In BIO we had an assignment to come up with a series of tests to identify different types of cells: protozoan, fungi, algae, etc. Unfortunately my teacher said to be creative. While everyone else made up run-of-the-mill tests to identify parts of the cells, this is what I came up with. Enjoy.
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"Whatever it is, it got Freddy, too. I found him in his cot, the stuff was coating his chin," Theresa dropped off another vial of the plasm. We'd been on this expedition for two weeks, more than half of our original research team was dead and we had no idea what was causing it, and we had no way out. That was the problem with being dropped off in the middle of freakin' nowhere with no contact with the outside world for a month. Oh sure we brought communication equipment, but unfortunately Mr. Murphy stopped by when Keith, our geologist, died. Nick had been trying to raise the main base and tripped while trying to find a report with an encryption key on it, smashing the radio to the ground. That radio was our only link to anyone. The satellite broke during our insertion and nobody thought to pack a spare, so we didn't even had access to the internet.
Four people had died in the last eight hours. Ever since we opened that sealed door on the south face of The Cave. On the skin around the mouth of each body was a thin, clear, bluish-green liquid substance. It appeared that they had aspirated something when they went into the room. I had a feeling we were dealing with a new type of organism, but I had yet to figure out what. I had never seen something aspirated kill so quickly. As the team's sole microbiologist it was up to me to figure out what was going on. And I had to do it fast, there was just me, Theresa and Nick left. Unfortunately Nick's specialty was security and Theresa's was physics. That left me. Alone with the stuff that appeared to be killing people in less than two hours from exposure. I coughed.
I discarded the UV light I'd been using to test the last sample of the stuff. I figured since it was colored like some algae I would try to cause photosynthesis. There was no reaction to 45 minutes of exposure with the UV light, although I guess that made sense since it seemed each team member had been infected while down in the cave. There wasn't a lot of light 500 feet under the surface of Antarctica. My eyes blurred a bit as I looked back into the microscope. I shook my head and they seemed to clear a bit.
I'd already tested to see if it was a bacteria. I'd used a form of radiation on the first sample that will encapsulate a nucleus in a thin, green shell causing it to glow under a microscope. Since there are around 100 million undescribed prokaryotic species on the planet and bacteria seems to be the most logical choice for what was killing my team members, I tested that first. Unfortunately (fortunately?) whatever it was had a nucleus, so that ruled out bacteria. Now I ruled out algae because without photosynthesis algae can't survive.
I looked under the microscope again. "I wonder..."
I grabbed the bottle of HYPstain and put a small droplet onto a new slide. Using an eye dropper I put another drop from the sample on top of the HYPstain. I slid it under a microscope. "I'll be damned." The HYPstain lit up like a christmas tree. HYPstain is designed to dye the hyphae in fungi bright green. Whatever this substance was, it was full of hyphae.
I wrote down the evidence I had so far. In the last eight hours I had run dozens of tests trying to rule out various biologicals. It had a nucleus, ruling out bacteria and similar prokaryotes; it didn't respond to UV light, showing no signs of photosynthesis, so that ruled out the algae. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of the HYPstain before, it seemed logical now. In a cave full of unidentified organisms, why wouldn't there be molds and fungi?
It appeared that our silent killer was an ancient form of mold that humans probably have never come into contact with. The government agency funding our little "expedition" was going to be pleased. I don't suppose they cared that it cost them the lives of four of the finest minds in science. They'll get their superweapon. A mold that can kill within two hours of contact with a human host.
Now that I knew what it was, I could stop it from killing the rest of us. Hopefully unti---
