. He grabs the small vial, and a glass dropper, removes the stopper and then drops a few drops of the poison onto the blood slide. He puts the stopper back onto the vial and puts it back into the refrigeration unit. "That should be enough time." He mumbles as he walks back over to the microscope to take a look.

       I wait, for what seems like an eternity, and then watch as he pulls away. Did it work? I hold my breath and wait to hear the verdict.

        He slowly pulls off the gloves and lays them down before answering. "It worked! The blood cells are still alive! The poison is unable to break through the blue barrier. I even added some poison directly to a few cells and it still couldn't break through." He says, excitedly.

       "You did it! Our people are safe!" I shout, hugging him in my excitement.

          "You mean, we did it. We saved our people." He says, emphasizing the word we. "I wouldn't have even known what to do if you hadn't found that research. But enough celebrating, I have to start mass producing this serum as soon as possible." With that, he turns around and ignores me, again.