Mind Vacuum Part VII

          Jessica was in the dinning room arranging the place settings for everyone.  Tena, Kenchi and May entered and Jessica put on her best face.  “May, would you sit here at the end and Kenchi; you’ll be here to the right of May and the left of Tena.  I’ll be at the other end, just sit and I’ll bring our meal.  I’ve introduced Tena and May to some very interesting dishes, I hope you like what I’ve served.” She smiled.

            “Mother just is being modest; she’s the best cook ever.  Father even enjoyed the change of pace from so much rice and fish.” Tena made a face and then giggled.

            Kenchi positioned himself down where the low table sat.  Jessica came through with a meal that smelled delicious.  “What is that?”

            “Its called lasagna, I hope you like it.” She replied.  She served the three of them and finally herself, when she turned back to Kenchi she found him drifting in thought away from the meal.

            “Something on your mind Kenchi?” Jessica asked. 

            “Oh no, I just hope my grandfather is fine.” Kenchi just blurted the first thing that he could think of.  In reality though he was thinking of the microscopic creatures they had found. ‘They could be infiltrating the citizens of New Tokyo at this very moment!  Wait, with how slow it moved maybe being on the outskirts it will take longer for them to find people.’ Kenchi thought to himself.

            “Kenchi!  Mother asked you a question.” Tena called loudly.

            “Hmm? I’m sorry I had my mind on something else.  What did you ask?” Kenchi shook himself from his disturbing thoughts.

            “I asked if your parents know you came over.” Jessica smiled.

            “Ah well my parents are deceased, my grandfather takes care of me and I take care of him.” Kenchi replied.

            “Oh…I’m sorry, I didn’t know.  Well, if you ever need a mother’s advice you come to me alright?  You’re always welcome here.  I’m sure the girls don’t mind.” Jessica looked from Tena to May.

            “Mother, this isn’t the time to talk about that.  Don’t we have dessert?” May asked politely.

            “Oh yes, I’ll get it right away.” Jessica quickly stood up from the table and looked out the window.  “It looks like it could rain.” She continued to the kitchen.

            “So what were you and May doing up in her bedroom?” Tena fluttered her eyes.

            “We were looking at a sample I found.  May, I have a theory; I think if we add water to the sample we could see the true potential of the experiment.  It could actually accelerate the product.” Kenchi hinted.

            “It could be far more effective in water; it could glide through the water and rush where it wants to go.  Oh no… It’s going to rain.” May gasped.

            “What are you two working on?  I want in; I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to.” Tena pleaded. 

            “Alright, remember that asteroid that was supposed to hit down near the city?  May and I found it.  For some reason we were both unaffected by the ooze pouring from the meteor.  I got a sample and we were doing an experiment on it.  Are you interested?” Kenchi sighed.

            “Definitely, I can help after we finish dinner.” Tena leaned over the table. “May, you don’t mind do you?”

            “No, not really, just as long as you actually help.” May spoke seriously.

            “I will, you know me well enough for that sister.  Kenchi, May and I really do get along.  I know you’ve only just met us today, but we really try to get along.  Just you wait; you’ll see how good we work together.” Tena said sincerely.

            The three of them finished their meal with minimal conversation.  Jessica kept the conversation going by asking about their days.  She kept it positive and seemed truly interested in what her children as well as Kenchi had to say.  Kenchi thought she would make a good mother.  He missed that of his own parents.  Before too long, Tena, May and Kenchi excused themselves and hurried upstairs, leaving Jessica to finish cleaning up.

            As the trio entered May’s bedroom, May noticed that the sample had turned black once again.  “Well the aliens must have eaten the blood.”

            Kenchi looked at the microscope and noted that wasn’t so. “They haven’t, they just converted it to their metabolism.  Let’s try injecting water into the vile and see how they react.”

            May repeated the steps for injecting liquid into the vile, only she used water this time.  The syringe entered the vile and the water gushed into the alien’s realm.  The reaction caused Kenchi to grow nervous. The water caused the creatures to move at lightning speed through the tube.  Even under the microscope it was hard to focus on just one alien.

            “This proves they move a lot faster in water than in blood.” Kenchi said.  Just as he finished his statement, lightning flashed outside followed by the sound of pouring rain.  “The meteor we found leaking ooze is now carrying it much faster.”

            “What do we do?” Tena asked.

            “We call a higher source for advice.” May answered simply.  She picked up the phone and dialed Hero Higashi’s number.  She waited a few seconds before finally receiving an answer.

            “Hello?” Mr. Higashi sounded out of breath.

            “Mr. Higashi? I’m May Oinyado.  We need some advice.  We, meaning Kenchi and I, found the meteor that was supposed to land near New Tokyo.”

            “Mr. Higashi interrupted. “Whoa, you saw the meteor?  How big is it?”

            “I’ll get to that, Kenchi and I got attacked by black ooze from the meteor.  It didn’t enter us but left an odd scar on each of our hands.  We took a sample and found that it is several million, perhaps billions of microscopic alien life residing in the ooze that is now leaking at a substantial rate.  We did two experiments to see how the creatures would react.  One was with blood causing the creatures to move slow and metabolize the blood while the other was with water which increased their speed four times over.  What should we do?” May finished.

            “Its raining isn’t it?  Well, I wouldn’t recommend dealing with it tonight.  The only concern I have is what if it stops raining.  I’ll meet you all before school tomorrow.  Bring the sample, I mean its amazing that Kenchi and yourself got so close to the meteor without getting brought inside.  We’ll talk tomorrow.  Come at about seven in the morning.  I’ll make sure you’ll get it. Bye for now.” Hero Higashi hung up suddenly.

            “What did he say?” Kenchi asked.

            May looked up from the phone and gave Kenchi a concerned look. “He said that we’ll worry about it tomorrow morning.  We have to leave early tomorrow so, we’ll let you stay on our couch downstairs.  I’ll get some blankets and you can leave with us in the morning.” May rubbed her head.

            “Are you alright sis?” Tena asked noticing May’s movement change.

            “I’m fine, just something about that conversation made me feel really uneasy, like he isn’t telling us everything he knows.  We’ll worry about it tomorrow I guess though, come on Kenchi, I’ll get those blankets.” May and Kenchi left the room with Tena just standing in the middle.  Kenchi followed May downstairs.  The lights were dim; Jessica must have turned in early.  May arranged the blankets and a pillow onto their large couch.

            “Sleep good, we’ll solve this problem, don’t worry.” May said quietly.

            “I’m more concerned with you, this whole meteor is exciting, yet I’m hoping we can solve it.  We’ll tackle it together.  Good night.” Kenchi kissed May softly on her lips; May then turned and started back up the stairs.

            “If you need anything just let us know.  We’ll be right upstairs.” May turned and finished going up.  Kenchi climbed onto the couch and settled down, within minutes he was asleep.

Mind Vacuum Part VI

May cleared a spot on the table enabling Kenchi to set the heavy microscope down.  May hooked up the device.  It was much different from anything Kenchi was used to.  The main lenses for examining were at least in six different settings. The eye piece held two different options for viewing and it held electrical terminals to the back of it for hooking up to larger complex computers.  May did just that, she pulled down an upper large screen and plugged it into a port to the back of the microscope.  She turned it on and the screen was blank indicating there was nothing magnified.             

            “Alright, place the test tube here.” May indicated to Kenchi to set the vile on the base plate.  He pulled out the vile with the active liquid in it and set it down on the plate.  May retrieved her keyboard and began the magnification process.  The screen lit up showing multi-cellular organisms with ten talons.  They raced from one end of the screen to the other.

            “Can we enlarge it even more?” Kenchi asked.

            “Yes, enlarging to 400 percent.” She typed in the calculations with rigid speed.  The images revealed one creature with six rows of teeth, no eyes, but a bulky armored body with ten razor sharp talons pushing it along through the liquid.

            “Wow! This is incredible, amazing, but extremely dangerous.  This creature could destroy human kind.  I should call someone about this…” Kenchi stood in awe staring at the complex creature.

            “Wait.  Before we do that, let’s conduct an experiment, remember the scientific method, we need to observe this creature and see how it reacts to human blood, which will be a true test.”

            “Do you think we give it a real test considering our scars?”

            “That’s just a surface scar.  I want to see what it will do with direct contact between blood and itself.  It could react differently.”

            “Alright, how do we proceed without opening the vile?”

            “Simple injectors I’ve designed.  My father showed me to use it when encountering dangerous viruses.  Let me show you.” May pulled out a lower drawer and found a type of syringe.  She looked at the side of the device and then opened the end.

            “What are you doing?”

            “I’m going to introduce a foreign element to the alien ooze.” She opened another very clean drawer with covered scalpels.  She pulled out a short one and held her hand over the injector tube. She used the scalpel to cut a long line across the base of her palm.  The blood dripped quickly into the injector tube, May then grabbed a disinfectant wipe and cleaned her hand.  Kenchi saw gauze on her counter and he quickly bandaged her hand.

            “Thank you.” May smiled. “I’m now going to use the injector and put the blood into the vile.  We’ll do it while the vile is under the scope that way we can see the full reaction.”

            May pushed the injector syringe into the vile cork and pushed the blood into the vile.  Under the microscope the blood at first didn’t react with the creatures, suddenly though they attacked the blood with a vengeance.

            Soon the fast moving red blood cells were bombarded by the alien microbes causing them to drag and float slowly through the vile.  Soon the blood cells changed color from red to dark black and blue.  They then mutated, taking on characteristics of the alien D.N.A.

            “This is bad, we have to warn everybody.” Kenchi stated as he watched in horror, the red blood cells had adapted.

            “Why is this so bad?” May asked.

            “Because now the aliens know they can infect humans causing them to think like the aliens.  We have to stop it and fast.”

            May peered closer at the microscopic aliens. “What is it trying to do?”

            “The aliens are trying to replicate and slow down the blood flow to create a human drone.  It is like the creatures are searching for something they haven’t found yet.  What I don’t understand is that they seem to suck the life out of the cell.  It reminds me of vacuum sucking dirt out of a carpet.”

            “Kenchi that does make sense, but what can we do to stop it?”  May seemed greatly concerned over this fact.

            “We’ll have to show it to two teachers, one being Hero Higashi and the Biology teacher whom I haven’t met yet.”  Kenchi continued to look at the aliens on the screen.

            “Kids its dinner time, and that means you too Tena!” Jessica called out.  She seemed very capable even after losing her husband.

            Kenchi and May came down the stairs quietly.  They both had much deeper thoughts on their minds than dinner.  Tena came skipping up the stairs from the basement, just as Kenchi and May came down.  She rounded the corner and ran into Kenchi, knocking him back onto one of the stairs. 

            “Oh, I’m sorry, I was completely distracted.” Tena quickly helped Kenchi up from the stair.  Kenchi smiled slightly and looked up at the stairs.

            “It’s okay; you didn’t see us coming down.”

            “Tena, you should have been watching where you were going.  Is that photo album so important that you ignore people?” May glared at her sister over the incident.

            “I can ignore you; Kenchi, I don’t think I could ever ignore, come on, you can sit by me at dinner.” Tena joined her arm around his and started toward the dinning room.  Kenchi looked back and gave a bewildering look to May.  May couldn’t help smiling just for that fact.