“The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 24: Further Experimentation
Anthony Barlow picked the phone up as soon as it rang this
time. He wasn’t about to miss this call. Things were getting more extreme and
he was anxious to get a handle on them.
“Good evening, Barlow residence,” he answered.
“Hello, Mr. Barlow. This is Harry Wittmore again,” came the
reassuring voice he’d been so anxiously awaiting.
“What have you got for me?” Anthony asked, hardly able to
contain his nerves. Things hadn’t been going well at home.
“Well, I’ve got some upsetting news,” Harry warned him.
Damn, the little shithead left town and it’s too late to
catch him, Anthony thought to himself as his mind filled in the likeliest
possibility of what happened. He’d tried to settle things with his daughter,
Grace, after she’d been running after this Alex character. This supposed
angel. He’d put his foot down, trying to get her to see where things stood, but
she’d resisted. Now she had moved out and he had no way of keeping track of
her. Hopefully the little scammer had left town before he could take anything
from her, but….
“And what would the bad news be?” Anthony asked since Harry
wasn’t forthcoming.
“Remember when I said I was having my associate, Ms. Evens,
try to make inroads with the ‘angel community’ here in New Orleans?” he asked.
“Well, she wasn’t so much my associate as she was my girlfriend,” Harry
confessed, leaving Anthony confused as to why he was talking about nonsense
when his client was so anxious. “It turns out it worked well, too well in fact.
They accepted her as if she was one of their own, and it turns out that isn’t
that far from the truth. They told her they thought she had some ‘traits’ that
this angel character is looking for, and that she should seek him out in order
to learn ‘who she is’ so he could ‘reveal a whole new world to her’.”
Anthony’s hands grew cold. This wasn’t going the way he’d
anticipated at all.
“She made some good points about it, and there’s one thing
I’ve learned seeking out people’s dirty laundry over the years, and that nobody
is helped by suspicion. Even if I find no evidence of cheating, the person who
seeks my services isn’t always appeased, and if I find it neither party is happy.
Jealousy and possessiveness can be poisonous, and a lack of trust destroys more
marriages than infidelity ever has. Cheating can be dealt with, whereas the
absence of trust, justified or not, can’t be. I’ve learned that
suspicion is about the worst thing you can do to a relationship, and I’m not
going to fall into that trap. My own relationship is too important to me for me
to poison it with my own insecurities.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Anthony asked, his
hands literally shaking with rage even though he managed to keep his voice
neutral and somewhat calm, finding himself frustrated with this man’s inability
to get to the point.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that I’ve got a conflict of
interest here, and my relationship with my girlfriend is more important to me
than what you’re paying me, so I’ll have to cancel our arrangement. Now I’ll
give you recommendations for others in the field you can use instead, but—”
Anthony’s mind starting sprinting at that point, he had to
get ahead of this. There wasn’t much time before that Alex creep left town,
either with his money, his daughter’s dreams, or even possibly with his
daughter. He didn’t have time to dick around with some confused gumshoe.
“That’s OK, I’m not interested in anyone else,” he
responded, having found the reservoir to respond somewhat calmly, an idea
growing that gave him the confidence to withhold his anger and frustration. “I’ll
tell you what, Mr. Wittmore, I think we can come to an understanding if you can
do me a little favor.”
“Yes,” Harry asked, intrigued but cautious about what he
might be asked to do for the amount of money they were talking about here.
“Just tell me where your girlfriend is supposed to meet with this
Angel, and I’ll forget what I’ve already paid you, and I’ll even throw in a
nice little bonus. I just want to see what this character is up to myself,
maybe ask him what he’s after. I don’t mean to cause anyone any trouble, but I
just want to make sure that my little girl is going to be OK. If he can assure
me that—” Harry didn’t even wait for him to finish before he made up his mind.
“Sure, I think I can do that. He’s supposed to show up at a
Diane Kennedy concert in Dallas on Saturday evening. I don’t know how long he’s
going to be there, or where he’s supposed to go after that, but that’s where
she’s planning on meeting him. In fact, she’s already made … hello? Are you
there? Did we get disconnected, Mr. Barlow?”
That night’s concert went much better than the ones in
Houston. It didn’t attract quite as many people, which didn’t bother Alex since
he’d been a bit overwhelmed at the Astrodome. Alex took to hiding in the men’s
room again, but he wasn’t accosted there this time, although he did find
several women waiting for him when he came out as the concert was about to
begin. Like they’d done before, they used the people they met that day to work
the crowd, and since they now had more experience at it they managed to avoid
some of the scenes they’d had the other night.
In all they got fewer new followers than they did in Houston,
but they still got more than they normally did, so the numbers still stunned
Alex, who was still used to meeting one or two at a time, not dozens. There was
only one Seer this time, but there were quite a few Watchers.
At the end of the evening, when they met in the stadium
parking lot, Alex was once again faced with a small dilemma: who to take to bed
with him. As usual, Alex wasn’t really anxious about sleeping with anyone, but
he had the same problem he’d faced before, he felt he needed to leave someone
in charge of the local community, or at least someone who could provide some
security for them, once he left. But as usual it wasn’t quite as clear cut as
that. Martha Dunbar and Linny Gabberts were both from out of town, so they
wouldn’t be able to help with the community if they weren’t there frequently
enough. Caity would have been a good choice, but she was a good Mormon girl who
didn’t believe in premarital sex, even if it involved an angel who was looking
to change the world. What’s more, being active military she’d only be in the
area for a short time anyway. The new Seer wasn’t much better, as she already
had several kids, none of whose father’s supported them. It seemed she fell
into the trap many women do, falling for ‘bad boys’ while ignoring their
own intuition, despite how strong it may be.
Knowing he couldn’t really get out of it, Alex chose two
Watchers. While they wouldn’t be able to protect his fledgling community like a
Seer could, at least they’d be in a better position to help those within it.
One of those was Lisa Beadrow, the Macy’s sales girl, while the other was Debbie
Barrows, a Hispanic-American that Alex thought might be able to reach out to
the local Hispanic community to connect to anyone who might not relate to the
mostly white people he’d met so far.
Although Alex tried to respect everyone’s personal choices and
beliefs, he couldn’t see Caity’s worries about her chastity. After all, if God
could forgive her of his greatest sin, that of taking a life, then surely he
could forgive one instance of premarital sex to help others like herself.
Caity had relayed a bit of her personal history from her
last trip to Afghanistan that she’d just returned from that continued to
trouble her. Like the other Seers, she’d recognized how useful her sense of
intuition was, and it served her well. She’d often know just where to focus
when a new patient came in, even when there were no physical symptoms to
indicate there was a problem. Like when an IED victim came in and she worked on
his stomach rather than his shredded arm. It turned out he was suffering from
internal bleeding that, if untreated, would have killed him.
Caity’s experience had led her to trust her intuition, and
it had proved vital in Afghanistan. However, she was out with her unit one day
when they ran into trouble. An Afghani vehicle ‘just happened’ to break down in
front of their convoy on a narrow road, enroute back to their FOB (forward
operating base). The translator went to speak with the driver while the rest of
the unit went on high alert guarding against an ambush. While trying to get
situated, she’d felt a sudden sense of maliciousness. She knew such animosity
didn’t bring good things, so going against her training and ROE (rules of
engagement), she used her rifle to shoot into an obstructed doorway. There was
a cry from within, and a moment later a young boy of about fifteen years of age
came stumbling out, only to collapse on the ground in front of the building he
was in.
In semi-passable English he called out to them for help.
Caity’s heart went out to him and she felt terrible for what she’d done, but
she still couldn’t shake that sense of hostility coming from him. When the
other medic and one of her fellow soldiers started to move towards the boy, she
held them back. Trusting her judgment, even though she didn’t explain why she was
hesitating, they watched him as he pleaded for help.
Finally, seeing they weren’t going to come to assist him, he
finally cursed at them in Pashtun, raised his right hand and pressed the
plunger he’d been holding. His body exploded, killing him and spraying the
building with shrapnel and gore. That very well could have been Caity and the members
of her unit if she hadn’t hesitated. It was a trap laid out for them. If she
hadn’t shot him, he likely would have walked up to them. If they’d gone to help
him they would have died.
But she still couldn’t shake her sense of guilt she felt
from causing his death. First, that she had shot someone who hadn’t actually
threatened her, and second, she had a direct role in his death, even if it was
at his own hands. She knew it made no sense, and she made no apologies for her
actions, but it continued to haunt her. Thus she confessed the incident to
Alex, hoping he’d grant her the absolution she desired.
He told her that he personally forgave her, and that he was
sure that God wouldn’t blame her, which seemed to set her mind at ease. Despite
her willingness to have his children, she still remained firm in her decision
to remain chaste until she was married in the Mormon Church, though.
“You aren’t interested in converting to Mormonism, are you?”
she asked. “You could keep your harem, as long as you married each of them,”
she teased.
Cate liked the two girls and they got along well, but she
was mostly pleased that Alex wasn’t stressing himself about his inability to
boost the perfect girl for the situation, like he had the other night.
Hopefully that would keep him from getting himself into ridiculous situations
like he had the previous night. Gail also liked the two girls, but then she
usually liked all the women he brought home, as they were usually easy on the
eyes. Unfortunately, they tended to be straight, too, so she didn’t get to play
along with him, but she was glad for what she could get and she’d take watching
over total abstinence any day.
Cate had decided she liked having her brother warn whoever
he was with that she might show up to cuddle with him. Somehow it seemed
less creepy that way, and she didn’t discount that hearing it from him made it
sound more acceptable to the girls as well. So while Alex dallied with his two
Watchers, Cate and Gail entertained each other in the other room, knowing Gail
could always detect when he had an orgasm with one of his girls from their
shared telepathic connection. That way Cate was right on time with his snack,
and she snuggled into his bed once she was sure the two girls had fallen
asleep.
Debbie had also provided her own little surprise when Alex
asked at the last moment whether she was protected. She’d just smiled and told
him she wasn’t afraid of sleeping with an angel, and she also wasn’t afraid of
carrying said angel’s baby out of wedlock. What resulted were several long minutes
as Alex tried to talk her out of her decision, but she wasn’t to be dissuaded
and he finally relented, since that was one aspect of his mission. Lisa wasn’t
as anxious to get pregnant at the moment, but she looked at Debbie holding her
stomach afterwards with a certain feeling of jealousy, thinking both how nice
it would be to have her own child and how wonderful it would be to grasp the
future in your hands by potentially bringing the next angel into being.
Needless to say, emotions were running high that night.
The next morning saw them all bright and chipper, as usual,
although Gail was a bit grouchy without her coffee. After all, she hadn’t
gotten a shot of the big O the night before. Cate, though, was fine after
having soaked up energy from Alex all night, even if she hadn’t gotten to fool
around herself.
Arriving at breakfast, there was quite a crowd awaiting
them. Alex had asked the girls not to cause a disruption by surrounding him,
but it only went so far. Martha was there with her three grandkids, along with
her son-in-law, who didn’t look very comfortable meeting Alex. Caity was there
too, as were two new Watchers who’d been waiting for him.
Of the young girls, one was a Seer and another was a
Watcher, though they were aged seven and five, respectively. They both stared
at Alex as if he were a certain purple dinosaur, although the one girl had
trouble looking directly at him, while their sister ignored him the whole time.
Their father eventually paid for breakfast, but never warmed up to Alex, as he
couldn’t bring himself to believe the wild tales his mother-in-law had told
him, although the girls’ reactions to Alex said the same thing more eloquently.
Alex gave then an overview of what they needed to know, promising them he’d
tell them a little bit at a time over time, so that they could learn more as
they needed it, rather than all at once.
As they were leaving for the hospital, Cate asked Caity if
she’d “made any arrangements”. She replied that she had, and had made
reservations for later, but neither would explain to Alex what they were
talking about.
They stopped off at a clinic that Cate directed them to,
where Alex met yet another fertility specialist and made a certain deposit
while the girls waited. They talked to the doctor for a while, ensuring she was
qualified to care for anyone getting pregnant in the community, and that she
could keep and respect their secrets. When they were comfortable that she was,
they headed off.
Alex was nervous as they approached the gate of the Brooke Army
Medical Center. He had severe reservations about entering the military base,
being a bit paranoid about what the ‘government’ might do if they had any idea
of what he was capable of, but he tried to not let it show. Caity took them to
her office, which was festooned with a large cardboard cutout of a Disney
princess to which she’d affixed a military M-16A2 rifle. It stood besides
multiple pictures of Caity posing with various young girls in either her
uniform or wearing her Miss Utah crown. She briefly spoke to someone outside of
her office and led Alex and his group off again.
“The thing is,” she said, as they walked into one of the
wards, “while I’m impressed with what you’ve been able to do in the past, we
have some unique medical problems in the military that we continue to have
problems with. I was hoping you might have some success where we haven’t so
far.
“The other girls told me about how you managed to heal burn
and cancer victims, and I’m intrigued. Cate also mentioned how you seem to have
a problem with your energy causing more bleeding than normal, so I’m keeping
that in mind,” she said, as she led them into a room with a couple of young
soldiers who looked at them curiously. She’d stopped on the way in to talk to
the ward nurse, who in this case happened to be male, which was more typical of
the military. The nurse had sent word that she was on the floor to one of the
ward doctors and then followed them into the room, but she remained in the
background, giving them plenty of room to do what they needed to.
“Peter and Jonathon here have both suffered mTBI, or ‘mild
traumatic brain injuries’. Basically their brains got shook up when their vehicle
ran over an IED. Neither suffered significant wounds, but both have suffered
mild mental impairment as a result. We’re anxious to be able to treat these
types of wounds, as it means they’ll have to be discharged if we can’t,
something that neither one wants.”
Alex looked them over without saying a word. Gail, however,
stepped up and, getting Jonathon to lean forward, examined the back of his
head. Finally she turned back to Alex.
“There’s diffuse impairment across a region about the size
of a softball in the back of their head, plus a lesser effect in the front and
side of his head,” she told him.
‘Show Caity what you’re seeing,’ Alex responded
telepathically. However there wasn’t any outward sign of a response by either
woman.
Alex took that under advisement before addressing Caity.
“We’ve worked with this a little in terms of sports injuries. In fact we set up
a program where we’ve been monitoring anyone suffering from a minor head
trauma, determining who’s suffered damage and who hasn’t. I haven’t really
tried to heal one of these wounds myself, simply because we haven’t encountered
many of them.”
Caity and Jonathon looked positive at this news, but Alex
had to disappoint them.
“The problem is with the wound. There’s been too much time
for scar tissue within the brain to form. The idea is we need to address the
problem before the body starts to take action on its own. When I worked with
the burn victim, I found we could reduce the amount of scar tissue that formed,
but once it forms it’s almost impossible to remove without seriously impacting
the patient.”
“Ah, I was afraid of that,” Caity responded. “The problem is
these men get injured in the field, get a simple dressing, then get shipped to
the closest field hospital where they get their initial treatment. If they’re
hurt badly enough, which these men weren’t considered to have been, they’re
shipped off to Germany for further treatment. They only come here for long term
treatment, so we only get them long after the wounds have been inflicted.”
“That’s what I figured,” Alex said. “I can give the area a
general energy bath, but aside from making him feel better temporarily I doubt
it will have much effect.”
“Well, just try what you can. After all, we’re interesting
in seeing what works and what doesn’t.”
Alex and Gail switched position, and Alex began applying a
diffuse application of energy to the impacted region of the soldier’s brain as
Gail directed him. As he was doing it, Caity proceeded to ask him a series of
questions, trying to detect a difference in his mental acuity. After only a
couple of minutes, his mind seemed noticeably clearer and both he and Caity
seemed enthused, but Alex had to remind her it was likely only short term.
“Still, it’s an improvement, and it’s possible if we could
do this over a longer time period that they might regain more functionality for
a longer time.”
“Sadly, this is more akin to those he, uh… spends time
with,” Cate explained to her. “They’re bursting with fresh energy and feel like
they can take on the world, but once the energy dissipates nothing has really
changed. Well, actually, in those cases something significant did
change, but aside from that, simply being exposed to Alex’s energy won’t do
much besides make someone feel good.”
“Are you sure of that? Have you actually tested prolonged
exposure?” Caity asked, trying to say what needed to be said without giving too
much away.
“Actually, Liv asked the same thing and I couldn’t really
answer her. I was doing some longer term studies, but unfortunately once we hit
the road I had to discontinue them.”
“Ah, so your other request makes more sense now,” she
replied. “You should really try taking a standard IQ test both before and after
being exposed, just to see if there’s any noticeable difference.”
“That makes sense. It would be a simple test with immediate
answers. Of course it wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny, but we aren’t looking
for that level of proof at this stage.”
“Do you and Gail have any standard IQ test results on
record?” Caity asked, curious about what they might produce.
“I have some somewhere,” Cate answered, “although in my case
it may not be indicative, since I’ve been exposed to Alex for a long time.”
“Man, I have no idea what you people are talking about, but
if you have an IQ test, I’m ready. My mind hasn’t felt this clear in a long
time,” the young man interrupted.
“Well I’m glad,” Caity told him with a smile before they
moved to the next soldier. They performed the same procedure on him, with the
observing nurse paying much more attention this time. However, since they’d
said what they needed to, they didn’t bother to explain what they were doing.
“That’s amazing,” the nurse said. “We need to try that more
often.”
“I’m afraid it’s an unproven procedure, and we probably
shouldn’t be trying it without patient authorizations,” Alex said, trying to
cover himself since he knew the nurse was likely to object to what they were
doing.
“I can tell you’re a civilian,” he replied with a smile.
“Military personnel get free medical care, but they also have more limits than
civilian patients. They don’t have the legal right to sue for malpractice if
anything goes wrong.”
About this time the ward doctor entered the room and Alex
started getting nervous again. Caity noticed this and led them from the room.
The doctor and nurse followed them, but stayed back as the nurse quickly
described what he’d observed.
Caity led them to a nearby room which housed another young
soldier with mTBI. After making explanations and giving them the soldier’s
personal history, Gail repeated her in-depth analysis of his head, something
the doctor and nurse were fascinated to watch.
“There’s really no physical damage I can isolate in his
brain, as there’s no weak spots in his aura,” she said aloud, making no attempt
to hide her observations. “Chances are any damage has already healed, or the
damage isn’t so much a result of scar tissue in the brain as it is the
experience of having suffered the trauma.”
“This seems to be the other end of the spectrum,” Alex said.
“This time there’s nothing specific to heal. As you just heard, I might have
been able to do something if I’d gotten here just after it happened, but this
long after the fact there isn’t really anything to address.”
Caity and the soldier looked disappointed at this news, even
though the young soldier had had no real expectation that Alex could have
helped him anyway.
“That’s why I presented you with this case,” Caity said.
“You managed to help the last man, even though you specifically said you
couldn’t heal the underlying damage. I was interested in seeing if you could do
something similar in this case.”
“What’s the nature of his problem,” Alex asked.
“It’s just as Gail described. He’s suffering from what they
used to call ‘shell shock’, or what we now call ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’.
It mostly consists of his having visions and memories of the events he
experienced. As such, you’re right, there are no specific injuries, but he’s
still suffering, and we’d like to know if you can give us any more clue as to
how to treat it.
“We’ve had the most success with behavioral conditioning
with these cases, where we work with the victims to try to diminish their
negative memories, the bad dreams and the panic attacks, and focus on the
positive social connections of friends and family. We do this by giving them
specific exercises to do whenever they suffer a negative response, we’ve even
tried doing it more directly, having them stay in the hospital so we can
address them when they have a panic attack. The process works quite well, but
it’s fairly labor intensive so it’s difficult to implement on a wide scale
basis.
“I thought that if you could make him feel better that it
might provide a more direct method of applying this behavioral modification. If
you could apply either a boost or a negative reinforcement directly to the area
of the—”
“Wait a minute,” Alex interrupted, cautioning her, “you’re
getting into dangerous territory here. I’m hesitant about apply energy directly
to the brain, largely because even if it’s specifically applied, it still affects
all those regions between it and the surface of the brain, and we don’t know
what effect that would have. When you add the fact that we can’t identify what
region of the brain a specific memory originates from means we’d just be
shooting in the dark. That’s bad enough to begin with, but if you then suggest
I remove excess energy from the brain, we’re talking about even more severe
possible repercussions. Every time I drain energy I run the risk of killing
healthy cells. Simply removing a small amount of energy risks killing or
injuring brain cells that may house specific memories.”
“I was thinking a more general approach. Simply applying an
overall application may be enough to reward positive thoughts, though your
points about draining energy would be more problematic.”
“What about using an fMRI?” Gail asked, having learned from
being involved with Alex the difference between a functional and a
regular MRI.
“It would be too difficult,” Cate answered. “It would mean
getting Alex inside the MRI while it’s working, giving him enough room to
operate, and trying to identify which mental activity was a negative thought
and which ones were positive ones.”
“How about we try the general approach first, just to see
how well it works?” Caity suggested.
Alex simply smiled as he glanced at the young soldier. “Are
you currently having a flashback?”
“No, but I’m starting to feel a little nervous about you
doing something that might destroy my memory,” he answered.
“Don’t worry,” Alex answered, “I’ll give you a brief
treatment. It won’t help you one way or the other, but it should make you feel
better temporarily.”
When Alex finished the man did in fact feel much better, but
it wasn’t a very specific treatment, so as they left Cate and Caity started
discussing possible variations in treatment while the doctor and nurse trailing
them got into a whispered conversation as well.
Caity led them to another room which, upon entering,
revealed a young man suffering from what appeared to be a head wound. His head
was shaved on one side and there was a good sized gash running along his skull.
He looked up at them in confusion, but didn’t seem to be able to focus on them
for very long.
“PFC Johnson here suffered a shrapnel wound to the head,”
Caity told them. “He’s lost a lot of his cognitive ability. You mentioned that
you’d managed to … uh, regrow kidney tissue. I was wondering if—”
“I don’t think it will do any good to have me try a
procedure that is almost guaranteed to fail,” Alex told her, not terribly happy
to be put into this position.
“That’s not what I was suggesting, I—” Caity tried to
explain once again but never managed to finish.
“I think what Alex is trying to say is that there are a lot
of problems with trying to regrow damaged tissue,” Cate said.
“Essentially, there’s not a lot of spare room,” Alex
explained. “If something new grows, other things are going to be shoved aside.”
“In the kidney there’s room for things to move to a certain
degree,” Cate continued, alternating with Alex in describing what happens
during these procedures.
“But in the brain, which is already packed pretty tight,
there isn’t,” Alex finished. “What will happen is that the internal pressure in
the brain will increase, possibly causing additional cell death.”
“Not only that, but the kidneys, for as complex as they are,
are a pretty homogenous structure,” Cate continued. “Getting them to grow is
pretty straightforward, whereas trying to regrow portions of a human brain are
fraught with difficulties. Will each of the various cells grow at the same
rate, will they be able to differentiate themselves, can they function
together, will some form while others don’t? You could end up with a mess of
nonfunctioning cells, which would simply act as a benign tumor.”
“But this man is largely unaware of his surroundings,” Caity
argued. “He has no quality of life, he has no future. He’s got nothing to
lose.”
“No, but I stand to lose a lot by doing this,” Alex
countered. “Mainly, it would demonstrate that I can damage and cripple a
somewhat functional mind, it could also incapacitate or possibly even kill the
patient, and it would break the central covenant of ‘first do no harm’.”
Caity was about to counter that when a corpsman came up to
Caity and said something to her that the others couldn’t really hear. They
stopped the discussion, and as the corpsman left Caity turned back to them.
“We’ll get back to this, but right now your wish has been
granted,” Caity told Alex, which piqued his curiosity.
She led them to yet another room where a man lay unconscious
on a gurney. His head was freshly shaved and showed fresh stitches which
revealed he’d just come from a recent brain surgery.
“You said you couldn’t do anything with a brain after it had
already managed to form scab tissues following a trauma to it. Well, here we
have someone who’s just suffered fresh trauma. True, the trauma probably saved
his life, as the surgeons removed shrapnel that was embedded in his brain, but
we’re interested in seeing if you can minimize the damage he suffered from the
surgery.”
“You want me to minimize the damage done by cutting out
portions of a man’s brain?” Alex asked, unable to believe she’d try to evaluate
his success after the surgeons had potentially done so much damage to the man
themselves.
“Basically, yeah,” Caity responded. “We have a basic idea of
what damage we’d expect a surgery like this to impart. What I’m looking for is
to separate what level of damage is done by the initial shrapnel wound, what we
did ourselves with the surgery, and finally what additional damage is suffered
from the internal scar formations in the brain. Again, this is hardly
objective, and a single case wouldn’t answer much, but it would give us working
on these kinds of wounds more of an idea of the costs associated with this kind
of treatment.”
Alex considered that and then silently asked Gail to examine
the man’s situation as best she could. She quickly glanced at the man’s head,
moving around him before turning back to explain what she’d observed. Alex
noticed that both the doctor and the nurse following them were listening
carefully to what they said.
“There’s extensive damage along the trajectory of the
shrapnel, both old and new. However the new damage, while more extensive, is
still fresh, so you may be able to limit some of the damage
inflicted, though I have no idea of how they’d ever be able to evaluate what
you did or did not help with.”
‘You know, I really don’t appreciate being put in this
situation, Caity,’ Alex reprimanded her telepathically. ‘I’m trying to
avoid focusing undue attention on myself, and I’m especially trying to avoid
alerting the government that I may have certain unique abilities that no one
else does. If I do any of the things you suggest, what’s to prevent me from
never walking out of here again?’
In response, she simply turned and called the doctor who had
been observing them over. As he approached, Alex saw the name “Col. Lister Pendleton”.
Although Alex had been ignoring both him and the nurse until now, he looked him
over to get a feel for the man before he spoke.
The man looked much more gruff soldier than attentive doctor,
with a stocky build, a chiseled face and short graying hair. However the
patients seems to respond to him, and he seemed to have a considerate, though
‘no nonsense’, approach to them. Alex still felt cautious about how much he’d
trust the man, but he was willing to hear him out on the matter.
“Lists, could you explain to Alex why you aren’t
going to have him locked up in a secret chamber in the basement?”
Both Dr. Pendleton and his male nurse, Phillip Rose, chuckled
at Alex’s greatest fear, which didn’t exactly fill him with warm fuzzies.
“Alex, Caity called us yesterday and explained that she was
bringing someone over who could potentially give us some insights into our more
protracted medical cases. We were intrigued, but she quickly told us that you
had some rather unorthodox techniques and that we couldn’t tell anyone else
about what we observed you doing. Normally we avoid ‘faith healers’, clairvoyants
or voodoo priests, but we’ve grown to trust Caity’s judgment, as she’s pretty
good at what she does and she’s very good at cutting through the bull. When she
promised us that what you did was legitimate, we decided to see just what you
could show us.” At this stage he took a breath before continuing.
“If I was to ‘report’ you for having some strange ‘power’
that allowed you to heal the sick without touching them, the best I could hope
for is ‘counseling’ by my commanding officer. It’s entirely possible that I
could end up being separated under AR 635-200, chapter 5, paragraph 5-13, the
one they use for ‘Personality Disorders’ and ‘Other Designated Physical and
Mental Conditions’. The military isn’t some evil lurking onerous presence conspiracy
theorists believe. Its main focus is on being able to respond and function
efficiently. They don’t look kindly on people who bring up issues that are
considered fantastic, as that only conveys that the person reporting it isn’t
in his right mind. The quickest way out of the military is to imply that
you’re not qualified to lead, or that you couldn’t be depended on to follow
concise orders.
“No one in the military is likely to report anything they
observe you doing, as it would mean their own separation from the service. The
military might be many things, but it’s not an aggressive ogre, though they
aren’t terribly understanding of personal idiosyncrasies. Thus people quickly
learn to keep their own beliefs separate from their military careers. The
military doesn’t mind religious people in their midst, but start trying to
convert your fellow heathens and just watch how long you last.”
Alex was more than a little surprised to hear this, but he
could see its truth echoed in the expressions on Caity and Phillip’s faces. He
took a second to process it and then tried to adjust his thinking to accommodate
the new information.
“So what’s up with getting me to do either dangerous
procedures or do something that can’t be determined to be effective?”
“Well, I wasn’t aware of what Caity had planned, but if I
was to guess as to her thinking, I’m pretty sure she’d tell you that PFC
Johnson doesn’t have much chance at a life in the state he’s in, he also
doesn’t have any family, and he’s only got friends who want him to get better.
If there’s a chance to improve his condition it would be the best thing for him,
but if it instead worsened, it wouldn’t be your head on the block. Since you’re
not authorized to administer to the patient the fault would be completely mine.
But again, since you can’t sue for malpractice in the military, I’d likely face
a review panel which would simply ask what happened to him. About all I could
tell them is he suffered an unfortunate setback for unknown reasons, which
would be the truth.
“We’re looking for insights here more than we are cures.
Caity tells us you’ve done some amazing things, and when she gave me the names
of Dr. Moore, Dr. Padilla and Dr. Bisla, I was told to leave all my previous preconceptions
behind. She also mentioned that you’re only available for a very short time, so
again we’re looking to see if we can figure out new approaches that we can
apply ourselves. If you can show us how or why a different approach would make
sense, then we’d be glad to implement it.
“The benefit to that approach is that it wouldn’t require
any real medical justification. If we find a new operating procedure that
results in higher success rates, the military will adopt it across the board.
The military medical corps is large enough that they’re mostly interested in
statistical successes. If something works, they push it to the next level. They
aren’t as concerned with checking it with the civilian medical establishment
for FDA approval.”
“So you don’t mind if I make him even more nonfunctional
than he already is?” Alex asked, still doubtful about the situation.
“Well, we wouldn’t be pleased. After all, we’re just as
human as you are, and we care about those who are under our care. But if we can
learn something from it, something that could save hundreds of others in
similar circumstances, then we’d understand. Especially since we never gave you
authorization to practice on, or even to examine, the patients. You haven’t
been operating on any of our patients, have you?” he asked with a smile.
“No, sir,” Alex smiled back. “All I’ve done is stand here
and occasionally touch them, simply to establish a necessary human connection
to them.”
“The other thing you have to keep in mind is that the
military undertakes a lot of studies to see what procedures are the most
beneficial,” Caity continued. “We study how much weight a soldier can be
expected to lift, and how they can do so more safely. If there’s something we
can do to prevent scarring when we operate, I’m sure we could get a study
organized to look into it. We’re really more interested in how these problems
function so we can better deal with them. We know you won’t be here to cure
everyone who passes through our door, but we wouldn’t mind picking your brain
to understand how you manage to do what you do to see if we might imitate it in
some way.”
Alex looked at Cate to see what she thought of this. She
thought it over, then simply nodded her head.
“All right. As Gail just said, there’s damage from the
original injury and from what you just did to remove the shrapnel. The old
injuries have scarring associated with it, but the new ones don’t, as yet.”
“It’s important to remember that the concept of scarring is
different for the brain than it is for other parts of the body,” Cate reminded
their observers. “Typically brain tissue doesn’t scar, instead it develops
reactive astrocytes, which insulate damaged tissue. In the case of cell death,
these often block off all communications to the damaged cells, thus preventing
brain cell functioning even if the cells can be restored.”
“Don’t worry, Cate, we understand how the brain operates,”
Lists assured her. “Just continue with the explanation.”
“The idea is,” Alex explained, “if I can supply the affected
tissue with enough energy to stabilize it from the shock you administered to
it, I may be able to circumvent the body’s natural reaction to shut down. Hopefully
that will allow the working cells to continue communicating with their
neighbors.”
“If you don’t mind me asking basic questions that I’m sure
you’ve already covered,” Lists asked, “just what kind of energy are you
applying?”
“Don’t worry,” Caity responded, “I’ll explain the basics
after we’re done. I’m sure Alex is tired of explaining it since he has to give
this information to practically everyone he meets.” Lists just nodded,
indicating he was happy with that, so Alex continued.
Guided by Gail’s observations, Alex applied energy to the
specific regions affected by the surgery. Those regions were very precise, so
he had to be careful how he used it, but the utilization of the energy had to
be precisely regulated in that it needed to be applied slow and steady, rather
than just a quick shot. It was hardly a simply task, especially since he could
only see what he was doing by Gail’s showing him snapshots of what she was
seeing herself. In all, the entire procedure took about three minutes, though
Alex looked a bit worn out when he finished.
“That’s it?” Lists asked in shock. “From the way you were
going on I thought this was going to be a big production.”
“What he does happens very quickly, and since there are no
physical incisions it doesn’t take much time,” Cate explained. “What it does
require is a lot of physical strain to control the application of the energy.
That’s why Alex is looking like he’s about to fall over. Do you have a vending
machine I could get something for him from?”
“Oh, of course,” Nurse Phillips replied. “Caity warned us
you’d need some snacks. She gave us some specific things to pick up for you.”
He walked into the hall and called out to someone, and shortly someone handed
him a paper bag which he brought over to them. Cate looked through it, then
handed Alex some cookies and a Coke.
“So this is your own energy you’re using to apply to the
patient?” Lists asked.
“As I said before I’ll go over the basics later, but no,
it’s an outside source of energy that you can’t observe,” Caity told the
doctor. “Alex has simultaneously tapped into two different aspects of humanity.
One is the ability of select people who can see this energy which every living
thing possesses, and the other is a way of accessing vast quantities of this
energy.”
“So there’s no way to duplicate this energy?” Lists asked,
just to clarify what he already suspected.
“No, we all have it in us. In fact all life possesses it,
but only Alex has a direct connection to its source,” Cate explained.
“So does it come from living tissue, or is it given to
living things from some other source?” Lists asked, clearly intrigued by the
concept.
“I’m currently thinking he’s tapping a source that’s
connected to a larger living entity,” Cate expounded. “As such, it produces the
required energy in much larger quantities. Unfortunately, the quantities are
more than humans can easily withstand, so we’re afraid it may be killing him.
That’s why we’re trying to do as much as quickly as we can.”
“Well, I think the idea of connecting to a huge imaginary
animal is even more disturbing than the other stuff, but I’ll put that aside
for the moment. Is there anything we should be aware of for the follow-up
care?”
“No, although it wouldn’t hurt for me to stop by before I
leave and give him another quick session,” Alex offered. “I should be able to
stop by before I leave in the morning, though I’d like to do it fairly early,
if that’s alright, as I already have something planned that I’ll need to get
to.”
“Hey, anytime you want to try some more of this magic and I
can watch, and hopefully learn something, just give me a buzz and I’ll make
sure you can get on base,” Lists told him, handing him a card. Since Alex
hadn’t really recovered yet, he simply nodded to Cate who took the card for
him, since she was the one responsible for keeping track of everyone they met
anyway.
“OK, then, let’s try the next one,” Caity suggested, as she
led them all from the room.
“Should I ask how Gail does her diagnosis so quickly?” Lists
asked.
“I’ll give you a complete overview later,” Caity told him.
“So how did you ever get the name Lists?” Alex asked, hoping
to get away from the topic of his abilities. As much as they’d reassured him
they weren’t going to lock him in a cage somewhere in the facility, he still
felt uncomfortable revealing too much about himself.
“That’s easy,” Lists replied. “Nicknames are common in the
military, and someone associated my tendency to keep detailed lists of all my
duties with my name, so soon everyone was calling me Lists.”
“Well, I haven’t noticed you making any yet,” Alex laughed.
“Just wait, as soon as I get a chance to sit down I’ll make
a bunch of them,” Lists assured him.
Alex was about to tell him why he shouldn’t do that, when
they arrived at a different room. When they entered they found a sturdily built
man with only one arm, the other having been amputated.
“Col. Addams here is another interesting case,” Caity said
in an officious tone. “He’s got what’s known as ‘phantom limb’ pains. That’s
where—”
“Yeah, I’m familiar with the concept,” Alex replied. “It
occurs where the nerves send impulses to the brain that it can’t interpret
correctly, so it associates them with pain in the nonexistent arm.” He turned
to Gail and continued. “This may be difficult because we don’t know whether the
problem is in the nerves in the arm or in the brain itself. I’m not sure you
can see anything associated with individual nerves, but if you could give it a
try.”
Gail didn’t say anything, simply quietly examining his
stump. While she was doing that, Caity glanced at his brain, even though she
wasn’t sure what she was looking for, since she didn’t know how to interpret
what she saw yet.
“Try flexing your hand,” Gail suggested. “Hopefully
imagining movement in it will trigger the nerves associated with it.”
Gail continued examining his stump, moving it around so she
could examine it from different angles. Finally she held it up for Alex.
“It’s real faint, but I think I can see something right
here,” she said, pointing out several indices. That was the only way they’d
found to stipulate where to find something inside a 3-dimensional opaque
object. Alex quietly examined it as well, aided by additional mental images
that Gail supplied him with.
“What I’m going to do is try to drain the energy away from
the affected nerves,” Alex told them. “Since I can’t take much away without
affecting the surrounding tissue, I’m going to do it from several different
angles, and even then I won’t affect it much. Essentially it will be like
giving the nerve a shot of Botox. It will weaken it so hopefully it won’t
respond as quickly.” With that he proceeded to point his index finger at the
man’s stump from a couple of different directions. Col. Addams watched in
apparent fascination, not sure why the doctors were leaving his care in the
hands of a teenager, but willing to try anything to rid himself of the annoying
pain that plagued him.
After only a couple seconds he was done, gently releasing the man’s arm.
“So how does it feel?” Alex asked.
The man looked at him in apparent confusion until he seemed
to realize something.
“Damn, I can’t feel anything anymore. What the hell did you
do, and where can I get some more of it? Is this going to last or do you have
to do it again?”
“Well, like a Botox injection,” Alex said, “it will wear off
over time. How long it’ll last I’m not real sure, but I’d guess it’ll last for
at least a week, possibly as long as a month, but I’m just guessing since I’ve
never tried this before.”
“So I’ll need to see you again?” the soldier asked.
“No, I’m sorry but he’s here to help us understand better
approaches to your treatment,” Caity told him. “I’m not sure how we can apply
it, but it should give us some more information to work with.”
“I think this might be enough of a lead to turn over to the
research people,” Lists said. “If they can apply some real Botox to nerves,
maybe they could duplicate it.”
“How will they know how to locate the necessary nerve
endings?” Phillips asked.
“I can help with that,” Caity replied. “I’ll need to spend
some time with Gail first, though.”
“You know, it might even make sense to examine the patient
during the initial amputation, or maybe even open the arm up after that, just
to locate the affected nerves in people suffering from it,” Lists suggested.
“I suspect we’ll have to take that approach,” Caity offered.
“I can’t imagine being able to poke a needle into a live nerve.”
“You should show Liv what we did,” Alex told Gail, “I’m sure
she’d be interested in the procedure as well.” It was only a couple of seconds
later that Alex discovered why that wasn’t such a great idea.
‘Hey, Alex, what the hell is that?’ Liv asked him
telepathically. ‘Don’t you think I’d want to see what you were trying there?
Gail just gave me an overview, but I’d have loved to have been more involved.
What’s more, I’m sure Allison would too. As it is, I suspect just the little
information we have is going to buy us several dinners, as Ryan is going to try
to pick our brains about it.’
‘Sorry, but I hadn’t exactly planned any of this. A new
Seer asked me to stop by, ostensibly to cheer up some people here and talk
about what I did. Instead she put me on the spot and I’ve been doing all new
stuff.’
‘Well, make sure you give me a detailed run down later.
I’m dying to know what you learned.’
‘I’ll do that, but get what you can from Gail, since
she’ll be able to give you the visuals, and she probably knows what I did as
well as I do.’
When Alex finished his discussion with her, he found
everyone busy talking amongst themselves, with only Cate noticing he seemed preoccupied.
Everyone was excited as Caity led them out after everyone
wished Col. Addams good luck. The three medical professionals talked amongst
themselves until Caity led them back to PFC Johnson’s room. As they entered,
Alex was feeling nervous, not liking the idea of screwing with some guy’s brain
when he had no idea of what he was doing. No one said anything, as the junior
officer couldn’t maintain his concentration long enough to follow what was
being said anyway. Gail proceeded to examine his head from various angles,
while she guided Caity in what to look for telepathically. Finally she motioned
Alex over and positioned him, telling him what she wanted him to do.
“I think it would be best if you did what you tried with
Rachel and Jennifer, right here. That’s where the most damage is.”
“I’m guessing you’re pointing at the impact area,” Dr.
Pendelton told them. “It’s to the right side of the frontal lobe.”
“Actually, most of that region was damaged so long ago we
can’t expect to do much to it,” Gail explained. “As Alex explained, it looks
like there’s scarring of the brain in those regions, so it’s unlikely we can do
anything there since that’s all dead tissue.”
While they’d been talking, Alex apprised both Liv and
Allison of what he was attempting, and they quickly evaluated it and gave him
their opinions. Luckily this all took place nearly instantly and silently, so
no one suspected anything.
“What I’m going to do, instead, is to focus on the regions
just on either side of it,” Alex told them. “I’m going to try to force new
growth there which, hopefully, will regrow some of the damaged tissue. Luckily
there’s room for that tissue in the region where the impact took place, since
there were segments removed. There are a few areas where there’s functional
tissue which borders the gaps. Now this is going to take some time and a lot
of energy.”
“We’d better get a lot of food,” Cate warned the others.
“This takes a lot of energy, both this new energy and Alex’s physical energy he
uses to process the other. Alex gets really weak after this kind of thing. He
may have trouble standing afterwards and he’ll need to eat a lot.”
“I’ll order the cafeteria to send up a couple of meals,
anything in particular better for him?” Nurse Phillips asked.
“No, he needs plenty of sugar and carbohydrates to replenish
the energy he lost,” Cate replied, “plus a lot of proteins to replace what he
loses. We also don’t know if he loses any particular nutrients, so just order
some protein rich meals with some milkshakes or something.”
Phillip ran off while Alex got busy. Cate laid out the
remaining supplies from their paper bag of snacks that Phillip had supplied
them with earlier. Alex concentrated on what he was doing as he poured a lot of
energy into a very confined space, and slowly moved that application of energy
around following the edges of the gap in the man’s brain. Johnson twitched
sharply, causing Alex to jerk as it threw off what he was doing, so Lists
stepped in and held the man’s head steady as he watched Alex as he appeared to
do nothing at all. But, after a short time, he could swear he saw Johnson’s
eyes brighten, as if he was beginning to focus on what was happening around him
for once, but it would be impossible to determine that for some time.
When Alex finished he sank into the chair Cate had provided
for him, and Cate began feeding him what was left of his snack. Lists looked
nervous since he looked so weak, but Gail assured him he’d do better waiting
until the food arrived than he would trying to make it downstairs. Phillips had
returned not long after he’d left, carrying another bag of yogurts and fresh
sodas, which Alex enjoyed until the cafeteria meals arrived.
“So he actually can force damaged tissue to regrow?” Lists
asked in amazement.
“He regrew the kidneys in two separate people, effectively
taking them off of dialysis,” Cate told him. “He only stopped because he was
worried about the crowding of the tissues, since this was a new phenomenon.”
“Well, the fact he practically collapsed helped as well,”
Gail reminded them.
“So the application of energy triggers a stem cell like
growth?” Lists asked, clearly impressed. When Cate nodded he considered that.
“We need to conduct experiments. If Caity can detect the levels of this type of
energy, then maybe we could test different procedures to try to activate the
energy levels. If we can find something to kick it into a higher gear, we could
do some amazing things with it.”
“You couldn’t regrow damaged organs, though,” Alex explained
in a tired voice. “That takes a tremendous amount of energy you wouldn’t find
in a normally functioning body.”
“But if we could heighten the amount of energy that’s
available in a test tube, perhaps we could see a little more success in
traditional stem cell experiments. Maybe what they’ve been missing in the past
is the added energy it requires to kick it into motion.”
“Hey, don’t go taking the experiments I plan on earning my
Nobel Prize with,” Cate laughed, only slightly teasing.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s enough new material to
discover with this for a lot of us to earn a plenty of awards,” Lists assured
her. “But I’m sure we’ll be bouncing ideas off of you whenever we get near
enough to trying anything. Whether you’re ready to start your experiments by
then or not, at least you’ll have some correlating research you can reference
to add weight to your own conclusions.”
Cate smiled at that. She hadn’t even considered that. Maybe
getting more people involved would be beneficial to everyone. Well, as
long as no one managed to tip their collective hand, so to speak.
After they left the Medical Center and the base it was
housed on, Caity and Cate revealed what they’d been referring to earlier. They
pulled into a large Petsmart store where Caity treated Cate to several cages
full of little white mice, carefully separated into different cages by sex.
“Now I can finally resume my experiments while we travel,”
Cate replied while she played with the mouse she’d named Shanny. She’d decided
to name each one for the women in Alex’s life, since they’d each spend the rest
of their lives bathed in his energy like his girls were each hoping to do as
well. Shanny was named for her darker brown hair and her toothy grin when you
tickled her. She was the only non-white mouse they’d picked up.
“Yeah, from what you were saying, there’s a lot of things
you should be able to test,” Caity said.
“I’m mainly interested in doing the necessary ones,” Cate
replied before lowering her voice. “I want to determine how much exposure to
Alex’s energy shortens their lifespan, so we’ll have some idea of what to
expect with Alex.”
“Where the hell are we going to keep them?” Alex asked,
imagining a van full of women with a bunch of mice running wild across the
floor.
“There’s plenty of room in the van, plus it’ll be easier to
control the environment they’re in,” Cate told him. “I’ll fix up the cages so
they’re fastened to the cabinets. After all, we wouldn’t want to lose any if we
have an accident.”
“No, we certainly wouldn’t want that,” Alex replied
sarcastically.
“Oh, so you’re going to bathe them with a lot of Alex’s
energy?” Caity responded. “I’d thought you have started off with something
simpler.”
“Oh, I am,” Cate said. “I’ll have one set getting a slightly
elevated level who’ll represent Alex’s girls, another who’ll get a large dose,
who’ll represent Alex, though they won’t get enough to equal what he gets, and
a final control group. Hopefully I can extrapolate the eventual response on
Alex from the results.”
“Well, you’ve got more mice than that,” Caity observed. “Are
you doing other experiments as well?”
“Not off the bat,” Cate replied. “In order to avoid
potential problems I was hoping to increase the sample size to three for each
group. That way if any one dies unexpectedly it won’t invalidate the
experiment.”
“Well, Lists is so excited by what he saw today that he’s
already arranging for a research study to see what can boost Alex’s energy
level in animals,” Caity told them. “He’s not sure he can sell that one, but he
knows it’s necessary for any follow-up study, so he’s thinking of undertaking
that one himself, with or without funding.”
“I suspect he’s going to keep you busy,” Cate replied with a
smile.
“Well he’ll have to hurry,” Caity answered. “The military
isn’t likely to leave me stationed here for long. I’ve already been here for
seven months, so a standard tour will only leave me here for another year.”
“Be sure to keep me apprised of his progress. I’ll be
anxious to learn if he discovers anything. After all, once Alex is … uh….”
“You can say it,” Alex responded with a sigh. “Once I’m gone
there won’t be any way of testing my energy anymore.”
“Yeah, so if he can made some headway in how to generate
more in lab animals it would be a big boost to any further studies,” Cate said,
finishing her original thought.
“Great, after I’m dead and gone my sister is going to
replace me with a bunch of lab rats,” Alex replied, rolling his eyes for
effect. Gail thought the entire exchange was hilarious, and was enjoying
herself as she shared it with her sisters in Carbondale.
To Be Continued