Miracles Take a Little Longer

Day 155 Lab Control, Liberty, Alchibah

I was putting on the last pot of coffee and wondering what the new Turkish style was going to taste like, when Chris Petersen walked in.

“Are you early or late again?” Chris asked.

“Late again,” I grumbled, “I just can’t get a handle on this enzyme shift. I mean it’s only the oldest Medical problem the Human race has ever faced, you think I would have a clue.”

“Doc,” Chris asked, “what the Hades are you talking about?”

“The absolute scourge of the Male half of the species. The one thing we have never been able to dent and can not dodge.

“Morning Sickness in it’s full and radiant glory.

“Be glad you live in that stand alone Bungalow up in the corner of the compound. You do not have to live with Mariana, JoAnn and Sally all at once.”

Chris blanched visibly, “Are you saying they are all three pregnant. Although that would explain three guys who seem to be finding somewhere else to be, a whole lot.”

I had to grin, “No Shit, Magic and Digger are at least six E-Months in front of anything I could figure when we killed their implants. I think this planet wants to see life.”

It was Chris’s turn to stare, “You said Killed Implants not removed them like most people would have said they could; can you people actually kill an Active UNWG implant?”

It was my turn to give him a Feral stare, “Not once but Three times. I might have come here a useless sack of shit that Ash Andrews may have had to kick back to life, but by God the team here beat the Goonies cold on their Eugenics program deader than hell.

“This crap on the screen is the last hurdle and I will beat it one way or another.”

Chris shrugged and said, “I do not want to be presumptuous but, could you take my Morning rounds and let me look at this for a while?”

I grabbed my my coffee and his padd and said, “Why not, I am up against a wall. New blood just might see something we have missed.”

I spent the next hour dealing with Treatments usual load of broken bones and sprained joints who, basically needed to just stay still long enough for the Quickheal to work on them. Of course on this planet finding anyone to lay quietly was like pulling teeth.

Dragging back into control, I did not expect to see Chris leaning back in the chair grinning.

“Damn Boss,” he said, “I might have found your answer but, the substance we need does not exist in nature!”

I walked over to look at the screen and stared for several moments. He was right, then something jogged my memory.

I leaned over and called up a file. Placed on the screen it gave a perfect flat line.

Chris grunted, “I can see that is a stored sample, how much of it do you have?”

I chuckled, “Only about 1300 Gallons, it’s called Rumbler Blood. Mr. Petersen, every woman on Alchibah Thanks you.”

Chris stared and asked, “What the hades is a Rumbler?”

“Oh, “ I replied , ”depending on the sex and the age, around 4 to 7 thousand pounds of exoskeleton covered, regenerating appetite that you do not want to meet in the dark. We had two of them bugging us around here, that’s why we have that much blood.”

Chris’s eyes opened wide, “What took those out?”

I had to laugh, “The female ran into Andy and Mariana; the male ran into Sinopa, Ash and Connor.

“Around here that pretty well spells done deal.

“To quote a friend of yours ‘Welcome to Freedoms Last Stand, me Boyo’.”

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Colony: Alchibah is a science fiction blog novel.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Probably.

All Contents (written or photo/artwork) not attributed to other sources is
Copyright (C) 2006 - 2011 by Jeff Soyer. All rights reserved.