by Ramy Vance
“Signs of infection?” Martha said.
Carolyn stood. “Rueben-Z wasn’t always like how he is now. He used to be less aggressive, less prone to immediate anger. If you study his face close enough, you might see involuntary eye twitches and tremors. I believe it’s his way of fighting the virus in him. I just don’t know if it’s too late for him.”
“I don’t think it’s too late,” Rueben said. “We can figure this out.”
Buzz nodded. “In that case, I’m going to head back to the lab. Carolyn, maybe you could fix us some of those chocolate chip cookies I’ve heard so much about? After what we’ve all been through, we could use a treat.”
Buzz paced his lab, wired on coffee.
Notes and printouts littered his workspace, and he had scribbled all over the floor and tables with dry erase markers—the lab tables were handier than paper.
Now, he knelt on the floor and began to scribble, trying to understand what he’d read in Rueben-Z’s blood tests.
A quick rap on the door interrupted his thoughts, and Rueben walked in with a plate. “Thought you’d want some breakfast, John Nash.”
Buzz didn’t look up from his crouch upon the floor. “What have I said about making fun of A Beautiful Mind? Just leave it on the counter.” Rueben set the plate down, and Buzz winced at where he’d set it. “No, not there. You’ll mess up the calculations.”
Rueben lifted the plate. “Okay.”
Buzz stood, exasperated. “Here, I’ll take it.” He took the plate, and the sight of eggs and toast did remind him that he was indeed quite hungry. He plopped onto a stool and dug into the meal. There were a couple of Carolyn’s cookies, too, but he set them aside for the moment.
Rueben sat across from him on another stool. He gestured toward the notes all over the room. “I’m having flashbacks to our Columbia days. What is all this?”
Buzz smiled around his mouthful of eggs. His mathematical calculations had been the dominant decoration in their dorm room. They suited him much better than Rueben’s poster of some moody emo French band. “I’m trying to understand the composition in Rueben-Z’s blood. It’s not normal.”
“Of course he’s not normal. He’s a Repeater.”
“I know that, but…the time virus has completely infected all the cells in his body. Yet, they still appear to be dormant, all performing their normal functions as if unaware of the virus there.”
Buzz paused to finish his meal. He dusted the crumbs off his hands. “This virus. It scares me. I can see why none of the other Buzzes could figure it out.”
Rueben clapped a hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “They weren’t you. You can do this.”
“Maybe. But this is what’s stumping me.” He pointed at a calculation that took up most of the floor between them. “It’s like this. If X is the pathogen and Y is an unknown time variable, then with the simple manipulation of the Y variable, as you see here, well, you can follow the result to its logical end.”
He pointed to the end of the equation about ten feet away. “And that’s what happens.” Buzz held out his palms and let Rueben grasp the crystal-clear concept laid out perfectly in numbers and variables on the floor.
Rueben frowned. “Okay, Buzz, I don’t follow. What does this mean?”
Buzz scratched his head. It was all so clearly laid out on the floor. He didn’t know how to explain it any better without the numbers.
“Give me a real-world application.”
“A real-world application? Basically, Rueben-Z and Carolyn are carriers of the virus. Somehow, it only becomes active in Rueben-Z. Either she’s got some immunity or Rueben-Z was exposed to something that infected him first—made him patient zero. All I know for certain is that once the virus gets ‘switched on,’ the virus becomes airborne, and it goes all Michael Stipe.”
“Michael Stipe?”
“Yeah, Michael Stipe. You know, R.E.M...It’s the End of the World As We Know It?” Buzz sang the hook in a flat monotone.
Rueben facepalmed. “So you’re saying maybe he was exposed to something that Carolyn wasn’t?”
“Yes. That’s my best guess. His exposure must have been to the virus’s original form. I think—and this is only a hypothesis—that since it’s a time virus, it mutates each time Rueben-Z warps. Don’t ask me how—I don’t know. But it would explain the slight differences in the dormant virus in Rueben-Z and Carolyn.”
Rueben scratched his head. “I thought you said they were the same virus except the one in Rueben-Z had infected all his cells.”
“Try to keep up, man. Or…shit. Maybe I forgot to tell you. It’s the same virus in him but slightly more evolved. I don’t want to bore you with how I know, but we were right about you and Carolyn not warping anymore until we knew how it would affect the virus.
“My thinking, hopping to parallel Earths resets Rueben-Z’s virus to dormant but warping back in time causes Rueben-Z’s virus to go active. Or maybe simply with the passage of enough time, the virus becomes active in him with or without any warps. From what I’ve heard of Rueben-Z’s story, I don’t think he’s warped much on this Earth if any.” He waved dismissively. “I need to do more tests.”
“What kind of tests?” Rueben asked.
“If I could safely trigger the virus to activate and mutate, I’d be able to study it further so that I could work on pinpointing its evolutionary track and de-evolving it.”
“I don’t know. Sounds like a big risk. We can’t chance turning Rueben-Z into a superweapon down here.”
“Not Rueben-Z. Only a sample of his blood. If we could figure out what switches it on, we could isolate the variable and ultimately stop the process.”
Rueben scratched the back of his head. “Okay.”
“If what Carolyn has said is true, the trigger is time.”
Rueben raised an eyebrow. “How do we test time without warping? Please don’t tell me we have to wait down here for a year…”
Buzz reached for one of the cookies he’d placed aside and bit into it. His eyes lit up. “Your mom’s cookies are amazing! No, no. I figured it out. We don’t have to warp. We only have to simulate a warp.”
Rueben rubbed his chin. “How? Wait, I’m confused.”
Buzz was happy to explain. “Rueben-Z carries the virus inside him, and when he hops to another world, this resets the virus back to its dormant stage in him. After his first death and subsequent warp, the virus begins its course. After a few warps, it’s a matter of time before it mutates into an airborne form and wipes out the entire world.”
Rueben sat up straighter on his stool. “From what I can guess, he hasn’t died too many times on this Earth.”
“That’s good. That’s good. That’s the only thing keeping it from going apeshit in his blood for this long.”
“Are you sure about this theory?”
“Only mathematically,” Buzz said. “Like I said, we need to test it.”
Buzz fastened on his goggles while everyone else in the lab gathered around what looked like a miniature rocket ship, something a cross between a jet fighter’s cockpit and something out of Superman.
“I present to you my prototype for the Buzz Lugger space and time capsule.”
“Wow,” Rueben said. “How do you happen to have it here in this hideout?”
Buzz beamed. “There’s a reason I selected this hideout for us to come to. As soon as Carolyn mentioned coming to Earth-A in a space and time capsule, it reminded me of the one I had started working on in my free time.”
Carolyn grinned. “It looks like the one Buzz-Z made on Earth-Z.”
Marshall rubbed at his jaw. “Holy shit. You mean that thing can go back in time?”
“Sadly, no,” Buzz said. “Not yet. Although the shell is complete, I don’t even know where to begin to manipulate time and space for real. I’m not a Repeater, you know.”
“I don’t get it then,” Martha said. “Why are you so excited?”
“Because while it may not be able to warp
back and forth in time yet or hop sideways to parallel Earths, it can simulate warping back and forth in time. That’s all we need for this test. To simulate the effects of warping on a sample of the virus.”
Aki folded her arms over her chest and nodded. “Impressive. If it works.”
“Oh, it’ll work.”
Buzz peered down at his space and time capsule lovingly. While there were three seats for people to sit inside it, there was also a transparent box at the front nestled among the controls. Carefully, Buzz opened it and placed a vial of sealed blood in it. Then he closed the box and operated some controls on the console. He turned back to everyone.
“Now, is everyone up to speed on Rueben-Z and the virus?”
Everyone nodded—Rueben had explained it to them in terms they could understand—but Buzz still threw out a summary. “Both Rueben-Z’s and Carolyn’s blood contain the time virus. Carolyn’s looks permanently dormant while Rueben-Z’s…looks like it could come alive at any time. Ironically, the accelerated passage of time is what I theorize awakens it.”
Everyone murmured, and Buzz nodded and tightened his goggles. “This device inside the capsule simulates the time travel experience.”
Marshall screwed up his eyes. “You’re sending the virus back in time?”
“Actually, I’m sending it forward.”
“Forward?” Martha said.
“Yes. And don’t ask me to explain how…you wouldn’t understand. Step back, folks.”
Everyone backed away from the machine, and Buzz activated it.
“How far are you sending it?” Rueben asked.
“We’re going to start by sending it two days forward.”
The space and time capsule sprang to life with roaring motors and whirring fans. It began to vibrate furiously as the contents inside the transparent box experienced the simulation of the passage of two days.
Buzz announced over the roar of the machine, “This should only take a few minutes. But, let me show you this.” He wished he would have shown them the control before he sent it, but he had been so anxious to get it going that he didn’t stop to explain his thought process. He clicked on a screen and showed them a video. “This is an electron microscope image of Rueben-Z’s blood before we sent it.”
He pointed at the screen. “This is it. The virus.”
“Jesus, it’s everywhere,” Marshall said.
Aki frowned while Martha raised a hand over her mouth.
“It’s fine. It’s fine, people.” Buzz straightened his shirt. “While Rueben-Z’s blood is completely infected, the virus is surprisingly inactive.”
“What if it turns active now?” Martha said.
“It’s confined to the vial. It can’t escape.”
Aki eyed Buzz. “This won’t somehow affect Rueben-Z?”
Buzz dismissed the notion. “It shouldn’t. He’s in a self-contained, sealed cell on the other side of the compound.”
The space and time capsule beeped. The motor cut off, and Buzz opened the transparent box. He donned a pair of rubber gloves and extracted the vial.
“Now, we’re going to look at what would happen in two days.”
A device connected to his computer had a vertical slot in it. Buzz inserted the vial of blood inside and typed some commands on the computer.
Then he cued up the display screen for the rest of them to see. “This is what happens to the virus after two days.”
The time virus-infected cells twitched and swayed, but the motion was so minute as to be unnoticeable.
Rueben commented, “So this means that even though Rueben-Z can’t warp anymore, the passage of time still slowly awakens the dormant virus in his blood?”
Buzz studied the computer screen. “A good deduction. Let’s try three more days.”
Buzz placed the vial back into the capsule. He set it for three more days. While they waited, Buzz set the display screen up so that on the left side was a snapshot before he’d put the specimen back in for three days.
The specimen returned, and in the same manner, Buzz prepared it and brought it up on the right side of the display screen.
There was a collective, “Whoa.”
This time the tendrils protruding from all the infected cells were clearly twitching erratically.
“I’m no biologist, but it still doesn’t look active,” Aki said. “It’s just sitting in the cells. Waiting.”
Rueben rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t like this.”
Marshall agreed. “Kinda like we’re playing God or something.”
Buzz shook his head dismissively. “It’s contained. No virus can penetrate a glass vial.”
Rueben sighed. He wasn’t going to win this argument.
“Now,” Buzz said. “Let’s see what happens if we pick a longer point. Say, three weeks.”
He returned the vial to the space and time capsule.
After a few minutes, Buzz again removed the vial and prepared it.
When the image came up on the display, Rueben’s mouth dropped. “Whoa.”
Aki rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “Oh my God.”
Marshall, Carolyn, and Martha stared at the screen. The virus was now wide awake. As they watched, the infected red blood cells bumped and crashed against each other, their tentacles writhing menacingly. It was so vivid and clear on the screen that it was disturbing to watch.
Aki shuddered. “Can we turn it off?”
Buzz flipped off the monitor, and the group all stood in silence.
Rueben said, “This is bad.”
Buzz shook his head. “This is good. We know that we now have over three weeks to figure out how to neutralize the virus in Rueben-Z’s blood before it goes full-blown active. It’s still contained. It can’t escape the vial.”
“Then how about we toss this infected blood in an incinerator?” Martha asked.
Marshall nodded in agreement. “I don’t much like dealing with viruses and shit.”
“We could,” Buzz said. “It would be more helpful if we could study this virus in action.”
“In action?” Rueben asked. “Are you crazy? You want to release this into the world—”
“No, buddy. A controlled experiment. Down here in a sealed-off portion of the greenhouse.”
“I don’t like it,” Aki said.
Rueben, Martha, and Marshall agreed.
“But I need to study it further so that I can contain and neutralize it.”
Carolyn hung her head and turned to the group. “I’m afraid I have to side with Buzz. I know firsthand the effects of this virus in the wild. If Buzz says he can test it in a controlled environment, it might be our best shot at figuring out how to stop it and reverse the damage done to all the other worlds.”
Marshall was unconvinced. “It’s crazy. I think we’re over our heads on this one—”
Carolyn grabbed Marshall’s hands in hers. “There are worlds out there that this virus destroyed. As Repeaters, it’s our duty to find a way to reverse all that, to restore the worlds if we can.”
Marshall closed his eyes and put a hand to his head. He sighed deeply, then stared longingly into Carolyn’s eyes. “Aw hell. I…suppose you’re right. That’s a hell of a lot of responsibility.”
Rueben nudged his father’s shoulder. “Comes with having great power, right?”
With a smirk, Marshall said, “I taught you well, son.” He turned back to Buzz. “So how are you planning to go about this?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Friday, May 26, 11:24 a.m.
Buzz stood outside the steel-reinforced door to the greenhouse. He was covered head to foot in a hazmat suit and carried a locked transparent case that contained the vial of Rueben-Z’s time disease-infected blood.
Aki looked doubtful. “I just want to be on the record that I disagree with killing the greenhouse.”
“Not the whole greenhouse,” Buzz said, “only a controlled sample section.” He opened the reinforced door via the keypad on the wall and
entered the greenhouse, heading toward a part in the back that no one else had seen yet.
A knee-high mechanical-looking robot with treads under it for mobility followed Buzz inside while everyone else stayed back in the hallway. The reinforced door sealed shut behind Buzz, and everyone else watched him via the camera integrated into the robot’s “eye.” They all watched on a tablet that Rueben was holding as Buzz reached a glassed-in section of the greenhouse with a hermetically sealed door.
Buzz opened it and set the box containing the vial upon the grassy ground inside. There were a few trees and bushes inside the glass structure. The robot rolled inside too, then Buzz exited and sealed the door behind it.
Rueben and everyone else watched through the robot’s eye as they waited for Buzz to rejoin them. On Rueben’s tablet, the robot didn’t move. A few minutes later, Buzz said, “Hey guys,” as he walked down the hallway.
“Where’d you go?” Martha asked.
“Decontamination chamber in the back of the greenhouse.”
Aki scoffed. “A decontamination chamber? What don’t you have down here?”
“A bowling alley. I don’t have a bowling alley.” With a grin, he took the tablet from Rueben and started tapping out commands.
The robot’s two claws appeared on the screen as it moved up to the box. Then it opened the transparent box and withdrew the vial. Then it uncorked it.
“So that virus,” Marshall said. “It’s active and ready to kill everything in its path?”
Buzz nodded. “Should be capable of airborne transmission once it infects its first host, according to my calculations.”
Rueben scratched his chin. “Host as in grass or tree?”
Buzz nodded.
“Aren’t plant cells different from animal cells? How can this virus…”
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how, but it can.”
“Think a lab created it?” Marshall asked.
