The Zombie Bug

by John Stevenson

cannot leave him until he discards me.”

  “If he cares that little about you why did he bring you here?”

  “Prestige, to show he is so rich, and cares so little about cost that he can take his whore into space.”

  Mathew knew she was right; he could never understand the man’s mentality.

  “If things had not happened as they have I would be back on the planet and I… everything would be different. I could not tell you if I would still be alive tomorrow… or want to be.”

  “You think he would kill you?”

  “You have seen what he is capable of, but I have seen more. I have seen him beat men and women with a metal bar; I have seen him kill: he forced me to watch and told me that whenever he wants he will do the same to me.”

  Mathew dived his hand in his pocket. “Maybe this will help?” he said handing her a can of pepper spray. “We keep a few things … in case someone runs amuck?”

  “Thank you, but I cannot take it; it would only make him more angry.”

  “You can’t just go back to him? I’ll talk to Andrew and see if you can move in with some of the female crew?”

  “The commander will not help me; he thinks I am mad.”

  “Not if you tell him what you have told me.”

  She looked at him pleadingly. “You must not say anything to anybody.”

  “Jennifer we have procedures, we work within those procedures and we can protect you.”

  “Have you not been listening? Pyotr has been talking to your crew, he has been manipulating them with promises.”

  “No… he can’t have?” Mathew said indignantly. There’s problems with morale and discipline; in the circumstances it’s expected, but your suggesting mutiny?”

  “I don’t know what he’s planning, but members of your crew will do as he says.”

  “Who?” He challenged her.

  “I do not know, he does not confide in his whore,” she said firmly. “…But there is one. I don’t know his name, but the commander knew him and did not believe me.”

  “Then how did you identify him?”

  “By what he has done for Pyotr. He is a man who maintains your machinery; an engineer?”

  Two faces appeared in Mathews mind. “There are two?”

  “The commander tell me his is a genius, he can make anything, and is trusted.”

  The second face faded. “Ralph?”

  She shook her head. “I cannot remember, by then I knew I would be betrayed and I was fearful. He is a man that can draw on the computer and make what he draws come real.”

  ”He’s the one who does all the 3D printing, what use is he to your husband?”

  “He has made Pyotr a weapon.”

  “A weapon… you mean a gun? Gasped matt louder than he intended.

  “Yes, a hand gun.”

  “How can you know that for sure?”

  “There is a shortage of women; it is one of Pyotr specialties, he knows that in this situation he controls the supply. This Ralph had demanded for me in exchange for the weapon.”

  “No way.” Snarled Mathew. “Not after I’ve had a talk to him.”

  “Mathew, do not say anything,” she said urgently. “Pytor has asked the commander not to say anything, and nothing has been said. The commander thinks I am crazy, but if you accuse this man, he will know and it will place me in more danger.”

  Mathew sighed deeply. “Right now there’s a man with a gun on the array, and you expect me to stay silent?”

  “If you meant what you said about helping me, you will.”

  Matt knew it was his duty as an officer. “I have responsibilities; if there is a threat to the array… or anyone aboard, I have to do something about it.”

  “Anyone?”

  He knew he could do only one or the other. “What can I do... he has a gun?”

  Her face became blank. “You will do as is best for you.”

  Matt knew he knew as a man he couldn’t betray her. “Then if I can’t do anything about that, I can about you. I’m arresting you.”

  “What?” She said in shock. “What for?”

  ”Protective custody. The stress of our situation has unbalanced your mind: maybe you are crazy that could be evidenced by your attempted self harm.”

  “Self harm, what self harm?”

  “Nothing is in the accident report, other than you fell, but it’s my belief you did so attempting suicide; I doubt your husband will contradict that; he has already convinced Andrew that you’ve lost your mind.”

  As Mathew entered the cabin he was face to face with Peter. The man looked him in the eye, but acted as if he had not seen him. Matt immediately feared the worse, but Emma and Alisha were there as well. It didn’t make sense that he was to be reprimanded in front of them.

  “At last Matt,” said Andrew. “I was just saying that from now on we will have a representative from the guest join in all decisions that directly affect the array.” He indicated Peter.

  Matt felt an urge to protest. He wanted to rant that of all the visitors the man was the worst choice. He tried to remain calm. “Is that wise?”

  Andrew looked at him in surprise.

  Matt tried to give reason for his words. “Civilians just don’t have the technical understanding of why many… most of the things we will have to do to keep safe are necessary…”

  Now Andrew looked annoyed. We did discuss this Mathew?”

  “Yes, but I expected someone with more understanding of our predicament.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Peters face take on a slightly harder look. “…Rather than a businessman.”

  “In our present situation we; with all our experience are already out of our depth, so there isn’t a single person on the array who could be could be qualified, but what Peter here has is organizational experience and that is something that we as a group need if we are to work together.”

  Mathew thought of the other guests who he was sure were better. He opened his mouth to accuse Peter, but the faces around him looked unsympathetic. Before he could think of a way to accuse without accusing Andrew spoke again.

  “I shouldn’t have to point out that what we do affects us all and it’s only reasonable that everyone aboard has an opportunity to be heard?”

  Now Alisha spoke. “I have to agree with Mathew commander, that many decisions need an understanding of complexities involved that an explanation won’t necessarily make clear?”

  “Yes, I was about to go into that when Matt opened the door. Peter, and the others accept they probably won’t fully understand the technical decisions, and obviously those of us trained and experienced in those matters will still have the last word; nonetheless we are all in this together and the more input can only make for a more acceptable decision, even if the choices are ones we don’t wish to make. But we can talk about that later; the reason I asked you all to come is that there has been some progress on the virus; Emma?”

  Emma looked at all the faces. “We need to understand what I’m about to say is not fact. The conditions Vincent has been working under are far from ideal so we can only accept the results with that in mind. We already believe: in Josh’s case, that the virus had transmigrated from the blood supply into the brain tissue. There we believe it affected the cognitive processes, and alters the processes of memory, judgment, reasoning and perception. If we accept that it would also explain all of the recent deaths. Vincent has furthered that assumption. The older corpse’s have deteriorated past being able to gain any useful result’s, but he did get samples from the newest ones that have a resemblance to Human Immunodeficiency Virus.” The faces were blank. “More commonly known as H. I. V.” She looked at the faces and now saw concern. “I stress only a resemblance, this virus does not appear to affect the immune system in the same way.”

  Andrew interrupted. “All crew and visitors are tested for HIV, if this is similar wouldn’t it have been detected?”

  “Your would think so, but Aid’s isn’t necessarily detected im
mediately after the infection; but that’s beside the point, I said it has a likeness to HIV.” Emma shrugged. “I did a search of all the medical information I could and one of the results referred to a Zombie Bug. There was an immense amount of things and because of the unfortunate name I ignored reading any further. When nothing else fitted and I eventually did read it, I found it wasn’t something someone had thought up, it was name given to an infection called Toxoplasma Gondii. From what I could find out most of the actual research has been done on the relationship between mice and cats?”

  “We are not cat’s,” Andrew pointed out.

  “I know but all the same approximately twenty-five percent of humans tested for Toxoplasma Gondii were found to be infected with it.”

  They all looked at each other, but it was Matt that said what they were all thinking. “Your saying one of us has it?”

  “Statistically yes; a healthy human body can carry many deadly virus’s without effect, or the carrier even knowing: they remain dormant and it’s only when for some reason the virus is switched on that they cause a problem.”

  “And this virus has switched on?” asked Andrew.

  “It seems so?”

  “How?”

  “I haven’t a clue?”

  Andrew was shaking his head. “Considering that somebody; even one of us, could do something to put us all in peril, I think we need to try and find out?”

  “It’s not that easy.” Emma looked at him. “We don’t have the facilities or the expertise.”

  Andrew sounded frustrated. “We have to do something; we can’t just do nothing?”

  “If I can go back to what I was saying before; the research