Shattered Minds (A StarSeeker Novel Book 1)

by David Byrd

  “There are reports of trouble on Nix Station. Dead bodies, fire in the lab and my son’s ship has disappeared. If I find out you had anything to do with this Burke, you’ll wish you never asked me for help to baby sit this scientist of yours.” Henry Nash said cutting the connection.

  The nerve of that man Burke thought. But events were getting out of hand and he needed to make sure they didn’t blow up…or at least blow up in his direction. Attaching an encryption device to his vid console he initiated a call to see just what trouble he needed to mitigate.

  “Hold him down a minute Jevin while I give him a sedative,” Julia said grabbing an auto-injector and dialing in the meds and dosage, she administered the liquid and Nash calmed into a fitful sleep.

  “What’s wrong with him Doc?” Jevin asked. “He’s been moody and having headaches. Today he thought there was a sniper in the port bay with us.”

  “What? Asked Julia alarmed. “He thought someone was in the bay with you?”

  “He had a full on combat moment. It didn’t last long but I know Nash and he was sure someone else was in the room.”

  Julia’s face had gone ashen. Headaches, fatigue, nightmares and now delusions were all symptoms of the parasite virus. It hit her full force seeing the blood on Nash’s leg. But how could he have been in contact…there was only one on the station. Using a portable scanner she ran a diagnostic on the oozing puncture wound in his leg. It was rudimentary but it showed a foreign substance and the depth and size of the wound matched data from RanClor.

  “My god Jevin…He’s infected!” Julia said. “We have to search his quarters. The parasite drops off when it’s fed on blood and it could infect the rest of us.”

  “I don’t think so Doc,” Zara said over the DT. They had all left the channel open since Julia called for help. Listening to the conversation, Zara went back into Nash’s room for another look. “There is a spot on the floor by his bed that looks like someone stepped on a bug. I’m betting this was the parasite and I think I know how it got here. I’ll be down in a minute…just need to get something out of my quarters.”

  Five minutes later Zara arrived carrying a very small square box of translucent material open on one end.

  “Where did you get that?” Julia asked. “That’s a specimen transport cube. I have several with me in my equipment cases but that one has been opened.”

  “Yep…and someone opened it in Nash’s quarters and let one of those little buggers out,” Zara said. “It had to be sometime when we were all off the ship. That’s not all.” Pulling out a similar box from a front pocket was an intact cube of the same size. “This one I found in the storeroom on Nix Station. I just put it in a pocket and forgot about it in all the excitement.”

  Julia gingerly took the offered cube from Zara and placed it on one of her devices. A beam of light stabbed down and made the box transparent. Inside was one of the parasites.

  “I have to get to a research facility,” Julia said. With the virus in his blood and a specimen I may be able to help Nash and the others already infected but I can’t do that here.”

  “We can’t go back to Nix Station. By now whoever shot us is probably still watching and we don’t know how many other spies were on board.” Jevin said. “Earth is out too…we wouldn’t want to take an infectious parasite back there even for study.”

  “That leaves us only one choice,” Zara said. “We need to slip into RanClor IV. They are already infected.”

  “Makes sense…and I will have more samples to work with in a lab environment,” Julia said. We also have the problem of finding and stopping whoever is releasing these bugs.”

  “Whoever? You mean you think all of this was intentional?” Jevin asked.

  Julia looked at her new shipmates and gave voice to her suspicions. I believe this animal and the virus were both bio engineered. For what purpose I don’t know but the evidence is mounting.”

  “Damn. Better strap on another gun when we get there Zara. If Julia is right then it’s a large operation.” Jevin said.

  The three made further plans and Julia placed Nash in a medically induced coma to stabilize him. Zara and Jevin plotted course and began executing the jumps to take the StarSeeker to the far side of RanClor opposite any normal inbound and outbound traffic patterns. They would stay at full stealth mode and contact the governor to arrange for a working location.

  Six hours later they arrived in the Nix System on the far side of the planet and made their approach to within transmission range of the surface. Zara contacted the Governor’s office directly using a transmission code Julia had been given before leaving for Nix. They found however that the Governor himself had succumbed to the virus and the acting Governor…a Mr. Hako was now in charge. Fortunately he was a former service member and served in the expansion wars. He knew Nash by reputation from combat veterans and not from the official line the Government would have everyone believe. He arranged landing at a private landing site and would have transportation waiting to take them directly to the Research Center where Dr. Silvan had previously started research.

  “Zara, you should go with Julia and Nash,” Jevin said. “I’m going to stay with the ship and work on the outer plating as well as keeping any other intruders out.”

  They moved Nash to a gurney and wheeled him out of the ship into the waiting transport. Zara, Nash and Julia piled into the transport that held two armed me in riot gear. Zara warily paused for just a moment looking quickly over the two men with a practiced eye gauging any danger that existed. The men were obviously expecting something like that and said something briefly to Zara and then turned to the cockpit and took off. The flitter skimmed above the surface of the roadway at a fast clip heading for the Research Center.

  “Zara, what did those men say to you when we got onboard?” Julia asked.

  “They gave me the recognition call sign of our company during the war,” she said smiling. “We at least have some friends here to watch our backs in case things get rough.”

  The trip to the center took a little over 10 minutes and they proceeded directly inside the quarantine entrance. The two men unloaded Nash on the gurney and the group preceded directly into a restricted section of the center reserved for infectious diseases.

  The men stopped at the inner doors of the area and informed them that they would be standing guard should they be needed.

  “OK Doc,” Zara said. “This is your show now. What’s our next step?”

  “First a comprehensive med scan using the facility’s equipment and then I’m going to need an assistant.” Julia said. “I can’t run everything alone and I don’t trust anyone else to help me.”

  Zara looked pleased at the trust Julia was giving her. “I’m your girl ma’am. I have combat med training and so I can help you with the basics.”

  “I’m really happy to hear that,” Julia replied. “So first, if you can scout out all the supplies, medicines and diagnostics equipment, I’ll get Nash scanned and then settled in that trauma bay over there. I need a blood sample from Nash when you are done.”

  “Roger that Doc,” Zara said immediately moving to take stock of the facility.

  Chapter 16

  Jevin spent the next 12 hours securing the StarSeeker against any more uninvited visitors and then went about pulling spare hull plating and components from the spare inventory onboard. They had a limited amount to work with outside a major spaceport but he was confident that he could repair the hull and stealth systems to be undetectable again in case they needed to hide. It also kept him from thinking about Nash’s condition. He had regular updates from Zara reporting no change in Nash’s condition but that they were safe and working the problem. Once the immediate repairs were made he turned his attention to finding the distribution method for the parasite. Since it was not native to RanClor IV, it had have been transported in. That meant either hidden in plain sight in normal shipments, arriving by individual courier or in the worst case by sneaking to the planet. The latter
was not something he would be able to solve so he concentrated on the first two. Comparing the numbers of infected and the rate of infection from the records the acting Governor gave him access too…it seemed unlikely that a courier could have made enough trips off planet to resupply without getting caught in normal immigration scanning. Blowing out a deep breath he viewed the listings of arrivals to the planet for the last several months. The number was large but he set about creating a program to parse through the data and compare dates, times and infection reports to narrow the possibilities.

  “Well that is going to take some time,” he said aloud.

  RanClor IV Research Center

  “I’ve brought him out of the coma to get the best scans possible,” Julia said. “He’s still sedated but that’s just to keep him still for the moment.”

  Julia activated the equipment which sent a scanning beam over his entire body with the results displaying in 3D hanging in the air above the scanning bed and also submitting columns of data to vid consoles along the wall.

  Julia walked to the dimensional construct in the air that was complete with layers she could peel off virtually. Like a 3D living autopsy, Nash’s image was standing above the bed. Julia touched a section of the display and his skin dissolved to reveal all the musculature below.

  “Eww, Doc,” Zara said. “I’m really partial to the skin display myself.”

  Julia peeled layers from muscle, bone, organs and compared the readouts on the screens.

  “There is swelling in the iris of his right eye…some kind of foreign bacteria that the computer could not analyze,” Julia said. There is also evidence of severe anemia and possibly the cause of the delusions…his brain and dura…the membrane around the brain is…swollen.”

  Julia instructed the bed to deliver a series of antibiotics and steroids which auto-injected into Nash to treat both conditions. She waved the image in the air over to the consoles to be able to dissect further. Zara had taken a blood sample from Nash before the scan and placed it in the bio analyzer. The data was also displaying in another section of the console.

  “Julia we’ve been at it for over 12 hours now and none of us slept the night before,” Zara said. “You need to be at your best to work this problem so go get a few hours rest and I’ll keep watch.”

  “No I couldn’t possibly stop now. This data combined with a scan of the live parasite is churning out a lot to go over.” Julia replied.

  “But you won’t find an answer in the next few hours and if you make a mistake because you are dead on your feet, can you really live with that?” Zara asked.

  Julia looked at her friend and thought what a wise sensible person she was. Something she didn’t show to anyone except her crewmates and now me. “You’re right of course. But you kick my ass out of bed in four hours…got it.”

  “Copy that, four hours to the second Doc.” Julia said with her typical smirk.

  Four hours later true to her word, Zara traded with Julia. After checking on Nash she settled down to go over the DNA profiles of the virus and bacteria. Two things jumped out at her during this work. First, there were two kinds of bacteria. One that was foreign, and one that was well known to her…also frequently used in her own research. A feeling of dread settled over her as she started forming ideas in the back of her mind. Without jumping to conclusions, she forced herself to follow a strict clinical path examining each piece of the puzzle. Over the next four hours she came to the same conclusions multiple times.

  For the moment Julia shoved the ramifications of her discoveries to the back of her mind. The first priority was Nash and then the rest of the infected on RanClor IV. Checking Nash’s condition she could see he his eyes moving rapidly behind closed eyelids indicating that he was in a deep dream. She lifted the left eyelid and tested pupillary response and then went to the right but was shocked at seeing his right eye was not brown but…turning…green!

  Has to be the foreign bacteria she thought. Checking another vital monitor she noted his anemia was worsening. Zara’s inventory had not found any blood stores in the center so she pulled out a venous kit and set about transfusing a pint of blood to Nash. She was a universal donor and they really had no time to request from a central blood bank.

  Zara found Julia sitting in the admin office with her head in her hands.

  “Julia what’s wrong? Is it Nash…is he…?”

  “No…no he’s stable at least for now,” Julia said looking up. Her eyes puffy and swollen and her demeanor seemingly far away. Zara had seen this before…like battle fatigue she sat down and took Julia’s hands and looked her directly in the eye.

  “Julia, whatever it is you can make it through. You didn’t make it through medical school and to the highest levels of Paxton to stop now right?” Zara asked.

  Julia came out of her depression a bit at Zara’s urging. “I…I have to tell you and Jevin what I found out. I’m not sure you are going to want me for a shipmate after that.”

  Zara attached a small encryption device Jevin created to the vid terminal and then initiated contact with the ship. Jevin’s face appeared and he seemed as worried and haggard as the rest of them but anxious to hear what had been going on.

  “Jev…Julia has something important to tell us and she’s concerned that it could cause us to change our minds about her. But you know that comrades in arms are there for each other,” Zara said nodding to Julia.

  Julia composed herself and as clinically as possible she outlined what she found.

  “Well we know that the parasite has at least in part an alien component. We also know with reasonable certainty that it was brought here deliberately. During the scans and tests on Nash I found symptoms of an Earth virus as well as alien bacteria. So I ran DNA tests last night on both those items and on the parasite itself. The main cause of the infection is an Arbovirus. On Earth the most common Arbovirus carrier is the mosquito. The Arbovirus is causing a form of Encephalitis or swelling of the brain and dura which is causing a lot of problems especially delusions. But there is another infection that is not responding to treatment from the foreign bacteria causing anemia and symptoms in other parts of the body which I believe to be alien.

  “Well that’s fantastic Julia,” Jevin said. “I mean you can treat it now right?”

  “Well yes and no…I have been treating the symptoms using conventional therapies but the alien bacteria brings in another factor and normal treatment is not working,” she said. But that’s not the big problem here. You see another harmless bacterium I found in Nash’s system was familiar. So when I ran the DNA tests on the parasite I was sure that it was an engineered organism. My best guess is a form of mosquito gene spliced into an alien slug or something. The result is this creature that needs to feed on blood like a mosquito also depositing the virus and traces of alien bacterium that we have no natural defense for.”

  Seeing that neither Jevin nor Zara still had any idea why she was feeling so depressed over the findings she continued to make it clear.

  “So the reason I know it was bio engineered is because…because the harmless bacteria strain is one that I designed in my research on Earth to use for Restriction Enzymes in Gene Splicing. It’s a new strain I just developed six months ago.” Julia said quietly. “You have to believe me…neither me nor my staff would ever be involved in something like this.”

  “Julia we believe you,” Zara said. “You should never doubt us. We trust you and Nash trusted you. So the question is who stole the data and why?”

  “I have to think Paxton is somehow involved. Theoretical research of this nature is worth billions of credits and Paxton security is among the best. So I don’t think a hacker, even as talented as you Jev…no offense, could have lifted all the research.”

  Jevin’s face was impassive on the screen. Normally cheerful and full of spirit he was unusually quiet.

  “Spit it out Red,” Zara said.

  “I’ve been tracing arrival patterns to RanClor IV and after narrowing down the d
ata, I applied a program to correlate transmissions between the ships entering and leaving RanClor IV. There is one that has made regular trips for the last two months and it has also communicated each time with…Paxton Bio…”

  “Bastards…that’s it then,” Zara spat. “So what now?”

  “I’m going to lockdown the ship and come to you. I just need to contact Hako for transport and I’ll be bringing your shiny purse along Zara sweetie.” Jevin said with a wink signing off.

  “Purse?” Julia asked looking quizzically at Zara.

  Zara laughed and said “Oh yes…shiny is the word Doc. I haven’t carried a purse in my life. Jev is telling us he’s bringing in the big guns. He obviously believes we could be in some trouble here and it will be good to have his big body protecting us.”

  Chapter 17

  Explosions…cries for help…orders and counter orders. All of this was playing out for Nash when he went to sleep after leaving Jevin in the port bay. This time though he seemed locked into a dream. It was real…everything he was feeling seemed as real as the day it happened during the war. The first assault wave was decimated and his unit was ordered in. Like a repeating loop, he kept experiencing the same thing over and over from start to finish desperate to escape the next loop but unable to break free. He felt dimly aware of pain in his right eye. It seemed blurry but he had not taken a hit. He also at times felt vertigo and as though he was moving. He thought he saw Julia calling him from a distance but he couldn’t hear her…She was saying something but no sound was coming out. He felt himself falling and then blackness. With no idea how long it had been he woke up again in the dream but he was on a triage table being treated for something. The faces of the med techs dissolved in and out to Zara and Julia and back to the techs where he faded out again.