Through Glass Darkly: Episode Two (7 page)

There wasn’t much else that could really be said on the subject, and I thought for moment that Hughes was simply going to let the subject drop, but then he surprised me again.

‘You know,’ he continued, in a slightly lighter tone. ‘I have at various points in my life found that keeping a journal of my thoughts has helped. Purely for myself of course, not for anyone else to read.

‘I don’t know why putting pen to paper is easier for me than talking to someone else, but somehow it helps me to maintain my perspective. Perhaps you should give it a try? You could even use it to keep a record of your travels in a strangely familiar land.’ He finished with a flourish of his hand to indicate the city around us.

The idea had never occurred to me before, but something about it appealed now.

‘I like the sound of that,’ I admitted. ‘Perhaps I will.’

I’d been intending to talk to Platt the Police Captain when I got back to where the ship was moored in the park, to see if we could start running the lensing tests on his men from the search team, as well as any other volunteers from the Police and Fire departments that would like to give it a go. But after discussing Ariel’s condition with the Captain we both agreed that the operation should go ahead in the morning, and that I should attend in order to provide the support that the surgeons had requested.

To make sure this didn’t cause a delay in the lensing trials the Captain agreed to give me a hand in setting up the lensing lab later on that evening, so that we could arrange for the tests to begin the following afternoon. He also agreed to cover the first appointments if the surgery ran over and I couldn’t get back in time.

I knew he’d been up since before I had that morning, and as usual had already completed a full day of meetings and overseeing the work of Bradbury’s repair team from his now accustomed place down in engineering, and yet as we cleared away some of the debris that still lay around the lensing lab rom our arrival in this world, and sorted out the test equipment for the following day he still seemed as fresh as a daisy in both his appearance and mood.

I thought about mentioning it, but wanted to mention the technology discussion I’d had with Hughes earlier on that day.

‘It’s something I was hoping to find the time to brief you on at some point,’ he conceded, taking a momentary pause from the work. ‘I’ve been approached by Jenkins superiors within the FBI and by a number of senior representatives from the military, who are all interested in finding out more about the different technologies we have aboard the ship. But after considering it I’ve informed them that as the technologies aboard this ship were developed by all the nations of our own world, it seems only right that if we’re going to share them at all then it should be with all the peoples of this world.

‘I’m not quite sure how it’s going to happen at the moment,’ he continued, ‘But they have something on this world called a World’s Fair, where each nation comes to exhibit its technological advances and celebrate its cultural differences and hopes for the future. It’s being held in Chicago this year, and is running until November. If we can get the ship fixed up before then and deal with this Lamphrey that is on the loose, I’m considering granting the crew some shore-leave to attend the event, and if we can arrange it with the organisers and the world’s scientific community we’ll also hold seminars to share the knowledge and technology we have.’

‘That would certainly give the crew something to focus on as they start to return to work,’ I said, thinking out loud. ‘And the flight over to Chicago might also be a good first shake-down for the ship once repairs are completed.’

He clearly appreciated my echoing of the things he’d doubtless already considered, and for the first time in many months we had a relaxed and informal chat as we both worked away in the lab to get it ready for the following day.

Apparently he was pleased with how the repairs to the ship were coming along, and was even hopeful that we might get a skin stretched over the hole in the side of hull within the next day or two, so that we could fully inflate the rest of gas cells in that part of the ship again. Many of the bags were already in place, partially inflated and secured with layers of netting as they had been originally before the hull had been ruptured, but as we were unlikely to need to take the ship up to extreme altitude anytime soon there was no point risking a full inflation of the bags until we were whole again.

For my part I told him about Hughes suggestion that I should start keeping a journal to record our adventures in this foreign world, though I skipped over the fact that Hughes had suggested this in part as something that might help me to recover my perspective.

‘You know Ashton, that’s a splendid idea,’ he commented with a curious hint of a smile on his face. ‘I’m surprised I didn’t think of it myself!’

It honestly took me nearly a whole second to realise the Captain had cracked a joke at his own expense, but when the penny dropped I couldn’t help but chuckle honestly.

‘I’ve never stopped to ask you how you’re finding having a twin brother for the first time in your life,’ I asked, unsure of whether I was stepping over the line for polite conversation.

‘Well its odd and no mistake,’ he replied without hesitation. ‘But you know the strangest thing? There’s a large part of me that would like nothing better than to sit down with him for an evening or two simply to discuss how our lives are the same and where they differ. I think it would be like one of those pointless ‘what if’ scenarios where you can’t help but wonder how your life would’ve changed if only you’d acted differently.’

We talked good naturedly for a short while longer until the lensing lab was completely ship shape again, and then as I headed back to my cabin the Captain took his leave of me and headed back down to engineering.

CHAPTER 24 - RESTORATION

I was up on my way early the following morning in order to get over to the Staton Island Sanatorium in time for Ariel’s second operation.

It was much cooler at this time of the morning, and a low mist still clung to the grass across the park as I made my way to the waiting patrol car, but even so the clear blue sky held the promise of it being another bright and warm summers day.

There was very little traffic on the roads at this early hour and as such I arrived at the Sanatorium and was getting cleaned up to go into theatre in the blink of an eye.

By the time I entered the operating room the surgical team had finished prepping and examining their patient, and I was just about to greet them all when I caught sight of Ariel on the operating table. Her face and hair had been washed, and the puffiness or inflammation which her skin had after the shell was removed had completely subsided, making her look as though she were merely asleep.

‘She does look a lot better without all that gelatinous material covering her, doesn’t she,’ commented Dr Payne after seeing my expression.

When I nodded my agreement, he went on to explain the nature of the procedure that was planned, both to me and his support team. He also pointed out a drip that had been attached to Ariel’s arm.

‘As you can see we’ve also analysed the patients’ blood chemistry, and while there’s a lot we still don’t understand we have been able to create a basic isotonic crystalloid solution that matches the levels we found in her blood, which we hope will be enough to keep her hydrated. You all know this patient has a unique blood condition which means no transfusions are possible, so in the event of significant blood loss we will terminate the surgery and then re-evaluate.

‘Having said that,’ continued Payne. ‘The area around the spine where we will be working is not close to any major arterial blood vessels, so blood loss should be minimal.’

With that Dr Payne deferred to Dr Bach who was once again acting as the lead surgeon.

‘Mr Hall, if you’d be good enough to tell us how the patient appears through your various lenses?’ He asked.

Without further ado I dropped my first sequence of lenses into place and described the results as I observed them.

‘I’ll begin with the Infrared, there are no unusual energy signatures coming from the patient, body temperature appears slightly above normal, but only marginally, and is consistent across the entire body. Moving through the EM field I’m still not seeing anything unusual, electrical conductivity of the exposed skin especially around the neck and head still seems reduced in a manner consistent with lower brain activity or unconsciousness.’

After thanking me, the surgeons then proceeded to turn the patient over and expose the eight bony remnants of the creatures limbs that protruded from the area around Ariel’s upper spine.

I again lowered my lenses and ran through the same combinations to see if there was anything unusual across both the visible and invisible areas of the spectrum, though again there was nothing out of the ordinary.

I continued monitoring as the operation began, but as soon as the surgeons began work on the remnants of the Lamphrey limbs I could see they were triggering some kind of electrical response that was sending strong pulsing signals both up the spine and to the limbs.

‘Wait,’ I blurted. ‘Your incisions are causing what looks like a strong pain response up the patients spine. I can see it as heightened electrical activity whenever you tools touch her.’

‘Is it the incisions or the contact with the metal tools,’ Bach asked patiently.

‘I’m not sure,’ I had to reply. ‘The metal that’s just in contact with her skin doesn’t seem to be causing a reaction. Do you have any non-metallic tools you could try.’

‘We do have some obsidian bladed scalpels in the research lab,’ Payne commented, I know they use them because of their improved edge for preparing slides.’

‘It’s worth a try,’ Bach commented, before asking one of the theatre assistants to step outside and call through to the research lab for several of their scalpels.

‘It might also be worthwhile asking for a length of fine wire while you’re at it,’ I commented.

Bach nodded his approval to the assistant before turning back to me for an explanation.

‘It’s a long shot,’ I conceded, before going on. ‘But we know the electrical properties of the creatures from the Expanse are quite highly developed. We’ve discovered with some of them that even after their death their cells can still alter their structure if a small electrical current is passed through them, or even if they’re just adequately earthed.’

A few moments later and the theatre assistant was returning with both the sterilised scalpels and coil of fine electrical wire.

Payne tried the scalpels first, which I could immediately see caused almost no pain response from Ariel, which I conveyed to both surgeons surprise.

The wire I suggested they use differently. Starting by earthing a normal scalpel via the wire to one of the metal legs of the surgical table, to see if that also had a positive effect, which again it did, an identical incision now seemed to cause almost no response in Ariel at all, as opposed to the very strong response of only a few minutes earlier.

Having the wire attached to the scalpel did however make it slightly more difficult for the surgeons to wield, so they both elected to use the obsidian bladed tools to begin with, and had their theatre assistants quickly improvise a number of earths that they could easily attach to many of the other tools as and when needed.

In this way the surgery once again proceeded, with the surgeons first exposing the root of one Lamphrey limb, before carefully cutting through the cartilaginous material that connected it to the spine, and then finally severing the nerve tissue.

One after another the bony roots of what had been the creatures arms or legs were carefully removed before the wounds were finally closed.

It was a mesmerising thing to watch, the delicacy and precision of the surgeons work was breath-taking to observe. Even when cutting through the tough cartilage, for all the world making what must’ve been a unique and challenging operation seem straight forward.

While it didn’t seem to take so long to me the operation still took a little over five hours to complete, so it was just gone midday by the time Ariel was once again moved back into the recovery room and I was able to quickly discuss how things had gone with the surgeons.

‘Well I can’t deny you had me worried at the start Mr Hall,’ Bach began. ‘When you highlighted the pain response that the steel tools were causing, but actually after that it was pretty much textbook. The material that looked like cartilage on the X-rays turned out to be exactly that.’

‘Yes, it was a surprisingly well designed mutation in the end,’ commented Payne. ‘I don’t know how this young woman wound up with this condition, but the mutation happened in such a logical way she could well have survived in this state indefinitely if you hadn’t captured her.’

They wouldn’t be drawn on how long Ariel might take to recover, but they were hopeful, if she continued to heal as quickly as she had been, it wouldn’t be more than a few days.

We talked for a little while longer, during which time they both expressed an interest in taking a look through the lenses they’d seen me use, which I was happy to demonstrate by letting them try on my lensing rig for a minute or so with it set to cycle slowly through a limited range of lenses. Neither man lasted for very long before asking to stop the demonstration, which was hardly surprising considering they must already have quite tired eyes after several hours in the operating room, but they both found the experience interesting and thanked me for the demonstration.

With that it was time to head back to the ship and start my afternoon job or testing all the remaining members of the search teams and other volunteers to identify which of them would be able to cope best with the new lensing glasses that were being constructed.