NOVEL NEXT Chapter 978: Middle East Situation
Imperial Capital Bengaluru, Simhasana Bhavana, Akhand Bharatiya Empire
The Imperial Capital was shrouded in dark clouds and an under-15 tapan's chilly weather. Even so, the city's energy hadn't diminished in the slightest. If anything, the light drizzle gave it a unique charm, reminiscent of London or New York on a rainy day in his past life.
The ambience of the drizzle and the sweet scent of soil right after the rain gave people in their homes a warm and cosy feeling. But that was not enough to stop the little brats in their homes from running out into the streets after school to join up with their friends and go door to door in their street asking donations for the Ganesh Chaturthi that is fast approaching.
What has remained unchanged is the busy main streets. The only difference is that all the people now held umbrellas in their hands and wore clothes that were much more suitable for the rain. Ever since the petroleum industry began development more than a decade ago, it has come a long way with the discovery of more oil wells, with the development of drilling technologies, with improved atmospheric steam engines, and most importantly, with the improvement of refining technologies and the introduction of new technologies like fractional distillation, which has gone on to increase not only the output of all the byproducts but also their purity and diversity.
The amount of crude oil processed currently is five times more than the amount when the refineries in Solankipuri and Pala Nagari were set up, and this has not stopped in the slightest. The amount of crude oil extracted and processed has continued to increase, and due to that, the byproducts have seeped into civilian products like waterproof coating for premium clothes, which have once again gone on to become the benchmark products of the Bharatiya Empire throughout the world and have become the clothes worn by rich people to show their exquisiteness, nobility, and wealth.
As a result of the increased popularity and demand, a new monsoon clothing trend has also taken shape, built on a range of clothes made by several up-and-coming designers of the empire.
Overall, life in the capital is as pleasant as ever, apart from the cost of living, which is continuously going up like a rocket. But this is not a big problem, since the people who can afford to live in the capital are people who are in lucrative fields of work, and those fields are also continuously increasing in profitability. So, despite the increase in cost of living, instead of people going away from the capital, more people, elites from all over the empire, are coming towards the capital and settling down.
Ultimately, the people are very happy, but sadly, Vijay has a huge headache.
As more reports began to come in from the Middle East, he realised how severe the damage caused by the plague was. The neighbouring Kingdom of Persia had casualties of nearly 300,000 or more due to the plague, and hundreds of thousands more due to the killings and mass slaughter initiated by the Atashban family in order to quell the rebellions and chaos that broke out because of the Balkan Death.
As for Lalishsthan, it is only worse. As a kingdom ruled by a minority ethnic group, it was really not too hard for riots and rebellions to break out as soon as the deaths due to the plague began to spread.
Although the kingdom was still maintained, it was only barely, and that was because three Vajragharbas of the Bharatiya Empire had been built on the western and northern border of Lalishsthan, neighbouring the Ottoman Empire. So when the riots and rebellions broke out, and when the military lost communications with the empire, they followed their protocol and supported the Yezidis, the Allies, and suppressed the rebellions and riots.
Of course, it was not easy. Even though the army was better equipped, had richer combat experience, and a strategic advantage, they were up against an enemy several times their own number. Not to mention, when it comes to intelligence about the terrain, the enemy was no less than the military; in some cases, they were more adept at the terrain. In the end, knives still could not stand up in a gunfight. Hundreds of thousands of deaths later, the dust had settled, and an isolation policy was strictly implemented.
'Sigh!'
Vijay let out a deep and turbulent breath, not only disturbed due to the millions of deaths brought by the plague but also worried about what had happened in Europe, as the situation in Europe was still unknown to him.
For this exact reason, he tried to contact Peter in order to see if he had any information, but unfortunately, he lost contact with Peter as well. Vijay was a little worried about that. Theoretically, he knew that Peter should stay in Vladivostok, Siberia, and not have ventured into the heartland of Russia, and there is no way in hell the plague can reach Vladivostok unless someone infected from the Bharatiya Empire goes there. He was still a little worried about the off chance he did go there.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, as these things were simply out of his control, so all he could do now was handle things that he could.
Without hesitation, the next moment he contacted Jagannath Mohan, the Minister of Finance, and had him allocate more funds to rebuild the communication channels in the Middle East, even at the expense of slowing down the construction of the canals by a little. Additionally, he arranged an expeditionary team in order to make contact with the intelligence centres in the Middle East and try to see if a breakthrough can be made to Europe, if it is not already done.
Furthermore, he finalised the establishment of the platform by Vinod and passed a verdict to initiate the aid activities to the Kingdom of Persia and Lalishstahn.
"Alright, Katappa, let's set off."
After handling all the matters of the empire, he finally set off to his meeting with the Dalai Lama, which is scheduled for the next month in the state of Ahom.
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Imperial Centre for Disease Control, ICDC
The risky treatment, or as Tanvika would like to call it, a blatant experiment, has attracted a lot of eyeballs from various researchers in the institute.
Originally, this should not have been the case, since there was no shortage of new directions of study when it came to the germ. There were simply too many to count, and everyone was engaged in their own topic of research. However, when Sheila Mandir proceeded to survive for nearly two months after she was infected by the Balkan Death, while the rest of the people had already been buried six feet under, it was almost like a burning flare in the sky demanding everyone's attention.
"Wow, why didn't I think of that? It's true that the body's immune response isn't fully active when the Balkan Death germ infiltrates the body, but I never imagined that triggering it could be done by introducing another germ to provoke a stronger reaction," an older researcher marvelled.
"True, but there's no need to feel bad," another elderly researcher said, offering reassurance. "None of us could have predicted this. The idea is just too far from anything we were trained to expect. Maybe only in Ayurveda did such a concept exist—using one poison to fight another."
"I agree with both of you," a female researcher said, adjusting her glasses. "The idea of killing poison with poison isn't something we've really applied. The smaller germ becomes part of the bloodstream, lying dormant until the stronger one activates it. They work together, which is why we always assumed the body couldn't fight them. We only tried from the perspective of inducing and creating some drug to kill the bacteria, since we had already made some headway by using the concoction to hinder its spread, slow down its effectiveness. But now, looking at this data, it's clear we were wrong."
She gave a small, resigned sigh. "I don't know about you, but I'm not disappointed. This might just be the breakthrough we needed."
However, the voices among the researchers were not all unanimous. Maybe Tanvika could deter the common people from speaking anything bad against her within colleges and universities or even in the Academy of Sciences, but this is the ICDC, a place where the brightest researchers focused on biology gather. They know their own worth. They know that they cannot be punished for simply speaking their minds.
So some of them did not hold back.
" Isn't this treatment a bit too risky?"
"Exactly, that's what I was thinking as well. I fully admit that introducing a disease agent to trigger the immune system is a novel and bold approach, but it's also extremely dangerous. And, if I may be blunt, it borders on unethical to test it directly on a living person rather than on controlled test subjects first."
Another one simply began to chant the Hippocratic Oath:
अहं शपथं समर्पयामि—
धन्वन्तरिं वैद्यनाथं, अश्विनीकुमारौ, आयुर्वेदविद्यां, आरोग्यदात्रीं धात्रीं, सर्वान् देवतांश्च साक्षिणः कृत्वा—
यथाशक्ति यथाबुद्धि च, एषः व्रतः अनुचरिष्यामि।...
I take this solemn vow—
In the name of Dhanvantari, Lord of Medicine, the Ashwini Kumaras, the science of Ayurveda, the goddess of health Dhatri, and all the divine forces, making them my witnesses—
I shall uphold this oath to the best of my ability and judgment...
Tanvika knew they were simply targeting her, but she remained on the sidelines, choosing not to defend herself, partly because even she felt a twinge of guilt. Still, she had no regrets. If given the chance to go back and change anything, she wouldn't. She would make the same choices all over again.
However, just because she was silent does not mean the other researchers stayed silent as well.
"Dr Abhimanyu, you are being too harsh. It is clear as day that this treatment plan made by Dr Tanvika is after thorough research of the patient's background, her unique experiences of being in the Immunity Warrior Plan, and most importantly, after obtaining her consent."
"So when all these conditions are met, how can this be unethical, and how can this be considered immoral?"
"And you as well, Dr Srinath. I have seen your proposal to swap the blood of the infected person by injecting the blood of a healthy person to control the disease and cure the person by literally swapping the blood in the person's body."
"In what world is this proposal not dangerous? We just got to know that the blood is of different types. Blood cannot simply be injected into a person without both persons' blood matching. So, according to what you suggested, the percentage of deaths is over 70%. If you are so risk-averse, why did you suggest this treatment in the first place?"
The researchers who were questioned right back became ashen.
However, just when they were about to rebuke, Bindu came running to the conference room.
"Dr, it's not good, the patient is experiencing a stroke."
P.S. The project I have been working on is done. I'm just getting ready to publish, so from now on, you can expect around two chapters a day, at least on most days.