kerravonsen | Mission Accomplished

I can hardly believe it. I have stopped the Great Plague!
That is, assuming that the targeted bacteriophage that the biotechs built did its job. My task was "simple"; I just had to deliver it, so those phages could destroy the plague bacterium before it could spread. Target: the public swimming hole at the sub-urban area known as Ringwood, in the urban centre of Melbourne, in the southern part of the Southland. By local reckoning, the 8th day of the moon-time known as December, "Common Era" year 2007.

I had already arranged with a local contact to travel from Donvale to Ringwood at 11am -- I was under deep cover, it wouldn't do to just appear at the swimming centre; besides which, trying to get that precise a fix was impossible. Getting to the urban centre on the correct day would be difficult enough. As it was, I barely made it: my vortex manipulator took me there barely fifteen minutes before the rendezvous. I had been expecting that I would have hours. Instead, I scrambled into local-era costume (including a quaint bathing costume under my clothes) and had only just finished plaiting my hair when the local transport arrived.

The carbon-burning transport was painted yellow, and employed a heat-pump to reduce its internal temperature. We made it to the swimming hole without incident.

However, I was dismayed to discover that there were two large artificial pools in the complex (as well as a number of smaller ones). Which "large pool" was I meant to put the phages into? To my relief, my kit contained more than one vial of phages, so I decided to target both pools.

The larger pool was indoors, and while the water appeared to be quite cool when I stepped into it, that was an illusion; it was actually heated, but to a temperature lower than body-heat. Still a good breeding ground for plague bacteria. I swam slowly to the deep end, and then dived to the bottom and cracked the first vial. I practiced more tumbles and dives to cover my activities, swam back to the shallow end, and got out.

The second-largest pool was outside, in the bright sunlight. I wished I had synth-skins for my feet, for the path to the pool was quite rough, with castings from the local trees scattered over it. But I walked there anyway. The pool was much colder than the indoor pool; no artificial heating for this one. It was also comparatively shallow. I only did one tumble, and nearly hurt my back doing it. Swimming and shallow dives followed. The water was brigher and clearer here -- it was fascinating to see the light-patterns that the ripples made at the bottom of the pool. I cracked the second vial, but this time I stayed in the pool. I was the only swimmer there (apart from a couple of boys who came and went) and I needed to ensure that the water was stirred up enough so that the phages could be spread around the pool. I swam and dived in aimless patterns; sometimes I just floated.

In all, I was 50 minutes swimming (including in the indoor pool).

Confused?