CHAPTER SIX : DWARG
“Doctor Noble, this is Chris Hayden from the morgue. Can you spare a few minutes? – we have a situation here – yes, it involves the recently deceased Robert Kellor – yes, that’s him – well we’ve started the post-mortem and, and well, we would like you to have a look at the body – I really think you will need to see this - door 20B – OK? See you shortly.” Dr Hayden placed the phone receiver down, looked at his colleague, and turned his gloved palms upward. He shrugged his shoulders, “dinged if I know Harry – only been cutting up bodies for fifteen years – go figure.”
Michael Noble made his way down the many corridors and swinging doors and elevators. He had the right to walk tall, after all he was the department head, had been published many times and never tired of lecturing and demonstrating his knowledge of the human heart – he was probably the country’s foremost heart transplant surgeon. He had just again, refused an offer of an extremely highly paid position at a leading hospital in Washington – it wasn’t the money, he just loved where and what he was doing now. He had it all, power, respect, great income, his wonderful yacht and enviable lifestyle. Why would anyone in his right mind want to change it all? Here he could follow and practice his speciality of cardiology and the myocardium was his passion. He had ensured he was on the distribution list of every autopsy report involving cardiac related investigation, and was insistent that anything out of the normal relating to heart episodes and diseases, was referred to him.
He wondered what this was this all about, and why the urgency? He didn’t particularly like the morgue department – he didn’t know why, perhaps the place lent itself to some sort of failure – he would fight tooth and nail to prevent his patients ending up there, yet fate was fate. At the very best, the morgue pathologists would gain valuable information from any autopsy, not only for the sake of the law or next of kin, but for the physician, especially the physician of the deceased. Strange, he had heard about Kellor’s sudden death and there was no record of him actually having his own doctor – then again it was all so fast. He had also heard that Kellor’s young daughter was still a patient in the hospital.
He pushed open the swinging door 20B marked Autopsy in Progress and approached the partially exposed body lying on the stainless steel slab of the lab. Standing on each side were doctors Hayden and Young. Other inquisitive examiners were peering through the windows – something was certainly out of the ordinary.
“So, gentlemen, how may I be of assistance to you?” – Michael Noble was prone to quipping in an upper class English accent – “someone lost his wedding ring? Someone misplaced a pancreas or kidney...... you guys remember which side of the body the heart is?” Chis Hayden did not answer as he slowly removed a green linen cloth which had been placed over the cadaver. Michael walked over to the slab then looked down at the open chest cavity of Robert Kellor. At first, he had some trouble interpreting what his eyes were seeing. What the hell is this? Just what the hell is this?”
He didn’t know if he said those words out loud but he struggled to come to grips with what he was looking at. He saw the veins and arteries, they were all there, they were joined at a nodule, but there was no discernable heart where there should be a discernable heart. THIS BODY HAD NO HEART!
Michael’s immediate thoughts covered situations of pranks, April fool, hidden candid camera, revenge, fraternity dares or just idiotic medical student tomfoolery. He glared at Hayden, waiting for an explanation as to why his valuable time was being taken up with this nonsense. “It’s no joke doctor, this is what we found during the procedure – here, we’ve got it all on video.” Still bemused, Michael watched the monitor and studied Chris Hayden’s movements as Robert’s chest was laid open. “If I find out you are just wise-guys wasting my time, I’ll have you in front of the Administrator with your gonads pinned together!” he bellowed – and not in a posh English voice this time – more in a voice from someone who had lived all his life in the Bronx.
Doctor Noble snapped on the rubber gloves, ordered more light and swung the magnifying glass across Robert’s torso and peered into it. “This is bullshit, this can’t be true – get Len Avery from Coronary down here – right now!!” Michael was looking at the nodule where the veins and arteries met, “this was a heart once, but it’s shrunk down to a small knot – no way in hell could it keep someone alive – no way in hell!! – this guy should have been dead years ago!!”- what the hell is going on here?” - It was a rhetorical question and no one present dared comment. “I want the full works on this – every test and scan you’ve got – what are you waiting for – move!” Doctor Avery came into the room, “take a look at this Len.”
“Okey Dooky, hmm - nice work Bones, what did you do? hit it with Captain Kirk’s Phaser or maybe Vader’s sabre? – wow it’s sure shrunk – what’s the deal?”
“This is how it is Len, this cadaver has just been opened not more than a few hours ago, this guy was alive and well at 2am today – this was Robert Kellor the VIP, the astronaut who had his daughter in Oncology – well, what do you reckon?”
Len Avery handled the knot and studied the veins and arteries, he pressed them, he pulled on them gently, and he followed their lines and junctions. “Never seen or heard of anything like it Mic; this isn’t a joke of some sort is it?” Michael shook his head – “no, I’ve seen the tale of the tape, we sure have a mystery here Len.” Both men just stood there staring at the body. Mic finally said, “OK – let’s see if we can work it out.”
“One thing Mic, when we finally explain what’s going on here, and you are writing your report, don’t forget to include my name. Just let me take a couple of shots with my 14 mega pixels – you did order full scans?”
“Every test known to this place Len, and probably then some – this is going to be quite an adventure and a very interesting inquest. I’d better let the Miami-Dade Coroner know that we have a situation – just hope we beat the Press before they start asking him questions – and I think that NASA will want to be told as well.”
Michael noticed that more and more people had some sort of reason to walk into the room to cast a furtive look at the open body of Robert Kellor. He called out to all the staff present, “people, this is a serious matter which requires serious investigation. I would ask you all not to discuss this matter outside this department – we have privacy issues and warn you that breaches will result in instant dismissal and I will be very active and aggressive in prosecuting those that cross the line – I need a list of all your names before you leave here. Thank you. So where do you suggest we start Len?”
“I think a full pot of coffee and let the kitchen staff know that overtime is authorised – indefinitely.”
Doctors Noble, Avery, Hayden, their assistants and the staff of the hospital and every consultant involved in the investigation would never know exactly what happened to Kellor and his heart. Even if given the truth, they would never believe it.
The depth of the mystery became even more profound when the medicos found out that Kellor’s daughter had made a remarkable recovery from her terminal illness and had been released by a bewildered Oncology Department head. She had already left the hospital with Robert Kellor’s sister.
The truth was that Dwarg had kept Robert alive – Robert’s heart had failed about 10 years ago – he should have died then. Dwarg had learnt that a Human, with some form of pseudo-physical hosting or contact with a Whisp, will become, and remain, in perfect physical condition, regardless of injury or disease. Dwarg did not know of the exact mechanics bringing about this (healthy) condition in the transmutation – it became just so. How else could Robert have survived that horrific traffic accident where his wife was killed? How come, in the last ten years, he never become sick or had needed to see a doctor? It was all Dwarg’s doing. Robert became Dwarg’s host – they were both high above the Earth’s atmosphere in a space station.
Dwarg had learnt much from Slig’s experiences, even copied
the idea of wrapping itself around a rocket and leaving the Aura – this time the rocket did not explode and Dwarg actually became the first Whisp to make contact with the physical, indeed, with a Human. Unlike Slig, Dwarg would take the softly, softly approach and try to interact with Humans – time was not important.
Ten years ago, Robert Kellor’s craft, lifted-off from Earth. His journey was bumpy, frightening and exhilarating and everything went to plan. Robert had a right to be happy. Ever in his mind, was the image of the horrific end to the last space mission – he had actually seen it happen back there at Cape Canaveral. The subsequent investigation proved that a simple thing like a faulty O ring was the probable cause leading to that rocket blowing up.
Robert could not help but think of all the simple little things that could go wrong on this ship. NASA had guaranteed 99.9 per cent odds of success; still, that left .1 of perchance for failure. His ship was made of about 3 million parts so .1 percentage equalled around 3,000 parts that statistically, might fail. He certainly had a lot to live for, having just become a proud father. He had just enough time to give little baby Aggie a kiss and a cuddle before he had to go into quarantine prior to liftoff.
His ship proved to function at a full 100 percent of success and it finally docked with the space station and he settled down for the next two weeks to perform the various tasks, maintenance and experiments which he had been trained to undertake.
On the second day of his mission in space, he was excited to learn from Mission Control that he was to walk in space to check out some components on the exterior of the station. There was some concern that there was a slight malfunction of the sensor apparatus which measured the weights, balances and gyros of the navigational system. Yes, he had certainly trained for this work and always enjoyed that state of weightlessness. It would also demonstrate his talent for fault-finding and repairs, and this time, he thought, it would be for real. After his companions helped him on with his suit, hoses and tethers, he made his way into the airlock booth and waited until he was isolated from the ship by hissing and sliding hatches. He watched the readouts of the various pressure gauges until they reached stabilization at the correct readings; he then pushed the big red button which caused a small outer door to swing open – outside was nothingness and Robert took a step into it.
He looked left along the glistening outer shell then to his right. Just for a second and at the edge of his vision, thought he saw something shiny and fluffy, much like a piece of crunched up white lace, sliding over and behind the hull, then out of his sight. Robert put it down to his eyes adjusting to the light or maybe this was a reflection from the hull onto his visor. A voice said “did you see that thing slide along the bulkhead Bob?”
He replied, “I thought I saw something white and shiny, but it disappeared over to the other side – thought it was my imagination. I’ll take a look as soon as I tweak these sensors.” Minutes passed and Robert had a look around the body of the station. “Control, I can’t see anything here, probably a sunray reflection – I don’t know – coming aboard – over.”
“Roger Bob, see you when you get back. We’ll have a look at the monitors and check. Out.”
Robert had gone through the arduous process of re-entry to the station; he was not to know that he carried more on him now than when he exited. Dwarg had become a physical object; he had come from behind and attached himself to Robert, while both were still out in the open vastness of space. During the quarantine process in the re-entry chamber, Dwarg had shrunk himself to such a small size; he was able to attach himself to the body hair on Robert’s back – where he hid for some time. The monitors indeed showed a shape sliding over the bulkhead and the body of the station. It had a non-descript form and its shape was unrecognizable. To the crew, cramming their faces together whilst looking at the screen, it looked much like a small cloud or a wad of cotton wool. It did seem to travel of its own accord, and did appear to purposely keep out of Robert’s line of sight. At full zoom, nothing else was discernable. “Well if that’s a UFO and it wants to attack, we don’t have much to panic about.”
“Should we report this Chief?”
“Guys, you know that if we do, it’s a few more weeks of debrief at the Tank – so unless you like those panels of shrinks and endless reports and Men In Black following you, I suggest that we saw nothing, nothing.”
“Hardly worth reporting a little piece of tissue paper in orbit, Chief – I’ve already forgotten about it.”
The next day, Robert was entertaining the massive audience on Earth far below. He had turned on the camera and like a professional tour guide began to explain everyday life in the space station. He demonstrated how things were in a weightless environment. He opened the seal to a beaker and poured coffee out. The liquid just floated there, magically suspended and he then scooped it back into the beaker and drank it through a straw. Dwarg saw this all too late – that would have been a perfect way to enter the Human. Next, Robert squeezed some (far too much) toothpaste from its tube and again, the paste became suspended in mid air. Dwarg made his move when the string of toothpaste, looking like a fat wriggling worm, came nearer and he sprang onto it and embedded himself. Robert then smeared some of the suspended toothpaste onto a brush and began brushing his teeth, all the while smiling into the camera. Dwarg was ingested with some of the toothpaste – it had finally entered a host.