Quaranteam: Phil's Tale (Ch. 17)

"Then our recommendation at this point is euthanasia for all the women partnered with that man within the next few days."

"That's a little extreme, isn't it, Doctor?"

Phil sighed, shaking his head. "I truly wish that it wasn't, Madame President, but right now, if a woman's imprinting partner isn't around to relieve the buildup, at around the sixteen-day mark, the nanobots begin consuming muscle and organ flesh in order to replicate themselves. It's more painful and bloody than someone who's dying of radiation exposure. The longer you keep them alive, the worse the pain is going to get."

"That's... not optimal."

"No, Madame President, we agree. And we're still looking for some alternative solutions. We just don't have any yet."

"And once a woman's partnered with a man, there's no way to change that partnering?"

"We do not currently have one, Madame President, no. We're hoping to find something, but I've got a dozen things all marked Top Priority on my desk right now, and only so much time in the day. I was under the impression that finding some way to get immunity to our gay citizens was the top of that."

"You've got a lot of things, all of which have to fight for that position, Dr. Marcos, but I won't dare tell you how to distribute your time, or which things you might find solutions for faster or slower. I'm just trying to get answers so when I have to go in front of the nation on television in a few weeks or so and tell the American people how we're getting through this what they need to know in order to survive. In your initial report, you said that DuoHalo was 100% fatal to anyone between the ages of 11 and 17?"

"Both ends of the spectrum are a little wobbly, but yes, that's about right. We've lost a percentage of 18-year-olds but only marginally more than we've seen in the age cohorts above that. And we've seen some 11 year olds who seem to be 100% immune to the symptoms of DuoHalo, but our theory for those is that they were exposed to the virus when they were 10, early on in the pandemic, and developed an immunity to it. My friend Andy's nephew is like that. But yes, 12-17 is 100% completely fatal."

"And those who were below that age and exposed to it?"

"They can still be carriers of the virus, but even as they grow up, it seems like that built up immunity to the virus remains, so, yes, while we lost about 24 million kids between the ages of 12 and 17, we have about 48 million younger than that perfectly healthy and alive, all of whom will grow up not having to worry about DuoHalo as a problem."

"I guess that's a start." She looked over to Dr. Cunningham. "Now, let's go through how this Oracle system of yours works, explained to me in the same simplistic level of detail, so we can make sure we're on the same page for a starting point."

Phil moved to sit down as Miguel stood up and moved to the end of the table, where Phil had been presenting. "Go get'em, Miguel," Phil said as Miguel moved past him.

"Yes, well, thank you, Dr. Marcos," Miguel said, looking down before looking up. "The Oracle system is an intensely complicated set of algorithms designed to minimize friction between household members and maximize Team stability and cohesiveness." He chuckled, realizing exactly how complicated he'd started off. "At the core, it's like a dating profile. You fill in what you like, what you don't, and Oracle runs that against all the other applicants. So if you decide you like using food stuffs during sex, and that is your biggest turn on, you rate that as a ten. And Oracle gives a weight to that answer. It lets you set a bunch of things that you simply will not do, and gives those a negative weight, or, more commonly, removes any candidates with those things as possible matches from yours. When we started, we were able to deliver extremely exact responses, making sure that we were giving men women that were as close to perfect for them, and vice versa, as we possibly could, because we needed to establish the credibility of the system. This means the first two or three pairings are extremely high, almost always in the upper nineties in terms of compatibility."

"And as Teams grow larger? As you add additional people into the system beyond the first?"

Miguel frowned a little. "Yes, well, that's where we start to get into problems. At the beginning, when a Team is just being formed, we establish one person as the central pillar that everyone is being balanced around. Typically this is the male in the relationship, but obviously for high-level prominent female politicians such as yourself, we established them as the central pillar. The first four or five partners into any Team, we've got very high marks in terms of compatibility, something in the 90-95% percent compatibility scores, but each time you add a partner into a Team, the algorithm has a harder time making sure what's going to work and what isn't. Once you're above ten people, it's basically just doing its best to ensure that there aren't any dealbreaker conflicts, and beyond that, it can give you its estimate of what it thinks your match percentage is, but that's got a pretty large margin of error, like twenty to thirty percent."

"But we aren't forcing anyone together?"

"No, Madame President," Miguel told her. "We're always presenting both partners with the option of refusing any pairing."

"We've also been working to improve our systems as we go," Phil added. "At one point early on, we discovered that we weren't screening out men with a history of domestic violence, so Miguel and I revisited that system and limited those men's options to women who, pardon my language, could easily kick the shit out of them. Those men kept trying to turn the women away, but eventually it was pointed out it was this or death, and they've kept their tempers in check since then."

"How far do you want us to take this, Madame President?" Miguel asked. "If we encounter especially recalcitrant men who refuse to take any partners, do we want to force them?"

"We need to hope self-preservation is enough, but if these men are going to refuse any women sent to them, there is only so much we can do, and I'm afraid in this new world we're building, there may not be space for those who aren't willing to help themselves," the President said. "We will do our absolute best to keep all of our American men alive, but I suspect we're going to get some men who insist the rules don't apply to them. Dr. Marcos, how deep into the throes of DuoHalo can your Quaranteam serum pull someone back from?"

Phil shrugged. "We haven't tested extreme cases, but I would wager as long as they're capable of ejaculation, we stand good odds of being able to pull them back from almost from the brink of death."

"How soon after injection can a woman be imprinted?"

"Nearly immediately?" Phil said. "We've typically been waiting at least a few hours to check and make sure that the woman aren't having allergic reactions or underlying health conditions exposed by the injection, but within just a couple of minutes of injection, you could imprint someone if you had to. Why?"

"We'll stock hospitals then with difficult to match women, and when a man gets wheeled into the emergency room, a few days away from DuoHalo killing them, begging for a chance to get the serum, we can pair them with whoever's around and those men and women will just have to live with it. We can call it Project: Last Exit. Make a note of that."

One of the women sitting next to the President nodded her head and typed it up dutifully in her laptop, as the President turned back to Phil.

"Dr. Marcos, while I've got you here, I've got a question I want to ask you. Since I've been imprinted to Paul, my husband, and he's been paired with additional women, I've noticed that our tempers are... how do I put this? We don't get angry as easily anymore. Is that a result of the serum?"

"Yes and no, Madame President. When humans have sex, they naturally release endorphins, which improve moods and increase happiness. So that part's all nature. But yes, there is an aspect of the serum which we haven't really explored yet in enough detail, simply because we haven't had time. The serum turns a Team into a biologically bonded unit, so as a cohesive unit, the tendency to escalate and overinflate problems has been toned down, to keep all partners in a mood needed to keep the system running smoothly. We call it the social smoothing effect. You're still entirely capable of getting into fights, having shouting matches, but the level of problem needed to reach those heights, well, let's just say the bar to reach that level is about four or five times what it used to be. And that's only with members of your own Team, I'm sorry to say, so don't go thinking it'll help you get Congress in line any faster."

She smiled a bit, nodding at him. "Is there any reason we aren't educating our populace about this social smoothing effect?"

Phil chuckled, nodding. "Have you heard of the Pink Elephant Paradox, Madame President?"

"Is that where you tell someone not to think of a pink elephant, knowing it's going to be the only thing they can think of for the next moment or two?"

"Exactly. Drawing attention to the effect is only going to make people more distrustful of taking the serum, and there's no real benefit to knowing your mood is being chemically altered by the serum that's doing everything it can to keep you alive. People can ascribe their getting along with their partners to... whatever they want to. A lot of people think since they've met their new partners through the Oracle program that they just weren't sexually satisfied before. Others, typically those who were in long-term relationships that their Teams were built onto, think they're looking at their new life with survivor's guilt, and are doing their best to stay positive. Whatever the reasons people think they're getting along with their partners, Madame President, we're fine with that. Years down the line, maybe we'll eventually mention this known effect to the general public, but for the time being, I don't see any benefit, do you?"

"No, Dr. Marcos, I suppose not." She stood from the table, and everyone else immediately stood with her. "I appreciate you all coming down and taking the time to meet with me today. Dr. Marcos, this card has a phone number that is a direct line to Anna here, my bodywoman, and if you have anything I should be aware of, I want you to call me any time day or night. Now if you'll excuse me, Secret Service would like to get me back on Air Force One and headed back to D.C. before word gets out that we're here."

"Madame President" everyone said collectively as she, her two aides and her four Secret Service agents headed out the door, followed by General Fielder.

Just as Phil was about to head out, Covington stepped right up to him, blocking his path. "I said hello to Dr. Varma when I arrived and asked her how she was doing with Mister Rook, so you can imagine my surprise when she informed me that she'd chosen to be paired up with you, Dr. Marcos," the older man said. "I imagine you've had quite the time explaining that to the General."

"You might think you're hot shit around here, Mister Covington, but you'd do well to remember nobody's above the law, and maybe it's not a wise idea to fuck with the man who's saving all of humanity."

Covington scoffed. "McCallister did all the real heavy lifting, Dr. Marcos. You said so yourself in your presentation."

"That isn't what I said."

"It doesn't matter. You stay clear of me and mine, and we won't have a problem." Covington turned and walked away from him, stopping at the door to look back one final time. "You don't want a problem with me, Dr. Marcos, I assure you." Then he stepped out of the door.

Linda immediately took Phil's hand in her own, squeezing it as rage bubbled up in Phil's face. "You okay, baby?"

"I'm going to burn that man to the fucking ground, Linda."

"You and me both, baby..."