by Chesla, Gary
“The two satellites over Kansas and St Louis have just disappeared from the screen,” Chervy announced. “All indications are they have burnt up in the atmosphere. No signs of any kind of nuclear explosions. The satellite heading for Salt Lake City should be passing through the sky in the eastern horizon any minute. In fact, it should be visible to the naked eye in the next few minutes.”
“So, no indications of radiation?” the Chief asked.
“No indication of any type of explosions,” Chervy replied. “Command will have to send a plane up to test the air for radiation. At this point, as far as our systems are concerned there isn’t any evidence of anything unusual.”
“What would we see if we went outside and looked up into the eastern horizon?” Rogers asked.
“As long as there isn’t any kind of detonation, it should look like a meteor shower,” Chervy replied. “A bunch of lights streaking through the sky briefly until they burn up.”
“That would be something to see,” Davis commented.
“Keep your eyes on the monitor,” Chief Johnson growled.
“Yes, Sir,” Davis replied. “I wasn’t going to go outside, I was just curious.”
Rogers shot Davis a look, telling him to be quiet and not to piss off the Chief.”
“The satellite just disappeared over Salt Lake City,” Rogers said as he studied the screen.
“No sign of anything unusual,” Chervy added. “I think the satellite simply burned up as it dropped down into the atmosphere.”
“What about the satellite heading for Phoenix?” Johnson asked.
“I’m monitoring that one now, Sir,” Chervy replied. “It should burn up in approximately thirty seconds if all goes without incident.”
“Fucking Airforce,” Johnson said under his breath as he waited and stared at the monitors over the men’s shoulders.
When the icon on the monitor over Phoenix disappeared, Chervy breathed a sigh of relief, “It looks like all satellites have been destroyed without incident.”
“All’s well that ends well,” Davis smiled.
“It isn’t over yet,” Chief Johnson growled as he reached over Roger’s shoulder and picked up the phone from the desk.
After hitting a few numbers, Johnson said,
“McKenzie, I want two jets in the air now. I want to get air samples from over Salt Lake City and Phoenix and bring them back to the lab as soon as possible.”
Johnson listened for a second, then spoke, “I don’t care if a storm is brewing out there or not, do it now!”
Johnson hung up the phone, “Chervanak, contact St Louis and Kansas and tell them I want them to analyze some air samples and touch base with me in the next hour.”
“Yes, Sir,” Chervy replied.
“I’m going over and wake a few people up at the lab. I think we should take a few samples around the base too,” Chief Johnson said. “Something just doesn’t feel right to me. Keep your eyes on that monitor and let me know if there is anything the slightest bit out of the ordinary. Call me paranoid, but my gut is telling me this isn’t over yet. Something has happened, but I just don’t what it is yet, but I damn well intend to find out.”
Johnson headed for the door as a loud clap of thunder sounded outside.
“Sir,” Rogers said. “Would you want me to go get your car? It sounds like it is really starting to come down out there.”
“No Thanks, Rogers,” Chief Johnson smiled, “What the hell kind of Navy man would I be if I was afraid of a little water.”
The Chief turned and walked out the door.
“You damn brownnoser,” Davis laughed. “Can I go get your car?”
“It’s better than telling the Chief I was going to abandon my post so I could go outside and look at the stars,” Rogers grinned. “If you would quit pissing off the Chief, maybe you wouldn’t end up on latrine duty all the time. Or maybe you like the smell of shit.”
“I like the smell of shit, that’s why I’m friends with you,” Davis smiled.
Chervanak shook his head, “Can you two control yourselves long enough to keep an eye on the monitors while I make some phone calls. I would like to get this shit done so I can go and get some shuteye tonight. I go back on duty at 0600.”
Rogers was about to make another comment when the door to the situation room opened.
The Chief, soaked to the skin, walked back into the room.
“Chervanak,” the Chief started, “Could you print me the computers analysis of the satellites re-entry over Sal Lake City. I want to see if the computer picked up anything the least bit out of the ordinary before I turn in.”
Chervanak, Rogers and Davis all turned as the Chief began to speak, and stared.
“Sir,” Chervanak said, “You’re orange.”
“I’m what?” Johnson growled, then held up his arms and looked at his uniform and hands.
The light in the situation room made his skin and his uniform glow a bright orange color.
Chapter 6
Friday, May 7th, Fallon Naval Station, Fallon, Nevada
Chervanak walked into the sick bay. He wanted to check in on the Chief. He found out this morning that shortly after the Chief left the situation room last night, he fell ill and had been admitted to the infirmary.
He was surprised as he walked into the infirmary to see that just about every bed was occupied.
Not only were most of the beds occupied, but the men that were occupying the beds looked pale and seriously ill.
“Hey Doc,” Chervy said quietly as he saw the doctor scratching his head as he studied a patient’s chart that was hanging from a clip near one of the beds. “What is going on over here, it looks like you have an epidemic on your hands?”
“Hi Chervy,” the doctor replied as he looked up from the chart he was reading. “Don’t say that too loud around here.”
“Why, what’s up Doc?” Chervy asked then added. “Sorry Doc, I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
“Follow me outside,” the doctor instructed.
They walked outside where the doctor stopped and looked at Chervanak, “Do you know what all the Chief was doing last night? He came in early this morning and said something about being caught out in the rain. He was running a fever and was almost delirious. I tried to ask him a few questions but he wasn’t in any condition to give me a rational answer. I thought maybe he caught a bad cold or a case of the flu at first. I had a blood test run to see what I could find, but that only added to my confusion.”
“The Chief was with Rogers, Davis and I over at the monitoring station last night. We had a classified problem that we were trying to deal with.
I remember it was raining when the Chief left the station. He was gone for only a few minutes then he came back to ask me to run him some reports. He wanted to take them back to his quarters to review before he turned in.
It was the strangest thing,” Chervy said. “When he came in from the rain, he was orange.”
“The color orange?” the doctor asked. “Was it his skin color that was orange? Was it his clothes?”
“All of him was orange,” Chervy replied. “He was soaking wet. It was as if someone had poured orange juice over him. It had stopped raining when I left to return to my quarters and it was still dark so I couldn’t tell if the puddles or the grass was orange. I just stayed on the sidewalk and went back to get some sleep.
It was really weird, but that’s all I can tell you. The Chief left after I gave him the report and that was the last I knew about the Chief until I heard this morning that he was here.”
The doctor thought for a few seconds, then he began to look around and seemed to focus on something next to the building.
“Wait here a minute,” Doc said and went back into the infirmary.
He came out after a few seconds carrying a small vial in his right hand.
The doctor walked over into the shadow of the building, knelt down, removed the lid from the vial and dipped it into a small puddle that was in under
the drain pipe where the down spout ended.
It was in the shadows and the water hadn’t evaporated yet like the puddles that had been out in the direct sunlight.
He held the vial up to the light.
The vial was partially filled with a light orange tinted liquid.
He replaced the lid and dropped the vial into a plastic bag, then removed his gloves and sealed them in the bag with the sample.
“All the men that came in or were brought in to the infirmary had one thing in common,” the doctor said after he walked back over next to Chervy. “I was informed that they had all been out in the rain last night. I didn’t give it much thought. Men are always getting caught out in the weather and it never had this kind of effect before. But when you mentioned the Chief was orange when he came in from the rain, it started me thinking.”
“What do you think he has Doc?” Chervy asked.
“I think he has the same thing that everyone else in that infirmary has,” the doctor replied. “And what that is only God knows. I have done blood tests on all the men in there, and in every case, whatever they have, their blood work shows an immune system that is at war with itself.”
“Is that serious Doc?” Chervy asked.
“If I can’t find out why within the next twenty-four hours,” the doctor said looking to be in deep thought, “all of those men will probably die. It is like their own blood is trying to attack the healthy cells in all their organs. Their bodies can’t survive for much longer under those conditions.
I’ve seen infections attack a man’s immune system, but I’ve never seen anything like this. The immune system isn’t even trying to fight off the invading virus. In fact, it seems after a short exposure to the virus, their immune system joins the virus to attack the body. At the rate this thing is progressing, their immune systems will have been totally destroyed in the next two hours.
I don’t think I have to tell you what comes next.”
“Shit,” Chervy exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to hear something like that.”
“You said the Chief was working with you on a classified project last night,” the doctor said. “Can you tell me a little about what that project involved?”
“I don’t know if I can talk about that,” Chervy replied.
“Look son,” Doc Kennedy said, “I can go through all the regular channels to get this information. It may have a bearing on this condition that I am dealing with and then again, it may not. However, I do know if it does have anything to do with all of this, the time it would take me to go through all the damn channels and red tape I would have to deal with could cost the lives of every man in the infirmary. I am asking for your help. What you tell me stays between me and you. If any word about what you tell me gets out, as far as I am concerned it will have come from the delirious ramblings of one of my patients. Understand?”
“OK, Doc,” Chervy replied. “I see your point. Well, where do I start. The whole thing was a cluster-fuck from the start, or if it wasn’t it sure ended up that way.”
“This is the military,” the doctor smiled. “a cluster-fuck of one sort or another is part of our normal daily life. Just tell me what the hell happened.”
Chervy nodded. “Well we discovered that a North Korean satellite had made a course correction that was going to cause it to come down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We weren’t sure if that was its intended target, but it was where we projected it would come down. Myself, I believe the North Koreans had intended for it to come down in Washington, D.C., but that’s not important now.
Anyhow, we notified the Airforce as to what we discovered. They decided, or the President decided, to shoot the satellite down before it reached Pittsburgh. They used a special satellite designed for quietly eliminating enemy satellites. It shoots out a few hundred lead pellets that will destroy or damage an enemy’s satellite and cause it to go off course and burn up in the atmosphere.”
“So, the orange substance in the rain could have come from a North Korean satellite?” the doctor asked.
“I guess that could be possible,” Chervy replied. “But there is more.”
The doctor looked at Chervanak, “Go on.”
“Remember the cluster-fuck I mentioned?” Chervy asked. “This is where that comes into play. Remember I said the Airforce discharged hundreds of lead pellets at the North Korean satellite to destroy it or cause it to burn up in the atmosphere?”
“Yes, I got that part,” the doctor replied. “How is that a cluster-fuck?”
“Well there were a lot more lead pellets than was needed to get the job done. The pellets that didn’t hit the satellite went shooting off into space. Long story short, they ended up damaging six Russian and Chinese satellites. These satellites came down into the atmosphere and burnt up over Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas, St Louis, Salt Lake City and Phoenix,” Chervy continued. “If that orange shit came from a satellite, it could have come from any one of the seven satellites that crashed into the atmosphere last night.”
“Any idea what those satellites were carrying?” the doctor asked.
“No idea,” Chervy replied. “We were concerned that the Russian satellites could have had nuclear material on them, the North Korean satellite could have biological weapons, nuclear weapons or nothing at all on it, and who knows what could have been on the Chinese satellites. Or they all could have just been plain old electronic surveillance spacecraft. We just don’t know.
But if they completely burned up in the atmosphere, I guess it doesn’t matter what was on them. We didn’t monitor any explosions or unusual activity when they burned up. The Chief ordered an observation aircraft to take air samples and to inspect for any indications that something may have reached the surface, but I haven’t heard yet if anything had been discovered. Since all the satellites burnt up upon reentry, I doubt that anything got through.”
“The satellites burning up may not have necessarily eliminated the possibility of something making it through the atmosphere and reaching earth. If there were any biological material on one of those satellites, being in space for an undetermined amount of time could have caused the material to mutate. Experiments on the space station have shown that time in space causes changes in the human body, things like reduced bone density, enlarged organs, changes in blood composition. It causes plant growth to accelerate and the molecular structure of the metals we use to make space craft to change. We have determined that space causes all forms of life, plant and animal life, to change or begin to mutate. Many times, we found that the new organism is completely different from the original subject. The longer the time in space, the more observable the changes have been.” the Doc added, “The possible mutation could have changed any biological materials into something completely different from what is was when it was first sent up into space.
It is even possible the biological material might have even changed into something that could survive the extreme temperatures of the space craft being destroyed during reentry.
But I think I am being premature in letting my mind consider these possibilities. I need to analyze the orange liquid and get some facts. It may not have anything at all to do with the destroyed satellites and the timing may just be a coincidence, but what you told me does gives me some additional possibilities to consider as I work.”
The doctor laughed and shook his head, “But you were right about one thing. That was one dandy of a cluster-fuck.”
“Is the Chief’s condition really as serious as you suggested?” Chervy asked. “Maybe he just has food poisoning?”
“I’m afraid so,” Doc replied. “In fact, I’ve been thinking about quarantining everyone in the infirmary until I can sort this out. If this thing turns out to be infectious, we could have a major problem on our hands. If this condition has anything to do with those satellites, I haven’t even considered what could be going on outside the base, this could all be a damn nightmare.
Your cluster-fuck may only just be starting. It would probably be
a good idea for you to stay in your quarters until I know what we are dealing with. In fact, I am going to order everyone not on duty be confined to quarters for the next twenty-four hours. It may sound extreme but this shit scares me. I have never seen anything like this.”
“Thanks Doc,” Chervy said. “Let me know if you think of anything else I can do to help.”
The doctor smiled, “Just stay away from anything orange for the next few days.”
Chervy smiled and was about to asked if that meant he shouldn’t have orange juice for breakfast, but was interrupted by a nurse that pushed open the infirmary door and started calling the doctor’s name.
When she saw the doctor and Chervy talking, she came out and walked over to the doctor.
“Doctor, I have a call for you,” she said. “It sounds like it could be important.”
“Who is the call from?” the doctor asked.
“It’s Doctor Anderson from St Louis,” the nurse replied. “He is on a conference call with Doctor Clawson from Chicago and they are holding for you.”
“I’ll talk with you later Chervy,” the doctor said, “I better take this. It could just be the timing of this call, but something tells me we may not be the only place having an unusual problem.”
The doctor quickly walked back into the infirmary with the nurse.
Chervanak walked back to his office and sat down at his desk.
After thinking about what the nurse had said to the doctor, he picked up his phone and dialed the number for Scott Airforce Base outside St Louis.
Mark Williams, a guy he had attended a training course for the new F-35 computer interface system with last fall was stationed at Scott.
They had become friends and had talked a few times each week since their training, using each other for second opinions when they ran into problems as they installed the software for the new fighter network.
