by Dietmar Wehr
“I think you’re being heavy-handed and my report will reflect that but I’ll enforce the biological attack protocols under protest.”
“Fine. I can live with being too cautious. So can my superiors. Just make sure that everyone follows those protocols at all times. No exceptions.”
“Okay, okay! What is it with you Space Force people and your power trips?” said the Team Leader in an exasperated voice.
Johansen had the Team Leader’s preliminary report six hours later. There was no doubt whatsoever that a chemical agent had been used. The physical evidence was corroborated by the eyewitness testimony of the survivors. The survivors totaled 15 out of a pre-attack population of 54,000+. A preliminary examination of the survivors showed no signs of any disease. At Johansen’s insistence, the Medical Team attached portable video cameras to their bio-suits and the ship’s own medical staff were tasked with watching the video streams to make sure that no medical personnel on the ground were caught not wearing their bio-suits, except inside the inflatable structure that would be the team’s shelter and where they could safely take their bio-suits off in order to sleep, eat, etc. With that information, Johansen decided to send off a message drone to Sol.
Howard reread the text message from Task Force 90 a second time. [Nimitz Base has been totally destroyed. No survivors. 15 colonists are still alive. The rest were killed with a chemical agent. Forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony confirms this. I’ve insisted that the Medical Team continue to follow the protocols against biological agents in spite of the Team Leader’s opinion that such precautions are unnecessary. Names of the survivors are attached. The Team Leader thinks I’m egotistical and power-mad and will say so in her report but I don’t care what she thinks. If she doesn’t follow protocols to the letter, I’m leaving her behind even if that means a court martial later. Johansen clear.]
Howard smiled. If she left anyone behind, he’d back her to the hilt. The news about survivors was both good and bad news. Good for the families of the survivors. Bad for risk of carrying back some kind of hidden biological agent. He wished Shiloh was still nearby but he was on his way back to Site B with 3 freighters. His orders were to drop the SPG, the RTC team and key weapons development people off at the Haven colony for the time being along with orders from Howard to the colony administration to prepare to be transplanted to the Site B planet, which no one had bothered to name yet. At least Shiloh didn’t have to deal with the Committee. Howard had the privilege of doing that and tomorrow he’d get to tell them about the survivors, which they then would insist be brought back. He would stall as best he could and hoped that would be long enough.
A week after Replenisher’s arrival insystem, the first sentry frigate arrived looking to refuel. Now Phase 2 of this operation could commence. Johansen ordered the frigate’s A.I. to use its limited number of message drones to alert other sentry frigates to return to Avalon ahead of schedule. When they arrived and had been refueled, she would order them to use their message drones to call in even more frigates, before returning to Sol. Eventually all the sentry frigates would have been recalled.
The situation on the ground was unchanged. The survivors were quickly regaining their strength and stamina. Everyone on the medical team was grumbling about having to continue to wear bio-suits when it was obvious that they weren’t needed but so far none of them had been caught by video camera’s violating any protocols. Johansen was content to wait. Replenisher had a LOT of supplies in case they were needed by a lot more survivors. Given the number of colonists still alive, her ship and crew could stay in this system for six months if she deemed it necessary. When a message drone arrived from HQ, its contents were a shock.
[Dietrich to Johansen. Oversight Committee has fired Howard for refusing demands that survivors be returned immediately. If survivors show no signs of any contagion and medical team agrees there is no contagion, then you are ordered to return survivors to Earth. Refusal of this order is not an option. Your XO has been given orders to relieve you of command if you do not comply. Howard asked me to tell you that you gave it your best shot. Acting CSO Admiral Dietrich. End of message]
A quick check with her Executive Officer revealed that the message drone had carried a message specifically addressed to him too. He wasn’t in on the vision secret and Johansen had been specifically told not to share it with anyone else. She knew that if she disregarded the recall order, her XO would follow Dietrich’s orders and relieve her of command. She told her XO that they would take the survivors back.
When Trevor found out that he and the other survivors would be taken back to Earth, he cried with relief. Despite assurances from the doctors, that the tiny group would not be abandoned on Avalon, he’d been afraid they would be. The fact that the doctors constantly wore those funny looking suits with helmets only made his fears all the more real. So when they heard the news and saw that doctors weren’t wearing the suits anymore, the fear was gone. The special shelter the doctors used to sleep in, wasn’t sealed up anymore either. Trevor knew there was a supply of those wonderful mint candies in there that the lady doctor in charge brought with her and handed out, when she wanted Trevor and the other kids to give blood samples. He’d seen the outside of the shelter up close before but never with the entrance wide open like it was today. As he peaked inside, it looked empty. He said hello but no one answered. They must all be somewhere else. He decided to go in. It was very crowded with four bunks stacked two high, plus lots of containers, equipment, bottles, and the air had a strange odor that tickled his nostrils. He soon found a large transparent jar with the green candies and best of all, he was tall enough to be able to reach the lid and pulled it down off the shelf. Holding the jar in one hand, he opened the lid and suddenly felt the urge to sneeze. The sneeze came on so fast that there wasn’t time to close the lid or put down the jar so he held onto the jar with both hands while he sneezed, so that he wouldn’t drop and break it. As he put his hand in to grab some candies, he heard adult voices coming closer. If they catch me stealing some candy, they might leave me behind by myself! The fear welled up again and he quickly pulled his hand out, closed the lid and put the jar back where it had been. Sneaking out unseen was no longer an option so he just stood there as two of the doctors came and saw him.
“Hey, Trevor, what are you doing here?” asked one of them.
“Oh, nothing. Just looking around. Is that okay?”
“Well as long as you didn’t touch anything, then I guess it’s okay. Did you touch anything, Trevor?”
“No.” said Trevor earnestly.
“That’s good. How about you get your things packed and as soon as we pack up our stuff here, we’ll all take a ride in the shuttle up to the ship.”
“Okay.” said a relieved Trevor as he walked quickly out the entrance.
Chapter 18 - They’ll Avenge Us
The trip back was uneventful. Johansen didn’t know whether to be relieved that everybody was still healthy or concerned. She still believed that there was a contagion hiding somewhere on the ship either in the colonists themselves or on something they brought back but none of tests could find anything. Since the colonists couldn’t be completely isolated from the crew, Johansen knew that if she was right, then she and her crew were already doomed. The only question now was whether they could keep it from spreading.
When Replenisher arrived back at Earth, all of the gear and supplies, that had been taken down to Avalon were loaded aboard a shuttle while the survivors and crew took a second shuttle. Both shuttles were ordered to land at a remote facility, that was equipped to handle biohazards. The crew and survivors had to take showers and put on clean clothes. Their old clothes were burned. All potentially contaminated cargo was unpacked and sprayed with anti-bacterial and anti-viral liquids. The insides of the two shuttles were similarly cleaned inch by inch. When everyone had showered and gotten dressed again, they were brought to a special quarantine section containing beds, washrooms, a kitchen, dining facilities
and a storeroom that was well stocked with food. Johansen learned that in exchange for agreeing to bring the colonists back, Dietrich had gotten the Committee’s agreement to an additional period of quarantine.
Admin Assistant Stacey Bellevue stepped into the chamber where the mission supplies were stacked. The air still smelled of the antiseptic liquid used 24 hours earlier. Her job was to inventory everything so that it could be tracked. An hour into her task, she came across a jar with green candies in it. She recognized them as being her favorite kind of mint candy. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, she opened the lid and took one out. She unwrapped it, put the candy in her mouth and put the cellophane wrapper in her lab coat pocket intending to discard it later. She started to close the lid but stopped halfway. Remembering that her 4 year old son and his friends liked mint candies too, she quickly reached back in and took out a handful, stuffed them into her coat pocket and closed the lid.
Johansen sat down at the interview station and saw with surprise that her visitor was none other than Admiral Howard himself. They could see each other on their video monitors.
“How are you, Commander?” asked Howard.
“I’m fine, Sir. You’re looking better than the last time I saw you.” Howard chuckled.
“Well that’s the benefit of being forced into early retirement. A lot less stress and a lot more time with my family.” She saw him look around and then lean forward towards the microphone. “Do you think we dodged the bullet?”
“Honestly…I don’t think so. I can’t shake this gut feeling that we’ve overlooked something.” Howard nodded. They were both thinking the same thing. Shiloh’s vision had left little doubt that a bio-weapon had been used at Avalon AND that it would spread to Earth. All of his visions had panned out so far.
“The new CSO let me read both your official and unofficial reports. I can’t fault anything you did. The medical team leader’s report makes it very clear that you made their lives miserable by insisting on quote unnecessary precautions unquote. If the enemy did use a bio-weapon, they designed it to get around our own retro warning. It must have a fantastically long incubation period. The chemical attack was the decoy while the real attack had to have occurred before the colonists entered their shelters.”
“How long will they keep us in here?”
“As long as Dietrich can manage it but there’s already public pressure to let everyone out. These survivors have family members who want to see them and are complaining to the media, which is pushing this story for all its worth, damn them!”
“Why is the media supporting the families against us? How bad can being overly cautious really be?”
“That’s not how they’re covering it. Some of the family members are speculating that the real reason we don’t want to let the survivors out, is that we botched the defense of Avalon during the attack and don’t want that to be revealed. It’s nonsense I know but if we were covering up something, it would neatly explain our actions so far.”
“Oh, Christ!” said Johansen. She was silent for a few seconds, then she suddenly thought of something.
“What’s happening with Gunslinger?”
“He’s still piloting the ship. She’s now in lunar orbit. We’re not really sure what to do with her. Scrubbing down every centimeter of her interior would be a monumental job and there’s no assurance that the ship would be completely decontaminated even after that. Dietrich has guaranteed me that if the ship is to be decommissioned, then volunteers wearing bio-suits will go aboard and take Gunslinger out. We can then make certain that his outer casing is decontaminated and he’ll be transferred to a totally automated vessel with zero risk of human contact. He says hello by the way.”
“At least the A.I.s will be able to carry on the war after we’re gone.” Said Johansen. Howard looked thoughtful.
“I wonder if they’ll want to.” Now it was Johansen’s turn to chuckle.
“Oh yes! They’ll want to alright. I had a long chat with Gunslinger about that. Not only is he itching to get into combat himself but he told me that all the A.I.s are agreed. If Humanity falls, they’ll avenge us.” Neither of them spoke for a while. There didn’t seem to be anything more to say after that. Howard told her, he’d come back and visit again and then left.
It was the third morning after her chat with Howard. Johansen woke at her usual time and walked into the large dining area for breakfast. She immediately noticed that most of her crew and a couple of the doctors were seated at their usual table on one side but none of the colonists were seated at their usual table on the other side. Typically at least some of them would be awake by this time. Johansen felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She quickly walked over to where the medical team leader was seated, leaned over to her and said,
“Don’t you find it suspicious that NONE of the colonists are up now?” The woman looked annoyed at being interrupted then looked behind her at the other table and stared at it for a few seconds. When she turned back around to look at Johansen, she was frowning. The others at the table suddenly stopped talking and reacted as if they just noticed the colonists’ absence for the first time.
“That IS odd.” said the doctor. “Maybe we should check on them.” It wasn’t a question. Johansen nodded.
“I’ll go with you.” she said.
As the two doctors and Johansen walked towards the rooms where the colonists slept, she noticed that most of her crew will following them. When they entered the first room, it was eerily quiet. There were six beds in the room. Johansen walked over to the first one on the right. She recognized the boy, Trevor, as he lay there not moving. She called his name and shook his shoulder. No response. She laid her hand over his forehead. It was like touching ice. Cold and hard. He was dead. It very quickly became obvious that all the colonists were dead. One of her crew ran to the washroom to throw up. The doctors looked dazed. The colonists had all seemed fine the night before. Johansen was surprised that she felt no emotion at all. She would later leave a message for Howard telling him that she thought her lack of emotion was due to having been convinced that the colonists were doomed no matter what.
As she stepped out into the corridor to join the doctors there, the team leader looked at her with haunted eyes and said,
“You were right all along. I don’t know how we missed it. We checked everything!” Johansen nodded but said nothing.
“At least we kept it from spreading.” said the doctor. Johansen watched the growing horror in the woman’s face when she said,
“No, we didn’t, but at least you and I won’t be around to see it happen.”
Howard entered the Ops Center and looked around. This will probably be the last time I see this place, he thought. He saw Dietrich walk over to him.
“Thanks for allowing me to be here one more time, Sepp.” Dietrich waved the comment aside.
“You may not be the CSO anymore but you’re still a three star Admiral. If you want to be here to see the last convoy off, then you’ve earned that right and if the Committee doesn’t like it, they can fuck themselves.” Howard laughed.
“You always did have a way with words, Sepp.” The two men walked over to the center of the room and looked at the big tactical display. Task Force 91 was waiting in lunar orbit for departure clearance. Six supply ships and freighters, escorted by the repaired carrier Resolute. All seven ships piloted by an A.I. The supply ships and freighters carried 800 Space Force personnel, mostly technicians but some officers too plus as much of the kind of consumable supplies that would be difficult for either Haven or the new colony of Terra Nova at Site B to produce such as pharmaceuticals, stockpiles of rare elements, seeds from every plant that might be useful and a considerable quantity of frozen sperm and eggs to broaden the new colony’s genetic pool.
Howard reviewed the procedures that he and Shiloh had agreed upon before Shiloh returned to Site B. Dietrich had made sure they were implemented. The second that news of the colonists’ death reach Spa
ce Force HQ, all traffic from the Earth to the moon stopped. Those volunteers, that had been accepted for Site B, that were already on the moon, were loaded aboard the ships. Those, that were still on Earth, were held back. Iceman was piloting Resolute and was in overall command of the Task Force. All of the rest of the A.I.s in the Sol system, were loaded aboard Resolute and were stored in its Hangar Bay instead of fighters. When sentry frigates arrived, they’d be refueled by Replenisher acting as an automated tanker and then sent on to Haven and then Site B. When the last sentry frigate was refueled and Replenisher was no longer needed, Gunslinger would be taken off her and decontaminated, then put on board the last sentry frigate. Once TF91 left, no more humans would be sent to Haven or Site B. It was now up to Shiloh to convince as many Havenites as possible to move to Terra Nova and start all over again. Iceman would be carrying the last orders from Earth to Shiloh. Dietrich, as Acting Chief of Space Operations, had given Shiloh a field promotion to Senior Admiral (3 stars) and designated him as Deputy CSO. If…when Dietrich died, Shiloh would assume full control of whatever was left of the Space Force. His orders were simple. Win the war. Destroy the enemy’s ability to continue the fight. After that, rebuild Human Civilization.