Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  “He turned over command of the population to an elected civilian authority. He couldn't very well go back and tear it all apart, not without causing more of a problem. Which brings me to a few other points. You are aware of the various branches of the military right?”

  “Yes...” Doctor Richards nodded.

  “And each branch has its own branches. Medical in your instance,” Sprite said, indicating the doctors. Both nodded. “The admiral is an engineer. He came up through the ranks, a mustang. He never had command track until later, usually command was thrust on to his shoulders during a crisis. He's much more at home digging into something.”

  “Okay.”

  “He's never been a natural at command of civilians, which is where we are now. He's an honest person, he can project command authority when he wishes, but he's not...comfortable with it with civilians. He's very much aware that he's out of his element.”

  “And you did say he mustanged.”

  “That's true.”

  “Mustanged?”

  “He rose from the ranks of enlisted to become an officer. Less than a third of the officers follow that path, most either become an officer after attending an academy or by going through training in college.”

  “Oh.”

  “I think he would have been selected as an officer if he had been given the chance. His history of being, well, forced into the military didn't go over well in some ways. And he does have some mental scars when it comes to ship's captain and the boundaries of their authority.”

  “Oh.”

  “You have to understand, a ship's captain is the law. He has to be, when the ship is underway that's it, the captain is the sole source of civilization. The lives of the crew depend on a central authority, in following the directives that authority lays down. Tinkering with it isn't something you do lightly, there's a reason they call it mutiny. Since the admiral is a born spacer, it's probably doubly bred into him not to do so unless the situation truly is dire.”

  “Did he consider it?”

  “I think... no. Destiny yes, I know he did consider it briefly, Destiny is a navy reserve vessel.” Their eyes widened slightly.

  “Destiny is a Zanzibar class freighter, she was one of the captured freighters we liberated in Pyrax. All of them were taken on as reserve naval vessels. Unfortunately many of their crews didn't sign off on that. That was a mistake on the admiral's part, he delegated it but didn't follow up on it. Nor did I,” Sprite said wryly.

  “Oh.”

  “Had the crew been navy, things would have been different. But they weren't and it's over and done with now.”

  “You said there was another ship? Kiev something or other?”

  “Kiev 221. A bulk freighter converted into a flying habitat. Thousands of people on-board. The admiral was a newcomer to the environment. A complete unknown. True he saved the day, but the captain and crew were ready to space him anyway. Fortunately the admiral and some of the crew like the executive officer worked out a diplomatic compromise.”

  “Oh.”

  “I wasn't with him before when he worked on the Dyson spheres or Stargate project,” Sprite mused. Both human's eyes widened in surprise. “I don't have the records of that time, but I'm fairly certain he delegated as much as possible. That's how he works. He gives you the tools, makes sure you know how to use them, points you in the right direction and then gets out of the way and expects you to handle it at your own pace and with your own initiative. Your own self-interest will help drive the project.”

  “Okay, I get that, to some degree.”

  “Which is what he's doing now somewhat, but also what he's doing with Pyrax. We may not be there, but the admiral is still sending orders to the system. He's not getting much in the way of feedback, but he left a detailed plan behind and he knows Commander Logan will do his best to carry it out.”

  “Oh.”

  “There's another reason the admiral has acted the way he has, and I hesitate to bring it up.”

  “Oh?”

  “The admiral is... well, taking the long view. Politics in some way of explanation. He's building a reputation and a legend around himself and others in order to get people to help. To help each other, to show interest in more than themselves. In some ways it's shaming them into becoming what they could have been all along.”

  “Leading by example?”

  “In some ways. He's very much aware of the image of what he is and what he is doing, though I was unaware of how serious he was taking that until a short time ago. Now I better understand why he's been so... maddeningly vague or inconsistent. I do wish he'd brought it up earlier with me.”

  “Sounds like you're a little petulant.”

  “Annoyed? With him or me? Never mind. I do see his point, how can he show himself as a benefit if he goes around taking over? The iron fist of authority?”

  “Oh,” Richards replied, glancing at Zane. Slowly Zane nodded. “Yeah, it would seem a bit inconsistent.”

  “Just a tad,” Sprite replied. “He's, well, you may not've heard of the story of Johnny Appleseed, or his namesake. I'll upload both stories to your implants... done.”

  “Okay.”

  “Check them over later. Consider it homework. But the short story is, the admiral is creating a myth, and the people who are involved with it are spreading the myth. Also the tech he's dropping here and there are also seeds. Together, hopefully someday, we'll see those seeds bear fruit.”

  “Like Pyrax?”

  “Well, leadership there... sucks,” Sprite replied darkly. “But the story of how he was hounded out of the system while undermining him, also makes people think. Is he doing this to make up for past mistakes? Did he really do it?”

  “Which he didn't, we've seen the vids,” Zane said.

  “You know that, I know that. Even people who have seen the vids know it, but in their organic hind brain there is that little nagging kernel of doubt. It sits there nibbling at people. They wonder why he's doing what he's doing.”

  “He could set himself up as a dictator somewhere,” Richards mused. She thought of her own home world and winced.

  Sprite however shook her head. “Not going to happen. The admiral is a firm believer in the constitution, and therefore in democracy. That's why he's deferring in some ways to governor Oman's office. He has to, that's what he's been trained to do, and if he didn't he'd undermine everything he's trying to achieve.”

  “That's why he didn't take over in Antigua? The military governorship?”

  “Well, there wasn't a crisis there. If the pirates had attacked, things would have gone differently. We were hounded out of the system. People saw that, and I bet Governor Randall's got his hands full now. Not to mention the cybers on Prime,” Sprite replied with a bit of a snark in her voice.

  “Leadership?” Richards asked, trying to get them back on track. “You mentioned leadership? Lead by example? In what way politically?”

  “In helping others. A lot like what a doctor does. He's trying social change through example. Pay it forward is the psychological and sociological example. I'll bookmark them for you.”

  Doctor Richards preened a little. “True.”

  “Don't let it go to your head doctor. You have reminded me that I need to help you with training. You have to be brought up to standards once this crisis has passed.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “It is and it isn't. Let's just say the next time something like this comes your way, and it might, you may have further outbreaks down the road, you'll not only be ready with training, but also mentally as well.”

  “All right.”

  “What does he get out of it?” Zane finally asked, rubbing his chin.

  “A renewed Federation, stopping the pirates, stopping people dying senselessly...” Sprite shrugged. “Take your pick. He's not into money or power. He's an engineer. Fixing things is what they're good at.”

  “Oh,” Zane murmured. Slowly he smiled, dropping his hand. “You know,
I kind of like that.”

  “It's a worthy dream,” Doctor Richards murmured softly.

  “And now you're a part of it,” Sprite said. Both humans stared at her. She nodded, sober. “As am I. Dismissed lieutenants, you have some work to do and I need to check on the rest of the class,” she said with a smile. They nodded as she disengaged the connection.

  “Food for thought indeed,” Richards said, as nurse Marlone waved to her. She sighed and got up, nodding to the nurse.

  “Digest later,” Zane replied with a snort. “Though I think some of what you said a few people should be brought in on. He doesn't have to do it alone commander,” Zane said.

  “Talk later. Work now,” Helen said, giving him a push. “Go check on the grounds. I'll look at the bigger picture.”

  “Aye aye ma'am,” Zane said with a grin. Helen just rolled her eyes and ignored him as he walked off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Instead of going one by one, Sprite set it up so they could do group testing. The admiral jacked into two subjects at the same time and they went through the testing. It took about twelve hours to complete each doctor pairing, and when they were finished both doctors were exhausted and went to sleep.

  The admiral unfortunately was tethered to the beds during the testing. He could and did communicate with the grid in order to keep an eye on the manufacturing, but couldn't leave the room to key in additional equipment so that plan lagged behind.

  After the second pairing in twenty four hours he insisted on a break to check on things and key the replicators. Doctor Ivanov reported small success in Hazard, but they were still being ground away. Hank reported that the sheriff and Hodges were barely hanging on, law and order were almost out the window despite all his efforts. The blue Neolion seemed exhausted.

  Nohar was backstopping the sheriff, working with deputy Rogers to try to keep some semblance of peace. Rogers reported his friend Bullet had taken over as acting sheriff in Crater City after that city's sheriff had succumbed to the pathogen. Bullet had been upwind, and fortunately for his sake was now in a hazmat suit.

  Complaints of being itchy, tired, hungry, thirsty, the list went on and on. But the hazmats were life savers, everyone admitted that. Just being in one caused some resentment, however. One security guard had had his forcibly ripped off by an angry mob in New Seattle.

  When Doctor La Plaz and Doctor Milinkov were cleared the duo took to the warehouse to work on medical replicators. They went through the line of medical replicators the admiral had created, initializing each with their keys one by one. It was a tedious process, but since both men were used to working in the micro, and had loads of patience, they got the job done.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Once they had sufficient working medical replicators they turned their attention to the virology lab. The two settled there and when Doctor Richards heard about their pre-occupation she sent Nurse Joy to roust them out. Instead the nurse ended up getting drafted as an assistant. Annoyed Helen sent Nurse Marlone... who reported back in a rather awed voice that they were making incredible progress.

  “Great strides! Great strides! We're getting somewhere finally!” The nurse said, smiling. “They have a vaccine!” she said. A nurse nearby overheard and turned, hugging another. That news ricocheted through the weary medical staff.

  “If only it was that easy,” Helen sighed softly.

  “Don't kill it, the news is good for morale,” the admiral said to her. He was lining up to do more of the nurses now. Each had less testing since they didn't have the keys the doctors did, so each would only take up to four hours. Hopefully he would be able to go through the entire batch in a single evening.

  “I know but what happens when they find out the truth?” the doctor asked.

  “They aren't far off doctor,” Sprite replied. Helen started at the holo image of the AI. The AI smiled.. “With your implants you can now access the classified medical files. Apparently Doctor's La Plaz and Milinkov have done so. They have successfully created another vaccine based on the templates, and even modified the vaccines based on the data doctor Ivanov has provided.”

  “They have?”

  “They're working on each cure. So far they have two completed and are working on a third now.”

  “They have?” Helen asked, eyebrows rising with her tone of voice.

  Irons smiled. “Medics are known to be miracle workers doctor, just like engineers. They'll need some down time. Each virus will need to be tested of course, but they can key the medical replicators to create each vaccine dose. I've replicated a hundred and twenty medical replicators for that purpose. They have the first batches in progress now.”

  “Oh.”

  “We'll start with the medical staff here of course, but I think we should ship some to Hazard, Crater City and New Seattle quickly.”

  “A thousand per replicator, a hundred and twenty...”

  “A hundred and sixteen doctor,” Sprite interjected. “A hundred and sixteen replicators, they are using four for testing purposes,” she explained. The director nodded. “That is a hundred and sixteen thousand dosages per hour.”

  “So, we really can lick this.”

  “Given time. Hope, doctor, right now, it's giving us hope.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The most effective vaccines were those that were bio genetically engineered subunit vaccines that used capsid proteins of original attacking pathogens. They were designed to introduce the threat to the body in order for it to create its own antibodies. When the real thing shows up the immune system immediately attacked it, in theory killing it.

  However not all vaccines were effective based on just the medical archive templates, and those with a weak immune system to begin with were at the most risk of the first line vaccines, which were weakened versions of the attacker. Some still came down with the virus despite all efforts at prevention.

  The process was simple in theory, but in practice it involved a lot of steps.

  When artificial gene synthesis wasn't available or too time consuming they switched to another method.

  Take for instance a sample of the rhino virus, the common cold. They would empty out DNA from nucleus, then use replicators to replicate an anti-virus and vaccines based on the available medical texts, modifying each based on the data doctor Ivanov provided. Nanites were controlled by the immunologists and virologist.

  Both men were exhausted when each virus was done. They were forced to take a minimum of a two hour power nap as their assistant took over.

  Their assistant would take the replicated DNA and then inject it under a microscope into a series of donor virus cells. The nurse would induce mitosis to get the vaccine to replicate naturally, and watch the results.

  If it passed that threshold they would then make trays of them and then incubated them in a bio reactor to get them to bond with the donor cell and then induce further mitosis. All of the work was done in P suits and lit by ultraviolet lights, which hampered the work.

  Once doctor Richards had her people set up for distribution and her other bases covered, she threw her own efforts into the virology lab. She was amused that the admiral had done such a by the book job in expanding the existing lab, but she saw a few things, mostly logistical that needed tweaking and therefore went about making the changes.

  One of the things that bothered her the most was that there were four of them with the proper training, Doctor Hadjiri, La Plaz, Milinkov, herself, and the Veraxin endocrinologist Doctor Gijis. The Veraxin was a bit behind the others, he could follow directions of course and he had the keys. They could pass him materials to replicate and he could key it while the others focused on other projects.

  Each doctor had a nurse assistant. Each pair focused on one pathogen, taking what doctor La Plaz and doctor Ivanov had done in breaking it down and analyzing it and then comparing it to the templates they had on file. Then they worked on a vaccine, replicating a test strain and then testing it with live mice. Unfor
tunately they went through a lot of mice, sometimes running out before more could be brought in. But one by one they were knocking the viruses back.

  Unfortunately that was all the people they could put on the project, the other doctors would just get in the way. But Irons had other thoughts for them, he replicated additional medical replicators and then had them either work on treating some of the patients in the hospital, or reassigned them and a medical replicator to nearby Gotham. They would be able to replicate materials as needed from there.

  When a vaccine was done they tested it, tested it, and tested it some more just to be on the safe side. The first batches were only partially successful, Sprite calculated that they helped less than eighty percent of the population. More refinement was needed.

  “It's a generic anti-virus strain, but right now it's all we've got. We need people to get a live sample of the viruses so we can adjust this.” This would hopefully be much more effective than what they had been using for inoculations. She'd run out of material there. They'd used generic measles and flu shots for the public, Irons estimated that they would be less than ten percent effective.

  “Normally a vaccine takes months,” Helen replied. “We normally have to isolate it, weaken it, and then find ways to keep it weak so it can be used as a vaccine. This...” she indicated the tall bioreactor they had in the virology lab. “I honestly don't know how effective this will be.”

  “Right now doc, something is better than nothing,” her assistant said. “But you are right, we need active...”

  She held up a hand. She'd been thinking about this for a while. They needed to relocate to Hazard. “I know. I'll call Hank. We'll send him some supplies and he can play Guiana pig and point man.”

  “Oh?”

  “The admiral wanted the virology lab set up in Sin City. I'm sure that it might work there, but Hazard is in the line of fire and it has more resources. That was why I sent it there. That and Hodges is scared shitless, too scared to pull a fast one.”

  “But...”

  “It also has the airport. Sin City doesn't. I'm the director of medicine, my call. I'll get the ball rolling, my responsibility. You get the next strain prepped. I'll...”