Nanites The Awakenings

Nanites

The Awakenings

Copyright 2012 James M. Dosher

Published by Jens Sorensen at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Table of Contents

Adult Content Warning

Acknowledgments

Cover Credits

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

About James M. Dosher

Other books by James M. Dosher

Connect with James M. Dosher

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Adult Content Warning

Nanites, The Awakenings is a work of creative fiction with few ties to normal reality.

This fantasy melodrama attempts to weave the absurd into a facsimile of real life to entertain and amuse the reader.

There is use of extreme language, extreme of acts of violence, and sexually suggestive language and behavior of heterosexuality, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and multi-partners.

There are descriptions of violent criminal acts and murder.

If this is offensive:

Do Not Read.

Any sexually active characters are eighteen years of age or older.

Nanites, The Awakenings takes place in a fictional alternate reality, characters depicted in the Nanites, The Awakenings are fictional characters and do not represent any real people.

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Acknowledgments

This book has bent the truth to fit the fiction of this story. No insult is intended towards any department or member, appointed or elected of the Federal Government, or any State Government or the City and County of Los Angeles, and especially not the fine people working for Animal Care and Control. They take care of those who often have no voice of their own.

As for the CDC; they may be the greatest heroes we never get to know.

Finally, to the real Cali Walker, who makes my life complete.

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Cover Credits

Description: An original cover art designed and created by Yakov Lavan

Date: ‎May ‎1, ‎2015, ‏

Copyright: All rights retained and held by publisher, Jens Sorensen.

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Prologue

Nano-(symbol n) is a SI prefix meaning one billionth. Used primarily with the metric system, this prefix denotes a factor of 10-9 or 0.000000001. It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length.

The names nanobots, nanoids, nanites, nanomachines or nanomites have also been used to describe these devices currently under research and development.

One nanometer is about the length that a fingernail grows in one second.

Three gold atoms lined up are about one nanometer long.

If a toy marble were one nanometer wide, Earth would be about one meter (3.3 feet) wide.

The 2015 Federal Budget provides more than $1.5 billion for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a continued investment in support of the President’s priorities and innovation strategy.

The cumulative NNI investment since fiscal year 2001, including the 2015 request, now totals almost $21 billion. Cumulative investments in nanotechnology-related environmental, health, and safety research since 2005 now total nearly $900 million.

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Friday, April 2nd 2010, 12:27 IDL

Central Pacific near Tuvalu, midway between Hawaii and Australia

Solomon Aptu looked up from the fish he and his crew had just caught. It was warm out. It was spring in the Northern Hemisphere, but here in the Pacific so near the equator, it didn't matter. The unclouded ocean was an oven as good as any magnifying glass ever pointed at an ant. Solomon stood up and bent his back. At first, he thought it was a reflection of the sun in his eyes. Then it repeated itself to the North and South and of the original flash. These silver flashes marched to the horizons. Only when the flashes disappeared beneath the waves did the original flash finally fade away.

The ship captain waited for nearly a minute to see if anything else would happen, but the skies returned to their earlier clarity. He shrugged. He had a lot of work to do. He needed this catch to be good. He four children at home, and fuel for his vessel cost more each year. Such was life, and by the time Solomon got back to port the next night, the puffs of silver in the sky were only a fading memory.

~

Chapter One

Tuesday, April 6th

CDC, Atlanta, Georgia

Doctor Vandi, Doctor Vandi.

Doctor Ganak Vandi stopped moving and turned to see who was calling him. His profession wasn't something that normally involved direct and immediate intervention. He worked in the CDC, but he was normally the 'ugly stepchild' to the normal physicians and virologists that were the heart and soul of the institution. He struggled to remember the younger man's name.

Doctor Fuller?

Fuller nodded, so Vandi must have guessed correctly.

What can I do for you? he continued.

Doctor, there is something we think you need to see. It came across my scope about four hours ago and it's been a bear to track it down.

Fuller hesitated. And then we discovered an enigma. You need to see this.

Okay ... I can put my work on hold and see what you have.

Vandi's heart began beating faster. If the virology department came across something they didn't understand, then it just might be something for him to see. The possibility frightened and excited him at the same time. After all, his specialty was nanotechnology.

Fuller took Vandi down to the Controlled Substances Lab. Here samples came from all of over the world for CDC analysis. Because they brought in all kinds of infectious materials, Vandi couldn't access the room itself without a comprehensive decontamination procedure. Instead, he would rely on the lab technicians already in their suits. The LVEM (Low Voltage Electron Microscope) already made several scans by the time Vandi arrived, but one thing stood out immediately. There was something attached to one of the diseased cells sent to the lab.

Fuller spoke up.

We were going over the scan of a person from Cameroon with Dengue Fever. It is a strain we are aware of, but we decided to take a deeper look, just to be sure. Then we found ... that, he said pointing at the black, crystalline growth.

Vandi took a longer look, and then flipped to different readings.

These are from different cells in the sample? he asked.

Yes. We double and triple checked.

Hmmm ...

Well, Dr. Vandi, is it one of yours? There was an edge of concern in the man's voice.

Vandi felt a cold, emptiness in the pit of his stomach. This was the event he trained for these past ten years. He knew exactly what to do.

Yes, it is. I'm taking this to Sarah. You need to get me as many samples from different regions of Cameroon as possible. I need to know what we are facing.

By Sarah, he meant Sarah Barnbaum, his immediate superior, the head of Infectious Diseases. It fell to her to decide what kind of alert level to send out. As he headed up to her office, several things nagged at him: Why Cameroon? Why would someone launch a nano-plague there? Was it a test to see if it would work and what was it supposed to do?

Dr. Sarah Barnbaum looked up at Vandi has he walked into her office and shut the door. His phone call a minute ago was cryptic. That was very out of character for the dedicated researcher she knew. He started out without preamble.

We have evidence of a nano-plague outbreak in Cameroon. It came in with a blood sample from a case of Dengue Fever. Right now, I don't know how far, or wide it is spread, or what exactly it does. It seems to be benign, but I believe there are individual components building a larger machine. Origin is unknown.

All that came out in one breath. Vandi felt heady. Sarah couldn't blame him. This was potentially big. It was big enough to be on her desk, but not yet big enough to punt it up to Dr. Chen, CDC's head. They needed more information before she could progress. In a way, she felt the clock was ticking, and she wondered where they were in the race.

Keep this compartmentalized. I'll make sure our Virology Lab keep this under wraps. Get me a list of anything you need. I will give Rizer at Fort Detrick a head's up as well. They will want to share information as soon as possible. Keep me abreast of the situation.

They looked at one another. A silent fear past between them. Vandi turned and left. He would tell his wife he was working late tonight. He would also need to know the precise time moment those samples arrived.

~

Chapter Two

Friday, April 9th 20:10

HHS Building, Washington, D.C

Well, ladies and gentleman, here is the situation as we currently understand it. Approximately six days ago, someone in Cameroon, 65 km northeast of Yaoundé, contracted Dengue Fever. A sample was sent to the CDC to verify its strain. During that process, several abnormalities were discovered.

Vandi's mouth felt dry. It wasn't the quality of the people listening, though they were all important in this field of study. It was the effect of what he knew that made him ill.

We immediately requested further blood samples from over the region. We ascertained that the nanite infection was widespread in the country. In fact, every sample we received was contaminated. On my own initiative, I ordered the lab that sent us the samples to be tested. They too were infected.

Have they all been quarantined? asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Vandi took a deep breath.

That would be pointless, Madam Secretary. It seems that a wide number of people throughout the country have already been infected.

Well, how do we fight this? the Secretary continued.

Madam Secretary, I don't know and in the end I think that is yours, and the President's decision. I can only express to you what I know and what I theorize is happening.

The woman nodded. She would have to take this to the President and put it in the 'proper' context.

We have confirmation of infection on all continents. England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, India, Brazil, and Australia have their own identified cases. We are currently exchanging all data as we discover it. We can summarize that China, Southeast Asia, and the rest of Africa are infected as well. We have yet to hear back from Antarctica.

That last bit brought forth a nervous chuckle.

There is a debate on how much of the population are infected. Professor Emmervich, in St. Petersburg thinks the infection rate is around 70% of the world's population. Dr. Soto, in Tokyo, has calculated a 98.9% infection rate. Personally, I think it is 100%. We all have them.

That being said, for the time being, the devices seem to have no effect on us. There is no proof these machines are interfering in any biological process. What I find alarming is that some of the devices seem to be doing something. They are building some sort of complex machines inside of a handful of samples.

I repeat ‘most of us seem to be okay’. I have only seven samples were something is going on. What that is, I don't know. Again, they don't seem to being anything to harm the tissue they are in.

Doctor, said the Secretary, what do you need?

What I need, Madam Secretary is time. Not only are the machines upping their pace of construction, they also decay when outside of a sizable biomass. By that, I mean a body. The longer these nanites are outside a living human body, the more they decay. Within forty-eight hours, the nanites are no longer viable for study.

How the hell does that happen? That was Major Rizer from Fort Detrick.

We haven't a clue, responded Vandi, point blank. Somehow, they know they are outside an existing network only found within a living body and they self-destruct.

That implies they are talking to one another, Rizer said.

I agree. That is our working theory right now.

Rizer grunted as if punched.

What does that mean? asked the Secretary.

Madam Secretary, that means they have the means to communicate with one another, and thus altering their programming. They are adaptive machines, and I think, they don't like to be studied.

Doctor, you act as if they are intelligence. My God, they are miniscule.

Vandi stared at her, unwilling to speak.

How far can they communicate? queried Rizer.

We don't know yet. In fact, we have yet to identify how they are communicating.

There was a hush in the room.

Doctor, were do these things come from? asked the Secretary in a voice filled with a deepening gloom.

That, Madam, that's the other Great Unknown. These things are exhibiting traits beyond any production, or even research, of anyone we know. We can make programmed machines, and small machines. We just can't make machines that small, with this level of ability.

Could it be the Chinese? She was grasping at straws.

I doubt it, responded Vandi. If they could do this, they would have used it in manufacturing, medicine, and construction. Using this as a biological weapon would be rather shorts-sighted. With this much of a leap ahead, they would aim for economic dominance ... and they would get it.

What are you saying? UFO's? she asked.

I'm saying we don't know. The technology is beyond any research currently published. I'm not saying extra-terrestrial. We are not seeing any metals not readily found on earth. I am saying it is beyond our ability to currently understand.

I'm not going to tell the President that we are being invaded by micro-machine our top scientists don't understand. Find out what we are facing first. Give me something I can work with. The Secretary was adamant.

Vandi stared at her for a two long seconds.

But Secretary, they are doing something. We just don't know what.

Come back to me when you do know, she said. It was clear that his moment was over. Vandi walked back to his chair and sat back down. The rest of the meeting was protocol. Everyone promised to pass the information upstairs, but they also decided to sit on the news until 'they knew more'. The small assembly broke up a minute later. The Secretary and her assistants led the charge out of the room. Soon it was only Vandi, Sarah, and Rizer.

I'm going to put this in front of Material Development Activity and see what they can do with it, Rizer offered. If there is something that is going to happen we need the Army to be prepared. Do you have any idea of a timeline?

I wish I did. We know too little. The machines are becoming too complex, and I can't study them long enough to know to what level they are aiming for.

Pity, we really need to light a fire under this issue.

We are all trying for that, said Sarah Barnbaum. We can only give the officials what we have. They are not going to cause a panic if there is no solution to a problem that may not exist.

Rizer turned to leave. Over his shoulder, he asked a parting question.

What are we calling this thing?

Vandi and Sarah looked at one another. Vandi turned back to Rizer.

Right now we are going with Series One, Category A and B. This is the first nano-plague and no one seems to want to be associated with it.

Sarah shook her head; Let the media name it. We have other things to do.

Rizer headed for the elevator then thought better of it. With so many VIP's leaving, the wait would be too long. If he could, he would make a phone call over this matter, but the information was too sensitive to trust over an unsecure line. He would have to play Paul Revere the old fashion way.

Sarah and Vandi didn't speak as they headed to the elevator doors. Saying such things like 'we did everything we could', or 'we'll make them believe' didn't need to be said. They passed the minutes waiting in silence. They checked their PDA's for calls and e-mails. Nothing needed immediate attention. The World spun along without concern for their efforts.

Only when they were walking to their rental for the long ride to the airport and a nearly as long flight back to Atlanta did Sarah finally break down and ask.

How long do you think we have? Best guess, days, weeks, months, or even years?

Days, Vandi said immediately. "This thing didn't exist before seven days ago. It is a global phenomenon. The Category B's I'm seeing are growing in complexity. We