Antibodies 6

© Copyright. Beverly Taff.

Characters.
Nana Bev, Interplanetary prospector.
Jamie, Bev’s younger prospecting Partner.
Dennis Potter Freight manager and old friend of Beverly’s.
Jack Godfrey Yard foreman and walking boss.
Charlotte and Lucy - Jamie’s younger dancing & clubbing friends.
Rose and Violet. Real girl friends of Jamie, Charlotte and Lucy.
Dr Williams Virologist

Chapter 6

“Well, there she is again.” Jamie reflected as the ‘sky’ turned blue again and we lost the black vastness of space. “Hello mother.”

“I never had you for a home-bird darling,” I remarked. “Thought you loved the travelling life.”

“Nah, it’s good to see old mother Earth every few weeks.” Jamie replied as she stared intently at the instruments and tapped in the co-ordinates for Dennis’s Yard.

I watched in a relaxed mode as I reflected that I had picked a ‘good-un’ in choosing to offer Jamie a chance as a spaceship officer. She brought our spaceship ‘Digger’ easily to an acceptable approach speed and started our descent. I punched in our clearance codes with central Earth control and we immediately received our pratique.

An hour later we had settled in Dennis’s yard where we discharged some scrapped machinery from one of my mines while I filed the documents. Once we had received clearance, it was but a short hop to the metal mills where we delivered the ore.

With that task complete we parked ‘Digger’ back at our regular parking bay and then returned to our apartment.

“Clubbing tonight Nana?” Jamie asked.

“Aye. For a couple of hours maybe,” I replied, “I suppose you’ll be at it to all hours.”

Jamie grinned a little self-consciously before nodding affirmation.

“Well don’t forget. We should be donating blood tomorrow. We can do it after lunch then you can sleep all you want while I deliver it.”

“Thanks Nan. You’re a treasure.”

“You owe me one. Just make sure there’s no excess booze in your system. The blood needs to be as pure as possible.”

I knew we were safe on that score. Jamie had been caught out twice before by scumbags spiking her drinks when she was younger. On both occasions she’d been ‘date-raped’ by the scumbag using Rhohypnol and then woken up the next morning wondering where she was.

Fortunately, on the second occasion I had come to know Jamie through her work at Dennis’s yard. Thanks to my persistence, we had identified and caught the drug offender, so Jamie had not been charged with drunkenness or lewd behaviour despite being found almost naked in the street. The offender got ten years because he had previous drug convictions.

After a couple of hours meeting my friends in the club, I bid everybody a good evening and made my way home. A couple of hours later, I was pleased to hear Jamie’s key in the door then I smiled as I heard some whispering in the hall. Jamie had obviously brought home a ‘friend’

I did not condemn her for that, she was young and would never conceive a child nor contract Verdo. (The shortened name for the new plague.) As to the recklessness of her newfound bed mate, well; that was his or her concern. My Jamie was safe.
ooo000ooo

The following morning, I could barely conceal my smile when Jamie’s ‘bed mate’ emerged from Jamie’s bedroom and almost dropped her empty coffee mug when she found me sat opposite Jamie at the breakfast bar.

Her Jaw sagged as she gasped.

“Who are -?” She almost gasped.

“I think I should be asking you young miss; who are you?”

“Jamie! You didn’t tell me you lived with somebody!” The girl protested as she self-consciously sidled behind the doorpost to hide her semi nudity.

“I don’t have to tell anybody I’m living with Nana, but you should have put your housecoat on. It’s hanging behind the door, go and cover yourself up.”

The girl slammed the bedroom door shut then re-emerged with the spare housecoat tightly secured at the waist.

“That’s better,” Jamie grinned, “now Jennifer, meet my house mate and friend, Nana Bev.”

“Hello Jennifer,” I greeted the scarlet faced girl, “nice to meet you.”

“Hello Na –. I can’t call you Nana.”

“Yes you can while in this apartment,” I allowed as I picked up the kettle. “Tea or Coffee, or would you prefer fruit juice.”

“Eh; another coffee please.” She confirmed uncertainly.
I poured her some hot water and Jamie made the instant coffee as I explained.

“We don’t stand on ceremony here. It’s bog-standard instant ‘student’ type coffee here. We’re not gourmets. D’ you want any breakfast?”

“Uuhm yes please, what’ve you got?”

“Well I’m making poached eggs on toast; you can share with me or Jamie can rustle you up something more substantial.”

My easy-going approach returned Jennifer’s confidence and she turned to Jamie.

“What ‘re you having love?”

“Full English.” Jamie replied with a knowing grin.

Jennifer’s eyes lit up with optimism as she nodded hopefully.

With that my phone rang, it was Dennis with some cargo offers from the freight exchange in Liverpool. I excused myself and turned from the table to discuss details. From the reflection on the chrome panel of the refrigerator door I could see Jennifer earwigging my conversation.

“I won’t be available until tomorrow Den. I’ve got stuff to sort before we take another cargo. But the cargo for Calisto sounds lucrative. I’ll get back to you before closing time at five.”

Having temporarily secured a cargo booking I turned to Jamie only to see Jennifer gaping disbelievingly at Jamie.

“I thought you were bullshitting?”

“What!” Jamie protested.

“You!” She exclaimed. “I thought you were bullshitting about the spaceship thing!”

“Why would I bullshit about that? I do fly a spaceship! It’s my job.”

“But that takes brains and stuff.”

“Tell her Nana!”

I briefly explained that Jamie was my first mate and we carried cargoes to all the visitable planets and moons.

“But she’s so young and, and she doesn’t come across as a nerd; you know, all brains and science.”

“There’s lots of different ways of becoming a spacer.” I replied. “It’s not all about going to university or space college. People can come up the hawse pipe.”

“But there’s all the training and licences and stuff.” Jennifer argued. “And what about Jamie’s transgender stuff. How did she pass the psychiatric tests?”

“They’re not compulsory.” I explained. “It’s only the big liner companies who want so-called presentable young professionals to train for their big space liners. The passengers like to think there’s some smart capable professional in charge of the ship and the big liner companies indulge them.
There’s no official psychiatric test to get a spacer’s license. All you need is brains, maths and physics.”

“How long has Jamie been doing it?”

“’Bout three years.”

“And she’s already a first mate!! She’s only twenty-one!”

“She became my de-facto first mate the day she joined me. I was a one-man-band, owner - commander when Jamie joined. I taught her to pass her exams, she’s one smart cookie.”

I could see Jennifer staring at Jamie with a newfound respect. This was certainly not the crazy ‘jack-in-a-box’ fire-cracker dancer famous for her crazy routines on the club dancefloor. She turned to me and asked.

“Can I see your spaceship.”

“Why, don’t you believe us?” I challenged.

“Well; I’d just like to check and besides. I’ve never been in a spaceship.”

“Be outside the main gate to Potters Depot at five tomorrow morning and don’t be late.” I advised

ooo000ooo

The conversation was all spaceship, spaceship, spaceship during breakfast but I let Jamie do the explaining then I called Jamie’s attention to the time.

“Come on girl, time for our blood tests and sampling for the Space health check-up.” I lied.

Jamie, being as sharp as a razor, immediately understood what I was alluding to so she offered to drive Jennifer home while I got on with paperwork. When she got back, we immediately collected our blood samples then rested a day or so prior to delivering the blood at a secure secret place before advising Doctor Williams of its whereabouts.

The following morning we were mildly surprised to see Jennifer waiting expectantly outside the gates to Dennis’s yard while enduring the driving rain.

“Gosh’” Jamie grinned, “she’s keen to have a look-see around a common-or-garden space freighter.”

“Well, if you want to impress your new girlfriend, you can show her around but I’ve secured the two-part key lock so she can’t hijack it.”

“What! D’ you really think that’s what she’s thinking?” Jamie gasped.

“I never know what to think babes but better safe than sorry.”

Jamie grinned as we pulled up at the gate and arranged with the security guard to allow Jennifer aboard my spaceship.”

Jennifer’s eyes widened with respect as the security guard accorded me some considerable respect.

“You pull some weight around here don’t you,” she remarked.

“I’ve got a part share in the yard but only one ship. I don’t want the hassle of operating a whole fleet of spaceships. I’ve turned down offers to join other spaceship conglomerates because my main interest is prospecting and then opening mines.

Most of the spaceship companies know me, I had a huge part in developing space travel when I was younger. Gravity propulsion and stuff. My patents and mining claims keep me more than happy.”

Jennifer’s eyes widened further when she realised I was ‘THAT BEV!’

Before Jennifer could become too enamoured of me I explained that I was going into Dennis’s office to sort some documents then I had a delivery to make near Oxford. I had the two blood samples to deliver to Doctor Williams before they deteriorated.

“I’ll be gone a couple of days, but Jamie can keep you entertained while I’m gone.”
Later that morning, after Jennifer had got her fill of spaceships I left them in town by our apartment while I set off south. This time I stopped by a litterbin and picked a carboard cake carton out of the rubbish. I took the two blood bottles from the minifridge in my car then wrote a note to Doctor Williams about my ideas about multiplying the donor population.
I placed the package in a farm gate way with a red plastic bag that made it look like litter. Finally, I determined the co-ordinates of the drop and texted them to Doctor Williams with a further caution.

“It’s quite cool at the drop so you have about two to six hours before the blood starts to deteriorate. I’ll drop another written message tomorrow.”

If she were interested, I would drop a note at another pre-arranged location then have a long chat with Jamie about going forward.

With this in mind, I bought yet another ‘burner phone’ with a view to talking to Doctor Williams on the morrow.

The following morning Jamie and I had long chat about what each of us really wanted. The main aims where pretty much identical. To somehow defeat the Verdospiro Virus and then get on with our own lives. We had a few personal objectives that could wait until we had somehow defeated the virus but we were obviously unanimous on the main picture.

At ten in the morning Jamie and I were located in a quiet, woodland some distance from any houses and unlikely to be located unless we spent too long talking. Doctor Williams’s phone rand and she answered it immediately.

“Hello! Is that Omega girl?”

Jamie and I confirmed we were, by once again repeating the passwords written on the blood bottles.

“I’ve read your suggestion. It sounds very risky.”

“We know that, but until you can somehow synthesise a vaccine, it seems to be the only way forward. My information suggests a Vaccine could take a few months at best, possibly longer. The virus is far more deadly than previous bugs like the Covid variants.”

“We’re estimating probably six to eight months.” Doctor Williams opined ruefully.

“And it this thing takes off?” I asked the unfinished question.

“You’ll need worse lockdowns than China back in the Covid days.”

“I thought as much and during that time, the people most at risk are medical.”

“Yes. – Unfortunately.”

I could clearly hear the concerns in Doctor Williams’s voice.

“So what do you think of my proposal, the ship full of volunteers?”

“It’s got a lot of merit. I think the best way forward is to approach the ministry of defence and expose a full regiment sized group of soldiers. If it works and they become immune, we’ll have a far greater pool of antibodies plus a disciplinary force that’s immune to the bug.

They’d be far less prone to be frightened and panic.”

“How many would that create?”

“About eight hundred to a thousand.”

“That’s more than the Mars Moon shuttle can carry. At best they normally carry two hundred. There’s not that much passenger traffic in space, it’s mostly exploration and mining. The whole population of Mars is only about four thousand.”

“We could send more than one ship.” Jamie offered. “It only needs one ship to do the navigating. The others can tag along.”

“Well it’s going to have to be done quickly.” I warned.

“Why?” Doctor Williams asked.

“Cos the asteroid that irradiated Jamie and me is heading straight into Jupiter. In about a month, it will collide. – Self destruction as it were.”

“I see.” Doctor Williams frowned. “We’d best get moving then.”

“Yes we had.” I echoed. “First things first. I don’t want to reveal my identity nor does my first mate. You’d better let us two borrow a fast patrol ship from the navy and I can copy my navigation records into her computers.”

“What!!” Doctor Williams almost screeched. “Now you want to borrow a warship.”

“I want anonymity and speed. My own ship would not keep up with one of the passenger shuttles. I’ve got to transfer myself and my navigation records to a patrol craft then my first mate and I can transfer at some secret location in space. The navy can rendezvous with our empty merchant ship and return it to Earth for me to collect when anonymity is no longer necessary.

“Once my transfer is complete, the job is done.”

“So why the obsession with anonymity?” The doctor pressed.

“If things don’t work out, I don’t want Jamie and me to be the only poor buggers with vaccine in our blood.” Our lives wouldn’t be worth living, we’d be total hostage to the virus and a national panic.”

“Are you sure you could handle a fast naval craft?”

“The navigation principles are identical and that’s the only thing we’ll be doing; navigation and piloting. I don’t expect to be shooting any weapons. I’m presuming they eat the same standard food as everybody else, pre-prepared spaceship junk.”

ooo000ooo