The Susquehanna Virus Box Set

by Steve McEllistrem

  “Yes. They just wouldn’t let me see you. You’re out of your wheelchair.”

  “It helps that the Moon’s gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth.” Jeremiah turned to Colonel Truman. “How is she?”

  Colonel Truman nodded. “She told me about her claustrophobia. They’ve let her stay out here in the main hangar when she’s not working.”

  “Good. You look after her. We’ve been busy monitoring developments on Earth.”

  “The Las-cannons?” Colonel Truman said.

  “Several nations have neared completion, though none have finished. When they test the components, the distinctive power signature will let the rest of the world know that they’ve violated the Berlin Treaty. So they’ll be cautious. Plus,” Jeremiah rubbed his forehead, “as Lendra pointed out, one mistake in the calculations or connections or converters and they’ll have a disaster on their hands. They’ll wait until they’re absolutely certain they’ve made no mistakes before they attack.”

  Lendra reached toward Jeremiah, pulling her hand back when Zora’s eyes narrowed. “You look tired. Are they still taking your blood?”

  “No. The doctors were able to concoct a treatment based on how my blood interacts with their devolving nanobots.”

  Lendra turned to Zora, noting the pain lines etched in that young face. “You don’t look well either.”

  “I’m fine, Witchy Poo,” Zora said. “But his white cells have begun attacking my joints, just as they did his.”

  “Don’t pain medications work?”

  “Not yet,” Zora said. “Dr. Wellon thinks they will in time. My body has to adapt to this intrusion. Besides, I need to experience his pain. He saved us.”

  Zora grabbed Jeremiah’s arm and leaned into him. He allowed it, showing nothing. Did he like her attention, her obvious worship of him? Or was he doing what needed to be done to try to save them all, letting her think she was getting through to him? Again Lendra felt a tic in her right eye.

  “Are you healed?” Lendra asked. “No longer devolving?”

  Zora let go of Jeremiah and glared at Lendra. “Why are you so interested?”

  Lendra took a half step back and bumped into Colonel Truman, who rested a hand on her shoulder. “I’m concerned about you. We need your intelligent leadership.”

  “As much as we need your ass-kissing?”

  “I’ve already apologized for my role in what happened. What more do you want?”

  “Zora,” Jeremiah said.

  “Okay,” Zora said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be healed. But the damage to my DNA has been halted and the rage is almost gone. I don’t feel like killing you anymore.” Her lips ticked upward briefly. “Maybe maiming you a little. But that’s not because of the devolution.”

  “Then why?”

  Zora tilted her head toward Jeremiah. “Because of what you did to him. You betrayed him, like the great and powerful Oz betrayed us.”

  Zora’s scowl felt heavy, almost like a physical blow. The hair on the back of Lendra’s neck stood up. Was Zora in love with Jeremiah? Probably.

  Lendra said, “May I speak to Jeremiah alone?”

  Zora looked up at Jeremiah. When he nodded, she said, “A few minutes. Then we’ve got to get back to work.” She looked at Colonel Truman. “Come on, Colonel False-Girl, let’s give them some pretend privacy.”

  Zora said nothing aloud to Phan but he moved back a dozen paces, while she and Colonel Truman walked across the hangar. She whispered to Colonel Truman, who bent down to hear what she was saying, and a flicker of jealousy ran through Lendra. Stupid! Lendra thought to herself. Get a grip.

  “How can I help you?” Jeremiah said. He stood motionless, as if trying to maintain his balance or minimize the pain of movement. Yet the look on his face was unyielding.

  “Look, I know you’re angry with me for doing the in vitro fertilization.”

  “That’s not why I’m angry. I’m angry because you conceived a child without my knowledge or consent, as if I had no say in the matter. If this was the first time you’d betrayed me, I might be able to forgive it.”

  “I didn’t . . .” Lendra wondered how much Jeremiah knew, which betrayal he was referencing. “I was doing my job.”

  “I know. You want to run CINTEP some day. But there’s a price to pay for your ambition.”

  “I still love you,” Lendra said, feeling her connection to Jeremiah slipping away. Her right eyelid twitched again. She reached up to massage it. The smallest dose of neo-dopamine would take the tic away. How frustrating that she couldn’t risk even that.

  “I think you’ll find that you don’t. You love the idea of being in love with me, and you think I could help you run CINTEP, but you don’t love me. So what is it you want?”

  “We have to save our daughter, Jeremiah. You have to help me. She’s your child too. We should take an LTV—you and I, Devereaux and Colonel Truman. Zora will let us go if you ask her.” She realized even as she spoke that she needed to phrase it differently if she wanted Jeremiah’s help. “We can fly back to Earth where we can work diplomatically to save the cadets. We can’t do anything for them up here. But back there, we can save them.”

  “How?”

  “We’ll speak with President Hope, let her know that things have changed up here and that the cadets are no longer a threat. She’ll be able to convince the world’s leaders to abstain from violence.”

  “And in the meantime you’ll be safe.”

  “I’m not concerned about myself. I’m worried about our child.”

  “Please,” Jeremiah said. “If you’re so concerned about our child, why haven’t you asked me how my son is doing?”

  Lendra dropped her hand as the last bond between them broke. She glanced over at Zora and Colonel Truman, who had circled the hangar and were heading their way. Zora had her hand wrapped around Colonel Truman’s bicep. Did she know what she was doing? Was she deliberately flirting or was this just something she mimicked from vids? After all, as bright as she was, as adult as she looked, she was still just a girl.

  “It may not be tactically critical information,” Jeremiah said, “but he is my son and therefore important to me. You might have at least asked.”

  “I’m asking now. How is he?”

  “Since he had already begun the devolutionary process, his recovery will be much longer, but I believe he’ll survive.”

  “Will he need more of your blood?”

  Jeremiah shook his head. “They can use nanobots to complete the treatment.”

  Zora and Colonel Truman approached, Zora no longer clinging to Colonel Truman.

  “Before you get your hopes up,” Zora said, “you should know that I won’t let you take an LTV back to Earth.”

  Lendra said, “What’s your plan, then?”

  Zora frowned. “Still hoping to sabotage us?”

  “No,” Lendra said. Despair hollowed her chest and stomach. “I know you don’t trust me, but we’re all on the same side now. Earth will attack soon. And we won’t be able to stand against their combined arsenals.”

  “Of course not,” Zora agreed. “All I can do is destroy them back. They used to call it MAD a long time ago. Remember?”

  “Mutually assured destruction? That’s your plan? We all die up here because you’re angry at what was done to you?”

  Lendra immediately regretted her words. She looked to Jeremiah for help but he only shook his head. Zora smiled, as if she’d just won a small victory.

  Truman, clearing his throat, stepped around Lendra, shielding her from Zora, and said, “We’ve all been under a lot of stress.”

  “You don’t think we have the right to be angry?” Zora said.

  “Of course you do,” Lendra replied. “But killing millions of innocents isn’t the answer.” as the

  “Which ones are the innocents ag
ain?”

  “The children.”

  “Which children? The ones used to further the grandiose ideas of a megalomaniac or the ones who haven’t yet been used?”

  “You’re not children anymore,” Lendra said. “When you took over the Moon, every life here became your responsibility. Jeremiah understands that even if you don’t.”

  Again Jeremiah shook his head. What was he trying to tell her?

  “So we surrender?” Zora said. “We hope they decide not to blow us to smithereens but instead let us rot in some prison for the rest of our lives, all because we were acting under a compulsion programmed into us by a monster? Or do you think they’ll let us go?”

  Lendra wanted to reassure Zora that things would work out, but she saw from the set of Zora’s jaw that a lie wouldn’t work.

  “Seriously,” Zora said. “After what we did, do you think they’ll let us go?”

  Lendra took a deep breath and said, “No.”

  Zora nodded, then she and Jeremiah looked past Lendra’s shoulder.

  Lendra turned to find Devereaux and Quark approaching.

  “Jeremiah,” Devereaux said when he reached them, “it’s good to see you up and moving.”

  “Hurts like hell,” Jeremiah replied.

  “I suggest we retire to the patio,” Devereaux replied, pointing toward the Marriott’s lobby.

  Quark rearranged chairs and Lendra took a seat, flanked by Jeremiah and Colonel Truman. Zora sat on Jeremiah’s other side, Devereaux in the final chair. Quark opted to stand beside him, his hands on the back of the chair as if ready to pull Devereaux out of the way should any hazard present itself. Phan moved off a few paces and stood at ease.

  “A couple of items,” Devereaux said. “First, the Pilgrim is essentially completed. The engines test-fired perfectly. The ship will be ready for departure to Mars in a few days. We can begin loading immediately, with your permission.”

  Zora nodded. “Will you be going with them?”

  Devereaux glanced up at Quark and shrugged. “That decision has not yet been made.”

  “And the second thing?” Zora said.

  Devereaux held up his PlusPhone. “I’ve been monitoring the sat-feeds, examining the data. The scanners show that energy consumption levels at three locations on Earth have quintupled in the past two hours.”

  “Las-cannons.” Zora said.

  “Indeed. The radio-spectrum-assay analysis confirms the electro-chemical reactions of the charging process.”

  Zora shifted in her seat, her movements stiff, as if to minimize the pain in her joints. “How long before they attack?”

  Devereaux looked at Jeremiah, who said, “A few hours if they’re willing to risk firing a Las-cannon without running the final safety checks—testing components and calibrating the converters. Otherwise, a couple of days.”

  “Which nations?” Lendra asked.

  “Does it matter?” Zora said.

  “It does if you’re going to fire the orbital Las-cannon at Earth. You shouldn’t punish nations who are not in violation of the treaty.”

  “If I fire the Las-cannon, it will be to take out the entire planet, hitting geological hot spots like Yellowstone, Iceland and the Azores. I’ll spread a nuclear winter over the world that will wipe out eighty percent of the population—give the planet a long time to recover from the infestation of humans.”

  Stunned, Lendra opened her mouth to respond, then shut it. Anything she said might trigger Zora’s wrath, tip her over into firing the Las-cannon. And yet something in Zora’s tone suggested that she would only fire the Las-cannon as a last resort.

  Zora sat still, staring straight ahead. At first Lendra thought she’d become catatonic. Then she realized Zora was using her implant to review the data Devereaux had retrieved.

  Jeremiah smiled at Lendra.

  “What?” she said.

  He looked down and she realized that she had grabbed Colonel Truman’s hand. When had she done that? She pulled her hand free. Perhaps her subconscious had sensed that their lives were about to come to an end and the desire for human contact had overridden her conscious mind.

  Reaching up, she grabbed the glass bulb of her necklace, feeling an almost uncontrollable urge for neo-dopamine. What were the odds that a tiny dose would harm the baby? What she needed in the absence of the drugs was a good massage. Jeremiah’s strong hands had been especially good at kneading her muscles, draining away her tension.

  Inexplicably she found herself aroused, then embarrassed. How could she even consider sex at a time like this?

  Zora shivered as she turned to Jeremiah. “I want to fire the Las-cannon.”

  “I know,” he said. “That’s the programming. That urge to violence results from the pain of transformation.” He gestured to Quark. “We feel it too. But lashing out isn’t a viable long-term solution. We can’t destroy them before they destroy us. Even if we take out these three targets, more Las-cannons will be built and we’re running out of fuel. Eventually, nuclear winter or not, they’ll win.”

  He looked at Devereaux, who nodded. “A hostile action is unlikely to advance our cause. Any hope of leniency demands that we now demonstrate restraint.”

  “Still,” Zora said, “if we destroy their Las-cannons we might buy enough time to depart.”

  Devereaux shook his head. “The Pilgrim won’t carry us all to Mars. And even if we somehow crowded on, many of us wouldn’t survive the journey. Nor would we live long or pain free on Mars. It will take years for the Escala to modify the planet enough for humans to thrive there.”

  Zora took a deep breath. “Fine. We’ll go with your plan. I want everyone in the hangar in ten minutes.” Looking up at Quark, she said, “I’d appreciate it if you, Dr. Wellon and any other Escala who can be spared would join us. And you should expedite the loading of the Pilgrim so you can take off as soon as possible.”

  Lendra said, “What are you going to do?”

  Zora spoke to Phan: “Rendela, Aspen and Wee Willie keep their Las-rifles. Everyone else disarms. Let’s wheel Kyler and Curtik out here too. I want their beds in the middle of the hangar.”

  “Jeremiah?” Lendra asked.

  “We’re going to ask for clemency.”

  “That’s your plan?”

  “Have you got a better idea?”

  Lendra nodded. “We could take the Pilgrim and the LTVs to Earth.”

  “How does that save three hundred and sixteen people? You can’t fit everyone aboard the ships. And how does it ensure that they won’t blow us out of the sky as we approach?”

  Lendra said, “If they believe we’re escaping from the cadets, that we’re innocents, they’ll let us through. We load everyone we can into the Pilgrim and put a few people in each LTV to fly behind the Pilgrim. We send out distress signals that we verify with a vid feed. Then we sacrifice the LTVs, blowing them up with the Las-cannon as we near Earth. They’ll believe the Pilgrim is escaping from the cadets. We land safely.”

  Jeremiah shook his head. “So we should sacrifice people on two LTVs and everyone on the Moon who can’t fit into the Pilgrim?”

  “We could fit almost everyone into the Pilgrim for the short journey to Earth. We’d only have to sacrifice a few people on each LTV and one person to stay behind to fire the Las-cannon.”

  Zora said, “Earth would think it was some kind of trick.”

  “Maybe. But it’s better than sitting here doing nothing. I think we could pull it off. Jeremiah?”

  Jeremiah shrugged. “They’ll expect a ruse like that.”

  “So we wait for some rogue nation to fire a rocket at us?”

  “We have more time up here. The closer we get to Earth, the more vulnerable we become. And if you’re wrong, everyone dies.”

  Quark said, “Plus, even if we made it, the Pilgrim couldn’t take off from Ear
th’s gravity, so the Escala would be trapped there. Earth would never finance another journey, which means the Escala would die there.”

  “I promise you,” Lendra said, “once we get there, I’ll make sure you get the funding you need to build another ship—one that can take off from Earth.”

  “That’s quite a promise,” Quark said. “We’ve heard it before from people with a lot more authority than you.”

  “Trust me,” Lendra said. “I’ll find a way to make it work.”

  Zora nodded. Was she considering it? She said, “Tell me something, Witchy Poo, are you willing to take one of the LTVs?”

  Her stomach clenched as if she’d been punched. “I’m pregnant,” she said. “I have to worry about more than just myself.”

  “Of course,” Zora said. “We’ll go with Devereaux’s idea. But that was a good try.”

  Lendra turned to Jeremiah, but she found no comfort in his cold stare. Instead, Colonel Truman put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll be fine. This’ll work.”

  Lendra couldn’t dispel the premonition of death. This was a crazy plan. Someone on Earth would attack; someone would send up a rocket. Didn’t they know that? Did they not care that they were all about to die? She smiled at Colonel Truman and nodded as if in agreement while gripping the glass bulb of neo-dopamine. She thought she might explode if she didn’t ingest some soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Elias Leach paced in his eight-by-ten cell. He knew the walls were stationary even though chips in the swirling, white-gray paint gave the illusion of movement. So he knew he wasn’t going crazy. He had used the room many times in the past few years, driving several detainees mad in a matter of hours. Last year a detainee named Eldridge Cunningham had even managed to kill himself by running headfirst into a wall when no one was monitoring the vid feed. Still, the ceiling appeared to be dropping, the walls closing in. It would have been nice to close his eyes but every time he did his eyelids scraped like sandpaper. He began to understand the claustrophobia that plagued Lendra.

  The sink and toilet sat to the right of the door, made of a plasticized rubber coated with metallic shimmer fabric, appearing to move whenever he stared at them. The narrow cot on the far wall away from the door actually did move—small portions of its electric mattress randomly prodding and pricking its occupant, making sleep all but impossible except for the truly exhausted.