A Stitch in Time Saves Nine Ch. 01

"The team that originally retrieved the element suffered from radiation poisoning, so we built this device to contain the radiation emitted by the element which we used when the element was not in use for testing. We had to take the element to another off-planet facility for further testing, which is why we were transporting it, but it ended up on the wrong route. You see, the device had polonium rods as a functioning part, so we also had a device to keep the polonium stable, and the whole trailer was designed to contain nuclear radiation. But that crash caused an explosion which destroyed the device keeping the polonium stable. The unstable polonium caused the device designed to contain the element's radiation to explode and that destroyed the element in the process, or at least that's our hypothesis based on simulation software that analyzed all the data we could gather from the cameras in the cab of the truck, an external camera and photographs of the destroyed region."

Emptiness suddenly filled the room. I felt so hollow that I could swear I had nothing below my skin and Mr. Haydron's expression said that he was experiencing similar feelings.

I broke the silence, "That explains how I died, not how I came back."

"False!" he exclaimed with a deep sigh and continued, "You almost died, but you did not die. We detected your life signs soon after the aftereffects of the explosion had subsided a little. When the CEO of Allagi realized the blunder that had been made he assembled a team and brought out the Hazmat suits that the scientists had used while performing the initial tests on the element, fearing the worst and getting ready for cleanup. As soon as the initial blasts subsided and we got life readings, from you, as it turned out, I ordered the CEO to immediately assemble a team for your evacuation. When he told me the team was already in place I felt some relief and asked him to take the military aircraft I had stored in the hanger at the Allagi Compound and get you out of there.

"When we brought you here very little was left of your skin. Your muscle tissue was visible and covered with whatever was left of your burnt skin. Also you had a missing leg. The doctors had no idea how your heart was still beating or for that matter how to treat you. Turns out they didn't need to; your body was self-healing. The doctors advised that anything that they'd do could have unforeseen consequences and that the best way to proceed would be to put you under observation. That's what happened."

"So, I take it you do not have any explanation for how I survived, do you?"

"I do have a hypothesis, if you'd like to hear it."

"I would."

"When the polonium became unstable your body was exposed to extreme amounts of nuclear radiation, which probably acted as a catalyst for the absorption of all the tachyons, dark matter and antimatter flying around. Without this catalyst, the radiation and the rest of it would probably have poisoned you and you'd be dead now. Somehow instead it rebuilt you from a new genetic structure, and that came from exposure to seven different kinds of radiation simultaneously."

"I have a hunch that your hypothesis is reality."

"How so?"

"I am not sure at all. I don't know. Maybe I am just connecting something to nothing, like people with bipolar disorder do."

"Or maybe you are just over-thinking right now. Look, you still haven't fully recovered yet and you have had too much information dumped on you. You should rest. We'll talk later."

"Yes, you are right. I should rest for a while."

Andrew Haydron got up and walked to the door. At the door he turned back and gave me a sympathetic smile, and then left the room. Sleep came quickly to me. Mr. Haydron had been right. The conversation had been very draining.

#####

A doctor had been observing the whole conversation behind a screen which displayed footage of the room. He was recording all the strange things that were happening to his patient's biology when his boss Andrew Haydron entered the room.

"Is he asleep, Doc?"

"Yes he is, sir." The doctor paused for a second and mulled over whether he should ask him or not, and decided he should."Ummm.... Mr. Haydron, sir, why did you not brief the boy on the aftermath?"

"You saw him, Patrick. If what I've told him so far can make him so distraught, then he surely isn't ready for the rest yet."

"But you know that, you'll have to tell him soon enough. We cannot proceed any further without him knowing everything."

"You may be right, Patrick, but there is a right time and a right way to say such things. I can't just barge into his room and say to him, 'Hey Jake, how are you, remember the accident I told you were involved in? The accident caused the destruction of a whole valley, and that's not where it stopped. It also took a whole planet with it.' I can't just blurt it out, now can I?"

"No sir, you can't," answered Doctor Patrick Fleming, realizing how cold his own words had sounded.