Stealing Silence(11)
“But what your mother and I discovered was a correlation between the fracking activities of the government-run oil companies and the flora and fauna on the surface above these locations. At first, we thought that what the data suggested was an error, but the more we ran the data, the truer it became. The margins of error in our findings became so slim that eventually, we drove out to one of the nearby facilities to check our information in real-time, only to be turned away by armed security before we could even get close to the site.
“So instead, we graduated, married and brought our hypothesis home, to test it in our own backyard. Your grandparents lived on with us for a few years before they passed away and you were both born to the farmstead, the next generation of Gainsborough Manor.
“As soon as we returned, we tested our theories. Something was killing the soil and the insect life that is so necessary to a robust and healthy ecology. We continued our investigations, begun in the lab and recreated in both the experiments and in our university facilities in the manor. Our lab was equal to and maybe exceeded that which was available at Solace University. We perfected our method, testing and retesting. When the data from our home lab was replicated, we became convinced of the cause and launched controlled experiments at home, to reverse its effect. You must now be wondering what it is we found out through our meticulous study?
“What we found, my darling daughters, is that the fracking operations undertaken by the government had released a toxin that had long lain dormant deep under the crust of the earth. This toxin has been found in the fossil remains of dinosaurs and is thought by many, to be the true reason for their demise. This newly released and unstoppable toxin was also spreading like a plague. We dubbed the substance “Bonesick” because it killed everything exposed to it, until only bones remained. Carried by mosquitoes of the day, it spread through the blood and made any animal bitten ill. Bugs embedded in amber were carriers of the disease, specifically the Dinotick, five times larger than its modern counterpart.
“So we, being the scientists that we are, set about developing a counter agent that would neutralize the toxin that has no known antidote in our modern times. We experimented with a counteractant that would make the toxin inert, wherever it was found. We nicknamed it Caladrius. Caladrius is a snow-white bird that legend says lives in kings' houses. It is said that the Caladrius can take on the sickness of a person, and then fly away, casting the sickness to the air and healing all in the process. We created a Caladrius, a healing agent that is dispersible in an aerosol form.
“Your mother and I thought there was no way that the government knew about this. If they did, they would have ceased operations immediately, right? It was destroying the soil, the very earth from which all food was produced to feed the population. What could be more important than this? So we immediately called ESSA, naively thinking that they would be thrilled to hear of our discovery and even more so our solution, to negate the effects of the toxin. It was not to be so.
“First we called some of our teachers; those we knew were concerned about the environment. We packed up the car and called in a favour, to meet with the dean of Solace University. Professor Doyle swore our discovery would be accepted with open arms. We secured a meeting with ESSA’s research and development department. After passing through a gauntlet of security, we were ushered into a plush office to meet with the head of research. Professor Doyle brought us into her office, set in the north corner of the university. She listened to our dissertation with rapt attention, and at the conclusion of an hour of facts, figures and charts, she said, in a flat tone ‘Is that all?’
“Needless to say we were stunned. Naively, we believed that the proof would triumph over political ambition, that science would rule the day. Our stats were indisputable, beyond reproach. Our audience was not.
“What can I say? We packed up our charts and laptops stuffed with data and left. She had no interest in our information, or so we thought. We drove back home and over the following weeks continued our studies, hoping to find more evidence, something to convince Professor Doyle that we were not mistaken in our findings.
“The sad truth is that it wasn’t about our findings. It was about the secret workings of the government, and a healthy dose of intrigue. It was about contracts and the ‘corporate line’, for the government is the source of the majority of the university’s funding. They could not admit to the veracity of our findings. We learned later that the government was leaning heavily on them to suppress the truth.
“A month after our impromptu visit to the university the phone calls started. At first, they were pleasant and asked how we were coping with the diseased land we now lived on and whether they could offer any assistance. When we asked what they suggested we do, they said to abandon the manor and move into Solace, and work for them. They advised there was nothing to be done for the soil, that it was dead and could not be redeemed. We declined their offer. They called the next week and the next week and when we refused to move, the calls became more frequent, and darker in nature. They insisted that the research we had undertaken was flawed and that it should not be published. They offered to buy it from us. We declined again.
“The final phone call was an outright threat. Give them all of our research or be silenced. As you are reading this letter, the worst has come true and agents of the government, under the guise of national security, have arrested us and taken all the research, or so they believe.