Mite Of Men: Part 1

The begining.

Mite of men

The translucent dust mite looked monstrous; especially now that Dr. Jim Burton and his colleague, Edward Thompson, had been able to afford the expensive X300 magnification on their new microscope.

“Jim, how long do you think it would take for this species of dust mite to actually break down the partly decomposed dust in its Petri dish?” asked Edward while mixing test tubes of alcohols together. Jim pulled away from the lens of the microscope and began taking notes on a reporter’s notebook.

“Probably within the next six to eight hours,” Jim explained while pushing up his thick, black glasses. “She’ll make a hell of a mess in the Petri dish with all the faeces she’ll produce.” Jim stopped to observe Edward at work from his desk. Edward’s white lab coat rippled with the breeze of air coming from the extractor vent above him. “How’s the formula coming along?”

Jim got up from his chair, tucked in his maroon coloured tie into his shirt, and put on a pair of safety goggles that were placed next to the colossal microscope. He sauntered up next to Edward, observing the reaction of the two mixed alcohols with an acid which was contained in a conical flask. The liquid fizzed and began to take a green-yellow colour.   

“It’s going well. I’m just about to apply the formula to the fly in the container across the lab,” Edward announced with enthusiasm.

“That’s impressive. I can’t wait to see what happens.” Said Jim

“Neither can I, Dr. Fingers crossed it’ll work.”

The laboratory that both Edward and Dr. Jim Burton work in is a white hall filled with an array of scientific implements such as: plastic drawers of scientific funnels, pipettes, shelves filled with all of the elements from the periodic table, biomedical work benches with strains of infectious bacteria in smeared Petri dishes, and other bits and bobs of machinery which no other science laboratory in Scotland has. This laboratory was a scientists’ wonderland.

After Edward applied the formula to the housefly, Jim and Edward observed it for any changes and took notes for over an hour; very little happened in that time. They took turns at viewing it under an electronic microscope. They watched the fly bounce against the Petri dish as it absorbed the formula made by Edward.

Jim gazed up at the wall-mounted clock once he had finished scribbling on his reporter’s notebook. He nudged Edward, who was still watching the fly bounce around in the Petri dish like a ball during a tennis match.

“I think we’ll stop for lunch now,” Jim suggested pointing up at the Laboratory clock: the big hand swaying close to midday. Edward acknowledged Jim with a nod, slid out from his stool, and hung his lab coat on the metal coat rack along with his safety goggles. Jim locked the door after him before they both went downstairs to the staff canteen.

 

When they returned back to the lab, their faces registered both shock and surprise. In the Petri dish they saw the fly was twice the size it originally was. Its buzz filled the room with an everlasting echo; it was like music to the two scientists. Jim threw on his lab coat and bounded towards the stool to observe the fly’s features under the microscope. Edward followed after him - bursting with excitement.

The hair and skin of the fly was clearly visible: its skin cells were lit up like a Christmas tree by the green-yellow formula. Through the microscope, its cells were growing and multiplying at a continuous rate.

“This is incredible!” Jim gasped and gestured to Edward to take a look. Jim scribbled frantically in his reporter’s notebook, while Edward looked through the microscope. In no time at all Edward soon worked out the rate of the fly’s growth: over the period of an hour and a half they had been away eating lunch, the fly had tripled in size.

“This discovery could change the future of a species entirely. It could benefit humans if we apply the same formula to the dust mite,” Edward announced whilst smiling ear to ear. “Any individuals with allergies could potentially be better off if the dust mite was able to be seen. Thus, plausible to be eradicated more easily with high temperatures above sixty degrees and low temperatures below zero degrees.”

Jim agreed with Edward’s thoughts and both set to work on the dust mite. Under the microscope the translucent bug had eaten most of the decomposed dust that was left in the Petri dish; all that was left was a scatter of spherical faeces left behind it. Edward carefully added the growth formula to the dust mite. This time, the dust mite was placed in a larger glass container: viewable under the high-tech microscope to allow room for its growth.

Two hours later after adding the green-yellow liquid, it only grew to a mere fifty microns longer than its original three-hundred. As it’s a female dust mite, precautions were made of the timing of its lifespan. Jim and Edward made sure that the growth formula was applied before its last thirty-five days (five weeks): this was the time where it would reproduce and lay up to one-hundred eggs. After two and a half hours no other changes were recorded.

“Let’s go grab a few drinks, Edward,” Jim suggested. “God knows we deserve to celebrate.” Edward smiled broadly at this idea, and left the dust mite in its miniature glass home to continue to graze on the dust particles and simultaneously, move its tiny bowels like a cow in a very large field of grass.

 They passed the cleaning lady coming down the hall on their way out of the room, her wrinkled hands wrapped around her mop and bucket as she shuffled her way towards the lab. Neither scientist could possibly conceive what was waiting for them the following morning.

***

Their laboratory, as they once knew it, had been smashed to pieces. Every chemical filled glass, every conical flask, every machine and microscope ripped to ribbons. At first they thought they had been burgled, but soon realised this was not the case; the large Petri dish left on the stand of the microscope, that contained the dust mite, had been shattered into a million pieces. What was even more noticeable was the smell: It was almost like rotten compost. On further investigation behind the costly, government-funded microscope was a scatter of large hair, dust and faeces which covered the bench. Jim and Edward looked at each other with horror. Their pale, fleshy cheeks slowly faded to grey as they looked around the lab further. 

“I have a bad feeling about this, doctor,” Edward stuttered and gulped hard. He firmly placed his hand against his chest to stop his frightened heart from leaping out from his body to escape.

Dr Burton gasped in horror, and ran over to the sink opposite the large glass pane window to vomit - the sound made Edward feel queasy. Edward ran across to where Jim had fallen to his knees and discovered the vent in the floor of the lab had been chewed through. The cleaner’s mop and bucket were left from the night before; knocked over next to the vent. The chewed-up wrinkled fingers of a woman were left behind the streaky trail of scarlet-red blood, dust and faeces which lead into the dark, gaping hole.

Edward felt his knees weaken, and slumped against the wall in shock with his hands on top of his head. “Oh, god,” Edward cried, looking at Dr Burton for some kind of reassurance. “What have we done, Jim?”

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[CRAIG A. THOMSON]

Ryzo, This is great, but like me, two years ago I thought I had cracked it! Now please don't get me wrong. It's just that, and I'm sure you know, that when you think you've got it in the bag, you celebrate. You send it out to everybody in the world who you think matters and two months later, you take another look at your work and realise that, yes it's good, but it's not there yet! The only reason I tell you this is because your work is better than most of the stuff that I read on this site and as I'm sure you are very much aware, you only get one kick at the ball. My criticisms come from the heart and I wish you only good things(That's why I'm criticizing!) eg you talk of mixing Alcohls, well I know its only a minor detail, but there is only one alcohol and that's alcohol! It's little things like this that have taken me almost two years and a lot of grief to perfect in my story and I'm still not there yet myself! It's a long journey and an education in it self, learning to write and I think you have got a gift. I believe that I too have got the gift, but it was pointed out to me a short time ago that it takes patience and dedication to perfect the gift, and hopefully now, so do you! You are going to be a star my friend. Just be patient and keep self editing! You know what I mean.It takes a long time, but I can see instantly by your work that you can tell a tale and that,s the gift!

[Ryzo]

Thanks very much for your comment, Craig. Duh! I feel daft for writing that part now. . . I think I will do a bit more editing. Thanks for the encouragement. I can't remember if I have reviewed anything of yours, but I have read some of your stuff and like you said about mine - your work is also better than most of the stuff I read on here!- So keep it up! I've found a flaw in my writing and that's using too many conjunctions (and, as, while, and which). Something that i've working on to use less of. As at work(I'm a chef) less is always more: using less conjunctions in your writing helps strengthen your story and keep it moving. Just a little tip i picked up while doing a hell of a lot of reading from the elements of style and a bit of Steven King. I hope it comes useful to you also; with that in mind I have a lot of editing, revising and proofreading to do. Thanks again, mate :)

[Marie]

I wouldn't have known there was an incorrection in this if I hadn't read Craig Thompson's review. I'm no chemist. You obviously know a lot more about it than I do. I would never try to write anything this involved. Mr. Thompson is right about this also: being able to tell a story is the most important thing.

[Misty_Prophet]

You got some really interesting thing going on here! Yet I do have a couple of thoughts. Two scientists wouldn't leave the growing fly alone over night, so either add a watchmen, that gets killed too, or say that it has stopped growing (for the time that the scientist were in the lab), because that would be very unprofessional to see something grows up so fast and so much, and just leave. Then, reading the review of Craig, I have to point to you, that there ARE alcohols. They are in fact a group of compounds, so you have ethanol, methanol, propanol etc... (med school speaking), but mixing them wouldn't actually get you anywhere. Despite the criticism, I have to say that is is a great story, and I will keep on reading it. :)

[Ryzo]

Thanks very much for your comment. I knew this as i took chemistry at college although didn't get very far with it. The third part will be up soon- its not the last one either! So stay tuned, and thanks again for your reviews :)

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good chapter. I like the history given and the plot of this story. I like the use of science to create situation and new problems. I like the ending. left a wide open door for the next chapter. Thank you for the excellent chapter.
Coyote

[TheSweet]

So far so good. I do quite like the concept and I am wanting to know what happens next. I do think, though, that some sentences could be more carefully worded - as the first quater of the story didn't really hook me that much. I think it'd be good if you considered putting, for example, the second to last paragraph at the start in a little snippet section so the rest of the story gives the reader something to be looking towards - as it's always important in writing to always make sure the reader has an idea or direction for the story.

Also, just a personal suggestion rather than criticism, but perhaps change the language style for one of the scientists to make their personalities more obviously seperate - perhaps show their relationship a little more?

Hope it's helpful anyway - just food for thought :) Next part!

[Ryzo]

would love to read more of your comments when you get the chance. :)

[LaylaRose]

Nicely done :)