by Paul Phipps
“Captain Atwi, your vehicles are obviously too large to go through the Scanner-Arch and because they have been in a contaminated zone we need to scan them using a different method. Unfortunately it is a bit energy intensive and might damage your vehicles.” Evana told him.
“And if we don’t permit this?” The Captain said with a frown.
“They will not be allowed to leave this spot until we can determine if they are clean of any spores from that damnable Bio-Weapon your government has created.” Evana said matter-of-factly.
“I see… Well obviously I can’t stop you. Go ahead and do your scanning.” The Captain gave in with a sigh.
Evana/Comm Mode: “Commence the scanning of the BMP’s. See if you can make it a bit showy.”
Rover/Comm Mode: “You asked for it!”
Over each of the eight BMP infantry fighting vehicles appeared an IGD, the normally compact devices looked like one meter in diameter balls. But with all of their specialized extrusions and arms deployed they were closer to 10 meters in diameter. In unison a series of colored lights and beams were played over each BMP. One in particular started to smoke and the on board ammunition started to ignite. The IGD over that one deployed a hemispheric shield over the doomed vehicle and kept it there until all of the ammunition and fuel were burned up.
All of the IUR personnel just stared at the sight before them. Finally the Captain turned to Evana and said.
“Your weapons are very good, I don’t think we would have done much damage to you if Major Mujahidh had ordered us to attack you.”
Evana looked at him with surprise visible on her face. “What the …? I’m sorry Captain, these are not weapons. These are unarmed Intelligence Gathering Drones. Would you like a demonstration of one of the weapons at my disposal?”
The Captain was surprised at the offer. He thought about it and told her yes. At that point one of the Samurai’s that were acting as bodyguards to Evana lifted off of the ground and flew up to around 500 feet and fired a shoulder mounted weapon at the ground below and around a half a mile from the watching group of IUR soldiers.
“WHAAANG” and then with a burst of sound that made a nearby crack of lightning sound mild an enormous spray of dirt flew out of the field. The Samurai then came back to land at Evana’s side once again. The group of officer’s followed by the soldiers walked over to view a crater thirty or so feet across and fifty feet deep.
“Of course this is only dirt, armor plate would have withstood the damage a little bit better.” Evana told the Captain.
“How much better? asked the Sergeant.
“Well let’s see… “Mused Evana, “The armor that your BMP carries…. HMMM, maybe a hole forty feet deep instead of fifty.”
There was silence as the men looked at the hole in front of them and at each other. Perhaps there were a few prayers to Allah in thanks for them still being alive. In any case they were alive and this female officer in Black was now in charge of them and if they wanted to keep on breathing it was time to do as she said.
Captain Atwi cleared his throat and then asked, “What are your orders, Lt. Commander Thomas.”
Evana looked at him and decided privately that some people only responded to either force or a BIG gun.
“Captain Atwi, please have all of the Doctors in the area as well as the various leaders brought here. I will explain to them as I have to you what is occurring to you and why you are all behind the Shield.
I have another task to do now and I expect to be back in three hours. I will meet with all of you then. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Yes, Lt. Commander.” The Captain replied, “I will have them all here by then.”
Evana nodded her head once and turned away to get on board Rover. It was now time to go catch a couple of Donkeys
Two hours later Evana sat back in her command chair and rotated her shoulders to loosen them up. “All right Rover summarize this up please.” She told the Scout Ship’s AI.
“Yes Ma’am, Our investigation shows that this whole area has been totally compromised with ‘Shaitan’s Breath’ spores or something much like it. Preliminary analysis indicates though that these are all dead, probably through radiation bombardment.
The Donkey seller Faisal committed suicide when he realized we were here to get the shipments entrusted to him. We then ISO-Tubed his body and all of the remaining humans and donkeys and examined them. Two of the Donkeys were surgically modified with subcutaneous pouches. Neither had a vial of ‘Shaitan’s Breath’ and the indications are that they never did.
This location also has had a full hemispherical shield placed over it. Hopefully this will protect the remaining populace.
Now what do you think we should do?”
“I’m no detective but it’s obvious that the spreading of the dead spores is an attempt to muddy up the tracks of the people that have the real vials. The real question for us is WHY? If they already had samples of the Bio-Weapon that they could afford to kill and then spread to cause havoc, why come and take these ‘live spore’ vials? Or maybe these are a related disease like Cowpox? We need to get some real experts in here.
Also when did this occur and did they manage to escape our blockade around Ramsheh and the area surrounding it? Or did this happen even earlier when the Supreme Leader of the IUR gave the order for dispersal and they manage to escape our initial blockade of the IUR?” Evana said as she tried to reason things out aloud.
“Rover please get Ariadne, Susannah and Maude if they are available then bring them up-to-date on what has occurred here. I have to ask a few questions.” She ordered five minutes later after racking her brain.
“Evana, Rover has told us of your dilemma. What questions do you have?” Ariadne spoke for all of the AI’s.
“Can a human’s brain be engram scanned after death?” Evana asked quickly.
“We don’t know, we have never done it before.” Ariadne asked in surprise.
“I had Faisal ISO-Tubed as soon as we found his body. He used some sort of drug, maybe cyanide, to commit suicide. So the brain should still be intact, it appeared he did it as soon as we landed here at his business. So here is the chance to find out, don’t you think.
We need that information and quickly, as a matter of fact I need it from all of these people here. Something is going on and I believe that we are going to be in a world of hurt if we don’t find out soon what it is.” Evana stated calmly at first and ended up with some passion in her voice.
“We can see that Evana, but as we explained before it does take some time to properly understand an Engram or decode if you care to think of it that way. It might take a few hours it might take weeks and that is all dedicated processing that could be used elsewhere. Such as in trying to de-encrypt all of these encrypted communications coming out of the IUR on the satellite phone networks.” Ariadne stated. “We’re pretty damn good but we aren’t Gods you know.”
“All right then, let’s prioritize these things then. Faizel’s Engram gets a good looking at. If you can decrypt it then we are ahead. The higher level 256 and 512 bit encrypted Satellite calls get the highest level of processing. Then do random decrypting on low level encrypted Satellite communications. Sometimes those are more time sensitive and use a lower level of encryption because speed is of the essence.” Evana directed.
“Very well Evana, We will do as you ask. In fact I will ask Seeker if we can have a dedicated decryption center constructed.” Ariadne told her. “Anything else, we might be able to help out with?”
“Hmmm, yes as a matter of fact. I believe that we need our own version of a Tank. I was thinking that we could use the General Shape of a Martian War Machine from the War of the Worlds Movie that was made in the 1950’s or 60’s. I’m not exactly sure which decade it was. But the overall shape was a good one and I think it could be modified to our purposes as eight to twenty-five man vehicles with heavy weapon support. And we would also need a Carrier vessel for them. Maybe a Modified Gunship like w
e have been using to deploy the Samurai’s?”
Ariadne chuckled over the request. “You might not know it, but that movie gave Ansel nightmare’s for a week after he saw it the first time as a kid. I’ll pass on the request to the Fabricator’s; they love that sort of thing you know.”
“Actually I’m hoping that we can start getting more reactions out of these people. I don’t want them to be terrified but I do want them to pay more attention to us when we come a-knocking on their doors. Mainly I want to find these vials and insure that the world outside of the IUR is safe from this bio-weapon.” Evana said tiredly.
“All of us want that, Evana.” Ariadne said and the others on the line chorused along with her.
“Ok then, unless we can think of something else I can do here, I am going to go back and wait for Captain Atwi to bring the Doctors and various leaders and elders to me so I can lay down the law.”
“No, nothing from us right now on your current situation. For your information Evana, Harrison my lead fabricator says thank you for the new job. They are currently watching the movie and are trying to see how they can adapt the designs to our current technology. They at least, are going to have some fun.” She added with a grin to her voice.
“I’m so glad I could bring some fun into their day.” Evana stated with a slight smile.
When Evana and Rover arrived back at the site outside of the Shield covering the IUR “Agriculture Research Station”, she saw that the IUR Army Captain was not back yet with the people she had requested. However there was a small group of younger women that appeared to be waiting for her.
Once again she went down Rover’s ramp with her two Samurai bodyguards and again she was in full spacesuit mode, the visual clues were in many ways more important than words. As she approached them the women who numbered around fifteen and were all dressed in what Evana would call a pant suit with a Hijab scarf wrapped around their heads showing only their face and no hair or neck skin. They had been chatting enthusiastically with each other as they had watched Rover set down quietly on the bare dirt. But now they were silent and wide eyed as Evana approached them.
“I am Lt. Commander Evana Thomas of the Terran Space Navy.” She announced to them after she stopped before them. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“We heard about you when the Captain was talking to the Sheik and elders.” The oldest of the women said. “We wanted to see if it was true that you were a woman in charge of all these flying machines.”
“Yes, I am in charge here.” Evana said with a smile. “Do you know why we are here?”
“No, not really. I overheard that there was some sort of horrible disease you were hunting. But no one that I know of is terribly sick right now.” The Oldest woman said once again. “I must apologize I did not introduce myself. I am Dr. Galen; I am the General Practitioner here for the women of Ramsheh.”
“Dr. Galen, I am especially glad to meet you.” Evana said with some warmth. Then she motioned all of the women to follow her over to the Scanner-Arch.
“Yes, I am here because the Government of the Iranian Unified Republic chose this area to develop a super-disease. A biological war weapon they called appropriately enough ‘Shaitan’s Breath’. This device here is a Scanner-Arch, all a person has to do is walk through it and it will scan for the Bio-Weapon as well as check the medical health and well-being of the person walking through.”
She then directed the Doctor to one side of the Scanner-Arch and showed her the display terminal in the side. “This is the display that will tell the condition of the people being scanned. We will all walk through it and then we will check to see if you are all free of ‘Shaitan’s Breath’.”
Evana calmly led the way once more through the Scanner-Arch and the women all followed her example. Once she was through, she and Dr. Galen used the display terminal to check each of the women’s conditions.
“Well, there is no indication of spores or infection from ‘Shaitan’s Breath’.” Evana pointed out, “Number three though is ninety days pregnant and is in need of a better diet and more vitamins. Also the embryo is a girl. Congratulations!”
“No!, No! It can’t be.” said the girl, who went very pale, “They will stone me like they did Herani.” And then she started to sob.
Evana turned to her and said. “They most certainly WILL NOT stone you. Not if I have anything to say about it.” She then turned to Dr. Galen and asked. “What in heaven’s name is going on here?”
The Doctor in turn, got a very sad look on her face. “Gelya here was attacked and raped by a man several weeks ago. Under the tenets of Islam she is guilty of having sex with a man who is not her husband. She kept it quiet to save her life. No one witnessed the attack and she being a woman will not be believed over the word of the man.
But now she is pregnant, soon she won’t be able to hide the truth and her family and clan will kill her to preserve their honor.”
Evana shook her head in disgust. She had heard stories about this sort of thing before but had never been personally involved in one.
“What do you suggest we do with her?” Evana said to the Doctor while looking at the young girl who might be sixteen.
“Can you take her with you?” asked the doctor.
“I could, but that might not be the best thing here. We need to change the attitudes of the Elders and Religious leaders.” Evana mused, and then said. “I will give you and her special communicators that you can use to call me if there is trouble.
If that happens, when I come, be prepared for anything including having all of the women trapped here behind the shield to be evacuated, leaving the men here all by themselves.”
“She could have an abortion.” One of the other young women said quietly.
“But that would be murdering a child.” Gelya said with tears in her eyes. “She cannot help it if her f-f-f-father is a rapist.”
Then she said sadly with eyes brimming with tears. “But if I keep her then we both will die. They are most unforgiving.”
Evana/Comm Mode: “Rover do we have anything like a uterine replicator. If we do we can save two lives otherwise I think we must evacuate her. And not to the IUR domes at M1.”
Rover/Comm Mode: “No, I don’t know of anything called a Uterine Replicator. It does sound like a useful device. Maybe one was invented on one of the other Analogues, If not maybe we can make one from scratch.”
Evana/Comm Mode: “Ok, let’s put in a research request for a Uterine Replicator.”
“Gelya, Dr. Galen and the rest of you women, the Terran Space Navy will work on this so as to save both Gelya and her baby, please trust us on this. You however must remain silent for now. As you know silence can save lives, especially here.”
All of the women nodded their heads in understanding. Then they all started chatting as if nothing of import had just happened. It was an amazing display of hiding in plain sight.
A little while later there was a procession of Cars, trucks and the IUR BMP vehicles heading for Rover’s landing site.
Rover/Comm Mode: “Captain Atwi is bringing the people you requested. There are more than a few that do not look at all happy about this. The IGD’s show no weapons other than knives among the civilians. I hope that means there will be no violence coming from them.”
Evana/Comm Mode: “Thank you, Rover. I am going to wait until they get themselves ready to talk. Once they do, I will go over to them and get this over with.”
Evana watched as the men get out of their vehicles and start milling around and talking quietly amongst themselves. Finally she judged that the time was proper to approach the assembled men.
Once she reached them, she stood with her two bodyguard Samurais two paces behind her on her left and right. Evana looked over the men standing before them slowly with what she hoped was a penetrating gaze. After a few minutes of silence, the group of men who represented all that remained of any authority in the town of Ramsheh split ranks and an older man with the air of c
ommand stepped forward of them and stopped around six feet from Evana.
Evana watched him carefully and then she indicated with a wave of her hand that he should begin the conversation.
“You told Captain Atwi that you wished to speak with us. I am what you would call the Mayor of Ramsheh and these others are of the town council.” He indicated with a sideways nod to the older men to his immediate left and right.”
Evana listened closely to him and when he stopped his declaration she spoke carefully and with all the dignity she could.
“Thank you for coming here. I have several things to tell you. Most of which are unfortunately unpleasant in the speaking and hearing.
First off, Farsi is not my native language. I am using a translation program to speak and understand you. If something I say doesn’t make sense, please stop me and I will attempt to make my point clear to you.”
