The assistant put a hand on her boss's shoulder. “First doc, officer or not you're going to get some rest. Then we can talk about the next strain. I'll prep it. I know what to do now. It shouldn't take me as long. Then I'll get some down time while you work.”
“Slave driver,” Helen grumbled good naturedly.
“I learn from the best doc. Go eat and make your calls. I'll get this done.”
“Right,” Helen sighed. She got up and felt weak kneed. Running her implants had really sapped her. The concentration she realized, was like a marathon surgical session. And her implants weren't fully integrated either. She could feel a headache coming on, it wasn't all low blood sugar.
“Yeah, I think I need some down time,” she muttered leaving. Her assistant watched her go in concern and then returned to her work.
...*...*...*...*...
With Helen up to her ears in the vital virology work, Ted Zane took over as her liaison. The Malcolm twins resented it but she ignored the griping and low key carping. She'd been tempted to have doctors Chung and Ramius work on enhancing additional medical staff, but each taken out would mean less available now... and each would take a week to recover fully. She knew she still wasn't a hundred percent.
The first time Zane had contacted her through her implants had scared the bejeezers out of her. He'd probably done it on purpose for that very reaction. She vowed to get even with him later. With their Wi-Fi links the augmented staff were starting to form a cliché of their own, she'd have to watch that later.
The Wi-Fi links did allow for faster communication and access of information. Zing, an email or instant message to someone, or they could open a window and talk with them over audio or in a virtual mode. And wow, accessing information? Bam it was there, like a headache, but all they needed and more, right there, literally in their brain, or at least close enough.
Jerry, her ex-husband, had somehow managed to slip onto the grounds and even managed to get to the outer layer of quarantine around the virology lab before Nurse Joy had pushed him back outside. Richards was going off shift for a meal break, she'd taken her ex to lunch. He could tell she was weary.
When he found out about her implants he dropped his fork, and jaw. She'd grinned, then snorted in amusement as he stared at the jack ports embedded in her skin, then into her eyes.
“What are you looking for?” she finally asked.
“Circuitry,” he said.
She snorted. “Well, you won't find it. It's too fine to see, and besides, most of it is on my optical nerve. Now, do you have enough for a story?”
“Um...”
“How the medics are doing their best? How two nurses died getting these implants? How one died in recovery and another is in a coma?” she asked, waving a hand. He nodded. “Good then.” she dabbed at her chin with a linen napkin. “Glad that is settled. Yes I'm alive, no, I can't go into a lot of details, I've got to get back into the fight. When we've got more, you'll know more.”
“Okay,” he said gripping her hand. “Just as long as you're safe.”
She smiled, squeezed his hand and then went back to work.
Before she could return to the lab Ted Zane sent her an e-mail. She sighed and paused as she read it. He reported thirty more volunteers for the augmentation, most were nurses, orderlies, or civilians. One was the admiral's assistant Andrew, a young man with rather lofty goals, she thought. He may have been inspired... or had been inspired by greed over having the keys handed to him. As if the admiral would do such a thing.
She could understand now why the admiral had tested her, or at least the AI had. It was responsibility, not just over one like she was used to, or even several lives as she was also used to. But a community, a world, even the entire sector. It was a heavy burden to bear, and she was glad this sort of thing wasn't handed out like candy.
Only two grad students had signed up to join the naval reserves, both were in their last trimester as interns, one Bobby was barely scraping by. She wasn't sure about that. Teri though, Teri the pharmacist might be of use. She made a note to approve her.
...*...*...*...*...
Meanwhile Hank had replicated another drone, this one smaller. He sent it aloft, and then worked on another. The new drones were smaller, slower, but they used solar panels and had electric pusher fans to keep them aloft for great lengths of time. Phoenix controlled them remotely. They would orbit Hazard and the surrounding area, sending back sample data to the Hazard team.
Disbelief over some of the treatment ideas made its way through the general public. Some of the ideas the public was coming up with were so out of the box and completely undoable. However some things were possible. When the first shipments of vaccines left the Landing airport there was a brief flurry of anger over it. People in Landing wanted to be treated first, leaving those already exposed to die. But that cold idea died as the word spread of inoculation clinics reopening the next morning.
...*...*...*...*...
Doctor Ivanov reported a strange thing, the first wave of pathogens had mostly died off due to the time period, the vaccines, and aircraft seeding the air with attack materials. The lesser virulent strains were still around, some lingered for long periods of time, but some of the more dangerous viruses like the black pox had all but died out.
...*...*...*...*...
Now that they understood what was involved, Doctor Chung and Doctor Ramius handled the next round of surgeries on the new crop of volunteers. Most were young, all were eager, albeit very nervous. They did their bests to reassure them, though they did try to hide how nervous they themselves were.
The admiral insisted on administering the oath of office, the orderlies would serve as enlisted. Andrew had agreed to sign on, but then had backed out when the admiral had informed him he would only get enlisted implants. Doctor Chung wasn't sure if it was some sort of test or not. Either way, Andrew had failed it from the look of disappointment in the admiral's eyes.
The implants took longer than they had by the admiral, also to be expected. Chung had simulated the surgeries, but they'd still taken their time to make sure they had done it right. Fortunately there hadn't been any deaths, but two people had had complications and were in medically induced coma's until their bodies could recover long enough to apply fixes and patches.
The admiral went around to administer the second level initialization to each volunteer. When he was finished he went back to work.
...*...*...*...*...
Doctor Zane came into the virology lab and smiled at nurse Joy. The small woman had her blue hazmat suit on like everyone else of course, he could just image how her long pigtails were holding up in that helmet though.
Doctor La Plaz was off to one side, in front of a box gesturing wildly. He could hear the young man muttering darkly as he worked. Doctor Hadjiri was doing much the same thing behind him.
“Can I help you with something Ted?” Helen asked, standing in front of a microscope, gesturing at seemingly nothing.
“Just wondering if you're still alive boss lady,” he teased, coming over. “What are you working on?” he asked.
“Feline leukemia virus. It's a ticking time bomb about to go off. Hank reported that it is starting to hit the Neo cat population.”
“Shit,” he said, and then looked away. After a moment he looked back and nodded to the box with cables and cylinders attached to it. “What is that? How's it helping?”
“This is a microscope,” Helen replied, looking at the box.
“With no viewfinder?” he asked, clearly amused. He studied the light gray piece of equipment. He traced cables, some he was sure were for power, though he didn't understand why a microscope needed power. Also the cylinder shapes didn't make sense. He could see what looked like a loading tray though, some bulges stacked on top that he assumed were lenses, but no viewing scope.
“Don't need one, come here,” she said waving. She stepped to one side. “Put your right hand here and initiate it,” she said, pointing to a gold
hand marker on the top of the machine.
He came closer and put his hand up. “It's I mean, I'm wearing gloves.”
“Remember the Wi-Fi?” Helen asked. “No need to jack in, no need to break protocol,” she said.
“Oh.” his hand dropped to within a centimeter of the gold hand symbol. He blinked, stepping back hastily. “Wow!” He could literally see the virus, whatever she was working on. As he moved it moved.
“Yeah, cool huh?” Helen asked, smiling. He looked at her. As soon as he turned away his vision returned to normal.
“Now I see why we needed so many implants,” Ted murmured.
“Yes.”
“Why the um, gestures?” he asked.
She glanced at the others. Each seemed to be doing their own form of dance. She snorted. “It's the waldos and nanites. They can be controlled by telepresence,” she said. “See, the cameras in the microscope are all over. So you can rotate the image,” she rotated her hands to show him. “And see it from all angles. And if you want to control a bot, you access one, then use your hands to tell it what to do.” She mimed picking up a container, unscrewing a lid, then pouring out the contents.
Slowly Zane nodded. “And this is working?”
“Working damn well actually,” Helen replied. “Though it's exhausting,” she said. “What's up?”
“Irons is. He's working on a plan to relocate to Hazard.”
Helen nodded. She wished she could wipe at her sweaty face. Instead she kicked the fan up a little more. “I told him to. We need live specimens to get the vaccines right. The data from Ivanov is helping but we could do it a lot faster if we were there on the scene. We've already burned through half of what he's sent us.”
“Half?”
“Half,” she smiled a weary smile. Her eyes were red and bloodshot. “And it's not easy. But we're getting the job done,” she blew out a long breath. “Now that we've got the steps ironed out the hardest part is testing. Testing it and refining it is what's taking the longest. But fortunately we can set one test up and then work on another culture while the first test runs its course.”
“We're working on that Helen. I'm getting some weird queries about why we need so many mice? Can we use rats? Sewers have them in plenty,” he said wrinkling his nose.
“As long as they're alive yes,” Helen said. “We'll have to make sure they are all humanely euthanized later,” she said firmly.
“Like we're going to put them back,” Zane snorted.
“Damn straight we're not. Besides, they'd probably be replaced in under a day,” she sighed. “If that's what it takes, it's what it takes,” she replied with a shrug. She looked at one of the other nurses who had secured a mouse and was whispering to it as she used a robotic arm to inject it with a serum. Helen didn't wince but Zane did.
“Okay.”
“Anything else?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Yeah, read your e-mail. I've sent you, I dunno four? You stopped responding.”
“I'm sort of in the middle of something,” she sighed. “Problems?”
“The usual shit, different day for the most part. Osiris is being an ass, and so are the Malcolm brothers. They are trying to move for a meeting to have you impeached from office.”
Helen snorted as the others in the lab paused what they were doing to look at Zane in shock. She shrugged and waved for them to go back to work. “Tell both of them to get back to work and stop playing politics. We've got more important things to be doing now,” she growled.
“Part of the problem is the Hazard move. Malcolm Innes isn't happy about it.”
“Tough,” Helen replied, turning so he could see her stern look and set jaw. “We're going as soon as this round is finished. I'll sleep on the plane. I'm sending the admiral ahead of us as soon as he can take the time.”
“Okay,” Zane replied, shrugging.
“Go on then, get. I've got this,” she said, returning to the microscope. Zane nodded, stepping back to watch her for a moment, then turned and left. It would take a while to get through decontamination before he could unsuit and get back to the main hospital wing.
...*...*...*...*...
Now that Ted Zane had been initialized into the system, he now saw the Wi-Fi network in a new light. Before it had been a toy, a way to goose Helen and pass notes or information. Little more than a child's toy, something they had done in class as kids.
Now though, a whole realm of possibilities were opening up. Whenever he was near a piece of electronics with a link he could now see or 'hear' it. He could link with it, and sometimes accidentally did. He was rebuffed twice by the admiral's AI, he wondered what she was doing. Feeling that cold AI touch him had also been an experience.
Yes, things were changing. Hopefully for the better.
...*...*...*...*...
Hank's fifth drone was sent to thread the needle, but this time from a new direction. The drone re-oriented according to the prevailing winds and then headed in against the headwind. Nanites were immediately detected by the little drone. It had been designed to be more resistant to them. The first nanites were recon bugs, but others were also in the air.
They managed to isolate samples of the nanites. As they got closer, before the nanites reacted and crashed the drone.
Analyzing the samples, they discovered that some were a viral nanotech, most likely controlled by a central host strain. “The good news is that it's not targeting RNA and plant structures so they're safe. From what we've been able to tell of this thing it's going after oxygen based life forms.”
“Which is smart, most of us are oxy based.”
“Not all sentients are. But you have a point. Any differentiating methods? Is it ruling out non sapient life?”
“No. It's just ignoring them for now.”
“Oh? Maybe we can use that?”
“How so?”
“I have no idea.”
...*...*...*...*...
Using the cell towers Hank had set up in Hazard, Sprite began to pick up strange anomalous data. She ran it through her filters and it came back as encrypted Xeno, possibly AI coding language. She suspected that the first virus was a cover to something else. The panic made people run away spreading the disease and also clearing the area of ground zero letting whatever was left behind alone in relative peace and security. She reported her findings to admiral Irons.
The admiral called a meeting to discuss the ramifications of that news. Helen was there, as was Hank and Phoenix, though the latter two attended virtually. He'd left most of the rest of the people out because he didn't want or need a panic. The people were scared enough as it was. “This goes a bit beyond a biological attack,” Irons said, looking at the AI.
Sprite posted the image of the code, and the direction. The cell towers weren't designed to get a location on a transmission, but she'd managed to get a rough estimate by triangulating the direction and signal strength each tower was receiving. A map window appeared, a dot blinked on Rubicon town.
“Wonderful,” Irons murmured, rubbing his chin. “So there's definitely something going on.”
“Which explains why we can't get a drone in to get a good look. Anything that drops below a thousand meters has problems.” Hank's last drone hadn't lasted long despite the anti-nanite coating.
“I thought we ruled that as mechanical failure?” Helen asked. The AI shook her head.
“I can understand one, both were hastily made, but six? Each of them were made in a replicator. Or at least their parts were. All were proven designs, designs selected for how sturdy they were. All worked fine until they got to Rubicon, where they then failed. Six aircraft, made with three different designs failed on the same mission under the same circumstances at the same location,” she said.
“You are thinking enemy action,” Irons said.
“Once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, but three times is enemy action. We already know the attack itself is enemy action. It's not a strong leap to this admiral.”
“But we don't have any supporting evidence,” Irons murmured.
“I haven't had the time to analyze the telemetry if that is what you are asking about admiral,” Sprite replied with a frown. “I've been busy,” she said tartly.
The admiral nodded.
“Phoenix has checked into it, the AI has ruled out the most common known mechanical failures. Phoenix also found a code string in the last telemetry feed his probe sent before it dived and crashed.”
“Telemetry...”
“You'll remember when we started having control issues you ordered the drone to get what it could. The bandwidth was hogged by the science package, it was full of raw data. But there was some spill over, and what we thought was corruption was, but it was corrupted with telemetry from the bird as its software was being overwritten.”
“Shit,” Irons frowned.
“I'm missing something,” Helen said, looking from the screen to the admiral and back. “Overwritten?”
“Something got into the bird's software. It programmed the drone to crash.”
“Oh. Can it do that?”
“Apparently yes. So it recognized both probes as a threat and acted on it.”
“Shit.”
...*...*...*...*...
Panic over the news that nanites were also involved spread through the media. The admiral swore, they needed to keep a lid on people but unfortunately people were just reacting, the stress was too much.
Already there were demands to use stern sterilization methods.
He was called in to a virtual meeting with Mr. Osiris. “We need to do something.”
“We are doing something,” Sprite responded testily. “We're doing a lot.”
“I meant about the nanites. We need to use fire. Bomb them. A nuke,” Osiris said, eyes feverish. “Yes yes! A nuke!”
The admiral sighed patiently. “Look,” he said as Osiris turned his attention to the offworlder. “Look, if you use a nuke, the center of the infection would yes be destroyed, but the outer edges would be pushed outward and spread by the violent winds and blown across the world, magnifying the problem. Instead of having one centralized nest to deal with we'd have dozens, thousands.” He had Sprite project an image of what he was talking about.
Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) Page 46