Richard J. Ronayne

Novella

Phenix Publishing Ltd

Nation-X Project

Dozens of my stories are currently being illustrated for release by Phenix Publishing Ltd for their Nation-X project, a multi-year project for 4-8000 word educational novellas.

This series was designed for young adults and high schoolers across Chinese and American schools, harnessing anthropomorphism to help digest mature, dark or joyful topics, whilst reflecting life, and exploring real social issues in an exciting and educational way.

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Bacteriophage
By Richard Joseph Ronayne

CHAPTER 1: How to Paint a Target on Your Back
Dr. Matt Hol was nervous. He was always nervous, but despite requesting this meeting, he felt exposed, preferring to hide away in his lab with his “children”.
He sat in a private lobby, impatiently fidgeting, waiting to see his “pharmaceutical overlords”, as he referred to them. The kingpins of the medicinal world, his extremely generous benefactors, and extremely corrupt and dangerous individuals of immense power.
“This is a mistake.” He muttered to himself under his breath in a shrill voice, before seemingly replying in a deeper, more confident tone. “No. No. No, Matt. This is necessary. They need to know the threat she poses. Only you can make them see. Only you. They need you. And they will pay.”
He sat upright in the mahogany chair more confidently, as a wide and toothy grin slowly slid across his face, nearly ear to ear. “Yes. They always pay. And then I can make more ‘children’. Yes, yes,” he replied to himself, returning to his original screechy speech, releasing a maniacal giggle. 
His unsettling laughter was interrupted by the intercom, the receptionists uncaring voice came through. “They will see you now, Doc Hol. Please go through and take your seat promptly.”
He knew better than to keep them waiting. He jumped up out of the seat, clumsily knocking the chair over into the side table, which sent a beautiful bouquet sat neatly in a priceless vase careening to the floor.
SMASH.
“Leave it,” The intercom demanded. “They will not wait.”
Doc Hol, as he was known in the underworld, scurried, totally unnerved through to the next room, stopping a moment at the large ivory doors to look back at the mess he had made. He shook his head and scuttled through.
This was not his first time here; he knew what to expect. The large, unlit room was silent and still. He knew they were there though, sitting at the back so as not to show their faces. He closed the cold, heavy door behind him, trapping the light out of the room.
Standing, consumed in the darkness, a torch flickered on, momentarily blinding him. “Sit!” A deep and formidable voice commanded, echoing around the room, as the light slowly drew a path across the floor to a lonely and vulnerable chair. 
He did not hesitate to do as they asked.
“Speak!” The voice ordered.
He was sweating profusely and started scratching at himself in his anxiety. “I thought you would want to know. See. You are in danger. There is a very clever girl, with clever new treatments. People won’t need your medicines anymore. No, no.”
There was a large moment of pause. Not a single sound but that of Doc Hol’s scratching. Then a match was lit far in the darkness, barely revealing the outlines of a dozen individuals sitting in lavish armchairs, as one lit an ornate pipe. “Explain!”
“Well, see, her methods are in trials now. Either you buy them and use them, or she will make your drugs obsolete, yes, yes. Very clever girl, very clever. Bacteria is also very clever, very clever indeed. Little beauties. They are evolving against your medicines. Clever girl though, she will replace your anti-biotics entirely. No money for you anymore,” Doc Hol’s confident voice elaborated.
The beam of light was reflecting off the smoke, as the speaker sucked on his pipe, his deep red eyes blazed through Doc Hol. “How?”
Doc Hol, let out a shrill squeak of fear. He gulped. “Bacteriophage.”
The next day, at the Midland City Hospital, Dr. Sheena Loyd was walking a select group of staff through the labyrinthian corridors at military marching speed. “She is making herself at home in her new lab. Fresh out of medical school, her doctorate almost still drying from the print, she received a large research grant for her specialty field of study: Bacteriophage and Phage Therapy,” she explained to her especially selected staff, struggling to keep pace with her.
“I heard her studies had stirred up quite a storm of excitement, before being submitted to, and winning first place, a continent spanning competition for the research grant. I think I speak for us all when I say we look forward to overseeing her progress,” Dr. Erik Lawson replied through panted breaths.
“The results of her work so far show fascinating promise. Midland Hospital is the most prestigious hospital in the world, with state-of-the-art medical equipment and treatment methods, we have the best of everything, from doctors to finances, there are no expenses spared here. It is the perfect place for her to safely perform Phase III of her clinical trials, which covers the kind of ground-breaking research that is equally perfect for Midland Hospital’s continuing reputation as the number one hospital in the country,” Director Loyd explained, completely unaware of the chaotic scenes unfolding around her as staff, and patients alike, struggled to avoid her crashing through them.
“I see. She will require extensive collaboration, organization, and coordination and regulation from an Independent Ethics Committee in anticipation of full-scale production following drug approval. I presume that is why you have collected us, Director Loyd, and that she is awaiting our arrival for introduction,” Dr. Ubai spoke from the back of the group, athletically repairing the damage caused in the wake of the busy doctors without missing a step.
“That is precisely correct, Dr. Ubai,” Director Loyd admitted, leading them all through a laboratory door covered with biohazard warnings. 
This laboratory had been recently remodeled to fit the needs of the new trials. There were a dozen staff in large, white, medical biohazard suits. Some were inside large glass rooms, that others could walk around the outsides of. One placed a petri dish into a compartment, which sealed and decontaminated itself, before allowing another person to safely receive it on the outside of the glass containment room.
They then stepped into a decontamination tunnel to exit the glass box, stepping through a spray of cleansing mist, they removed their helmet and slung it under their arms to reveal a female silver British Shorthair cat. “Hello! I am Dr. Cora Redling, it is an honor to be here, thank you for giving your time to my work, but forgive me if I don’t shake your hands yet,” she said, smiling to each, her big bright yellow eyes evaluating them individually, as she stood in her biohazard suit ready and eager to show them her work.
 
CHAPTER 2: Casper, the Friendly Virus
“For billions of years, a war has been ongoing, killing trillions every single day, completely unnoticed by us. A war between bacteria and the deadliest being in the universe: bacteriophage,” Cora announced, pointing to the camera screen, zoomed in on a petri dish being handled by a young Haz-suit wearing female field mouse colleague within a glass containment room. “Bacteriophages are a virus. They have an icosahedron shaped head, containing the genetic material of the virus. It sits on a long neck, with little legs. Rather cute, for a virus, as you can see. There are more bacteriophages on Planet X than there are all other entities on the planet combined, including bacteria.”
The screen zoomed outwards to show the countless amount that filled the tiny dot in the petri dish. “But don’t worry, they don’t care for us. It is the naturally evolved enemy of bacterium. Such a wonder of the universe they are, nature’s way of controlling the population of bacteria, and the only thing stopping bacteria from consuming all the organic material on the planet. We owe a great deal to these little guys as they kill up to forty percent of all the bacteria in our oceans, every single day.”
Cora nodded to her colleague inside the containment room. “There is a specific type of bacteriophage for each individual type of bacteria, as each hunts and kills it’s specific chosen target so that it can reproduce,” a droplet of something else was added to the same petri dish. A microscopic entity that was a thousand times larger than the tiny phages. “As you can see, when the bacteriophage finds its victim, they connect their legs with receptors, and use a needle-like fiber to puncture the surface. Then they do a little dance, which essentially squeezes their genetic code into the target, taking control of the bacteria, forcing it to create more phages until they explode out, killing the bacteria host and starting the cycle again.”
“Great Scot!” Dr. Lawson gasped. “Was that bacterium what I think it was?”
“You have good eyes, Dr. Lawson,” Cora chuckled. “That was indeed the deadliest bacteria that exists today, a superbug often called ‘the nightmare bug’; Pseudomonas Aeruginosa.”
“It is almost impossible to cure! It is extremely rare for any patient to survive as it is often entirely drug resistant,” Dr. Lawson explained to the group.
“That is correct. Worst of all, it is essentially man-made. Once upon a time, bacteria were by far the largest cause of death, until only a century ago when we discovered Penicillin. Our medicines were so effective at eliminating bacteria, and have become so widely available, that we overly prescribe antibiotics for ever less serious infections. Bacteria is now evolving, faster than ever, to resist all our medical tools, becoming superbugs that are tracking to become the world’s largest cause of death once again within the next thirty years, already killing more than twenty-three thousand people every year.”
“I see. You believe that we can counteract the immunizing bacteria by using a virus?” Dr. Ubai indelicately put.
“It sounds strange doesn’t it. However, human cells differ infinitely to bacteria cells, the phage virus is uniquely designed by nature to target only bacteria. We are in constant contact with the virus, you are all covered head to toe in bacteriophage right now and at every moment of your life, and it is impossible for it to harm us. The biohazard procedures in this room are entirely for the bacteria we store here.”
Cora certainly had them impressed, “To conclude, there are two major applications that this study will prove. Firstly, Phage Therapy is safer than using antibiotics. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, bad or good, whilst a specific species of phage will only kill a specific species of bacteria, leaving our immune systems uncompromised.”
This news excited all but one of the doctors, Cora noticed. A twitchy looking male marmot, standing in the back, looked angry. “And secondly, nature has provided us with another gift. Phages and bacteria have been in an evolutionary arms race for billions of years, and bacteria has failed to immunize against them so far. Inconveniently, as we weaponize phages to eliminate bacteria, the bacteria will likely evolve at higher rates than the phages to successfully immunize itself against them. To do this though, conveniently, it must weaken its immunity to antibiotics. An injected combination of both bacteriophage and antibiotics will be to medicine what penicillin once was. A true-cure all elixir, a real-life panacea.”
The doctors erupted in excited chatter at the potential of Dr. Redling’s work, as they all left the room the marmot stepped forward. “Big, big promises for such little, little things. We shall see what results you achieve, first. Yes, yes. We shall see. We must all remain professional, and, and independent. For the sake of your trials, I will be watching intensely. I promise you that, yes, Doctor Redling, promise.” Then he scurried away out of the room before Cora could reply.
“That is Dr. Hol, he is a little fidgety, but harmless. He is our resident virus expert, and therefore obviously an important part of your Independent Ethics Committee. Good luck, Dr. Redling, please ask me for anything you might need,” Director Loyd said compassionately, as she also left Cora to her work.


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