Odyssey Rising

by Best, Michael T.

  “Stop it, Harry. Don’t look at me like that,” Theo said to the dog.

  “He didn’t know better,” Ravi said.

  “He should’ve,” Theo snapped.

  “But what just happened? Like surprise! Tiny and harmless looking things attack like a ferocious beast with crystal arms,” Ravi said shaking his head.

  “What can we do?”

  “I’m not sure, but basically I think we just leave it in there,” Theo said “Eventually he’ll either vomit the silverfly up. Or poop it out. Or just digest it.”

  “No!” Ravi shouted. “We need a sample! Anything alive down here offers a possible clue!”

  Ravi ran was for the supply closet. He rummaged through the medical supplies and came back to Harry and the others with a brown bottle.

  “Hydrogen peroxide, that’ll do the bloody trick,” Ravi said.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Ellie asked.

  “Make Harry drink this down. We need to know what it is,” Ravi answered.

  “Hold him. It’s not going to hurt, but he’s not going to like this.”

  Theo yanked Harry Wolf by the collar and quickly forced his mouth open. The

  dog pulled away but Theo yanked him again.

  Ravi poured as much of the liquid hydrogen peroxide into the dog’s mouth as he would allow. The rest spilled from the dog’s lips.

  Instantly, Harry Wolf coughed and fought the liquid.

  “He’s going to throw up,” Ellie said.

  “Exactly. It might take a minute or two. And then hopefully, we’ll get the remains of the silverfly and be able to test it,” Ravi said.

  Ellie reached for Theo’s hand. It was his crippled one. There was a slight redness and a small cut where the silverfly tendril had attacked him. There was a fragment of silver left in Theo’s hand. It looked as if it had already crystallized.

  “Are you okay?” Ellie asked.

  “I guess,” Theo answered.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “Not really. Barely felt it,” Theo answered.

  “But you felt something. Like what?” Ravi asked.

  “Kind of like a sting,” Theo said.

  “Looks like it left a part of itself,” Ellie said.

  “I say if it’s a splinter, then take it out,” Ravi added. “But if it’s something else, maybe you should leave it in.”

  Theo shrugged. No one was sure what the right course of action should be.

  Perhaps life here on GidX7 had evolved into something the group could not understand – cause his hand was glowing silver. Theo wasn’t sure of what had been left in his hand.

  Suddenly, Theo felt weak. Cool and hot at the same time. His skin was pale and clammy. Theo was feeling helpless. Weak. Out of his own body. He felt like he was back living in the desert of his youth. Sweat dripping from his forehead. Was he dreaming or dead? His vision quickly went blurry. His knees buckled.

  “Theo? Theo? Are you okay?”

  He didn’t answer. He could barely hear him. His brother’s voice was just an echo.

  “Th----th---eeee---ooo?”

  It felt like a new madness was running through his blood.

  And then Theo sat down in the middle of the common room, right down on the floor. His body went a little limp and he closed his eyes and passed out.

  COMMUNICATION ENTRY:

  From: EllieL.Odyssey.space

  TO: MsEsparanza.Ark.space

  The following details my observational update of the Positives.

  Theo Starling: passed out after being stung by the silverfly creature. Still asleep. His vital signs are worsening. As ordered by the big brains, we’re not going to move him.

  Harry Wolf (Siberian husky): swallowed alien entity known as silverfly. Forced hydrogen peroxide down his throat. About an hour later, Harry puked his guts out. Fortunately, the silverfly remains were mostly complete, though mostly just a mess of silver and black goo.

  Ravi Starling: Later in the night complained of severe nausea and went off to his sleeping bunk for rest and perhaps the next stage in his own personal madness.

  Sam Suzuki: deceased.

  I don’t want to be the last one standing. God, please, not me! I can’t be the last to die.

  I stayed up most of the night running chemical composition tests on the remains of the silverlfy thing, or at least what’s left of it. Therefore, I can confirm that the silverfly entity is a silicon-methane based life form. While the exterior of the silverfly is unlike anything from Earth, the interior biology is a distant cousin to the Earth’s horseshoe crab. What do you all make of that? It doesn’t appear to have a skeleton, at least not one we would find on Earth. Instead of many types of blood cells, this silverfly thing has a very primitive large blood cell. Its chemical composition has a fifteen percent overlap with the horseshoe crab.

  I did some research on horseshoe crabs and it turns out they’re an amazing, ancient little creature. A clotting agent in the blood of the horseshoe crab apparently can differentiate between bacterial and viral meningitis. As well, surgical sutures and wound dressings made with a pure form of the shell material of horseshoe crabs have been known to speed healing by 35 to 50 percent.

  I also analyzed the video of the attack of the silverfly on Theo’s hand. Can confirm that the creature’s tendril like appendage released some kind of liquid excretion – a silver and black goo that is fertile with microbes.

  I think we got the wrong name for our microscopic invaders. The Yin-Yang Twins should have been called Jekyll & Hyde. Maybe that’s what they are? Maybe they’re some primal trigger to what’s really inside us. Cause maybe we’re just beasts like they are who want to kill and hurt and survive by any means necessary.

  As you’ve figured by now, I need help down here. Need it now. Please send instructions. Please send prayers. Send a miracle. Send anything! Please!

  Your student,

  Ellie Lloyd

  ENTRY COMPLETE.

  CHAPTER 22

  A CURE

  It was morning now. For this planet, it was beautiful. But beauty was far from anyone’s mind.

  On the floor of the common room, Theo was in a pool of his own sweat. He hadn’t moved more than a few feet since he collapsed the night prior and Ellie nor Ravi tried to move him for fear of making his health even worse.

  The silver fragment from the silverfly was still in his hand, but the glow had faded late into the night. Harry Wolf was asleep by Theo’s midsection, pressed tightly into his side.

  Ravi slept in his bunk writhing in pain from the stomach flu.

  The buzz of the medical alarm program woke Theo. When he opened his eyes he predicted the program would tell him that Theo or Ellie had already gone into cardiac arrest. But this wasn’t the case.

  The medical program alerted Theo to some kind of a double miracle. He had a newfound vitality and strength.

  Also, for the first time in five days, his and Harry Wolf’s medical prognosis had entered into a favorable condition due to a fairly sharp decline in the parts per million of the alien Yin-Yang Twins infesting his blood.

  It couldn’t be a coincidence. Even though Theo was groggy and exhausted, he knew without a doubt that the reduction he was seeing was connected to the silverfly sting that had infected his hand and apparently his bloodstream. It was acting like an antibody and attacking and devouring the Yin-Yang Twins. Not exactly a virus, but maybe good enough to be some kind of cure that would prolong their lives.

  He heard his father’s words: “To find a cure you have to go to where the problem lives, all things have an enemy close by, just lying in wait. Remember, Theo, biology is a constant battle and one species always wins or adapts.”

  Theo read a note generated by the medical program and the big brains back at the Ark.

  Your immune cells recognize just one protein found in the Yin-Yang Twins. This means we have identified the specific part of these infectious invaders that can be the protective marker we need t
o make a vaccine. For the future health of visitors to GidX7, we need this vaccine in order to speed up the natural process of our body’s immune system. Please follow Protocol 2011 for further instructions.

  Theo noticed that his hand was especially red and almost the size of a grapefruit, having swollen more than he knew a hand could swell. The silver crystal vein was still visible, though it was no longer glowing. It looked as if the crystallized fragment was imbedded somewhere in the mess that was his swollen hand and had caused some sort of infection. He wasn’t in any pain. In fact, he was feeling much better. While it was swollen, his fingers produced an amazing tingling sensation. It was his crippled hand and his fingers almost felt brand new, not at all crippled anymore.

  Harry Wolf’s body was warm, soft and comforting.

  “You son of a gun,” Theo said as he tugged at Harry Wolf’s collar. “The silverflies are our cure. You hear that Harry? They’re helping us get healthy.”

  Harry Wolf was safely and serenely asleep at the foot of the bunk and Theo stretched down toward him.

  The dog woke, shook off his sleep and then Harry Wolf’s tongue slobbered around Theo’s face. The dog was back in good graces.

  “Look at the results. Look,” Theo said as he brought his current condition up on the Medical Program computer console. “We wanted a miracle. I think we just got one.”

  “A pretty drastic reduction in the parts per million of our invasive, non-friendly parasitic invaders – our enemies the infamous microscopic Yin-Yang Twins,” Ellie said. “Do you know what this means?”

  “Yeah, we need to find more silverflies,” Theo said.

  “Exactly,” Ellie agreed.

  “Where’s Ravi?” Theo asked.

  “Still asleep.”

  Theo ran to his brother’s bunk. His door was locked and so Theo pounded on it.

  “Hey Ravi. Hey! You awake?”

  There was no answer and so Theo texted him. Wake up. Come on. Wake up. Check the medical program.

  Through the sleeping closet window, Theo saw his brother stand up and open the door. Ravi had blood running down his nose. He took a few steps out into the common room, lumbering with the grace of a punch-drunk middleweight about to take a tumble to the canvas.

  “You look like hell,” Theo said.

  “Thanks,” Ravi said. “I hadn’t bloody noticed.”

  “I have great news,” Theo said.

  “I already saw the Medical Program,” Ravi said.

  “Then let’s go hunting,” Theo said.

  “You’re not cured,” Ravi said. “You still have like eight million Yin-Yang Twins growing inside of you,” Ravi said.

  “I know, but yesterday I had twelve million. The reduction has to be the silverflies. Maybe I’m just a crazy optimist with a silverfly stinger thing glowing from my hand, he thought, but there’s a connection, right? There has to be a connection.”

  “It’s still not a cure. You’re not cured. None of us are cured!” Ravi was yelling and Theo got worried.

  “It’s okay. Come on Ravi. It’s okay. This is very good news. Dad would call it an eradicating reduction, or something like that,” Theo said.

  “Great. I’m doing back flips,” Ravi said dryly. “Can’t you tell?”

  “Either the silverflies are the virus that kills the Yin-Yang Twins, or they harbor the virus that kills them or they’re some kind of medicine. Whatever they are, they’re helping us win the microscopic war,” Theo said.

  “It’s still not a cure if you have millions of the Twins in your system and it’s already too late,” Ravi said.

  “You’re all breathing, so it’s not too late.”

  “It feels that way, like a ton of bricks on my chest and pounding in my ears and blood and snot are coming out my nose. Okay?”

  Theo took his brother’s forearm, pulled him close. “Listen to me,” Theo said.

  Ravi snapped his arm down in a chop. “How about you look at my medical program?”

  “I have.”

  ”Don’t I have to face it? I’m going to go blind just like Sam? Don’t we all have to

  face it?”

  “It’s not a fait accompli,” Theo said.

  “Screw the Latin,” Ravi said.

  “I think the silverflies are what we were sent here to find,” Theo said.

  “How do they work?”

  “I don’t care and I really don’t know. The important fact is that our infection has

  reduced drastically.”

  “Your infection has reduced. Not mine.”

  “Because you didn’t get stung by a silverfly and you didn’t eat some of it like Harry Wolf. I’m going hunting so we can get you healthy. Okay?”

  “I can’t see well,” Ravi said, “so I can’t go.”

  Theo held up three fingers on his left, crippled hand. “How many fingers do I have up?”

  Ravi squinted a little. Sweat ran down his forehead.

  “Two?”

  “It’s going to be okay,” Theo said.

  “Is it? I don’t bloody know anymore. I really don’t,” Ravi said.

  “Come on out,” Theo said.

  Ravi nodded and he and his brother walked to the main console.

  “Last night,” Ellie began to say as she walked over to the computer console, “I had a breakthrough thought. What if we haven’t been looking in the right places? There’s always been something odd about the tectonics of this region, especially the Not So Grand Canyon. And so I did another cartographic analysis.”

  On the console, she retrieved a map of the area.

  “There’s always something odd about that stretch of land. The tectonics didn’t quite add up around Mount New Acadia and the Not So Grand Canyon. And now I think I understand what I was missing. And so I reviewed the chemical composition of the silverflies with hundreds of samples taken by our drone probes.”

  “And?”

  “I found that the area near this set of canyon hills has the highest concentration of alkaline and is the best match.”

  “What kind of match?”

  “A match with the silverfly composition,” Ellie answered. “And based upon this analysis, I have a theory. Actually, it’s more than a theory, it’s my firm belief that there is a vast subterranean terrain down there. And that’s where the silverflies live. That’s where water flows. Where life, here, developed and possibly still lives.”

  “You mean caves?” Theo said.

  “Yes. The data supports this assessment. Let me show you,” Ellie said as she sat down at the computer console and brought up a geothermal map of the area. It was shaded red, yellow and green.

  She continued, “We know that we’ll find them where there’s a high concentration of silicon, methane and ammonia, which. The soil samples with the highest concentration of those chemicals was found at the base of Mount New Acadia.”

  “You’re really sure of this?” Theo asked.

  “Yes, the tectonic resonant imaging indicates this jagged edge is the beginning of a labyrinth of caves,” Ellie said. “Consider it the San Andreas fault crossed with the Carlsbad Caverns of this region. At least that’s what the data indicates.”

  “But you could be wrong,” Ravi said.

  “But she could be right,” Theo said.

  “It’s a bloody shot in the dark,” Ravi said. “All of this has been.”

  “Come on mutant,” Theo said. “I need –

  “—what? What do you need? You’re cured. You don’t need anything!” Ravi shouted with all of his strength.

  “Okay. First, I’m not cured. I’m on my way to expelling these little buggers to kingdom come. And second, mutant, I don’t want to do this alone. Okay?”

  “So, you admit you need my help?”

  “Yes,” Theo answered, “of course I need your help,” Theo said.

  Ravi smiled. “It’s nice to hear you finally say it.”

  “You are such a pest.”

  “I know. Just try to swat me away,” Ravi
said with a soft laugh…

  “…and you keep coming back for more,” Theo added. “Dad and the big brains have already sent instructions on how to start the process and they’re working on a preliminary vaccine. But without more silverflies, we’re screwed.”

  “How many do we need?” Ravi asked.

  “As many as we can capture,” Theo said.

  “Then what are we waiting for? Lets go,” Ravi said.

  Theo took hold of his brother’s hand and stopped him.

  “I’m going to give you the rest of the silverflies. You need rest.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Buddy, you need to stay here. Protect the Pod. Work on a vaccine. Dad and his big brains will send instructions. Okay?”

  “I will do what I can do to help,” Ravi said.

  “We have an N of 2. Harry and me. We’re both getting better, and that’s enough evidence for me. You will get better, too. Okay?”

  Ravi nodded.

  Theo went to the remains of the silverfly. They were in a small bowl and they hadn’t changed, nor had they moved. By all measurements, the silverfly thing was dead The group was left to wonder how quickly and how effectively the silver and black goo from the silverfly would help Ravi, the sickest of their group of Positives.

  CHAPTER 23

  THE HUNTING

  As the Pod door opened, Theo and Ellie stood for a moment before jumping down on the soil. They were ready to hunt and had packed a parachute pack as their primary accessory. It was folded neatly and strapped to Ellie’s shoulders. They also had a portable light, some water, their goggles and climbing ropes. Each had a taser gun strapped to their belts. And even if there were only six shots left between the two of them, they could officially be called alien hunters.

  With his health nearly back to normal, Theo had a spring in his step.

  “So,” Ellie sighed, “we have a plan that doesn’t include Charles Mingus or Charlie Parker or Ella Fitzgerald scatting and riffing?”

  Theo grimaced. “I could tell you everything is figured out.”