My adventure story idea

[Preacher]

Right and right again, Polymath. In order for their to be containment i need to determine the nature of that contagion. That is where the research will come in. Not sure what that will be yet. Not sure what i want. I know what i don't want, though. I don't want the contagion factor to be just a sickness. That would just require the CDC and virologists or whatever scientists would have to handle it. It is going to do something. It will, more than likely, create a second "force" of bad guys for the good guys to dispatch. There may even be a secondary effect, something that will turn my revenant life crazy or something. I need to be careful. I see there was a book called Pulse that deals with a guy who owns a genetics firm finding the remains of the mythical Hydra and using it for its regenerative properties. The regen soldiers apparently have madness and, of course, the Hydra comes back to life. In light of this, i may have to go for something totally different.

[polymath]

Okay. Condsider something from outside the box of bacterial contagion but communicable nonetheless. In order for revenant soldiers to be an improvement over conventional soldiers, they'd probably have to have limited autonomy. Mindless automatons have been done. Thinking machines have been done. Somewhere in between or outside those boxes is what I think you're reaching for.

I think toxic compounds fit the bill, which connects to the DARPA serum. For example, what if the Medusa myth is an imaginative explanation for a toxic compound that paralyzes and makes muscle flesh rigid. Perhaps adding in a botanical component, say a curare-like compound produced by a coral infection. Mediterranean coral reefs were at one time thought to be made up of Medusa victims. Tropical corals thrive in conditions similar to human blood chemistry and temperature ranges. Coral sores happen to divers who scrape against corals during their reproduction phase. Coral larvae get inside open wounds and thrive, at first locally, then spread through the bloodstream in extreme untreated cases. Coral sores are a nuisance at first, but if left untreated are deadly and cause exruciating pain. The treatment's not pleasant either and in advanced cases ineffective.

Putting it all together, Medusa coral larvae paralyze selective logic centers of the brain, increase host stamina, strength, and resilience, and preserve life function, retain basic motor function and high order thought memories, and reanimate previously infected hosts who've otherwise ceased cardio and pulmonary function: An intelligent parasitic life that thrives on human hosts. Sure, it's been done, but not with coral-like life forms and all the creative possibilities imaginable.

Again, just blue sky speculation though.

[Preacher]

First off, thank you, again! One thing i have learned from reading your posts here is the true value of research, and that is now important to me, thanks to you. The scope and breadth of your knowledge amazes and fascinates me, Poly. Wow is all i can say. It really makes me just want to sit down at the computer and call up Google and just research these kinds of things until i find the right stuff. Forget about the story, i need to read, read, read. And i actually read a ton of books. None of them non-fiction, unfortunately.

I was shooting for something outside of the normal box. I considered even having my revenant life have some kind of hive mind mentality, something that allows them to know the thoughts of the others in the group. That may take away some autonomy but, of course, i can make it fit through research. I think, anyway.

Toxic compounds indeed. Make a combination of things, starting with something that comes out of the sea and then acts as it does. I think of the episode of the X-Files that was a take-off of the movie The Thing, where some kind of ancient parasitic organism latches onto something and then works changes on the host. The big difference here is that this comes from the sea and, therefore, can be something extremely ancient. And also, the kinds of things it can do to the host. The strenght and so on and so forth.

So i have a Mediterranean setting i can now research and toxic compounds and coral larvae and such. I can still have the contagion part and now i see i can make the transmission some kind of airborne or even saliva transferrable. With some research, again, i can fool around with what different contagions can do to create this secondary problem apart from the army of revenant soldiers. Perhaps the airborne transmission causes a mutation in the contagion that will produce whatever the desired effect is and maybe that is where the "monsters" can come in.

Again, a world of wonder out there to learn about, and thank you very much!