Metamorphosis from the Stars - 12

The next day I took Emily in to the Flight Center where we met with Hank, Dr. Bennet, and some other engineers and doctors. I put the moment LoveJoy crossed with the image of Emily shielding Koko as it passed over.

“This is where we think it happened,” I said.

“We saw that footage, but disregarded it,” Dr. Bennet said. “Did you actually feel something as it passed over?”

Kiki nodded, and pressed a button on her tablet. “Yes.”

“Can you describe the feeling?”

Kiki tapped a bit on her tablet. Again I was struck by how much my wife had changed. I’d put her into a pair of child’s sweats, but it was obvious to anyone who looked at her she was a chimp. It also concerned me she constantly made the little hooting and squeaking sounds most chimps make.

‘It felt like tingles coming up from the ground. Pins and needles.’

“Well, at least it gives us a starting point.” Hank looked over at Alex Change, the astrophysicist assigned to the Mission. “Alex? Did your team uncover anything out of the ordinary about LoveJoy’s pass?”

He shrugged. “Normal, as far as we could tell. All the radiation, as one might expect, along with some we’ve never seen before. We’ve been trying to identify the wavelengths, but so far have been unable.”

Dr. Bennet became animated. “What was unusual about them?”

Alex stood up, and used his tablet to take over the projection screen. “Well, comets such as LoveJoy always carry radiation due to their interaction with the sun and their surroundings.” He flipped a slide onto the screen.

“This includes Visible light, ultraviolet light, Infrared Radiation, Radio Emissions, X-rays, Gamma-rays, and the typical hydrogen emission.”

Hank nodded.

“However, LoveJoy emitted anomalous energetic particles along a different path. We think it might have something to do with the physical construction of LoveJoy, and possibly a stellar object it might have encountered.”

“Were you able to capture any of these particles?” Bennet said.

Alex shook his head. “Negative. We weren’t prepared to capture anything other than ion and electron particles. These were something else, something we’ve been calling Zeon particles.”

“Could this explain the particles in Koko and Emily’s bloodstream?”

“It’s certainly possible.”

“That has to be it!” Hank exclaimed. “How can we get more of those particles?”

Everyone at the table fell silent, looking at each other.

“If Emily could be filled with those particles again, and be in physical contact with human biomatter, could it return her to humanity?” I said.

“Well, that’s a stretch,” Bennet said. “Emily has lost a great deal of mass, but I’d say it’s possible given the circumstances. She wouldn’t be ‘her’ anymore, since even her human stem cells have been transmuted, but she could become human again, albeit with the genetic makeup of whoever might be in contact with her.”

“Think about that a moment, Doctor,” Hang said. “Emily shielded Koko as best she could from the passover. Yet, it was Koko’s DNA that mutated the human DNA, not the other way around.”

“So it would trigger another chimp transformation is what you’re saying?” I said.

“Well, in a controlled environment, we could have a few cells from each and compare the effects, so no one suffers the same ill effects.”

Everyone’s eyes fell on Kiki.

‘It is okay. I have accepted what I am now.’

“You’ve done amazing, kiddo,” Hank Thompson said, patting Kiki on the head. “We’re just trying to see if there’s anything we can do to reverse it.”

“LoveJoy has a return trip,” Alex said. He threw another slide onto the screen. “It’s made it’s way around the sun, and is heading back out of the solar system.”

“When will it be closest?” Hank said.

Alex glanced at his team. Someone whispered in his ear.

“In six months it’ll be between earth and Mars. That would be the closest approach.

“I guess we just have to be there when it does,” Hank said, closing his fist and banging the table.

“Sir,” a mission specialist said. “That will cost…millions!”

“Yep, and if there’s even a remote chance we can return Emily to her former, ah, stature…we should take it.”

‘But we’d be risking lives,’ Emily’s eerie electronic voice said. ‘I can’t be responsible for that.’

“Look, Kiddo, if we’d left you out there on Europa, we’d be scheduling a rescue mission wouldn’t we? You, or Alex, or Sarah, or anyone?”

‘Yes, but…’

“No buts about it!” Hank said, standing up. “I’ll get the approval’s in place. You all figure out how the fuck we return our Astro-biologist to humanity. Is that a deal?”

I felt a surge of elation as I knelt in front of Emily. “Think about it honey! We can do this!”

‘John, no!’ she began to get irate, shaking her head and making screeching noises.

“I want everyone to start planning for this now,” Hank said, over Emily’s strenuous and strident objections. “Mission Concept and Objectives, Feasability Study, Funding, all of it. You know the routine, people let’s see if we can fast-track this.”

“Gonna need to be lightning fast,” Rachel Foster, the Mission Director for the Stellaris mumbled.

“I know, Rachel, so let’s light a firecracker in this ass,” Hank said.

Everyone vacated the room, as I tried to calm Emily who was still hopping up and down, screeching. Dr. Elaine Davis came up to us.

“I think Kiki is going to need some exercise time to help deal with these feelings,” she said. “I can take her over to the institute if you’d like.”

“She’s finally communicating again,” I said. “I hate to lose that.”

She nodded. “It’s a delicate balance, John. Koko has a knack for calming her down.”

I sighed and nodded. “We’ll follow you.”

With every step, Emily became more and more agitated. She threw the tablet and it struck a structural pole in the hallway.

“Emily!” I said, and she screeched, twisting to try to bite me.

“Kiki!” I said, remembering what she had told me.

I tried to hand her the little white dinosaur, but she wasn’t having it. She took the small toy in her strong hands, and twisted it until the head came off, then she threw it down and stomped on it.

“John, I think it’d be best if I take over now.” Dr. Davis said. She had two burly men beside her wearing protective suits.

“She’ll calm—“

At that moment, she twisted again, and raked me with her nails.

The two men sprang into action, grabbing her beneath the arm pits, and briskly hauling her away. I could hear her screeches and screams as they exited the building.

There was a waiting Primate Institute truck in the driveway, and they opened one of the container doors, and thrust Emily into it. Closing and locking the door, the two got into the truck and drove away.

I could see Emily in the window of the truck, her mouth open, screeching silently in rage.

“I’m sorry about that, John, but it’s for the best. When her primate instincts kick in, she can be very dangerous. Are you okay?”

I glanced down at the runnels in my arm. “Uh, yeah, she just scratched me.”

“Let’s go get those tended too. They can get infected very easily.”

I nodded and allowed myself to be led away.