Lilicyte arm chemically bonded to the arm of another using covalent carbon - carbon bonds. Manny had described this process as children holding hands in a circle, expanding outward to form larger and larger concentric rings, which then stacked one on top of the other. The carbon - carbon bonds were so strong that if he dipped a small tweezer into the petri dish and began to pull slowly at the top of the period sized colony, the Lilicytes would hold on to each other with nearly unbreakable grips, creating a carbon daisy-chain. A small gray fiber, just a few microns wide, roughly one tenth the size of a human hair, would begin to emerge from the petri dish and could stretch a meter long.
If undisturbed, the Lilicytes would remain inert in the petri dish. Within a host organism, the Lilicytes would emerge from the destroyed cancer cells and out into the blood stream where they would coalesce into the inert colony. The small carbon mass would then be filtered from the body by the renal system and excreted through the urinary tract, leaving no trace, at least this is how the Lilicytes were supposed to work. The recurring problem was controlling the Lilicytes’ bonding affinity within a host organism. This problem became undeniable during Phase I mice trials.
The mice were divided into four, twenty mouse groups: Onco-mice #1 (OM-1), those with cancer given Lilith: Onco-mice #2 (OM-2) cancer not given Lilith: Normal-mice #1 (NM-1) given Lilith: Normal-mice #2 (NM-2) not given Lilith. The OM-1 mice were given the infusion of Lilicytes and were cancer free within seven days. The OM-2s still showed expected tumor progression after the seven day period and continued to show it for weeks as expected. NM-2s were as happy as lab mice after 7 days. The problem was with the NM-1s. They were dead within 48 hours of the Lilicyte infusion. Dissection of the NM-1s revealed that they remained healthy, but for an unexplained Lilicyte concentration in the cerebrum’s temporal lobe which had caused massive strokes. Manny was perplexed. They were all further perplexed nine days later when all of the OM-1s began to die suddenly as well. Their necropsies also revealed that the OM-1s had died from the same concentration of Lilicytes in the temporal lobe.
Manny was stunned. He pondered the ramifications of the results for a few hours before calling William to inform him of the bad news.
“Do you know if the Lilicytes were healthy before they were infused?” William knew that Manny required perfection, but he asked anyway.
“Yes, William, I triple checked the procedures used by our team. They were perfect. There was no sign of contamination or decay in any of the Lilith batches. I personally inspected them two weeks ago before the phase testing began.”
“Are you absolutely sure about that? You understand what this means right?” William swallowed hard as he palmed his balding scalp.
“Yes, William. I am having the team produce new Lilith batches. I am going to run the trial again, using the reserve batches from this Phase I and with the new batches. So we should have eighty new mice results within a couple of weeks. We will know for sure then.”
“Manny, we need to get this right.”
- - - - - - -
Two weeks later, Manny and William both looked upon eighty dissected mouse brains, all showing signs of ischemic stroke.
“Jesus Christ, Manny, what is this? I thought we had it!” William was distraught. His emotions clouded his mind of any logical solution to the massive problem neatly displayed in rows on the dissection table in front of them.
“It must be a bonding issue, William. For some reason the Lilicytes’ bonding affinity causes them to coalesce as designed, but instead of being excreted from the host through the renal system, they jump into the circulatory system and form blockages in the capillaries of the temporal lobe.”
“But why the disparate outcome in the mice groups, Manny?” William was
If undisturbed, the Lilicytes would remain inert in the petri dish. Within a host organism, the Lilicytes would emerge from the destroyed cancer cells and out into the blood stream where they would coalesce into the inert colony. The small carbon mass would then be filtered from the body by the renal system and excreted through the urinary tract, leaving no trace, at least this is how the Lilicytes were supposed to work. The recurring problem was controlling the Lilicytes’ bonding affinity within a host organism. This problem became undeniable during Phase I mice trials.
The mice were divided into four, twenty mouse groups: Onco-mice #1 (OM-1), those with cancer given Lilith: Onco-mice #2 (OM-2) cancer not given Lilith: Normal-mice #1 (NM-1) given Lilith: Normal-mice #2 (NM-2) not given Lilith. The OM-1 mice were given the infusion of Lilicytes and were cancer free within seven days. The OM-2s still showed expected tumor progression after the seven day period and continued to show it for weeks as expected. NM-2s were as happy as lab mice after 7 days. The problem was with the NM-1s. They were dead within 48 hours of the Lilicyte infusion. Dissection of the NM-1s revealed that they remained healthy, but for an unexplained Lilicyte concentration in the cerebrum’s temporal lobe which had caused massive strokes. Manny was perplexed. They were all further perplexed nine days later when all of the OM-1s began to die suddenly as well. Their necropsies also revealed that the OM-1s had died from the same concentration of Lilicytes in the temporal lobe.
Manny was stunned. He pondered the ramifications of the results for a few hours before calling William to inform him of the bad news.
“Do you know if the Lilicytes were healthy before they were infused?” William knew that Manny required perfection, but he asked anyway.
“Yes, William, I triple checked the procedures used by our team. They were perfect. There was no sign of contamination or decay in any of the Lilith batches. I personally inspected them two weeks ago before the phase testing began.”
“Are you absolutely sure about that? You understand what this means right?” William swallowed hard as he palmed his balding scalp.
“Yes, William. I am having the team produce new Lilith batches. I am going to run the trial again, using the reserve batches from this Phase I and with the new batches. So we should have eighty new mice results within a couple of weeks. We will know for sure then.”
“Manny, we need to get this right.”
- - - - - - -
Two weeks later, Manny and William both looked upon eighty dissected mouse brains, all showing signs of ischemic stroke.
“Jesus Christ, Manny, what is this? I thought we had it!” William was distraught. His emotions clouded his mind of any logical solution to the massive problem neatly displayed in rows on the dissection table in front of them.
“It must be a bonding issue, William. For some reason the Lilicytes’ bonding affinity causes them to coalesce as designed, but instead of being excreted from the host through the renal system, they jump into the circulatory system and form blockages in the capillaries of the temporal lobe.”
“But why the disparate outcome in the mice groups, Manny?” William was
Similar Books
