Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Phantmosis
“Ladies and gentlemen of the panel,” The year was 2027. Wow, has it really been that long? Well I guess, “20 years. That is how long it has been since I touched another human, or a tree or my dog, Waldo. I have a disease.” That I found, named and am the first and no longer only victim of, “That disease is called Phantmosis. It is a genetic disorder that causes the victims molecules to vibrate in a manner that is different to other normal biological organisms.” What I’m not going to talk about is the ‘other’ effects of the disease; oh say like being incapable of human contact. “This disease seems to be caused by a genetic mutation that appears to be in about 15% of the population.
“We’ve heard all this before Doctor. Please if you don’t have any new information than leave.” Jack a**, in more polite company he is known as Thaddeus Cooper, my former friend.
“As a matter of fact sir, I do.” Suck it Thadd. “In a recent study of newly found victims I found that the symptoms surfaced at the age of exactly 27.745 years old. In other words 10127 days. And also one in every 10127 victims there has also been found another anomaly.”
“Which is? That other thing is why you came here correct? After all while your other findings are beneficial to the study they are hardly relevant to the National Scientific Defense Board.” Yes Thadd, gloat while you can. Lean back in your soft cushy chair and boast about your cushy job, because I’m about to blow your mind.
“Yes, I understand that but it was necessary to quote all those facts first in order for you to grasp the full oddity of my really important findings.” Here it comes Thadd. The time has come for you to praise my accomplishments instead of your own. “As I am sure you are aware a certain negligible percentage of the population has been observed with some I guess you could call them…”
“Deformities. That is what we are calling them, because that’s what they are. Deformities caused by the nuclear fallout of the Shbu wars.”
“Actually the word I was going for was more like Abilities. That would be because they are not deformities. I conducted a study on these so called ‘deformed’ people and I found that every one of them once they had reached the age showed the symptoms.”
“Of what? Finish your sentences you idiot.”
“He did. There is only one thing that he could mean. I’m silencing you for the rest of this session.” That was High Councilwoman Harbor. I always knew I liked that woman. “Now continue Doctor. I think I know where you are going with this but I want to be sure.”
“Thank you Councilwoman.” For more that the right to speak. “As I was saying, every person with abilities was also a victim of Phantmosis. But, what I did not yet get was why not every one with the disease had abilities, so I looked into it. Before I go on I should mention that despite my previous hypothesis Victims can not touch other Victims. It would appear that every vibration caused by the disease is different.”
“That is indeed interesting but please get to your main point.”
“Yes Councilwoman. After I had finished my studies I sat down to review the data. One thing kept leaping out at me. As I outlined in my last appearance in front of the Council this disease is caused by a mutation in just one pair of codons. In the individuals that had the abilities I found that this mutation was carried one step further. Instead of the genes being flipped like in the diagram to my left,” I pointed to a chart I had one of my assistants draw of a single pair of codons switching places, “it seems that the pair, instead of switching entirely and staying put, got stuck in between during the developmental stage of the embryo and is now spinning around an invisible axis inside every chain of DNA.” I pointed to a hologram on my right that depicted what the process might have looked like. Every mouth in the room either simply dropped open or gasped in shock. Heck, I couldn’t even watch anymore, I had seen it so many times.
One Brave Councilman asked a question, “Wouldn’t that kind of thing be noticed in or DNA scans that are required of infants now?”
I had been prepared for that one. At that point the image speeded up to the point that it looked like it was standing still. “No it doesn’t, because our scans are only pictures and due to the fact that the pair spins around a very small point trillions of times a second the chance that our one single camera shot will capture this anomaly is one in one hundred million billion, roughly the chance of one person fulfilling all the Old Testament Prophecies about Christ. Or for the non religious people in the room twice the amount of people that have ever lived on the earth.”
“Thank you Alex. If it weren’t for your study we may never have known anything like this was even possible.”
“I hope you don’t mind this but I am going to speak very casually to you all for just a bit. This is the small part of my discovery, as far as this council is concerned.” Throughout the hall there were whispers of wonder and shock at my words. This is the part of my presentation that no matter how many times I rehearsed it always came out with a tear. “In my studies out of every person that I tested, which was 1000, only,” There it was. I could hardly get this part out, most of the time, without completely breaking down, “one got through the entire time of three days of observation without having a violent outburst of pain followed by a massive outburst of their power. The weakest of which was a small release of light, but the scary part is that the strongest is a young man who can seemingly control gravity. He completely crushed his house in on itself.” With that the Hologram switched to a man in front of his three story house that suddenly fell over on the ground in pain grabbing his head. Just one second later every remnant of his house was gone. Then two seconds later dust the color of the paint of his house flew up six stories. The entire council gasped and averted their eyes except for High Councilwoman Harbor.
“Was anyone…”
“His wife and two year old daughter were inside.” That’s as far as I’ve ever made it.
Washtown Lower Tier
“This is all your fault. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t been such a freak.” Thomas Gibbons was wondering the streets as he had been for the past few days since resigning from that damn doctor’s project. “This was supposed to fix the problem, not make it worse. Now what are you going to do Tom? Are you going to go home? Oh yeah, you crushed it into the ground.” Tom turned the corner to his favorite bar and stepped inside. He took his normal seat and the bartender, Hank, gave him his usual drink.
“Are you Thomas Gibbons?” The strange man sitting next to him who Tom didn’t even notice until he spoke was wearing a trench coat and baggy leather pants.
“Yeah, but I should warn you I’m not in the best mood.”
“Why is that Tom? Have your headaches been getting worse?”
“How did you know about that?”
“I was a research assistant on Dr. Alex Hammond’s project concerning people like you.” Tom got up and raised his glass in a manner as if to break it over the stranger’s head. As if he had been expecting this response he also got up and immediately issued a response, “Relax Tom. I’m not here to bring you back; in fact I’m here to tell you not to.” Seeing the positive response this got from his audience he decided to sit back down and continue. “I was recently let go from the project for suggesting that we create a cure for the anomaly in your blood for people like you who may pose a threat to people you care about. The ‘good’ Doctor had other ideas however; like turning you specifically into a weapon.” The stranger sat calmly in his seat and took a sip of his drink.
Tom sat back down now as well. “Is there really a cure? I mean, like not just doing this less often, but not at all?”
“I don’t know. But the only way to know for sure is to ask Alex. Unfortunately I am now banned from the premises and you can’t go in there normally without being forced back into the project.”
“What do you mean ‘normally’?”
The stranger simply smiled and said in a slightly nasty tone said, “Follow me.”
In the Council Hall
Washtown
A few moments had passed since Alex had finished his statement and still no one had spoken. “I’ll take questions now.” Not the most sophisticated thing to say but it was still a good ice breaker.
“That is overwhelming Doctor, but still what do you want us to do? All we are authorized to do is hand out funding, and even that is for National Defense projects.”
“That is exactly what I need, funding. While my laboratories are state of the art, they do not have the space or monetary backing to accommodate the project I am intending on undertaking.”
“What exactly do you have planned?”
“Well, my new project would involve two parts. The first would involve the recently developed technology for changing dangerous disorders in fetuses and applying it to adults. In theory this would allow me to just fix the part of the disease that is causing the pain and the abilities. The only reason I am suggesting this is because it has a much higher chance of success than the other option, which would result in a full cure of all parts of the disease. Once I have completed this stage of the research, for better or worse, I will embark on a study to completely cure the disease, which I mentioned earlier.”
“That is a good cause for sure but what is the application to National Defense?”
“Do not worry Dr. Hammond, I’ll take this one.” The High Councilwoman turned in her chair to face the man who had spoken. “As you can tell by looking at Dr. Hammond, victims of Phantmosis look no different than normal humans. That being said, imagine some one with explosive abilities walking into a meeting with a government official and simply blowing the building up. Or imagine him walking into a school where one of our children was attending classes. Now do you get the relevance to National Security?” The Councilmember who had asked the question turned red and slid a few inches down in his seat. “Do not worry Alex. I will get you your money if it has to come from my own pocket.”
Washtown Lower Tier
Tom followed the stranger outside and into a car that Tom swore wasn’t there before. “Where are we going? And where did this car come from?”
“All in due time Tom. For now all you need to know is that we are going to a safe place where more people who want to help you are.”
“What, you mean there are more people that are in on this.”
“Yes, there are only about a dozen of us, all of which were on the Doctors project. We don’t have any of the fancy equipment that the Doctor had at his lab but we pooled our resources and rented a building where we can do some basic testing.”
“What do you mean tests? I thought the whole point of this was so that I didn’t have to have any more needles in my skin.”
“Relax. There will only be one needle put in you through out the entire process and that will hopefully tell us every thing we want to know. So far it has worked with our other subject.”
“You have some one else there already? Then what do you need me for?”
“Well we are unsure if the test results will be the same for every patient. But don’t worry, so far the treatments have been very successful for Jacob.”
“So you know his name. I already like you guys better than the Doctor. With him I was just patient 17.”
“I assure you that you will never be regarded as just a patient where you are going. Although before we arrive at the center, I should warn you about something.”
“As long as it gets me cured I am willing to do anything.”
“Even going down the wrong path. Even going against the Government?”
“Absolutely.”
“That’s good. Driver you can pull through now. You might want to buckle up.” Just then the car sped up immensely and Tom realized that they must be on the Trans. He immediately buckled up at that point due to the fact that on the Trans vehicles generally did not slow to below 400 miles per hour.
“I’ve never been outside the city before. Forgive me if I throw up on your nice seats.”
“I highly doubt you will. Cars these days are fitted so that you barely feel the sharpest of turns. So you’re a city boy.”
“Yeah, born and raised on the lower tier. It wasn’t that my family was poor or anything it was just that my mother had this eye disease that made it hard for her to live in the sunlight. I always used to get in fights at school, because people always made fun of me because I actually wasn’t poor.”
“Do you happen to remember the name of the disease that your mother had?” The stranger suddenly had a strange glint in his eye, like a cobra’s before it catches it’s pray. “I only ask because Jacob’s mother also had an eye disease.”
“No, I’m sorry. I was young and it was a big word.” As the words left Tom’s mouth the glint in the strange man’s eye faded away and he returned to being the friendly, calm person he was a moment before.
“That’s okay. I understand. It’s not like it could possibly be that important anyway.” Even though he said this Tom could see that the stranger was disappointed.
“Hey, what’s your name? It’s not like I’m going to crush you if you don’t tell me, but it would be nice to know.”
“My name is…”