Wow, I'm never going to joke about something like that again! Seriously, I had this chapter 3/4 done when I posted the previous chapter!
I was just joking about losing my muse or taking a break!
And then I spent several days helping friends move, work went crazy, the chapter needed extra care for being a bit technical, then I changed jobs, and then I had a baby. Well, I didn't, but my wife did.
And with all that, progress on the chapter came in tiny little pieces carved out of late evenings, and with days passing between writing spurts, I spent half my writing time correcting little errors I made with things written four days and four sentences earlier.
My apologies, most sincere, for the great delay in here. I also apologize for the errors that I'm certain are in here somewhere. It's been edited too many times over too long a time for there not to be errors.
Cassie watched the … "virus" for lack of a better word. The thing was far closer to a molecular machine than a traditional virus. It was stripped down - a barely sufficient protein coat, but with an RNA genome that was out of this world.
'Literally', Cassie snorted to herself.
She put a sample of blood into the infectious disease case and watched on the microscope's screen as the blood cells and the tiny viruses met. The microscope didn't have the power to see the fine details, but the little viruses were still blurrily visible, and she could see as they latched onto the blood cells and injected their payload far faster than any virus she had ever seen before.
She kept an eye on the clock and the blood cells. The cell began to leak viruses which began to spread. Twelve minutes.
Impossible. Completely impossible. And yet obviously not.
"Gotcha, ya little bastard!"
Cassie looked over to Vanessa. The woman's bulky suit didn't hide the excitement.
"I've gotten the genome extracted! It's huge for a virus. Almost nothing is familiar, though. No clue what it does."
"Results on the East Coast suggests it makes people extremely nauseous and dizzy," one of the doctors in the room said. "Standard anti-viral techniques don't seem to do much."
There were four other doctors in the tiny lab with them, but none of them were geneticists, virologists, or immunologists. Cassie had quickly realized that she and Vanessa, even though they weren't doctors, were the local experts on genetics and viruses.
"I'm not surprise," Cassie replied, looking at Vanessa's screen. "The coating on this isn't even remotely close to typical viruses - it serves the same purpose, I guess, but it's wildly different. I would guess that our bodies won't even recognize it as foreign."
One of the doctors looked over at Cassie with a puzzled expression. "If it's that foreign, how on earth does it infect cells? Don't viruses trick cells into letting them inject their genetic materials? If they can't be recognized as even foreign objects, then how?"
Cassie shrugged. "I don't know with a hundred percent certainty, but," she paused and pulled Vanessa's monitor around for the others to see. "This part here, looks to me like the pin of a complex virus. The rest of this looks like a simple helical capsid with an envelope, a really weird one, but an envelope. It doesn't even have extensions. I wouldn't have thought it could infect anything, but obviously it does. So, if it doesn't trick a cell into letting it in, it must force its way in."
"Oh …," Vanessa sighed. "If so, that's … that's not good."
"Yeah," Cassie agreed. "No resistance. No antibodies. Nothing."
She could feel the depression coming back over her. She hadn't been kidding when she'd spoken to Jon about this sort of thing being a virologist's or immunologist's worst nightmare. She had gotten up close and personal with far more diseases than she wanted to think about and it sometimes amazed her that the human race was still alive with all the horrendously fiendish diseases out there.
But humans had evolved with viruses, and the two had a non-extinction balance in their ongoing war. However, she knew what a tiny little bump it would take to have a virus pop up that didn't play by the rules, and result in millions or billions dead.
In this case, nature hadn't done it - it had been specifically designed to bypass everything a human body could do to protect itself.
The phone on the wall rang and one of doctors answered it. Cassie and Vanessa went back to examining the virus's structure as the woman talked on the phone. They'd been at this for just over an hour so far and she was starting to fade, she could tell. They'd taken off from Stanford late in the evening, and now she was encased in this biohazard suit and it was exhausting. She wondered if Jon had left with the crew for the Odyssey yet. Here in the lab she felt completely cut off from the rest of the world.
She shook her head to clear her wandering mind.
"So, the coating on this thing is pretty skimpy - a thin coating won't stand up to much abuse, right?"
Vanessa considered it. "Well, it was released in the air, so it can't be all that delicate."
"Ok, so it's not delicate, and it's funky as all get out for an envelope. So what's it for?"
Vanessa weaved a little.
"Uh, Cassie. I'm - I'm feeling a bit dizzy. I think I'm … I'm beginning to show … symptoms.
"Vanessa's going down! Help me get her to iso!"
Cassie grabbed Vanessa as the woman staggered. Two of the other doctors ran over and helped to support Vanessa as they carried her out the lab's door. Two nurses were waiting outside with a cart.
Cassie stepped back as they put Vanessa's suited form on the rolling bed and began pushing her down the hallway. She was on her own, now.
"Don't worry, Cassie, they'll take good care of her. The disease isn't fatal."
The doctor gestured and Cassie went back in.
'Right. Focus on beating this thing. How the hell do we beat it?'
The doctor who had started talking on the phone before Vanessa had collapsed was still talking, but as they came in said a last "yes sir" and hung up.
"That was General Richards," the doctor looked at Cassie. "He's the commander of the Alpha site, but got trapped here when the quarantine hit. He's helping General Landry."
The doctor continued when Cassie nodded. "The Aschen have contacted Earth. They did a broadcast to just about every radio and television channel. They're demanding Earth surrender or they'll let the plague continue. They're sending down forces right now. Leaders and their families who surrender will be cured, personally, and their people will be inoculated against the deadly second phase of the plague. The dizziness and nausea will last for three days, and then they said the infected will die."
Cassie closed her eyes in anguish as the other doctors gasped in shock. Jon had gone up, but if the Aschen were sending down troops, then Jon was gone. Probably gone. Perhaps captured. The Odyssey wasn't going to help. It was impossible to stop - they'd already done the infection, so the only way for Earth to survive would be to surrender.
"... not surrendering. Aschen troops aren't going to land until we do. We've got twenty-four hours to figure out how to beat this. It's not just us, though. Two other clinics are working on this too."
Cassie caught the last of the doctor's words.
Aschen troops would …
Something about that struck her oddly. The Aschen weren't just wiping out Earth. They were conquering. They were occupying. They … weren't ... being infected!
A burst of excitement gave her energy.
"So what about the Aschen? Presumably their people aren't going to be infected, right?"
One of the doctors looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Probably not, but we don't know how they avoid being infected. There's obviously a way, but we don't have any Aschen here. They all suicide."
Cassie grinned. "We don't need a person. I just watched the virus infect human blood cells. We have Aschen blood samples, both doppelganger spies and some samples from Aschen back on Treefort."
One of the doctors grabbed a phone and started requesting some Aschen blood samples be sent in.
Ten minutes later Cassie looked on in surprise.
"It - it infects Aschen too. It … that makes no sense," she muttered.
The microscope's screen showed the viruses touch the Aschen cells and inject themselves.
Cassie frowned and glared at the screen as if offended by the results. The tiny droplet of virus-filled fluid had been touched down on the slide next to the blood and they'd zoomed in on the border between the two as the fluids slowly mingled, inexorably spreading the virus.
Cassie continued glaring at the screen - the viruses weren't supposed to lock onto the Aschen cells! The Aschen should be immune, so the disease shouldn't have affected their cells.
"It was a good thought, Cassie," one of the doctors said. "But, they must have some separate sort of defense - maybe inoculation shots like what they're offering to leaders here."
Cassie sighed. "I guess so."
'Damn! I was so sure! There's no way I would trust inoculation practices against a disease like this. Maybe their immunization methods really are that reliable. Damn. Another showing of how much more advanced they are in this area.'
The doctors went back to their projects and Cassie went back to examining the viruses she and Vanessa had been studying. She glanced at the the screen and saw the cells pumping out more copies of the virus.
She sighed and turned.
'Well, a null result is technically still progress. You'll still beat this, Cassie.'
Nearly an hour later Cassie went to rub her eyes, but her gloved hands smacked her suit's visor. She sighed and blinked several times, stretching her back. Turning her head around she caught sight of the sample of virus and Aschen blood still showing on the screen.
Cassie froze.
Not a virus was to be seen and the cells were no longer pumping out more viruses.
Cassie stepped over and began scanning the microscope back and forth on the slide. No viruses anywhere, not even over on the side of the slide where the droplet of virus-laden liquid had been placed. Nothing.
Cassie switched her focus to the computer and pulled up the recording of the microscope's time. She quickly scanned through the hour of video to where there were still viruses visible and began playing the video.
Some of the cells were still creating more viruses, but others were now exuding a liquid. Cassie watched in fascination as the liquid made the viruses almost explode on contact - their envelopes unraveling in the blink of an eye, leaving the inner contents of the virus to unravel without their protective coating.
"Oh … that's, that's genius," she murmured to herself.
Her thoughts whirled. There must be some difference between human and Aschen DNA that the virus reacted differently with. With human cells the virus behaved like normal viruses, but with Aschen cells, they produced some sort of liquid that killed the virus. No, that wasn't quite right - it spewed viruses out for a little bit, but then the cells began letting loose some chemical that destroyed the virus. She glanced at the clock on the video as she scanned through.
'The liquid began being emitted around forty minutes. So they spread the disease, for a while before making themselves immune! Infect others, protect self, all in one!'
"I've got it," she called to the others. Her excitement brought them running and she quickly explained what she had discovered.
"Yeah, but imagine the distribution issue we're going to face," one of the doctors said. "Depending on what it is, it might be something we'd have to administer via IV or at least shots. Creating seven billion doses of it would be only the first complication."
Cassie frowned. She knew this wasn't a total solution, but it was a start. "We might be able to distribute it to at least people who can fight back."
"Sorry. You're right. It's a step in the right direction. I'll start working to figure out what that fluid is. Hopefully it's something we can make easily."
Cassie sighed. It seemed she wasn't the only one who was having trouble seeing a way to win this.
The doctors all began working on generating enough of the liquid to begin examining it, and Cassie went back to Vanessa's research. The thing was definitely built off a virus structure's blueprint, but it was just as certainly nothing that had evolved on Earth - there was a deep homology among Earth-based structures but in this thing, the molecule handedness changed, fundamental protein types were different, even some of the basic orders were different.
'How the hell am I supposed to decipher this crap? I'd have a chance with an Earth-based virus, but this is obviously generated by hand without ….!'
Cassie bit down on her frustration and started cataloguing the structure of the thing's DNA. There were a few parts she recognized, but only a few. She began working at listing the differences and similarities
The hours passed as she peered into the workings of the virus, fingers flying across the keyboard as she typed in solid findings, possible correlations, estimates, best guesses, and random theories. The dull ache that had settled deep within her chest throbbed as thoughts of Vanessa, but she pushed them aside each time they surfaced, focusing on the virus before her.
More difficult to push aside were the thoughts of Jon. He could be dead a dozen different ways, captured, dying, hiding, or even still fighting. Whatever he might be facing, the best way she could help was to beat this virus.
She pushed back her thoughts of him again, trying to focus her eyes through the suit's face window. She wasn't sure how much longer it would be before the virus took her like it took Vanessa, but until it did she would keep working. The difficulty of wearing a full bio-hazard suit combined with tiredness …. Cassie shook her head and wished she could rub her eyes.
"You ok?"
Cassie glanced over at the doctor who had spoken.
"Sure. Tired. It's not so bad I can't work," Cassie quickly said as she turned back to the screen, "But, this suit isn't helping. Necessary, but not helping me."
"Well, you aren't coming down with the virus as far as we can tell without running bloodwork. I think it's the long hours and stress, not sickness."
"What do you mean?" Cassie's mind was returning to the virus analysis and the doctor's words skimmed across the surface of her mind, barely registering.
"You're one of the lucky ones who isn't getting sick. There are a few out there that we've found. Less than one in a thousand, but more than one in ten thousand is the CDC's best guess."
Something about that registered to Cassie.
"Say that again."
"Yeah, not everyone comes down sick. Somewhere between one in ten thousand to one in a thousand don't get sick. They're still working out why that is. Lots of testing going on. We've got the cure, though, thanks to you. It's just a matter of time, now."
"Yes! That could help," Cassie yelled.
The doctor looked at her askance. "Well, yeah, it might but they aren't there yet and we'll need to produce - "
"No, no, no, no," Cassie shook her head, this time with excitement, her thoughts racing. "I'm not sick. Of course I'm not sick! We need some of my blood!"
"Other labs are looking at people who aren't falling sick. We could draw some of yours too, but we'll need to go back to the iso room to -"
"Nah, just get some of my blood from storage - you guys have gallons of the stuff. Mom made sure I was always donating blood here, just in case. Quick, call the med and have - " she wracked her brain to remember her old SGC ID number. It had been years since she'd thought of it, but there had been a time when she'd known it better than her own address. "Um,379, uh … 379-240-1160. Cassandra Frasier. I'm not human or Aschen - my body will react completely differently to it, and that could help figure out exactly what differences there are."
The next hour passed in a whirlwind for Cassie. The other doctors had been a bit skeptical at first, but they'd done as she asked and explained to them. The analysis she was running was fundamentally examining which part of the virus was causing the sickness by trying to match up known parts of the virus with known parts of a human's genome and the differences of an Aschen genome. Slightly better than needle in a haystack, but only slightly.
With a third point to compare, she'd be able to drastically trim things down, and her own genome was even more different from human baseline than Aschen. It would be perfect to provide the check needed.
Three hours later Cassie and the others were making an excited conference call to General Richards.
"Yes, sir," Cassie said. "The altered virus will react to humans the way that the original virus reacts to Aschen - it makes the human cells produce a chemical that breaks down both versions of the virus. Humans will then be immune to both versions of the virus."
"I see. What are the concerns about side effects this will have on people? We might not have many other options, but I want to be damn sure this doesn't make things worse."
The base's CMO answered. "We're going to be testing it, but it certainly can't make things worse. Dr. Frasier was able to determine exactly which part of the virus needed tweaked. It's a very, very small part. We altered the virus so that it treats human cells like Aschen cells. It's a simple marker. The Aschen are just fine exposing themselves to this, so I'm quite certain it will be fine to - "
The video conferencing screen suddenly expanded with two new callers joining in. General Landry and General O'Neill suddenly appeared.
"Sorry to jump in, General Richards," Landry interrupted. "General O'Neill needs to get some information from these people immediately."
General Richards nodded.
"Cassie, good to see you" General O'Neill said from the screen. "We need to make a couple decision quickly. We have several plans we could implement, but if the Aschen statements are accurate about the lethality of this disease, we need to know before we can act. Cassie, you and the SGC have made far and away the most progress on the disease. Are the Aschen bluffing or not?"
Cassie felt a rush of nerves as it dawned on her that she was giving the input on something like this. She didn't know what options Jack had, but … whew.
"They aren't bluffing, Ja - General - it's easily within their capability and parts of the virus - "
Cassie stopped herself from jumping into a more detailed discussion of the virus.
" - well, it looks like it is probably lethal. But we've got a cure! At least we're pretty sure we've got the cure!" She rushed ahead. "The virus infects Aschen just like it infects humans, but instead of making them sick, it causes their bodies to produce a defense. It's brilliant. We've changed the virus so that it treats humans the same way. We'll be immune."
The silver-haired figure stared at her for several long seconds and Cassie unconsciously held her breath.
A slow grin formed at the corner of Jack's mouth, his expression softening.
"Damn, but Sam's gonna bust a button when she hears."
Then he shook his head minutely, pulling his 'General' look back in place.
"How soon will you know if it works?"
Cassie looked at the CMO who waved her to go on.
"We've seen an immune response in samples of blood. We haven't tried live trials. Thats what this conference is about."
"If live trials started immediately, how soon would you know if it works?"
"We saw responses in blood samples at forty minutes. Live tests should be about that time frame, but that's only an estimate."
Jack winced a little and Cassie wondered what possible responses they had under consideration.
"That will have to do. We've got to know if this works or not as soon as possible. As soon as possible. Go."
Jack's screen went away.
"General Richards, you've got this," General Landry said. "Test now. Let me know as soon as you possibly can. We can make a hell of a response, but their response will likely be bigger. We need to know if it's worth fighting. If we can't beat this disease, we've got to surrender, but if we can beat it, we'll implement some assets that we think will hold them off for a while."
General Richards nodded gravely and Cassie wondered what the plan was. No one seemed very happy about it, whatever it was.
"Start testing immediately. Go."
A chorus of "Yes sir," came from the room as they all stood up from their chairs and headed toward the door.
"Oh god, please let this work," muttered the CMO as they left the room.
Cassie nodded.
'Please, please, please let this work.'
A/N: I didn't realize I had forgotten so much about virology! Sheesh! That, and I kept editing it, trying to get the right feel. Anyone ever seen "Andromeda Strain"? A 1970s movie about an alien virus. Lots of high tension lab scenes. I was aiming for that - trying to balance the feeling of long and exhausting effort being put into the lab work without making it completely boring.
Another of my (many) pet peeves, are tech/science developments that are ludicrously quickly done. Five minutes to sequence, fully decode a whole genome, and then make a pint of antibodies? Ten minutes to turn some bits of computer and wire into a radar? Sure! Why not!? :-( Grrr.
However, another pet peeve is that SG-1 never seemed to have any advanced tech in "casual" use. So, instead of it taking days/weeks to edit a virus's code, I'm sticking some restored equipment of Nirrti's into the background of this story so they can quickly do things like edit the virus.
Yes, I do realize my story is violating my "instant tech" pet peeve. But it's satisfying my why-don't-you-all-ever-use-any-of-the-cool-stuff-you-find pet peeve. So ... shrug. Hopefully it's not too grating for anyone.
