Antibodies 4

© Copyright to 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.

Chapter 4.

Our trip to Lunar base four was incident free. We delivered our cargo then loaded some used equipment along with a small consignment of ore and one passenger returning to her family on earth. Her name was Doctor Williams and she was a virologist who had been recalled to earth to assist with researches into the Verna Spiro Type one Virus. So named because the identified virus turned blood a greenish hue and the virus was a spiral type similar to syphilis spirochetes.

Whilst working on the moon, Doctor Williams had been communicating at length with the terrestrial authorities and she was fully genned up on the virus.

On the journey home, Doctor Williams gave us a long chat about the virus and answered many questions that we purveyed as typically innocent questions that any concerned, intelligent individual might ask. By the time we landed earthside again. Jamie and I were also pretty clued up.

By way of a thankyou to Doctor Williams, we gave her a brand-new bio suite from our newly purchased stock and she was eternally grateful.
Our obvious bio-suit precautions caused the health authorities to give us a bye on the blood tests and our antibodies didn’t show up in the lateral-flow tests. There was a more intensive flow test but it was expensive and only used if a person was suspected to be infected.

By hook and by crook we got through the health checks and went straight to see Charlotte and Lucy. They were still showing the ravages of the initial reaction to infection but they were in a very buoyant mood when we met them.

“You two look happy.” I observed.

“Our temperatures are normal. That’s completely at odds with the normal disease pathway. We should be feeling really sick by now. Have you got more of that blood stuff?”

“Yes, but.”

“But what?”

“You and your friends play dumb. You don’t know anything, OK?”

“You can bet your bottom buck we’ll say nothing.”

“Right, go and get your friends we haven’t got much time.”

“There’s no hurry anymore. They’ve relaxed the visiting rules because very few people are visiting.” Charlotte explained as Lucy dashed off to get their friends.

Lucy returned with two desperately sick girls who eyed us feverishly. Both Jamie and I eyed them wonderingly as we wondered if we were too late. Lucy explained that the two girls only expected to live a few more days as their illnesses were following a typical infection pathway. They were both weak and it was an easy job to locate their malnutritional veins in their pipe-stem arms.
“Is this going to work?” Charlotte asked Jamie as I speedily transfused the blood.

“It should do.” Jamie encouraged. “It’s worked for you two, hasn’t it?”

“But they’re so far gone. You caught me and Lucy much earlier.”

“Trust to the gods.” I added as I quickly treated the second girl. “What are their names?”

“Rose and Violet. They’re twins but not identical.”

I stood up and packed my transfusion kit away under my puffer jacket then I explained to the sickly pair.

“Eat as much as you can. The food we’ve brought is fresh so if you do recover and anybody asks, say you think it was something in the assortment of vegetables and fruit we brought. What ever happens, you must eat lots of food, you’ll need it to get strong.”

Rose and Violet nodded feebly while Charlotte and Lucy piled all the fresh food we had brought onto a supermarket trolly they had brought anticipating our generosity.

“Thanks Jamie,” Lucy intoned as I wrapped up my needles and syringes.”
“What about Nana Bev?” Jamie scolded Lucy quietly. “She’s the one who dreamt this up. Let’s just hope it works.”

“Thanks Nana!” Charlotte quickly remedied Lucy’s mistake.

“We’ll be back on Monday,” I explained, “ostensibly to bring fresh food but secretly to check up on you. What ever you do, don’t bloody tell anybody or they’ll be after us like flies on shit.”

“But if it cures people, shouldn’t you tell the authorities?” Lucy asked.

“How much blood d’you think I’ve bloody got!” Jamie screeched. “Nana Bev’s already pumped two hundred cc into you four.”

“Hush girl!” I whispered hoarsely. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Sorry Nana.” Jamie apologised as she gave the four friends a baleful warning glare and put her finger to her lips. “I’ll be back!”

Once clear of the isolation area, Jamie and I returned to our apartment and prepared a meal. The obvious question now hung like the sword of Damocles over our dinner.

“So; if they do get better, what then?” Jamie asked.

“Well if their blood carries the antibodies, hopefully, they’ll use it to design a vaccine.”

“They haven’t had much success yet and you heard what Doctor Williams said. If they don’t make a breakthrough in a year, this virus is so virulent it’ll finish humanity. Unless we all live in space suits.”
“I dunno’ Jamie! I’ve lived in a bloody space suite for most of my working life.”

“Yeah! But you’ve never had sex in one!”

I tried to suppress a snigger but it was hard. Jamie could always lighten a room. We chatted at length and decided that we would eventually somehow let it be known that there was a tiny supply of antidote. The next step was to protect ourselves from some sort of medical imprisonment on the basis of emergency rules or some such lunacy.

ooo000ooo

The next anticipated development was not long in coming. Jamie and I had returned from a months prospecting in our happiest hunting grounds, namely the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

After a final supervisory check on our natal mining investment on Europa, we had loaded a good cargo of rare earth metals that had been smelted at the mine. Two of the miners were taking home leave so they travelled with us on Digger as passengers. We separated on arrival home and they would make their own arrangements to return to the mine.

When we arrived on earth we quickly learned that four victims of the virus had seemingly recovered and it was causing reverberations around the planet. Fortunately, during their isolation they had received several family visits and the authorities had initially researched that avenue.

Additional to family visits, the girls Rose and Violet had received several visits from a charity group and the authorities were on a wild goose chase trying to follow them up. Jamie and I exchanged amused smirks but we both knew that time was running out.
That first evening home, we chose not to go clubbing. The mood on the street seemed tense as people were still under the lethal threat while fake news was flying thick and fast about the miracle cure that the government was hiding. The identity of the four miracle patients was obviously being kept secret and this served to further generate fake news.

The fact the all four patients were reported to be LGBT did not serve our community well, and several protest marches had turned violent in other foreign cities as transphobic and homophobic prejudices gained free rein amidst the bigoted, religious and right-wing communities.

The fact that the LGBT people were the ones who had recovered was totally lost in the frenzied propaganda of fake news. Neither Jamie nor I could make sense of that whirligig reasoning.
Finally, we repaired to bed and spooned together before eventually getting to sleep.
ooo000ooo

It was the driving rain that eventually dragged us both from our slumbers and as the wind moaned around our apartment building, the rain hammered against the windows. As one squall hammered a particularly heavy crash of rain drops against our window, Jamie and I instinctively cuddled tighter under our duvet to savour the warmth of our bed.

“I’m staying here.” Jamie giggled as her arm snaked under my breast.

“Bloody good idea.” I replied as I pressed my butt into her tummy.

And so we did, at least until nature called and our stomachs protested.

As we ate our brunch we mused over our previous night’s chat and decided we needed a lot more information before venturing any information.

“We should try and speak to that Doctor Williams. She seemed pretty genned up on stuff.” Jamie offered.

For want of a better idea I agreed with her.

“Did you get any contact details.” I asked Jamie.

“Only that she was going to meet some government people down in London.”

“Well, that’s where we start then.”

“We’d be better checking Digger’s cargo passenger manifest. Her details will be on our passenger immigration declaration.”

Jamie’s eyes widened at this revelation.

“You’re not just a pretty face are you Nana.”

“Put it down to long experience kid. How many passenger manifest lists do you think I have filled in during my years in space?”

A quick computer link to my company office soon revealed all Doctor Williams’s personal details. She lived in a cottage in the Cotswolds not far from Oxford.

“Right, so how do we make contact without exposing ourselves?” Jamie demanded.

“We take some blood and leave it on her doorstep with a note. I’ve got all the details of our bloods so we could leave two samples and simply disappear. To make contact then we simply send a letter and repeat the password on the bottles and a burner phone number.”

“Let’s do it then. I fancy a trip into the country.” Jamie enthused.

The next morning found us near Oxford casing a delightful cottage nestled in a deep hollow.

“I there anybody in,” Jamie wondered.

“Not at this time if she’s working. There’s no car there.”

“We should come back later.”

“It’ll be dark by five. We could leave her a note on her doorsteps front and back then see if it’s her.”

Okay, who keeps lookout, we’ll have to hide the car well. There’s a hotel in the village, we could eat dinner there.

Having laid out our plan we made our preparations then waited. At four o’clock, Jamie put the letters on both steps and sat back. By six she phoned me.

“She’s taken the bait and left for the hotel. I’ve left the bottles of blood on her step; she can’t miss them.”
Moments after Jamie closed our connection, my phone rang.

“Who are you and what do you want.”

I texted a simple message.

“The blood with the antidote is on your front doorstep.”

With that, I closed the phone and rendezvoused with Jamie at a remote junction some half a mile from her cottage. We were back home by midnight.

The following morning I went food shopping, while Jamie cleaned the apartment. We met for lunch at our favourite day-time café in the village.

“Did you ditch the phone?” Jamie checked.

“It’s at the bottom of the river Stour. I ditched yesterday it while you took a wee.”

She smiled and gave me a hug, more from excitement than affection.

“Are we going to the club tonight.”

“Why not?” I concurred. “Ball’s in their court now.”

“If we get another burner phone, we could try and call Charlotte.”

“Not yet. Not until we know she’s released and free. Don’t call the others either.”

“Why?” Jamie frowned.
“Charlotte’s the only one who can keep her mouth shut. The less the authorities know about us, the stronger our bargaining position.”

Jamie shrugged as she conceded my point. Then she grinned hopefully.

“Are you still up for clubbing tonight.”

“Yes. You’d best get ready.”

That night we relaxed for the first time and noticed a distinct mood of optimism amongst our friends. The news about the four LGBT recoveries was beginning to take effect amongst us.

“D’ you think it’s anything to do with the gay gene, or the trans’ gene?” Was the question on everybody’s lips.

Jamie and I just shared discreet knowing smiles.