Chapter 27

A week later, a very tired Tom joined the family for dinner.

“Well, I have good news and bad news,” he said when Donny asked him how his work was going. “I think I’ve managed to make the potion as instructed, but I need a patient to experiment on.”

“Me,” said Monte without hesitation.

“But we need you, dear, what if you die?” Donny said with distress.

Monte took her hand and gently squeezed it. “My love, if I don’t get a cure soon, I’ll die anyway. I should have died months ago, and we both know it. If it weren’t for that silly chauffeur’s disc sending me all over time and space, I would have.”

Tom looked at Monte thoughtfully, “I wonder if that was why that disc went to you. The entity in the travel orb found a way to help you, by you having to come and find me.”

“Now that isn’t as silly as it sounds,” Donny said. “Entities are said to have their own agendas, and their primary imperative is to serve the people of the Keltrian races.”

“That’s all well and good, but I’d rather be the experimental patient than have one of you go first,” Monte insisted. “So, when shall we do this, Tom?”

“Well, the condemned are supposed to have a last meal. How about after dinner?” Tom said flippantly.

Monte scoffed a chuckle, despite the horrified looks on his families faces. “Got to love that gallows humour. You, humans, do seem to like that stuff.”

Tom shrugged, “It can be a cruel universe, as we both know, Monte.”

“Too true,” Monte replied and went back to finishing his meal.

Tom had Monte lie down on the floor.

“Why on the floor?” Kat asked with concern.

“If he throws up, it will be easier to clean up,” Tom replied. He didn’t mention his other reason. That being it would be more appropriate to administer CPR with Monte on the floor.

Tom did hope that he and Tron had gotten the steps and the portions correct. The process had some strange procedures and very exact timing of when to do things to make the potion. He had been a bit worried about substituting some of the ingredients with ones that he could find here.

Tron had at least ensured him the substitutes had the same qualities and components to those used in the original recipe, even if they had a different name here. He had also made Tom very aware of just how potent a poison Rocksbane was if ingested in even small quantities in its natural state.

With Amy’s help and the sophisticated lab, they had access to, they were able to test the amount of the poisonous compound was in each milligram of the leaves, the seeds, and the rhizomes. As Tom had speculated, it was very concentrated in the rhizomes.

He made one small batch exactly as the potion’s recipe stated. He then tested the potion on fresh blood samples to find if the active part of the medicine was the actual cure. He was relieved to see that it only reacted to the cells that the virus was in. However, he didn’t know if it would do anything else once in a living body.

Tron was delighted to learn that Tom was mixing science with magic. He was fascinated with science. Tom was just thankful for all of the hours he had spent with Sandy and the Therians preparing, mixing, and testing potions. They had also used technology with magic, as Queen Lee had made sure they had state of the art laboratories to play in.

Tom and Tron then did some basic calculations to determine the quantity of potion that a person would need to effect a cure if it were concentrated. They then calculated the correct amounts of each of the compounds found in the ingredients that they required to build the new compound that would neutralise the disease.

They were then able to adjust the recipe to build the concentrated potion with the least amount of Rocksbane actually in it. Tom had determined that the Rocksbane was used as a catalyst, so he only needed a tiny amount to start the healing process.

After a week of intense work, most of which was used up just learning the properties of each ingredient and how much to use, Tom needed to test to see if he had gotten the potion right. He couldn’t use lab rats because he didn’t have any.

One of the instructions said to smear the potion on a silver teaspoon and then do the infusion spell. The teaspoon was then to be placed on the patient’s tongue and to be kept there for several minutes. The longer, the better.

One of Tom’s worries was the crystal being in the middle of the silver square. He wasn’t sure how the potion would react with the silver and the crystal when the band was placed on the patient’s wrist.

He was also worried that saliva may play a part in the activation of the potion, or if it was just a medium to help the transfer. Despite his worries, he doctored ten of the bands with the cure and added the healing spells he also wanted on the bands.

He added the activation spell last and added the instruction that it wouldn’t activate the cure until the underside of the silver square it had been placed on, was pressed into the skin for ten seconds.

Now it was time to see if it really worked.

With some trepidation, Tom put on his surgical gloves and removed a band from the box he had opened.

He then snapped the band around Monte’s left wrist, since it was least affected by the disease, so it came into contact with his natural skin. Tom pressed the silver square into the soft flesh about 2cm behind Monte’s wrist and held it for the required time.

They all watched Monte to see how he reacted, but nothing seemed to be going on. Monte just laid quietly on the floor. After about ten minutes, Tom’s patience ran out, and he had to ask, “How do you feel, Monte?”

Monte shrugged, “Tired, and itchy.” He used his good hand to scratch the back of his other hand.

They were all amazed when a swath of dry, encrusted skin peeled off, leaving new pinky-brown skin underneath. Tom, still wearing his surgical gloves, grabbed Monte’s infected hand. Using his thumbs, he pushed at the black-streaked, grey, encrusted skin on the back of it.

They all watched avidly as a large section of dry skin sloughed off onto the floor. Tom looked at Monte and said with an evil grin, “I think we need to put him in a bath and scrub him.”

“Bastard,” Monte chuckled and went to sit up.

Tom went to grab Monte’s forearm to help him up. However, he ended up with the most revolting skin-sleeve in his hands instead. He fell on his arse in surprise, still holding the sheath of skin that had slid off over Monte’s hand.

Monte ended up cracking up with laughter at the look of surprise and then disgust on Tom’s face. The rest of the family joined in.

“Well, it looks like it is working, but we may have to wait a few days to make sure before we treat anyone else,” Tom commented as he placed the old skin into the bag that Kat had gone and gotten for him.