THE ALTIAN PLAGUE

by D M Arnold

  “We are making progress mapping the virus and designing an antibody,” he replied.

  “We could make more progress if I had access to my labs,” Senta added. “I propose we move the vaccine development to Sudal. I've sketched out some program modifications I can make to a sequencing machine that will dramatically shorten the turnaround time on these antibodies.”

  Kronta nodded. “Any objections?” He looked around the table. “Do what you deem best.” He turned toward Sirk. “Any luck chasing down The Seven?”

  Sirk shook his head. “No -- none.”

  “Did you make any progress tracking down that locator code,” Nyk asked, “the one on the message to Marxo?”

  “We did -- it was a spoofed code.”

  “Spoofed?” Kronta asked.

  “Masked ... whatever you want to to call it. We've seen these before in telemessage traffic we've intercepted between Seven operatives. They must have penetrated one of our telecommunications facilities.”

  “Did it originate on Altia or did they spoof that, too?”

  “They can't spoof a prefix,” Kronta replied. “That is attached at the point of offworld relay. It's an Altian prefix -- the message originated on Altia.”

  “I've passed it on to our communications forensic team,” Sirk added.

  Kronta looked toward Nyk. “How went it on Lexal?”

  “Wygann is more than willing to cooperate with us...”

  “... to save his own skin,” Sirk interjected.

  Kronta rapped the table. “Go on, Nyk.”

  “Wygann thinks he can inoculate the entire population in a single day.”

  “Oh!” Senta exclaimed. “If he could do that -- it gives us two extra days!”

  “How can he administer 150 million doses in a single day?”

  “By pipelining. Here's an overview of his plan. He will begin claiming that Altia intends to invade from the sky.”

  “It's very likely the virus and Altian undercover agents are on Lexal already,” Kronta remarked.

  “Not Altian,” Sirk protested. “Agents of The Seven.”

  “Let's call them Seven agents of Altian nationality,” Nyk suggested.

  “And -- Altia has no means to attack Lexal from space,” Sirk continued. “Our defense fleet was grounded.”

  “Very true.”

  Sirk became more agitated. “What of reports that Lexal is converting some deep-space shuttles into warp-enabled bombing vessels? Altia is defenseless -- and, vulnerable. A few well-placed bombs could destroy the domes covering our cities...”

  “Mykko Wygann is not pursuing nor ever has pursued an offensive capability,” Andra protested. “Lexalese perimeter defense is strictly that -- defensive.”

  “The best defense is an offense,” Sirk replied.

  Kronta rapped on the table. “We have strayed from the agenda of this meeting. Please confine these sentiments to a more appropriate venue. Our goal is to neutralize first-strike use of this biological weapon. The fact the likely target is Lexal rather than Myataxya or T-Delta ... or, Floran itself is immaterial. Is that understood?” He looked around the table.

  “Understood, sir,” Sirk replied.

  “I apologize,” Andra added.

  “Go ahead, Nyk.”

  “Wygann is using these statements as the excuse to start staging mandatory air raid drills. It's one advantage he has -- his is a closed society, and his people march in lock-step with him. Once he has the vaccine, people entering the air raid shelters will be wrist-scanned. Lexalese residents will be sent to an area where they will be briefed and inoculated. He will conscript all available nurses and doctors for this task, and he'll use his own security forces to assist.”

  “What of offworld visitors?” Kronta asked.

  “They will be shunted to a separate holding area away from the vaccinations.”

  “They won't be protected?”

  “It's a price Wygann is willing to pay to have his own people vaccinated.”

  “Wygann looks after his own,” Sirk sneered.

  “That is enough, Captain,” said Kronta.

  “He will also quietly and discreetly attempt to ... encourage offworlders to leave Lexal.”

  “As harsh as it sounds,” Kronta replied, “it seems a reasonable compromise -- one I'd make. The last item I have is manufacturing and transportation logistics -- all I can say is, we're working on it. Let's get back to our jobs. We'll schedule another meeting when we have progress to discuss. Now -- adjourned.”

  * * *

  Nyk strolled the bluff overlooking the sea as the sky darkened into dusk. He felt a hand on his shoulder. “Howdy, stranger.”

  He took Suki's hand and led her to a rock. He sat and she sat on his lap. He kissed her lips, held her face against his chest and caressed her hair. “Nykkyo -- what is going on? Senta has been working in Sudal around the clock and Andra is moodier than I've ever seen her. Look... she comes out and sits on her rock.” Suki pointed down at Andra sitting with her chin in her palm. “And -- why are you here instead of on Earth?”

  “I can't talk about it.”

  “Not even to me? I'm your wife, Nykkyo. Our lives are one.”

  “One slip of the tongue could cost hundreds of millions of lives,” he replied. “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “Hundreds of millions?”

  “Have you seen the reports on Altia and The Seven?”

  “Yes... I don't quite understand the politics. I'm too new here.”

  He pondered. “I don't know where to start. You recall me describing the Ricin plot?”

  “Yes, though I didn't fully understand that, either.”

  “In simple terms, we have terrorists threatening to destroy a colony with a powerful biological weapon. Senta is collaborating in a crash program to develop a vaccine. Once the vaccine is developed we have to figure out how to get it there and administer it. We're racing the clock. She has about ten days to perfect it.”

  “Ten days? How do you and Andra fit in?”

  “The targeted colony is Lexal.”

  “Oh... That explains Andra's anxiety.” Nyk lifted the hem of her tunic, slipped his hand under it and began caressing her back. “Mmm ... that feels good...” His finger touched her bra-strap. He grasped it and wiggled it up and down. “You can unhook it... That's better ... mmm... What about you? What's your involvement?”

  “I'm acting as a liaison between parties. Right now I'm doing nothing but waiting ... and running errands for Senta and the others. How I wish this was over.”

  “Is it really your battle, Nykkyo?”

  “If we cave in to their demands, or if we permit them to destroy Lexal -- there's no telling where it would stop. They could hold the entire hegemony hostage. Before I got involved in this, Altia was just a name to me. There are more than two billion Altians, and most of them believe the other colonies owe them something.”

  “Oh, God Nykkyo -- it sounds just like Earth geopolitics.”

  “It's human nature I guess. At least you and I get some time together.” She snuggled against him. He yawned. “Shall we have some bed?”

  “Hook me back up.”

  She stood and took his hand as they walked back to the Residence. Nyk heard the sound of a groundcar comming to a halt outside the house. Senta climbed the stairs and headed for the storage room. She sat at the table and set down an injector and a pair of cartridges. “Nyk,” she said, “when you go into town -- pick up some more sleep aids. This is the last one.”

  Senta loaded a cartridge into the injector and lifted her hem. She held the gadget above her skin and hesitated, her hand trembling. “Sukiko -- would you mind?”

  “Your hands are shaking,” Suki said.

  “I get like this after a rough day. Please inject me.”

  “What is that?” Nyk asked and examined the injector. “Analgesic?”

  “I have a splitting headache,” Senta replied. “I was going to take analgesic and a sleep aid and lie down.”<
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  “I'll inject you.” He pulled off the needle guard, poked her thigh and pressed the trigger. “What have you had to eat today?”

  Senta planted her elbows on the table and held her head. “Don't mention food -- my head hurts so much my stomach's upset.”

  “Did you have dinner?” Suki asked. Senta shook her head. “Lunch? The reason your head aches is because you haven't eaten.”

  “Suki's right,” Nyk said. “You must eat, Senta.”

  “I don't have time.”

  “You don't want to repeat what happened during the Ricin crisis, do you?” he asked.

  “...no...” Senta said through her fingers.

  “Let's see what meals we have.” Nyk stepped into the storage room and returned with a stack of packaged meals. “Some soft flat bread ... powdered potatoes ... prepared green vegetables ... soy cutlets ... wheat and rice pilaf ... mixed fruit puree ... sweet bean cake.” He tore open packages, mounded the contents onto a tray and put it into the warmer.

  “There...” Nyk set the tray before Senta. “Start eating.”

  “The analgesic is helping my head... which helps my stomach.” She picked up a spoon.

  Suki looked at the meal with eyes wide. “Nykkyo -- you told me you didn't know how to cook.”

  “I don't. I didn't cook any of it -- I just mixed and matched.”

  “Still -- that's the nicest looking dinner I've seen since I left Earth.”

  “There's more in the packages -- help yourself. This is how we ate when I was a boy. My mother was head of new product development for the Food Service. She'd bring home failed meal packages and we'd have a bit of this and a bit of that...”

  “Senta -- what happened to you during the Ricin crisis?”

  “By the end, she had made herself so over-wrought she nearly had a breakdown. She developed problems with her intestines. Her bowels were so tied into knots she couldn't even...”

  “Nyk!” Senta interrupted. “Must we talk about my insides?”

  “It was a long time before you recovered,” Nyk replied.

  “Senta,” Suki asked, “how did you discover the Ricin genome?”

  “It happened right after we were married,” Nyk said. “We were living in married student housing at the University of Floran City. Do you remember that one-room apartment? We had a thin mattress we'd roll up and stuff into a closet.”

  “Mmm...” Senta nodded and gazed at the ceiling. She set down her spoon. “Yes -- I had completed my undergraduate work at the University of Sudal and went to Floran City to study under Dr Hanri. I needed a thesis topic. Hanri tried to convince me to study his native plants, but since my enrollment was sponsored by the Food Service, I felt I should work with food crops. I had studied lentils as an undergraduate and was familiar with them.

  “I picked a strain being bred in the pilot domes. Right away I noticed something strange -- something I hadn't seen in Sudal. Not only did I find an alien gene...”

  “...from the castor bean,” Nyk interrupted.

  “I also found the sequence counter like the one we discovered in the virus. Of course, nothing like that appears in nature. My conclusion was someone had been tampering with the lentil genome. Hanri was so conservative, so doctrinaire -- he kept telling me it wasn't possible -- but, I couldn't let it go.”

  “Among her other traits,” Nyk remarked, “Senta is tenacious.”

  “Hanri had developed the first resequencer and we had a prototype in the lab. I helped him program it. One night I let myself into the lab and began reprogramming it with the lentil genome. After a few nights I had proved my finding -- and, I was convinced of a conspiracy.

  “I showed Hanri what I had done and he scolded me for using the resequencer without authorization. He said my programming had disrupted his work, and he told me if I used it again, I'd be disciplined. He refused to look at my work -- worthless, he called it. But, I knew I was right.”

  “Why was Hanri so skeptical of your results?” Nyk asked.

  “It was academic hubris,” Senta replied. “Sometimes a scientist -- especially one of high standing -- develops such an investment in the status quo... He can't accept his students discovering something novel.”

  Suki nodded. “I saw it all the time in my career.”

  “Your career?” Senta asked.

  “Yes -- I was an assistant professor at Pace University in New York before coming here.”

  “A professor?”

  “You're both Doctor Kyhana,” Nyk replied. “Suki has a doctorate in ancient Earth history, from a university that's as prestigious there as FCU is here.”

  “And, as full of academic hubris,” Suki added. “If some student discovers something that pushes back a timeline by a thousand years, the established scientists will reject it.”

  “Students are guilty until proven innocent...” said Senta.

  “...wrong until proven right...” Suki added.

  “...stupid until proven smart.” Senta looked up at Suki, smiled and nodded. “Sometime after this settles down, you and I should sit and discuss Earth and Floran higher education.”

  “From what I see at Sudal -- they're about the same.” Senta patted the back of Suki's hand. “What happened next?”

  “What happened next wouldn't have without Nykkyo. Few appreciate his role in solving the Ricin plot.”

  “Nykkyo?” Suki looked at him. “I didn't know you were involved.”

  “My involvement extended only to my acquaintence with Dyomann Hasse. He was the assistant production manager for the agridomes and took over after my dad died. I asked him to arrange a meeting with the head of plant breeding.”

  “He was skeptical at first, too,” Senta continued. “After a day of sequencing diagrams and comparing live genomes to models, he became convinced the lentils were genetically tainted. He ordered a recall of the entire crop. Of course, something like that can't be kept from the public. Once word leaked out, there was a panic.

  “I published a paper on what I found. Hanri was furious -- because I had stolen his recognition. Now I was the celebrity at FCU, and he was derided as some reactionary naysayer. He tried to block my degree, but the university had no choice but to grant it to me.

  “Eventually Hanri and I reconciled and we worked together on reports for the Food Service and the High Legislature. Internal Affairs rounded up a half dozen culprits. I was called as an expert witness at the trial. They were convicted, though I have my doubts about their guilt.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They were hanged.”

  “Hanged?”

  “Yes,” Nyk replied. “This sort of terrorist conspiracy is the only capital crime on our books. They were hanged in the Central Square -- the first executions in more than twenty generations. I remember the blood circus -- I could hear the crowds cheering as each one was dropped. Senta was awarded the Chancellor's Medallion.”

  “Where is it? May I see it?”

  “It's at the apartment in Floran City,” Senta replied. “I hate looking at it. It reminds me of those condemned men and women.”

  “Tell Suki about your boon.”

  “Yes -- the Food Service asked me what procedures could be put into place to prevent such an incident from happening again. I sketched out a design for the sequencing labs. They also granted me a boon.”

  “What did you request?” Suki asked.

  “I told them I wouldn't have confidence in the sequencing labs unless I ran them.”

  “So,” Nyk added, “they created a new division inside the Food Service and named Senta as its director. It's how she got to where she is today.”

  Senta set down her spoon and looked at the empty tray. She pressed her hand against her stomach. “I hadn't realized how hungry I was. I feel much better now.”

  “Maybe you won't need the sedative.”

  “I'll use it anyway.” She picked up the cartridge and injector and headed toward the guest room. “See you in the morning.”

&
nbsp; “Let's go check on Andra,” Suki suggested.

  Nyk walked with her out onto the bluff and helped her down the rocks to where Andra sat staring at the sea.

  “Are you worried about Lexal?” Nyk asked.

  “Of course I am.”

  “Andra,” Suki said, “Nykkyo and I are going to bed. Why don't you join us?”

  * * *

  Nyk brewed some green tea and poured cups for Suki and Andra. He sat at the table and opened a breakfast cake. Senta emerged from the guest room and shook out her hair. She stepped to the storage room, returned with an injector cartridge, lifted the hem of her tunic and drove the needle into her thigh.

  Nyk regarded her. “You're using stimulants in the morning as well as sedatives at night?”

  “I have to keep going somehow. We're already two days behind schedule.”

  “You're going to be so strung out by the end of this,” Andra said.

  “I don't have a choice.”

  “How's it going?” Nyk asked.

  “It's going slowly -- too slowly. It's not that we're not making progress. We are -- we have the first phase nearly licked. Whoever devised this genome didn't make it easy for us. It's a work of genius -- twisted but genius nonetheless.”

  “Do your reprogrammed sequencers help?”

  “It would be impossible without them.” She wolfed down a breakfast cake and gulped a cup of tea. “Back to the labs...”

  Nyk watched Senta head down the stairs. “I have a renewed admiration for that woman,” he said.

  “She has a renewed admiration for you,” Andra replied.

  Nyk dropped his breakfast utensils into the waste reprocessor. He paced around the Residence's middle level. “Andra -- will you need your groundcar today?”

  “Since she's been working on the virus, Senta has had no time for our project,” she replied. “I have no reason to go to the lab, so you might as well use it. Where are you going?”

  “I'm tired of waiting around while Senta and Helsyn work on the vaccine. Senta's right. We won't have it in time at this rate. I'm going to the sequencing lab and see if I can help.”