* * *
Phineas
Two days later, I walked into thelab to find my mother leaning over a microscope. I grinned. This was our happyplace but especially hers. She glanced up and let out a quiet squeal. “They’resinging.”
“Eh?”
“The cells!Remember when Pepper was here, and I showed her the cells treated with BlueFang and she said it reminded her of an old Suzanne Vega song?”
I chuckled. MyAunt Pepper, Connall’s wife, was a singer and everything that came with beingan all-around artist. She was also a Firestarter. She saw life in a way thatvery few did, and she’d been my mother’s best friend since they were schoolchildren.
“Aye, vaguely,”I said. “Refresh my memory.”
“It’s calledBlood Sings, I can’t remember the words exactly, but the part that stuck out tome had to do with blood singing to blood ‘of its own’ to be seen by it. Irealized I had to find a way to extend the length of the song they weresinging, by finding a more efficient note for them to sing.”
“You’re talkingabout long term hemoglobin stabilization,” I replied.
She smiled wide.“Not just talking about it.”
“How?”
“Well, human cellsfollow a typical life cycle, right? They grow, divide, and die. Then you dropin mutations like cancer cells, which don’t follow this cycle. They don’t die,they multiply and continue to reproduce other abnormal cells. As we know, theCauld Ane don’t get cancer, as our cells don’t die at the same rate human cellsdo. But when Blue Fang is introduced into our blood stream, our cells welcomeit, but for only so long. Eventually, protein PK-17 in our blood cells attackand ‘heal’ the Blue Fang, rendering it useless after around seventy-two hours.The song is over, and another dose is needed.”
I nodded.“You’ve found a way to extend the window of effectiveness through stabilizingPK-17? I don’t understand.”
“Look.” Shewaved me over to the microscope.
“Looks likeCauld Ane blood,” I said. “Yours if I had to guess.”
“Correct. Now,watch how the PK-17 proteins react to the latest strain of Blue Fang.”
I studied thesample under the microscope, surprised by what I saw. Or more accurately, whatI didn’t see. “They aren’t doinganything,” I replied. “It looks likethe Cauld Ane hemoglobin is ignoring the Blue Fang entirely.”
“Even betterthan ignoring it. It’s singing with it.”
I nodded.“Harmonic stabilization? But how? Every time we tried in the past, PK-17 wouldattack the Blue Fang even faster.”
“That’s because,every time we tried to change PK-17’s frequency, we did it after introducingthe sample. The post introduction frequency sweep drew the attention of ourhealing abilities, so I thought, what if I could find the correct frequencybefore introducing the strain…”
“The proteinswould already be stable at the time of introduction. Mother, you’re a genius!”I pulled her in for a hug. “Well done, but how on earth did you figure out thefrequency beforehand?”
“I didn’t. Istarted a sweep at 20 Hz and worked my way up until I hit 432 Hz. Testing thesample each time.”
“That must havetaken weeks.”
“Two and a halfmonths.” She shrugged. “But who’s counting?”
Long termstabilization was the breakthrough we’d been waiting for, but I knew this alsomeant possible future complications. Since our drug wasn’t being administeredto humans, and free of charge to all Cauld Ane, the Scottish and Americangovernments had agreed to stay out of our business, but we knew that type ofpact could only last for so long. We figured at this point, everypharmaceutical company must have obtained their own samples of GPX-50333-9 andwere surely trying to create their own versions, but without the knowledge oftheVillandi Fegurð, their pursuits would all be in vain.
Villandi Fegurðor Red Fang was a rare flower native to Iceland that bloomed only every tenyears, and the paralyzing agent was made from the thorn of that flower. RedFang has the ability to incapacitate the Cauld Ane, rendering us powerless. Ifadministered in large enough doses, Red Fang could even be deadly. It was alsowhere Blue Fang got its start, but fortunately there is an antidote. I keptmine in a syringe kit, along with a few doses of Blue Fang, always at the readyshould the need arise.
My mother usedRed Fang as the base of all her research, turning it inside out at the molecularlevel until birthing its good twin.
If the humansever forced an audit of my mother’s work, they would instantly learn of RedFang, and that would be very dangerous for our kind.
My father walkedinto the lab, and my mother’s face lit up, rushing into his open arms with asqueal of delight.
“I’m so proud ofyou, love,” he said.
