Chap. 293 The Eureka Moment

Chap. 293 The Eureka Moment

He hadn’t been back to work for more than fifteen minutes when his datalink buzzed.

“K’ndar here, who calls?”

“Miklos, Microbiology.”

He was astonished. Miklos, actually SPEAKING? To me?

“Yesss?” he said in a highly doubtful voice.

“You’re the dragonrider who found the carriers of the virus?”

“Um, yes, I guess you could say that.”

“I need to know everything about them.”

“Uh, well, they’re from Lemos. A man, his wife, two children, one 8 year old girl, the other a 2 year old boy, surviving twin of a fraternal pair.”

“Yes, yes, I know all that. What about their blood samples?”

“What about them?”

“Yes. Did you do an assay on them?”

“Me? No. I didn’t take the samples and wouldn’t have a clue on how to assay them.”

“Why not? You’re supposedly a biologist?”

“I’m a field biologist. The samples were drawn by a healer and sent to Healer Hall, along with the people themselves. I had no contact whatsoever with the samples.”

“I have, they’ve been cutting samples in two and sending them here.”

“Okay, so, pardon me, but why, if you already have samples, are you asking me?”

“Can you come to my office? I don’t know how to use the datalink very well.”

He sighed. The man was as affable as granite but not as charismatic. But I can always give him the info and then flee.

Jansen saw him as he passed down the hallway to Miklos’s lab.

“You’re going to see him?” she tilted her head in the direction of Miklos’s office.

“Aye. He called me demanding information about the survivors of the virus.”

“Amazing. He usually complains that he doesn’t know how to use the datalink. He usually wants ME to do the datalink work.”

She shook her head. “He’s been talking, actually acting as if there are real, live people here. Ever since he started analyzing samples, he’s actually been communicating in words of more than one syllable. No one can remember him being so garrulous. Not that that means much, though. Hold your nose until you get used to his, uh, aroma.”

Miklos’s desk was piled high with papers, a second microscope, half eaten apples, at least four mugs from the dining hall filled with klah that had been in them long enough to grow a layer of scum. Alongside it was an equally loaded table of all sorts of things, most of which seemed to be comprised of bubbling flasks, tubes of what appeared to be blood being tilted up and down by a small machine, and bits of dried tissue. Flies circled lazily around his head.

Gads. The place reeked. No wonder he had the office as far from everyone else as possible.

Miklos had his eyes attached to a microscope.

He waited. And waited. The man seemed completely unaware of anything but what was on his microscope stage.

He cleared his throat. “Miklos?”

The man said nothing.

He counted to ten, then said, “If you called me down here merely to ignore me, don’t do it again.”

He turned to leave.

“No, wait. I’m busy, you know? But, well, um, good that you’re here. Tell me everything you know about the carriers.” Miklos dragged his gaze to look past K’ndar, as if unwilling to look him in the eye.

“There’s not much I can tell you other than what I already have.”

Miklos returned his gaze to the microscope. “Uh huh.”

There was silence for several long moments. Are you even listening?

“Let’s cut this short, please? I’m busy, too. What precisely is it you want to know about the virus carriers, considering the fact that all I did was locate them on the steppe, provide them with transport to Healer Hall, and had very little in the way of conversation with them?”

“I’ll tell you what I know. First though, did they tell you if they ate anything unusual?”

“Ate? I have no idea what they ate. But I’m certain they ate the same thing

everyone else on Pern eats. Food. Is it important?”

Miklos looked at him.“I don’t know. I’ve assayed their samples twice, the one from the Lemos boy, and one from the cothold girl. With those exceptions, and those from dolphins, every other sample that I or Healer Hall have looked at have the same viral signature. They include not just humans but cattle and horses. They all indicate exposure to and antibodies produced against the virus. I’ve never seen it before. If it weren’t for the fact that dolphins show no exposure to it, I would have been convinced it came with us from Earth.

The virus in all those samples is benign, it’s harmless. I suspect it’s been in all of us for centuries. But the samples, one from the boy twin from Lemos and the girl from Lord Dorn’s cotholder, are infected with a mutation of the virus.

No adult had the mutation, no child older than four had it, no suckling infant, no animal. Just the sample from the little boy from Lemos, and the little girl from the cothold. They’re the only two survivors of the mutation.

I need to know, where did the virus originate? What is the vector? Is this a new mutation? Is there something unusual about the survivors? Something different?”

K’ndar was distracted by seeing a small insect crawl out of Miklos’s scant hair. He doesn’t even feel it, he thought. And I am getting used to the ‘aroma’. Lucky for me I grew up around smelly animals. He stifled a grin and redirected his attention to the insect’s playmate.

“The only thing I can think of is the eight year old girl, Abby. She had an unusual pet, a fossorial saurian called a ‘delver’. I’ve not had a chance to research it, I’ve never seen it before. From what she told me, they’re common in Lemos’s forests, but seldom seen as they’re quite retiring. She…”

Something the girl had said about the delver. Something…ah.

“The delver! Abby allowed her baby sister to play with the delver. The baby squeezed the delver and it bit her in response. Abby said it had never bitten her or anyone else. The boy never handled it. I don’t know when, but afterwards, at Lemos, the baby girl died of the virus. The boy came down with it, too, but survived.”

“Yes. Yes! A delver, you say? The bite! The virus was transmitted by the bite! If so, it’s the first ever case of a saurian transmitting a virus to a mammal! What a coup! And once it was in the twin girl, it mutated-and became infectious. Yes! The delver is the source! Let me look at my data, that’s what I wanted to know, everyone has antibodies to this one specific type of DNA but the two survivors carry the mutation. It HAS to be coming from the delver. The delver! I don’t have a sample of its DNA. Can you get me one?”

“A sample of the DNA?”

“No, you dolt, I want a delver. Alive.”

“Dolt? Huh. I’ve never seen a delver before, I’ve never been to Lemos and I am unfamiliar with its habitat.”

“You need to get me one.”

“I do?”

“Yes. Tonight, that would be great.” He dismissed K’ndar by fastening his eyes back on the microscope.

Is he really serious? Like I can go outside and just pluck one from the ground? Never mind I don’t find being called ‘dolt’ all that encouraging, and you don’t give me orders, he thought.

“Miklos, I work for Raylan, just like you do,” he said to the side of Miklos’s head. “He already has me scheduled to conduct research that, until this virus popped up, took up a great deal of my time. Now I have to work overtime just to catch up on the process. If you want a delver, get one yourself.”

The man looked at him.

“You’re the one with muck on your boots, “field”. You bring me DNA and I assay it. That’s how it works here. Do I look like I go outside?”

K’ndar let that hang in the air for about two seconds.

“Actually, you smell as if you live outside, like any barnyard animal.”

Miklos gasped, his mouth working. K’ndar reflected that it made him look very much like a fish out of water.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

“No, but then again, you’ve been rude to me on every occasion I’ve had to deal with you, today being no exception. This dolt is done with your refusal to be even the slightest bit civil, never mind failing to ask Raylan first.”

Miklos shrugged.

He really is incapable of interacting with humans, isn’t he, K’ndar thought.

“If you don’t get me a delver, I might just let the Council know that you are selfishly blocking my research on containing the virus. That won’t look good on you.”

What a shmuck you are, he thought. A smelly, egotistical jerk.

“Threatening me will get you nowhere. And I won’t take orders from you.

IF I were so inclined to search for a delver, it might take me weeks to find one. Abby had the delver with her when we dropped the family off at Healer Hall. Why don’t you contact them and ask for a blood sample from her pet? I suggest you do so politely-if you’re capable.”

“That’s, yes, uh, I could do that. Of course, I thought about that. But, I want to be the first one to elucidate this entire virus genome. If I tell them I’m interested in the delver, they will figure it out and get the whole thing read out before me.”

So it IS ego, he thought.

“Tell you what. I’ll put catching a delver for you on my “to do” list in the order received. Which, in this case, means dead last.”

Miklos rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He returned to his microscope.

He stood for a moment, letting his anger dissipate. Then he left, only to run into Jansen in the hall.

She kept her hand tightly clamped over her mouth to keep from screaming in laughter. She beckoned him into her office, and then let it out.

“Oh, my sides hurt” she gasped at last, “Good on you, K’ndar. He’s such a schmo. I heard the whole thing.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you listened in, just in case he carries through on his threat.”

“He won’t. It takes too much energy, and not a one will believe him. We all know what he’s like. Oh, I thought I’d die when you said he smelled like he lived outside. I had to bite my finger to keep from laughing out loud.”

“Why in the world is he allowed to be here? He’s not only a jerk, he’s a pig!”

“I know. We all dislike him. But he IS brilliant. Given a delver sample, he might just beat Healer Hall to the punch. That’s all he wants, is to be first, have his name on the resulting paper. He wants to name the disease after himself. He doesn’t give a rip about the people it affects. He just wants the glory.”

A wicked thought hit him.

“What? I see that look in your eye,” Jansen said.

“Nothing. Just…a thought.”

“You’re going to pass it on to Healer Hall, aren’t you?”

“Now, would I do that?” K’ndar said, scrambling. Shaff it, you’re fast as lightning, Jansen. The moment I get a bit of privacy, I’m calling B’rost and passing it on.

She looked at him, her eyes dancing with mischief.

“I sure as sunrise would.”

And she laughed.

____________________________________________________________

“We’re light years ahead of him, K’ndar,” B’rost over his datalink. “Right off the bat, they tested the delver.”

“And?”

“It’s carrying the very same virus as everyone, every beast tested so far. NOT the mutation. Everyone here is all excited, as you said, it’s the first ever known transfer of viruses to mammals from a saurian. They’re going to start testing saurians such as dragons, they’ve already drawn blood from Rath and the other dragons that are here temporarily. I don’t know if it’s the wave of the future, or if it’s evolution. Whatever, they’re already working on a vaccine. Something they do theorize: the reason it’s only affecting children of a certain age is due to their diet.”

“How?”

It’s only a theory, mind you. Babies that are solely breast fed are protected by their mum’s antibodies while their own system matures. Children who have been completely weaned, are eating solid food, have developed the antibodies they got from their mum’s milk. But the little un’s that are half way to weaning, you know, eating solid food regularly but still having a sip from the titty, as my Mum used to say, their immune systems are jusssssssssssst a little too undeveloped. Half of one, half of the other, you know? That’s the weak spot that the mutation takes advantage of. IF this proves to be true, then the vaccine can be narrowed to that age group. And right now, it appears Lemos is the only spot where the mutation occurred. The problem is, where did the delver get it? And why do dolphins lack antibodies to it?

“Arrggghhhhhh” K’ndar said, pulling his hair. “This is so frustrating. I have this thing in my mind, it’s just NOT coming out.”

“I’m sorry, K’ndar. You told me once that you get your best ideas in the shower. So go get one and call me. The sooner we get this bloody virus horned and heeled, the better for all of us.”

He laughed. “Where did you learn that herdsman’s cliché?”

“Oh, some dungbooted steppe boy,” B’rost laughed.

“Thanks, B’rost.”

His stomach told him it was getting close to dinner time, but his mind said, no.

He picked up a bit of chalk and walked to the slate board in his office.

He wrote Dolphins Humans Cattle/horses Delvers Dragons

What was the difference? Now he knew it wasn’t the class-delvers were saurians, everything else, mammalian, but the delver had the same antibodies. Everything but dolphins lived on land. Were viruses affected by water?

The idea in his head nibbled. It almost itched.

No. What was it Miklos wanted to know? “What did the settlers eat?” Well, of course, they’re human. Humans are omnivores. We eat meat. Bread. Eggs, fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, shellfish, all sorts of plants, fresh green ones and dried brown ones. Cattle and horses eat grass and flowers, and browse shrubs. The lucky ones get oats. They’re obligate herbivores. Dolphins are carnivores/ piscivores, they eat nothing but fish. Were dogs and cats tested? They’re carnivores, too. Dragons are obligate carnivores. Delvers eat arthropods, invertebrates, ‘eggs if they can find them’. Are they carnivores or omnivores?

The idea began to tap its fingers in irritation at his slow wit. “Okay. Okay. I’m getting in the shower.”

What is the thing that separates delvers from everything else?

The water pounded on his head.

What is that delvers eat that nothing else eats?

Trundlebugs? She said they eat worms and insects. They prefer trundlebugs above all and have a special way of killing trundlebugs without getting sprayed. Raventh said, trying desperately to help.

YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! He shouted. If he’d known the word eureka he would have shouted it.

Still dripping wet, he burst out of the shower, grabbed a linen to wrap around his waist and went for his datalink.

“B’rost. Trundlebugs. Trundlebugs! Catch some trundlebugs and test them. Maybe the trundlebugs have the virus and pass it on.”

“Trundlebugs? What do they eat?”

“I’m embarrassed to say this, but I don’t know. What I DO know is that trundlebugs are terribly important to life on Pern. They pollinate virtually every land plant that isn’t wind pollinated. We haven’t found a better pollinator. Didn’t you say that cattle and horses have more antibodies than humans? They’re herbivores. Dolphins and dragons aren’t. Dolphins don’t come in contact with land plants and dragons don’t eat the organs of their prey. We’re middle of the path, we eat everything. Trundlebugs pollinate plants. The virus is passed to the plant by the trundlebug saliva, maybe, or just being in contact with the plant. We eat the plants. The virus enters us. Test trundlebugs, B’rost, have Healer Hall test trundlebugs.”

B’rost was silent for several moments.

“Oh, no. I bet I know who’s going to get tasked with catching a trundlebug when I report this,” he said, his voice tragic. “I am going to stink. I just know it.”