The Dark Freeze

by Peter Gregory

  Liz felt small, like a naughty schoolgirl who’d just been admonished by the headmaster.

  ‘Not only that,’ said Dr John Blackhouse, the warfare expert seconded from Porton Down to the Simulation Chamber, ‘what if the aliens remain spacesuited? The superbugs would be ineffective. To do their job, they have to get inside the aliens’ bodies.’

  She felt even smaller after John’s comments. ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ she said sheepishly.

  ‘Well, we have,’ said the military scientist in a confident, loud voice. ‘We’ve thought about it a lot. An awful lot. And we’ve come up with a much better plan. This is our last chance to defeat the aliens. We have to get it right. It has to work.’

  ‘And what is your much better plan?’ asked Frank, irritated by the American’s arrogance and his put down of Liz.

  The military scientist paused before answering. ‘Drone technology has advanced exponentially over the past decade,’ he said. ‘Almost everyone’s aware of the plane-like drones being used in Afghanistan and Pakistan to hunt down and kill terrorists, but hardly anyone knows about the microscopic drones developed over the last few years. Insect drones that…’

  ‘I’m aware of the Wasp class,’ interjected Dr John Blackhouse, also irritated by the American’s arrogance and his perceived ignorance of those he was addressing.

  ‘Are those what you mean?’ he said, more forcefully than intended.

  ‘Many types of drones have been developed,’ continued the military scientist, unperturbed by the interruption, ‘but no, the Wasp class of drones are not what I meant. They are the size and shape of a bird. The insect drones I’m referring to are the size and shape of insects; wasps, bees and our latest drones, mosquitos.’

  ‘You mean you’ve developed a drone the size of a mosquito?’ gasped Liz, regaining her enthusiasm.

  ‘Absolutely. It’s almost indistinguishable from the real thing,’ replied the military scientist with smug satisfaction.

  ‘Wasn’t there some controversy about that?’ asked Frank, recalling a newspaper article he’d seen a few months ago. ‘Didn’t the American government fund the work on microscopic drones for use in urban areas, for domestic surveillance to keep tabs on people? A case of the Orwellian Big Brother syndrome gone mad.’

  For the first time, the American military scientist looked uncomfortable. He glanced at his superior before continuing. ‘You’re right. Domestic surveillance was one possible use, a front presented to the public, but the main use was always a military one. The drone belongs to a class of Micro Air Vehicles or MAVs currently being developed for intelligence gathering and as a ‘‘swarm weapon’’ to launch en masse against enemy forces. The drones are equipped with a camera and a microphone and can be remotely controlled. They can land on a person’s skin, take a sample of their DNA or inject a poison, and implant an RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tracking device. They can fly though an open window or attach themselves to your clothing to enter your home without you knowing anything about it. The only downside is their range; it’s currently limited to several hundred metres.’

  ‘I can see where you’re going with this,’ said Frank, as perceptive as ever.

  ‘Can you?’ replied the military scientist, intrigued to see if Frank could anticipate their plan. ‘Please continue.’

  ‘Well,’ said Frank thoughtfully, ‘from what you’ve said, I’d use a bird drone with a big range to transport the mosquito drones to within several hundred metres of the aliens, and then release them out of sight of the aliens.’

  ‘Very good,’ said the military scientist, clearly impressed with Frank’s perceptiveness. ‘And then what?’

  ‘What do you mean, and then what?’ asked Frank, perplexed by his question.

  ‘And then what would happen next?’ said the military scientist.

  ‘The mosquito drones would fly the short distance to the aliens, land on their skin and inject the superbugs.’

  ‘And…’ said the military scientist.

  ‘And hopefully they’d die,’ said Frank, looking bemused.

  ‘And the thousands, possibly millions, of aliens on board the asteroid. Would they sit back and do nothing? No, they’d retaliate by sending even more scout ships. Lots of them, this time with suitably protected aliens. We’d have achieved nothing except kill two aliens and arouse the anger of those on the asteroid. There’s a better way than that.’

  A silence permeated the room as people waited for him to continue.

  ‘Just one, or maybe two, mosquito drones would land on the aliens’ skin, obtain a sample of their DNA and return to the bird drone. They’d hardly feel anything, just a tiny pinprick. The bird drone would then return to base with their DNA samples, DNA samples that should really help our geneticists and molecular biologists design better superbugs.

  ‘A few days, or weeks, later, after the superbugs have been finalised, a bird drone would unleash thousands of mosquito’s loaded with the superbugs. Only one or two would land on the skin of the two aliens from the scout ships and inject the superbugs into their bodies. The rest would settle on their hair or their clothing, hopefully unnoticed or, preferably, secrete themselves inside the scout ship if the aliens left the hatch open. When the aliens return to the asteroid, the mosquito’s would fly off and infect thousands of those on board. If, as expected, the superbugs are highly infectious, the disease should spread rapidly throughout the asteroid population.’

  ‘How?’ asked Frank. ‘How would thousands of them just fly away and locate thousands of aliens? They can’t be remotely controlled. Not on the asteroid. It’s too far away.’

  ‘You’re right, they can’t,’ replied the military scientist. ‘They’d locate their targets using heat-sensing devices, similar to how heat-sensing missiles lock on to their targets.’

  ‘That’s brilliant,’ said Liz, clearly impressed.

  ‘It is,’ said Rupert, ‘but it means the superbugs will have to be slow acting. They can’t kill the aliens before they return to the asteroid.’

  ‘That’s correct,’ said the military scientist. ‘We know from previous visits that the aliens normally only stay for about two hours, and that it takes them about ten hours for the return journey to the asteroid, so the superbugs’ effect would need to be delayed for at least twelve hours, possibly a little longer.’

  ‘But how will we know if they’ve worked? ’asked Liz.

  ‘If the asteroid leaves,’ replied Viv. ‘The aliens might be able to find a cure, an antidote, to the superbugs, but by then tens of thousands of them will have been killed.’

  ‘More importantly,’ said the military scientist, ‘they’ll know we have the technology to hurt them. Really hurt them. That should be enough to scare them off. To send them packing in search of an easier planet to colonise.’

  ‘And if the asteroid remains?’ asked Viv.

  ‘If it remains,’ answered the military scientist, ‘then the Earth and everything on it is doomed.’

  34

  Samples

  The military expeditions were successful. The dark-loving psychrophile identified by the scientists was obtained from ice-cores drilled at the Antarctic Vostock Station from a depth of 3,500 metres, close to the surface of the huge sub-glacial Lake Vostock. The light-loving psychrophile, a rare green snow algae, proved more difficult, but was eventually found in a remote region of the Arctic. As agreed beforehand, samples of each psychrophile were delivered to laboratories in Britain and the United States to form the basis of the superbugs.

  With the first phase of the plan complete, it was time to implement the second phase – to obtain samples of DNA from the aliens.

  During the past few weeks, visits from the scout ships had become more frequent. Not only that, both the number of ships and the number of aliens had also increased. Instead of just one ship with two aliens, there were now three ships a
nd twenty aliens. And not just in Alaska and the Arctic, but also in the Antarctic, Siberia and the Himalayas. The aliens were beginning to make their move.

  In Alaska, the aliens had started to construct buildings, geodesic-shaped buildings. Whether they were laboratories or accommodation blocks was unclear, but it unnerved them. Alien beings constructing buildings was the beginning of the end for the human race. It was the first step in the colonisation of planet Earth.

  Although unnerving, the increase in the number of aliens visiting the Earth assisted their plan. Not at this stage – they only needed samples from one or two aliens – but later. Instead of infecting just four aliens (two in the Arctic and two in Alaska) with the superbugs, they now had the chance to infect ten times that number. The more they infected, the better. Perhaps the tide was beginning to turn in their favour.

  The military were becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of action. By the lack of a firm response. Any response. They wanted to launch Cruise missiles with conventional high explosive warheads to destroy the buildings before they became established. They argued the aliens wouldn’t detect sophisticated ground-hugging missiles of a type they hadn’t encountered before. Yes, they’d destroyed the ones sent to attack the asteroid, but those were in space and easy to detect. These were a different proposition altogether.

  Up to a point, they were probably right. The aliens on the ground most likely wouldn’t detect them but, as was pointed out in no uncertain terms, those on board the asteroid would. Would detect and destroy them, just as they’d destroyed the missiles aimed at the asteroid. Their plan was rejected. Overruled. But it left some of the hawks deeply unhappy. Unhappy and angry at the apparent impotence of the Earthlings.

  The bird drones were ready to go. Two had been prepared in case one malfunctioned. They were white, ground hugging birds designed to blend in with the snow covered terrain with surface characteristics similar to those of a Stealth bomber to render them invisible to radar. Each bird drone contained several mosquito drones specially modified to extract samples of skin and blood from the aliens, samples from which they’d be able to obtain their genetic make-up. Their DNA.

  Liz and her colleagues watched the screen as the two bird drones approached their target – the alien base camp in Alaska. Watched as they landed out of sight of the aliens, about 400 yards away. And watched as the mosquitos – about a dozen of them – emerged from the birds’ mouths and flew towards their target.

  Although the mosquitos were too small to be seen, especially in the Arctic gloom, their progress could be followed from their short range radio trackers. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the tiny white dots as they homed in on their target. Homed in on the aliens. They watched with bated breath as they approached the aliens, landed on their skin and then, a few moments later, returned safely to their mother birds. When the last mosquito entered its bird’s mouth, the two birds took to the air to begin the return journey back to base with their precious cargo.

  Liz and her colleagues were marvelling at the ingenuity and technical prowess of the Americans when the screen suddenly flashed red and the buzzer went off. What was it? What had triggered the alarm? Everyone was confused, And afraid. Very afraid. Had the aliens realised what had happened and were retaliating? It was pandemonium. Suddenly, a single word flashed on the screen in big red letters. MISSILE. Had the aliens launched a missile to destroy the American base where the birds were headed? For an instant, the screen went fuzzy as the cameras on the orbiting satellites switched their focus from the birds to the missile. As the image reappeared, the screen showed a Cruise missile skimming the ground. A Cruise missile heading straight for the alien base. Somehow, the military hawks had managed to launch a Cruise missile in direct violation of their orders.

  ‘The bloody fools,’ spat Viv. ‘What the hell are they doing? They could bloody well ruin everything. It’ll put the aliens on full alert. They’ll almost certainly detect and destroy it.’

  His words were prophetic. No sooner had they left his mouth when the missile exploded in a blinding flash of light. Just like the polar bear, it had probably been destroyed with a quantum ray.

  ‘Let’s hope they don’t detect the birds,’ said Frank, ‘and shoot them down too. That would really piss me off.’

  His colleagues were shocked. They’d never heard him use language like that before.

  ‘I doubt they will,’ said Viv. ‘They’re tiny compared to a missile and they’re flying away from the aliens, not towards them.’

  The aliens didn’t detect them. Both bird drones returned safely to base with their precious cargo, samples of the aliens’ DNA. Now, it was the job of the geneticists and molecular biologists to utilise that knowledge to design the superbugs.

  35

  Superbugs

  Whilst waiting for the psychrophile samples from the expeditions, geneticists and molecular biologists around the world liaised via videoconferences on what modifications to make. On how to make the light-loving and dark-loving psychrophiles as potent as possible. Other teams worked on synthesising the chemical trigger. The chemical trigger that would instruct the psychrophiles to release their deadly toxins – to flood the aliens’ bodies with a massive, lethal dose.

  It had been established beforehand that the work would be done in the USA and the UK, partly because they had some of the best scientists, but mainly because they were the only two countries that possessed samples of the chemical trigger and the means of delivery – the mosquito drones.

  Professor Theodore Russell, the world’s foremost authority on genetics and molecular biology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, led the work. Discussions had shown they needed to genetically modify the genomes of the psychrophiles to produce the ideal superbug. Needed to incorporate artificial gene sequences to give them the characteristics they wanted. And to make them unlike anything the aliens would have encountered.

  The ideal superbug would be extremely pathogenic, highly infectious and mutate rapidly, making it virtually impossible to find a cure. In combination with the chemical trigger, it should prove unstoppable, but only if the toxins were released at the right instant. For that to happen, the chemical trigger would have to be encapsulated.

  The samples obtained from the aliens had caused them to make last minute modifications, but only minor modifications. The genetic make-up of the aliens was surprisingly similar to that of the Earth’s primates. Like ours, their DNA was also built from four basic units. Not quite adenosine, cytosine, thymine and guanine (ACTG), but pretty close.

  At first, they found it surprising that the aliens’ genetic make-up was so similar to that on Earth but, the more they thought about it, the more sense it made. Life would only arise on planets having the right conditions, conditions similar to those on Earth. On planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone, where the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. And on planets which possessed liquid water. On such planets, it was inevitable that chemical molecules would have formed that were the same or very similar to those on Earth. So it wasn’t at all surprising that their DNA was similar to ours. Perhaps it was a universal trait. Perhaps all extraterrestrial life was based on Earth-like DNA. After all, the same chemical and physical laws operate throughout the entire Universe.

  Theodore and his colleagues faced a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, the superbugs mustn’t kill the aliens too quickly: they had to return to the asteroid. That meant a minimum 12 hour delay – two for their stay on Earth plus ten for their return journey to the asteroid. On the other hand, they had to take effect before the aliens had time to develop an antidote. They couldn’t take too long to act. Furthermore, they had to allow sufficient time for the superbugs to spread and establish themselves throughout the aliens’ bodies. That meant the superbugs acting somewhere between 12 and 24 hours. After some debate, they made an educated guess at 18 hours. That allowed the superbugs six hours to spread a
nd establish themselves in the aliens’ bodies. It was impossible to be more precise.

  ‘But there’s another problem too,’ said Theodore to his senior colleague, Dr Martha Wannamaker, a renowned geneticist from Princeton University.

  ‘I think I know what you’re going to say,’ said Martha. ‘That we need two types of superbugs. One type to infect the aliens on the ground and one for those on the asteroid.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Theodore. ‘We have to synchronise the effect of the superbugs. To have the best chance of success, they all have to act in unison. Act together. If they act on the 40 or so from the scout ships first, it’ll give them plenty of time to find an antidote for those on board the asteroid. We need 40 superbugs that act in 18 hours and thousands that act in six hours. That way, they’ll all take effect together, six hours after the aliens return to the asteroid.’

  After days of feverish activity by geneticists and molecular biologists around the world, linked together by videoconference, both the dark-loving psychrophilic superbug and the light-loving psychrophilic superbug were finalised and produced. Forty to act in 18 hours and thousands to act in six hours. Deadly, highly infectious, rapidly mutating superbugs that would, hopefully, spread throughout the asteroid population like wildfire. Six hours after the aliens from the scout ships returned, deadly neurotoxins would flood the aliens’ bodies. Paralysis and death should follow within minutes.

  Not all the aliens would die – there were too many for that – but sufficient to make them have a rethink. To reassess their options. To make them depart.

  As Theodore and his teams worked on the genetic modifications, they experienced a strange sensation. Powerful, vivid images flooded their brains, strange unworldly images. Images filled with profound, specific ideas. Out of this world ideas for the genomic structure of the superbugs. Structures that were completely different to those which Theodore and his colleagues had come up with. The images were so powerful that the novel structures had to be implemented. Had to be obeyed. It was as if they were in a hypnotic trance, being controlled by an invisible presence. It was unlike anything they’d ever experienced.