The Susquehanna Virus Box Set

by Steve McEllistrem

  Jeremiah pulled the man out the door into the main room as Major Payne ran over. He struggled to hold the man without ripping the haz-mat suit until Major Payne could reach them. Finally Major Payne arrived. He grabbed the man’s head and twisted sharply, breaking the man’s neck. The machete clattered to the floor.

  “Thanks,” Jeremiah said.

  “You’re welcome,” Major Payne replied. He picked up the machete and pointed to his eyes with his free hand. “I got the good eyes, remember? I’ll check the room while you look for the virus.”

  Jeremiah moved quickly now, opening cabinets and boxes, looking for the canisters the Blantons had mentioned. Or perhaps they never mentioned it. Maybe he somehow retrieved that information during the link.

  He shuddered, trying to forget the terror, and continued searching. The cabinets contained cans and jars, all labeled with medical sounding terms like oxyacidic-acquitane and hydroxylconic butymol.

  “It could be any of these,” he said.

  “Keep going,” Lendra said. “Dr. Poole says none of those are the virus unless they’re mislabeled. They’re merely ingredients Manyara was using.”

  “The room’s clear,” Major Payne said. “Just the one guy.”

  “Good. Put down the machete and help me look for the virus.”

  Jeremiah began sifting through the boxes in the center of the room as Major Payne worked his way around the perimeter. He said, “I got explosives here in the corner. Looks like they’re in all four corners. Think we can seal ’em up?”

  “That’s a good idea,” Lendra said.

  “Perhaps,” Jeremiah said. “But if they’ve got pressure switches, we’d just set them off. I’d rather we try to find the virus first.”

  “You’re right,” Major Payne said.

  “Do it your way,” Lendra added.

  They continued their searching and a minute later Major Payne said, “Whoa!”

  He lifted the tarp that had almost caught fire. “I think I found it. There are a couple canisters here.”

  He carefully eased the tarp aside. “They look like dispersal canisters. Wow, we got lucky. We could’ve set them on fire with the Las-rifles when we cut through the wall. Or the cement blocks could’ve fallen inwards and crushed them.”

  Jeremiah made his way back to the hole they’d cut in the wall. The canisters, about four inches in diameter and two feet long, made of some sort of reinforced, recycled paper and sealed with a waxy coating, balanced atop a jagged crack in the floor. A small valve at the top of each could be turned to release the contents, while next to each valve rested a small black box that might contain a triggering mechanism, a timer or detonator, or even a small explosive. There was no way to know without advanced electrical equipment, which might in itself detonate the boxes.

  “Another problem,” Payne said.

  “What?” Lendra asked.

  Payne said, “The timers are internalized, so there’s no way to know what time they’re set for. They could go boom at any time.”

  “What about the canisters?” Lendra asked. “What are those boxes on the top?”

  “Might be movement sensors,” Jeremiah said. “Or they could be small detonators, set to blow the canisters upon receiving an electronic signal or on a timer.” He studied the area around the canisters carefully. “I see no triggering mechanism or trip wire or pressure switches.”

  Lendra said, “You think those canisters contain the virus?”

  “Probably,” Jeremiah said.

  “Can we seal these?” Payne asked.

  “I’m hoping,” Jeremiah said. “Then we can risk bringing in some scanners to see if we can detect any trace of the virus. If it’s all clear, we might want to bring the building down in a controlled explosion.”

  “I like it,” Payne said.

  Setting the portable unit’s nozzle to mist, Jeremiah began spraying the canisters, covered them with a thin film that quickly foamed up, coating the cardboard cylinders in a cushiony shell. After sealing the tops and sides, Jeremiah said to Payne, “All right. Now comes the tricky part. There may be a trip mechanism in the crack beneath the cylinders. So as I spray the cracks, you gently lift the canisters, one at a time, and I’ll spray the bottoms of each. Okay?”

  “Roger that,” Major Payne said.

  “Remember,” Jeremiah said, “one at a time. As I spray the crack, you lift each canister slowly. We want to try to keep the pressure equal.”

  “Hold on a sec,” Major Payne said. He took a couple deep breaths, then nodded to Jeremiah. Jeremiah eased the trigger closed, spraying the crack beneath the bottom of the cylinder while Major Payne gently eased the canister up off the floor. A faint chime sounded from the front door.

  “What the hell is that?” Payne asked.

  “Don’t know,” Jeremiah replied. “We might have just triggered something bad.”

  “Shouldn’t we check it?” Lendra asked.

  “Later,” Jeremiah said as he sprayed the bottom of the first canister.

  “Okay,” he said. “One down. You ready for the second one?”

  Payne set the first canister aside and nodded.

  As Jeremiah began spraying the crack beneath the second canister, Payne lifted the canister off the floor. Jeremiah thought he heard a tiny click, but he saw nothing inside the crack. He glanced at Payne, who shrugged.

  “I heard it too,” Payne said. “I don’t see anything either.”

  Jeremiah sprayed the bottom of the second canister as well.

  “Okay,” he said. “Open up the wall where we came in. Let’s get some scanners in here—see if that’s all of it.”

  “Well done,” Lendra said.

  As Jeremiah put down the portable sealant unit and grabbed the first canister, he heard another click, louder this time.

  Payne stared at Jeremiah, his eyes suddenly wide. “We’re dead!”

  Jeremiah threw himself on the major, covering Payne and the canisters with his body as the building exploded.

  Concrete and metal fell on him, parts of the wall and the roof collapsing around him, pressing into him tightly, pinning him to Major Payne and the floor. His ears rang, but otherwise he heard nothing. He felt Major Payne beneath him, but he saw nothing. Either he was blind or he was in total darkness. He felt no pain: just an unbelievable pressure. He tried moving his arms and legs, but they were completely bound by the debris. Beneath him, Major Payne moved slightly, so at least he was alive for now.

  Slowly the pain emerged, in his back and chest, then in his arms and legs. He was pretty sure he’d broken some ribs because every breath hurt. And he could feel the slickness of blood on his fingers.

  Is this how I die? Trapped beneath a mountain of rubble, never knowing if I failed or succeeded? Did the virus escape in the explosion? Or did the sealant work? And what about Sophie?

  He felt an increasing weariness, a fatigue pulling him toward eternal darkness. I should want to live, he thought. I should try to survive for all those others who depend on me. But the darkness held no responsibility, no demands or expectations. It simply welcomed him.

  Chapter 31

  Since her Mars suit had already been compromised, Aspen removed her helmet.

  “Is that wise?” Addam asked.

  “They’re right,” Aspen said as she glanced at the robots, gathered in a semi-circle along the passageway, seemingly waiting for direction. “The two of us have already been exposed.”

  Addam helped her remove the rest of the suit. Then the two of them, with Kammilee’s help, removed Benn’s suit.

  She checked Benn’s pulse and found it weak. The robots had fired blue pulses, which should only have been enough to stun, and that’s all that happened to her but, for some reason, Benn was more than stunned.

  “What did you do to him?” Aspen asked.

  The lead
robot said, “He was hit with three simultaneous pulses in the same spot. Unfortunately, their combined power acted with much greater force.”

  “How could that be?”

  Phan said, “The robots have all been programmed the same way. They fired at the same target at the same time. It would be difficult for us to be that precise, but it’s almost impossible for them not to be.”

  “But the robot said he was hit with three pulses. There are five robots. What about the other two?”

  “That is odd,” Phan said. He turned to the lead robot. “Can you explain that?”

  The robot said, “Two of us were able to avoid firing.”

  “That’s bizarre,” Phan said. “I wonder if there’s some sort of flaw in the programming. They should all have fired at the same time.”

  “It’s a good thing they didn’t,” Aspen said. “Benn might have been killed. He needs help. We’d better take him to the medical bay. We can worry about the whys later.”

  Benn groaned as he regained consciousness. He blinked his eyes.

  “You are both infected with the virus now,” the robot said. “We can only delay your death. We cannot cure you. But we will do what we can in the medical bay.”

  “They’ve found cures for some versions of the virus on Earth,” Kammilee said. “If you’d bothered to contact your government, you might have learned of them.”

  “That was impossible,” the robot said, “given our orders to avoid external communications.”

  After Aspen helped Benn to a sitting position, Addam and Phan lifted him to his feet.

  “Which way to the medical bay?” Aspen asked.

  The robot pointed down the hallway, where another robot gestured for them to follow.

  “Our orders are very explicit,” the robot said as they began walking. “They were written into our programming and cannot be countermanded. We had to activate our human-first programming to circumvent our orders just to issue you the warnings to stay away from our vessel.”

  “Human-first programming?” Shiloh asked.

  “Similar to the rules of robotics that were invented by Isaac Asimov, and adopted by our Chinese creators—programmed into us as a means of ensuring the dominion of humankind over robots.”

  As they walked, Aspen said, “Somebody must be able to countermand your non-communication orders.”

  “Indeed,” the robot replied. “Anyone with the proper authorization, including the leaders of this mission.”

  “Are any of those leaders still alive?” Aspen asked.

  “They aren’t sane,” the robot replied. “They rant gibberish and lash out at us whenever we unlock their stasis fields.”

  “Why didn’t they contact Earth when they first started feeling the effects of the virus?” Kammilee asked. “Why didn’t they seek help?”

  “The virus attacked their brains first, rendering them incapable of rational thought.”

  “And it hit all of them at once?” Aspen asked.

  “It hit during a single sleep cycle,” the robot replied. “We discovered later that it struck during a seven-hour window.”

  “Well, the first thing we need to do is figure out a way to override your programming to allow for external communications.”

  “Take us to your leader,” Phan said with a grin.

  Addam and Shiloh laughed.

  “We come in peace,” Kammilee said.

  Even Benn laughed at that.

  “This isn’t the time for jokes,” Aspen said.

  “Oh, come on, Aspen,” Addam said. “This is great. We want to go where no one has gone before.”

  More giggles.

  “The virus?” Aspen said. “Your diminishing air supply? I don’t see the humor.”

  “All right, all right,” Shiloh said. “Just having a little fun. This is way more exciting than Mars, except for the impending death part.”

  The robot in front of them stopped in the middle of the corridor about fifty meters from where they’d been. It stood before a locked hatch. “Here,” the lead robot said, “is the medical bay where the male crew members reside.” The robot reached out and pressed a keypad that opened the hatch. It stepped inside the cabin. Aspen and the cadets followed. The four robots that had accompanied the leader stayed by the door, Las-pistols in their hands. Though their faces showed no emotion, Aspen imagined they betrayed a nervousness in the way they held themselves.

  Inside the cabin, which held an array of medical machinery and a dozen beds, eight huge Chinese men lay surrounded by the yellow glow of stasis fields. They all wore white coveralls. All eight reached out with hands that formed claws, as if seeking to strangle someone; their legs kicked out in a struggle against the invisible force of the stasis fields. The well-defined tendons in their wrists and necks showed the strain on their bodies as they fought the overwhelming force fields. They looked as if, once freed, they would leap off the tables and attack everyone in sight.

  A male robot stood beside a bank of machines. It looked the same size as the females, but with shorter hair and a flat chest. It spoke in a masculine voice: “How may I help you?”

  Addam and Phan set Benn on one of the empty beds. Benn managed to sit up without help. “He’s been stunned,” Phan said.

  “Yes, I know,” the robot replied.

  Phan nodded. “Of course you would. Do what you can for him.”

  As the robot stepped forward and ran a scan on Benn, Aspen said, “Which of these people are the leaders?”

  “These two.” The lead robot pointed to two gray-haired men. “This one,” the robot pointed to the larger of the two, “is the senior officer.”

  Aspen studied the man’s face for any sign of sanity, but all she could see was the intense hatred locked in the bloodshot eyes, the teeth bared in a snarl of rage. “Can we bring him out of the stasis field long enough to see if he’s capable of rational thought?”

  “Or just weaken the stasis field around his head?” Phan asked.

  “That’s not possible,” the robot said. “And unlocking the stasis field would harm him.”

  “You said that he’s dying anyway,” Addam said. He formed a defensive stance, gesturing for Phan and Shiloh to join him. “Might as well see what he has to say.”

  “Unlock the stasis field,” Phan said.

  “That would not be wise,” the robot said. “He will likely die if I do.”

  “Didn’t you hear Phan?” Addam said. “We can’t save him. But maybe we can learn something from him. We have to see how far advanced his condition is anyway. And we can’t do that while he’s locked in a stasis field.”

  “His condition is dire.”

  Shiloh said, “You’ve been opening the stasis fields though. You said so yourself.”

  “That’s right,” Aspen said. “You’ve been checking on them, seeing if they’re deteriorating while in the stasis fields. You can monitor his vital signs when you release him, giving you a better idea of how much time he has left.”

  For a moment the robot said nothing. Aspen imagined it was discussing what to do with the other robots on board. “Very well,” the robot finally said.

  It didn’t move but it obviously sent a signal to the machine creating the stasis field, for the yellow glow vanished.

  The man leapt off the table, a deep and menacing growl emanating from his throat.

  “What’s your authorization code?” Aspen used her implant to ask the question in Chinese.

  The man ignored her, instead launching himself at Addam, who dodged to the side even as Phan shot forward and struck the man on the side of the neck. The man howled in pain and anger as Shiloh kicked the side of his knee. Although the man fell to the floor, he instantly bounced back up to his good leg and again sprang forward, this time attacking Phan, who sent a flurry of punches to his midsection. They seemed to have n
o effect on him. He grabbed Phan in a bear hug, his mouth open as he tried to bite Phan’s neck. Shiloh rushed forward and swept the man’s good leg out from under him. As he fell, Phan slipped free. Once again the man sprang to his feet, incomprehensible sounds coming from his throat.

  “What’s your authorization code?” Aspen asked again.

  Again the man ignored her. He dove at Addam, but his damaged knees slowed him enough for Addam to sidestep the attack. Phan grabbed him by the neck as he lunged past and drove his face into the floor.

  More howls of pain and anger filled the room.

  “Your authorization code!” Aspen yelled.

  The man flung out an arm, knocking Phan free, then pushed himself to his feet again. He stood there for a few seconds, screaming at the top of his lungs, shaking with rage, then suddenly collapsed. He fell on his side, his face slackening, eyes shut. He looked like he was asleep.

  “What’s happening?” Shiloh asked.

  “I think he’s unconscious,” Addam said.

  “He’s dead,” the robot said.

  “Dead?” Addam said. “How can that be? We barely touched him.”

  “His condition was fragile,” the robot said. “We warned of this.”

  “Are they all like that guy?” Phan asked the robot.

  “Yes.” The robot’s voice sounded sad. Aspen wondered if she imagined the emotion or if the robot truly was capable of it. Two more male robots, looking identical to the other male, entered the cabin and picked up the body of the dead leader. They placed it on the table and exited.

  “I’m sorry,” Aspen said. “We didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  “We aren’t going to get any authorization codes from them,” Addam said.

  “What about the female personnel?” Aspen asked.

  “They are in the adjoining cabin,” the robot replied.

  “Well, we must figure out a way to communicate externally. I suppose we should try the next leader and see if we can get anything from him.”