Page 26 of Dust


  Chapter 26 - Good news

  Phillip returned from Washington. When he had left for Washington, he had visions of being the condemned man on his last journey to his execution. He returned feeling he had received only a delay to the inevitable.

  He had undergone a whole day of interrogation. He was able to tell the truth about what he knew and what he did not know. He sensed that his inquisitors were used to being lied to. He felt they would have loved to have used their favorite tortures on him.

  At the end of the day, the president sent him back to find out as much as he could about the current situation and to report back. The national address was postponed until Monday. The president only announced that things were changing and gave a hot-line number for concerned citizens to call. That number was overwhelmed with calls before the announcement was over and had remained so ever since.

  Phillip had intended to call a meeting as soon as he got back to Detrick, even though it was five P.M., but when he stepped through building security it looked like the whole organization was waiting for him. Nan was at the head of the crowd. They treated him as if he were a hero, not the national whipping boy. He wanted to hug everybody but instead asked that they meet in the cantina for coffee and information.

  Everyone had been doing what Phillip had asked them to do.

  They could report on what the dust was doing but not on how to communicate with it.

  “Good news, we were able to use the orbiting x-ray telescope Chandra to scan Earth. There is a detectable presence of x-ray producing clouds of dust nearly everywhere. Sorry we couldn’t do this before Steven died.”

  “Thank you for the effort but it doesn't really give us any additional information now.”

  ”Reports of deaths are being replaced in the news with reports of miracles. News channels are falling all over themselves seeing who can put the most good news in the allowed space. How’s that for a counter example of ‘bad news sells more papers”?

  “We’ve got everything from allergy suffers reporting no symptoms since the dust. That's an eleven billion dollar saved in the US per year. Larger and larger percentages of diabetics are testing normal. There are hundreds of spontaneous remissions from leukemia reported! There are a couple hundred reports of people having their sight restored. But, there have been no reports of people being raised from the dead.”

  “Smitty!” If we have created god how come no resurrections?”

  “It’s still early.” Replied Smitty.

  “Sorry about that aside. Let’s hear everybody’s report before we start debating and philosophizing.”

  “We know what becomes of the nanos in isolation. If they are more than one macromolecule, they disassemble each other in a sort of Masada like suicide pack. Before long there is only one molecule left. We gave them that ability to use if they became overpopulated but they’re using it when they are captured. If we can locate that last remaining molecule in a sample, we should be able to analyze it. We don't expect to find a processor molecule. They are going to be among the disassembled.

  “We tried freezing them in liquid nitrogen – no more effect than a cold shower.” Now we’re trying to divide samples into smaller and smaller sizes in an effort to get a sample that only has one macromolecule in it. Wow, finally a legitimate use for homeopathic techniques. We expect to have isolated an evolved macromolecule by the week end.”

  “That is good news. Maybe we can figure out how they have changed. The ability of a manipulator molecule to function in the absence of a cloud of processors is a significant change in design. I am also particularly interested in the changes in their communications.”

 
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