Eternity RPC Board
12-30-2016, 08:12 AM
Another day, another patient. This time Noboru wasn't taking any chances. He knew what he had been recruited to do - treat whatever virus that Masaji was creating. The purpose was obvious, so Masaji could counter any attempts at a cure that Noboru made. But now that Noboru had a better idea of what he was up against, he could prepare better.
Even before the next patient came in, Noboru had already asked that extra blood be brought in. IV's were also stockpiled. The way that viruses were generally treated was to take care of the symptoms and hope things got better eventually, but Noboru knew better than to think that would work. Masaji is a virologist, he would know that's the standard way that viruses are created. Noboru could only guess as to the process used to create the virus, but either it was a completely original creation (unlikely due to the short amount of time that had passed) or it's genetic code was modified from an existing virus. Since the latter was more likely, Noboru knew he needed to identify which virus it was based off of. There was no doubt that Masaji was deliberately choosing more deadly strains of the virus to use, but that only made Noboru's job more urgent.
Noboru's plan was simple - keep the patients as long as possible while he searched for a possible treatment, hopefully one that Masaji wouldn't be able to counter. Hopefully one would recover naturally, so Noboru could try to make a vaccine (not that he had the proper facilities to do that). But then Masaji would probably use a new strain of the virus, so Noboru couldn't make a vaccine too early.
All the while, patients came in.
Dosa 15th, 1580 - two patients with the virus came in, Noboru tries antiviral drugs.
Dosa 17th - both patients develop heavy bleeding, treatment is required.
Dosa 18th - One patient dies, Chiankei retrieve bodies before an autopsy can be performed.
Dosa 20th - One more patient with the virus comes in, Noboru tries an antiviral drug.
Dosa 21st - Patient dies, Chinakei retrieves bodies before an autopsy can be performed.
Dosa 22nd - The remaining patient from the 15th recovers, but barely. Chiankei takes him away before further tests can be done on him.
This pattern continued, though usually not as quickly as what was shown above. Sometimes the antiviral drugs would work. But the Chiankei kept a close eye on things, they knew which antiviral drugs worked and which ones didn't. And they systematically eliminated the effectiveness of every antiviral drug that worked.
Noboru could only guess as to how this was happening. If the base virus belonged to the right genus, it would lack an enzyme that proofreads it's RNA. This would mean it would naturally mutate at a much faster rate, something which the scientists might be using to their advantage. If they infected tons of "guinea pigs" with the virus and treated them with said antiviral drug, they could extract samples of the virus from the "guinea pigs" that died. This would probably mean a lot of "guinea pigs" were dying, which to Noboru meant that either a lot of lab rats were dying or a lot of people were dying. Either way, it meant that Masaji was constantly developing new strains of the virus that was not only deadlier but also more resistant to existing antiviral drugs.
It was near the end of the year, around Treizen, that Noboru started running out of antiviral drugs to try. Not that many antivirals worked with the virus to begin with (considering most antivirals were made to combat a specific virus, that shouldn't have been surprising). But gradually, treatment of the symptoms became less and less effective as well. As far as Noboru could tell, the virus killed by causing so much damage to the circulatory system that if the person doesn't die of internal bleeding their circulatory system would just fail and shut down.
At the end of that month, Noboru finally asked to see Masaji again.
Treizen 27th, 1580
When Masaji finally came into Noboru's office, Noboru didn't even pay attention to the two men in black near him. He immediately charged towards Masaji, grabbing him by the neck and pinning him on the wall. Or at least, that's what Noboru tried to do, but he very quickly found himself on the ground and with the men in black beating the living shit out of him. When the beating finally stopped, Noboru looked up at Masaji from the ground. Masaji was smirking.
"Why are you doing this? What would this accomplish?" Noboru asked.
"I think you already know that."
Masaji was right. There was only one reason why the Restoration Party would want him to develop a super-deadly virus that's resistant to existing treatments. That was if they somehow planned on using it against their enemies. The logical conclusion was simple - this was a bioweapons program. Noboru had realized this a long time ago, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. He wanted to pretend that by some miracle this was for some better cause, some cause that wouldn't involve killing people for the simple reason that they dared stand against the fascist government's plans.
"You're work showing us how a doctor would treat the condition was invaluable." said Masaji as he left the room "If I didn't have your example, it would've taken forever to narrow down what drugs to make the virus resistant to. A new batch of test subjects should arrive tomorrow, you know what to do."
And Noboru had played right into their hands.
Even before the next patient came in, Noboru had already asked that extra blood be brought in. IV's were also stockpiled. The way that viruses were generally treated was to take care of the symptoms and hope things got better eventually, but Noboru knew better than to think that would work. Masaji is a virologist, he would know that's the standard way that viruses are created. Noboru could only guess as to the process used to create the virus, but either it was a completely original creation (unlikely due to the short amount of time that had passed) or it's genetic code was modified from an existing virus. Since the latter was more likely, Noboru knew he needed to identify which virus it was based off of. There was no doubt that Masaji was deliberately choosing more deadly strains of the virus to use, but that only made Noboru's job more urgent.
Noboru's plan was simple - keep the patients as long as possible while he searched for a possible treatment, hopefully one that Masaji wouldn't be able to counter. Hopefully one would recover naturally, so Noboru could try to make a vaccine (not that he had the proper facilities to do that). But then Masaji would probably use a new strain of the virus, so Noboru couldn't make a vaccine too early.
All the while, patients came in.
Dosa 15th, 1580 - two patients with the virus came in, Noboru tries antiviral drugs.
Dosa 17th - both patients develop heavy bleeding, treatment is required.
Dosa 18th - One patient dies, Chiankei retrieve bodies before an autopsy can be performed.
Dosa 20th - One more patient with the virus comes in, Noboru tries an antiviral drug.
Dosa 21st - Patient dies, Chinakei retrieves bodies before an autopsy can be performed.
Dosa 22nd - The remaining patient from the 15th recovers, but barely. Chiankei takes him away before further tests can be done on him.
This pattern continued, though usually not as quickly as what was shown above. Sometimes the antiviral drugs would work. But the Chiankei kept a close eye on things, they knew which antiviral drugs worked and which ones didn't. And they systematically eliminated the effectiveness of every antiviral drug that worked.
Noboru could only guess as to how this was happening. If the base virus belonged to the right genus, it would lack an enzyme that proofreads it's RNA. This would mean it would naturally mutate at a much faster rate, something which the scientists might be using to their advantage. If they infected tons of "guinea pigs" with the virus and treated them with said antiviral drug, they could extract samples of the virus from the "guinea pigs" that died. This would probably mean a lot of "guinea pigs" were dying, which to Noboru meant that either a lot of lab rats were dying or a lot of people were dying. Either way, it meant that Masaji was constantly developing new strains of the virus that was not only deadlier but also more resistant to existing antiviral drugs.
It was near the end of the year, around Treizen, that Noboru started running out of antiviral drugs to try. Not that many antivirals worked with the virus to begin with (considering most antivirals were made to combat a specific virus, that shouldn't have been surprising). But gradually, treatment of the symptoms became less and less effective as well. As far as Noboru could tell, the virus killed by causing so much damage to the circulatory system that if the person doesn't die of internal bleeding their circulatory system would just fail and shut down.
At the end of that month, Noboru finally asked to see Masaji again.
Treizen 27th, 1580
When Masaji finally came into Noboru's office, Noboru didn't even pay attention to the two men in black near him. He immediately charged towards Masaji, grabbing him by the neck and pinning him on the wall. Or at least, that's what Noboru tried to do, but he very quickly found himself on the ground and with the men in black beating the living shit out of him. When the beating finally stopped, Noboru looked up at Masaji from the ground. Masaji was smirking.
"Why are you doing this? What would this accomplish?" Noboru asked.
"I think you already know that."
Masaji was right. There was only one reason why the Restoration Party would want him to develop a super-deadly virus that's resistant to existing treatments. That was if they somehow planned on using it against their enemies. The logical conclusion was simple - this was a bioweapons program. Noboru had realized this a long time ago, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. He wanted to pretend that by some miracle this was for some better cause, some cause that wouldn't involve killing people for the simple reason that they dared stand against the fascist government's plans.
"You're work showing us how a doctor would treat the condition was invaluable." said Masaji as he left the room "If I didn't have your example, it would've taken forever to narrow down what drugs to make the virus resistant to. A new batch of test subjects should arrive tomorrow, you know what to do."
And Noboru had played right into their hands.