Prime Slime

Without good air-conditioning, Dr. Lucian’s lab offered little relief from the heat. But, the window unit in Evan’s office worked well, so the students spent much of their time there. In Evan’s absence, they playfully competed for his chair and computer; each day vying for the “cool spot”. Most of their activities–emails, reports, data analyses, social networking, net surfing–took place there. The computer monitor was huge enough to view several documents and images at once. The race to Evan’s office each morning determined who got the captain’s chair. The loser would hang back with a laptop, pad, or phone.

The students conducted most experiments in the morning, when the lab was bearable. By noon, the heat forced them into Evan’s office. Consequently, Terri and Dexter were together a lot, sharing computer and lab space, talking science, and enjoying each other’s company. They helped design each other’s experiments, and shared successes and failures; mostly failures, as lab experiments go. They worked well into the evening, most nights, like typical graduate students.

There was so much to discuss, with all the recent progress in science. Their heads were constantly buried in text books and science journals, keeping up with the literature. Much of their reading overlapped, and they would conduct literature searches together online. Their paths were intricately intertwined.

What’s more, neither student was interested in popular culture, or what normal people do. They seldom gave their passion away to mundane pursuits. They were nerds, who were comfortable with other nerds; sharing quirkiness with other quirky people.

Their relationship was intimate, albeit platonic. She was totally out of his league physically, and he had no illusions. He was to her as Quasimodo was to Esmeralda. Just to share the same room with her was special. Yet, Dexter was no slouch. Few were as bright, inventive and outrageous. Terri enjoyed him immensely. And, he had her like no other man.

Dexter shared the space with Terri but, in essence, she owned the lab. With all the plants cluttering the lab benches–not to mention the greenhouse–there was little room for anything else.

It was unheard of for a medical lab to be growing plants. It began years ago, when Evan began testing MIFF on living things. Animal research was brought with problems. He managed to avoid angering women and the red tape involved in using animals by employing plants in his research. Terri took over this project, and much of the lab.

Slime was the name of the game in Evan’s lab, and for good reason. Biofilm formation was an early and critical step in the infectious process, both in plants and animals. Slime is implicated in most infections, and makes them difficult to cure. Stopping slime was a radical notion and an unmet need.

From that perspective, the students’ projects were not as disparate as they seemed. Side by side, they moved MIFF research forward in both animal and plant disease. The task was largely theirs now, while Dr. Lucian was off discovering himself. With the Chief gone much of the time, his students controlled his office, and the destiny of his technology.

Having a floral nursery in the lab might sound pleasing, but it was often repulsive, when slime was involved. Plant infection manifested in various ways: wilting, spotting, browning or drying; all indicating the presence of disease. Terri was trying to create a black rot disease, like that found on ripe bananas. She worked like a painter, infecting each leaf with a small brush.

After multiple trials, she grew frustrated. To her dismay, she could not find a plant pathogen nasty enough to overwhelm the plants. At best, she produced small black dots, resembling sprinkled pepper on the greenery.

Disease is a tug of war between parasite and host. A successful research project depended on choosing the right enemies. Terri’s bacteria were not robust enough to overcome the plant’s defenses. Despite being real slimers, her bacterial strains were lame. Her best strain was called “Sluggo” because it was so pathetic. Terri could not fully assess the effects of MIFF in preventing or treating disease without a full-blown infection. A deadlier germ or more sensitive plants were needed. So, it was back to the drawing board.

Between flowerpots, Dexter was busy making monsters. With the new, advanced tools of genetics, he was pushing the envelope on bacterial motility. He would spend much time in the dark, in Dr. Lucian’s office with Terri, watching green blobs scatter across Evan’s computer screen like snowdrift. Each blob was a light-emitting microbe. The computer measured both top speed and average speed. The vitality of the culture could be deduced by the average speed, or by total light emitted, as one was linked to the other. It was brightest at the center of the swarm, and faintest at the periphery, as bacteria spread in all directions on the screen.

Besides Evan’s sophisticated computer gadgetry, Dexter’s work did not require much space. He had a few items in the lab, such as a small centrifuge, a few racks of tubes and an ice bucket. The enzymes and reagents needed for cloning fit into a couple of shelves in the refrigerator. His Speedy Gonzales clones were stored in a single rack in the deep freeze, and on a few Petri dishes in the fridge. Dexter’s work area was cluttered with old Petri dishes, containing mostly expired cultures.

In contrast, Terri’s work dominated the lab and the senses. With all the bright colors from flowers and flasks, and the bright lighting used to promote plant growth, Evan’s lab often resembled Las Vegas at night. But, all that glittered was not gold.

This laboratory was full of nasty pathogens, yet neither Terri’s lame plant pathogens or Dexter’s GMO speed demons counted. Safety precautions seemed unnecessary, but protocol was dutifully followed. Terri’s infected plants were properly disposed of and incinerated with the other infectious waste. Dexter’s expired cultures were disposed of similarly.

Dexter and Terri shared a waste disposal under the bench between them. As was standard, a large red bag was used for contaminated waste. It was also used as a divider between their work areas. The bag was collected daily by special handlers and taken to the incinerator.

One afternoon, Terri was in the middle of an ambitious experiment involving 100s of plants, stretching all the way into the greenhouse. The day before, Dexter had finished a major experiment, and discarded a number of old plates in the red contamination bag. Disposal services had not picked up the red bags that prior evening, so the waste had begun to pile up. Discarded plants overflowed from the red bags, and jagged plant stems tore holes through the plastic liner.

In the clutter, Speedy and Sluggo intertwined. Deep in the bottom of the red bag, a sinister marriage occurred. The speedy E. coli SGZ-30 ran onto the infected stems and leaves of Terri’s diseased plants. Two germs mingled, fused, and combined assets, giving birth to the unthinkable: a plant pathogen with lightening speed. Terri’s slimy plant pathogen had transformed into the serious killer she needed, and more. A new creature was born.

The nascent slime quickly worked its way through the refuse, stem to stem, leaf to leaf. It forced the bag’s organic contents into a complete meltdown. Within hours, a puddle of slime lay gurgling at the bottom of the red bag. Fluorescent muck oozed through holes in the bag beneath the bench, forming elongated drips. Slime reaching the floor began to spread in all directions, illuminating the darkness below. Before long, a fluorescent sheen covered the floor and walls adjacent to the students’ workstation, and made its way on to the bench tops.

One by one, the advancing film reached the potted plants nearby, and worked its way towards the greenhouse and to Evan’s office, where Terri and Dexter were engaged in work.

Upon entering the lab, Terri noticed a drooping flower next to Dexter’s bench. She was surprised and perplexed, having just set up this experiment with fresh flowers. At first she thought the heat had something to do with it. Perhaps it was a damaged plant that had gone unnoticed. Whatever it was, it was for real. The leaves seemed to disintegrate right in front of her.

Terri sterilized some tweezers with a flame and removed a piece of infected leaf. She transferred the sample into a fresh Petri dish to culture overnight. With a flame-sterilized loop, she streaked a small piece of the leaf on the agar surface of the Petri dish. If it were bacteria that caused the leaf to wilt, they would be visible on the dish surface the next day. At that moment Dexter joined her.

“Wow! What happened?” he blurted, scratching his head.

“I don’t know. An hour ago that plant was beautiful.”

“You finally have a serious pathogen,” Dexter noted.

“Perhaps, but I’ve never seen anything like it before. This leaf wilted quickly, and continues to do so as we speak.”

“That’s bizarre,” Dexter concurred. “Whaddaya make of it?”

“Is it the heat, or just a bad apple. We won’t know until tomorrow, when this culture grows.”

“Look, there’s another drooping leaf. That’s an obvious infection if I ever saw one, and getting worse in short order.”

“Yes, it looks…very aggressive,” she admitted, slightly concerned. But Terri would wait for the Petri plate results before rushing to conclusions.

As Terri placed the Petri dish in the incubator, Burt Nadley entered the lab. He had come to retrieve the homework assignment that Dexter wrote for him. Dexter, consumed by Burt’s massive shadow as he approached, searched frantically for the paper in his desk files.

“What’s up with the rotten plant?” Burt asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Dexter responded.

“That’s some nasty shit you’re workin’ with,” Burt replied.

“You can say that again,” Dexter relented. Terri agreed with a nod, but said nothing.

“Listen, I’ve got football practice, so…” Burt gestured to Dexter, trying not to let Terri in on their collusion.

“Oh yeah, sure,” Dexter said, as he handed him the report. Without even a thank you, Burt was out the door.

“What was that all about?” Terri inquired.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just helping the big lug out.”

Their attention quickly returned to Terri’s plants, as they both peered around the lab. Another wilted leaf appeared on a plant adjacent to the first victim. And several more leaves on the first plant had succumbed to the disease. Not drawing any major conclusions, the two students hurried out of the heat and back to the comfort of Evan’s office.

Terri stared at the computer, as Dexter stood by quietly. They seemed more dazed than pensive. Finally Dexter broke the ice.

“Research is funny that way. A lot of it is serendipity. It may be a fluke. But, then again, you may have stumbled upon something incredible.” Again, Terri said nothing.

“Blatancy is good in science, and that’s as blatant as it gets.” Dexter added.

Throughout lunch, the two students remained largely silent. Though curious and excited about good results, a disturbing sense of disbelief nagged at them. Terri lost her appetite after opening her green kiwi yogurt. Dexter looked suspiciously at the wilted lettuce sticking out of his sandwich. Something was wrong, but they couldn’t put a finger on it.

After lunch, Dexter continued work with his speed demons, while Terri rushed off to class. On her way, she noticed a few more infected plants adjacent to the ones already infected. All the leaves on the first plant were infected, and the entire plant was starting to droop. She didn’t know what to think.

On the way to football practice, Burt Nadley took a short cut through a cluster of campus buildings. His homework paper lit up the dark archway in neon green, but Burt was oblivious. His thoughts were on another grueling football practice in the heat. The coach was old school, rock-tough, and would not let up on the boys, even in the nastiest weather. Burt had no idea he was carting a green lantern, and was a font of contagion.

Football practice was intense, as expected. Big bruisers like Nadley, who played smash-mouth positions on the front lines, were easily stricken with heat exhaustion. As fate would have it, Nadley was the first to drop. Since sunstroke can quickly lead to something more serious, special precautions were followed. The trainers responded by the book, overriding objections from the head coach, who thought Burt was faking it. They carried him off on a stretcher and rushed him to the Emergency Room, just a couple blocks from the football field. Burt was placed on IV fluids, and hooked up to a heart monitor, with his homework assignment still stuffed down his jock strap.

After class, Terri returned to the lab and nearly fainted. All the plants and flowers near Dexter’s station were drooping. Worse yet, the first plant afflicted had turned to a pile of mush. Her shriek prompted Dexter to rush out from Evan’s office, who stopped in his tracks at the sight.

At that moment, Evan walked in with a dozen organic roses in hand. He had come to check his e-mail before meeting Nan. They had dinner and theater planned in New York. He quickly placed the roses on his desk and returned to see what the commotion was.

“That’s one hell of an infection you got there!” Evan remarked.

“I don’t get it,” she replied. “These plants were challenged with a strain called Sluggo because of its impotence. It’s garden-variety at best.” Dexter busted through the greenhouse door:

“It’s in here too, but at an early stage.” They all ran to see. In disbelief, they watched the plants visibly succumb to the slime.

“Did you inoculate all these plants?” Evan asked.

“God, no!” Terri shouted. “Only half of the plants were challenged with Sluggo.” Evan was puzzled:

“Evidently this has nothing to do with Sluggo. It looks like the contagion started near Dexter’s bench, and worked its way down the lab into the greenhouse.” Sure enough, the pattern was obvious.

“That is correct,” Terri concurred, now totally perplexed. She walked over to the red bag.

“Look in here! This bag was stuffed with plant waste. Now it’s filled with slime. What’s killing these plants so quickly?”

Dexter finally put two and two together: “Turn off the lights!” he shouted.

“Do you think…?” Terri started to ask, but then proceeded to the front door to flip the main switch. It took a second for their eyes to adjust, but what they saw was from another world. The slime in the bag radiated bright green like a Christmas tree. Indeed, much of the lab glowed with a yellow-green fluorescent haze. A thin veneer of light covered the lab benches, floor, walls and ceiling. The glimmer was much brighter on the infected plant material than elsewhere. In the greenhouse, the surfaces were not yet completely covered. A swarm of neon glow moved slowly, bent on filling the entire space.

“My dear colleagues,” Dexter exclaimed, “Witness the marriage of slime and speed: Prime Slime!”

“Prime Slime,” Terri echoed, “the culmination of our research.” The green hue shined like opal in her troubled eyes.

“Our baby,” Dexter whispered, like a man who had his way.

“And a major disaster if we don’t stop it,” Evan added. “Does MIFF work on this thing?”

“I’m not sure,” Terri offered. “Sluggo is highly sensitive.”

“And, Speedy is also very sensitive,” Dexter assured him.

“Let’s prepare enough MIFF to spray the entire lab and more,” Evan commanded. “We’ll nip this in the bud before it escapes.”

Terri rushed to the chemical hood, while Dexter gathered reagents off the bench tops. Evan retrieved three large spray bottles from a cabinet near his office, where glassware was stored. He dusted them off and brought them over to the hood, one by one. It was time to make a batch of MIFF larger than any they had made before.

The sulfur smell involved was unbearable, even under a ventilated hood. “Damn, that stuff stinks!” Dexter uttered, shaking the tingle from his nose. He and Evan held the spray bottles steady as Terri filled them with the yellow stench. The smell permeated the room, the campus, and was detectable for miles. Capping the spray bottles helped a bit. Each bottle contained much more MIFF than had ever been made.

“We’ll hear from Security soon enough,” Evan warned, as they filled the last bottle. Every new batch of MIFF caused complaints across campus. This time they stunk out the whole student body.

Most people on campus were convinced that MIFF was toxic, despite Burrstone’s effort to downplay it. Even small batches caused headaches far and wide. Terri’s head was pounding as well. Security phones were ringing off the hook. The campus police showed up promptly, as expected.

“No problem, officer,” Evan said as he greeted them at the lab door. Evan tried not to cause alarm, but the officer knew something was wrong. This was the worst ever.

“You really got our attention this time, doc.” Fortunately for Evan, the security officer had orders from above to downplay the problem. Anything to protect Burrstone’s investments. Just the same, Evan kept the officer from entering, mostly to prevent further spread.

It was not as easy when the local newspaper reporter showed up; the same squirrelly guy from the Burrstone Gazette, who had covered the Kleb hospital outbreak a month earlier. The officer tried to get in his way, but the reporter managed to peek inside:

“Did the smell kill all those plants? Man, they look horrible!” By this time, most of the plants visible from the front door had been turned into a pile of mush.

“No, it’s a disease we are studying. We’ve made up a large batch of my drug to kill it. The smell won’t harm anyone.”

“It already has, doc. You’ve sickened half the community,” he muttered through his handkerchief. “That stuff melts your brain.”

“My apologies to everyone. All I can say is, this is ground breaking research. Some things cannot be helped.”

“Frankly, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it this time, doc,” said the reporter, as he stretched to look around the room. Evan and the officer held their ground to keep him from entering.

“It’s only temporary, and not harmful. We are developing a promising new antibiotic.”

“You better get rid of the stink, doc, or no one’s gonna use it,” the reporter quipped. He had now penetrated the lab entrance enough to warrant having his shoes sprayed with MIFF. That was enough to make him back off. He was not happy about taking the stench with him. Evan closed and locked the door. Now angry as ever, he turned to his students:

“Time to terminate your precious baby.” Evan growled. “Take this bottle and spray every inch of the greenhouse. Tackle the main lab, Terri. I’ll head outside to check for leaks.” It was dark enough to detect Prime Slime visually.

Before proceeding, Evan asked Terri to culture Prime Slime on a Petri dish. She assured him it was already done. Though pleased with her, he did not show it. The point was to stop the infestation, but keep the bug alive and contained for further study. There was much to learn from this mutant.

They basically gave the lab a new paint job, by spray all surfaces. Since the plants were the source of infection, they were sprayed early and often. They also sprayed inside drawers and cabinets as they proceeded. Evan soon returned, after finding no Prime Slime outside.

Evan may have been Chief, but Dexter best understood the nature of the beast. He knew his speedy mutant burned up energy quickly, and would expire when its food ran out. The further away from a plant source, the closer it was to death. With such a voracious appetite, Prime Slime could not survive long.

Eventually the scientists converged in Evan’s office, turning off the lights as they entered. Evan’s entire desk surface was aglow. The whole room was cast in a dim green. Within minutes after spraying, the room grew dark. Eventually, the desk lit up again, and was sprayed several more times that evening to snuff it out completely. Apparently, Prime Slime could use wood as a food source, though it thrived better on fresh, living plant material.

Terri noticed that the roses on Evan’s desk were not lit up like the other plants. When the lights were turned on, the roses still looked beautiful. They switched the lights off and on throughout the evening, and the roses continued to resist Prime Slime.

After a breather, the entire lab was sprayed once more. By this time, the smell was getting to all of them. Their protective masks and gloves provided protection, but did not mitigate the smell, especially in Evan’s small office. They inhaled enough MIFF to sicken a planet. Holding her head in pain, Terri entered the greenhouse again to spray. She snuffed out a few spots on the plants where the radiance returned. Fortunately, Dexter had engineered the firefly gene into these mutants. So, wherever these speedsters went, the light followed. And so did the scientists.