The Diver (New Home, Part 2)
Read Part 1 here
”How high is the concentration of free radicals?”
”Still rising”, the assistant said. ”We are also coming close to a dangerous amount of intravascular bubbles. The experiment should be interrupted or …”
”We can’t interrupt now! Angrily, Michelle ripped her assistant’s hand away from the control panel where he had just been about to press a button. That would have ended the experiment and allowed the test subject to resurface.
”If we stop now, we won’t have any new results.”
”But Dr. Wittek!”
”No but. Keep observing.”
The assistant was clearly uncomfortable but still followed the order. They both watched the man in the water tank, who was wearing a black diving suit.
”Doctor?” The assistant asked reluctantly. ”The heart rate is suddenly increasing. I think the stress of this prolonged immersion is starting to badly affect the test subject.”
”Keep going”, Michelle hissed, gritting her teeth. Blood started coming out of her palms as her hands were clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her skin. She didn’t even feel the pain as she focused on the diver.
It seemed like he started to feel uncomfortable. He knocked at the glass and tilted his head to the side as if he was asking what was going on. Michelle didn’t react.
The seconds ticked away and turned into minutes and the diver turned increasingly nervous. He started swimming from one edge of the tank to another, knocking against the glass again and again. Pleading for Michelle to remove the grid above his head which kept him from swimming to the surface.
”How much air supply does he still have?” Michelle asked her assistant.
”Several hours.”
”So he isn’t suffocating, yes? These are just the effects to be expected after a prolonged stay at this water depth?”
”Yes, that would be the conclusion. Can I allow him to depressurize now?” The assistant’s voice was shaking. ”Please?”
”No. The experiment ends when I say so, stop bothering me.”
The time kept ticking. And the diver kept trying to escape. Until finally, he stopped.
From one moment to the other, he just stopped moving. His whole body relaxed, his head sank to his chest. The water tank now contained a seemingly lifeless body.
A loud, constant beeping noise indicated that the body didn’t only seem lifeless. It was. The heart had stopped.
”Fuck!” The assistant screamed and hit the button he had wanted to push earlier when Michelle had forbidden him to do so. Immediately, the metal grid in the tank was pulled out of the water. Then another person in a diving suit jumped into the tank and dragged the test subject to the surface.
As soon as they reached solid ground, the other person, a woman, started giving CPR.
Michelle watched as the woman tried to save the test subject’s life. The constant high-pitched beeping was filling the lab, together with the assistant’s sobbing.
Finally, a rhythm returned. Faint, but clearly a heartbeat.
”How wonderful”, said Michelle joylessly. ”Now I’ll have a chance to study his brain functions post-dive after all.” She turned to her assistant. ”How long has he been in this tank? The exact time please.”
”F – five hours, t – thirty-eight minutes and ten seconds until the grid was pulled up”, her assistant stuttered.
”Interesting, a full hour more than the last subject. And it was possible to bring him back! Maybe the current approach is going into the right direction.”
”Dr. Wittek!”
The assistant’s cry made Michelle, who had already been heading to her office, stop and turn around.
”You almost killed this test subject!”
”So?”
”You can’t do this!”
Michelle sighed.
”You’re very new here, I know. But you should know what’s at stake. This lab has been cleared to do any kind of human experiments we wish to do.”
”Are you serious?”
”Why wouldn’t I be? For years, people encouraged the government to use inmates instead of animals for scientific testing. In light of the current events, they finally passed a law to do exactly that. Jeez, it’s impossible to make everyone happy, isn’t it? You follow the public’s requests and suddenly they think you’re a monster.”
With that, Michelle turned around again and entered her office.
Her assistant just stood there in front of the tank, shocked by what he had just been told. Until a young man approached him.
”Excuse me, Sir?”, the man asked.
”Yes?”
”I’m supposed to tell you that you’re fired.”
Sources:
Recreational scuba diving: negative or positive effects of oxidative and cardiovascular stress?
Got a scientific topic which you want to see as a story? Leave me a comment!
Check out @steemstem and the #steemSTEM channel in steemit.chat and consider following the curation trail on Streemian to support scientists on steemit!
Picture taken from pixabay.com
I am not sure how I feel about Michelle character so far, then again when world falls to shit there will be more and more people like her, willing to risk anything to find the solution. Morals will be questioned.
Everyone is the hero of their own story. And sometimes, the heroes are horrible people. Just because the goal is noble doesn't mean the person behind it can't be awful :D
Lol, I just couldn't help myself, about to leave on holiday and had to log on quickly to see what part 2 was like... Will catch up in 1 week! Looking forward to it. :)
Very nice post, ”We can’t interrupt now! Angrily, Michelle ripped her assistant’s hand away from the control panel where he had just been about to press a button. That would have ended the experiment and allowed the test subject to resurface. @suesa
upvoted friend @suesa
nice post
flow me and i flow you
togheter we secsess
Magnificent! Life under the sea is different from atop
nice infi i resteem this post thnks
Upvoted your article rather interesting.Will follow you and upvote you as well just need a little help from you kindly upvote my article dedicated to my friend who has cancer @rogerblu thanks a million @suesa
You rule!
good info and very nice post