by David Smith
‘So what’s killing the Sha T’Al?’ asked Dave.
‘The whole planet is, sir.’
‘Come again??’
‘The whole planet, sir. It’s a piece of evil genius that comes straight out of a bad movie script.’
She sighed, and Dave watched her shoulders slump as the effort of the last few days took its toll. ‘The Empire’s weapon is fiendishly clever, and frighteningly subtle. The Terran ship involved, which we have to assume is ISS Tiger, visited the planet some time ago and simply dumped a payload of protein mass into the atmosphere.’
‘Is that a virus of some sort?’ asked Dave, still confused.
O’Mara shook her head. ‘Viruses are easy to defeat medically speaking. Once you find out the method of transmission you can isolate the infected victims and if you can’t find a cure, the virus will burn itself out as it kills off the infected without spreading any further.’
‘What the Empire did here is different. They’ve mutated a protein that is unique to Sha T’Al physiology so that it constructs itself in the wrong physical shape. The incorrect shape prevents it from performing its usual function within the body, but also affects other similar proteins and changes their shape to match its own.’
She pulled up a three-dimensional diagram of a complex molecule on her computer terminal and then showed another that was only subtly different. ‘It’s called a Prion or Protein Infection. It’s been known in human medicine for around three hundred years, and results in Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in cows, Scrapie in sheep and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. In the Sha T’Al biochemistry, the protein they’ve altered affects the development of most of the major organs, and the infection turns the organs into mushy, spongy masses which simply stop functioning.’
‘Why did the Sha T’Al not spot that?’ asked Dave. ‘From the evidence we’ve seen they’re at least as advanced as we are, medically speaking. If humans found this out three hundred years ago, surely they would have worked it out too?’
‘Obviously not. To be fair, the prion is incredibly hard to spot, because it’s chemically identical to the healthy protein on which it’s modelled. It’s only the physical structure of the molecule that makes it dangerous. If I’m honest, we only spotted it because we knew that the evil Katrin Mengele had been working to isolate protein complexes unique to the Sha T’Al.’
‘My guess is that Sha T’Al missed it because they had no frame of reference in which to work. With humans, the variant-CJD disease only attacked the brain, which gave them a good starting point when the problem was first identified. Even with that, thousands of scientists were employed for years trying to find the cause of the illness, and even when the cause was identified it was still disputed for decades.’
‘In the case of the Sha T’Al they had thousands more cases all at the same time and showing a huge amount of different issues. I think they simply had too much information to wade through and the disease took hold too fast for them to fight. With far fewer scientists and doctors to start with, and many of those amongst the infected, they were always going to struggle. The fact that they’re in the middle of a war-zone and they couldn’t get more assistance from the rest of the Sha T’Al meant they were always fighting a losing battle.’
‘How did the infection spread so quickly?’
‘It didn’t. It looks like the ship dumped the infected protein from altitude and left it to fall to the ground. It was absorbed into the food chain, and began to work up through the chain to the Sha T’Al. It wasn’t a case of the disease spreading quickly, it was almost worldwide from the outset. Once any infected protein enters a body, it replicates itself and increases in numbers exponentially. It takes a while to reach a critical mass, and it’s only when it does so that it begins to affect the body physically. By then it’s too late to do anything about it. By the time the first Sha T’Al exhibited any noticeable symptoms, the vast majority of the population would already have had the infection. It’s incurable and it’s one hundred percent fatal.’
Dave was horrified. ‘That’s genocide!!’
O’Mara looked close to tears. ‘The worst thing about it all is how callous it all is. This is the ultimate weapon: They seed a world with deadly infectious protein, it works through the food chain and exterminates the Sha T’Al and renders the world completely toxic to them. But because it’s keyed to a specific protein that’s unique to the Sha T’Al, you or I could eat the stuff for breakfast, dinner and tea with no harmful effects whatsoever. The world is sterilized of the dominant species but still perfectly intact and ready for human colonization.’
‘So there’s nothing we can do here? They’re all going to die?’ asked Dave despondently.
‘Ah, well, I’m still working on that’ said O’Mara with the slightest of smiles ‘Back in the twentieth century on earth they largely circumvented the problem of prionic infection by cutting the infected protein out of the food chain. As an example, they stopped eating offal containing elements of the central nervous system of cows, which appeared to be the most common way in which the infection spread to humans.’
‘By the twenty-first century, they’d developed drugs that blocked off the infected protein’s ability to reproduce. It didn’t cure the victim, but it stopped the prion from reaching the critical levels which damaged the brain. The victims had to keep taking drugs for the rest of their lives, but they managed the infection. It’s too late to stop them eating the protein, but I believe that with help from Commander Mengele, we may be able to develop a drug that will act on the infected protein to prevent it replicating to dangerous levels.’
She scratched her head reflectively. ‘Theoretically, it should be possible to create a second prion to replace the infected protein with a facsimile of the original. That would rid them of the actual disease, but even that won’t repair the damage done by the original infection, except in the very young, or unless the Sha T’Al can use stem cells to stimulate tissue repair in the affected organs. Both of those technologies are outside human understanding as we don’t know anywhere near enough about how Sha T’Al physiology works.’
‘Ok, that’s excellent work, Lieutenant-Commander. Please proceed with development work on the drugs as soon as possible, I’ll make sure Commander Mengele is available to assist you.’ Dave paused ‘Err . . . which one do you want?’
‘Well, both if I’m honest. I figure this universe’s Katrin Mengele will be most likely to find the solution we’re looking for, but I’d like our Commander Mengele to . . . ‘ she blushed bright red ‘ . . . well . . . you know . . . persuade her?’
‘Oh!’ said Dave suddenly understanding.
O’Mara couldn’t look him in the eye. ‘I’m as open minded as the next good Catholic girl, but my persuasive powers normally revolve around long nights in a pub with a gallon of Guinness for company, not sex-toys the size of fricking Godzilla!’
Dave was still struggling with the image that popped into his head when he received a call from ASBeau up on the Bridge of Tiger. ‘What’s up ASBeau?’
‘We’ve got company sir, but not what I was expecting. A convoy of Sha T’Al civilian vessels have just dropped out of warp and they’re heading directly towards us.’
Dave was surprised that a couple of freighters would concern his Tactical Officer ‘Are they threatening the ship?’
‘No sir! That’s not the problem. They’re asking for our assistance: they’re refugees.’
Chapter 9
Dave studied the rag-tag group of ships that had arrived in orbit a few minutes before. There were fourteen vessels in total, but no two ships were the same amongst that number and they varied enormously in size and capability.
The largest was clearly a passenger ferry of some kind, nearly as large as Tiger, but far simpler and more capacious. She was the exception and the rest of the vessels were much smaller, mostly types of commercial towing and cargo vessels. Some were not much bigger than 10%, Tiger’s semi-official Captain’s yach
t and clearly weren’t suited to long interstellar journeys.
The only military vessel was a small scout ship, but she was clearly an older type than the Sha T’Al scouts they’d encountered at Hole, and ASBeau suggested she’d probably been brought out of reserve. She was armed, but a scan revealed that her torpedo tubes were empty and her shields were non-operational.
The ferry was in the best condition of the vessels, and had acted as a flotilla leader, but most of the others were in a poor state, showing signs of hasty modification and repair.
The only thing the disparate group had in common was that every one of them was packed to the gunnels with scared and desperate Sha T’Al refugees.
Despite the friendship messages Tiger had directed at them from the moment they’d arrived, the Sha T’Al flotilla had stood off, prepared to try and escape if necessary.
After a tense period, the Sha T’Al had finally opened a channel to Tiger, but Dave had already surmised that this was desperation rather than co-operation: scans confirmed that several of the vessels didn’t have sufficient fuel to attempt another interstellar journey.
Lieutenant Shearer put the incoming message on the Bridge’s main view-screen. A tall, elegant Sha T’Al appeared, dressed in an ornate but stylish robe.
Like all Sha T’Al he was humanoid, but could not be mistaken for a human. An elongated face and skull bore two huge dark eyes above prominent cheek-bones and they blinked slowly before the Sha T’Al spoke.
‘I am Elder Jalai, and I implore you to leave us in peace so that we may seek the safety of our brethren on another world. We bear no arms and represent no threat to you or the Empire.’
Dave cleared his throat, and put on his best diplomats voice to reply. ‘Greetings Elder Jalai, I believe you have mistaken us for subjects of the Terran Empire. I am Commander Hollins, First Officer of USS Tiger, a Starship of the United Federation of Planets. We are in this space only by mischance and are no threat to yourselves. We are currently engaged in giving aid to those Sha T’Al who still survive on the planet below, and will assist you in whatever way we can.’
The Sha T’Al paused and considered this before replying. ‘You are clearly Terran. Are you a non-aligned political faction of the Empire?’
Dave considered if it was safe to divulge their true position, and decided that honesty was the best policy. ‘No. We are the equivalent of the Terran Empire from another dimension brought here by an accident with our drive systems. Our universe is a mirror of this one but has clearly evolved differently over a period of time.’
‘I will not lie: in our universe the Sha T’Al in this region of space had been plagued by the effects of a recreastional drug exported to them by humans, but we have done everything in our power to put right that mistake. In our universe humans are just one member of a large Federation of peaceful and co-operative races. We were attempting to return to Todot Hahn in all urgency to prevent further hostilities between the Sha T’Al and Tana when our warp drive failed and threw us into this universe. Since arriving we have been attacked by the Sha T’Al and the Terran Empire and have sought refuge here ourselves.’
There was another pause as the Sha T’Al seemed to consider if a Terran Empire vessel would have anything to gain in constructing such a bizarre story to deceive them. ‘Then you will not prevent us from leaving?’
Dave smiled his friendliest smile ‘More than that. We will assist where at all possible.’ To try to convince the clearly sceptical Sha T’Al, Dave tried to explain the logic of the situation. ‘We are seeking a way to return to our own dimension, but are being hunted by the Empire. It would be advantageous for us to form as many alliances as we can in order to avoid Imperial forces.’
Elder Jalai seemed to slump in his seat. ‘Then you will no doubt be concerned to learn that we have fled here to escape an Imperial Fleet that has appeared at Joran Dal. More specifically, having established control there, the Imperial Fleet is already en-route to Cho-dal-far.’
That made Dave sit up. ‘I am deeply concerned. Can you advise how distant they are, and how strong a force they have?’
‘The force is mostly assault transports, at least eight, according to our intelligence. They are protected by a heavy cruiser and two smaller vessels. We surmise that this force is deemed sufficient to over-run Joran Dal and Cho-dal-far, but would be insufficient to assault some of the other colonies such as Todot Hahn. We believe that they will rendezvous with another fleet for an attempt to take Todot Hahn and the other systems in the disputed zone.’
‘Our scout vessel observed them leave Joran Dal and logged their heading before it joined us. We believe that they will constrained by the lower speed of the assault transports, but will still be faster than our transport vessels. They must be no more than a few days behind us.’
Dave thought about the choices the refugees had, and realised they had none. ‘If that is the case, the combined Imperial Fleet will almost certainly be strong enough to clear the whole of the disputed zone. Where will you go?’
‘We are . . . not certain’ admitted Jalai. ‘A blight has affected us and we have been refused permission to move deeper into Sha T’Al space. Our hope is that our leaders will allow us to settle an uninhabited world. We have come here only to attempt to refuel and also give others the chance to join our evacuation.’
Dave slumped back in his seat. The Sha T’Al in this universe were clearly similar to those he was familiar with. They took no risk with infection and were happy to sacrifice the afflicted to protect the greater population. ‘There are approximately twenty-thousand Sha T’Al still alive on the planet below, although they all exhibit symptoms of a disease . . . I assume the same one that afflicts you?’
Elder Jalai looked horrified ‘Twenty-thousand?? We had no idea . . . we hoped to evacuate them too, but we thought only a few thousand had been left behind after the previous evacuation. We could never carry so many extra bodies!’
Dave could see his distress even through his unfamiliar features. ‘Then I promise we will do whatever we can to assist you in evacuating them.’
His thoughts turned instantly to the huge Tana battleship. She had a crew of only a few hundred, but there was an awful lot of room inside her from what he’d seen . . .
--------------------
Dave made a priority call to the away team on Cho-dal-far. ‘How are your investigations going Aisling?’
Like most of the crew of Tiger, Lieutenant-Commander Aisling O’Mara had an uncanny sense of impending bad news. ‘What’s gone wrong?’
Dave sighed, he probably should come straight to the point. ‘We’re in trouble. There’s an Imperial Assault Fleet on its way here. I assume that this is a part of the fleet Admiral O’Connor will use to clear the Tana and Sha T’Al from the disputed zone.’
‘OH CRAP!!! How long have we got??’
‘The Captain of the Sha T’Al scout vessel reckons they’re about eight days away. It’s a big enough force that I’m reluctant to try tackling it head-on so I’m considering evacuating the Sha T’Al from the surface.’
‘Have the Sha T’Al ships got enough capacity??’ asked O’Mara, ‘We’ve done a head count and have got just shy of twenty thousand bodies down here. A lot of them are very poorly too . . . ‘
‘The Sha T’Al haven’t got the capacity, but Chief Deng reckons that Tana battleship will have!’ smiled Dave.
‘Ah! Of course!’
‘So back to my original question, how are things going down there?’ he reiterated.
She ran her fingers through her hair. ‘Well it’s going far better than I expected, truth be told. I thought we’d have to wheedle information out of Mengele’s evil twin, but she coughed straight away.’
Dave nearly choked. ‘What?!?!’
She shrugged ‘It appears she truly feels guilty about it all and is determined to try and help. Yeah, seriously!’ she added, seeing the look of doubt of Dave’s face.
‘We did get a bit stuck then, because we knew how
the original prion was created, but we couldn’t work out a way to synthesise a counter-acting protein. Ironically, it was bad-luck that solved the issue.’
Dave looked suitably confused, and O’Mara dutifully expanded on her statement.
‘We took a risk bringing Jonah James to the surface but he’s the only trained pathologist we had available. We set him up in a tent on his own about a hundred meters away from everything else, and let nature take its course.’
‘The first accident was a freak tornado that lifted the whole tent and threw it about five klicks down the road. Then we had a lightning strike which barbecued a half dozen cadavers Jonah was working on. Amazingly, he was smack in the middle of the lot of them as wasn’t even singed.’
She shook her head. ‘We came closer to losing him when a flash flood took him and the tent away down the road, but he managed to hang on to a tree-stump and we moved him into another tent to carry on his work. Sadly, it was a lot closer to the rest of the tents.’
‘We were hit with a plague of wee-beasties next. They’re this eco-systems equivalent of the locust, but the little buggers are ferociously omnivorous. Ate most of the cadavers, the bloody tents and quite a few bits of equipment. I was getting a bit down about it all by then and was thinking of shipping Jonah out.’
‘That’s when he got struck by lightning again. This time the heat of the resulting fire affected some protein samples the Mengele twins had been working on and catalysed a reaction, bending a protein structure we’d tried and rejected into exactly what we needed. And as a bonus, no-one was hurt!’
She paused. ‘Apart from Suki Mandali. Poor dear’s a nervous wreck at the best of times. She’d come down to work on a problem with one of the shuttle engines. The lightning strike was only a few feet from her, and she suffered an explosive defecation. Knickers, skirt, boots, lab-coat . . . all completely ruined. And not just hers. Poor Sarah Cumbers was stood right behind her at the time. Messy. She’s still in shock. Cumbers, that is, not Mandali.’