First Contact: The Vaccine

In a remote part of the upper arm, an unremarkable cell is about to change the course of the body forever.

Corporal T., far past green, but a long ways from seasoned sits at his station. Today’s shift will be like every other shift. He was familiar with the incoming transmissions to expect, orders to execute, and directives to follow. He could diagnose and defuse anomalies with precision. He hadn’t seen it all, but for a soldier like him, in a place like this, it was likely all he’d ever see.

Suddenly, as these things often happen, the time Before is over and everything from here on out becomes After. The room is flooded with alarms sounding and warning lights blinking. Something foreign has fused to the cell. The crew is rapidly running through protocol commands, shouting status at one another ensuring as one job is finished another is started off.

The entire time, Corporal T. has not looked up from his screen. He’s unaware of the commotion happening behind him. The incoming transmission light started to blink as soon as the alarms started sounding. The message came in quickly. Very high level. It had the required security signatures, but it was alien.

“Uh… General C.?” Corporal T. absentmindedly drawled out while watching his screen.

“What is it T.?” The General C. snapped. The Corporal should be preparing to send out a message as soon as the threat was assessed. Asking for his attention now was an unacceptable distraction.

“We’re receiving an unusual transmission.” T. had to keep from stammering.

“Again, what is it T.?” The General growing frustrated by this unexpected and unrehearsed interruption.

“It appears to be…” Corporal T. paused wanting to be sure what he was about to say was accurate. As he did, he captured the attention of the entire command center. “It appears to be instructions.”

“From command?” The General’s face was growing redder by the second, but he was aware his crew had grown quiet. He saw their eyes subtly dart between Corporal T. and himself. This was a leadership moment and he would rise to it.

“No, sir. These are not from within the Corpus, sir. They’re instructions from something outside — ” he paused, not sure how to say the next part “of us. It’s telling us to build something. Now.”

The General wasn’t angry anymore, but his heart was racing. “Build what?”

“It looks like a protein.”

And just as quickly and unexpectedly as it had begun, it was over. The alarms were silenced, the lights ceased flashing, the room exhaled. Whatever had landed on their cell was gone and all that it left were the instructions.

The transmission was verified and reverified. It absolutely came from what had temporarily attached itself to the cell before completely disintegrating. The message itself was harmless. What they’d have to do next, however, might not be.

The cell was divided.

One camp thought it was crazy. Why knowingly trigger an immune response? They’d build the protein, the Immune System would immediately know it was there and they’d follow protocol. There would be an attack. The protein was a potential death sentence to the cell, and depending on how severe the response, the body could experience tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, or nausea — based on some calculations, for up to a day or two. All of that just because some alien protein came and delivered instructions?

While the other camp thought, yes, because an alien protein came and delivered instructions it must be serious. A rebel from an oncoming virus, perhaps, trying to warn us by telling us how to defend ourselves. Why else send such detailed instructions to ultimately ensure the virus would be destroyed should it ever appear?

In the end the decision was made. They would build the protein.

When it was finished, Lieutenant A. was given the task of hoisting the foreign protein on to the cell. He wouldn’t have much time before the Immune System honed in to destroy it. He’d have to run like hell to get back in.

He’d run through the simulation at least a hundred times. Get it up and get out of there. Based on current patterns they estimated he’d have just enough time to get out of harms way. The protein was added to the cell flawlessly and the Lieutenant started back when suddenly he saw it.

“Shit,” was all he could say.

“Shit,” was all Commander G.inside the cell monitoring the operation could say.

No one thought a T Cell would be so close, but there it was. Almost as soon as the Lieutenant A. was done, it was on the protein and him.

“Damn it!” Commander G. bellowed ripping his headset off, and walking away from his desk, hands on his hips with frustration.

But it had worked. The Immune System was aware now. God help whatever was coming because they would be ready.