Chapter15 – Ideas
The linguist found Dr. Fields in her medical bay, working on her computer.
"Hey," she said, a slight smile on her face. "How can I help you?"
"Actually, Kate, that's my line. I've been sent here by her Sovereign, Alexandra the Great, to see if you need any help." Daniel looked over at her computer as he said that and was surprised to see a model of the Colonel's DNA there.
"Well, I've found the problem. Just as you said, there's an alien pathogen that was transmitted to Colonel O'Brien from the artifact. The good news is that it is not contagious, but, if I were you or Alex, I'd try not to stay in contact with that thing for long periods of time. Every hour or two, I want at least one of you to check in with me so I can run some tests to determine whether or not you two have picked it up."
Daniel nodded. "What're the germs causing?"
"Well, they're attaching to his DNA, as you can see on the model here. They're destroying it gradually, and soon it'll be irreversible. Just like you said, they react to energy, and they're attacking John's inner organs, particularly his liver, lungs, and heart. I'm working as fast as I can to create an antidote for it, but I'm not sure about what it needs to cure it. Do any of your translations tell you how?"
The linguist quickly pulled out the sheet of paper he had used to write down his translations. Skimming over them, he finally read, "The inscription says, 'The pathogen released can only be reversed by blasts of energy.' I guess that means that the way that we detected it in the first place was the way that we can kill it."
"Yes, but the problem is that if we bombard John with energy, we might kill him, too."
The bay became silent as doctor and linguist thought. Suddenly, an idea came to Kate.
"However, if we put John in a coma state," the doctor speculated, "we could preserve his mind, just like Rick's did, and then shock him enough to kill the germs. I have the skills to repair anything in the human body…if we do that, then only his body would just be damaged, and I can repair him!
Kate just looked at him in astonishment, thrilled that she had figured out the solution. "I'm going to talk to Hoffman."
Smiling, Daniel went back to the 'Gate Room, to see what he could do to help Alex.
"We think we found a way to get the virus out of John," Daniel said as he rejoined Alex. She was almost done burning though the metal and was nearly to the control panel within.
"That's great! Now if we could only disarm this bomb, we'll be just fine." Alex didn't sound too optimistic.
"Well, I'm here if ya need anything," the linguist replied, and the panel cover fell off. "Oh, well, I think my help is needed now."
"Yeah." They bent to study the inside.
The inside of the bomb was hollow with a screen, which was counting down in the alien language on the artifact. Also in there were five glowing orbs, seemingly the power source for the bomb. The five balls were positioned with four to the sides and one in the middle, so that if someone were to look at it, he or she would only see three next to the other.
The weird thing about the bomb was that there were no wires or anything in there. Alex couldn't just cut a wire and be done with the bomb—she'd have to somewhat take it apart and try to find out where it got its power source.
"I don't suppose you know how to disconnect it, now would you?" Alex asked, the stress of getting the bomb disarmed and their Colonel safe finally getting to her.
"As a matter of fact," Daniel said, reaching for one of his translations, "I might." Skimming though it once again, the linguist found what he had been searching for. "The only place where it talks about turning the power off is this: 'In the middle of all; there's many a ball; and once it is North you can see; the left it is wrong; the center's all song; so the rightly right one could it be.'" Daniel thought for a minute. "It's a riddle…"
"I see that! This whole race must've been full of them! Okay…would you repeat it, please?"
Daniel did so.
"Okay. The left and center are wrong, so if I just remove this one—" Alex said slowly as she reached in to grab the one on the right—"it'd—"
"Wait!"
"What?" Alex jerked her hand back and looked at him.
"Are you sure that's the one you want to extract?" Daniel then told her of the danger they faced if they took out the wrong one: by removing any of the other four balls, the bomb would detonate prematurely, and they could kiss their efforts to save John, or anyone else for that matter, goodbye.
"No!" Alex said disgustedly. "Okay…" She muttered the riddle two more times to herself before… "I got it!" she cried. "'Once it is North you can see'—that means that we need to be facing north in order to have it work. From our current position, we are facing west, so if I had taken that ball out, it would've blown up. All right. That's just nice. Let's get into the side that we're supposed to be in."
They popped open the southern panel from the inside.
"Yep, there they are again. Okay. The one we see as left is wrong, and the one in the center one is wrong, as well. So it must be this one…Daniel, how much time do we have left?"
After checking and translating the countdown, he replied, "Less than three hours."
"All right. Let's hope this works…"
Saying a silent prayer for guidance, Alex picked the ball up and removed it from the indentation it had been sitting in. The bomb immediately stopped the countdown and shut off. The bomb was disarmed, but the alien sickness that was taking over John's body still had to be killed before it became too late.
Alex smiled up at Daniel, who turned his comm on.
"Dr. Fields, Colonel O'Brien is ready for the treatment in the 'Gate Room," he said over it, and the doctor came as quickly as she could, all her supplies at the ready.
"Alex, I want you to check the Colonel's temperature all through this," Kate said as she set down her portable workstation on the floor right in front of the Colonel. "We're going to attempt to put him in a coma-like state in order to carry out the plan Dr. Matthewson devised. I need to know if this drug is working or not."
Alex nodded and started to climb a second ladder Hoffman had ordered to be sent to the 'Gate Room just for this procedure.
"Daniel, you get the job of shocking him. You're the only person left able to do it. I need to be up here to check his pulse and see if the virus is indeed dying. Are you okay with that?"
Hesitantly taking a weapon he had never encountered before, he grimly nodded and asked for its name.
"It's called a Joltgun. It can emit large quantities of electricity, somewhat like the stun guns on Earth, though this is way more powerful. I've set it to an almost fatal level. All you have to do is shoot him once or twice."
The doctor paused slightly and said a prayer before continuing. "All right. I'm putting in the serum."
Kate, after taking out a syringe and extracting the cap, said to the Colonel softly, "We're going to sedate you very heavily, sir. It's going to put you into a coma, though it's not permanent and you won't feel any pain. The pathogens inside you are breaking down your major organs, Colonel, and the only way to cure it is to shock you enough for them to die, though not enough to kill you. This way you won't feel anything. It's just like falling asleep."
John nodded slightly, and was thought to have mumbled, "Do what you have to do," before the doctor injected him.
They waited for it to work.
As the wait went on, all of GC-1 had come to the Dialing Room to watch what was happening—all except Damian, who had been nowhere to be found for the half of week the Colonel had been skewered. Everyone held their breath as they looked on in anticipation.
"The serum worked," Kate said, while nodding to Daniel. "Alex, don't touch him as Daniel fires."
"Yes, ma'am," the Major said, and both women backed away as much as they could while on the ladders.
Looking around, Daniel nodded to everyone in the Dialing Room and pulled the trigger on the Joltgun. Everyone watched in horror as the Colonel's face and chest shone a livid orange, showing clearly where the germs were. But, slowly, the orange patches began to decrease. The energy was working!
After checking John's pulse and temperature, Kate nodded again, and Daniel once again pulled the trigger on the man who he would trust with his life. This time, the pathogens were hardly existent, though the Colonel's body started to twitch slightly.
"One more time, Daniel," the doctor ordered softly, hoping that it wouldn't kill the Colonel. Daniel obeyed the doctor's orders. As the electricity flowed throughout Colonel O'Brien's body, none of the orange patches were there. The Colonel was cured, and the bomb had been stopped! They had done it!
All of a sudden, however, amidst the cheering, the bomb, thought to have been dead, retracted its poles and disintegrated to dust in a blinding flash of bluish-purple light. John was free of the two rods stuck through his body and so slumped forward, threatening to fall off the high ladder. Dagón rushed into the room.
Between them, both Daniel and Dagón managed to get the Colonel down from the ladder and to the medical bay. Crisis had somehow been adverted once again.