Free The Virus by Steven Spellman Page A

doctor who had authored this great stride in the
field of medicine. Geoffrey thought about Mr. Reynolds wanting his
name attached to some new discovery so desperately that he was
willing to put himself in the kind of danger that got him where he
was right now. It would seem that even aged and seasoned
professionals were still just children at heart, trying to secure
the shiniest toy and claim it for their own. At the very least
though, Geoffrey was getting some valuable information, so the rest
mattered little.
    The doctor continued to
laud his latest achievement and its vast implications until he said
something else that piqued Geoffrey’s interest. He explained how
the lights made the entire underground facility essentially a huge,
high order clean room, when he noted that all this was done in
addition to the fact that the lights never needed to be changed or
repaired. When Geoffrey asked how that was possible, the doctor was
more than happy to explain, “…and that’s the fascinating thing!”
The doctor was almost giddy. “There are no lamps in these lights,
as you can see if you look at them closely enough. They have only
what we call containment units. And, also, they have no cords,
because they don’t use electricity. Why would you think that
is?”
    Geoffrey shrugged his
shoulders. He opened his mouth as if to answer but then closed it
without a word. He had no idea how the lights could operate without
electricity.
    “Because
these fixtures,” the doctor gestured to the ceiling, toward a set
of lights that were identical to the ones in the corridor, except
that they weren’t as bright, “don’t produce light, they store it.” The
creases in Geoffrey’s forehead as well as the way he simultaneously
raised an eyebrow and squinted said that all this made no sense to
him. The doctor went on with the explanation, growing more excited
like a kid showing off his shiny new toy. “It is accepted among
scientists that light exhibits both wave and particle properties. Now, I’m
sure you understand the wave properties of light, as it’s the part
of light that you can see,” The doctor’s energy was reaching a
peak. “but you’re probably not familiar with the particle properties of
light. That’s the part of light that, under the right
circumstances, you should be able to feel .” Geoffrey’s eyes lit up in
understanding.
    “We’ve,” Here, the doctor’s
tone suggested that he actually meant I, “f ound a way to synthesize light into a physical
presence!” The doctor sat back in his chair silently, satisfied to
let Geoffrey awe at his fully-revealed, shiny new
plaything.
    And marvel, the intern
did. This latest revelation cast light—quite literally—on a lot of
other things, and Geoffrey was trying desperately to take it all in
as fast as it was coming. After a few moments of enjoying the stark
amazement plastered on the intern’s face, the doctor continued,
“Now that we’ve found out how to make light a material presence,
there’s no limit to the things we can do with it, including sending
information by it. That’s what we think happened with your
astronomer friend in there,” the doc gestured toward the one way
glass, “That fragment he touched was covered in light, you said,
right?” Geoffrey nodded. “Well, we believe that information about
whoever sent that fragment may be contained in that
light.”
    “So, what’s happened to
him, then?” Goeffrey asked.
    “I
believe his body is absorbing that information. One of those
machines in there will wake him out of his daze, at least that’s
what we’re shooting for. If it works and he comes to without severe
brain damage, he may be able to give us all the information we need
about this alien life force and its home planet, or perhaps even
galaxy.” The doctor lowered his voice conspiratorially, “Your
friend in there may hold information that is the key to
understanding the entire universe…but more importantly, to help us
avoid