by D. M. Pruden
“Mel, the place is a disaster. It may take us hours to find a pack if there is one.”
“If you don’t get some power to this lab, whatever killed the crew will be released and we’ll be in the same shape as the people on this ship.”
“How could the virus harm us?” Dunn interrupted the conversation between Schmaltz and me. “Nothing’s been detected on the viral scanners.”
“The bug may be dead, or only dormant in these conditions. According to the limited information you gave me, it can potentially survive for weeks in a vacuum. But there’s a full sample cartridge open in the bio-containment chamber. If it gets airborne and on our suits, we won’t be able to take them off without becoming exposed.”
“Give me a minute. I have an idea,” said Schmaltz.
I waited anxiously for what seemed like an hour, staring at the blinking light; willing it to repeat; relieved every time it did.
“Mel, the main bus is intact. I can restart the power.”
“Will that turn on the heat and the air flow?”
“Um, yeah.”
“We can’t do that. The containment chamber needs power, but we have to keep everything else aboard in a frozen vacuum. I don’t want to risk activating any virus that might be dormant.”
“Shit. I need another moment. Stand by.” I heard the swish of the blood running through my ears and my mouth was dryer than a desert. The light continued to blink, but I could swear the frequency of the blinks slowed down since I first looked at it.
“The guys that built this ship were smart. The medical centre has a separate power line dedicated to the bio-containment unit. I can turn it on and leave the rest of the vessel freezing in the dark.”
“Do it!”
“Already done Mel. Is it still blinking?”
My heart skipped a beat when I saw the amber LED was no longer on.
“It’s gone out...” I could barely hear my own voice. Tears fogged up my vision. I was dead, thanks to a stupid battery.
“Can you find a green power indicator?”
My gaze frantically scanned the front of the containment control panel and was drawn to the steady glowing light on the other side of the access door.
“Yes, it’s on!” I laughed with relief. I stared at it to assure myself that it showed no sign of going out.
“Doctor, is all secure?”
“Yes, Dunn, everything is good. We’re safe.”
“So what do you propose we do about the bodies? We need to restore power before the Terrans find us.”
“The entire ship must be considered contaminated, especially anything touched by the blood of the victims. We have to determine if the cold killed the virus or just put it to sleep.”
Careful thought was required before I gave any instructions. I didn’t know how the pathogen had been released. From everything I could tell, it struck fast and hard, killing everyone within a few hours of exposure. I needed to get some tissue samples, preferably from the first and last to be exposed. I was pretty sure the poor fellow in the isolation unit was among the first.
“Hodgson, did you find anything on the bridge? Are there any bodies?”
“Yes, one.”
“Where was he found?”
“He was wearing a pressure suite and strapped into the pilot’s seat, but his visor was opened. I think the poor bastard committed suicide.”
Somebody had to pilot the ship here. He might be the last victim.
“Bring the body to the medical bay. As far as the other remains go, take them outside.”
“Will we contaminate ourselves by handling them?” Dunn seemed worried. It was good to know that something could frighten the man.
“I found no indications of a virus near anyone I’ve examined. The blood around them is frozen, just be careful not to get any of the ice crystals on your suits.”
I honestly didn’t know if what killed everyone was even transferable to us. I did know that we couldn’t stay in these bulky spacesuits indefinitely. We would have to activate life support at some stage, either here or in the drop ship. I suppose a risk of contamination remained if we just left, returned to the shuttle and made a run from the Terrans with Fortuna, but I had no great desire to spend a safe life in a Terran detention facility, assuming they didn’t blow us up instead. A chance existed that one of us had somehow gotten something on our boots or a part of our suits. If the viral agent was dormant, that single exposure would kill us more quickly than the Terran guns the minute we heated it up in our own ship.
Our best bet was for me to examine the tissue in the isolation lab and determine the status of the virus. If dead, we could continue with Dunn’s plan. Regardless, having the crew move corpses gave them something useful to do while I determined if we were going to live or die. No sense letting everyone worry until there was a reason.
“Do you want us to bury them?” asked Bogdan.
“I really don’t think they care. Do as you think best.”
Chapter 17
Felix Altius relaxed and permitted his mind to wander as he luxuriated in the nearly scalding waters of the caldarium. Spending time in Mundi’s elaborate balneum was one of the few pleasures he took in the employment of his master.
On his return from the meeting with the Martians, Felix felt the need to wash the odour of their planet from his clothing and body. It seemed to permeate everything. Tomorrow he would order the entire yacht thoroughly fumigated to ensure it usable for his Dominus. Multiple ships remained at Regis Mundi’s immediate disposal, many of them larger and far more opulent. He reasoned he could indulge in this one simple pleasure without any lingering guilt.
He occupied himself with the sensory input of the hot water caressing his skin and lost all perception of time as he became immersed in blissful nothing. The hypnotic sound of the water lapping the edge of the pool soothed him and allowed him to relax for the first time in weeks. The almost imperceptible pad of bare feet moving cautiously towards him on the warm floor tiles disturbed his hard-earned sense of calm. The familiar pattern of the offending footfalls told him who they belonged to. The intruder halted a respectful distance from him and remained still.
“Yes, Basilius?” Felix did not open his eyes. He always thought it an ironic name for a slave. The servant’s greek name meaning “Emperor” exemplified his Dominus’ unique humour when it came to naming his possessions.
“There is an urgent message for you, Sir.”
Basilius was instructed on the short list of people permitted to interrupt. Felix exhaled noisily and rose from the steaming waters. The man held a towel and robe in hand, anticipating the response his announcement would provoke. Felix allowed his body slave to dry and dress him, then followed after the man to the small communications room secreted near the entrance to the baths.
Felix might have activated his implant to receive the message, but he loathed to use the technology, preferring to see the person he spoke with. He found the impact of an actual old style video communication better transmitted his annoyance at being interrupted.
The image resolved itself into the face of Kiri Mason. Her proactive efforts to keep him personally apprised of events as they occurred instead of burying them in formal reports, pleased him.
“Sir, there has been a development in the mission.”
“I surmised as much.” Felix didn’t want to admonish her too severely. She would soon enough learn to be more succinct.
“One of your agents aboard the Terran cruiser, Athena, reported they are pursuing the Fortuna.”
“They’ve identified it as their’s?”
“The agent did not believe so. They flagged the vessel for investigation because it entered the search grid and had no active transponder.”
“What were they even doing searching that area? Weren’t we assured the Terran’s directed their fleet to other coordinates?”
“We were, Sir. Our operative believes Athena’s captain received intelligence directing him to the Fortuna’s p
osition.”
Someone worked against them.
“Any word from Dunn?”
“His last communication confirmed the flight plan of Victorem, however, I believe he suspects something.”
“Have the crew been replaced?”
“We are waiting until just before the scheduled launch. Do you wish to change the order?”
“No, we will stick to the script. Let the events with the Terrans play out for a while more. If Dunn thinks his plans compromised, this may be a hint of what his new ones are to be. Stay in touch with the agent on Athena, and keep me informed of any further developments.”
Kiri Mason acknowledged her orders with a nod and terminated the communication link. It pleased Felix she learned so quickly.
No proof existed the Terran’s acted on the instigation of Dunn, but neither did any reason appear for him to believe they hadn’t. He was familiar with Dunn’s profile and he exhibited a history of employing elaborate plans to complete his missions. Using a double feint like this was in character.
He believed Athena’s captain belonged to Dunn. If that were the case, desperate measures might be required aboard the Terran vessel. Such an action could only be sanctioned by Regis Mundi. Felix needed more than speculation. He would need to allow Dunn to make his intentions clearer. The deal with the Martians remained too important to let this continue very long.
He frowned, annoyed the benefits of his bath were so rapidly lost.
Chapter 18
With two frozen corpses now on the beds in the isolation unit, I started my makeshift forensic examination. The bulky space suit made the job terribly difficult, but I couldn’t risk allowing Schmaltz to activate life support until I knew. He directed more power to the lab to let me use the molecular imaging microscope. I dared not ask him to turn on the lights, lest the temperature in the room get too high, so I had to work with the headlamps on my helmet. After securing tissue samples from the obvious sites of bleeding, I got them into the examination chamber and took a look at what killed the crew. What I saw scared the shit out of me.
This was no virus familiar to me. In every sample, I found the same thing, thousands of microscopic nanites, all inactive and totally inert. This was not a genetically engineered pathogen. It was a bio-engineered weapon. Nano-medicine was my specialty and I had never seen anything like this before.
After twenty minutes of discussion with Schmaltz, we figured out a way to create a small, isolated environment in the one of the lab’s bio-manipulation chambers. I needed to test if the sample was dormant or dead. To my great relief, nothing happened. I ran several more specialized tests to make sure and repeated my experiments with other samples and with some of the crystallized blood found around the victims. The results remained consistent. The nano-virus was inactive, apparently programmed to remain active for a limited time and then self-destruct, like the perfect bio-weapon.
At least, that stood as my working theory. I considered the happy green light on the bio-containment chamber. A really keen scientist would next want to select a nano-virus sample and test how it progressed through live tissue. I didn’t feel the need to be that informed at the moment.
I contacted the crew and told them they were safe with no chance of infection, but I kept the details of the nanites to myself. Garrick gave Schmaltz the order to turn on the life support and get the ship up to living conditions as soon as possible before beginning work on repairing the damage in engineering.
The lights abruptly came on in the medical lab. My eyes adjusted to the light levels and came to focus on Hodgson standing outside of the isolation chamber.
“Why weren’t you helping the others?”
“I thought the presumed dead should bury the dead. I wanted to check in on you.”
“Why?”
“Because if something had gone wrong, I didn’t want you to die alone.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have...” I realized what the big goof was trying to tell me. Why do guys become sentimental and stupid when you sleep with them? He didn’t realize if the virus had been only dormant, we all would have lived until we chose to remove our suits or just let the oxygen run out. Still, I thought his gesture sweet.
“Thanks for the thought, Dylan.”
“You’re welcome, Melanie.”
Grateful the helmet hid my blushing, I changed to a safer topic.
“Can you please take these two outside with the others?” I indicated my patients on the tables.
While he wrestled with one of the corpses, I searched for a cleaning agent. There may not have been an active nanite population in the bodies or their fluids, but it was still a good idea to clean up the blood as much as possible before we got out of the suits. The next few hours were going to be tiring.
Garrick conscripted everyone not working in engineering to the task. The sooner we could remove the spacesuits, the better. Mine smelled overripe. By the time we cleaned up the few areas we intended to occupy, the temperature had risen to above freezing.
The door opened to Hodgson and Limn who struggled under the weight of the containment unit we had brought down in the drop ship.
“What am I supposed to do with that? The ship’s field is running perfectly now.”
“We didn’t think it would do any good in the hangar with the shuttle. It might be useful for spare parts, or a backup,” said Hodgson. “Being cautious can’t hurt, can it?”
“Besides, I’m not carrying it anywhere else,” added Limn, annoyed at my lack of appreciation.
I directed them to put it in a corner of the lab and returned to my task. What to do with the extra equipment proved the last thing I wished to spend time thinking about. Exhausted, I wanted to get to my cabin and take a shower.
Chapter 19
I entered engineering with three meal packs from the drop ship. The deck was strewn with cables and damaged components that were in the process of being replaced.
“Is anyone hungry?”
“Famished,” replied Bogdan. He put down his tools and wiped off his hands as he came to collect one. Schmaltz was right behind him.
“Are you guys making any progress?”
“Yes, despite appearances, we are,” he said while surveying the room. “We should be ready to launch in five hours.”
“The Terrans are going to arrive in three.”
“You’re starting to sound like Dunn and the Captain,” he said between mouthfuls.
He noticed the concern on my face and added, “Not to worry, Doctor. The Fortuna is due to leave orbit in twenty minutes. If everything goes according to Dunn’s plan, that should buy us enough time to escape.”
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and transferred the cigar stub from his pocket to his teeth. “Is everything secure in medical? I don’t want that virus doing an encore performance on us.”
“It’s not a...problem.” I’d almost told him about the nanites in front of his assistant.
“Where’s Hodgson?” I held up the last meal pack.
“He’s installing some new buffers in the gravity controller. It turns out the man has some engineering skills. Not too bad at it, either,” said Bogdan as he went back to the job I had interrupted.
“Seriously? Hodgson is an engineer too?”
“He knows his way around an engine room, for sure. He’s been a huge help. I’m sure he deserves some lunch. He’s over there.” He pointed the way and returned to work.
Feeling somewhat like the farmer’s wife taking food to the men in the field, I headed toward where he had indicated. I rounded the corner to see Hodgson, head and shoulders buried inside an access panel. I took a moment to admire his muscular ass before clearing my throat. He jumped and banged his head on the opening. He dropped to the floor, grimacing in pain while holding his injured noggin.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I was a bit focused and wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“Are you all right? Let me take a look.” There was blood
running between his fingers from his wounded scalp.
“I’m okay.”
“The hell you are. That’s a nasty wound. I’m going to need to stitch you up.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“Doctor’s orders, tough guy.” I handed him the meal pack and reached out a hand to help him stand. “You can eat your lunch while I fix you. I’ll have you back down here playing with your toys in no time.”
He thought about it, then smiled and took my hand.
“Promise it won’t hurt, Doc?”
“Nope, let’s go.”
♢♢♢
By the time Dylan Hodgson sat on the examination table in the medical centre, the wound in his scalp no longer bled.
“I told you I’d be okay.”
“This isn’t normal.” I frowned at him. “Spill everything, soldier. What’s going on?” I suspected what he would say, but wanted to hear the explanation from him.
“Military enhancement. They injected me with tiny little...”
“I know what nanites are. When did this happen?” I cleaned the blood away to reveal a forming a scab.
“I received them when they assigned me to a combat unit.”
“Well, it’s an expensive procedure. I didn’t realize the military used the technology so extensively.”
“I suppose you think it’s cheaper to replace soldiers instead?” He smiled.
“Why did you agree to come here to get stitched up?”
He grinned boyishly and shrugged his shoulders. “When a pretty lady offers to nurse me back to health, I learned a long time ago to not refuse.”
“This happens a lot?” I went to the cabinet and took out a venipuncture kit.
“Uh, not really. What’s that?”
“This is to take a blood sample. I want to examine your nanites if that’s all right?”
“Why?”
“They are a special interest of mine. I study them. I’m an author of several papers on the topic.”
“I believe you. I just prefer if you not do that. I signed a confidentiality agreement and all that.” He jumped off the table. “Can I go now?”