by Mark Wandrey
Over the next hour Dram told Minu the story of how Jacob had been relieved of his position after the meeting with the Mok-Tok representatives. The former First among the Chosen had been ordered to return to his quarters and Dram took over the discussion with the aliens, only via remote link where they were isolated.
The mistake was how no-one had taken the effort to remove Jacob’s access codes. After he was relieved, he immediately got into her personal aerocar and flew to Tranquility to complain to the civilian leadership of Bellatrix. He’d tried and failed to get a council meeting called, and then gone into town and drank himself into a coma. In those few hours, he had infected hundreds.
“The Mok-Tok brought the virus?” Minu asked.
“The scientists are positive,” Dram told her. “They finished sequencing it about twelve hours before you arrived. There are alien gene sequences.”
“Oh no. Can it be stopped?”
“Well, ultimately they think that is what’s been saving us. The virus was designed to be fatal. It would destroy the brain stem and kill the victim in hours. But in this case, the alien gene sequences didn’t interact with the infected victim properly. I guess it just doesn’t like the taste of us. It mainly made people sicker than shit and slowly cook our brains. Some anti-inflammatories kept it under control enough to avoid the infected from dying… but just barely. Our medical system is stretched to the breaking point.”
“Wasn’t the codex able to handle it?”
“That damned alien DNA sequence again.”
Minu turned to Gregg. “Where’s our prisoner?”
“Prisoner?” Dram wondered. He’d taken out a bottle of water and swallowed a couple pills while they talked. He looked a little less pale now.
Gregg handed Minu the little box he’d been carrying which she put down on the table. She pressed a little control on the side and an access hatch slid open. Out walked Hodo Bapal, Supreme War Clan Leader of the Mok-Tok.
Dram cocked an eyebrow and almost laughed, until Minu quickly introduced the tiny being.
“Well,” he said instead, “that explains a lot.”
“You are the leader of the humans?” asked Hodo Bapal through the translator.
“I am the interim leader of the human Chosen. My name is Dram Aluvala, in service to the Tog.”
“As your Chosen Minu Groves stated, I am Hodo Bapal, Supreme War Clan leader of the Mok-Tok, apprehended under somewhat legal acts of armed combat—”
“Somewhat legal?” Minu snorted.
Hodo Bapal continued uninterrupted. “As such I am your hostage to be dealt with in accordance with The Law.”
“Is the releasing of a biological agent on an unsuspecting world within The Law?”
Minu’s accusation was direct and to the point. It was that way because she was the foremost expert on the Laws of the Concordia for her species. She’d long considered it part of study of war to know the laws that controlled how you waged war. She knew that biological weapons were illegal, along with nuclear and chemical. Just about anything else was fair game.
“I was not responsible for that.”
“Dram, can you play the footage of the Mok-Tok visit?”
Dram coughed and nodded, speaking to someone off camera. A moment later the screen split and there was the reception chamber showing the two hulking tripods of the Mok-Tok introducing themselves.
“Chosen, I am Aka Bapal, clan leader of the Mok-Tok, and this is Asa Bapal, war pack leader.”
The replay froze and Minu looked at the tiny alien staring back with golden eyes and twitching nose. It was impossible to tell the emotions of an alien. Was this one smug, or worried?
“Aka Bapal, Asa Bapal, both relatives of yours by the sound of it.”
“That is a common name on my world.”
Minu sighed and shrugged. “Okay, noble being. We are in quarantine as a result of a biological agent released by these two… non-relatives of yours. My people and I cannot leave because the virus is pandemic on our leasehold. We are some of the few not infected.”
The Mok-Tok stared at her, unmoved. “That is unfortunate, but I fail to see how it affects me in the least.”
“Dram, we are going to release Hodo Bapal here to return back to his people.” Dram could be seen nodding. “Of course, we’ll have to use the portal in Tranquility, because of the problems caused by the virus.”
Hodo considered her. “That is reasonable.”
Through the video, Minu gave Dram a tiny wink and his perplexed look instantly changed to understanding. “Of course, Minu. Transferring the Noble Being could take a couple days.”
“Such delays can not be avoided. It is unfortunate,” Minu agreed. Hodo looked back and forth between the video image and Minu. “It is also unfortunate we cannot shield you from this virus.”
“Wait a minute, human…”
“Bring him to the east lock and we’ll take him from there,” Dram said and the video went blank. Minu took the little travel box and somewhat gently picked up the alien, heading for the indicated exit.
“Perhaps we are being hasty,” her translator squeaked. Unlike all the previous times she’d spoken with the Mok-Tok, this statement conveyed an emotion. Panic.
“Can’t be helped,” Minu said and shrugged. “You wish to be repatriated, and I am going to grant that request.”
A few meters away was a personnel lock constructed of thick moliplas. A squad of Rangers waited there, all looking from sick to sicker but still staring curiously at what Minu carried. The Mok-Tok pleaded with her to stop, and she ignored it. As they walked up to the lock, it resorted to sinking his teeth into her palm. Lucky for her, it was her right hand and the synthetic flesh easily resisted the assault. The pain receptors still told her she’d been bitten. She resisted the urge to smash the little bastard into jam.
“Yes, Noble Being?”
“You cannot send me through that lock.”
“And why is that? We are going to release you.”
“Then send me through the portal we came in from. I demand it.”
“The Law states I can release you without ransom if I chose, it says nothing about the method of that release. I choose to send you through the portal in Tranquility some six hundred kilometers to the east.” She nodded to the Rangers on the far side of the lock and the transparent door on her side slid open. “Safe journey,” she said and sat him inside. The door quickly slid closed before he could scurry back out.
Minu pressed the intercom on her side, being sure that the interior of the lock was in on the transmission. “You may cycle the lock, soldier.”
“You have bested me!” the alien screamed and beat its tiny hands noiselessly against the rock, “do not open that door!”
Minu held up a hand to stop the Rangers. “What do you mean? Are you suggesting you had something to do with this?”
“I have some awareness of what may or may not have been released on your world.”
“Oh, is that so? How does this alter my decision in the least then? It would almost be poetic justice to expose you to what you have plagued my people with! Rangers, prepare to open the lock.”
“I can cure it!” Hodo screamed, dropping to his tiny knees. “I am begging you, is that what you want, damn you human, is that what is your heart’s desire? To see a higher-order species at your mercy?”
Minu pressed a control and the door opened on her side. The Mok-Tok raced through and stood at her feet, breathing heavily. She bent over and held her hand out for him to climb on, which he did, and she lifted him up to her face.
“I want you to understand something, Noble Being. I could care less what status you hold over us and my species. I’m frankly tired of all the kloth shit. If you can cure this virus than say so, or I will make absolutely certain you are infected and take as long as absolutely possible to get you to that portal before shoving your infected self through. If you die before then, I will not be held responsible. Especially since you have now admitted to being co
mplicit in this virus. So, I will ask you one time, and one time only: Can you provide us the information to cure this virus?”
It only took a moment for the Mok-Tok to reply. “And I will be released?”
She was tempted to make no such promise. Even in the face of millions of her fellow humans suffering under the virus, to have this little bastard at her mercy was a powerful tool. But she could not bring herself to take the stakes even higher. “You have my word as a Chosen.”
“Very well. Bring me the tablet and equipment I was captured with.”
Chapter 73
Julast 30th, 534 AE
Chosen Science Offices, Steven’s Pass, Bellatrix
Minu walked into the specially equipped laboratory just after dawn to check on progress of the latest test series. She’d been billeted in the very same quarters she’d first been assigned as a science branch team leader so many years ago. She simply couldn’t bring herself to go home, not with Aaron still missing and a prisoner of the Tanam somewhere out there in the galaxy.
Hodo Bapal looked up from his suit of computer tablet as she entered. She’d come to know the little Mok-Tok well enough in the intervening weeks to know he probably hadn’t slept at all. She’d left him in the same spot, a selection of local fruits for food (still uneaten), surrounded by all the monitors that were adjusted to his stature. One entire wall of the lab showed human-scale displays of the genetic and biological data Hodo was analyzing.
He’d first considered her an uneducated nuisance as her assigned guardian. Minu was forced to admit she knew very little of genetics or biology. Materials science was her modest specialty. That and war, of course. She’d been amazed to learn that this War Clan Leader was also a brilliant biologist and genetic engineer. However in the intervening time, his dismissal of her had gradually given way to a grudging admiration. “For a lesser species, you have potential,” he’d admitted only the night before.
Minu fell to on the task before her with grim determination. She’d been fully briefed in the bunker within hours, and true to his word, Hodo had a vaccine ready in under three days. Those not infected were now safe, so that only left the victims to deal with.
While the virus was not devastating, it was debilitating to its victims. The human immune system proved resilient enough to resist the brain destroying factors, but not enough to rid itself of the bug.
“This organism basis is my design,” Hodo admitted shortly after being relocated to Steven’s Pass, courtesy of their new immunity to the virus. “Though one of our experts has modified it considerably with…unique sequencing in an attempt to make it more effective against your species. They have both failed and succeeded.”
Two days after he’d begun work on a counter virus, or an immune booster that would let the victims combat it, the infection took an ugly turn.
“Reports have just come in on a new development with the alien virus Chosen scientists have dubbed, the Nocturne Disease,” a reporter said on the evening broadcast from Plateau. Minu’s computer, constantly sifting for any sources of news on the plague, alerted her only minutes into the broadcast.
“Doctors in the Peninsula tribe have received a number of cases of children being brought in who were already patients fighting the virus. Due to the massive number of cases, they have dealt with the manageable cases like most tribes’ medical systems, providing medications to mitigate the worst effects and sending those in otherwise good health home. These children have all suddenly fallen into a coma and doctors are struggling to understand this horrible complication.”
Minu quickly got in touch with the senior medical researcher assigned to the Chosen’s ‘classified’ research efforts to verify the details.
“The report is accurate, Chosen,” he’d told her, “the virus appears to be concentrating in the hypothalamus area of the brain which controls the sleeping/waking state. We’ve just received the first cases transferred here via transport and are scanning them now.”
In the following days, the ugly turn was confirmed and spread like wildfire. Minu went from dedicated to obsessed. She spent half her time helping Hodo with whatever he needed, and the rest studying virology and genetics. What little was left she used for eating and sleeping. She didn’t even pause to wonder how she was absorbing the data so quickly, she simple devoured every text she could find.
“Your going to make yourself sick,” Bjorn said gently late one evening. He was doing what he could to help as well, but it was far outside his area of knowledge.
“I can’t get sick, that’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“I bear some responsibility for this mess.”
“Don’t be silly,” he scoffed at her.
“I’m not, I’m being realistic. If I hadn’t been chasing my father’s ghost, I might have been here or better able to respond when Gregg needed me.”
“You don’t know that’s true.”
“I don’t know that’s it isn’t true.”
“Chosen Minu,” called Hodo at that moment, “I need you to get your computer people to provide me more processor time for genetic simulations!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she’d said and grabbed a nearby communicator. Bjorn watched her sadly for a time and when she looked later, she was again alone.
Her friends helped in every way they could as well. Cherise had her logistics department pressed into service moving coma victims around the planet and trying to make sure that everyone who was not infected had the vaccine. She got even less sleep than Minu. Ted and Bjorn provided modified equipment for Hodo to work with.
And Gregg organized what was left of the healthy Rangers to provide help with disrupted vital services while maintaining at least minimal defensive forces to their vulnerable planet. He did that until tragedy struck.
When she hadn’t seen or heard from Gregg for a couple days she finally asked Dram where he was. “He’s at home,” was the somber reply.
“He can’t have gotten sick?” she asked, suddenly terrified.
“No, it’s his son.”
“Oh, Dram, no.”
Gregg’s son, Alphonse, had been born in January. The virus had found its way to him through his wife who’d contracted it as her job as a linguist contractor for the Chosen. The day before he’d fallen into a coma, another victim of Nocturne.
Desperate now, Minu brought Lilith into the effort. “Can you link the medical intelligence with the Chosen science team?” she’d asked over the instantaneous link they shared.
“It is possible, though I don’t know what assistance it could provide. Cases of biological damage would routinely be placed in suspended animation and returned to a medical facility of the People when the time was available.”
“Let’s give it a try anyway? Explain to me how I can link my communicator here into the network.”
That same afternoon, she pushed Dram to release as many emergency suspension capsules and the Chosen maintained to the civilian care facilities. They’d learned to detect the children about to be overcome by the Nocturne and the capsules would freeze them in time. Because it was now known for certain, the Nocturne was destroying the children’s hypothalami.
It was late in the afternoon of the 30th. Minu was in a conference with two of the planet’s leading cerebral pediatric specialists (one from Plateau, the other a surprisingly genial Rusk). They were fighting a losing battle with the alien virus, even with Hodo’s impressive abilities to devise reagents to slow the progress. Already at least 50,000 children were in comas across the planet, all between six months and five years old. It tore at Minu’s soul like a kloth ripping into a helpless horse. She’d never been more aware of the baby growing inside her and the horrible pain all those parents were suffering.
“—continues to make slow progress and we’ve seen some evidence of brain stem damage in the longest suffering cases,” the physician from Rusk explained in his thick accent. “We must admit we might lose these children.”
; “No!” Minu yelled and slammed her fist onto the moliplas table hard enough to crack it. A platoon of assistants in the next room all jumped but Hodo, tired beyond exhaustion, only glanced up from his data stream before looking back at it. “We will not abandon these children!”
“I wasn’t suggesting abandoning them, Chosen, only admitting that we are not going to cure them before irreversible damage occurs. We have frozen as many as we can, but we are out of the capsules.”
“We as well,” the doctor from Plateau agreed.
“I have teams of Chosen out trying to purchase more,” Minu told them, “but ones suitable for hominids are…rare.”
“Mother?”
Minu instantly held up a hand for the conference call. “Just a second, Doctors.” Communication with her daughter was spotty, the little communicator was sorely stretched working as a data link as well. The fear of it succumbing to overwork and burning out was yet another fear she constantly lived with, “Yes, Lilith.”
“The medical intelligence has a cure.”
“What?! I thought you said there was nothing it could do?” They’d given up any hope of the medical intelligence having a cure and were only using it for biological simulations.
“That is correct. To my knowledge, it had ceased all efforts to formulate a cure and was only processing requested tasks from your researchers on Bellatrix.”
Minu blinked and shook her head. From no hope to a cure in seconds was like being hit in the head with a bat.
“I am transmitting the retrovirus now.”
The link routed the data to her screen and she instantly shared it with the researchers. In moments the room and others like it around the planet was filled with cheers. Then quiet returned as the set to work synthesizing the virus from, of all things, a strain of herpes.
“That is an amazing solution,” Hodo said as he examined the data. “Creative and elegant.”
“How soon for a test trial?” Minu asked the virologists a few hours later.
“We’ve concluded computer models with one hundred percent certainty of no harmful side effects. This is based on a version of herpes that is common on our planet, and largely harmless since the codex you provided gave us a way to neutralize its damaging side effects.”