Virtual

by S A Pavli

  “No. We have to move the patient,” agreed Leslie.

  “What would be your professional assessment of the risk Doctor?” asked the Captain. Leslie shook her head.

  “I believe that may be very dangerous. Everyone on the Chameleon was infected and all died except the Captain, and she would have been dead in another day if we had not rescued her. We are clearly dealing with something very infectious and very deadly. I think we have taken enough of a risk in bringing her onto the ship.”

  “Understood,” said Mark soberly. He remained scowling thoughtfully into the middle distance for a few moments before speaking slowly. “We have to send a Hyperspace message back to Adelphi immediately. No doubt in ten days or so a dozen military and government ships will descend on us. In the meantime, what do we do? We have a mission. Should we proceed with it?”

  “Mark, I don’t think you understand,” said Leslie, leaning forward in her chair to emphasise her point. “We are not dealing with any Earthly organism.” Melanie and Mark looked at her aghast. “As Sherlock Holmes said, when you have eliminated all the options except one, however impossible that one is, you have to take it seriously.”

  “Who the hell is Shirley Holmes?” asked Mark.

  “Sherlock Holmes,” said Melanie with a smile. “He was a character in some old detective novels I believe.”

  “Not a character,” corrected Leslie. “But the worlds greatest detective.”

  “Ah right…,” said Mark. “When all options have been eliminated but one… however impossible…,” he repeated to himself.

  “You have to take it seriously,” finished Leslie.

  “Mmm well…the flaw in that is obvious,” said Mark. “How can you be sure you have eliminated all other possible options?”

  “It’s a game of chance Captain,” said Leslie. “You can never be absolutely certain of the unknown. What Sherlock Holmes was saying is that you should not close your mind to any option, however improbable, when it best explains all the facts.”

  “Does it?” asked Mark. “Explain all the facts?”

  “Nothing else explains the facts,” said Leslie stubbornly. Melanie frowned and shook her head.

  “But Leslie, these individuals were wearing space suits all the time. This moon is airless. Unless we assume that they found an airtight chamber and were foolish enough to open their faceplates.”

  “Maybe this is an organism that can survive a vacuum,” said Mark.

  “Still, they were wearing Space suits,” insisted Melanie.

  “The alien organism could have got into the shuttle’s airlock, and then infected them when they removed their spacesuits,” said Leslie. There was silence for some moments while they all mulled this over. Before anyone could speak, the silence was broken by the calm mellow tones of the ship’s computer.

  “Attention Doctor Peters, your patient is in a critical condition. Her heart rhythm is highly irregular and blood pressure has dropped to a dangerous level.”

  “Oh shit, I have to get suited up,” exclaimed Leslie, leaping out of her chair. As she dashed out of the room they heard her shouting instructions to Alden to administer anaesthetising drugs via the intravenous drip. Melanie leapt up.

  “Mark, I’ll go and see if I can help.” He nodded but it was to her departing back. He stared pensively at his half empty coffee cup. He wanted to shout after Melanie; take care of yourself. Something was gnawing at his emotions, a raw feeling of fear. Fear of the unknown. What sort of virus, or living organism can survive the environment on this moon. Being alternately boiled, then frozen in a vacuum would kill anything living. It would be a very nasty little monster indeed he thought.

  “Alden, how is the patient?” asked Mark.

  “Her heart has stopped Mark,” intoned Alden, in the same tone as if he was announcing that tea was served.

  “Where is Doctor Peters?”

  “She is suiting up now, with Professor Carstairs help. I believe she will try to restart the patients heart using a defibrillator.”

  “Thank you Alden.” Not doing anything here he thought, my place is where the action is. By the time he arrived at the shuttle bay, Leslie was fully enclosed in her isolation suit and was cycling the air lock. Melanie was doing up a final zip and checking all the seals. Leslie was clutching the defibrillator, which looked incongruously like a mechanical squid . The rest of the team had also decided to come down and give Leslie their moral support and Mark had to push his way through a crowd of bodies to get to the Doctor.

  “Leslie, do you need support in there?” he asked. “We have a second isolation suit.” Leslie looked at him, azure blue eyes unfathomable.

  “No Mark, I don’t think that will be necessary.” She pulled the hood over her head and stepped through the open airlock door. It closed and the inner door to the TV opened. It took Leslie a few seconds to arrange the paddles on to the prostate woman’s chest. She operated the switch and waited for the machine to charge. Unconsciously she went through the routine inside her had. Stand back, three, two, one, the machine hummed and thumped and the body convulsed. The heart monitor remained a flat line. She began the standard resuscitation routine, pumping the chest, breathing into the mouth. Two cycles of that and then another go with the defibrillator. The machine thumped again and to her surprise the heart monitor jiggled, spiked and settled into a regular normal rhythm. An unprofessional scream of delight escaped her and she turned and waved a clenched fist through the window at the anxious faces inside. She saw answering waves and someone was dancing a little jig. I don’t know why we are so happy she thought, the poor woman is as good as dead anyway. But the heart monitor was remarkably steady she noticed and remained so. Well, miracles have happened before she thought as she checked the patients drip and the electrical connections. Everything was in order and she was preparing to leave when Captain Anja opened her eyes. They were an intense blue and they fixed themselves on Leslie.

  “Who the hell are you?” she said. “Where am I?”

  Chapter 13

  Leslie staggered with the shock. For a few moments she was struck speechless and found herself gaping at the woman on the bed. Meanwhile, the blue eyes were examining their surroundings intently.

  “Why am I strapped to this bed?” she asked, then, “Have I been ill?” A frown creased the woman’s forehead. “Jesus, I remember now…oh my God….oh my God.” The blue eyes glazed over and a groan was torn from the woman’s trembling lips. Suddenly afraid that she might relapse into her previous vegetative state, Leslie was galvanised.

  “It’s ok, you’re all right now,” she said hastily. “You are on the starship Bounty Hunter. We found your ship and rescued you.”

  “My crew…,” croaked Anja.

  “I’m sorry,” said Leslie. “We found them all…”

  “They’re all dead, I know,” said Anja. “I remember…,” she tailed off, a horrified expression on her face. There was a click from the intercom and Mark’s voice came from the speaker.

  “Leslie, what’s happening? Do you want assistance?”

  “No Captain, I’m ok. The patient, Captain Pederson, seems to have fully recovered.”

  “Fully recovered? She’s alive you mean?” asked Mark.

  “No Captain, I mean fully recovered. She is speaking to me now. Give me a couple minutes would you?”

  “I’ll switch the microphones on so that we can all listen in,” responded Mark. Leslie turned back to the prostate form of the blonde woman. The expression on her strong face was still one of shock.

  “Captain, you have been through some very traumatic events and your body is full of drugs. You will be feeling very strange at the moment but… try to relax.” Captain Pederson looked strangely at Leslie, her eyes blank and uncomprehending. She looked at the wires and tubes connected to her body, and the straps holding her to the bed. “Doctor…,” she began.

  “I have to keep you connected up for a while longer,” said Leslie.

  “But…can you undo the
se straps?” asked the Captain. Leslie paused for a moment, in obvious indecision.

  “Leslie, I see no problem with that,” interjected Mark. “They were there for her safety anyway.” Leslie nodded and moved to undo the straps.

  “Captain Pederson, this is Captain Alexander of the Bounty Hunter. Can you remember what happened to your crew, and how it happened?” asked Mark.

  “I’m trying to make sense of what happened Captain,” replied Anja Pederson slowly, her face strained. “But the details are jumbled up…”

  “Captain, she needs time to recover,” said Leslie.

  “I understand Leslie, but we must know what we are facing here as quickly as possible,” replied Mark. Leslie was quickly undoing the straps and helping her patient to sit up in bed.

  “I can tell you what I think Captain, but it’s hard to believe,” said Anja Pederson. Leslie handed her a bottle of water and she took a long drink before speaking again. She was struggling to compose herself, and spoke slowly and hesitantly.

  “I think we are dealing with an alien life form.” There was silence for a few seconds and then a babble of voices over the intercom as everyone spoke at once.

  “There’s no other way to explain what happened,” continued Anja Pederson, silencing the questions. She slumped back in her seat, the effort to compose her thoughts and talk were obviously too much for her and her head lolled back in exhaustion. Leslie shook her had in exasperation and fussed over her, examining her medical readings and adjusting the settings on the drip.

  “Perhaps we will leave the questions to later Leslie,” said Mark.

  Later proved to be much later; the patient slept for ten hours, after which a fussy Doctor Leslie would not approve her interrogation until she was up and disconnected from her drip and other medical paraphernalia. During this time, the ship’s company continued their investigations of the moon and its host planet. The scientific team amassed their data, but the thing on everyone’s minds was Anja Pederson staggering remark.

  When the Doctor eventually gave her permission for Anja Pederson to be interviewed, Mark called a meeting of the whole company in the Lounge. Anja was still in isolation, but disconnected from the medical plumbing and wiring and sitting up in bed, looking pale but composed. Leslie had remained with her throughout, apart from a few breaks to eat and refresh herself. Mark had patched the video through to the main screen so that they could join in the discussions. A portable screen in the Transit Vehicle airlock gave Anja and the Doctor a view of the lounge and its occupants.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” began Mark. “I’ve called this meeting so that we can all hear Captain Pederson’s story. We must then decide what the risks are and what our course of action should now be. Captain Pederson…” He turned to the view screen. “Are you able to tell us what happened here?” Anja’s image on the screen nodded and her voice came out clearly and strongly.

  “Yes Captain, I am feeling much better, thanks to Doctor Peters. I’d like to begin by thanking her. Her prompt action saved my life and I am in her debt.”

  “All in a days work Captain,” said Leslie with a smile. Captain Anja smiled wanly.

  “I doubt that,” she murmured. She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. “I was contracted to transport a scientific expedition to this planet from Adelphi. We arrived here four days ago and of course we were amazed to find the structures on the moon. We sent down the shuttle with a crew of four, my chief officer as pilot and three of the scientists. They entered the largest building in the centre via the hole half way up. We think the hole was caused by a meter impact, it’s quite large enough for the shuttle to enter. The building has thirty five floors and we entered around the fourteenth. The meteor had destroyed part of three floors, so we had access to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth floors, but the shuttle was too large to navigate the floors so we returned and loaded up our two AG hover cars. We landed the shuttle on the ground and flew into the building using the hover cars. We spent most of the first day exploring the main building. It’s amazing. It’s full of artefacts; machines, robots and equipment.” She paused for a few moments. There was an excited whispering amongst the scientists.

  “Did you see any pictures of the inhabitants Captain?” asked Walters.

  “We did,” she said. There was an explosion of noise and excitement as everyone tried to speak at once. Exclamations of ‘incredible’ and ‘amazing’ were interspersed with more colourful expletives. “There were what appears to be pictures on the walls, but they have faded away,” continued Anja. “But we found two sculptures in a big open area on the fifteenth floor.” A number of people asked the obvious question; ‘what do they look like?’

  “Like four legged squids,” she replied. “Ugly as sin. Four legs, two arms with six fingered hands. Huge round heads and little wide set piggy eyes above a beak like nose. Slightly shorter than us with a barrel like body.”

  “Bloody hell, giant intelligent squids,” exclaimed the Major.

  “Why not?” said Walters. “They have arms, legs, a head with eyes ears etc… The exact appearance and disposition is irrelevant. They get the job done.”

  “Yeah, but would you let your sister marry one?” asked LeBlanc.

  “We took pictures and film of course,” continued Captain Anja. “It’s all on the Chameleon.”

  “So, you were able to move around freely on all the floors?” asked Mark.

  “Yes, there are stairs in both the centre of the building and around the periphery. There are also a couple of lift shafts in the centre. The stairs are not wide enough for the hover cars and they had to walk. It’s very dark in there and we only managed to explore half a dozen floors. We planned to return the next day with power and lighting.”

  “You planned to return?” asked Mark. “So you never made it back?”

  “No,” whispered Anja, her face pale and strained.

  “Take your time Captain,” said Mark. Leslie reached out and gave the Captain’s hand an encouraging squeeze.

  “They spent some eight hours down there. They loaded the hover cars back in the shuttle and flew back up to the Chameleon. Everyone was jubilant as you can imagine. This was the big one, and we had been privileged to be the first. The shuttle came into the airlock and they all came out, still wearing their space suits of course. My other two crewman had gone down to help them take their suits off, and it was them that became ill first. They both just collapsed, gibbering and frothing at the mouth. As soon as the others took their suits off, they succumbed as well. I was up in the bridge by myself and….” Anja gave moan of terror at the remembered thought. Her voice trembled as she continued. “I could not believe what I was seeing at first. Two of the scientists had stayed behind to monitor the instruments, they were in a control room we had set up, and I had them on the monitor. They became ill as well, without having any contact with the returning team The only one who was spared was me. My crew, everyone, had turned into zombies. It was like one of these horror movies. At first I didn’t want to leave the Bridge. I wanted to lock myself in. But after a couple of hours of watching them all suffering, I knew I had to try and help them.”

  “Captain, to be clear,” interrupted Mark. “People became ill, without having any physical contact with the explorers?”

  “Yes. The explorers didn’t become ill until they removed their space suits,” agreed the Captain. “I’ve been thinking about it and I am sure that what infected them came up in the shuttle and was released as soon as the shuttle doors opened inside the ship.”

  “Whatever it is, it also has the capacity to travel,” remarked LeBlanc.

  “Yes, the two scientists became ill without being anywhere near the explorers,” agreed Anja.

  “So you went down to try and help your colleagues?”

  “I couldn’t do anything for any of them,” said Anja, her voice full of remorse and grief. “Just watch them suffer and gradually die. They couldn’t keep any food or water down. Hardly any contr
ol over their bodies. And their minds had gone. And what was worse, I discovered that the ship’s AI had gone off line.”

  “I was going to ask you about that,” said Mark. “When did that happen?”

  “I am not sure exactly. When I went down to help my colleagues it was still on line. When I came back to the Bridge later, it was off.”

  “Captain, for my benefit, what does that mean?” The question was raised by Leslie. “How can the ship’s AI go off line?”

  “There’s an automatic monitoring system built in,” replied Mark. “The ship’s AI needs to carry out certain routine tasks , monitored by three other standard computers. That is, non AI machines. If it fails to do that, an alarm is raised and the Captain has to make the decision to off line the AI. If the Captain doesn’t make that decision within a certain time period, the AI is taken off line.”

  “I didn’t notice the initial alarm,” said Anja.

  “That is not surprising, under the circumstances ” said Mark. “The question is whether the AI’s breakdown was a coincidence.”

  “What are you saying Mark?” asked Melanie. “That the AI was somehow infected by an alien virus?” Mark turned to his Systems Specialist.

  “Andy, perhaps you can explain.” Andy Baross nodded.

  “The key is that the ship’s AI is physically quite different from all the other computers on board. AI’s are fabricated from high density molecular switches, very similar in operation to human brain neurones. Critically, they operate at much lower voltages, mille volts as opposed to volts in normal computers. If the alien virus finds the human brain a comfortable home, it could also live in an AI’s brain.”

  “But not in normal computers?” asked LeBlanc.

  “No, the voltages are too high,” agreed Andy.

  “It may explain why the Captain made a full recovery when Leslie re-started her heart,” said Mark.

  “High voltages kill them?” asked LeBlanc. Mark nodded, and there was a pensive silence while everyone considered this.