Crash Landing

Crash Landing -- by BW Copyright 2012 by billwstories

Unchanged, as it had been for eons, tumbling through the starry void, drawing ever closer, an ephemeral tug of gravity sealed the natural voyager's fate; above, a form grew from the blackness -- an orb of blue and white, set amidst the myriad of stars. The faintest wisp of air was felt, just a touch, then becoming fire... (C James)

"Sheriff Taylor, I hate to bother you at home like this," the deputy told his boss over the phone, "but there was an incident about a half hour ago and I've received quite a few calls about it. I thought you'd want to be apprised about what's going on."

"Ok, so what kind of incident are we talking about, Riley?" the Sheriff asked in return.

"We've had several calls from people saying they saw a flaming object streaking across the sky," the deputy advised him. "They also claim that whatever it is ended up crashing into the ground just east of here."

"Do you have any information about where this supposed object touched down?" Sheriff Taylor pressed.

"Yes, we've had a couple of callers who've told us that they thought it crashed into a field north of Interstate 80, between routes 214 and 215," the deputy answered.

"Any reports about any damage or what it might have been?" the Sheriff wanted to know.

"No damage has been reported, but some of the callers said they thought it may have been a small plane that caught fire or had engine trouble," the deputy began, "Still others claimed what they saw was a UFO, while the rest say it appeared to be a shooting star."

"A shooting star is a possibility," the Sheriff stated, "although I think we can rule out one of those possibilities immediately. Have you sent anyone out to the crash site to investigate this situation yet?"

"Yes, I sent Conrad out there about five minutes ago," Riley confirmed. "Do you want me to call the FAA or the military about this?"

"No, not yet. Let's wait until we know what we're dealing with first," the Sheriff informed him. "If it's a plane that caught fire and crashed, then I think someone must have seen it disappear from radar. If that's the case, I suspect we'll most likely be receiving a call asking us to see if there are any survivors."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but I haven't heard from anyone about anything like that," Deputy Riley confessed.

"Well we're going to need to be certain what we're dealing with first and I don't want anyone blowing this out of proportion," Sheriff Taylor stated. "I think I'll head out that way to meet up with Conrad, so we can check this out together. Please send the location or approximate GPS coordinates to my cell phone, so I know where I'm going."

"It's as good as done, Sheriff," Riley agreed. "Just radio in when you get there. I'm really curious to find out what it is we're dealing with."

"I think we all are," Sheriff Taylor agreed, "but I'm positive it will be nothing earthshaking. I'll be in touch just as soon as I have anything substantial."

Once he got off the phone, Sheriff Taylor went to look for his wife, so he could tell her that he had to go out to respond to a call. After hearing what her husband had to say, she merely kissed him goodbye and told him to be careful.

Sheriff Taylor knew he had a bit of a ride ahead of him, since it sounded as if the area he was heading to was somewhere between Pine Bluff and Albin. He also knew it was pretty rural country out there, so unless whatever crashed was still burning or somehow managed to set the grass on fire upon impact, then it might be difficult to find whatever it was in the dark.

Upon pulling up to the site, Sheriff Taylor immediately spotted Deputy Conrad's squad car, along with several other vehicles. It appeared as if some of the locals had decided to investigate this occurrence as well, because the Sheriff could see several figures with flashlights moving about in the open field. He immediately grabbed his own flashlight and headed out to join them, while selecting a path that would intercept those already there.

As he got closer to where the others were located, Sheriff Taylor spotted his deputy and walked directly toward him.

"Conrad, have you found anything yet?" Sheriff Taylor wanted to know.

"No, nothing yet, Sheriff" Conrad responded. "These other people were already out here when I arrived and offered to help me search the area, so I agreed to use them."

"That's fine, as long as you told them not to touch anything once it's been spotted," the Sheriff warned.

"Yes, sir," Conrad confirmed. "I told them to fan out beside me and we'd search this area grid style, but we still don't have any idea what it is."

"Yes, I've already heard there were quite a few rumors about what it might be," Sheriff Taylor acknowledged, "but I don't expect we'll find any little green men out here."

Sheriff Taylor grinned and nodded slightly after adding his last comment and Conrad did the same.

"Yeah, I wouldn't think so, but we might find some grays," Conrad joked back, while making reference to the most common ET that had been reported to the media.

"How sure are you that this is even the right location?" Sheriff Taylor asked next, changing the subject.

"Several of the folks who were here ahead of me stated that they were fairly positive the thing hit somewhere nearby," Conrad advised him. "They said they watched it streak across the sky, heard the impact and even felt some shock waves afterward, so they believe it has to be close by."

"Ok, we'll look around here as much as we can for now," the sheriff conceded. "I'm just not sure how much success we'll have before the sun comes up."

The impromptu search party spent over an hour walking around the field and continued to move farther and farther away from their starting point. The 'new moon' in the sky meant there wasn't any moonlight to help them see much of anything beyond the range of their flashlight beams. In fact, for the past few minutes Sheriff Taylor had been considering calling off this search and not resuming it again until first light. He was just about ready to bark out his decision when he heard one of the locals call out.

"I think I've got something over here," the voice informed them.

Gradually, the crowd began to make their way over to where this individual was indicating he had located the crash site.

"It looks like whatever hit the ground left a fairly good size crater," the man added. "It must have come down hard, because it's displaced one hell of a lot of soil. I'd guess the hole it made must be somewhere between fifty to seventy yards in diameter. If you look closely toward the middle of this ring though, you'll notice that something there seems to still have a slight glow left to it."

"Well, it's definitely not a plane and the object doesn't appear to be very big, so we're probably dealing with a meteorite," Sheriff Taylor announced to those around him. "There's not a whole lot we're going to be able to do until morning, but I feel this is also more than any of us are capable of dealing with. I think it will probably be best if I get some professionals out here to check this out, especially if it came from outer space."

"I'd like to thank each of you for your help tonight," Sheriff Taylor continued. "I'll leave my deputy here to guard the location from any other curiosity seekers, because I don't want people wandering around this place and disturbing anything."

Even though some members of the crowd wanted to know more about this object, they understood and agreed with the wisdom behind Sheriff Taylor's recommendation. Therefore, they all did as he'd suggested and drove off, leaving Deputy Conrad as the lone guard to protect the location for now.

As soon as he got back to his cruiser, Sheriff Taylor radioed the station and told Deputy Riley the names of the three agencies he felt should be notified about this. He also stated it would be up to them as to whether or not they wished to investigate this incident. Riley took the information down and promised to contact each group just as soon as someone was available.

Seeing he had done everything he could up to this point, Sheriff Taylor returned home. After filling his wife in about what he suspected had happened, they went to bed. Sheriff Taylor wasn't too worried about what had occurred tonight though, since he'd heard that small meteorites strike the earth quite frequently. The only difference now is that this is the first time that he's had to deal with anything of this nature.

Sheriff Taylor woke up early the next morning and immediately called his office to make sure that someone had been sent out to relieve Conrad at the impact site. Although he wasn't certain if anyone would be interested in investigating the situation, he did want to keep the site as pristine as possible until he learned if anyone wanted to check it out.

Nothing much more happened until just before noon, when a small group of people arrived at the sheriff's office. The leader quickly identified himself as Dr. Michael Epstein and advised the sheriff that they were from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and were here to document the strike. He also then quickly introduced the others in his group, which consisted of another man and a woman.

"So you've come all the way from Houston just to see our meteorite?" Sheriff Taylor joked.

"Not exactly. We're from the Ames Research Facility, in northern California," Dr. Epstein replied.

Since Dr. Epstein and his associates indicated they were eager to get started, Sheriff Taylor assigned one of his deputies to drive them out to the location where the suspected meteorite came to rest.

Sheriff Taylor was busy until lunchtime, when two other people showed up, but this group was from the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although their national headquarters is in Reston, Virginia, this group was from the state office, which is also located in Cheyenne. Although they didn't explain why it took them so much longer to show up than the folks from NASA, Sheriff Taylor directed another of his deputies to lead them out to meet up with the others.

Shortly after the second group had been taken out to investigate the impact site, a man from the American Meteor Society (AMS) arrived at the office. After introducing himself, he explained he was also a professor in the astrophysics department at Penn State University. Following a brief discussion, Sheriff Taylor decided to take him out to the location personally. This way he could also chat with the others and see what they might have been able to determine about this incident so far.

On the way there, Sheriff Taylor decided to ask this guy why so many different people were interested in this particular occurrence.

"Even though many meteors enter the atmosphere every year, more frequently than most people realize, and some of those objects eventually reach the earth, it's rare to discover an event of this magnitude" the man answered. "Many of the meteors that enter the atmosphere are very small and burn up before they reach the ground. Even those that do make it through are generally quite insignificant, so getting a report of a strike able to produce a crater like the one here is extremely unusual. I wanted to be able to document this occurrence and measure both the meteorite and exactly how much of a disturbance it created."

This information seemed to clear up the matter for the Sheriff, as they pulled up to the site. When they got out of the car, the two men noticed there seemed to be some sort of a disagreement going on between the representatives from the other two groups. Noting that people were shouting and tempers seemed to be strained, Sheriff Taylor raced over to see what was wrong.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked, as soon as he was standing next to the arguing groups.

"You might say that," the NASA representative announced. "My colleagues and I have already secured the meteorite in a container and are planning to take it back with us to California, so we can perform a variety of tests on it. These people are claiming we have no right to do this and insist that they are the ones who should be permitted to take it with them."

"Yes, we feel that since this meteorite landed in Wyoming and our office is located here, then we should have jurisdiction over the meteorite," a member of the USGS group stated.

"Well, it sounds like a simple solution to me," Sheriff Taylor announced. "Around here the early bird gets the worm, so since the NASA people were the first to arrive and have already placed the meteorite in a container, possession is theirs. I'm certain you'll be able to work something out that will be agreeable to all parties."

The group from the USGS wasn't happy after hearing this pronouncement, because they felt they had the better claim, but Sheriff Taylor had put a halt to any further conversation.

"Thank you, Sheriff," the leader of the NASA group stated. "I'm glad you showed up when you did, because the situation was starting to get a little nasty. However, we're willing to slice off a sample of the meteorite and send it to the USGS team, so they can run their own series of tests on it."

"I'd like a sample of the meteorite too," the rep from the American Meteor Society added.

Once the man identified himself and stated his credentials, Dr. Epstein quickly agreed to do the same for him as well.

"Now that this has been settled, what can you tell me about this meteorite and what everyone saw last night?" Sheriff Taylor asked.

"Our preliminary examination shows the meteor that impacted at this location is highly metallic in composition, most likely iron, and is what we refer to as a siderite," Dr. Epstein from NASA began. "The other type of meteorite would be an aerolite, which would be comprised primarily of rock and generally disintegrate as they come through the atmosphere or shatter upon contact with the earth's crust.

"This particular meteorite weighs approximately twenty pounds, due to its substantial metallic composition, and the portion that survived the collision is slightly larger than a typical softball. When we get back to Ames, my colleagues and I will do some additional calculations to help us determine the size and weight of the meteor when it first entered earth's atmosphere. Let's just say we're very lucky it landed where it did, in a rural area, otherwise it could have caused some loss of life."

Everyone present seemed to collectively nod his head in unison after this statement was made. The consensus was spurred by the fact that they were eager to go home.

The NASA team was still tickled that they had ended up with possession of the meteorite and were looking forward to conducting tests and studying it further, once they returned to their own facility. They did, however, also offer to share all of their findings with the other two organizations and even agreed to allow them to send representatives to their location to conduct whatever tests they also wished to perform, in addition to sending them a sample of it.

It was a fairly amicable ending to what might have evolved into a rather unseemly confrontation over which organization would be allowed to claim the meteorite. Instead, the groups had offered to cooperate, so in the end they all walked away satisfied over what they'd been able to achieve.

When Sheriff Taylor arrived back at his office, he quickly switched gears and focused upon the daily tasks he still had to take care of. He also made sure he issued a news release to the local newspaper, as well as to the area radio and television stations, explaining the events of the previous night. He wanted to make certain that the local residents had a fairly good understanding about what they had witnessed, in order to prevent the likelihood that rumors and misinformation would begin to spread.

Two days later, Sheriff Taylor received a very unexpected phone call.

"Sheriff Taylor, this is Michael Epstein. We met the other day," the caller stated. "I was in charge of the NASA group that came to study the meteorite impact site."

"Yes, I remember you," Sheriff Taylor acknowledged.

"Well I think we've discovered a possible problem here," Dr. Epstein continued. "It's hard to say how big of a problem this might be, but I think you should know about it so you can start to prepare for any possible repercussions.

Sheriff Taylor was intrigued, but he was also more than a little anxious.

"What type of problem are you alluding to and what does it mean for my community?" Sheriff Taylor wanted to know.

"When examining the surface of the meteorite, we've discovered it contains some microscopic life forms," Dr. Epstein explained.

"Wait! Life forms? How can that be?" Sheriff Taylor wondered. "The meteor must have reached incredible temperatures when it entered the earth's atmosphere, so how could anything have survived?"

"Sheriff Taylor, your focus on the meaning of life is very narrow and extremely limited," Dr. Epstein responded. "Even on earth there are organisms that can survive at incredible depths in the ocean or at tremendous altitudes, but some can also survive in extreme heat or unbearable cold as well. In this case, it appears that a type of organism we're unfamiliar with has managed to hitchhike its way to earth on the meteorite and was capable of not only surviving the cold vacuum of space, but also the blistering heat produced when entering the atmosphere."

"Does the survival of this life form pose a threat to the rest of us?" Sheriff Taylor wondered.

"We don't know yet," Dr. Epstein answered. "We've quarantined the meteor fragment until we can make that determination and we've got everyone from our facility who has come into contact with it under 'around the clock' observation."

"That doesn't sound good," Sheriff Taylor commented. "What do you want me to do here?"

"First of all, I want you to make sure you don't do anything that will create a panic. This means you'll have to very discretely advise your hospitals and medical professionals to be on the lookout for any unusual symptoms or any unexplainable illnesses. I'll keep you advised as to whether we're able to discover anything more here, but anyone who was near the meteorite at any point may be at risk. We just don't know enough about this organism yet to make any predictions."

Sheriff Taylor got off the phone, feeling deeply troubled.

Over the course of the next few hours, Sheriff Taylor called the administrators of the local hospitals, clinics and medical agencies to secretively advise them about the potential danger. He also asked them to spread the word as confidentially as they could to the medical professionals who worked for them. He wanted to be certain that all the doctors, nurses and EMTs were alert to the possible threat, but he also urged them not to mention anything about this situation to anyone outside of the medical community and to make certain those working under them did the same. Once they had agreed to this stipulation, he sat back and began to reflect upon which other options he thought he might wish to pursue.

After thinking about the situation some more, Sheriff Taylor decided to also advise the appropriate city officials and emergency preparedness groups about the circumstances surrounding the current threat as well. He emphasized that as far as anyone currently knew, nothing has actually resulted from the organisms being on the meteorite, so any actions they take will merely be precautionary. He also warned that this information was to stay classified and confidential, because he was afraid it might create a panic if word got out to the general public.

The next few days were absolutely nerve-racking, as everyone kept his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary to happen. Therefore, they were all somewhat relieved when nothing turned up during this period. In fact, they even began to think that although the meteor had carried alien life here, it didn't seem that it was automatically harmful to humans.

After nearly two consecutive, uneventful weeks had passed, Sheriff Taylor was beginning to feel as if they'd dodged a bullet. That was until he received another unexpected phone call.

"Sheriff Taylor, over the past few hours we've had several people show up at the Emergency Room," the doctor on the other end stated. "During our questioning process to determine what might be wrong with them, we've discovered these people have several things in common. First, they are all complaining that they feel extremely weak, tired, and their muscles ache, but since they first arrived their temperatures have also risen dramatically. In fact, they insist that each of their other reported symptoms have also gotten progressively worse since they first came here as well. We've also discovered that each of them reported that they had been at the impact site the evening the meteorite touched down."

"I'm not surprised to hear you report this, because I've been battling the same symptoms for the past hour or so," the Sheriff confessed. "I thought I was merely coming down with the flu and didn't associate it with the meteorite, since one of my deputies spent more time at the impact site than I did, but he's feeling fine."

"Just to be safe, I want both of you to get over here right away," the doctor informed him. "I think we'll need to start running some tests to see if we can figure out what's going on."

Sheriff Taylor agreed to this request and had one of the other deputies radio Deputy Conrad to notify him that he was to return to the Sheriff's office immediately. When Conrad arrived, Sheriff Taylor asked him to drive them both over to the hospital, since he was feeling much worse now than when he'd first received the call.

By the time they arrived at the Emergency Room, Conrad had to run inside and get someone to come out and help him bring the sheriff inside. One of the orderlies grabbed a wheelchair and followed Conrad out the door. They expected Sheriff Taylor to be able to get out of the car and into the wheelchair by himself with only minor assistance, but he was unable to move. Seeing he was so helpless, Conrad and the orderly had to lift Sheriff Taylor out of the vehicle and place him in the wheelchair, so they could bring him inside.

"How long has he been like this?" the doctor asked Conrad, once they were inside.

"He told me he's been feeling a lot worse since he'd spoken with you on the phone, but he's continued to go downhill very quickly since then," Conrad informed him. "When we left the office, he got into the car under his own power, although he was moving much more slowly than he normally does. Then, by the time we pulled up outside, he could barely do anything on his own and was unable to get out of the car without assistance."

"Yes, that's the way it's been with the others too," the doctor admitted. "None of them showed any symptoms for the first two weeks, so that must be the incubation period for this illness. However, once the symptoms started to appear, the disease progresses like wildfire. A couple of the other patients have already lost their battle with this disease and we've taken their bodies down to the morgue to be autopsied. I'm hoping that inspecting their remains might help to shed more light onto what happened to them."

"If this is turning out to be fatal, then I hope you're taking additional precautions to keep it from spreading," Conrad mentioned.

"Yes, all of the patients have been quarantined and any of the medical staff dealing with them is required to wear appropriate protective garments and take additional precautions," the doctor stated. "I've also advised the Coroner that he would be wise to do the same when performing the autopsies."

"Yes, an ounce of prevention is usually worth a pound of cure," Conrad agreed, "so I hope we're doing enough to stop this thing in its tracks."

"What about you? How are you feeling?" the doctor asked Conrad. "I heard you were out at the site much longer than anyone else."

"Yes, I was, but I'm feeling fine," Conrad reported. "Even though I was the first law enforcement officer to show up at the site, some locals were already there when I first arrived. When Sheriff Taylor sent them home, he asked me to stay there overnight and guard the place."

"Well, I want to keep you here then, so we can monitor your condition," the doctor advised him. "Although you're feeling fine now, this can obviously come on like gangbusters and take you down quickly."

"No problem, Doc. I'm yours for as long as you need me," Conrad agreed. "As we were leaving, the sheriff told the others in our department that neither of us would be back for at least a few days."

"That's good," the doctor replied. "Let me go see what I can do for the sheriff, but I'll have one of the nurses place you in an isolation ward. I hope you're ok with that."

"Yeah, I'll just call home and have my mother get a few things from my place and drop them off at the front desk for me," Conrad responded.

"You mean a good-looking guy like you isn't married yet?" the doctor asked.

"Nope, I'm still single," Conrad shot back, followed by a slight grin.

Back at the sheriff's office, another phone call was received asking for Sheriff Taylor. The deputy answering the call quickly explained that he was unavailable.

"Look, this is extremely important," the caller stated. "I don't care what the sheriff is doing, you need to get him to the phone right now. He needs to hear what I have to tell him."

"Why don't you tell me who you are and what this concerns?" the deputy responded.

After getting his reply and learning it was a NASA doctor calling about a problem arising out of the meteorite impact, the deputy explained that Sheriff Taylor had fallen ill and had been taken to the hospital. That's when the caller asked to speak to whoever was currently in charge. The deputy then connected him to the under-sheriff.

"Look, I'll pass this information along to you then, since the sheriff seems to be incapacitated," the caller stated when the under-sheriff picked up. "My name is Dr. Joseph Abrams and I work at the NASA Ames Research Facility in California. It was our people who collected the meteorite from your location and then brought it here. I'm sorry to inform you that everyone who initially came into contact with the meteorite is now either very ill or has died because of their exposure to the alien organisms. I take it you were informed that these life forms arrived on the meteorite, weren't you?"

"Yes, Sheriff Taylor filled me in about the situation," the under-sheriff confirmed.

"Well, since the meteorite was first brought here, the number of people exposed to it increased dramatically, as various groups set about studying it," Dr. Abrams continued. "Nearly all of the people who came into contact with the meteorite, even if it was only limited exposure after it arrived at our facility, have begun to show similar symptoms. I've already been told that the sheriff is ill, but have you been informed if anyone else who was exposed to those organisms has exhibited any symptoms?"

"Yes, the hospital called earlier to inform Sheriff Taylor that a number of the people who were at the site the night the meteorite was discovered have become ill," the under-sheriff replied. "After Sheriff Taylor received this call, he immediately informed the doctor that he was also experiencing the same symptoms.

"This morning, Sheriff Taylor had complained to me that he wasn't feeling well, but he thought he was just coming down with the flu," the under-sheriff continued. "About an hour after that, the deputy who had been with him that evening took the sheriff to the hospital. The ironic thing is, the deputy seems to be just fine and he stayed at the impact site the entire night."

"The deputy was exposed but hasn't taken ill?" Dr. Abrams pressed.

"No, he's feeling fine," the under-sheriff confirmed. "However, just before you called, the deputy who had replaced him at the site the following morning called in sick. He's complaining that he's suddenly not feeling well either."

"Ok, then get him to the hospital too, but I think it's time to call the CDC and get them involved in this," Dr. Abrams explained. "I'll contact them personally and advise those in charge about this situation. I suspect someone from there will be getting in touch with you later, so expect to receive their call."

Once he got off the phone with the Sheriff's Department, Dr. Abrams called the CDC in Atlanta, GA.

"You've reached the Centers for Disease Control," a female voice answered. "How may I direct your call?"

"Please connect me to someone in your infectious disease department," he replied. "I think we have an outbreak on our hands."

"Just one second, sir, and I'll redirect your call," the receptionist told him, while sounding slightly concerned.

After a few seconds delay, another voice answered the phone.

"This is Dr. Louise Abernathy. How may I assist you?" a different woman asked.

"My name is Dr. Joseph Abrams and I work for NASA at the Ames Research Facility in California," he began. "I have a doctorate in molecular biology and it appears we have a very serious problem here."

Dr. Abrams then went on to explain about the meteor impact and then belatedly discovering the extra-terrestrial life forms on it. He also relayed the news that many of those coming into contact with the meteorite or having just been in the area of the impact site have now become ill or died.

"You definitely should have notified us about this threat the second you discovered the unknown organisms," Dr. Abernathy scolded him.

"Yes, in hindsight we probably should have notified you immediately," Dr. Abrams admitted, "but these organisms weren't discovered until we took a closer look at the meteorite, after it had been brought to this location. Once the organisms were first observed, we determined that several people had already been exposed and nothing out of the ordinary or deleterious had happened up to that point, so we remained hopeful. We concluded, erroneously it now appears, that these organisms were benign and there was nothing to worry about. That didn't change until a couple of weeks after initial contact had been made, because that's when the first symptoms began to appear,"

"The fact that you didn't report this sooner may turn out to be a fatal mistake," Dr. Abernathy reiterated. "Do you have any idea as to how this contagion is spread?"

"Since not everyone who began showing symptoms had come into direct contact with the meteorite, I'd say the original means of transmission must have been airborne," Dr. Abrams told her. "The meteorite kicked up a lot of dust and debris when it struck, so I imagine that could have initially spread the organisms. It either happened that way or the organisms fell off in the air as the meteorite streaked toward the earth."

"I see," Dr. Abernathy stated, "but now I'll need you to tell me what location or locations have been affected and the names of anyone who might have come into contact with these organisms, either directly or indirectly."

Dr. Abrams then explained to Dr. Abernathy that the impact area had been in southeastern Wyoming and then went on to provide her with the names of the various agencies that had showed up to document this event. After doing this, he also gave her the names of all of the individuals that Dr. Epstein had written down in his notes as being present and personally involved. Dr. Abrams also cautioned her that these groups had since returned to their home bases, so it would definitely widen the area the CDC would have to focus on.

Once she had all of this information, Dr. Abernathy agreed to send a team from the CDC to each location where people went after being exposed to the meteorite and the alien organisms. She followed that decision up by advising Dr. Abrams that he was to treat this as a level A, or type 1, HAZMAT threat. She told him they needed to be extremely careful in approaching this problem and must begin by isolating each location where this exposure had taken place. She recommended that they needed to do everything possible to prevent the contamination from spreading further, and even though the initial transmission was most likely airborne, it didn't exclude the possibility that these organisms might also be spread by other means.

About a half-hour after she finished the call with Dr. Abrams, Dr. Abernathy called the Sheriff's Department in Cheyenne.

"This is Dr. Louise Abernathy from the CDC in Atlanta," she began. "I need to speak with Sheriff Taylor, please."

"I'm afraid the sheriff is ill and was taken to the hospital," the deputy advised her.

Immediately, Dr. Abernathy asked for the primary phone number for the hospital, so she could call there and see how bad the situation was in Wyoming. After speaking with the doctor in charge of the Emergency Room, he patched her into a conference call with the hospital administrator and a small group of other doctors, so they could also share their observations with her.

Once she finished speaking with this group, Dr. Abernathy decided to join the team she'd previously assigned to go to Wyoming. She quickly called to arrange for private jets to take each of the various teams to their destinations, and then she asked one of the techs to be responsible for supervising the packing of all the HAZMAT suits and various other supplies each team would need. Once he'd agreed to take care of this for her, she raced home so she could pack a few personal belongings to take with her.

By the time she arrived at the airport, the various containers with the supplies had already been loaded and the jet was ready to depart. Once the last of her team had boarded, she gave the pilot word to take off and they were soon on their way to Wyoming.

Since the Sheriff's Department had been informed about the CDC's plans to bring a team to the area, the under-sheriff arranged for someone to pick them up at the airport and then transport them directly to the hospital. As soon as they arrived, Dr. Abernathy and the group from the CDC was escorted to a large conference room, where they conferred with the hospital administrator and several of the doctors she had spoken with earlier.

"This is turning into a real mess here," one of the doctors began. "Recently we've started having people show up in the Emergency Room whose only connection to the meteorite is that they've come into contact with someone who had been at the impact site and initially exposed. We're beginning to see entire families showing symptoms now, as well as some of the co-workers and friends of the original victims."

"This is definitely not good," Dr. Abernathy sighed. "Not only is this an airborne threat, but now you're telling me it can also be spread by contact with the infected parties."

"What do you suggest we do?" the hospital administrator asked.

"First of all, we're going to have to try to quarantine this entire region of the state," she offered. "Unfortunately, this may not be enough to take care of the problem, but we still have to do it. I'll admit that I'm really concerned that nothing we do will work, because it took approximately two weeks for symptoms to first appear. This means that anyone who was in the area during that time, from deliverymen to others who were just passing through, might also be infected. If that's the case, then those people could be spreading this problem to other parts of the country as we speak. Even though it's not going to be easy, we still have to attempt to contain this as best we can. I'm just not certain how successful our efforts will be."

"That's disturbing news," one of the doctors stated. "Are you working on diagnosing the nature of these organisms and the disease, so you can come up with an antidote or cure?"

"We don't have a specimen of the organism to work with as of yet, but the scientists at NASA have started preliminary investigations on this problem," she confirmed. "NASA has also agreed to send a few specimens to the CDC headquarters, in hazardous material containers, so as soon as those arrive, our people will also begin working on the problem. Have you discovered anything more definitive here?"

"I've been waiting to say anything, to see if you mentioned this first," someone else added. "I'm the Coroner and I've performed autopsies on a couple of those who've died from this disease. What I've discovered is that whatever it is seems to be eating away at the internal organs and other tissues, so the cells of those infected are literally disintegrating and liquefying beneath the flesh. The patients first reported that they were feeling very weak, tired and their muscles ached, but those symptoms are all due to the fact that the various organs and muscles were slowly being eaten away. The patients finally ended up dying due to massive organ failure."

"Damn, you mean they're literally being devoured from the inside?" she asked.

"It doesn't seem to affect the bones, but other than that it's a pretty accurate description," the Coroner confirmed. "I guess it must take a couple of weeks for the process to advance to the point where the symptoms begin to exhibit themselves, but from that point on it's merely a race to the finish line."

"Damn, this just keeps getting better and better," Dr. Abernathy noted. "We've brought enough HAZMAT suits to supply my team, but it appears it's too late for them to be effective. From what you've told me, I suspect we've already been infected. Has anyone else been exposed to this, but has somehow managed to survive the experience?"

"There are a couple of people that we know of who were exposed, but have shown no symptoms whatsoever," one of the doctors answered.

"Have you been able to determine what made them immune?" she pressed. "We need to figure out what prevented them from being affected."

"We haven't discovered anything so far," the doctor replied. "One of the survivors is a deputy who was out at the impact site, so he was exposed just like the others who were out there with him. The other person is the sister of one of the victims, but she, along with the rest of her family, merely came into contact with her brother after he returned home. Even though she's unaffected, the others in her family have clearly begun to exhibit symptoms."

"What have you done to find a connection between the two who are uninfected?" Dr. Abernathy asked.

"We started out by running blood work and other tests on them, but then we began to examine both of their medical histories and even noted any medications or supplements they might be taking. We've also scrutinized their diet, activities, which inoculations they'd previously been given and anything else we could think of," the doctor explained. "We've also compared any similarities we found in their medical records and histories to those of the people who are ill or didn't make it. As of yet, we've found nothing conclusive as to why these two weren't affected by these organisms, while the others they were with or around were."

"There's got to be something that was missed then," she stated. "I'm not saying you were lax or careless in performing your investigation, but I suspect these individuals weren't totally forthcoming and didn't fully disclosed their information to you. Do you think it might be possible for me to interview them?"

"Yes, that's very possible," the hospital administrator offered. "They're both in isolation wards right now, so I don't think they'll mind if you ask them a few more questions. Would you like for me to arrange this for you?"

"Why don't you let me contact my other teams first," she answered. "That way I can find out if they have any survivors at their locations, because if they do I'll have them forward that information to me as well. I'll combine their notes with what I get from you and then I'll begin to analyze it. I think that will help me come up with the best set of questions to ask in order to discover the basis of their immunity.

"The faster we find a common link," she continued, "the sooner we might be able to come up with a vaccine to slow its spread or eradicate this disease completely. If we're lucky, something will stand out and give us our first clue about what we'll need to know in order to go about attacking this problem."

Since this was the most they could do for now, the meeting broke up and the doctors went off to treat their patients. While they were doing that, Dr. Abernathy phoned her other teams and asked them to forward any information they had on those who'd become infected and those who'd died, as well as anything they had on any survivors.

Once she finished doing this, Dr. Abernathy contacted the hospital administrator and asked him to make arrangements for her to interview the two still in isolation. She would be ready to speak with them in a couple of hours. In the meantime, she'd go over the various records and prepare the questions she was going to ask that pair. With a little luck, they might help shed the first ray of hope into this cloud of gloom.

After Dr. Abernathy figured out what questions she wanted to ask, she went off to meet with the two survivors. After spending over an hour interviewing each of them, she still hadn't come up with anything that gave her an indication about why they hadn't been affected along with the others. In order to make sure she hadn't missed any clues, Dr. Abernathy went over all of her notes and the survivors' personal information several more times, but still nothing jumped out at her. Out of frustration, she decided to run another series of tests on them and forwarded part of those samples to the CDC. She felt between the laboratory here and the CDC facility they might possibly be able to determine if there was anything in their blood or other bodily fluids that might have been responsible for them not coming down with the disease.

Over the next few days, she examined the results of each of the tests and not only compared them with each other, but she also compared them to those of the other patients they were currently treating. Try as she might, she still couldn't find any obvious connection between the two survivors or glaring dissimilarities between them and those who were battling the disease. Even though she was running out of ideas, she realized they needed to come up with a new plan of attack.

Dr. Abernathy quickly set up another meeting with the medical staff from the hospital, and connected them in on a conference call with her staff at the CDC, so they could discuss this situation further. She was hoping someone in one of these groups might have another idea they could pursue, but unfortunately no one had any suggestions to offer. When this meeting ended, Dr. Abernathy contacted the scientists from NASA next, to see if they had come up with an explanation as to why this had not proven to be fatal to everyone. Once again, no one there had any answers for her.

It had now been a week since Dr. Abernathy had first arrived in Wyoming, yet she still had no idea about how they were going to deal with this threat. She realized that if they didn't discover something soon, she and the other medical professionals were also doomed, along with the remaining patients. This was because they had all been exposed to the organisms as well, which meant she and her team had just two weeks from their first exposure until they would also begin to show symptoms. At best, this meant they might have another week before they started getting ill as well, and then they would only have a few days more before they died.

All professions have deadlines and pressures associated with them. For college professors, the old adage is that they need to 'publish or perish,' but this situation was much more severe. In this case, the group needed to discover an 'antidote or perish' -- literally.

Not only hadn't they been able to come up with a new strategy to follow that would help them make progress in attacking this problem, but the disease was also spreading to other parts of the country. From the initial contact site in Wyoming, the disease had now filtered into western Nebraska and northern Colorado, and the California and Pennsylvania locations had also seen the problem rapidly expand outward from their locations.

In addition to the NASA group inadvertently infecting their co-workers and families, those additional people had also unknowingly passed it along to others. The professor from Penn State not only exposed all of his departmental colleagues and students, but now the entire college community and surrounding area has been exposed as well, but that isn't the worst of the problem. When the NASA group and the Penn State professor flew home, they also exposed the flight crews and other passengers on the planes. Once those people returned to their homes, they unwittingly exposed their loved ones and others, thus spreading the disease even further. This meant that what was once a dangerous regional epidemic was rapidly progressing into a national, or possibly even a worldwide, pandemic.

If this wasn't dire enough, various news organizations had somehow managed to catch wind of these outbreaks and had begun reporting on the problem. As of yet, they didn't have any idea about the true nature or suspected cause of this disease. They merely assume this epidemic was similar to some sort of influenza outbreak, such as either the avian or swine flu varieties.

This continued to be their primary explanation for the problem until a reporter from western Wyoming began to wonder if there was a connection between the outbreak and the reported meteorite impact. After he put together the sudden rash of individuals getting sick and dying to the report of the meteorite crashing into the area, he felt he had the answer. When he broke his story, he offered his hypothesis about the suspected connection between the two events. His theory was then quickly picked up by other news organizations and it spread across the country faster than a fire in a drought-stricken area or an Internet virus.

Once certain other groups began to pick up on this information, they also began to focus upon the possible extra-terrestrial connection to the pandemic, but some groups chose to take another route and exploit this situation to their own end. A few even felt it was their duty to find someone to make responsible for what was happening, so they could put the blame squarely on their shoulders. Unfortunately, one of the more radical groups decided to use this incident to advance their own political agenda and chose to blame a segment of the population they were adamantly opposed to. The organization using this approach was a fringe, fundamentalist religious group.

"This is God's retribution that he has set upon America because it has coddled the gays and is giving in to their demands," the Reverend Fred Phillips warned.

Reverend Phillips is the pastor of a very small, yet extremely vocal sect from Wichita, Kansas. He'd established his own church there over thirty years ago, called the 'Path of Light Evangelical Church of God,' and since that time he's been actively trying to blame most of the ills of the world on the homosexual community. Learning about this outbreak seemed to provide him with another excuse to rant about the sinfulness of being gay and gave him a new forum to advance his radical and slanted views.

"The longer America accepts these fags and treats them as if they are normal, by allowing them to serve in the military, marry and adopt helpless children, then God will continue sending these plagues down to punish us all for their sins," he went on. "It is imperative that we act now and end the acceptance of their sinful behavior or we will all suffer the consequences for standing idly by and doing nothing."

Although many outsiders had previously written him and his congregation off as a bunch of religious whackoes, there's a small percentage of the population that believes the garbage he's espousing. Some of these people were also willing to act upon every venomous word he uttered, but for now, however, he's only a minor distraction to those trying to find a cure. They'd merely decided to ignore his bigoted rants and grandstanding, while also deflecting questions from the press about his opinions. Instead, they continued to focus upon their efforts to find a way to either end or slow down the spread of this disease.

With the continuing expansion of this epidemic, it meant more people were getting ill and dying, but amidst all of this misery, something positive was resulting from it as well. More people were surviving their initial exposure to the organisms and seemed to have a natural immunity to this disease. This small attribute increased the odds that the doctors would be able to pinpoint the specific factor that accounts for their natural resistance. Every day, more medical records were being sent to the CDC, so the staff there was extremely focused on performing statistical analysis on the various data and test results. They were positive they'd eventually discover the answer they were seeking, but they just hoped they'd come up with it before too many more lives were lost.

Although at first the information Dr. Abernathy had gathered and analyzed had been confusing, she and the CDC, in conjunction with the NASA scientists, were eventually able to come up with a partial explanation about why these people weren't affected. The problem was that even though they've found a possible correlation between each of the survivors, they don't know how they were going to be able to utilize this knowledge to find a cure.

You see, the one thing the survivors all had in common is that they were either gay or bisexual. This fact was not immediately apparent, because so many of them were skeptical about disclosing this detail to the people asking the questions. Since many of these individuals had either been abused or assaulted because of their sexual identity in the past, they were understandably reluctant to put themselves in a similar situation by disclosing this information now. This reticence nearly prevented the professionals from discovering the source of their resistance and, thus, being able to use it.

Dr. Abernathy first began to suspect this correlation fairly early in the process, after Conrad finally admitted to her that he was gay. He had attempted to keep this information private, because he wanted to prevent his co-workers from finding out, but during her third interview with him, Conrad finally relented and shared this detail with her. When she put that tidbit together with the lesbian sister, she had her first clue about what might have protected them.

The problem was that even knowing their sexual orientation might hold the answer she'd been seeking, Dr. Abernathy still couldn't see a way she could use this knowledge in order to discover an antidote or a cure, so she continued to look for another answer. However, after each of the other options had been eliminated, she kept coming back to this one glaring commonality. Now, she just had to figure out how this information could aid in finding a way to negate or eradicate these organisms.

Dr. Abernathy called her staff at the CDC and asked them to perform more detailed analysis on the blood and other samples they'd been sent from the various survivors. She felt the answer to this problem would be found there. After receiving her directive, the staff widened the scope of what they were looking for, since they now felt it must be something minor that differentiated the survivors from those getting ill.

The following day, the CDC laboratory in Atlanta was able to provide her with the answer to this question. After analyzing all of the blood tests, they discovered each of the survivors' blood contained a very specific enzyme the others lacked. The CDC was able to rapidly isolate and replicate this enzyme, which was then turned into a serum that could be administered to those who had been infected. Once a sufficient quantity of this enzyme had been pumped into the recipients' bodies, it began to kill off the invading organisms and reverse the effects that had already begun to occur. In much smaller doses, it also served as a vaccine that prevented others from contracting the illness in the first place.

Dr. Abernathy was thrilled this breakthrough was effective, so she arranged to have this miracle cure mass-produced and delivered to every part of the country where cases had been reported. Most of the population was extremely happy to be receiving this vaccine, but there were still a few dissenters.

"You may have halted the spread of this disease temporarily," the Reverend Fred Phillips preached to a group of onlookers, "but God will find another way to punish you for the continuing sins this nation is committing by accepting gays and allowing them to live."

He and his followers had traveled to Cheyenne to make this statement to the press, because he'd determined it would make the greatest impact by doing it here. He felt he had the best chance of getting his message across to the entire nation by holding his press conference at the location where this atrocity had originated.

"Reverend Phillips," Sheriff Conrad interrupted him, "aren't you worried about getting this disease?"

Since Conrad had been one of the few people in the area to survive the initial outbreak, he had been voted into office as the new sheriff in an emergency election.

"No, my God will protest me and my followers," Phillips replied, vehemently

"In that case, let me ask you another question," Conrad replied. "Since you so boldly proclaimed in the past that AIDS was God's plague sent to eradicate the gay population, using that same logic and extending it to this disease, it seems that God must have sent these organisms to eradicate the heterosexuals. If that is the case, then I take it this means that God finds your homophobic views and intolerant attitudes unacceptable."

"God did not send this plague to eliminate the straight population," Reverend Phillips challenged. "He only wants to kill those heterosexuals who support the fag agenda."

"And he told you this personally?" Conrad added, in jest.

"I know the will of the Lord," Reverend Phillips offered, defiantly.

"Well, I think you've substituted your personal feelings and bigoted views for the will of God. Since the gays and bisexuals are the only ones to have a natural immunity to this affliction, and they are also the ones providing the cure for everyone else, doesn't your view of the situation seem highly unlikely?" Conrad pressed. "I mean, why would God send a plague to kill the people who are protecting those you claim are sinful, but then protect those same sinners and give them a natural immunity, which in turn provides everyone else with a way to survive?"

"Even if they do seem to hold the answer to stop this for now, I don't believe the only option is to inject normal people with fluids from those sinful and vile individuals," Reverend Phillips challenged, "I, for one, refuse to allow you to inject that corrupt poison into my pure and righteous body."

"Then that just proves my point," Conrad stated, triumphantly. "Anyone who wants to maintain his bigoted views will go untreated, which means he'll eventually become infected and die. Only those willing to show tolerance and understanding by accepting the vaccine will survive. This seems to indicate God's true will in this matter to me."

For the first time that anyone could remember, Reverend Phillips was momentarily speechless, but it didn't last for long. He quickly recovered and found his tongue again, so he could begin spewing the same caustic venom he'd been spreading for years. Unfortunately, the more things change, the more some things stay the same.

The vaccine produced by the CDC proved to be highly effective, although those in the very late stages of the disease were beyond hope of reversing the advanced effects of cellular deterioration. From that point on, however, only those who refused to have the inoculation continued to be at risk and came down with the disease, thus suffering the consequences.

At least for now, the situation was under control. Although tens of millions had died before the cure was discovered, possibly even hundreds of millions, it was a far cry from eliminating the seven billion people who dwell on this small planet. Unfortunately for Reverend Phillips and his followers, at least one of his predictions was wrong. God did not protect them.

To make certain the contagion was stopped completely, the CDC also authorized sharing this serum with any other nation whose citizens had accidentally been exposed to this disease via travelers crossing either borders or oceans. This goodwill proved beneficial and not only gave other parts of the world a more favorable view of Americans, but it also put a positive spin on the LGBT community as well, since they were the source of this miraculous cure.

In the end, the only people who continued to struggle with this threat were those groups and countries that were unwilling to discontinue their homophobic views and accept the notion that ALL humans have value and are worthy of acceptance. By failing to extend a hand of friendship, as well as being willing to accept a gift from a friend, they doomed their own chances of surviving the disease and eliminated any prospect they might have had for continuing the spread of their bigoted views.

The fact that members the LGBT community were the only ones who naturally produced this enzyme also went a long way to prove that there may be a physiological basis behind their sexual preference. If being gay or bisexual is not a choice, but a birthright, is it anymore acceptable to discriminate against them, than it would be to discriminate against people with a certain hair, eye or skin color? Let's face it. If there hadn't been this slight difference in their physiological makeup to begin with, then mankind might have died out and humans would have become just another extinct species that once inhabited planet earth.

THE END