Discovering the mutation: Chapter 11
Bowie looked into her eyes and said, “Would you like a drink? We can go down by the river and talk.”
She smiled and nodded as they walked across the street and down some stairs to the riverwalk. People think San Antonio is all Mexican food, and for the most part it is, but the riverwalk has all kinds of restaurants. Italian, gourmet burgers, and Chinese food make up the cuisine on the river. The smell of the food from the river created instant hunger. The riverwalk wasn’t crowded and they found a small Italian sidewalk café where you could sit and watch everyone go by. They sat down and the waiter came up to take their order. Bowie looked at Jana, “What’s you pleasure?”
She thought for a second, “I’ll have a seven and seven.”
Bowie looked at the waiter, “Same here only I also want a side shot of whiskey.”
The waiter acknowledged and walked off. Jana looked at him, “I guess you’re ready to get right to it.”
“Yes ma'am. I’m going straight to pants off.”
They both laughed and held hands across the table. The waiter brought the drinks and walked off. Bowie and Jana picked up their drinks clinked them together with Bowie saying, “Cheers.”
They had a long drink. Bowie grabbed the shot of whiskey and held it up, “Here’s to ya.” He then downed the shot in a second.
Bowie looked at Jana, “What do think is going on? I mean we’re seeing things obvious to us. What if there are underlying things we don’t know about yet. Our whole life could be turned upside down and we don’t know it. This is your area of expertise. What do you think?”
Jana contemplated for a second, “I’m starting to think when we activated the plasma drive around the ship some sort of universal shift happened. Kind of like the butterfly effect on a Galaxy level. When the plasma drive enveloped the ship, it had to send out disruptive waves. If we were working on the theories of the spooky element in quantum mechanics, it would’ve also sent out disruptive waves in the other universe. It apparently disturbed a timeline and changed things to what we see now.”
Bowie was trying to comprehend, “Okay, so why doesn’t Davis or any of the other people feel the change? I mean my mom and dad seemed fine.”
“If we’re in a different timeline. They wouldn’t know or feel anything. The only reason we know is because we went outside the timeline. Basically, there was a few seconds period where we didn’t exist in any timeline. It might have only been for a few seconds, but it happened. When we came back, this is where we landed. It’s basically the same but slightly off.”
Bowie had a somber look, “What about the other Janus missions. Wouldn’t they do the same thing? Maybe they changed things.”
“Maybe they did. As I said, we wouldn’t know because we weren’t outside the timeline. This might be a whole different world than we were in a year ago.”
Bowie was flabbergasted, “The whole time I’ve been involved in this project Davis talked about space flight but said nothing about timelines. What the hell?”
“This is why we needed to get back from the other universe. We couldn’t know about the timelines or the cell deterioration unless we sent humans outside them.” Both Bowie and Jana finished their drinks and ordered another round. They sat there in silence and watched the people walking on the river for a few minutes. It was a great night to be on the river. The weather was perfect, a mild temperature, and a slight breeze.
Bowie finally said, “What do we do now? Can we get back?”
“At this time, I don’t see a solution to that or the cell deterioration. We need to find a way to deal with these problems before we send people out again.”
Bowie nodded in agreement as he downed his second shot of whiskey, “Yeah, we can’t have this. You’re going to have messed up people coming back from expeditions.”
Jana relaxed back in her chair, and they ordered a third round of seven and sevens, “Look, we’re back in a spot we can be comfortable in. We have to keep working on how to fix it and enjoy the moment.”
Bowie was now feeling no pain. He raised his glass to Jana, “Cheers. Let’s make everything right again.”
Jana smiled and clinked his glass, “Yes, we’ll find the answers.”
The couple ordered a fourth round and continued to talk. They were feeling good and talked throughout the night as they watched the people on the riverwalk.
Bowie commented on tourists walking by. He pointed to a couple and the man was dressed in a suit and tie. The woman was dressed in a nice, plaid dress, “Look at that couple. They’re Yankees.”
“How can you tell? You don’t know.”
Bowie raised his glass, “Watch this.” He yelled at the couple, “Hey! Y’all look great. Where you from?”
Apparently, they had been drinking like Bowie and Jana. The couple turned with big smiles and raised their glasses and the guy said, “We’re from Chicago. This is great.”
Bowie replied, “Welcome to San Antone buddy.”
They hoisted their drink and moved on. Jana looked at Bowie, “How did you know that.”
“I was born and raised here. I have spent a lot of time in the downtown area since I was about twelve years old. You get to see many things and understand people.”
They were now ready to call it a night. Bowie asked Jana, “What hotel are you staying at?”
“I don’t have a hotel yet. I was going to get one after I left here. There must be someplace around here, right?”
Bowie looked into her eyes, “No, this San Antonio. All these rooms are probably booked. I guess you’ll have to fly back to Missouri tonight.”
Jana looked dismayed, “It’s late. I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Bowie laughed, “Okay, come back to my room. We can have a few more drinks and order room service. If you want to go to bed that’s fine too. I’ve got a suite, so I’ll sleep on the couch if you want. Come on, let’s go.”
Jana agreed and Bowie took care of the bill. They walked toward the Hyatt. Both Bowie and Jana were staggering under the influence of alcohol. They fell into the bed in Bowie’s room and got to know each other in the biblical sense all night. It was glorious.
The next morning Bowie got a text on the phone Davis had given him. The text said ‘Moonglow’. Davis would be calling soon. About ten minutes later the phone rang and Bowie answered. Davis said, “How are you doing?”
Bowie said, “I’m doing great. What’s going on?”
“Have you had anything strange happen? The entire crew of the expedition has reported things are different than when they left, we need to examine this. I’m concerned. I can’t get a hold of several people. I can’t get a hold of Olinick or Powell.”
Bowie quietly admitted, “Jana is with me and she’s fine. She has had strange things happening in her life. It’s just not the same. I’ve had several things completely different in my life. I don’t know what’s happening.”
Davis hesitated, “Okay, I’m going to tell you but I haven’t told everyone. Dr. Jones has discovered your cell structure has stopped deteriorating but the cells are now changing. He’s concerned it could affect personality, and the physical body. Everyone needs to meet at the oceanside airport in twenty four hours. We’ll fly to the island where the doctor is waiting. He’s working on a solution to stop the cell change. Are you clear?”
“Yes, Jana and I will be there twenty four hours from now. Goodbye.”
Bowie turned to Jana, “We need to go to Oceanside. We’re flying to the island. Our cells aren’t deteriorating but they are changing which could affect our personality and physical health.”
Jana was stunned, “Okay. I’ll stay with you.” They stayed in the room until the next morning when it was time to leave.
Bowie woke up early and gently tugged at Jana. She turned over and smiled. Bowie said, “We need to go. Let’s get ready and check out. We’ll fly to oceanside and take the C-130 to the island.” She nodded and started getting ready.
The couple went to Stinson Field and boarded Bowie’s plane. On the flight back they discussed the whole cellular thing. Jana said, “This really concerns me.”
Bowie said, “Hopefully the doc can fix things. This has gotten way out of hand.”
“Yes, I never anticipated this.” She then looked at her right forearm and saw a rash. It hadn’t been there a few hours before. She showed Bowie, “Look, what’s happening to me?”
Bowie became concerned, “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the Doc soon and he’ll fix it.” As he said the words, he wasn’t confident. He took her hand and held it. He then started kissing the top of her hand gently.
She looked at him and smiled. She always felt comfortable when they were together. They decided to talk about other things and forget about what was happening for a while.
After several hours they arrived at Oceanside airport. As Bowie and Jana got off the plane they were met immediately by Davis.
Davis had a blank stare, “Simon Olinick has been arrested by the L.A.P.D. for murder.”
Bowie and Jana were stunned. Bowie said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Davis stood there dumbfounded, “They said he was at a bar and got into some kind of argument. The guy came at Olinick and he went berserk. He pulled a knife and stabbed the guy over and over. The police arrived and arrested him."
Bowie said, "What if he talks about expedition.
Davis said, "Hopefully they'll think he's crazy. We’ve got to get to the island. The doctor has brought in two consultants to help with the situation. We don’t know if this will spread or not. We’ve got to hurry.”
Jana stopped Davis and showed him her rash, “This started hours ago. Anyone else having these issues?”
Davis acknowledged, “Yes, the crew of Janus 5 are having all kinds of issues. That’s why we need to hurry.”
Everyone got in the C-130, minus Olinick, and took off for the island. The plane landed several hours later. Everyone exited the plane and Doctor Jones was there to meet them. The two assistants he brought over were in the lab. The Doc had a concerned look on his face, “Private Johnson has been put in restraints. He developed a rash and then became completely incoherent and wanted to hurt people. We felt it best to tie him down. The skin irritations are getting bad. The two men I brought over are experts in this type of medicine. They’re working on a solution to counteract the reactions of the cell disruption.”
Jana became upset, “My rash. What does it mean? Am I going to turn out like Johnson?”
Bowie grabbed her, “No, it’ll be okay. We will fix this. You’ll be fine.”
Jana looked into his eyes, “What if they don’t? I mean are we turning into zombies? What the hell!”
Bowie grabbed her and still had his big ol Texas smile, “There are no zombies. The doctors will take care of this.”
Jana calmed herself, “Yes, I’m sorry. There are no zombies, but this is a mutation. This is dangerous. It could spread everywhere. I don’t know what to do.”
Bowie grabbed her and hugged her tight, “It’s okay. They’ll figure it out. These people are brilliant.”
The crew went back to the area where the doctors were working. Johnson was tied down but was screaming at the top of his lungs, “Let me go! Let me go!”
Jana hugged Bowie, “Am I going to turn out like that?”
“No, no, we’ll take care of it. I promise nothing will happen to you like that.”
Doc Jones stepped up, “He needs a transfusion. I’ve consulted with my colleagues, and we need some blood from a person on the planet we visited. There’s something about the space we were in that changed us. We need to research it and find something in the people’s blood on that planet to fix this. We’re not sure what it is but it is changing people here in a bad way.”
Bowie looked at the Doc, “So you’re saying we need to go back and get a person from the planet we were at and bring them back?”
The Doc looked at Bowie and slowly nodded, “Yes. We need to get someone from there and bring them back here to examine. They will die but we need to find something to change the course of this thing. This could spread all over the earth and we could all end up being mutants who die a painful death. This must be done fast.”
Bowie looked around for Davis. He started yelling, “Davis! Where you at?”
Davis came running up and Bowie said, “The Doc here says we need to go back to the planet and get a specimen.”
Davis nodded, “Yes, everyone will go back except Olinick, Johnson, and you.”
Bowie looked at him funny, “What do you mean not me? I will lead the mission.”
Davis said, “No. We can’t have anyone going rogue on us. You’re a wild card. You’ll go after what you believe is your wife.”
Bowie just starred at Davis, “We’re talking about a whole different ball game here. I just want to get a specimen and get out. I can handle it. Besides, the mercs are a man short without Johnson. I can take care of them being a person short.”
Davis stood there a second and said, “Okay, but just get in and out.”
Bowie nodded and told Davis, “Okay, leave the area. I’ll get everyone ready and be back in a few hours if not sooner.”
Davis smiled and left the area so the baby could take off and get the job done. Bowie went to the cockpit and found Joe and Yoli. Joe was programming the drones when Bowie walked up, “Hey Joe. How you feeling? You okay?”
Joe looked up and smiled, “Yeah, I’m good. I hear we’re going back.”
“Yeah, you up to it?”
“Yes sir. You just let me know what you want me to do.”
Bowie patted Joe on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up and turned to Yoli. He was there working on the settings for takeoff. Bowie interrupted, “We about ready to go?”
Yoli said, “Yes sir skipper. Hepwater says we just dock with Janus 5 and we’ll be there and back in no time.