History Shattered

The Dark Ages: 1. A period in European history between the 5th and 15th centuries A.D. It is considered a period of intellectual and economic regression following the fall of the Roman Empire and prior to the beginning of the Renaissance (also sometimes referred to as the Middle Ages). 2. In astrophysics, the period between 150 and 800 million years after the Big Bang about which we have little information because photons had difficulty moving through space during that time. – Wikipedia

The group’s consensus was that their immediate focus should be on Tyler’s health. He had apparently suffered a concussion during a fall he attributed to the exit from the wormhole upon his return to Station 28. He reported that his fever was at 101.2 degrees when he measured it before informing the soldiers monitoring the comm link that he was going to sleep. The soldiers tried to talk him out of falling asleep after a possible concussion, but he indicated his illness and the trauma of the events of the past two days had left him exhausted. He was unwilling to debate the issue, reminding the soldiers that he was a doctor. If he had actually contracted the bubonic plague, the symptoms would likely become evident soon. That would demand a quarantine scenario, and Tyler would literally be in the midst of a situation where the physician would be forced to heal himself.

This development added to both Monica’s concern and her growing sense of calm. Tyler was obviously very sick, and it was likely that he would be forced to endure an exile within Station 28 until they could all be certain that the presence of any contagious disease had passed. But he was alive and safe and seemed to be functioning coherently in spite of his physical maladies. She had discounted his story of time travel initially and remained skeptical, but Jasmine had made a number of compelling arguments in support of the notion. Since he was now sleeping, she decided it was time to dismiss her respective scientific teams for the day and to check on the current status of the diminishing energy field within Station 28. Even if Tyler was fine, the presence of the mysterious field might serve as a barrier to entry.

The energy field was emitting less than half the energy it had been producing earlier in the day. The decay rate had slowed, and their models suggested it would now be rendered inconsequential sometime tomorrow morning. Yet another reason to send all the teams to their dorms, Monica reasoned. Pat’s team was deep in discussion about the behavior of the electromagnetic components of the particle accelerator, so Monica simply let them know that the other teams were pulling the plug for the day and to exercise their own best judgment regarding when to stand down. As she turned left to head toward the dormitory she paused. Monica wheeled to the right and headed back to the military sector. Mike was still there working. He had troops who would be monitoring Station 28 throughout the night. Her request to be notified if any new developments occurred was completely unnecessary. Mike did have a topic he wished to discuss with her, however.

“Monica, I try really hard to stay out of all the science and let you run your team however you see fit, but this is something I need to be in the middle of.”

“Mike, are we talking the failed test, the possibility of a wormhole, or the contagious disease threat?”

“Yes to all three. I don’t understand the science beyond the rudimentary level required for me to do my job and make sure my soldiers do theirs. But what happened today has implications that are way outside the norm, and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t stay in the middle of these developments until I have a comfort level that everything’s under control.”

“I appreciate your position, Mike. I always endeavor to not step on your toes, and I’ve always felt like you did the same with me. You attend whatever meetings you want to, and I’ll keep you informed when we come across something new. I don’t think we’re gonna have a problem.”

“I hope you’re right, and I appreciate your spirit of cooperation. For what it’s worth, I’m glad it was your team’s shift in the facility with everything that’s going on.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment rather than view myself as a pushover.”

“You should. Goodnight, Monica. Get some rest. You look tired.”

“Right back at ya, Colonel. See ya in the morning.”

~~~~o~~~~

Monica arose with a sense of anticipation the next morning. If she was right, and she had received no middle-of-the-night phone calls to the contrary, they should be able to get images of something other than the staticky gray energy field from Station 28. They should also be able to resume their dialogue with Tyler, even if he was still suffering from the flu or, heaven forbid, beginning to show signs of plague symptoms. She realized that second notion was more hopeful than based on an understanding of what he might be dealing with. The reality of possibly dealing with the combined symptoms of the bubonic plague and the Bird Flu was a serious medical challenge in the best of circumstances. With an estimated lethality if left untreated of ninety-five percent or higher, his was a major medical concern, possibly as serious as anything this team had ever faced while on campus. That Tyler was trapped in Station 28, and unable to receive any medical assistance beyond what he could self-administer with the limited medical supplies stored there, further complicated the current scenario.

At the same time, she had a team of scientists to supervise, and there was the small matter of a particle collision which had produced the largest release of energy in history. That collision had not gone as planned, and there was the still unresolved electromagnet failure issue to be dealt with. All of that would’ve been a sufficient set of challenges without the matters within Station 28. The mysterious energy field and the medical threat to Tyler would’ve been more than enough to deal with on their own. She would definitely be earning her paycheck this week.

After she grabbed a large cup of coffee, Monica wandered toward the military wing to check with the team that had been monitoring Station 28 during the night. The soldier at the comm console was just about to go off shift so her timing was perfect. She asked the corporal for a quick report on the overnight activity.

“The energy field continues to shrink. I don’t know the scientific term for that.”

“Shrink works.”

The corporal laughed. “It only occupies about a third of the monitor image now, so I think it should be virtually nonexistent by lunchtime. Tyler is complaining about how bad he feels. He’s got some diarrhea and cramping in addition to the aches and the coughing and the concussion. He’s not in good shape. He grabbed the wireless headset and took it to bed with him so he could communicate with us if he needs to, but he sounds like a guy who won’t be climbing out of bed today except to go to the can.”

“Poor Tyler! Anything else, Corporal?”

“Nope…, it was mostly an uneventful shift as the overnights usually are, Director.”

“OK…, thanks for the update.”

The next few hours were occupied with the respective teams of scientists reengaging on their individual assignments. They were also marked by the sounds of Tyler’s snoring, coughing and labored breathing coming into the comm center through his open headset microphone. Finally, he awakened and began a dialogue with the soldier monitoring the console. That triggered a response from Jasmine’s wormhole team, which moved quickly back to Station 3 for a resumption of the dialogue they had begun with Tyler the previous day. On this occasion they were joined by Monica, Colonel James and the facility’s in-house physician.

Jasmine took the lead. “Tyler, how are we feeling today?”

“I have no idea how you’re feeling, but I feel like hammered shit…, and if you’re not up to date on your medical jargon, that ain’t good.”

“I probably would’ve guessed that, but thanks for clarifying. Doctor Weisberg…, er… Captain Weisberg…, er…, Doctor Captain Weisberg is here with us, so could you put a little finer medical point on it for us?”

“Hi, Tyler. Can you assess your symptoms for me?”

“Hammered shit wasn’t good enough, huh, Doc?”

“It was delightful. I look forward to writing that in your chart, but I’m really looking for any plague symptoms.”

“You mean like the abdominal cramping, the diarrhea and the swollen and sensitive areas in my left underarm and my groin? Those kinds of symptoms?”

“Those would be the ones, Tyler. How long ago did you begin experiencing them?”

“Sometime after I crashed for the night…, I have no idea what time it was. Apparently my clock has been vastly different than yours over the past coupla days anyway.”

“Any other symptoms?”

“Headache, fever and body aches, but those could all be from the flu or from the fall I took. Let me save you some trouble, Doc. I am definitely showing plague symptoms, and it’s safe to assume I’ve got the flu as well. Since we don’t have an understanding of how the plague and the bird flu will interact, my plan is to fight the fever, stay as hydrated as I can and hope I began taking the antibiotics in time to catch the plague. In that regard, I hope the plague and my body are both operating on your time and not wormhole time.”

The doctor had a puzzled look on his face. Colonel James pulled him aside for a moment and whispered something in his ear which let the physician know that everyone else in the room understood what Tyler meant by the remark, and that it did not need to be questioned further by the medical officer. The doctor whispered something back to Colonel James before he shifted the dialogue to the type of antibiotic and the dosage Tyler was self-administering. They agreed on a slight adjustment to the dosage. Doctor Weisberg indicated a preference for a different drug, but the harsh reality was that it was unavailable inside Station 28. During the medical diagnosis, Tyler was forced to excuse himself to go to the bathroom twice. The diarrhea would exacerbate his dehydration, so the Captain encouraged him to take in as much fluid as he could, and not just water but electrolytes as well. They were all certain Tyler already knew this, but demanding that he do so was a way of reinforcing the behavior.

Colonel James escorted Monica and Captain Weisberg out of Station 3’s monitoring room for a moment, leaving the wormhole team behind.

“Tell the Director what you just told me, Doc.”

“I’m worried about Tyler’s mental functions. He’s a virologist and an epidemiologist in addition to being an M.D. Of all people, he should know that the bird flu and the bubonic plague acted in tandem during the Black Death pandemic. They’ve been pairing up to kill since the Middle Ages. He seems to be acting like they’ve never been present together at the same time before.”

Monica spoke as she glanced at Mike. “Unless, of course, in his version of history they haven’t….”

Colonel James hastily changed the subject. “Doc, is the course of treatment, subject to the limitations of Tyler’s current environment and available resources, appropriate?”

“Yeah, he’s doing all he can, and he at least seems to understand what he’s dealing with.”

“OK, thanks, Doc. I’ll have Private Reyes escort you back to HQ.”

The physician left with his escort. Monica turned to reenter the control room but Mike grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“Monica, I need to be candid with you. If Tyler’s got the plague, we can’t go in there to get him. He’s gonna have to ride it out on his own. Also, I’m having a really hard time figuring out how he could’ve possibly been exposed to bubonic plague if he didn’t travel to an environment where it was present. I checked, and he doesn’t have any plague samples in 28, so it wasn’t there when the test started. I don’t believe in this time travel mumbo-jumbo, but something I can’t explain is going on. I don’t know if there are military implications to whatever’s happening, but I can’t rule that out either. We need to figure out what’s going on in there, and we need to do it soon.”

“Except for the military implications part, I agree with everything you just said. I can’t help but be skeptical about the notion of a wormhole’s creation within 28 which then permitted time travel, but I’m also willing to acknowledge that it’s theoretically possible. If it occurred, then it was clearly an unintended consequence of the particle collision.”

“So how do we go about proving that it did or didn’t happen?”

“Mike, we’ve got the best scientific minds on the planet working on all different aspects of this. Unfortunately, what we’re dealing with in terms of this wormhole or anomaly is an unknown. We may be looking at a unique situation where this particular theoretical construct has migrated to the real for the first time in human history. That’s gonna require rigorous examination and lots of additional testing to substantiate. Right now, as long as he’s conscious, it makes sense to get whatever we can from Tyler. One of the unfortunate potential symptoms of the plague is the infected person lapsing into a coma. If that happens, we won’t be able to learn anything else from Tyler, so if we’re gonna get information out of him, it probably needs to be now. I know that sounds a little heartless, but it’s also what I need to make sure happens as Director.”

“It’s not heartless. It may end up being exactly what needs to be done to save lives, including Tyler’s.”

“Well, it sounds to me like I’m being a heartless bitch.”

“Monica…, ease up on yourself. I’ve never found you to be either.”

“Thanks, Mike…, shall we?” She motioned to the door to the Station 3 control room.

He grabbed the handle and pulled it open. “After you, Director…”

Tyler’s voice sounded weak and raw over the speaker. The coughing, which was in at least its fourth day regardless of which clock was being used, was taking its toll on his throat. He voice sounded low in addition to being gravelly. He must be talking while lying down. Jasmine indicated he was lying on the floor of the bathroom in Station 28 just so he wouldn’t have far to go when a wave of either nausea or diarrhea hit. Monica felt her maternal instincts kicking in, but the reality of the moment was that Tyler was effectively marooned within 28. She desperately hoped it wouldn’t become his tomb. Evidently he had brought a supply of water, tissues, soda crackers, cough drops and meds in there with him along with some bedding and the wireless headset. The station’s bathroom had become his base camp from which to ride out his battle against the deadly duo of flu and plague, or what he was now referring to as ‘B Squared’ for the ‘B’s’ in Bird flu and Bubonic plague. That touch was typical Tyler.

Monica donned one of the headsets in the Station 3 control room. Tyler’s energy level seemed to jump a little at the sound of her voice.

“Tyler, we’ve got a wacky theory we’re kicking around out here, and since you’ve got a lotta free time and are just lyin’ around, we thought it might be fun to discuss it with you. But before we begin, I want you to promise to stop if you start feeling fatigued. Our most important priority is to get you well and back here with the rest of us. Are you up to a little conversation?”

“As long as all I’ve gotta do is lie here and talk, I can probably hang with you except for the rare moments when I need to consult with my porcelain buddy over here. We’re becoming quite close. Please try not to get jealous.”

The group of scientists listening in Station 3 all chuckled. “Hey, before you say something too embarrassing, just know everybody’s listening.”

“So I shouldn’t mention that little birthmark you have right next to…”

“No, you definitely shouldn’t, and you’re focusing on the wrong subject anyway.”

“Sorry…, my bad. What do you want to talk about? Probably this boring time travel shit, huh?”

“Something like that. I do want to talk about a couple of the things you’ve said since we regained the ability to communicate with you after the test.”

“Yeah, have you figured out what the hell happened yet?”

“Not exactly. Pat’s working on a theory having to do with some kind of electromagnetic failure caused by the massive release of energy from the collision, but we have nothing definitive yet. We do know it triggered twin energy waves which whipped back around the tunnels and met inside 28, which kinda brings us to your current situation. That’s the short version of the story.”

“Short is good, and thanks for not using too many big words. If Pat’s on it, we’ll all know an answer soon. That guy’s scary smart.”

“Let’s hope so. Are you ready to start?”

“Yeah, just a second…”

They could hear Tyler’s headset being placed on the ground and the sound of him vomiting could be heard in the background. A minute later he was back on the headset acting like nothing had happened.

“Sorry about that…, OK, let’s go.”

“Alright, the first thing or things, really, I want to discuss are a couple of comments you made since the anomaly adventure you’ve been on. When you were talking with Jasmine yesterday, you were talking about The Black Death and the impact it had on the European continent in the fourteenth century, and then this morning in your conversation with the doctor, you indicated that this was the first instance where your B-Squared phenomenon had ever occurred. If you would, and without going into too much detail, can you tell us again about both of those subjects?”

“Are you guys trying to test my memory or something? OK, here goes…. The Black Death…, that was the bubonic plague, spread by rat fleas stowing away in cargo brought to Europe by merchants fleeing from the Mongolian hordes out of Crimea. The eventual flight first into and then away from Italian port cities was what helped spread the disease widely throughout the European continent. Records from the period are sketchy, but it was estimated that between 75 and 200 million deaths, roughly 30 to 60% of the entire population was wiped out by the plague. It took Europe roughly a hundred fifty years for the population to return to pre-plague levels, and the Renaissance didn’t begin until the continent had largely recovered from the after-effects of the pandemic.

As for my little B-Squared nickname for what’s happening to me, well, since we all know that the Bird flu, or the Asian flu or the Russian flu, whichever name we call it by, comes from the H2N2 virus, a strain of Influenza A which didn’t come into being until the late 1950’s, long after the bubonic plague had stopped being a health threat except in the most isolated of situations. We as scientists and physicians have never been in a position to study the combined effects of the two infectious diseases working in tandem. This is actually a fascinating experiment, or at least it would be if it wasn’t happening to me personally. The Bird Flu is unpleasant, but it typically isn’t particularly lethal unless it’s attacking someone whose immune system is already compromised in some way. Its normal targets are the elderly or infirm, and healthy young guys like me would normally just fight it off. But…, if my immune system is already being trashed by the bubonic plague, then we’ve got a new ballgame. Remember that the plague attacks the lymph system which is a big player in the overall human immune system. With that going on, the Bird Flu could easily turn lethal or at the very least turn the bubonic plague into either septicemic or pneumonic plague, both of which are far more lethal. Theoretically, it would be a really effective tag team. So, is that about what you were looking for from me?”

“Yeah, Tyler…, I’d say that was about exactly what we were looking for. I tell ya what. Why don’t you try to get some rest for a little while? We’re gonna put our heads together so we come at this from the right direction. I don’t want to exhaust you while we try to figure out what to talk to you about. Try to take a nap. It’s 9 o’clock now. We’ll try to talk to you again at 10:30 if you’re up to it. How does that sound to you?”

It sounds like a plan. You may have to wake me up, but that’s OK. Go ahead and do that.”

“Will do. Bye, Tyler.”

“Bye, guys…” The sound of Tyler coughing as his headset hit the floor reverberated over the speakers in Station 3.