Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (38 page)

Onlookers a supposed safe distance away saw their fellows collapse
and gaped. Then one murmured about an illness. When a woman collapsed they
broke, running for their lives.

...*...*...*...*...

Near sunset Helen got the call about something going wrong in the
warehouse district in Rubicon town and swore. She was tired, she'd been on her
feet since she'd come in early that morning and didn't need the complication.
“What is it?” she demanded. The urgency of the call had made her take it at the
reception desk in the front of the hospital in front of everyone. The crowd of
onlookers looked at her as her sharp tone registered. Doctor Tormens wasn't
known for playing pranks.

“Plague,” Doctor Tormens, said, coughing. “It's spreading like
wildfire. I'm nowhere near what happened but it's spreading fast. Airborne
definitely.”

“Are you infected?” Helen demanded, suddenly concerned, annoyance
instantly forgotten. She looked around and turned in place and snapping her
fingers to get the attention of others around her. They stopped to look at her.

“Yes. Everyone in town is. Most are dead,” the Veraxin said,
coughing a racking cough again. He wheezed for a long moment before continuing.
“It started just outside the warehouse where the pods where, I think that they
have something to do with it,” he said and then she heard a bang and then
sounds of something hitting the ground.

“Tormens? Tormens? Doctor Tormens? Anyone there?” she demanded.
She rubbed her brow and turned to the expectantly waiting staff and patients
around her. Slowly she hung the phone up and took a deep breath.

“Okay people, listen up, we've got a serious outbreak in Rubicon
town. A contagious virus that is spreading like wildfire. Doctor Tormens is
down, presumed...” she turned, eyes haunted. Some of her staff gasped as they
got the clear message. One of her nurses had her hand to her mouth in horror.
She nodded. “We need a plan and we need it now. Call everyone in. Someone get
Salt to get the Daniels in here pronto! La Plaz and Ivanov too! I've got some
calls to make. We need to quarantine Rubicon, Wex, and the surrounding area,”
she said turning for her office. “Before it's too late,” she murmured.

...*...*...*...*...

On the outer northern edge of Rubicon town a wagon train moved
out, just glad to finally be on the road. People were getting sick on the other
side of town, someone said something about a new flu virus. Wagon boss Jerid
didn't care, he just wanted to beat feet as far away as possible as quickly as
possible. They had a schedule to keep. “Let's move people!” he said and then
coughed softly. He took a pull of whiskey from the flask he kept in his breast
pocket to cut the travel dust and then waved his people on up the road.

When word spread of the possible pandemic it finally got media
attention. The media treated it with kid gloves until a source close to Dr.
Richards confirmed she'd gotten a call from Rubicon. Then all hell broke loose
as the anchors visibly broke into a sweat, losing all professional decorum.

Sprite had been watching the video news feed, she'd had Phoenix
relay it to her when the plague was brought up.

She reported it to Irons as dispassionately as possible, she knew
he would blame himself. He flinched as if he'd been struck. He hadn't thought
of it, and now it was going to haunt him. Within the pods were a half dozen
sick people, all contaminated with a bio engineered planet killing virus the AI
surmised. They were carriers, an old trick the Xeno's had used, one he should
have thought of. He kicked himself for it, he should have insisted on screening
them! Why hadn't he! He'd let them bully him, push him away from a threat
turned real!

He swore, pounding his left fist into his right hand and then against
the wall. He stopped, aware that others were watching him as he closed his
eyes. People were moving away from him as if he was nuts. He didn't care. His
only thought was to the future. He could easily game out what was going to
happen without asking the AI to do a sim.

With the present tech level the admiral immediately realized the
bonds of civilization and then the population would collapse soon. Panic alone
would drive the spread of the disease as people fled mindlessly to dubious
safety. Others would begin hoarding and looting, some were itching for lawless
times on this planet, it was ripe for such things with all the mobsters.

Irons felt his body moving on its own. He blinked, then traced the
link. Defender was at the fore, overriding his own neural net in order to move
him he knew not where. “Lieutenant explain,” he growled.

“You need to extract now Admiral.”

“I can't do that lieutenant,” Irons replied.

“Admiral, my orders are to protect you.”

“We're under a class six bio-hazard, possibly class seven. Both
are planetary quarantine,” Sprite interjected.

“I know that,” Irons replied, wondering which side she was on.

“I do not detect enemy nanotech but I am not in sufficient range
to detect them. Moving closer is advisable but use caution,” Proteus interjected.

The admiral's body paused. “That is circular logic. Our orders, my
orders are to protect the admiral,” Defender replied.

“And how do you propose to do that?” Sprite asked as Irons reached
mentally for the override. “The shuttle is near ground zero remember? There are
no other shuttles on the planet. We checked,” Sprite said.

“That is a problem that can be overcome,” Defender responded.

“Do you honestly think that will work? Planetary quarantine
applies to everyone
including
me!” Irons snarled. “I'm not going
anywhere,” he ground out. “You're the one who's supposed to remind me about
following the law remember?”

“You are immune admiral.”

The admiral's jaw set in annoyance. He really didn't have time for
this nonsense now. “I am immune to the plague but
not
its effects. And
if you think I'm going to sit in orbit and
watch
millions of people
die
AGAIN
you have another recompile coming. Get it out of whatever you use for
a mind now
lieutenant!
I am going
nowhere
and that's final!”

“If he attempted to leave his shuttle would carry the virus to
Phoenix and to every planet we visited,” Sprite warned. “The virus is spreading
like wild fire.”

“Lovely,” Irons commented. “We don't have time for games,” he said
as Defender relinquished control of his body.

“So we make our stand here. Now we need allies,” Proteus said in a
rare move.

 Irons grimaced. He had to do something and fast. First thing
though was to find the authorities and get into touch with them. “Sprite!”

Sprite had anticipated the need and had already started the ground
work. “On it admiral,” Sprite replied. She grimaced on his HUD though. “No
responses from the government. I expected as much. I'm getting a message that
all lines are busy.”

“Can you break in?” he asked. She shook her head silently no.
“Find someone else. Use the contacts. Everyone. Anyone. Business or other.”

“On it admiral,” Sprite replied, clearly subdued.

“Start with the medics closest to the contagion. Institute full
bio-hazard protocols. Quarantine. Get them moving on that now, spoon feed the
protocol to them if you have to but do that now. Bring me into it only if you
get resistance. And have them get to Richards! Tell her we need to talk damn
it!”

He turned and then grimly headed to his air car. “Where is she?”
he demanded.

“Doctor Richards is in Landing City. It is her main office, she
has an administrative complex which is an annex on the Landing City general
hospital grounds.”

“I don't need a lecture, just a location. Thanks,” Irons replied
gruffly, starting to trot. His instincts said not to run, he'd been trained not
to run, it showed the people that there was something wrong, drawing attention
to a leader who was worried and possibly out of his element. But he had to get
moving and fast. Hang it, he sped up into a lopping run that a cheetah would
have envied, then even faster into a blur.

...*...*...*...*...

As the admiral reached his air car Sprite cleared her virtual
throat. “What is it Sprite?” he asked, keying the ignition start sequence. He
had to be careful, if he pushed it too fast the cold pumps and turbines would
stall out on him. He looked at her image on the HUD. “What?”

“Fox is online. He's plugged the mini-comp he kept for himself
into a personal machine and he's now going over medical tech, specifically
hazmat.”

“Send him an email with links to things he can manage right now.
Start with equipment and above all respirators and suits,” Irons growled as he
lifted off.

“Understood,” Sprite replied.

...*...*...*...*...

“Quarantine!” Richards snarled, using her shoulder to prop the
phone up to her ear since her hands were busy flipping through texts on her
desk. She had little to go on, she didn't know what the hell it was but the
first order was clear. An outbreak of a potential epidemic was in progress and
until they knew more they had to quarantine the area. She'd managed to find the
epidemic protocols and had started the process. At least she had some idea on
what to do, even if it was very little. She'd drilled her people on this once a
year, obviously that hadn't been enough.

The steps in her dog eared journal were pathetic comfort now.
Verify the diagnosis of an outbreak that was done. Identify the existence of
the outbreak, why? If you already diagnosed it why do you need to identify the
existence of it? Creating a case definition was out, they had little to go on
at this point. Mapping the spread of the virus was again problematical, she had
nothing to go on other than the epicenter which was Rubicon town, headed south
by south east.  Developing the hypothesis was easy, the pods. But proving it
was a problem, they couldn't get into the town to find out. Refining her
hypothesis was on a back burner as was developing a means to combat the
outbreak. But she had gotten the word out to the communities. Right now they had
more questions than she had answers. The only thing she could tell them was to
quarantine the area until she could figure out what was going on.

The problem was getting others to go along with these simple
instructions. They either didn't understand, didn't understand the threat, or
didn't care. Those that did care were starting to panic, which wasn't good.
Already several small towns in the area where ghost towns, no one answered the
phone at all. She wasn't sure if that was a sign of panic or death.

Already panic was spreading across the globe. It was starting in
Rubicon, but rapidly spreading into the surrounding towns and cities as the
threat penetrated the population's consciousness. She had to get a handle on
it, had to get ahead of it or it would become worse, far, far worse.

“No I said quarantine!” she snarled when the small town mayor
babbled at her incoherently. “It means no one in or out! Lock down. Get your
sheriff  and deputy to explain it to you I don't have the time! No one in or
out of your town! Do that now and I'll get back to you!” she said and then
slammed the handset down onto the receiver. She turned as it rang again and
sighed once more.

“Boss we don't know what to do!” Malcolm Innes said, leaning into
her open doorway. “Is it a virus? Bacteria? What vector?” Malcolm asked, eyes
wide in fright.

Helen looked up with a ferocious frown. “I don't know. Get a hold
of yourself. Plan for air and the worst case. I'll get back to you,” she said
picking the handset back up. “Helen Richards, Medical director...”

...*...*...*...*...

An hour after getting word, Irons landed his air car in the first
clearing he could find as close to the hospital as he could. People were
gathered outside the closed gates. He had a way around them though, he jumped the
wall and then started towards the annex.

He was stopped by two nervous looking police officers, outside on
the grounds. At first they thought he was a common intruder. However when he
explained the situation their attitudes changed. Both men nervously held their
pistols at their sides. They believed he was a part of the problem. He
patiently tried to explain what was going on. “Sure, tell it to the judge,” a
deputy snarled, glancing at his partner.

“Why do we have to involve him? Let's just burn him now,” a cop
growled.

“Did he already contaminate us?”

“Oh spirit of space I didn't think of that!” the first cop said,
shooting a hard angry look at the admiral.

The admiral ground his teeth together. “Look gentlemen, I'm not
the problem I'm the closest thing you've got to a
solution
. You've got a
level five, possibly a level six planetary bio-hazard threat here.”

The slightly more intelligent guard blinked and then narrowed his
eyes. “What does that mean?”

The admiral's right arm lifted palm up. A holo of Sprite appeared.
The cops’ eyes went round like saucers. “He means that nanites are the problem
not just a regular run of the mill organic virus. So kindly get out of the way
so the admiral can do something about it,” she said pointedly, crossing her
arms and tapping her foot on his palm. The men and women around Irons stared,
thunderstruck.