The first chapter of an SC-FI story
Growing Old
Peter Wallis didn’t look like an average fifty-five-year-old politician but he had continued the fitness regime from his former career in the army and while aging was inevitable he was in far better shape than many men who were in their twenties. Just over six feet three with a ramrod straight back, broad shoulders, an almost flat stomach, with hair cut to the same length and in the same style that it had been when he first joined the army at the age of eighteen; the only difference now was that it was nearly white.
Still having a home in a quite remote part of the Lake District enabled him to spend a lot of his free time walking around the countryside and he preferred this method of exercise to the far more intensive training used in his previous occupation, plus the bonus was that he was far more relaxed than at any previous time in his life.
Until the events that had happened over the last few days changed everything. Henry Langdon’s lifestyle was quite the opposite, he had lived his thirty-seven years as if every day would be his last and in a totally unregimented way but despite all the abuse his body had been subject to it was in remarkably good shape. He stared questioningly at the politician who was sitting on the other side of the desk then spoke in a voice that had been honed to sound as interesting as possible through many years of giving lectures to a variety of audiences and now it was almost hypnotic in both tone and delivery.
‘To be honest, Peter I was surprised when I received an email from a senior member of the cabinet asking me to carry out what he thought would be routine autopsies on three elderly men, but then added almost as an afterthought that as a precaution they should be carried out in a containment environment with full protective clothing Not a very well thought out request as it was neither one thing nor the other and at this moment in time I considered that it would be more important for me to focus on the many new virus variants that are spreading around the world; especially since the pandemic because despite all the advances we have made in preventive vaccinations there seems to be a new one every other week or old disease’s that turn up in a different and more deadly form.’
He frowned as he remembered his initial irritation to the request, ‘of course I raised these concerns when I replied stating that my time is taken up with far more essential matters and there are a great number of forensic teams spread around the country who are far more experienced in autopsies than I am, especially as my last one was carried out many years ago.’
Peter Wallis was now a diplomat, and his smile was a well-rehearsed one that covered a wide range of circumstances. I read you’re your response and I understand how you feel especially as we have asked you to drop everything and assess three people who have died in what appeared to be normal circumstances; it must have been quite frustrating ’
‘Yes, it was but having carried out the autopsies I now realize there is far more to the deaths of these people than just natural aging which makes me ask why I was not given the full facts prior to my involvement.’
The eyes of Peter Wallis flickered briefly and despite all his training he was unable to hide a sense of curiosity in his voice, ‘so you found something unusual?’
‘Not to start with, my first thoughts were that the reason for their death was due to the normal aging process and almost certainly because they had reached a period in life when their organs were designed to fail, it will happen to you, me, and every other living creature on this planet. But as I progressed with the autopsy, I realized that things were not quite as they first appeared.’
Peter Wallis leaned forward to make sure he didn’t miss anything and asked expectantly, ‘that is quite interesting, are they things that you might not have expected,’ there was a pause before he continued as if he was searching for the correct words, ‘in people of their age?’Henry Langdon was momentarily puzzled at the way the question was phrased but decided to work out why later.
‘I will leave that question for you to work out when you read the email I sent to you; it is only an interim autopsy report but I can give you a brief summary of my findings now. The names I was given are for three males, Steven Ballan, Conner Martin, and Terry Fitzpatrick.
All of them had taken drugs from a young age; it was a theme they continued throughout their lives right up to the day they died and because of the longevity of their abuse I was surprised they lived for as long as they did but there are always exceptions to the rule.’
Peter Wallis’s looked slightly disappointed, ‘so you would class drug taking as one of the main causes of death?’
‘Taking the type of drugs we found in their bodies was not a healthy option but a person’s genetic make-up is also an important factor in how long we live and the building blocks that our ancestors were made from is something we have no control over. Most humans follow a predetermined pattern which in most cases mimics their predecessors, however, the speed at which research is moving into the understanding of the Geno will eventually change that. It’s well documented that most of the Rolling Stones tried every type of drug that was available when they first exploded onto the music scene, but somehow they survived to a very old age, and I am glad they did.’
Peter Wallis grinned at this analogy. ‘As you are aware I have read your personal profile and your life has been quite varied, I hope you don’t take offense but there seem to be many occasions in your youth when you pushed the boundaries, not many people stand out academically at Oxford and are then expelled. And there is no doubt that you have considerable talents because since then your career has been meteoric, not only in genetics but also forensics. This combination of abilities has made you a very useful person for various government sectors to use when they hit a brick wall, and the plus side is that you have made a great deal of money.’
‘Peter there are many geneticists who are far more experienced than I am, but I have the type of mind that enables me to step back and look at unusual situations clinically. And you’re correct; I have made a considerable amount of wealth most of which I have invested in certain deprived sectors of the community.’ A brief smile flickered across his face, ‘but I admit that my lifestyle has not been nor is conventional but a mundane existence is not something I have ever wanted, our presence on Earth is brief in comparison to the time period of the universe so I want to use that time as usefully as possible. And my reference to the Stones; well I have always loved music, to me it is an audio art form; sometimes regret that I was unable to live through the sixties as it was a melting pot of change. Back then music was just the tip of a very large iceberg with far more going on under the water than was seen from above like many children I inherited many of my interests from my parents as they spent hours listening to the music from that genre and it was inevitable that I became hooked not just with the music but the history that went with it.’
‘Still, it’s quite a transition from being a Rolling Stones admirer to working in genetics,’
‘Music and the art world were always what I found most interesting, I worked in various parts of these fields both as a musician and an artist. I enjoyed that period in my life but there came a time when I had to look at my future in the long term. I was always interested in how life evolved and decided at quite a late age to aim for a scholarship to my surprise I achieved far higher grades than I expected, and they were good enough for me to be accepted at Oxford. It was unfortunate that I was expelled from the University in my final year but not because of my lack of dedication but because one of the principals found out that I was sleeping with his wife. She was much younger than he was and very attractive. At the time I never regretted that liaison, but I was young and unaware of the long-term consequences that my actions would cause.
Still, my expulsion was not all bad news because one of my tutors recommended me to a professor who oversaw a research center for rare diseases: I quickly noticed that problem-solving was almost non-existent so a few years later I set up my own business and became an independent investigator working for a variety of organizations, and increasingly the UK government used my services.
Most of my investigations are quite mundane but occasionally something that is quite unusual comes along; I was expecting these autopsies to be the former; but I was wrong.’
Henry Langdon moved back in his seat and pushed his spine against the back of it in an effort to appear more relaxed than he actually was but then curiosity made him subconsciously edge forward again.
‘My visual assessment of the men and the way the skin had wrinkled and thinned made me think that these were classic signs of people in their mid-eighties. To confirm their age we carbon-dated different parts of their bodies, this technic is extremely accurate and it confirmed my first thoughts that they were very elderly males. But when I accessed the dental records from their data files I noticed immediately that the work carried out on each of the three individuals was minimal, with no caps or crowns and there was virtually no wear on any of the teeth. This was unexpected and I wondered if I had received an incorrect set of records, perhaps from other individuals or when they were young men. I got one of the technicians to scan the teeth in the mouths of each elderly man and they were almost identical to the ones provided except they had aged. Then I noticed the dates on the dental records had been deleted and at this point alarm bells started to ring and they rang louder when we scanned the body because it was obvious that the internal body skeleton was not constant with that of an older person, minimal wear in the joints and only marginal deformation in any of the bones. At this stage I realized that I needed to proceed with extreme care and discount nothing which was when I noticed the faint emblem on the back of each of the men’s left hands; they were so indistinct that I almost missed them? Initially, I considered they were just tattoos and not very interesting ones, just a round circle approximately 30mm diameter with a series of black lines spreading out from the centre leaving twelve equally spaced segments in the same pattern as a clock face. And although the emblem was faint I thought that originally each segment had been filled with a red pigmentation right up to the black lines.
I am not sure if you are aware that the procedure we use to carry out an autopsy these days does not involve surgical interventions, instead, a computer-controlled body scanner has replaced what was a messy and time-consuming operation. The scanner is able to complete multiple tasks; one of the more useful ones is that it can scan and magnify surfaces in minute detail, so I decided to look at these tattoos more closely and I was amazed at what I found because the skin inside the circle looked as if it was from a young person. So, I did a carbon dating test on the inner part of the circle on each man’s hand which gave me an age of men in their early twenties.’
Peter Wallis had moved as far forward on his seat as it was possible without ending on the floor, ‘So what are your conclusions?’
‘It’s bizarre and at the moment I have no evidence to back this up but I wondered if they were young men and something monumental had happened to them, so before I make a fool of myself this is the point where you explain what you know and why I wasn’t given the full facts at the start of my investigation.’
It was unusual to see a seasoned government official squirm without being able to hide it and despite the gravity of the situation, Henry Langdon felt a sense of satisfaction.
‘The way this has been handled was not my choice; I would have done things differently but what happened to the three men is unprecedented as was the timescale. What I am about to tell you must be kept between you and your team and not discussed with anyone outside this facility.
Steven Ballan, Conner Martin, and Terry Fitzpatrick are well-known thugs who front several criminal activities ranging from drug running to extortion rackets; the type of people that you wouldn’t want as neighbours. Unfortunately, they have been very astute in the way they run their operations and the police have not been able to bring any prosecutions against them. Two days ago, the local police station close to where they live received a phone call from a hysterical woman a Miss Gemma Collins who told the operator that when she woke up the young man she was living with had been replaced with the dead body of a very old man. She found that the other two men who shared the same house had also been replaced with older people. The police thought she was on drugs and delusional but decided to send two officers to investigate, when they arrived, they found her description was correct.
The house contained the bodies of three very old dead men and no sign of the house’s original tenants. One of the officers Jack Calum calmed the girl down and after questioning her he was puzzled when she stated that the old men were wearing the same watches and jewelry worn by the three young men. Despite his doubts, he carried out a visual assessment and found that there were indentations in the skin under each of these items that matched them exactly and looked as if they had been there for many years. He contacted the police chief and explained to him what had happened and despite having reservations he sent in a medical team. Their initial medical assessment was that these were indeed the bodies of old men who had died from natural causes and that the owners of the house had left voluntarily or perhaps under duress. But this changed as Officer Calum pointed to the wear marks underneath every piece of the jewelry they were wearing, on its own not very convincing but when the sophisticated CCTV footage was studied it showed the three young men and the girl arriving home from a night out and never leaving and no other people arriving or exiting the house before or after. The medical team contacted the home office and at this point, you were brought in; the reason we never gave you all facts was that we were still not sure if these bodies were those of the three criminals. But you have confirmed this by matching the dental records which beg the question, what the hell has happened to them and how is it possible for someone to grow old overnight?’
‘There are cases of what we consider rapid aging which is caused by a well-known genetic disorder called Progeria, better known as Hutchinson-Gilford Syndrome which is caused by a single gene mutation. This leads to progeria’s aging process. Unlike many genetic mutations, progeria is rarely passed down in families, and this type of gene mutation is uncommon and in most cases only a chance occurrence. It usually shows up in the early stage of a child’s development and progressively causes degeneration in the child’s health, but it normally takes years for this to happen, and they develop certain visual deformities which make it easy to diagnose. My best guess is that this is not related to Progeria and I have never seen or heard of any other condition that could cause this rapid type of aging. So, my immediate response would only be a guess, and as a scientist that is not a very sensible thing to do.’He thought for a moment, ‘the girl that was living with them, where is she?’
‘She was taken to one of our secure medical centers and is being assessed both physically and mentally.’
‘I want her moved to this facility and as soon as possible. Make sure that full containment methods are followed.
And the officers that were involved in the incident?’
‘I assume that they are back on duty, why?’
Then the expression on his face changed, ‘my God you don’t think this could be contagious,’
‘If it is we could already be heading for a catastrophe, so I suggest we treat this as a major incident, as if it is a new type of disease or virus that could be more deadly than anything we have seen before.’
‘What do I tell the Prime Minister?’
‘Tell him to pray that I am wrong.’
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