Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Luke hunched his shoulders, thoroughly embarrassed. “I didn't know the load would be so heavy and that we'd go somewhere else,” he admitted. Finding a spot to land the beast had been a hairy experience. But he was coming to realize, some things were more frightening than being two thousand meters up. Like oh, say being two meters away from a rather pissed off blue Neolion.

  “Great. Fine, whatever. Doc,” Hank said throwing his hands up in the air as he turned to the doctor. Ivanov yawned. He didn't look happy through. “We've got to unload some of that bus, and send it back for fuel. Once it comes back we can refuel this bus,” he turned an angry look on Luke, “and then be on our way.”

  “How long?” Doctor Ivanov asked. He'd been asleep on the bus.

  “Six hours,” the other pilot said. “I'm low on fuel too. I'm going to need to refuel in Sin City before I can get back to you,” he said.

  Hank sighed. “Go. Get everyone off the bus, get them whatever supplies they need and then go. Take Wally and Luke. But get your asses back here ASAP. Got it?” he growled, showing his canines. The kid nodded, eyes wide. “Go,” he waved a dismissive hand. “I've got some calls to make,” he sighed.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jerry noted how far away they were. He went to Hank. “Look man, we're only what? Ten kilometers away? I'll go see if I can hitch a ride into the city and bring back some support,” he said. “At least get the people back to town before the sun gets any higher and the heat kicks in. They are going to drop when that humidity kicks.”

  Hank looked at the people milling about in the shade of the bus and around the perimeter of the grotto they were in. Many were already fanning themselves or waving away the bugs buzzing around them. He nodded. “Go,” he said.

  “I'm gone,” Jerry said with a grin, already moving off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Jerry made it back to Hazard near noon and told the authorities. Coltrain shrugged it off. “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “Go rescue them!” Jerry said waving his hand. The sheriff snorted and waved him away as if he was a child. Furious Jerry went in search of help from other sources.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Nohar worked with the elephant gang and other Neo leaders to get the Neo community organized. He was seriously tired of the self-pitying attitude some were spouting though. “Mark my words, we'll be last to be treated if there is even a cure. The humans won't care,” a Neolion with a purple mane snarled.

  “Irons will. I heard he's in charge,” Jerry said from behind them.

  “Irons?” Nohar asked. He turned to the know it all chimp. The little shit could be cocky but he was useful, both as a runner and occasional assistant. He had a brain, unfortunately it lacked control of his mouth. “Fleet admiral?”

  “The very one,” the chimp replied with a grin. Nohar snorted.

  “That one,” Rajar snorted. Ragnar the elephant blew a raspberry.

  “He's good. If anyone can get us out of this it's him.”

  “He's got Hank working with him,” Jerry said, shrugging. He like all the other Neo's were stressed to the point that their fur was on end. Being a chimp he was smaller than the other patrons of Kong's bar and grill.

  “You heard that?” Rajar asked, eying the little runt.

  Jerry waved a dismissive hand. “Nah man, I was in Sin City with Hank. Hank and I made a drone to help out before heading here. Hank told me the admiral made a replicator with Hank's replicator and some other stuff. Hank was sent to Sin City with the drone pieces. We were sent back here but the buses ran out of fuel. Hank and a team of doctors are stranded,” he said jerking his thumb to the east.

  “Shit.”

  “Sergeant, can you lend a hand?” a voice sounded over the jukebox. Everyone went quiet and turned in astonishment to the music machine.

  “What the hell? That ain't ever done that before!” Kong growled, raising a fist to the thing.

  “Nah man, don't break it! Unplug it!” Jerry said, reaching for the cord.

  “Sergeant yellow tiger, we need you to report to the sheriff. We need your help,” the voice said again. Nohar raised a hand as others looked to him.

  “Wait, I know that voice,” he said. Listening to it he realized it was artificial, it lacked a moist organic sound. “You the admiral's AI?” he asked.

  “Sorry, you'll have to speak up or get close to this machine,” Sprite replied. “Wait, accessing your implants. Go ahead.”

  Nohar cleared his throat as he got up and came over. As he did he felt his wireless implant tingle. After a moment words came onto his HUD. “Yes sergeant, we need your help. Sorry for the intrusion but this is an emergency,” Sprite reported. Quickly she dumped the summary onto his HUD.

  Nohar waved Jerry away with an impatient hand as he scanned the text. After a moment he grimly nodded. “What do you want us to do?”

  “We need everyone to remain calm and remain in their homes. It's imperative that we don't spread the pathogen.”

  “Understood,” he grunted.

  “What the hell? He's talking to himself now?” Jerry asked. Nohar turned a glare on the chimp who reared back and pretended to zip his lips shut and throw an imaginary key away.

  “Sorry, motor mouth here, you were saying... um...”

  “Lieutenant Commander Sprite Navy. I'm the admiral's adjunct I guess you could say. We don't have a lot of time. I need you and any others to aid in security and technical matters. Are there any healers or doctors available?”

  “A few Neo ones. Neos prefer their own,” Nohar growled. “Jerry here was just telling us Hank and a bunch of doctors are stranded outside of town.”

  There was a long pause. “Lovely,” Sprite finally drawled. “To each their own. Fine then. We need you to get the word out.”

  Nohar nodded curtly. “Understood.”

  “Report to the sheriff's office in one hour. We've got the first shipment of medical supplies and materials coming in shortly. Spread the word.”

  “I'll do that,” Nohar turned smartly as the AI clicked off.

  Rajar and Jerry cleared their throats. “What's up?”

  “Work. Trying to save the world,” Nohar growled, not even feeling any trace of humor in that. The others looked at each other.

  “That bad?”

  “Bad enough.” He turned to the chimp. “Jerry you want to help get fuel to Hank and lend a hand,” Nohar said, now all business. Jerry nodded, reaching for a beer. “I mean now,” Nohar said, slitted eye catching the chimp's gold eyes. Jerry gulped and then scurried off.

  “What about me? I want to help uncle Nohar,” Rajar said raising a hand paw.

  “Fine,” Nohar said turning. “You all want to help get to security. They need all the hands they got. But tell people to stay put. Only healers, techs, and people who can keep order are to be on the street. They need to keep people from running and spreading this crap.”

  “Is it as bad as they are saying?” Kong asked, voice trembling.

  Nohar turned to look at the silverback. “It's not good,” he finally said after a long moment. “Not as bad as a lot of people are making out, but not good. If we can keep calm they can work something up. Irons is working on that with the doctors now. What we need is everyone to keep cool,” he said, voice dropping into stern lines. He knew what the AI had meant about keeping people from panicking. Unfortunately people were people, they were sheep in a group. Even the gene engineered predators in this room.

  “I'll help,” Rajar said again.

  “Fine then. Follow my lead kid.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Nohar arrived to chaos at the sheriff's office. Coltrain was still trying to manage the evacuation of people to Sin City. But some like Nohar had decided for whatever reason to stay behind, either because they refused to leave their holdings, or to maintain order. People who stayed behind looked like bandits with bandanas tied over their mouth and nose. Some soaked their bandanas in alcohol but got dizzy and drunk f
rom the fumes. Nohar got the warning to Hodges and Coltrain about the shipment. Hodges grinned and organized an unloading party.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The first flight from Landing arrived forty five minutes after Sprite contacted Nohar. He heard it with his newly repaired enhanced hearing before he saw it. Scanning the skies others took note of what he was doing and then the sound. They too looked. A few pointed and cheered as the silver plane came into view. It was a small plane, a copy of a Douglas DC-1. Do to the extreme range the dual prop aircraft only carried fifteen hundred kilograms of precious cargo.

  The zeal to unload it took a sinister turn, only half of the contents of the plane made it to the doctors and Hazard city hospital. Hodges wrung his hands and cussed out Rosco for not putting more security on the shipment and its' transfer. Rosco threw his hands up in the air and lamented that had he known sooner he would have.

  Doctor Asir the Hazard City General's chief medical officer had a nurse swab the aircraft. When each swab was tested clean the refueled plane and her pilots were allowed to return to Landing for a second shipment.

  “And this time...” Hodges warned, waving a fist at Coltrain as the aircraft took off.

  “Yes, yes, make sure it gets into the right hands,” Rosco sighed. “What do you want me to do? I can't be everywhere at once boss!” he said, tired. Hodges glared at him and he flinched. “Oh, oh, don't look at me that way, don't, don't you do that,” he said pointing a finger at the Commissioner. Hodges had his bulldog expression on, a sure sign of his anger. Hodges however knew the sheriff was being pulled in every direction and relented. But he didn't let the sheriff eat or sleep, he pushed him back out his office door and back onto the street.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A pair of black and a white gentlemen and their retinue arrived from the south in a wagon selling snake oil. They promised a sure fire cure, drawing dozens and then hundreds of people who had remained behind. Some desperate and foolish people flocked to them, but when Doctor Asir the Hazard city chief of surgery heard about it he came out of the hospital furious. He ranted that they hadn't finished analyzing the pathogens and were a day or two away from getting a vaccine. The outer edge of the mob heard this and turned ugly.

  Before he could do anything though the mob of people realized it was all a hoax and had taken the law into their own hands. They formed a posse to run the group to ground before they could get out of town, and then turned into a lynch mob and hung the bastard, his 'cured' wife, and supporting cast. Jackson and McCartney were hauled off struggling to the nearest tall oak.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Nohar watched as a yellow air bus landed near sunset. A white and blue one landed behind it a few seconds later. The door to the first opened and Hank got out and waved urgently to them from just inside the bus. Nohar trotted over with Kong and others. “What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you breaking quarantine you big blue fuzball?” Nohar asked. Hank held up a finger and then tossed him a cell. Nohar caught it and looked at it. “Cute. Again...”

  Jerry caught his and then started mumbling about how cool it was. His simian fingers started looking for ways to tear it apart. Hank took a small crate of the cell phones out and set it down and then another crate that said tower on it. “We need to set the tower up on the city water tower. It's old, but it's the highest point in town,” Hank said.

  “I know about cell phones Hank,” Nohar growled. “What gives?”

  “We need Hodges,” Hank said as a second air bus landed. Nohar felt his fur ruffle up as the vehicle's turbines kicked up the air and dirt. He squinted with the others, instinctively crouching until the windstorm passed. “Doc!” Hank said waving to the crew. Nohar turned and saw the air bus had already opened up and was spilling people. All of them were in yellow pressure suits. Yellow suits with black gloves and clear face masks.

  “Hank...”

  “Virology team,” Hank explained. “We've all been inoculated for the current stuff going on.” He didn't mention the lingering crap they had yet to find. Nor that the vaccines were for the native version of some of the viruses... and not all of the viruses.

  “Okay...”

  “We're setting up shop here. We've got about a day before another follow up team comes in. Maybe less. So we've got to get the equipment set up, run power to them, and get people organized,” Hank explained. He sighed, rubbing the small of his back. “Sorry, I've been in Sin City managing tech stuff there and then this came through.”

  “Irons?” Nohar asked.

  Hank shook his head. “Actually Doc Richards. She wants Hazard as the point of contact. We're the finger in the dike whatever that is. We're supposed to find all the strains and make vaccines and transmit our data to others who will also be making vaccines.”

  Nohar grimaced. He'd heard that phrase about dikes, but not in centuries. He'd had a dutch buddy in the war who loved to say crap like that. “I get it. We're the tip of the spear. We're going to try to stand in the way of the viruses and kill them.”

  “Forward Recon I think Irons called it. Though he wanted us to do this in Sin City. Sin City is nice and all, but doesn't have the airport and industry Hazard has. It's all casinos and hotels.”

  “Gotcha,” Nohar replied with a nod. He turned, people were milling about in confusion. “Come on folks! Someone call Hodges, we need an empty warehouse! Until then we'll put this in the bingo hall! Jerry, quit screwing around with that thing and go find us a decent truck or two!”

  “Yeah man,” Jerry said, still looking at the device. He turned and bumbled into Kong before he put a hand up to ward off other obstacles. He didn't look up, but he did mumble an apology as he went on his way. Kong snorted as the chimp left.

  “What do you want from me?” The silverback asked.

  “We need the bar. I need the stuff in my room. If those damn otters didn't steal everything,” Hank replied.

  “I'll see what I can do.”

  “And we need help unloading. We left the pallet jack in Sin City to pack everything in.”

  “Sure. Stereotypical bull, all the big ape can do is do heavy lifting,” Kong muttered, reaching into the bus for a load.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Hank called in to Landing an hour after they were set up. “We made it,” he said tiredly.

  “Good for you,” Helen replied. “Took you long enough,” she said.

  “Don't get me started,” the Neolion growled.

  “Must have been an adventure.”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” he replied.

  He opened his mouth to fill her in but she sighed. “But I've got to go. Glad you're up and running. Get to work,” she said. “Break time is over,” she said hanging up.

  Hank looked aggrieved at the handset in his and before he put it away. “Break time she says,” he growled. “That does it, that proves their ain't no justice in this world,” he growled.

  Jerry looked up from where he had been working on assembling a suit. “You just now figuring that out Hanky old boy?” he asked.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Hank let someone else deal with the housing and food issues, he had other things to do. More important things in his eyes. One of the first things he did was put up a series of weather sensors and science packages around the city. The science packages would detect and alert them if the pathogens were detected. Jerry complained about trying to use the shovel to dig the holes for the pipes, muttering constantly about his short legs and stereotyping. Wally had stuck around to help, though the kid kept a respirator mask attached to his hip at all times. When Jerry's complaining got to him he took over the digging. Hank in a pique of stereotyping then sent the chimp climbing up poles and trees to attach additional sensors. “I bet you think this is funny,” Jerry called down. “You know you make a nice target from here,” he growled, looking down at Hank.

  “Just attach the damn thing. Use the tape or wire, whatever works. Play pranks later banana breath,” Hank sighed
tiredly.

  “Who's playing,” Jerry muttered, wrapping the tape around the gray box and pole a few times and then using his canines to snip the rigger tape. “This'd better be worth it,” he muttered, picturing Hank covered in shit. He was tempted, oh so tempted to do it. But, he'd have to come down eventually, he thought, so maybe it wasn't worth it.

  He scrambled down and looked at his nominal boss. Hank snorted. “What?” he asked.

  “Oh, just wondering what you'd look like in brown,” Jerry said innocently. Hank eyed him with scant favor as he waved him onward to their next location.

  “One point, and I'm saying this now,” Jerry said. “I ain't going up and bringing these things down. I don't like heights,” he said as they walked.

  “Then why are you doing it?” Hank asked, flicking his ears in amusement.

  “Cause I hate digging more,” Jerry said speeding up. Hank chuffed a laugh.

  He also replicated a cell tower and set it up on the clock tower near the center of the city. Jerry went around looking for dead spots after a late lunch. His “Can you hear me now?” had more than one person confused. They replicated several additional cell towers and trays of cell phones to hand out to friends and supporters.

  Hank also took the time to upgrade and repair the power and water to the run down building Hodges had lent to the doctors for their efforts. “He's all heart,” Jerry said snidely.

  His final two products were an air conditioning unit and a portable generator just in case they lost power. Which was promptly stolen from the place he put it in behind the building. Of course he didn't find out about that until he checked the next morning. When he did he spent a good half hour turning the air as blue as his fur.

  Chapter 16

  Irons set up an air filtration system for the Landing hospital, as well as water filters. He put in layers of defenses, unsure what was needed. The air would pass through a UV chamber to kill the bugs. The simple system had been debugged in under an hour and then passed on to manufacturers to make copies.

  They had some ability to manufacture the electronics with off the shelf components, but not all. He dedicated an electronics replicator for that purpose.