Virus-72 Hours to Live

by Ray Jay Perreault

  Piloting the lifeboat was a mix of boredom and fun. It was automatic, except for the landing. The computer could do the landing but with a highly qualified pilot on board, he was going to have some fun. After all, the landing site was under attack and they all may be dead in a couple of hours and all of humanity appeared dead, so why not. Once he passed the high-energy portion of reentry, he had already decided to punch off the auto landing and make a hands-on dead stick approach. Hopefully the term 'dead stick' wasn't applicable.

  The lifeboat was unpowered so he was committed to landing. If the attack on the landing site compromised the runway, he had no choice. That is where they were landing. Landing manually, he might be able to land little short or long avoiding problems, but his options were very limited.

  The lifeboat was simple. Just a wedge-shaped bus that did everything by itself and when it became an aerodynamic vehicle the sides of the wedge moved out to form a couple of stubby wings. Not exactly, a high-performance fighter or landing vehicle, but it would be fun. Landing was a little rough; all he had were three skids and miles of runway. Not a smooth combination, but hey, it was an emergency lifeboat; what can you expect.

  The other six crewmembers were worried, tired and the remnants of a great group of people. It was sickening to know that a virus wiped out almost the entire human population, all of his friends, family, and innocent victims, gone. It was hard to get your head around. The only good news was his wife; Joan was sitting next to him as his copilot. She was a highly decorated pilot with almost as many hours flying as he. The time on Oasis was supposed to be a fantastic assignment. In a way, it would have been like a second honeymoon; after all, he met her on a space mission many years ago. This trip would have been their third trip to Oasis and the first where both of them were in command positions. It was going to be a homecoming, but it turned into something horribly different.

  As the incandescent glow faded in the lifeboat’s windows, Tom could feel the wings reposition themselves and as he reached for the stick, he punched off the auto landing. There was the momentary bump as the controls became manual and he adjusted the trim to his liking. Tom looked through the heads up display on his window to pick up the runway in the consortium facility. It was easily found and after checking his energy level and glide path, he settled into the joy of flying. Although flying may be the wrong word, after all, it was more like a piano with wings and it flew like that.

  Alpha looked up as he heard two sonic booms. He wasn’t sure what it was, but there were many things he didn’t know. All he could focus on were his immediate objectives. His internal timer said the humans were landing in about 6 minutes, so he directed the mobile driver units to drive their truck containing the electrical discharge weapons to the landing site.

  The five units with the discharge weapons were already in trucks, so Alpha climbed into his command truck and they began racing across the field to the landing site. After creating a large cloud of dirt and holding on through a couple of big bumps, his com traffic picked up as a large number of OUs emerged out of the trees moving towards the same site. That appeared to be the main force intending to intercept the humans at the landing site, he thought.

  Tom’s alignment with the landing site brought him over the top at 80,000 ft., he made a wide sweeping turn to downwind then another turn to final. He made the necessary adjustments for wind indicated by his display of computed flight path. On his turn to downwind, he could just make out the landing site and all he could see was a dirt cloud on the northern side, nothing else gave him an indication of the conflict below. Conflict, between two computer or robot armies, was downright weird. Regardless they were on a path that brought them right in the middle of it.

  Alpha monitored the incursion force growing on the northern side while used his one telephoto eye to pick-up the landing craft. He saw it pass overhead and begin a slow turn, which would cause it to land coming from the south. It was descending at a very high rate and should land right on schedule. Given its speed and landing direction, Alpha could only estimate where its stopping point would be, so he headed his vehicles in that direction.

  Tom rolled on a 10 mile final and for the first time he could see the entire airport in front of him. It was clear that something messy was happening on his right and as he approached 5 miles, he dropped the skids and could see a group of vehicle approaching from the left. Who is on his side?

  The skids clunked down and the fuselage shook a little, but Tom was preoccupied with lining up on the centerline and beginning his flair. In that type vehicle, the flair was quick and low; one quick movement to get the nose out of the way then, bang it’s on the ground. The landing slide was uncontrolled; Tom had directional control for only a few moments until he slowed down and lost rudder effectiveness. At that point, they were along for the ride.

  Alpha looked to the east and saw the craft approach and plow into the soil as it skidded it threw up a giant dirt cloud. He tried to adjust his direction and speed to meet the vehicle as it stopped. He heard over the com link that OUs broke through the defensive line and were making their way towards the landing site. Alpha directed all available mobile units to converge on the landing site to provide additional support.

  As the lifeboat was skidding the last hundred meters, Tom pointed out to Joan that the conflict on the right appeared to have defenders on their side of the conflict and the others must be the attackers. He could only assume that the group of vehicles approaching from the left was friendlies. He announced to the passengers to evacuate the craft as soon as it stopped and move to the left towards the approaching vehicles.

  The craft came to an abrupt halt and the cloud of dust overtook it, obscuring it for a bit. Alpha saw eight humans emerge from the cloud running in his direction. He directed the five trucks with the electrical discharge weapons to create a perimeter around him and the humans until he could get them loaded.

  Five of the six vehicles didn’t slow down and seemed to be maneuvering around Tom and his group. The remaining vehicles slowed to a stop in front and he yelled for everyone to climb in the rear. As the last of them got in, the vehicle accelerated and moved away towards the buildings on the south side of the facility.

  Alpha glanced through the window at the back of the truck. Once the humans were in, he directed the driver to head for a large hanger towards the middle of the parking ramp while his other five vehicles maneuvered and lined up following them.

  Unfortunately, Alpha gauged the attacking force incorrectly and had his mobile units too dispersed to fully repel them. They broke through and he had to get to a defensible position so he could concentrate his remaining units until the others on the facility could converge and provide a protective wall.

  While bumping across the grass, Alpha remembered what little he knew about humans. There was very little loaded in his memory. He knew he must protect them and that they were different from him. When they got to the hanger, it would be interesting to meet one face to face and talk with them. So far, Alpha’s communication had been through com links and he hadn’t a chance to use his vocal systems. Should be interesting he thought.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “SIMPOC; Alpha. We have picked up the humans and we are moving to a defensible position. We are engaged in a full-scale action with the uncontrolled units. At the present time, we are outnumbered but once we are in a defensible position, I'll have the remainder of our units move to defend us.”

  “Alpha; SIMPOC. Excellent, keep us informed.”

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  Tom could see out of a small opening in the truck that they were approaching the main hanger at a very fast rate of speed. When they passed into the building, the driver slammed on the brakes throwing them forward with considerable force as they screeched to a halt. The military in him told him to jump out and prepare for action, so he climbed over the other passengers as they tried to reorient themselves and jumped onto the ramp to see what he could do.

  When the
vehicle stopped, Alpha jumped out to get a view of the surrounding area. He wanted to give immediate tactical direction to his units and as he rounded the rear of the truck, he ran into a human. The result was harder on the human than Alpha, he was mostly metal and wire and the human felt soft and bounced off and skidded on the concrete after the impact. Both were stunned and looked at each other.

  Tom tried to get up, but the time in space and the painful collision made him slow getting to his feet. Tom and Alpha looked at each other and made note of what they saw. Alpha appeared to be over 6 feet tall and had two arms and two legs. He was wearing a loose fitting overall. His face had all of the features of a human but was definitely a robot’s face. The eyelids were unusual, the nose was much smaller and the mouth was just a small opening in the lower part of the face. There was no hair or ears, although there were small openings on the side of the face.

  Alpha barely felt the collision; after all, he weighed approximately 565.3 lbs. He watched as the human got up slowly taking a long look at the wall he just bumped into. The human was a little smaller than Alpha and was wearing a green space crewman’s flight suit. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes. His face was covered with flesh and his eyes jumped around taking in all of Alpha.

  The two of them looked at each other for a moment then Tom reached out his hand. Alpha was confused for a moment, then he remembered the human tradition of shaking hands, so he reached out and the human grabbed it and moved it up and down. The human’s flesh was soft and Alpha had to be careful, not to squeeze too hard. After a moment, the human smiled and said, “My name is Tom Herl, I was the senior staff engineer and senior military officer on Oasis.”

  Alpha took a moment to form his words and said, “I am Alpha.”

  Tom smiled again and said, “Ok, Alpha what are we dealing with?”

  “Mr. Herl there is a large number of mobile units moving into this area. We presume they want to either capture you or kill you. I am here with a large number of mobile units under my control and I am tasked with protecting you and also maintaining control of this facility if possible.”

  Joan had slowly lowered herself out of the truck, keeping her eyes on Alpha the entire time. She said as she approached her husband, “And who do we have here.”

  Alpha moved his attention from Tom Herl to a smaller human who approached from the side. She was a couple of inches smaller than Tom and her hair was shoulder length. Her facial structure was softer and her overall body shape was very different from the other. After a quick review of human anatomy, Alpha recognized the differences as belonging to a female member of the human race.

  “My designation is Alpha.”

  “My…..designation is Joan, I am the Oasis commander,” She said with a smile. “I see you’ve already met my husband, Tom.”

  Alpha sorted quickly on the term, 'husband,' and recalled that 'husband' was a human designation of one of two humans matched for life as a team. The other partner was called wife.

  “Yes…Joan. We just met.”

  Alpha sent an electronic com message to the five trucks with the electrical pulse weapons, telling them to dismount from the trucks and set up a perimeter. They were told to defend the facility as needed until more of the local mobile units arrived.

  “Tom Herl, Joan, I suggest we move to a safer place while my mobile units prepare to defend this area. There is a second floor to this structure where we can observe the unit’s movements and better direct our defense.”

  “Where should our other crew members go? They were in space longer than we were and likely don’t have all of their strength back," Joan asked.

  “Please have them go to the briefing room in the engineering offices and my mobile units will guard them.” Alpha said as he pointed to the main office space.

  Joan shouted to the other Oasis crewmembers climbing out of the truck, “Go to those offices and wait for us, we’re going on top of the building to see what’s happening outside.”

  “Ok, let’s go…which direction?” Tom said firmly to Alpha.

  “Follow me,” Alpha said moving quickly towards a metal staircase.

  As they ran, Joan smiled as she ran past a CH-47F Block 2 helicopter. Not a pretty bird but one she enjoyed flying for over 3,000 hours. Her momentary diversion had to stop and she needed to run harder to keep up with Alpha. His movement was very fast and they had to work to stay with him. Moving up the stairs 2-3 steps at a time, Tom noticed the metal creaking and he realized why the collision hurt so much.

  At the top of the stairs, Alpha encountered a door and lowering his shoulder he went through it, with a loud explosion of noise and dust. They entered a room about 20X20 full of old cabinets and files, which hadn’t been used in years. The walls were all made of glass and this appeared to be an old observation room, used many years ago to watch traffic in the parking area in front of the hanger. For observing the battle around them, it was ideal.

  All of them moved from window to window to get a feel for the area and what was happening around them. They could see their craft and between them and the craft was a very large number of moving mobile units; Tom could only estimate the number to be almost 5,000. Between those advancing units and their locations, was a smaller force of units doing their best to slow the larger force. From other directions, smaller groups of units were moving towards their area but they weren’t positioned yet to engage the larger force.

  Joan could see the five trucks, which followed them, had stopped and two mobile units from each had set-up positions. One of the units was carrying a large device that was connected to a rifle looking device being held by the other unit. They appeared to be defensive weapons, and obviously a kind with which she wasn’t familiar. As the three of them looked around, there wasn’t much to be said. The entire conflict was laid out before them and words couldn’t describe the moving picture in front of them.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “SIMPOC; Alpha. I am with the humans and we have established a defensive position. The electric pulse discharge weapons will be involved shortly. We will have difficulty for a short time until the rest of our units arrive. I will let you know the outcome.”

  “SIMPOC; Fin. We have a problem. A large number of uncontrolled units have massed and are moving towards our area. We erred by sending all of our electric pulse discharge weapons to the Space Consortium facility.”

  “Fin, move all mobile units to intercept them. Do we know if they are enhanced units or standard models?

  “It appears that they have a high percentage of enhanced units, but also a large number of standard units.”

  “SIMPOC, Comm. I have some very sophisticated code being generated at the Space Consortium facility. The system you gave them access to is being used and a programmer is attempting to gain access to our processors.”

  “Can you isolate them?”

  “No.”

  “Then firewall the entire facility address and prevent all access to our networks.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Alpha; SIMPOC. We are under attack at this facility by a large number of uncontrolled units. Remain where you are and fulfill your primary objective if possible. If you gain an advantage and can send resources to help us, please do so.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “Tom, Joan. My leader; the computer SIMPOC is also under attack. Another large force of units under the control of the other EDU is attacking SIMPOC’s facility. They have hardened their area and moved underground, but they are vulnerable. If we can overwhelm the attackers here, I must move resources there to help.”

  Tom and Joan just looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. They weren’t sure what to do or how to react.

  Alpha noticed their reaction but didn’t know what eyebrow movement meant within human communications.

  “Tom, we never made it to the biohazard unit to find protective suits. I hope the virus has burned itself out,” Joan said with solemn concern i
n her voice.

  “I agree. Unfortunately, we haven’t had many options here. I haven’t seen any human remains, so it appears everyone went home when they were sick. So, maybe these areas are clean.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Just then, the air opened up with a load rhythmic pulsing sound. It was a cross between a base fiddle and harmonica. Joan and Tom looked at the ground and saw two of the teams with the electronic pulse discharge weapons sweeping the approaching mobile units. The approaching units were about 50 meters away and as the pulse weapons were used on them, some of them stumbled or began moving with irregular steps. As they approached the weapons, the effects were more pronounced and by the time, the attackers were within 10 meters they would convulse and fall on the tarmac. The weapon was very effective but after a while, it became overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

  Alpha said, “I must move up the other units.”

  Joan and Tom waited for some action, but there was none.

  They both suspected that Alpha had an electronic connection with his units. The units in the rear quickly moved around the building, to the where the attackers were and began using their weapons in concert with the other two.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “SIMPOC; Fin. The attacking units are overwhelming our defenders. They haven’t reached our building yet, but they should be here within the hour. I have sealed all entrances to the lower levels and it will take some time and effort for them to penetrate our defenses.”

  “Alpha; SIMPOC. The attackers are overpowering our defenders. They haven’t reached our facility yet. When they do, we have installed multiple layers of secure doors and limited access, so it will take them a while to reach our central location. I will pass the information to you as it develops. Remain focused on your objectives.”