*
Mathew immediately re-organised things. Aswin and Kaswa were delegated to head back into the city to help scrounge as they knew what was valuable, useful and knew what things were and where to find them. As Kaswa put it, “All these city developments follow a fairly standard pattern. You tell us what you need and we’ll show you where to find it.”
“How about weapons?” asked Mathew.
“Police headquarters,” answered Kaswa but there probably won’t be many and they may be in a safe. And the mercenaries probably got there first.”
“The Priskya say that millions of bodies are being dumped into the oceans,” said Dan. “Is this true?”
“Yes. It’s how they get rid of the evidence. They’ll be dropping them into the deepest parts so recovery is impossible and the evidence unobtainable,” said Kaswa.
“But how is that possible? There are millions on this planet,” said Kelly.
“A million slaves, working flat out. The biggest population I heard of that got dumped was over a billion. That was a huge operation. Mostly they target planets a bit more developed than this one. But to attack a planet is rare. They mostly target islands, mining operations, asteroids, moons, space stations, any valuable real estate will do. This one, I think they thought would be a walkover,” Aswin smiled. “Maybe not so much.”
Kaswa continued, “We believe there are seven starships left. These are fighting spaceships with about 100 planes per ship plus some shuttles. They can carry about 10,000 awake slaves each or 20,000 in cold sleep. Other troop carriers arrived and brought more slaves. I don’t know how many slaves there are in total but at least half a million, probably more.
The troopships got filled up with loot from the northern cities and have already left. That’s why we were so worried. Seven starships can’t carry half a million slaves. Not even crammed in. And we would be a security risk. There were rumours most of us would be disposed of once the bodies were dumped.”
“These ships must be enormous,” said Stella trying to work that out.
“They are.”
“Enough,” said Mathew. “Into the city now and talk once it’s daylight. We still have several hours of night.”
Sarah intercepted Kaswa and Aswin before they left, “Bring back food,” she ordered. “All you can carry. We have protein, we need vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates and fats.” The boys nodded their understanding and the lack of beeps from their Translator indicated the message was relayed correctly. Kelly and Bert had been at her to find a better diet for everyone.
This time in the city they were better organised. They split into two groups. Aswin took the girls and Kaswa took the boys. First, they delivered Alan to the Okmes and hoped the Healing Machine would have enough power left to fix him. Then they headed into the city where Kaswa first found a Translator.
Aswin and the girls went to the police station but the weapons were gone. Aswin was not surprised. He had expected this but it might have been overlooked.
They headed into the classrooms. At Aswin’s direction they picked up every Translator they could find and looked for somewhere to hide them. Li looked up. “Is there a space between the ceiling and the roof?”
Aswin smiled. “Look around the corners,” he said. Li saw some slight difference and pointed, “Is this it?”
Aswin boosted her up onto his shoulders. She lifted up the panel and sat on the supporting beam. Aswin and Stella then passed all the Translators up and then other technical equipment.
Several classrooms later Stella said, “Isn’t this enough?”
Aswin swung a Translator at her, “Do you know what this is worth?”
“No,” she said.
“A cheap Translator is worth on average a years wages. A better one is nearly twice that. This one Li gave me is worth three times that. It probably belonged to the lecturer. Sixty of those would buy a space ship. Not new, but a good one. We’ve so far hidden enough to buy two space ships.”
“But how can people afford that?”
“Most can’t. Most Translators are hired. The people who developed this planet would own them. They are considered part of the education equipment.”
The girls were impressed. They carried on. Several hours later though, they had had enough. The girls had alternated being boosted into the ceiling but Aswin had been working steadily and not complaining.
“How about we make this do?’ said Stella, “I’ve had it.”
“Me two,” said Aswin.
“Me three,” added Li.
They headed to the sea via a ‘grocery’ store. It was helpful to have someone who could read the labels! There was a symbol that indicated food and Kaz explained,
“The colour of the symbol indicates protein, vegetable matter etc.”
“They’re colour coded!” Exclaimed Stella in delight.
“Yes, you can eat anything with a yellow, red, green, white or purple label in the corner.”
“That’s helpful,” said Li wryly, “some of the packets we scrounged previously didn’t hold food…”
At the sea they found the boys who had had a great night and were grinning from ear to ear.
“Kaswa taught us how to drive the ground cars! Little niceties like licences don’t matter now. The controls are funny, a rigid joystick instead of a steering wheel and you push it down for speed. They’re equipped to be controlled by two limbs, not four. They have some resemblance to Terran cars. They are more square and different sizes, and Kaswa says they’re different sizes to fit different sized occupants! There are truck equivalents but they wouldn’t fit into the caves we hid stuff in so we just used people carriers. Then we had to unload them and move stuff in. The cars have an anti-theft device built into them which Kaswa just happened to know how to disable.”
As Kazwa explained, “There are some advantages to being a slave. You do learn some useful skills.” Kaswa was a crash hit with the boys but he had been re-named. Mahmoud kept calling him Kaswin and in frustration had finally renamed him Kaz. Kaz was quite happy with this arrangement. The girls had been having a similar problem with Aswin so he promptly got renamed Az. This was OK with him too.
Kaz explained, “We hid mostly technical instruments, in a small cave by the Kepis cave. We also left some of the ground cars there. I chose what to take and Mahmoud and Donny spent the night learning to drive, then loading up the cars and delivering the booty. Some cars are electric but these run on the same fuel cells as the plane. That’s why they are much faster. It was these cars that we hid.”
“So we spent our night lugging stuff up into the attic and you had fun! I vote we switch tomorrow night,” said Li indignantly. The boys smiled even more. So did Kaz.
They headed out to sea. Arriving at the largest boat, they found Mathew was there waiting for a report. Kaz and Az gave a professional sounding and detailed report of what they had scrounged and why. Az added, “I can’t tell you whether or not they will dump the bodies first then pick up valuable items or do both together. Mostly, but not always, they first attend to the bodies, then use the slaves to pick up and pack away all valuable items, then kill the slaves, then kill all the survivors or anyone who is hiding. Their aim is to leave no one alive on the planet. No witnesses.
They should have the bodies cleared away from here by tomorrow or the next day. Then they should abandon the city and move to another.”
“Then we’d be safe to re-occupy the city?” asked Mathew.
“Yes. If they follow their usual pattern, they won’t deal with you until after the slaves are dumped.”
“So they don’t get the slaves to fight?”
“Not ever! The slaves would promptly turn on them. About 600,000 or so angry slaves with nothing to lose against maybe 3,000 mercenaries and about 1000 pilots who mostly are also trained to fight. Plus how ever many mercenaries were on the troop ships. Not a chance. The slaves get dumped or sent off world if the troop ships come back for them. The Keulfyd told us the troop ships would retu
rn. I doubt it. Slaves just aren’t worth as much as this technical equipment. More significantly, there’s probably not enough time for them to get where they’re going, unload and return. Plus, slaves have to be guarded and fed. And they would be a huge security risk if they escaped. Besides, they can’t sell them to anyone else so what would they do with them? And they take up much more room than treasure.”
“OK. Find somewhere to sleep. I think Kelly said there is a berth for you two here. Sorry, but we’re hot bunking.” He walked away.
“Li, what’s hot bunking?”
“Ah, sorry. You sleep during the day and someone else sleeps in the same space at night. Two to a bed but not together.”
“Oh. Well for us it’s luxury to have a bed. What’s a bed? A place to sleep?” She nodded. “No problem.” He yawned as he followed her. What a day. Clothes, somewhere to sleep, girls, he smiled. Life was getting better. Pity it wouldn’t last long but he’d take what he could get. He looked around for Kaz and saw him ahead, following Stella.
Steve
It was the morning after the gas attack when Steve Nilsen again fleetingly wondered if Donny was still alive. He wondered how long it would be now. He sat in the corner and looked out the window, waiting to die. He cried softly as he remembered the moment that he realised Anna had died. He had held his breath as the gas wafted over them and she had collapsed. He had picked her up and run to hide behind some shrubs. He cradled her in his arms but she did not wake up. He was struggling to breathe himself; he kept forgetting to breathe and feeling dizzy and light headed. He had the worst headache he had ever known. He wondered if he had had a stroke; it felt like his brain was swelling. The pressure was shocking. He thought that if he were to fall asleep, he would die.
As the awful day wore on, he felt Anna become stiff and cold. He could not accept it but neither could he bear to see her like that. Finally, he had got up and staggered away from her. His thirst was terrible and he could barely see; the daylight was blinding. He was having difficulty walking, his balance very bad. He drank from a puddle in the garden. He was both nauseous and more thirsty than he had ever been in his life. The thirst won. He kept the water down. He noticed others alive in a building and he joined them. The long day passed, and then the long night. At least he eventually felt better. The headache was much reduced. His eyesight was back to normal and he was hungry. But there was nothing safe to eat. The goop stuff turned out to be poisoned as was revealed when several Aliens tried it and died. It was not a nice death. They writhed in agony. It was fast though and that was lucky. A quick warning to others.
The next morning he refused to join the group of Terrans who tried to escape. It was a waste of time. Why wouldn’t the idiots listen to all the Aliens around them who knew better? He saw Li and Stella but ignored them. He couldn’t bear to see Donny again and then lose him. It would be nicer to die together but he instinctively knew that Donny would not sit and calmly watch death coming. He was not sure why he knew that. He knew so little about his strange, emotional, gentle son. He had never understood him. His father always said he was just like Steve’s mother but Steve had never understood his mother either. The day drifted on.
He heard the sound of aircraft. Looking out the window, he saw funny looking stubby aircraft landing near the buildings. Some Aliens disembarked. They had four legs and apparently two arms as they were carrying some large things a little like a gas sprayer (he presumed), with a tank like thing on their backs. The main problem was that they were wearing what looked like Hazmat suits.
Steve watched as they walked confidently into the room he was in. There were murmurs and comments but he didn’t have a Translator on. He watched indifferently as several Aliens walked up and out the door past them accompanied by angry comments from the Aliens left behind. Fifth columnists, he assumed. The Aliens in the Hazmat suits lifted up some nozzle like things and sprayed the room with gas. A large Alien beside Steve toppled over him and fell through the window knocking Steve through also.
Steve awoke with a splitting headache so bad he could scarcely think. The Alien who had knocked him through the window was dead. The pain was so bad it felt like his head was being crushed. He lifted his head up only realising what a mistake that was as everything went black and the pain cut like a knife through his skull. He collapsed again and lost consciousness. As he lay there, the Hazmat suited Aliens did a walk around, checking that all were dead. They passed him by.
Some considerable time later, he woke again, the headache not as bad. At least he could think but his vision was gone. He lay among the dead, wishing he was one of them. Mindful of the last time, he moved very slowly but had to get up, forced up by two types of hydraulic pressure; the need to pee and a raging thirst. Very gradually, he eased himself up the wall until he was vertical. Moving slowly he peed while leaning on the wall. That relieved one problem. His vision still seemed dark but gradually he realised that it wasn’t his eyesight, it was night time. He stayed still, leaning against the wall until his head cleared a little. His head and shoulders were sticky with blood. He felt nauseous and dizzy. He tried to find a puddle but it was hopeless in the dark. It hurt to think. He did know where the sea was. He could hear it.
He didn’t want to move but thirst drove him and he very slowly headed down to the sea. It took a long time to get there, with frequent stops. Finally he reached the ocean and virtually fell in. He started to drink. That part was bliss. He drank slowly, his head gradually clearing a little more as the minutes went by but the terrible headache remained. He lay in the water and let the waves wash the blood off his clothes and out of his hair. Eventually, he noticed he was shivering. He tried to get up but the task was beyond him. The tide was coming in. He wasn’t really worried but there was a rock nearby so he made the effort to drag his head and chest onto it. It was more comfortable than drowning. He slept.
Some time later something nudged him awake. Carefully he turned his head. It was a Priskya. He ignored it. He heard it talking but in its own language. It kept pushing at him. Then there was another one. They were trying to drag him into the water pulling at his clothing with their teeth. He initially resisted but then decided not to bother. If they wanted to drown him or eat him that was OK with him. At least it would be over. They pulled him into the water and he automatically started to swim. They kept guiding him out to sea. Fairly soon, he grew tired but when he would have gone under one got underneath him and kept lifting him up. Finally, he realised they were trying to tow him. He got a grip on the dorsal fin of one of them and it started to tow him out to sea at an increasing speed like he had seen them tow children. He relaxed and let it.
It was smooth travelling as the fish kept its head under the surface, swimming like a shark. He rested his sore head on the back of the Priskya, slipping in and out of consciousness. Several times he let go and sank but one of the Priskya would quickly lift him up again and keep at him until he held on again. It was less trouble just to go with them. After some time had passed he thought he was hallucinating; he could hear human voices. It also seemed to be getting light.
“One is injured, one is sick,” he heard a Priskya say as he bumped into something. Then someone was in the water with him putting a rope around him. He was lifted up the side of a ship. He sprawled onto the deck and bumped his head, knocking himself out.
When he awoke again he was in the cabin, dry and in clean clothes. Dr. Black was with him. His head was bandaged. Someone came over with a container. It was Stella. Steve wondered how she had got here. A blur came from behind her and Donny burrowed into him, crying.
“He’s been here all the time. He just went out to eat,” Stella was crying too. But Steve just hugged Donny and went to sleep again.
The Art of War
When Az and Kaz awoke and promptly got together next morning, they spent the morning trying to work out who was with them on the biggest boat, what their relationships to each other were and how they could best help. As they got to know and t
alk to the Terrans, a suspicion grew. Seeking out and conversing with Mahmoud, they found out that Li and Stella were not married, Stella was helping her mother care for Donny’s father Steve who had arrived last night just before they had returned from the city. Li was still asleep. They wanted to talk to Mathew but he wasn’t there.
When Li finally awoke and went to join Kelly and Stella, she found out that Steve had been towed in that morning by some Priskya. He was injured and unwell but alive. Kelly said she thought his main injury was emotional shock. He seemed disconnected from reality. Kelly spoke to Donny about it but he didn’t seem to be surprised.
“Dad and Mum were very close. He did his study and she organized the rest of his life. I’ll bet he doesn’t know how to live without her. I was unplanned and not exactly wanted. Then to make matters worse I was so different to them. My granddad mostly brought me up. He loved me. He said I was like my grandma. I’ll look after Dad.”
Kelly was rather taken aback by Donny’s matter of fact attitude. His acceptance of being unwanted by his parents. Donny was true to his word and took over as much of his father’s care as he could, even to feeding him.
The Priskya kept them informed as to the activities in the city which had given Mathew an idea. He had some long talks with the Priskya and came back looking very satisfied.
To everyone’s surprise, except Kaz and Az, by that evening, the Priskya reported that the city was abandoned. The city was much smaller than the big northern cities which had been developed first. The bodies were gone and all signs of the invaders also. The mess had been cleaned up. Az and Kaz at once declared they wanted to go back to the city. They wanted a Cleaner and a hot meal. Donny had told them Helkmid thought he could get the power back on. They would settle for just sleep under cover and on something that didn’t move.
A few were also keen to go back so after the inevitable discussion, two boat loads went back. To their delight, they found that Helkmid had already got the power back on. Alan was waiting for them in the mess. He was trying to sort out a meal. Not a good cook at the best of times, he didn’t know what to cook nor how. He was hugely relieved to see Az and Kaz. It was so nice to hand over to people who could read the packets. Soon, a hot meal was cooking. Later that evening, most of the others straggled in including Jolene, Nanelle, the Nedri family and the de Jonge family. They, like the others, just wanted the Cleaners. Az and Kaz showed everyone how to use them and told them to manoeuvre their bed/bags into them. Cloaks were already being used as the local blankets. The bigger ones made handy sleeping bags; huge ones. Finally, everyone was clean and settled except for the ones still out in Boat City.
The next morning, the rest of Boat City came in, satisfied it was safe. Mathew and Sarah told everyone there would be a meeting in the ‘mess hall’ (which is what they christened the biggest restaurant), after lunch. According to the Cats, the Keulfyd had used the restaurant for the same purpose.
Once everyone was fed, Sarah stood up. “We need to decide what to do. Our future looks pretty grim unless we do something. One alternative is to take to the sea and make like a fish. That won’t last though. We can’t sleep in water. Kaz and Az say that the Keulfyd won’t expect us to fight back. They also say the Keulfyd now have gone and will not be back until all the cities have been cleared of the dead. We have some time to plan and decide. They estimate about 20 days. I’ll hand over to Mathew now. I agree with him. I think we should fight.”
Mathew stood up, “The most important decision, we have already made. We have decided to survive. There is only one way to do that. We can’t hide indefinitely from the scanners. According to Az and Kaz, we have three to four weeks to come up with some kind of plan to fight back. There is a fairly standard strategy for doing that. It was sorted out in the sixth century by a man called Sun Tzu.
We need a Plan, a method to implement it, strategy, tactics, and the means to carry them out. We need all the Intel we can get on the Keulfyd. We need to know their strengths and their weaknesses, their tactics and weaponry. We need to know how they think and how they fight. We need to figure out how to be mobile or fight when the enemy comes to us. We need to plan but have backup plans as well. We also need to be flexible enough to change plans in a hurry. We need to use this planet and its resources. To do so, we need to know what these resources are. Most important is Intel and a spy network. I have written this down. I want people to come and look this over, then pick the part they think they can help solve. We have a huge variety of people, with different training, professions and ways of looking at things.
For starters, we have Kaz, Az and the beginnings of a very good and highly motivated planet wide spy network. This spy network is invisible to the Keulfyd.” He grinned, looking at the answering grins of some and the bafflement of others.
“You kids are as important as the adults. No one is to dismiss an idea no matter how silly you think it sounds. Many inventors have had to continue to work despite these types of attitudes. We need brainstormers. Then we need others to work on these ideas to make them doable. We need weapons of any description, any way we can win and live. Think outside the square. We have taken the first two steps; we have declared we will SURVIVE and we will FIGHT. These Keulfyd have no right to take our lives! We will do what it takes to live!
There were cheers. Everyone was talking at once. Kaz and Az looked at each other. Kaz muttered, “These Terrans are crazy; brave, but crazy. The task is impossible. There are in excess of 3000 troops, probably more as some mercenaries would have been landed with the slave troopships. Most of the pilots will be fighters. The planes are armed, the shuttles are armed. The spaceships are armed and can simply blast the cities from space. This is impossible. They have no idea what they are facing. It is just not possible. These Terrans do not listen and do not understand.” Az nodded in agreement.
Kaz and Az were wrong. Mathew had a fair idea what the odds were. So did a lot of the other adults. But the Terrans knew something else. They knew what guerrillas could accomplish. Most knew the havoc a few determined kamikazes or terrorists could inflict. Mathew was keeping a lot of knowledge hidden. He had had a long talk with Steve. Steve didn’t want to live. But he did want revenge on those who had killed his Anna. He had offered to do anything to get even. When Mathew asked would he be a human bomb, he agreed. Mathew knew if he asked, he would get other volunteers. He knew his delivery system but lacked the weapons. He knew the proportions to make gunpowder but where could he find the ingredients? He knew Kaz and Az would be able to make or find the parts for detonators and timers. He needed weapons, the fighters, he had. Almost all of the adults he had asked had agreed they would rather die fighting rather than die running. If they did nothing else, thought Mathew, they would make the Keulfyd pay dearly for their deaths.
As the day passed, everyone studied The Art of War. To make it easier for the children, the tasks were divided up further into smaller categories. All could write their ideas into the categories. The ideas exploded. Bea and Yogabala went to see Mathew the next day. Neither could write or spell very well but they didn’t want to tell him that. He sat down with them as Yogabala told him,
“The balloons could carry things into the city. We are sure we can teach them. But we don’t want the balloons to be hurt.”
Mathew was very interested. They talked at length as the two girls told him what they had learned about the balloons. But Mathew kept stumbling over Yogabala’s name. In the end he said,
“I’ll call you Bella. Belle means beautiful in French.”
“Oh,” said Bella, very pleased.
The ideas continued to flow. People tried to think them through. Mathew finally declared a Council of War that night. Everyone was to think through their ideas and how to implement them.
Council of War
That evening on the shores of the city, after dark, Mathew stood looking out at his guerrilla army. The Terrans were now up to 17 boats of various sizes. A few more stragglers had come in. He even had so
me unhappy Kepis here who had reluctantly been volunteered to come. This was risky, being on land but the Kepis had refused to go onto water. So far there had been no night attacks. They should get away with it. There were Terrans, Niseyen, Kepi, Okme, Priskya and a Cat. Mathew refused to be daunted. This was his chance. He looked around at the area, crowded with People on the land, on the jetty and in the sea.
“You all know what this is about. We need ideas. Lets have them.”
Surprisingly it was Donny that spoke up first.
“I think our best chance is Helkmid. We’ve been talking a lot about this.” He indicated to the Okme to come forward.
Helkmid looked a little uneasy to be the centre of attention. He turned the volume up on his Translator.
“I have been talking a lot with Kelly, Donny, Az, Li, Kaz and Stella among others. Between, us I think we have come up with some ideas. It is not possible, before you ask, to steal the gas. Someone already thought about that many attacks ago. It will be well guarded and almost all used up anyway. And I cannot make it. I do not have the bits. Pity. It would be one solution and much less trouble.”
“There are many different People we need to target but among them are some who are similar and will be affected by the same solutions. This reduces our targets to six groups because one solution will affect two People. I have possible solutions to five. This includes all the military and pilots. The non-combatants shouldn’t be a problem.”
“I am looking at toxins, viruses and bacteria. You must work out how to get these to the targets. I will time the exposure-to-effect so the solutions are as near simultaneous as I can calculate it.”
“I have a virus for the Keulfyd. I will have sufficient in a few days. Az tells us we must move fast. We will have to risk that they will not have good doctors. It is fairly sure. A doctor accompanying an illegal mercenary force would probably not be a good diagnostician. Such doctors are unlikely to be competent at this as they will be, like most doctors, specialised. In this case, in trauma. Most specialists become lazy in other fields and quickly forget what else they know except what is now familiar. They should not recognise this virus and should have no solution if they do. The Keulfyd will have no immunity. This virus is all it should be. It is reliable, potent, highly infectious, aggressive and airborne. It is also sneaky. It starts out as a mild illness, common symptoms, mild fever, not feeling well, headaches, mild breathing trouble. Most important, it is very infectious at all stages. I found the genes to increase the virulence. Centuries ago, before the vaccine and anti viral were developed, it used to cause 30-40% fatality to those who caught it and that was with good medical facilities and knowledge. Now I have ensured the vaccine and anti viral will not work, it is more lethal, the incubation period is shorter and it is more infectious. It is an encapsulated virus so it can live for a few days outside a host. This is crucial for what we are planning. I have made it airborne. It was never that before. This makes it many times worse. This is called weaponising. They will not know that, even if it is diagnosed. It will be quite a while before they find out what I have done as they are unlikely to have a programme that can check for virus tampering. Hopefully, not until the last stages will it be obvious what this virus is now. By then it will be too late. They will bleed out. For those that do not die, they will be in no state to fight nor well enough to escape in their ships. And looking after the sick will tie up their resources. The Keulfyd now, according to the Priskya, are concentrated in five main cities. Few, if any, come and go between cities. Therefore we must expose each and all the cities within two nights of each other. Three at the most. The cities are on three continents. Kaz had suggested stealing two flyers.”
“We can’t do that. Scanners will find them,” someone called out.
“No,” said Az. “The flyers have a device on them that sends out a signal but it cannot get through deep soil or rock. With some work, I think I can disable it. If we can steal two, they can be hidden underground then used to fly over the cities using the same equipment that spread the gas.”
“Sounds like a Global Positioning System. That can’t signal from underground, I’m sure of it,” Dan paused. “Well that’s true of our technology. And they’d have to be looking for the planes to find them in the air.”
Helkmid continued, “For the two main military groups, the Trydshell and the Opodskell, I have a virus that causes also mild symptoms to start with. These People were originally one species and the same virus will work on both. It is highly infectious with a high level of lethality but it also incapacitates those who get it. After four or five days comes high fever then confusion, paranoia, fear, hallucinations and insomnia. It affects the brain first in the thinking. It then spreads over the brain. Death comes when the vital organs no longer get told what to do. The heart stops or the lungs don’t get told to breathe. This is because the disease first causes swelling and inflammation and then targets the sensory and muscle nerves starting at the brain and spinal cord.”
“Military with paranoia and confusion? Sounds like a recipe for killing themselves.” Sarah shivered. “Still, rather them than us. Will any of these viruses affect us?”
“That is almost impossible. The risk is very small. While gases and toxins can affect many Races, a virus, parasite or bacteria is usually specific to its host. I was talking to Kelly about this. You call such a thing ‘the species barrier’ and your medical science is well aware of this factor. And that is on just on your one planet. It would be even more unlikely for a virus from another species on another planet to be able to infect you.
Now for the Sasgys I have another solution. They often carry a small parasite. I have been very busy breeding these up thanks to the help of the Kepis in getting me the Sasgys out of the ship that crashed. Although they didn’t live long, one had a good crop of parasites. The toxin of these parasites will make the Sasgys very ill if it is in sufficient quantity and I will make sure it is. A few will normally not hurt them but I have tinkered with the parasites a bit to make them reproduce more. This parasite should not cause suspicion. I will have ensured it is immune to the normal solution they use to kill it by the time it is released. That will make matters worse.”
“I will use a similar solution for the Bidifix but this parasite will be infected with a virus. I will need someone to catch me some Bidifix please. Alive or recently dead. Preferably alive. Again, the virus and parasite will die with the host.”
“Mahmoud came up with an idea for the Yakkidimux. A very good one, very sure, very fast. They love shellfish and have been gathering them every day or so. The more they have, the more they are likely to share. They fly all over the planet. I can put a toxin in the water where they are gathering them. We should get most of them. Their eyesight will be affected badly and their balance. They wont be flying! They would need to be nearby though.
“For the Vubicik, I have a common sort of bacteria not quite a bacteria, I don’t know your word if you have something like this on your planet; you may not. I can make it very nasty I think. I am trying but not too sure. I need someone to catch me some Vubicik to practice on please.” He abruptly moved away.
Mathew stood up. “I’m dizzy just thinking about all these Alien Races. This is all very complicated. Isn’t there an easier solution? A one size fits all? Like the gas?”
“Not that I can think of. Not that can be made, or distributed, without affecting you too.”
“OK. I’ll leave that bit to you Helkmid. I’ll stick to what I know. It’s going to be my job to organise the delivery system. Helkmid, I’ll need to know exactly when the bugs need to go out, where to, in what type of containers, all airborne except for the shellfish?” Helkmid nodded. “Also what, if anything, can we use as a propellant”
“Most can go in the gas tanks. Two could be sprayed if we can find or make a sprayer, the parasites I’ll have to think about. They can’t be sprayed by air or dropped, it’ll kill them. Getting them into sleeping areas or communal areas would work but
the camps have scanners protecting them.”
Bella had been listening hard, “Could I do it?” she asked, “I’m little and…” She was promptly howled down especially by Rani but Mathew remembered something a Priskya had said,
“Would the scanners just see her as a small animal and ignore her?”
Az and Kaz looked uncertainly at each other. “We don’t know,” Az said.
“Can the two lots of parasites be put together and delivered together? Will they eat each other?” asked Sally.
Helkmid looked thoughtful. “I didn’t think of that. That would save time. I’ll find out.”
“How long will it take to grow enough bugs?” asked someone.
“Four to eight days for the viruses, longer is better, three weeks for the parasites to get a lot but I’ve been breeding them for four days already so another 17 or 18 days. I don’t know about the bacteria like bug. I’m still trying. Not long if I get it right.”
“What is the timetable for delivery of each system? asked Mathew.
Helkmid opened his notebook and pressed some keys;
Seven days for the Keulfyd virus to act,
Five for the Trydshell and Opodskell virus
Three to four days for the Sasgys parasite toxin
Two to three days for the Bidifix parasite virus
One day for the Yakkidimux shellfish toxin.
I don’t know how long for the Vubicik bacteria. A bit longer than the virus I think. Maybe ten days. I don’t know. We may just need to deliver it as soon as it’s ready to go.”
“So if we plan the attack to hit on the 30th day after the attack started? Is that around when they’ll start the ground offensive?” Mathew looked at Az and Kaz.
“That would be about right. We were told the timetable was five days to do the main gassings, twenty five days to dispose of the bodies, then the mopping up. I suspect they will start dumping the slaves around 21 to 25 days. The Priskya are watching that. Thirty days is cutting it fine. Can it be a day or two earlier or can we delay them somehow?” asked Az.
“What about releasing one of the bugs early to slow them down?” asked Sally. “Which would work well and cause the least suspicion?”
“The virus for the Trydshell and Opodskell could be ready to go in six days.”
“They together make up about a third of the mercenaries and some are pilots. A lot of them are also in the support staff,” said Kaz. He grinned, “That’d slow them down.”
“Are you sure about the numbers and about just six main Races?” Mathew asked Kaz and Az
“We don’t know but we think so,” answered Az. “If where we were was typical and Helkmid agrees with our suspicion that the slaves will all be killed before the offensive begins. The mercenaries guard the slaves. That frees them up for offence.”
Mathew was very satisfied with the nights work. The suggestions were way beyond where he had expected to get this early. It was obvious to him that people had already been thinking. He was, however, very startled with the preparedness of Helkmid. Not for the first time, this particular Okme had been well equipped. Mathew wondered what Helkmid was a part of but decided not to ask. This was a gift. He would use whatever he could.
W.M.D
Donny just happened to be present, working for Helkmid as usual, when Helkmid and his staff met to discuss their revised plans and explain them to Mathew so Mathew and others could plan the delivery system.
“Who has written the protocol?” Helkmid asked his staff as he rose to speak. There was a smattering of laughter from some including Mathew but puzzlement from Donny. Helkmid said sternly,
“There needs to be a written protocol, with detailed and scientific justification for the project. The methodology must be detailed and informed consent obtained. The intended recipients must have the procedure explained including risks, intended purpose and /or outcome. There must also be precise and detailed description of procedures to be used. On second thoughts I think we’ll skip that bit. I always did hate paperwork. Let’s just kill the bastards.” He smiled as the others laughed and his face lit up. “Now to explain what I am doing about the Keulfyd.” He paused to think.
“The point is how does the virus cause the disease? In this case it is the effect the virus has on their equivalent of your platelets and endothelial cells in the tiny blood vessels of the capillary system. Almost all creatures have a circulatory system and they are remarkably similar. The contents vary but not the purpose and function. Fuel, in one form or another, must get to the parts of a body that need it. So must fluid and oxygen. Waste products must be transported away. In your body Donny, platelet cells are the cells that stop bleeding. This virus interferes with the clotting mechanism and in the end the blood will not clot at all.
Endothelial cells line every blood vessel in the human body. Keulfyd also have these endothelial cells. So do a lot of other Races. Their job is to keep the fluid inside whatever circulatory system the creature uses. This virus causes these cells to leak. The combined job of the platelets and endothelial cells is to keep the fluid and the blood cells inside the blood vessel. So Keulfyd systems are similar and have similar cells with a combined similar function.
Do you see how devastating this virus is Donny? Each problem in itself is serious and can be eventually fatal all by itself. Not only will the blood vessels leak but also the blood will not clot. The body will bleed out. If one system still worked, the doctors could use drugs to help. The combination is too much and hopefully unfixable.”
Mathew was more interested in Helkmid’s attitude. He really did not like the Keulfyd. Mathew wondered why but had the impression that it might not be wise to ask.
Helkmid continued, “This virus causes the blood vessels to leak. The leaking occurs all over the body to some extent, but in this virus the stomachs are worse affected for some reason I do not understand. Keulfyd have four stomachs. You have three Donny if you include the small and large intestines. Also, in the last stages of this disease the lungs leak. The consequences then quickly become serious or lethal. I do not know why these equivalent of your endothelial and platelet cells stop functioning. This is the reason I was given this virus; to figure this out. But I do not like the Keulfyd and I did not do that study.
Another reason this virus will work so well is the mild onset. And even if the doctors look at the cells, they continue to look normal. It is only once the patient is seriously ill that anything looks wrong. A very curious feature of this disease is that the doctors will be examining the organs because that is where they will think the problem is. They will examine and biopsy and they will find nothing wrong. The organs themselves are not damaged and that is the beauty of using this virus. It is deceptive and sneaky. First they will think it is a minor illness and probably ignore it. Then they will concentrate on the organs, the stomachs, but that is not where the problem is. By the time they work it out it will be way too late.
Another joy of this virus is that its rate of infection, its virulence, will now increase sharply once it starts to infect a population. Its incubation period will shorten and its lethality increase. I have altered all these; the virulence, the incubation period and the lethality. I have also ensured that the virus is resistant to all their anti virals. Also, because I have altered this virus and changed it so much, the inoculation will not work even if they have it, which they almost certainly do not.
The first few infected may well survive. Their circulatory system will recover, their organs will not have been damaged because they were never attacked in the first place. It just looked like they were. But the next generation of this virus will be much worse. As soon as I saw this virus, I realised its potential for Biological Warfare.
“How did you get it?” asked Mathew.
“Now that’s another interesting story. About a hundred or so years ago, a woman of my race came to me with an interesting story and some samples. In the hospital she worked in, a patient had come in, a Keulfyd, with a curious illness. He wa
s bleeding badly from the stomachs. Worse, he was not conscious enough to give a proper history. The surgeon who examined him didn’t even try to get a history. That was a very bad mistake. Especially since the Keulfyd had been brought in by his shipmates who could have given a very interesting and revealing history. The surgeon also ignored the other symptoms; fever, headache etc.
There were two doctors on duty that night. The surgeon, was a Keulfyd. The other was another Race and the medical doctor. The Keulfyd surgeon took over the patient’s care. It probably seemed logical but it was a disaster. The Keulfyd was a surgeon and took the obvious surgeon’s approach. He operated. He assumed that there was an injury in the stomachs. Keulfyds are gluttons and have a habit of eating things they shouldn’t and not chewing their food adequately. They also eat a creature that, if not chewed properly, gets its claws caught inside the stomachs and causes damage. It is a delicacy. You can imagine what happens if several of these are eaten and get hooked into several places. They cause bleeding. This is probably what the surgeon expected to find. The nurse was assisting. The surgeon could not stop the bleeding. He did not notice that the bleeding was all through the body because there was so much blood he could not tell where it was coming from but he assumed he knew. He ended up removing all four of the stomachs and left the operating room thinking he had solved the problem. He was lazy as Keulfyd often seem to be and was arrogant to the point of being stupid, which is also typical of his race. In addition he was careless and lax in his technique.
The patient died a couple of days later. The surgeon would probably have investigated except for the problem which occurred on his days off. He became ill. I said he was stupid and arrogant. Because he did not take a history, he did not immediately connect his symptoms with the patient. By the time he did, it was too late. He was the only Keulfyd in the region with medical knowledge and he died. The case was closed.
The chief theatre nurse, in contrast, was not stupid. She was curious, puzzled, very old and experienced. She cleaned and examined the organs, which the surgeon had not. She found them undamaged and not diseased. She made the obvious, to her, conclusion that the disease was functional not biochemical. It did not destroy the cells or the organs. It interfered with their function.
She brought this puzzle to me thinking it might be worth my while to find out what this disease was and come up with a cure. I not only operate these machines. I am also a medical scientist. There are very few of these machines available to ordinary people. They are incredibly difficult and time consuming to build, they need constant updating and constant supervision. Therefore most People cannot afford treatment, even short treatment. Very few can afford a full treatment. If I can find a cure for this virus I can sell it and make a lot of money. She wanted to sell me this virus. I took it and studied it. I also took a very full history. She had done her best to find out what symptoms the surgeon had had and she had tracked down the shipmates of the patient and taken a history from them. She had also carefully and correctly prepared the virus.”
Donny was fascinated. “What did you pay her?”
“What she asked for but a bit more. She was old and ill. She asked for as much treatment as I thought her discovery was worth. That is what I gave her; a full treatment. I did not tell her that,” he added mischievously. “She contacted me a few months later. She was becoming aware of the extent of her recovery but didn’t know how much more rejuvenation she could expect. I told her I had paid her fair value and given her a full treatment. She had given me the specimens plus a history that was almost as valuable. One without the other is only half the story.”
“What did a full treatment do?”
“Gave her back her life. She was old, near retirement age. She ended up your equivalent of early adulthood. But she was also now in perfect health down to the cellular and chromosome level. Her children will be genetically perfect. She also has antibodies to every disease that could, at the time of her treatment, infect our race. And her body will work better because it has been told how to regenerate parts of itself.”
Donny was too young to fully appreciate what he had just been told but when he told Alan later, Alan got the point!
“Did he tell you how the machine does this?’ Alan asked later in front of several other shocked people. “How does it fix chromosomes? Genetic perfection? I thought it would just fix my stuffed organs.”
“Sort of. He said the Machines study as many People of a Race as possible. Thousands if possible. They then work out what is the optimum perfection someone could be down to the cellular and genetic level. A perfect person. But you will still look like you did but you will be as good as you can be. It will also take you back to early adult age if you are older. It will fix everything wrong. It will also make your children perfect.”
“But how?” Alan asked.
“By telling the body how to fix itself and how it should be. He said the body was like a photo copier making copy after copy of its cells. Every now and then the body makes a mistake or an injury or disease results in a mistake that the body doesn’t know how to fix or doesn’t notice, or can’t fix. Over time these mistakes add up. He said that as cells keep splitting and recombining, little bits of them get leftover and detached from the whole. Like losing a little bit. Also there is a fixed limit to most cells, to how many times they can reproduce. There are a lot of built in spare parts he said. A lot can go wrong but we still function; we compensate. But eventually too many cells reach their limit of compensation and you die. The Machines put you back to peak original condition. But you don’t live forever unless you keep up treatment. As soon as you leave the machine, the environment starts to wear you down. You can still be killed by an accident or a disease your body isn’t immune to. It isn’t immortality. You won’t live forever but your body will last much longer and in much better health barring accidents and environmental factors.” There was a shocked silence. Donny looked around. “It’s true,” he said.
“But how come some People go in for only a short time?”
“You get what you can afford. I don’t know how to calculate money yet but he said a full treatment costs according to time. And time is relative to what is wrong. But I gather a full treatment on a sick adult costs a huge lot of money. The more intricate and complicated the Alien is the more the cost because of the greater time it takes to heal it. Or rather to tell it how to heal itself.
He said the machines fix the life threatening problems first. Then they keep going until they have fixed everything or until your treatment stops. Or more often until your credit runs out. The last thing they do is all the cells and chromosomes. He said that after you come out of a full treatment, you can get awful injuries and break bones and your body can fix it but this ability reduces over time. The injuries still make you pretty sick though and the body still needs time to heal. After treatment, you still look the same. It will take months for the body to fix itself if you were badly injured or very old. It isn’t magic, it’s science and it takes time.
But a built in feature is the Machine’s priority on giving you the time to heal. It simultaneously diagnoses what is wrong and starts to fix the most life threatening problems first. Different lights show how far through the treatment is and when not enough has been done yet to keep the patient alive. Sometimes a patient is put in with a known disease or injury and the Machine, by its lights, tells the operator something worse needs fixing first.
Alan wondered, not for the first time, what the Machine had done to him. But he felt no better. No worse, but no better. He wanted to believe that he was going to get better but it was difficult. But he knew not to say anything to Donny. Helkmid had told Donny that the treatment would work and Donny believed him. Simple. Alan wished he had Donny’s faith and his belief and trust in others.
“What did he tell you about what Helkmid and his staff are planning?” asked Alan.
“He says he has a virus that will kill many of the Keulfyds and that will tie up many more of them
because someone will have to look after all the sick. They won’t be able to fight us because they’ll be too busy caring for their sick. He is concentrating on the Keulfyd, the Races that are the mercenaries and the ones that are the pilots. We have to time it so the pilots get sick last as they will be disposing of the slaves. Kaz and Az knew which Races were the pilots and mercenaries. Helkmid says if we can knock these ones out, the rest will be less of a problem. We need to kill or incapacitate about 3,000 mercenaries plus the pilots and about 2000 others that are crew and support personnel. That’s if we time it for after the slaves are killed.
I feel a bit bad about the slaves and so does he but if we have to take on the slaves as well we can’t. We don’t know who the slaves will fight, if they would fight. Some might be bribed by the Keulfyd to fight us. And there are too many Races and we don’t know what they all are. Kaz and Az only know the ones that were in their ship, not the other six ships. And we can’t fight half a million or more as well. And we can’t save them. And it wouldn’t be right for us to kill the slaves. It’s not their fault.
Helkmid says we are going the difficult route. It is much easier to kill by gas, as they are doing, or by food or water contamination. But Helkmid doesn’t know how to make the gas or even what it is. It’s a closely guarded secret. He doesn’t even understand how it works; how it affects all the Races. He thinks it’s a toxin. And we can’t get at their food or water supply because a lot of it is on the ships.
Helkmid says he and his staff brainstormed all this soon after the attack began and again after they realised so many Terrans had escaped and were prepared to fight back. He is frightened that an attack may begin on the Priskya, although he doesn’t know what they can use without damaging the planet. Unless they have a disease he doesn’t know about. His solutions are complicated but there are just too few options and too many Races. After all, diseases are his thing. To know how to defeat something, you must understand it. Helkmid says he’s been working on this Keulfyd virus for decades. He was just experimenting to see what he could do. He said he didn’t really intend to ever use it but he had fun playing with it. There are no Keulfyd among his workers so it was safe. He said doctors, nurses and other medical workers make the best murderers anyway. They also have the highest suicide rate for the same reason. Knowledge. He and Dr. Black have been talking a lot. So has Ludmilla but Dr. Ousey says it gives him the creeps and he doesn’t want to know.
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