Yet he also felt a heaviness in his chest. Perhaps this had been a crazy idea after all. Zeriphi hadn’t objected when he’d informed her of his decision, but she hadn’t exactly welcomed him either. She’d told him the decision was his and that he had the right to visit if he so desired, but she’d never said she was looking forward to it.
Celestia, however, had seemed excited about the prospect of meeting him face-to-face. Yet she was barely more than two years old. How much interacting could they do? Was she in some sort of school? And she had a baby brother now too, fathered by an Escala named Paddon, whom Doug had met on Earth—a nice guy.
Was Paddon Zeriphi’s companion now? Doug didn’t think so, but he didn’t really understand a lot about the Escala way of life. Perhaps Paddon had just assisted with mating to help build up the colony. Well, Doug would have plenty of time to learn the truth.
He saw that Quark had sped up. Picking up his pace until he was fairly leaping into the air, Doug covered two meters with each stride. In only a few minutes, they reached the Escala, and Quark engaged in a series of hugs, while Doug stood respectfully to the side.
Then one of the Escala stepped over to him and grabbed him in a hug as well—the one with the limp. Paddon. Doug recalled again how Paddon had been shot by the Elite Ops while trying to bring down the cave on top of them back on Earth.
“I remember you, Doug,” Paddon said as he released Doug.
The Escala greeting. Doug had thought it meant only goodbye, but apparently it meant hello as well.
“I remember you, Paddon,” Doug replied.
“Zeriphi had to stay behind with little Zander, but she’s looking forward to seeing you. And Celestia made me promise to bring you back as quickly as I could. She’s a tenacious one. You may regret this trip.”
Paddon smiled to show he was kidding, at least in part.
Another Escala stepped in front of Paddon and hugged Doug. Quekri.
“Doug,” she said. “I remember you.”
“I remember you, Quekri,” Doug replied.
“Let’s get you back to the settlement so you can meet your daughter.”
They turned away from the miners and began the walk back to the colony, chatting about how exciting this all was. Three of the Escala—Krall, Oggie and Poon—surrounded Doug and peppered him with questions about Earth. They were just as big as the adults, but Doug could tell they were teenagers. He vaguely recalled them. The last Escala was a woman named Keelar. He remembered her as one of the doctors who had cared for Zeriphi.
She interrupted the teens and asked Doug how he was feeling.
“Fine.”
“Any nausea?”
“Not so far.”
“Good. We’ll give you a full checkup when we get to the colony—make sure you don’t fall victim to the illnesses affecting the miners.”
“I didn’t know so many miners had died.”
“Four in the last three weeks,” Keelar said. “Nine in the last two months. We think it’s a virus, though we haven’t been able to verify that yet.”
“The Susquehanna Virus?”
“Probably not. We’re not sure what it is. Some virus that was brought to Mars and mutated under the radiation, perhaps. I think they’re glad to be getting off this rock. And I fear for their replacements. They may do even worse.”
“Is there something wrong with Mars?”
“No. But they may not have properly sterilized their quarters before leaving, so the incoming miners may contract the disease as well. Plus, I suspect at least one of the outgoing miners is ill and may transmit the disease to his fellow travelers on the way back to Earth. At least they’ll have a long quarantine aboard ship.”
Doug said, “But everyone was tested for viruses before we left Earth.”
“Yes, but viruses are tricky devils. Some strains are tiny and almost impossible to spot. They can present no symptoms on Earth, but up here with the increased radiation, who knows?”
“Are you and the Escala at risk?”
“I don’t believe so. But you may be in danger.”
Danger. When hadn’t he been in danger? Earth wasn’t exactly safe anymore. Although the media claimed there were fewer wars on Earth than there’d been in the past, the civil unrest, the dissatisfaction with government, not just in the United States but all over, had increased to a point where many people hesitated to go out. If he couldn’t be with Devereaux, he’d take Mars any day.
Chapter 3
Lendra Riley stood beside Dr. Taditha Poole waiting for President Angelica Hope to appear by holo-projection. Hannah Swenson sat at the board—the electronics communication hub where Jay-Edgar had ruled for so many years under Elias Leach, until the disaster on the Moon when Eli created the cadet program to mount an attack on Earth for the purpose of uniting its warring nations.
She still wasn’t used to having Hannah here. Hannah ought to be doing bodyguard work according to Dr. Poole’s psych profile, but Lendra had no one currently requiring bodyguard services. Plus, Jay-Edgar was under house arrest for helping Eli evade justice. Lendra probably could have gotten Jay-Edgar out, but she no longer trusted him. So she was stuck with Hannah, who was a pleasant enough young woman, though decidedly loyal to Jeremiah. Hell, they were all more loyal to Jeremiah than to her. That’s okay—as long as they do their jobs.
She wondered why the President wanted to speak with them, and why she had insisted that Dr. Poole be present. She glanced at Taditha.
“Don’t look at me,” Dr. Poole said. “I’m as much in the dark as you are.”
“Well, whatever it is, it won’t be good.” Lendra fingered the glass bulb necklace that used to contain neo-dopamine. How pleasant it would be to escape for a moment into the mellow clarity of the drug, to see the world open up before her, filled with possibility. She hoped she’d stop craving it one day.
“Get a grip,” Dr. Poole said.
“What are you talking about?”
“You whimpered just now.”
“I did not.”
“Very quietly.”
Lendra glanced at Hannah.
“I heard it too,” Hannah said. “Here’s the President.”
A projection of President Angelica Hope suddenly appeared on the far wall. The technology had been updated in the past two months, making her look like she was actually in the room with them. Lendra almost believed she could reach out and touch the woman.
The last election had clearly taken its toll on the President. She sat behind her desk, her hair thinner and grayer than Lendra remembered, her face more lined. Perhaps, now that she was done running for public office, she had stopped paying so much attention to her appearance.
Lendra was surprised that she was alone, or at least seemed to be alone. She’d expected General Horowitz or Dr. Jaidev to be with her. Of course, any number of advisors could be in the room with her and outside the camera pick-up, or monitoring the conversation from the newly rebuilt White House’s tech center.
“Good evening, Ms. Riley, Dr. Poole,” President Hope said. “What can you tell me about these Sally cells? Are they finally gone?”
“We think so,” said Lendra. “We’ve gone through all the data points, traced every lead, and found nothing in the past two months, so we believe the threat has been completely eliminated.”
“And the virus itself?” President Hope said.
Lendra turned to Taditha.
“That’s less certain,” Dr. Poole replied. “I’ve been sending my reports to Dr. Jaidev.”
“Yes, she’s briefed me. But I wanted to speak with you directly, get your unfiltered analysis.”
Dr. Poole said nothing for a moment.
“I know you and she don’t get along,” President Hope said. “And she has her own agenda. But I want the full truth.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said
Dr. Poole. “Very well. The virus is here to stay. It’s exceptionally hardy. Some strains can live on their own for years without a human host. Extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme drought—none of those conditions seem to kill certain variants.”
“I thought the newest strains were water soluble and could be diluted to the point they were no longer fatal.”
“That’s true, Madam President. But several of the twenty-three strains we’ve identified are what we call sleepers. They’re almost immortal. They can survive outside the body for years and can hide inside the body for weeks or months before activating. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people are walking around with the virus, completely unaware of it. Eventually, the disease will spread throughout the world.
“Of course, it will likely mutate as it does so. It may become less virulent. We don’t know. But in my opinion, there is no escape.”
“So the only way to survive long-term is to develop an immunity, like Jeremiah.”
“And the Escala,” Dr. Poole added. “Yes.”
“That’s what I feared. Dr. Jaidev concurs with that assessment.”
“What about Professor Devereaux?” Lendra asked. “Hasn’t he verified their opinions?”
“He has,” President Hope replied, “but since he is now encased in a robotic shell, some people disbelieve him or assert that he can no longer be trusted. Some people believe he has an agenda to turn us all into Escala.”
“What do you believe?”
“I don’t know what to believe just yet,” President Hope said, “but I wanted your opinion on the matter. At any rate, that’s not the only reason I called. Have you heard about this new computer virus that has been popping up? The so-called God Virus?”
“Yes,” Lendra replied.
“No,” said Dr. Poole. “What is it?”
President Hope nodded to Lendra, who said, “It’s a virus that’s been popping up on various secure networks. It doesn’t seem to be harmful, but it has somehow escaped detection and infiltrated itself past numerous anti-virus programs.”
“Why is it called the God Virus?” Dr. Poole asked.
“Because of the messages it leaves. ‘Love one another as I love you.’ ‘Stop making war.’ Or ‘I am coming to lift you up.’ All of them are signed by God.”
“That can’t be all this God wants. Do we know his true agenda?”
President Hope said, “I’m afraid not.”
“It has to be a group of hackers,” said Lendra. “There have been too many messages into too many servers for it to be one person.”
“Good,” President Hope said. “That’s a good start. I want you to look into it for me, Ms. Riley. I know you’re a gifted hacker. And don’t you have some sort of tech genius working there too? My understanding is that the two of you hacked into the Las-cannons a few years ago, which is how the cadets were able to use them to attack Earth.”
Lendra felt the blood rushing to her face. She said, “I’m sorry about that, Madam President.”
“I’m not interested in apologies,” President Hope said. “I want results.”
“Yes, ma’am. Jay-Edgar used to work for us. But he aided Eli in making his escape and is currently under house arrest.”
“That’s fine,” President Hope said. “I’m not suggesting you release him. I’m thinking he might be able to help you find this group of God hackers before they do real damage. I also need you to find out what their ultimate agenda is.”
“But what about the Susquehanna Virus? That isn’t going away.”
President Hope nodded. “Dr. Poole will be leading that investigation. Now that Devereaux has found ways to make some of the strains less lethal, we’ve got a number of teams working on that aspect of it. So we just need to make certain no one else is producing new lethal varieties. This is a job best suited for Dr. Poole’s talents.”
Lendra suddenly realized why the President had wanted Dr. Poole here. President Hope must have seen the recognition in her face, for she said, “That’s right. I want both of you running CINTEP. You demonstrated last year that you make a good team, and I’m concerned that one person by herself might go rogue the way Elias did. We can’t afford that. So you will share everything—passwords, access codes, operational authority. I want complete cooperation. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lendra said.
“Of course,” Dr. Poole added.
“But,” said Lendra, “you mentioned operational authority. Does that mean . . .”
“No,” President Hope said. “I’m not reopening the Operations section. Not yet. But I need you to continue to prepare for such an eventuality. In the meantime, continue with Analytical.” She turned slightly, addressing only Lendra: “I know from your psych profile that you wanted to run CINTEP, but I think it’s safer all around having you share power. And you clearly respect Dr. Poole. I’m sure you two can work together.”
“Of course we can,” Lendra replied.
“Congratulations, Dr. Poole. Make me proud.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Dr. Poole said.
The President signed off, the holo-projection falling away, the wall becoming just a wall. Hannah seemed to be suppressing a smile, but she kept her mouth clamped shut and her eyes on her control board.
What did it all mean? Was the President losing faith in Lendra’s ability to get the job done?
“Don’t read too much into this,” Dr. Poole said. “I think it’s nothing more than she indicated. Eli subverted CINTEP for his own purposes and disaster ensued. She just wants to make sure nothing like that happens again. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t trust you.”
“Did you know about this?” Lendra asked.
Dr. Poole shook her head. “I was as surprised as you.”
Lendra nodded. For now, she would accept that as truth. Perhaps Taditha was right and this was all just a protective measure. And if Lendra had to share the job, she was happier to share with Taditha than anyone else except Jeremiah. Besides, he had walked away, intent on fighting the system from outside rather than reforming it from within. He had promised he wouldn’t come after her or CINTEP if she promised not to interfere with his activities and so far she hadn’t.
She hadn’t even put him under surveillance. And she’d lent him Zora and Curtik for his most recent mission. Not that she could have kept them from following him anyway if he’d asked them.
But she wondered what they were up to now. Could they be the hackers behind this God Virus? No, they didn’t have the expertise.
“Shall we get started?” Dr. Poole said. “I’ve already caught you up on what I know. So perhaps we should begin with you telling me everything you know about this God Virus.”
“In a minute,” said Lendra. “I want Jay-Edgar here for this too. Hannah, would you get him, please?”
As Hannah left the office, Lendra accessed all the security codes and passwords in her interface and copied them to Dr. Poole’s interface.
“I hope you’re okay with this,” Dr. Poole said.
“Don’t worry. I can play nice.”
She thought of Sophie. Her daughter was finally healthy, after fighting off the Susquehanna Virus last year with the help of Jeremiah’s blood. Sophie and Jack Marschenko Poole—Taditha’s son—were quite the pair, running amok in the nursery, keeping the nanny in a constant state of anxiety. Maybe this shared power arrangement would be for the best. Perhaps it would give her more time to spend with Sophie.
Still, she found her fingers drifting to her glass bulb necklace.
Chapter 4
Aspen sat in her quarters waiting for Addam to return. He had promised her a surprise and although she wasn’t sure she wanted to be surprised, there was little to keep her occupied since the ship ran itself. Occasionally she and the other cadets would assist the robots with some sort of maintenance but most days, she and her fellow ca
dets worked on medical problems or robotics for Xinliu and Mei-Xing.
They split their time between assisting Earth in its efforts to find a cure for the Susquehanna Virus and fine-tuning the repairs to the three robots Benn had injured when he fired his Las-pistol at them last year. WT-938, WT-959 and WT-972 no longer functioned quite as well as their fellow Wong-Tech robots. Their impulse controls had been damaged, their plasticized skin contained small wrinkles in the areas that had been shot, and their analytical processors from time to time would erupt with nonsense.
Aspen missed Zora. She knew she should move on, but she still missed her friend.
Because the robots had banned them from engaging in external communications, she hadn’t spoken to anyone off-ship in over eight months, basically since they’d left Mars and the Escala behind. All she’d done was send messages that Zora had not returned. Perhaps the robots had lied to her and not sent them, or perhaps Zora had replied but the robots hadn’t given her the messages. The most likely scenario, however, was that Aspen reminded Zora of Rendela, who had sacrificed herself so Zora would live. Rendela had always been so much better than the rest of them, so selfless. How she had wound up in the cadet program was a mystery.
Why was she thinking about Zora and Rendela?
She thought instead about the Chinese Escala—or Chescala, as Shiloh had named them. They were finally healed, or at least as healed as they could be. When they left Mars all those months ago, the Chescala had been homicidal, victims of a miscalculation by one of the medical robots, who was attempting to wipe their memories.
The robots, possessing free will, had told the Chescala they would refuse all orders to put themselves in danger, making the Chescala decide to shut the robots down, essentially killing them. The robots rebelled: a bloodless coup for the most part; the robots had no intention of harming the Chescala. They simply wanted to live free, instead of as slaves.
Now the robots ran the ship or the ship ran the ship, and whatever destination they’d decided upon, or whatever destination the ship had chosen, they hadn’t shared that information with Aspen, her fellow cadets or the Chescala. They might be drifting in circles, headed to a planet or moon, or even on a course out of the solar system. There was no way to know.
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