by Chris Hechtl
Admiral Irons nodded. "Right. And you'll need to replace the dead crew. They can assimilate on the journey out."
"Yes, sir."
-~~~///^\~~~-
Captain Sprite lead the archive check. Fletcher and other A.I. took on some of the more detailed analysis. Once the archive and all electronic files the team had recovered were cleared, she turned her attention to the Bus itself. The onboard A.I. verified its firewalls had functioned perfectly as designed. That was a relief.
Sprite was amused when she checked in on the comparison project. They were comparing the data sets between what they'd brought back with them the first time and the new download. Files were already being highlighted for further review while others were being passed on. From Captain Wong's emails, she could tell the R&D teams were practically frothing at the mouth to get their hands on the data.
That data would most likely not have a major impact on the war effort. But it might go a long way to improving the navy in the future.
-~~~///^\~~~-
Nara was on hand when they did a biopsy of the patient's speech centers. Doctor Ferguson was thorough; he took multiple samples from different locations.
Nara let him do the work and then took the samples to the scope. "Okay, let's see what we're looking at," she said, loading the first dish. The case was a curious one; the IT comm tech's file didn't make sense.
She'd even considered a psychosomatic response given his stress load. But the psyches had ruled it out. So had the scans, something had definitely gone wrong. What was the first question. How to fix it was the next one. But to fix it they had to know what went wrong.
"Okay, I'm looking at sample one; you took this from his speech center. There are no signs of cancer. The neurons are scrambled though," she said, looking at the scope. "But it's not cancer. Okay, let's see the USI sample," she said.
Once the nurse had loaded the next sample, she looked through the scope. She saw a mess, not the orderly organic circuitry she'd encountered before. When she probed it, she got an unexpected response. "I'm in. You got a memory cell, I'm checking …," she paused when the screen flashed red. She stepped back as her A.I. came to the fore.
"Danger! Xeno virus!" her A.I. stated. Alarms began to go off in the room and through the hospital. She turned as she sucked in a shocked breath to see the room lock down.
"What the hell did we just find?" one of the nurses demanded.
"It's a corrupted implant. The Xeno virus somehow got into his implant and was trying to rewrite his brain," the commodore stated as she forced herself to take another look to confirm the diagnosis.
Security personnel were arriving outside the doors. She noted the stern looks from the windows. She waved them off. "Chase, let them know we're safe. It's contained," she stated.
"The equipment has to be firewalled, Doctor," her A.I. stated.
Nara nodded and hunted for the ODN plug. When she found it, she yanked it out of the scanner and then dropped it to the floor. "Any problems in the hospital net?"
"Nothing so far. A full scrub has been ordered," Chase stated.
"What just happened?" Commander Ferguson said as he pulled out.
"Like I said, the Xeno Wraith virus got into his implants somehow. They tried to take over."
"You aren't serious!" Commander Ferguson stared at her. He was a Bekian medic, and he had thought he'd been at the pinnacle of medical care until he'd left his home star system. He'd thought he'd seen it all until encountering implant tech.
Now he was terrified by the tech. It was his worst nightmare come true. He looked down at the sleeping patient with revulsion written all over his face.
A nurse stepped back into a tray and knocked it to the floor. The clatter made everyone jump.
"He's not infectious," Nara stated. "You've known about him for weeks. As long as you don't try to interface with him, you'll be fine."
"That's not very reassuring, Doctor," a nurse said dubiously.
"Are you sure?" the surgeon asked, looking at her as she stripped off her gloves.
"I am. I just did some research. During the Xeno war, the Xenos tried to corrupt people. Admiral Irons instituted protections in military and government personnel. Apparently, the A.I. figured that out and went a tier down to a civilian."
"Oh, my frackin’ …"
"I know. The scary part is, is he patient zero? Is he just the first among many? Or is he only the first we know of? How many are going unreported? How many chalk up what is happening to overdoing it? Seeing things? Auditory and visual hallucinations?"
"Those were some of the symptoms. I didn't know there is a link from the speech center to vision."
"Then you must have brushed through the lessons about the USI."
"USI?"
"It's … look it up. I don't have time," Nara said with a grimace as Chase set off a reminder of her schedule on her HUD. She was going to have to deal with security first though. "Chase, tell them I'm going to run late," she said, looking at the people outside the room. "We've got some explaining to do. You need to keep him quarantined and then extract the USI and his speech centers and grow new ones."
The surgeon nodded dumbly.
Nara frowned. "I've got to get going. But you know what the cause is. Look up the solution. Don't do anything until I get back to you; ONI will want to be involved." He nodded. "I'll need to talk to Admiral Heals Quickly, Doctor Kraft, and the rest of the navy to put out a warning or something."
"Yes, ma'am."
"We'll need a screening process … damn, this just got messy."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Lovely."
"Sorry to bring you bad news, ma'am."
"Not as sorry as I am or for your patient or for others like him," Nara said.
-~~~///^\~~~-
Nara couldn't connect directly to Admiral Heals Quickly; he was in transit. Instead, she managed to connect to Doctor Kraft. She briefed the surgeon general with a quick conversation and then forwarded the patient's chart and her files on the incident as she finished with the hospital administration.
Doctor Kraft immediately brought the story to Admiral Irons and ONI. Admiral Irons brought in Nara, Sprite, and others in the cyber intrusion team on board. "So, the Wraith is trying to what, create a changeling?" he asked once they were fully briefed.
"It's possible. It could also be looking for ways to get information or store parts of itself off the grid or force a tech or someone to turn a blind eye to it. I think I read something about zombies? Zombie mold?" Nara said.
"I know what you are referring to," Captain Sprite stated. "Terran, though it has happened on other worlds. The parasite takes over the host and directs it to do their bidding. It happened during the First A.I. war with cyborgs. It also happened at other times. In fact, it was a favored assassination technique at one point."
Many of the people in the conference winced.
"So, how did this happen?"
"I'm not sure. NCIS and ONI will need to look at the patient's history and retrace his steps. In order to rewrite the royal jelly, he had to have come into contact with nanites at some period," Nara explained.
"Contaminated nanites. Medical or industrial?" Captain Sprite asked.
"No idea," Nara replied.
"We'll look for both. I'm pulling his files now," Admiral Subert stated. "That way we'll know where he's been."
"Good."
"How do we treat this? And how do we handle the public? There is going to be a backlash," the surgeon general warned.
"I'm going to work with Commander Ferguson to remove the afflicted material and then grow replacement tissue and a USI. We can then look at the material for further research," Nara stated. "As far as the public is concerned …," she spread her hands apart in supplication. "We can't sit on this. Classified is good and bad. If it gets out, we'd really catch it in the neck."
"Great."
"If we do let this out, it could cause a panic," Captain Sprite stated.
"You mean it will,
given how organics think about something that could potentially eat them and turn them into zombies," Fletcher stated.
Many of the organics in the virtual chat didn't look happy at that. They didn't dispute it either though.
"Work with the press secretaries to form a coherent message. One on point that doesn't downplay the threat but can keep panic to a minimum," Admiral Irons stated. "This is limited to implant techs?"
"IT techs. With exposure to nanotech."
"Lovely. Another reason to fear nanotech," Admiral Irons sighed.
"I know," Nara said with a shake of her head. "The good news is nanotech can be the solution too," she stated.
"How do you figure?" the surgeon general asked.
"She means having a nanotech immune system layer. One that would find threats like this and eliminate them before they became a hazard to the host," Admiral Irons stated.
The surgeon general frowned. "I don't know how we can sell that."
"We are already using it," Captain Sprite stated. He blinked. "It's been used for over a decade on ET after the Xeno attack there. And it is now in use in Tau. Commodore Richards made it clear she was going to use it there to fight off the plagues."
"Ah. I must have missed that," Doctor Kraft murmured.
"Sometimes people think the cure can be worse than the disease. In some circumstances they can be right. But not in this one. In order to move forward safely, we need to figure this out. We can lay it out and require those most likely to be infected get a nanotech screening or whatever. Definitely screen them," Nara stated.
Heads nodded around the virtual chat.
"I suggest we have all of our ducks in a row before you go public with this. A proactive measured response showing we are ready with a plan will help keep panic to a minimum," Admiral Subert stated.
"Good point," Admiral Irons said with a nod. "And, on that note Protector is letting me know I've just about used up all the flex in my schedule for the day. If there is anything else I need to know right off, drop it in an email. Keep me up-to-date with the same," he said as the chat broke up.
-~~~///^\~~~-
"Protector," Admiral Irons said once he was out of the chat. Protector nodded on his HUD. "Find out if that young man was in any way involved in the Shield download."
"I can tell you right off, no, sir. He is a civilian. He was being treated before the team returned."
"Ah."
"So, no, that download isn't the culprit. This is most likely a copy of the Wraith trying to find ways around our firewalls and security measures."
"Damn. But to do that they have to have some sort of intelligence to test things like this."
"Yes and no. Even an ant colony can keep trying until it finds a source of food. That doesn't mean they are fully sentient."
The admiral pursed his lips. "But it doesn't mean they aren't. Alert the other A.I. to be on the lookout and beware."
"Understood, as always, Admiral," Protector stated.
"All right, now that we've gotten that going, what else?"
"Well …"
-~~~///^\~~~-
May oversaw the new replacement personnel. The crew of the Bus was also swapping out a junior helmsman for a chimera with water dweller genes. His record said he was a good driver, which she appreciated. He'd run a courier for a year before putting in for something else.
She didn't cut any corners with him though, having him run a couple of sims just to see what he was capable of. Despite not being a full water dweller, his little tricks and skills told her right off that he should be able to shave weeks off of their impending journey to Pi as well as future jumps.
She turned to Colton. "All packed?"
"Yeah."
"Did you expect them to send us to the front?" she asked.
He shrugged. "They send us to where we're needed the most. Obviously, Pi is where they think that is, so we go where we're told. I spent a day of my liberty gathering material, including a lot of vids and e-books. How about you?"
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve to pass the time. Like a new sunlamp and a VR sim of a nice sandy beach," she said.
"Oh? Well, maybe I'll share it with you," he said.
"If you behave you just might," she said, lips puckering in an almost smile.
"Of course, I could just hang back and see if you get a sunburn," he said with a grin. "Or what a tan with a VR headset looks like," he said, making a mask motion with his index and middle finger spread.
She snorted as she turned at the sound of a clatter in the hatch.
"I got it," a testy voice said. She raised an eyebrow as Fitz came into the gangway propping a stack of parts. He had another under one arm. Simmons had her hands full too. Mack was pushing something on a grav cart.
"All set?"
"Just about."
"Got toys to play with?"
"Oh, and downloads, classes, all sorts of stuff to pass the time," Simmons replied congenially. "I had to prod someone into downloading more than what he could from the Lemnos files," she said, nudging her partner.
"All set," Daisy said, pushing her own cart and pulling another.
"Geeze, got enough, Daisy?" Phil asked with a shake of his head.
"The software is nothing. This is food supplies. The replicated chocolate is nothing compared to the real thing," Daisy replied.
Fitz and Simmons gave each other a stricken look. They scrambled madly to put their stuff down and rush back to the shuttle.
Mae just sighed and shook her head. "I'll let them know we're going to delay the departure a couple more hours," she said.
Phil raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?"
"Hell, yes! I'm not going to suffer with that replicated chocolate either!"
-~~~///^\~~~-
Sprite talked to Fletcher about the clones during a few mutually free processor cycles. Fletcher reminded her that the clones were not Xeno in origin. "Yes, I know; we've confirmed that."
"Consider this then," Fletcher stated. "Why would the Xenos shotgun clones across the area? The equivalent amount of nanotech could do far more damage!"
"I've stated that the Xenos are not responsible. Who is then?"
"Organics are the most probable suspect. They are doing it for reasons of their own. You know organics can be troublesome to understand or predict," he stated, sending her a series of emojis.
"True," she replied, sending back her response emojis.
-~~~///^\~~~-
Skeletor snarled. He was on the run so all of his offensive plans were on hold or scrapped. That damn Agent Prince busybody and the Eternian Master at Arms were looking for him with the FBI. They had gotten uncomfortably close, so he had to go deeper underground and wait them out.
-~~~///^\~~~-
Professor Gwildor grinned as he finished his latest missive to Professor Eldor. Work on his research was progressing smoothly. They had managed to eliminate a lot of false leads and paths with the help of Admiral Irons. Refining the simulations had allowed them to create a series of tests he wanted to perform in the real world.
He had also developed a plan to create more refined gravitational and hyperspace sensors. That would take time though; he was a theoretical physicist not an engineer. He was trying to consult with the experts and pull more people on board his team.
It was taking time, but he was pretty sure he had the time to spare.
Chapter 29
New Horizon
Captain Firefly examined the logs and star system plot in under half a second. That was unusually long for the A.I., but he had spent a few milliseconds checking on the status of each of the prize ships.
Sicily had escorted twenty-three fresh prize ships into his AO pushing his prize row back to sixty-three ships. Many of the ships had been packed with pirate lords and their families. It seemed like his recent release of twenty prize ships to Garth recently had been timed nicely. They would pass Fifth Fleet somewhere along the line to Garth. One of the ships had been outfitted as a
prison ship with the Horathian prisoners on board. He'd been forced to set up two more prison ships once Sicily's flotilla had arrived however.
The problem wasn't that the ships weren't mobile; it was that his prize crews were limited, specifically, his bridge crews. He could mount personnel for skeleton watches but not enough to crew the ship all the way to Garth comfortably. Many were very slow. The twenty-three new ships had prize crews on them. He had already issued orders for those ships to head to Garth once they were resupplied.
Unfortunately, that would leave Winterspell's CruRon short of personnel for several more months. There was nothing he could do about that. Even with the personnel from the transport Pyrax had sent, all of his ships were short on personnel. The prize ships were turning into something of a case of “too much of a good thing.”
And, contrary to Admiral Irons' off-the-cuff remark about possibly sun scuttling the ships, he had no intention of doing so unless forced or ordered. It wasn't the ship's fault that they'd been in enemy hands.
Based on the latest report from the Admiralty, he was fully expecting to lose his destroyers. And the two with Sicily would most likely also be taken from Captain Misipeka. In fact he fully expected the six destroyers to be used to form a new Desron for Fifth Fleet. All six ships were fleet defense ships after all; their true mission was in defending a fleet, not trying to play pirate hunter.
The Admiralty, however, had not sent anything in the pipeline to replace his quartet of destroyers. And he was pretty certain Admiral V'r'z'll was not going to trade for them. That meant he would need to find a way to cover all of the jump points and the prize ships with four less ships. If the Admiralty ordered his CEVs to begin moving planes between Garth and Finagle, he was really going to be in trouble. For the moment he was counting on keeping at least one of them.
He had confirmed that he was going to hang on to his support ships as well as Voyager and Shredder for the time being, though Shredder's long-term status was still up in the air.
He pulled up a star system map and looked at it once more. His six-hundredth simulation had completed. It looked like his plan to place Shredder in orbit, Voyager on the Hinata jump point, and Firefly on patrol was his best option once Fifth Fleet took Finagle. He wouldn't have any coverage on two of the jump points but both were supposed to be secure. He wouldn't have anything immediately available to support Voyager, however, hence the simulations.
