Out of Control

a

Trust Machines story

by

clancy688

Wearily, Dr. Bradly Blackstock rubbed his eyes. He was at the end of an twelve hour ER shift, and if there was something more strenuous in life than an ER shift in a trauma center like Farnell Memorial, he had yet to find it. And nobody could say that, as an enthusiastic extreme sportsman, he wasn't trying hard enough. 

As an attending physician, he had the option to shuffle off unpopular tasks on residents, but he'd still have the overall responsibility for the conducted treatment, so this was only a superficial benefit. Still, not being bled and puked on anymore because he could interpose a handy resident had its virtues. At least, as an internist by training, he usually didn't have to deal with the horribly broken shapes of trauma-patients. 

But regardless of these tiny reliefs, the shift still was brutal, and it was even more so when, additionally to hundreds of sick patients, half the hospital staff (truth to tell, it couldn't have been more than a couple of dozen, but it had surely felt like more!) showed up with some kind of nasty cold. Actually, the sickness appeared to be quite harmless, with only minor discomfort, the main unpleasantness being swollen mucosae and violent sneezing, but thankfully it didn't induce anything more severe. 

Still, the bug seemed to spread like a wildfire now and based on the sick staff's sputum, it looked like some kind of bacterial infection, the worst nightmare of any hospital. Official confirmation was still out, the white-coats down in the microbiology lab were still busy testing his samples, but if they really had a new bacteria on the loose, there'd be hell to pay. 

When Blackstock had still been an intern, the hospital he'd worked for had suffered a disastrous salmonella infection. It had taken weeks to exterminate the bug, and the only thing which had been worse than the country-wide headlines had been the loss of several elderly patients to the disease who, in their already weakened state, had succumbed to the additional strain of violent diarrhea. 

He was determined to prevent the same from happening here, but so far he had no idea how. He hoped to God that the antibiotics he'd handed out to the infected staff members would battle the infection under control, but he couldn't be sure of this. And therefore he saw no other choice than to inform the CDC of the potential hazard. He absolutely hated to have to do this, but if he didn't inform the CDC and the new bacteria spread even further, the authorities would eventually come down on him like God's hammer. 

Scowling, Blackstock eyed his monitor again. The report was practically finished, all he was waiting for were the official examination results. But as usual, the lab didn't seem to be in any inclination to hurry. 

A timid knock on his office's door yanked him out of his gloomy thoughts. "Come in!" he boomed loudly and slowly, the door opened, a young, nervous looking doctor entering. Interested, Blackstock eyed his visitor. He was young and scrawny, not someone from his department or the ER, but he looked vaguely familiar... 

"Ah!" Blackstock exclaimed with a relieved smile. "You're from microbiology, aren't you? Resident?" 

The young man nodded insecurely. "Yes, Dr. Blackstock. I'm Stanley Askins, first year resident." 

"Splendid." Pleased, Blackstock smiled. "Then you're surely here to tell me about the examination results about this new bacteria which's on the loose? I'm all ears!" 

Anxiously, the young doctor hopped from one feet to the other. "Um, the examination is not yet finished." he murmured and Blackstock furrowed his brows at what was following. "And actually, I'm here on my own. Nobody in microbiology sent me." 

"I don't understand. What do you want from me then?" Blackstock inquired, but somewhere in his mind, warning bells went off. The man looked like someone who'd just screwed up royally and now wanted to confess, and the least Blackstock could use right now was more trouble. 

Askins gulped, trying his best to held a level stare. "It's about this new bacteria strain. I... know where it came from." 

Wordlessly, Blackstock stared at his guest, the sirens in his mind now a loud, ululating cacophony. 

"Sit!" he ordered, pointing at the chair in front of his desk, the young doctor sliding into the furniture like a scared squirrel. Blackstock took a deep breath. "Are you telling me..." he began in a dangerously low tone of voice, "That this new disease originated in your lab?" 

Askins winced. "That's how could describe the situa-" the man began, but he didn't manage to finish. 

"What the fuck?" Blackstock basically exploded, piercing the younger doctor with furious stares, "You cooked that shit up in your labs? And then you managed to release it to the hospital? And nobody said anything? Why am I hearing of this from you and not from your boss? Are you bio-weenies fucking INCOMPETENT???" 

Desperately, Askins tried to soothe the rolling physician. "No!" he gasped fearfully, "We didn't cook it up! It's actually Dr. Cranfield-" 

"Who is Dr. Cranfield?" Blackstock interjected icily. 

"She's a first year resident like me! Together, we're working on a research project for-"

Again, he was cut off by Blackstock. Inwardly, the internist knew that he should let the youth tell his story instead of constantly interrupting him, but at the moment, he didn't care. The long shift had taken its toll and the fact that this man seemed to be partly responsible for the strain offered Blackstock a perfect target for his bottled-up fury. 

"So you and Dr. Cranfield created some sort of bacteria and Cranfield released it accidentally, is that what you're telling me?" 

Askins shook his head violently. "No!" he replied hastily, "I mean, it IS Dr. Cranfield!" 

Annoyed by the young doctor's antics, Blackstock stared the sunken figure in front of him down. "She didn't release it accidentally? Then she did on purpose? The fucking hell WHY?" 

"NO!" Askins was wheeling madly with his hands now. "You don't understand. The disease, the bacteria - that IS Dr. Cranfield." 

Stunned, Blackstock stared at his opposite. What had he just said? "WHAT?" he barked. 

"We used a Venn Machine." Askins confessed depressed and speechless, the older doctor regarded him, finally a strained groan breaking free from his lips. 

"You CAN'T be serious." he demanded almost pleadingly. "You used the Venn Machine to turn your colleague into a bacteria culture? That's even possible? And why the hell would you do this?" 

Askins shrugged awkwardly. "We became curious. You know, we were studying bacteria, wondering if the Venn Machines would give us any options on better insights... and then, we had the idea to transform one of us into a culture of bacteria. We thought we could learn so much about bacteria if we'd actually be some!" 

Sickly, Blackstock regarded the young doctor. "So your colleague volunteered to become bacteria? Are you fucking MAD?" There was no answer, but he actually hadn't expected one. "That still doesn't explain how the bacteria - how Dr. Cranfield - spread through the whole hospital." he continued through clenched teeth. "You surely kept her in a cell culture, didn't you? Please tell me that you did!" 

Miserably, Askins shook his head. "At first... yes..." he said with a brittle voice. "I... changed her into a bacteria culture and did some tests. Everything looked good, she was behaving like any normal bacteria. But then I did some specimen tests with rabbits, and apparently, I wasn't cautiously enough when examining them. Cranfield has... infected me." 

Normally, Blackstock tended to erupt like Krakatoa when young doctors screwed up in a spectacular fashion. A proper tongue-lashing had never harmed anyone, and it was a good measure to make sure that young doctors actually used their bird-brains to reflect upon their ideas before they were committing them. But this time, he was far too shocked by the residents' monumental stupidity to even raise his voice. Disbelievingly, he stared at Askins. Then he closed his eyes and forced himself to slowly count to ten. 

"You infected yourself?" he echoed with a defeated voice after he'd finished the task and the young doctor nodded. 

"Yes. And I only realized it too late. t's normal for me to get a cold this time of the year, so I wasn't concerned at first. But when my colleagues started sneezing as well, I grew uneasy and examined my blood. And... found Cranfield. But I didn't think that she would be harmful!" he added quickly. "I... thought I designed her as a bacteria strain which's rather harmless. With no danger of spreading. But somewhere in the designing process, I must have fucked up. I hadn't thought that she'd be so... infectious. At least we can be fairly sure that she'll be no danger, anyone who's been sickened by her probably won't experience symptoms worse than sneezing and uneasiness." 

Sharply, Blackstock looked at Cranfield. "How can you be so sure?" he demanded. "After all, she already surprised you by being more infectious than you designed her." 

"I was patient zero." Askins stated convinced. "The cold which has been triggered by Cranfield was annoying but nothing more. And nothing which's created by Venn Machines is truly dangerous to humans. When you change someone into a poisonous animal, the poison is barely potent enough to act as a minor relaxant, at least to normal-sized people. So I don't think that a bacteria strain created by Venn Machines can be a health hazard." 

"To normal humans maybe." Blackstock grumbled. "But what about already ill people? Someone who's on ventilation and in a coma? Imagine what would happen if he'd develop a cold as well!" 

Again, Askins winced. "Yeah. That's what I'm fearing now as well. But..." he looked at him pleadingly now. "Now that you know about the true nature of the disease, you can take counter measures. I've already written up all the details which went into designing the bacteria strain, and all the results I got out of the rabbit tests. I'll give it to you, so you can decide upon the best course of treatment based on the document. And as far as I know, no patient seems to be infected until now. I became infected with Cranfield approximately five days ago, and I changed her three weeks before that, for the duration of a month, so she'll turn back into a human again in two days. Moreover, I've observed an incubation time of two days before the rabbits developed the first symptoms. So whoever isn't infected now won't be in any danger." 

Blackstock breathed in heavily. "I hope you're right." he said. "And the document you mentioned will surely be helpful in battling her until the duration of her change is over. I guess you've based her on something common, such as Streptococcus?" As Askins nodded, he continued. "So she'll hopefully be susceptible to broadband antibiotics."

"Yes!" Askins was clearly reaching for straws. "Actually, I've studied the effects of penicillin on her when she still was contained in my lab. It worked fairly well and within a day, the cultures I had used the antibiotics on had been dead. So while she is very aggressive bacteria, she's easy to battle by using antibiotics." 

"At least something." Blackstock rumbled. "But speaking of turning back. Why didn't you turn her back when you realized that the whole thing was spinning out of control. I'm not that versed in Venn Machines, but wouldn't it have been enough to simply go into a booth? She's in you, after all, shouldn't that have changed her back?" 

Now the miserable look was back. "That won't work anymore." Askins said crestfallen. "To change her back, I need to put more than half of her mass into the Machine. But by now, she's already spread all over the lab. And the bacteria I still have inside me are probably only a tiny fraction of her total mass. In fact, I did step into the Venn Machine, but that only removed every single bacterium inside me, it didn't remove the rest of Cranfield which's still on the loose." 

Understanding dawned in Blackstock and he nodded. "Okay, that I can understand." he acceded grumpily. "But why did you tell me about this now? I appreciate your honesty, but you must realize that you, that both of you screwed up royally, so why coming to me when all you had to do was waiting for two more days when Cranfield would cede being bacteria and turn back on her own, removing the disease?" 

Askins simply pointed at the computer monitor. "Because I heard that you were in the process of sending a report to the CDC. Even if the disease and the bacteria would disappear without a trace, the CDC would probably keep investigating. And sooner or later, someone's bound to realize what really happened. And if they trace it back to me and Cranfield..." he shuddered at the thought, "That may well cost us our license." 

Blackstock bellowed a hoarse laugh. "Cost your license! Sure it can. Jesus, basically inventing a new disease and letting it loose in a goddamn hospital of all place... My God, one would have thought that there's a limit for foolish recklessness!" he shook his head in consternation, "But what does telling me change? How can you be sure that I won't hand you over to the CDC?"

"I can't." Askins conceded in a broken voice. "But I thought it still beat the alternative. Yes, me and Cranfield really fucked up, well, actually mainly me, but I'm sure you don't want to have the authorities poking around. I'm not saying that you should forget the whole thing-" he added quickly as he noticed Blacktock's furious gaze, "-and I fully agree that there have to be consequences, severe ones, for me and Cranfield. I'm just thinking that settling the whole thing internally would be better for everyone involved. There will be no permanent damages after all..." 

Wordlessly, Blackstock regarded the terrified young man. A part of him wanted to rat him out to the CDC. But actually, Askin's proposal had merit. They had fucked up because of stupidity, but it had clearly been an accident. And they would undoubtedly learn from it. After all, people learned more from their mistakes than from their successes. And Askins was right as well when he stated that nobody in management wanted to have the authorities poking around.

"So you basically want me to treat the whole thing as a crazy prank gone wrong?" he inquired icily and insecurely, the young doctor nodded. 

Blackstock looked on his computer's screen again, the mouse button hovering over the send button of his email program. He grabbed the mouse and gradually moved the cursor to the side until it came to rest over the red 'X' button. He took a deep breath and then clicked once, the unfinished mail disappearing from his screen. 

Then he turned towards the young doctor again. "You-" he said, jabbing a finger at him, "-are suspended until I've informed your chief and we have decided what to do with you. And once Dr. Cranfield changes back, you can tell her that the same applies to her." 

"Thank you, Dr. Blackstock-" the youth sputtered out, but Blackstock cut him off with a slash of his hand. 

"Don't thank me now." he growled. "I still think you endangered patients and trust me, there will be consequences. Severe ones. You will be lucky if we won't fire you. And now get out! I have your mess to clean up." 

Mumbling incoherent replies which sounded like more thanks, Askins removed himself from the chair and darted out of the office. Blackstock watched him go with a slight headache. Then the doctor sighed and reached for his phone, looking for the microbiological department's chief physician's number. He was already starting dialing when he reconsidered and put the receiver down again. 

No... he mused, That's such a crazy story that I better tell it Ben from face to face. And who knows, maybe his reaction to all this insanity will be worth it. Despite his overall chagrin, he had to grin at the thought. Just imagine his face when he realizes that he has looked at one of his residents while peering into his microscope!