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"A conspiracy ofhere," she said

Phillip turned to face her, all grins, and said, "Ma!"

Stacy nodded obligingly Phillip was a late talker The doctors had been assuring her for over a year that he was still within the nor less and less sure--but she was also beco less and less certain that it ardless "Yes"

"Oggie!"

"Again, yes Hello, Marigold Shouldn’t you be in your own yard?"

The Golden Retriever thuainst the dirt, as if to say that yes, she was a very naughty dog, but in her defense, there had been a shed, shaking her head in good-natured exasperation She’d talked to the Connors fas dozens of tiold and Maize siate that either faether It would have been s Since both Marigold and her brother adored Phillip, it was ht next door She just wished they wouldn’t make their unscheduled visits so reliably at lunchtiht, you Phillip, it’s tiold"

Phillip nodded before turning and throwing his ar his face in her fur His voice, old wuffed once, for all the world like she was accepting his farewell Duty thus done, Phillip let her go, stood, and ran to histhat left streaks of mud on the front of her cotton shirt "Ma!"

"I just can’t get one past you today, can I?" she asked, and kissed his cheek noisily, old Your people are going to worry Go ho a off down the side yard She probably had another loose board there soot ho his share of the garden chores In the , and Phillip did love theo fill you up with peanut butter and jelly, shall we?" She kissed hiles provided sweet accompaniment to their walk back to the house Maybe it was ti of his own

Maybe when he was older

Professor Michael Mason is the current head of our biology depart the staff here at Berkeley, he was at the University of Redmond for six years His lovely wife, Stacy, is a horticulture fan, while his son, Phillip, is a fan of cartoons and of chasing pigeons…

June 12, 2014: The lower stratosphere

Freed from its secure lab environment, Alpha-RC007 floated serene and unaware on the air currents of the stratosphere It did not enjoy freedo, not even the cool breezes holding it aloft In the absence of a living host, the hybrid virus was inert, waiting for so and shock it into a seround, far away, Dr Alexander Kellis eeping without sha dire predictions about what could happen now that his creation was loose in the world Like Dr Frankenstein before him, he had created with only the best of intentions and now found hi an uncertain future His lover tried to soothe hirief too vast and raw to be put into words

Alpha-RC007--colloquially known as "the Kellis cure"--did not grieve, or love, or worry about the future Alpha-RC007 only drifted

The capsid structure of Alpha-RC007 was superficially identical to the structure of the coether to for proteins, however, were more closely related to the coronavirus ancestors of the hybrid, creating a series of keys against which no natural im the capsid structure were equally mismatched: two from one family, two from the other, and the fifth…

The fifth was purely a credit to theof Nature’s handiwork in its construction It was a tiny protein, smaller even than the diminutive VP4, whichof Velcro-like hooks around the outside of the icosahedron That little hook was the key to Alpha-RC007’s universal infection rate By latching on and refusing to be dislodged, the virus could take as much time as it needed to find a way to properly colonize its host Once inside, the other specially tailored traits would have their opportunity to shine All the man-made protein had to do was buy the time to make it past the walls

The wind currents eddied around the tiny viral particles, allowing them to drop soeese was taking advantage of the air currents at the very edge of the ath the thin air like car alar just a few inches higher, tilting herself hard to the right and letting her feathers brush through the upper currents

As her feathers swept through the air, they collected dust and pollen--and a few opportunistically drifting particles of Alpha-RC007 The hooks on the outside of the virus pro to the change in their environment This was not a suitable host, and so the bulk of the virus re by its unwitting escort back down to the planet’s surface