Research

Woman: Erieye Stock
Scorpion: Dracoart Stock

"Good Morning, Linda," said Dr. Van Felsburg with a big cheerful smile. "I hope you are well today."
"As well as can be expected with a big meet coming up. My times are off again."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Anything you can pinpoint?"
"No not really. I guess I'm just off and that's that."
"How so?"
"I'm slower than I should be. I can't seem to parry my sparring partners and my lunge always seems off the mark.
"Been getting enough sleep?
"Of course. With a big meet only a few weeks away, how could I do otherwise?"
"You've seen your family practitioner? It's not a cold or anything simple like that is it?"
"No. Or at least nothing Katrina can find."
"Well, I guess we'll get you into the rig and make a few measurements. See how they compare to the baseline ones we made a few few weeks back."

Linda sauntered over to the equipment and began donning the sensor rig. It was a special system develop by Dr. Van Felsburg for monitoring nerve transmission in the university's various athletes. He had a theory that faster nerve transmission meant faster and more accurate performance. So far, his work had been borne out in every athlete he'd studied. The tests didn't hurt and didn't take long. Linda finished the tests within fifteen minutes. She excused herself and went back to the training area. Although data gathering took little time, it would be several hours before the results were available.

After her (unsatisfactory at best) performance in the practice sessions, she returned to hear the results. Not surprisingly, her nerve twitch timings were way off. Down by nearly 5%. That would be more than enough to put her off her form. After talking to Dr. Van Felsburg for nearly an hour, they could determine nothing that could explain this unwelcome change. He ordered up a battery of medical tests and sent Linda off to the University Hospital to have them done. His name, of course, carried a rush with the staff in the specimen collection area and Linda was hustled in and out within minutes. Unfortunately when the results returned the next day, Linda learned that there was nothing medical that could pinpoint her problem.

"Well, Linda," began Dr. Van Felsburg. "There's nothing wrong that medicine can pinpoint. I have a colleague though that is working on speeding up nerve transmission speeds. His work though is highly experimental."
"Will it help? The meets far too close to have this happen."
"I believe so but only he can really tell."
"What have I to lose? If he says it can't help then I will have to keep training and hope that this is temporary."
"I'll tell Ted Nevmann you'll be over. It's late. Do you want to do it tomorrow instead of today?"
"No. The sooner the better."
"I understand." Dr. Van Felsburg punched a few buttons on his phone and talked to his collegue for a few minutes. "He's delighted to stay and help. His office is in the Biosciences Building 935."
"Thanks, Doc. I'll get right over there."

True to her word she did. Since part of her training involved running, she took the chance to get another half kilometer into her training session. She arrived, slightly breathless, and was met by Dr. Nevmann as he came out of the lab beside his office.

"You must be Linda Kilayney," he smiled extending his hand. "Bill told me all about your little timing problem."
"I sure hope you can help me, Dr. Nevmann ..."
"Call me Ted, everyone else does."
"Thanks, Ted. It's just that I've a really big meet coming up and seem to be off on my speed a fair bit.
"Well nerve speed is something of a specialty of mine. Come on into the lab and I'll show you." He opened the door and let her precede him. "It's like this. Different animals seem to have different nerve transmission speeds. A fly seems to respond much faster than you or I would. Everyone though that it was just big vs small or a difference between insects and mammals. I've determined that there is a slight difference in the way certain creature's nerves work. What's more, this factor isn't restricted to the species I study. I've found a way to transport the special factor into mammals."
"Like people?" aske Linda hopefully.
"Not quite yet. Mostly rats and mice. But the results are very encouraging. Here let me show you."
In his lab were a number of what seemed to be common ordinary white lab rats and mice. But they were faster than normal by quite a bit. Even Linda, who'd only had to deal with the unenhanced variety in her biology labs, could clearly see the difference.
"How much faster?" she asked.
"With the latest experiment, they're nerve speeds are up by 25%. It makes a much bigger difference than that to their reaction time and speed though."

Linda had to agree for the critters were considerably faster than any mouse or rat she'd ever dealt with.

"Does it work on people, too?" Linda asked.
"Well that's the big thing. We've not done any clinical trials but I've just gotten permission to start one. Mostly to help older people recover mobility and such. But I think I can make a case for you being included as a baseline subject representing the young and healthy, too."
"It's not illegal is it? I mean in competition?"
"It doesn't involve drugs at all. It's just a phage that I've modified to carry a bit of DNA from my test animals into the nerves of the subject. None of the regulatory bodies test for things like that."
"Phage?"
"A virus. I'll be infecting you with a carrier virus. But not to worry. This one can't multiply so it can't make you sick. All we're doing is using it as a microscopic needle to inject the DNA strand into your nerves to speed you up."
"How much?"
"Oh its all covered by the research grant. Oh!!! You mean how much speed up...I'm guessing here a bit but I don't see why a 10% to 25% speed up isn't possible or even likely."
"That would be great! When can we start?"
"There's a bunch of paperwork to fill in first. I've copies in my office but you could fill them in now and I'll have the phage ready by tomorrow afternoon."
"How soon would you see effects?"
"It takes a few days. I would guess by Monday, you'll have recovered your current deficit and from there on it'll be all enhancement!"

Linda didn't hesitate and had filled in and signed the forms within twenty minutes. She dropped them off on the desk where Ted was busy doing some kinds of calculations with a computer.

"See you tomorrow," she said cheerfully.
He merely waved to her and returned to his computer. Linda dashed off for her evening training session with the fencing coach.

The next day, she received a call about noon. Ted had the phages ready and wanted her to drop by his lab. She quickly excused herself from her math study group (she hated math with a passion) and ran to the lab. He was standing beside a large glass door.

"Containment area," he said. "Phages are still viruses and I prefer to make sure they stay in my lab rather than accidentally getting out. I've had the medical research stores send up a cot for you. You'll have to spend the night here."
"Let me phone my coach, okay?"
"Already done. She wishes you luck and a quick recovery."
"Oh. Okay then, let's get started."

He led her to a change-room and handed her what looked like a plastic wrapped hospital gown. Linda, who had expected to be able to stay in her street clothes, frowned.

"It's a special suit to help us keep the phages in your body during the first stage of the treatment. You can change back into your regular clothes in four or five hours if you like. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Linda nodded, took the package, and entered the change room. She quickly donned the strange outfit. It was a one piece affair that included a covering for her head, gloves and feet. It turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. Returning to the outer room, she lay on the couch and watched as Ted carefully made a tiny slit in the plastic of the arm of her suit. He deftly inserted the needle of an IV and used a plastic tape to seal the hole over the running needle.

"I'll be back in a few minutes. Bill wanted to see the first results in a clinical trial. I told him I'd phone him as soon as I started the transfer."

He returned about twenty minutes later with his colleague. By that time the IV had nearly finished and Ted connected a second IV bag to flush the last of the phage into her system. Within ten minutes, the process was done and Ted pulled the tape, extracted the needle, painted on an occlusive dressing to seal the puncture site. He then taped the suit up again.

"How are you feeling?" asked Bill.
"There's no way she'd be feeling anything yet," chided Ted. "After all, the phage hasn't even had a chance to circulate yet much less get to work."
"Linda is one of my best volunteers. She's always been willing to help me by doing the nerve speed tests. A lot of the others only do it when threatened by their coaches. I guess I'm a little protective of my best volunteer," he smiled at Linda. She shook her head and smiled back.

True to his word, though, the phages didn't immediately transform Linda into Supergirl. When nothing had happened for two hours, Bill excused himself and left. Ted merely smiled and made a quip about a short attention span. After four hours, Ted led Linda to a large machine and had her lie down. It hummed and whirred and a large object passed over Linda from head to foot. Once that was done, Ted beckoned Linda over to the monitor.

"It's a scan for the phage. I tagged it with a tiny amount of radioactivity so we could see where it goes."
"Is that dangerous? I mean ... well radiation ..."
"Oh heavens no. The total amount in all the phages is about 5% of what you'd get with a chest X-ray. No danger whatever. Look here," he said excitedly pointing at the monitor. "They've all settled in your nervous system."

Linda looked at the patchy image. It seemed to her that all there was on the monitor was a fuzzy picture of a woman with bright splotches here and there.

"These patches," he said pointing to the monitor. "That's your spine. See how bright it is? And the brain, too, though not as much because the brain protects itself with a really tough barrier. The fuzziness everywhere else is all the nerves that lead to your muscles." Linda nodded. Once explained, it was perfectly apparent. "Do you mind if I set up a monitoring camera? In case there's a problem I'd like to be able check on you from home.
"Cameras? Where?" "Just in the main room. I wouldn't dream of setting that kind of thing up in the washroom," he pointed to the door by the change room, “Or the change room. Wouldn't be ethical at all."
"I guess not. What should I look for? And how can I get hold of you?
"Well, you shouldn't really feel anything. After all the changes will be slow. But if you feel dizzy or something like that, call me. The phone is voice activated and my name is in its memory."
"Okay. Thanks Ted. How long are you going to stick around?"
"Only long enough to get you out of that Halloween costume and into something more comfortable. After that, you are on your own. There's a desk there. The computer is on the campus network and tied into the main library, of course. It doubles as a TV, too, if you want some mindless entertainment. There's even a few games loaded."
"I can go change then?"
"Sure. Oh, by the way, I had the folks in stores drop off some sleeping clothes, too. I should have told you about the overnight stay but it completely slipped my mind."
"No problem, Ted," Linda smiled. She'd seen the bedclothes he'd arranged. They weren't what she usually wore but she could rough it for one night. "I'll go change and let you get off home."

Within ten minutes, Linda was alone. The room was sparsely furnished, of course, and the glass walls were a little disconcerting. After all, they showed distorted reflections of her from every angle. She made the best of her situation and did her homework, managed a start on the paper she had due in two weeks using the computer. Then she played computer games and watched TV until 10 PM. She realized he'd not shown her where to turn off the lights. A quick search of her enclosure revealed that there were no obvious switches. Frowning, she wondered how she'd manage to sleep with the lights on.
"I wish I could turn the lights off," she said aloud.

Obediently, the lights dimmed to a comfortable level for sleeping. Linda just shrugged and turned in.  About two hours later, though, she was awakened by a horrible cramp in her stomach. This was definitely not what was expected.

"Phone Ted Nevmann," she ordered aloud. Across the room, she heard the soft beeps of the phone as it made the connection. When he answered somewhat sleepily she told him of her cramps.
"Whoa, slow down. You're talking way too fast for a sleepy old guy like me."

Linda wondered what was wrong with him. He was talking quite a bit slower than he had been in the lab. She obliged and slowed down to his seemingly glacial pace. She half expected him to quip about it but the change in speed seemed to be what was needed. She told him again of her symptoms. He requested she go into the washroom and take her temperature with the digital thermometer attached to the wall.

"You're temp is a bit up. I'm coming in. Be there in half an hour or less."

He broke the connection leaving Linda to deal with another twist in her gut as a second cramp hit.  Linda, who had been sitting on the cot, immediately collapsed to the floor. She curled into a tight ball and groaned after wave after wave of spasms hit. Finally, almost thankfully, Linda passed out.
Linda regained consciousness about ten minutes later. She was cold and lying on her stomach on the cold glass floor. The cheap sleeping clothes were in tatters all around her but she hardly noticed. Although slightly dizzy, Linda was thankful that her stomach had stopped churning and that the cramps had stopped. She felt a bit weak and decided to try to crawl into the cot. When she moved her legs though, she heard a strange scraping sound behind her. Turning her head, she screamed as she caught sight of the huge scorpion stinger poised over her head.

"Oh my God!" she screamed. "How did that get in here!"

She tried to scramble away from the apparition but the scuttling sounds only increased in volume and speed. The menacing tail stayed with her. Not looking where she was going, she plowed into one of the glass walls of her room and came to an abrupt stop. Mastering her panic, she tried to turn to face the monster only to discover she and it were connected somehow. When she turned, it turned to stay behind her.

Ted arrived only seconds later. He quickly took stock of the situation and retreated from the room. Through the glass walls, Linda could faintly hear his side of the conversation.

"Hi, Bill. There's been a slight complication with Linda. It think you need to get down here."