He tried to bend his arm up to his battered face and couldn’t seem to do it.
A familiar face appeared before him. Dr. Carrie Schrader, the Medical Bay director. Her green eyes searched his, and she smiled a small, tight smile.
“You need to rest, Medry.” She inserted a syringe into the drip line, reached out and adjusted one of his bandages, “You lost quite a bit of blood.”
Before he could open his mouth and ask about the Cryo pods, a warm rush entered his arm, and his words and thoughts turned to mush. The darkness rushed in again, his last sight before oblivion claimed him was the doctor’s sharp gaze.
Life existed in a drug-filled haze, with only brief lucid moments. Light. Dark. He had a sense of time passing, but how long? Hours? Days? He slept, barely able to think when he did manage to claw his way to consciousness.
Daniel heard voices arguing.
“I don’t care what you or the Captain or anyone else thinks, Daniel did not sabotage those Cryo tanks, he saved us! You are fools and I’ll be damned if you are keeping me away.”
Sam.
He struggled to open his eyes.
“Ms. Sydan...”
The voice sounded like James Aldridge, who was one of the youngest active crew members. He had been eighteen when he signed on for the voyage.
“That would be Doctor Sydan to you.”
Sam was in the corridor outside of Medical Bay by the sound of it. Daniel managed a weak smile at her outraged tone. She only pulled the doctor card when she was truly pissed. And considering that a disproportionate amount of crew held a doctorate in one field or another, and sometimes multiple fields, she had to be pretty pissed to bring it up.
Steps sounded in the corridor, and Carrie’s voice sounded perturbed, “You both need to keep your voices down. These men need their rest.”
“My apologies, Dr. Schrader,” James said, “I was just explaining to Ms...I mean, Dr. Sydan, that she could not visit Medry alone.”
“And why not?” Carrie asked.
“Well, he, I mean, the Captain, that is, Medry, he is still under, umm, suspicion,” the young man stammered.
Carrie sighed in annoyance, “James, I hold the codes to unlock those restraints, not Dr. Sydan. Medry isn’t going anywhere, neither is the real saboteur, especially since he will most likely never wake up from his coma.”
Sam slipped through the door, a grin on her face. Daniel could hear Carrie as she pulled Aldridge away, her voice fading as they moved down the corridor.
“Come on, give them a few minutes and walk with me. I need a cup of coffee and maybe some of those amazing bagels that Lester promised he would make us.”
Sam locked her eyes on Daniel, her face anxious.
“Oh, Daniel!” He managed a crooked smile, although every piece of him throbbed in pain. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner!”
She stroked his battered face, and then pulled her hand back when he flinched in pain.
“How long...” Daniel was surprised at how difficult it was to speak, “has it been?”
“Four days. Until now they have had at least two men outside Medical Bay at all times. The Captain has been here himself most days.”
“God Daniel, purple is not your color.” Her eyes traveled over him. “Neither is black, yellow or mottled red.”
Her tone was cavalier, but the tears trickling down her face were anything but.
Daniel tried to reach up and wipe away the tears, but his hands couldn’t seem to move. He wiggled his fingers, felt a hard ridge of metal against his wrist.
“They have you restrained.” Sam said, “Captain’s orders. I’m so sorry, Daniel, I tried to tell them. It’s complete bullshit. I know you were the one who got me out, got the other Cryo pods open before the system reset, but they said that they had follow procedure. I’ve been trying to see you ever since!”
“It’s okay, Sam. I’ll explain and it will be okay.”
“I know it will, Daniel. I’m just...it’s just that...you saved so many lives. You are a hero. You know that right?”
Daniel shifted and gasped at the fresh stab of pain from his shoulder. “I didn’t, make it, to the end of, the last row of pods, did they get to them in time?”
Samantha looked away, ran her fingers over the uninjured parts of him, “I should see if they can give you something for the pain, now that you are awake.”
“Sam, did they, did everyone make it?”
She avoided his gaze, “You need water. I’ll see if I can get you some.”
“Sam,” Daniel croaked, “please.”
Sam closed her eyes for a moment and then turned back to him.
“Without you, we would have all died, you know. You saved so many people, please don’t forget that.”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. “Wes Perdue and Zach Jenkins were the first in. They came through the damned ceiling a couple of minutes before the rest of the crew cut through the blast doors.”
She paused, a tear trickled down her face. “I couldn’t remember the codes, Daniel. Later, hours later, they came to me. I should have helped, I should have done something.”
His fingers gripped hers, holding tightly, she sniffed and took a deep breath.
“Zach ran to stop a handful of the revivals, they were headed straight for the white-hot blast doors, still out of it from Cryo. Wes headed for the remaining pods and began keying in the sequence. He got two of them in time.”
“How many didn’t make it Sam?”
Another tear escaped, and then another. She met his eyes, but her lip trembled. “Five people. A girl, Heather Michalko, and the journalist Elizabeth Cook. Also Esteban Gonzalez, Lloyd Bruehl, and...and Jack Dunn.
Daniel closed his eyes. “This is all my fault.”
Sam looked shocked, then furious, “No, it is not your fault. You didn’t do this, he did it!” She stabbed a finger across the room at the other bunk.
“You saved over two hundred lives. You saved me, Daniel. You saved Kevin and Jack’s son, Simon. You almost died from your injuries in the process. None of us can forget that.”
She held his gaze, bent down and kissed him gently on the lips, “You saved us all.”
This Empty World
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. – Revelation 7:9
Date: 04.15.2103
Earth – New Athens, Central North America
“Good morning, Madame Chairman.”
Janelle Brooks stood with Julie Aaronson in the brightly lit atrium of the new capital and shook Madeline Chen’s hand. Outside the world was beginning to wake up from its winter slumber. The mornings were still chilly and the nights definitely required a warm coat.
Inside the atrium, however, it was warm and moist. The room was filled with lush green plants, a stream of water ran through it on the eastern side, and the fresh scent of earth mitigated the lingering chemical odor of the extruded plasticrete that was being shaped in the massive 3D printers. The city was nearly 75% complete; occupying what had once been vast ranchlands in the plains of the Reformed United States of America.
Madeline smiled and motioned to a couch and several chairs, “Please, sit.”
Janelle sat next to Julie on the couch and Madeline chose a chair across from them.
“I understand you have been working together since the outbreak began.”
Julie nodded, “Nearly, we began collaborating about three years ago. She smiled at Janelle and took her hand, “We formalized our partnership last year.
“And you have two children, is that correct?” Madeline asked.
Janelle nodded, “Yes, we both took in orphans during the crisis. We finalized Toby and Karen’s adoptions last year in the same ceremony. They get along well, despite the age difference.”
Julie
was staring at the walls of the atrium, which twisted in curves, first widening, and then slowly closing towards the top. Fifty feet above them was an enormous skylight and the morning sun glinted off of the white surfaces.
“This is magnificent,” she said, intrigued by the formations embedded within the structure, “even better than the pre-construction sketches had indicated.”
Madeline Chen nodded, “I am glad that you like it. The architect Shigoro Hitagashi designed this building and most of the others under construction now. I’m particularly impressed with the way the light moves through each of the buildings through the course of the day.”
“And this entire city, it is being constructed almost entirely out of plasticrete, isn’t it?”
“Yes, indeed it is.”
Julie nodded in approval. “I’ve heard great things about the polymer. It’s non-toxic, durable, and extremely versatile.”
Madeline smiled, “I can see you have been doing your homework. Were you also apprised of the health benefits of the new construction?”
Janelle nodded, “We have been following that closely as well Madame Chairman. The HEPA E-20 is being used in all of the buildings, correct?
“Yes. We will have the HEPA filters in every public and private building in this city. That, along with clean energy generated through the solar fields, wind farm and the geothermal applications, and this city will be completely ‘green’ without any of the half-measures we had to take with already established cities.”
“It will give people the highest quality of life that Earth has ever seen.” Julie added.
“Yes, indeed it will.” Madeline paused, “But you didn’t come here to discuss architecture, did you?”
“No, Madame Chairman, I’m afraid I did not.” Janelle answered.
“Well, I have to admit, before we get started, that I’m a fan of your work, Dr. Brooks, as well as yours Dr. Aaronson.”
“Our work?” Janelle asked, startled.
“Yes, I minored in Bioscience in college,” Madeline replied. “But my parents were insistent that I make Political Science a priority, so,” she sighed, “here I am. The widow of a politician and the Interim Chairman of the Terran United Planetary Government. Just saying it out loud makes me miss the hard sciences even more.”
Janelle shook her head, “I had no idea. Well, that certainly will make my report easier to relay.”
Madeline laughed, “Go easy on me, I hate to admit how long it has been since college!”
“Of course,” Janelle said, and queued up the information on her tablet. “I’ve sent you all of these documents, but here is where we stand. Thanks to the iDent chips here in the Reformed United States, as well as the ten variants employed in most of the countries around the world prior to the virus outbreak, we know that our current world population stands at just over fourteen and one-half million, with another half to three-quarters million UPs, four hundred thousand of those are within Chamaral Falls in Mauritius and the rest...”
Madeline blinked, “Did you say...ups?”
“Sorry,” Janelle looked embarrassed, “Unaffected Persons, UPs for short. We started using the term last year and it just sort of stuck.”
“Right, that makes sense. The UPs are all of those who remain in the enclaves and haven’t been infected with the ESH virus.” Madeline said.
“Exactly. In any case, our total world population is hovering at right around fifteen million, one hundred seventy thousand.”
Madeline nodded, “That’s about in line with what I had been apprised of.”
Janelle gestured to Julie, “Dr. Aaronson has been studying the teratogenic qualities of the ESH virus and she has sent you a summary of her findings.”
Julie keyed up her figures.
“As you may know, prior to the ESH virus, anywhere from ten to twenty-five percent of clinically recognized pregnancies naturally end in miscarriage. This number was possibly closer to fifty percent, the majority of those ending in the first days, long before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Additionally, it should also be noted that 80% of all miscarriages occur in the first trimester.”
Madeline Chen nodded and motioned for Julie to continue.
“In the first few months of the ESH outbreak, I noticed a sharp spike in miscarriages and stillbirths, even among women who had entered their second and third trimesters. Now I wasn’t sure if this was a side effect of the virus entering the system during the pregnancy and perhaps killing only the fetuses that were not AB negative, so we did extensive testing once we saw the trend in some of the refugee camps. There was no correlation, many of the fetuses we tested were AB negative blood types, so they should have survived the ESH virus.”
Julie stopped, sipped from the glass of water sitting in front of her and continued. “My next theory was that the shock of the ESH virus invading the maternal host was detrimental to the fetus. This took some time to disprove, a full year in fact. The ESH positive women who attempted to get pregnant were continuing to miscarry in record numbers.”
“The percentage?” Madeline asked, straight to the point.
“Over ninety seven percent, Madame Chairman, in the...”
“Ninety seven percent of pregnancies in ESH positive survivors end in miscarriage?”
“No ma’am, ninety seven percent of pregnancies miscarry in the first trimester. Overall, we are looking at closer to ninety nine point six five percent of all pregnancies ending in miscarriage. Worse, this might not end with the first generation, or even the second.”
“What?” Madeline Chen stared at Julie, her face turning pale.
“There’s more. From what Dr. Brooks and I can tell, and this is in the process of being verified by a team outside of Munich, the embedded herpes virus markers indicate that there will be a far higher infant mortality rate as well. Possibly as many as seventy-five percent of those babies who survive until birth may die before their second year.”
As if it weren’t enough that the survivors were hanging on by threads in refugee camps all over the world. All of them waiting as the massive machines printed new homes which promised to clean the air still reeking of death, and protect them from the illness which had ravaged every corner of the globe.
The cities, filled with unending scores of the dead, were unlivable. The stench had faded, but the environmental hazards remained as millions of decomposing bodies filled the buildings, streets and tunnels of the cities. Many of them had been razed by incendiary devices, starting with the cities of Guiyang and Hong Kong. Lagos and Kinshasa on the African continent had also seen fit to cleanse by fire, as had Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia.
“I...I don’t know what to say,” Madeline said softly.
“We have to take action, Madame Chairman, now.” Janelle said, “As it stands, Earth’s population is smaller than it has been in over three thousand years. And if we don’t do something about it, that number will be halved within three decades.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Put simply? We need an organized breeding program.” Julie added, bulldozing through the shocked look on the Chairman’s face.
“If we don’t institute it now, and promote genetic diversity and a benefit-based breeding platform, we will lose the opportunity completely.”
There was a moment of silence as Madeline Chen scrolled through the reports, her lips moving slightly as she read the proposal.
“You are suggesting a massive change to how human families exist,” Madeline exclaimed, paging through her tablet. “This is reminiscent of a caste system in concept.” Her eyes widened at a particular passage. “A system which rewards women for having more babies than they can take care of?”
Janelle nodded, “I know, it seems like a lot to take in. Especially since we were all raised with the threats of population control and large families faced more taxes rather than less. But please understand, Madame Chairman, I first obtained my master’s in social science before going into the biosciences. We have spo
ken with others extensively as well for this report. If we don’t change how we think about reproduction immediately our species is likely doomed to extinction.”
“There are artificial wombs,” Madeline began.
“Yes, and those are failing at a spectacular rate. We have hopes that, given time and advances in technology, we will be able to ferret out the failure points, but right now, the artificial wombs can successfully produce lower life forms, but not humans. We don’t know why yet, but the children come out developmentally and psychologically stunted. Imagine a generation of children like that.” Janelle warned.
Julie chimed in, “By focusing on and rewarding those who are able to have children, we maximize their breeding potential. No human is exactly alike, some may have better success than others at carrying a fetus to term. Please keep in mind that those miscarriage numbers are averages and do not represent the individual so much as the whole of the breeding population tested at this time.”
Madeline’s face still carried a look of horror, “And this next bit,” she said, stabbing at the words on her tablet, “You want to lower the age of reproductive consent to sixteen?”
“For at least twenty years, yes. We need to maximize reproduction potential.” Janelle said, adding forcefully, “Look around you, Madame Chairman, look around at this empty world and tell me you think that everything is going to right itself on its own. That this beautiful new city will actually have children. We are at a tipping point and we must act, now.”
An hour later, Janelle and Julie were escorted back to the waiting shuttle. It would take them back to Genesis, Mississippi, the first of the new cities to be built and one of three new survivor cities in the North American continent. Madeline Chen, while Chairman of the Terran United Planetary Government, counted the three cities in her territory.
“She thinks we are nuts.” Janelle said, grim-faced.
“That she might, but the reality is there, in black and white. It might stomp all over our American sensibilities or the message of ‘one child is enough’ that we have all been hearing these past twenty or more years, but damn it, we don’t have time for that,” Julie fired back.
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