The Byssus Killer by Charles Tucker (howl and other poems TXT) 📕

had the successful result of their blitzkrieg approach applying mashed up starfish to crack open the Irish Setter’s prison.

Jones, the Cassandra biologist, offered his ‘you will never solve it’ prophecy.

“The chitin is behaving like a virus. You will never be rid of it. It will find its way into every living thing on the planet. You saw the billions of byssus-chitin platelets in Stone Man’s blood stream. They were swarming driven by collective consciousness. The chitin is a virus in his blood. It will be in his semen. If he procreates, he will pass on the chitin virus. His body cannot generate antibodies to the chitin. Without antibodies we cannot detect if a victim has chitin in his blood. It will be undetectable.”

The two marine scientists, Doctors James and Mason, tried desperately to maintain a cool logic.

“Jones, you cannot seriously believe two inanimate items, calcium carbonate byssus and a protein chitin can combine into a living organism! And then reproduce through the human life chain.”

 

 

 The Chitin Philosophy

Jones declared he had been working on the tough fibrous exoskeletons of crustaceans, insects and arthropods since his university days. He was not surprised to find chitin was the primary component of crustacean shells, fish scales, radulae molluscs, but surprised to find it was a primary component of mushrooms. Mushrooms were a commercial source of mycelin. Mycelin in some penicillin contained twenty percent chitin. Jones was further surprised to find chitin had antimicrobial properties.

American development of chitin was based on its relation to sugars being the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature. The Americans found an outlet for it in food packaging and as an edible coating for vegetables and fruit. Its antimicrobial property extended shelf life.

The 1993 edition of the US Industrial Gums stated that one hundred gigatons of chitin had been synthesized in the biosphere that year and the output would increase year on year.

Jones smiled a grim smile at his colleagues, James and Mason.

“Chitin is everywhere on the planet, in the sea, under the ground, on supermarket shelves and in medicines. You may not believe chitin to be alive but that is our definition. Whatever collective consciousness is controlling the forward march of chitin, is startling if not frightening.

“The mutation of the Pinna nobilis shells on the Seven Stones reef has caused a malign development of the chitin in the byssus threads. We should not release the one hundred and five bodies in suspended animation until we are one hundred percent sure the mutated byssus will not kill us and all soft fleshy life on the planet. It is a behavioural virus that cannot be stopped by vaccination, drugs or time. Only crustaceans, insects, scaly reptiles and fungi will survive.”

The scientists expressed disbelief at Jones’ diatribe.

“We remind you, Jones, you were postulating that the rogue byssus shells were wrapping their victims in a diamond hard coating for a future food store. Keeping them in suspended animation, you said. If that is the case, we should release the victims as soon as possible.”

Old Jonas Jones was unperturbed. “I’ve had further thoughts. The victims have chitin molecules in their blood streams, in their organs and in every cell in their bodies. They are now under the control of chitin’s collective consciousness. If we release them, their offspring will be chitin controlled. It is of great concern to me that, in time, we human race will have no mind of our own. Humans will swarm like bees, gather tightly like shoals of fish, travel like murmurations of starlings and not know why they do it. If my fears are correct, when we release our one hundred and five victims, they will move as one, a solid mass of humanity out of our control.”

Again, the scientists were sceptical. Chitin control of our human race was too improbable. They opined it should not be too difficult to remove the chitin from a man’s body. If it could not be done, did Jones envisage a long-term mutation where humans developed scaly chitin coatings, becoming lizards, tortoises, even aquatic fish or crustaceans?

Jones said he believed it possible if there was a genetic rationale to change human DNA. For example, he quoted chitin scaled cockroaches surviving two hundred times the nuclear radiation dose that would kill a human. Should a natural or man-made nuclear disaster hit the Earth the scaly creatures would survive. He had often wondered whether the mutation of Pinna nobilis on the Seven Sones reef was natural or due to the old codger’s atom bomb. If it was natural, nature was giving our human race an embryo protection to nuclear radiation hundreds or thousands of years hence.

The marine scientists were very tolerant of old Jones meanderings, but they knew there was always an element of truth in them.

“Come on Jones, you’ll be bringing back the dinosaurs next!”

“Don’t joke! If these green fanatics stop all carbon dioxide generation, we are going to need a few dinosaurs to restore carbon dioxide production!”

Jones had caused the scientists some concern. If he was right and the byssus platelets were acting as a virus, they had to multiply at an alarming rate. Evidence from Stone Man’s blood plasma showed the platelets ganging up and driving in one direction. Evidence from the encased humans showed them displaying a vibrating energy when the dog was released. The source of the energy was of concern. If the encased bodies were vibrating through collective consciousness the bodies could be released, and plans made for any consequences. There were only one hundred and five cases to treat.

If the energy was emitted by billions of byssus platelets, releasing those billions would be worse than spreading any virus. They would explode into the air, into the seas and rivers, the towns and cities, into vegetation and on to all living beings. Ingested into the living, they would multiply. Nothing could kill them. They were, in