Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (72 page)

The men and women around him cringed, ducking under various
equipment, beds, or just crawled into a fetal ball on the floor when no other
cover was available.

“He's a sleeper! They're all at fault! They did this to us!” he
snarled, looking around with wild hate filled eyes. “He did didn't he? Didn't
he?” he demanded of his hostage. The man gulped and nodded.

He kicked another hostage and then turned, glaring at Nohar.

Nohar felt the admiral's ID ping coming closer, at a pace he could
barely believe. Irons must have been blowing through things to get here that
fast, he thought. “Look man, no one needs to get hurt,” a doctor said, hand up.
The man had his hostage by the throat in a half sleeper hold. The hostage had a
bullet wound in his shoulder. He whimpered but stayed slack, letting his
hostage taker prop him up.

Nohar felt Sprite enter his implants and then access his video. He
authorized it and watched as the AI swept the room with his right eye. Then he
noticed the admiral's icon move to the window. He unconsciously moved so the
hostage taker would have his back mostly to the open window.

“Where is he!” he shrieked. “I want Irons! The sleeper!” he
snarled, spittle spraying the room.

“Then you want me too,” Nohar said. He turned to his left, showing
the man his right side. “I'm a sleeper too. I've been awake sixty years, most
of that time on this planet,” he said.

The man stared at the artificial arm and eye. “It's not our fault
what happened, The admiral and I are doing our best to stop it,” he said, doing
his best to modulate his voice. He couldn't control his ears though, they were
flat against his skull.

“You... you stay back! Cat!” The man said, brandishing the weapon.
Nohar calculated he could take the man, but the way he was waving the gun
around and then bringing it back to under the medic's chin didn't bode well for
others. Or for him for that matter, the gun was a small caliber, but it could
still kill him if it hit in just the wrong spot. Even he could bleed out in a
hospital.

The man was confused and angry. Wildly he looked around to the sea
of angry and fearful faces. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he demanded,
waving the gun. Stop looking at me!” he snarled, waving the gun. “I'm doing
this for all of us, can't you see that?” he shrieked. “They need to die!”

Nohar shook his head to the orderly behind the man. The orderly
picked up a metal tray as a shield or weapon, another orderly arrived at a run
but stopped quick. The man saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and
turned. “Get back!” he snarled, looking at them. “Get back!” he raged. He
shook, seeing the bodies around him. “Goddess...” he whimpered and put the gun
to his own head. Before he could pull the trigger Irons hit him with a stun
bolt from the open window. The man and his hostage crumpled to the floor.

“It might have been kinder to let him kill himself Admiral,” Nohar
said as orderlies rushed in and one big black male human kicked the weapon away
with the sweep of one foot. “Now he's got to live with what he's done. And
we've got to deal with him.”

“Maybe. I don't know,” the admiral said.

“Nice trick,” Nohar said. “Aren't we on the second floor though?”
he asked.

Irons smiled and then drifted down. Nohar went to the window to
see him land and the blue glow around the flag officer's legs fade. Irons
looked up and then went back to what he was doing.

“Show off,” Nohar snorted, turning. He watched the cleanup, arms
crossed and quiet for a long moment as medics treated the wounded or helped the
traumatized people out of the area. Finally he sighed and then  turned and went
back to his own work.

Two and a half weeks after the initial outbreak, three additional
doctors and two nurses flew into Hazard. Each of them were in suits, but they
all had the latest shots. It was a mark on how far they had come that the
aircraft landed instead of dropping them and their supplies. Of course until
the situation was resolved the aircraft wouldn't fly again.

The pilot didn't seem to mind, he was wearing a blue doctor's
suit. He was a black male human, he shielded his eyes from the sun as they
exited the craft.

Irons had time to expand the virology lab and even add force
emitters around the perimeter and a wash airlock to scrub the suits down and
irradiate them with ultraviolet light.

One of the doctors was a young red haired human female and her
husband, the Daniels. The trio were the only doctors in the last batch of
volunteers to join the navy. All three had implants.

“Where the hell have you two been?” La Plaz demanded. “Didn't you
know we were in a worldwide crisis?”

“Hey, I was around,” the black doctor said hands up. “Sort of.”

“I'm not talking about you Salt. Besides, what are you doing here
anyway?” La Plaz asked.

“They needed a pilot,” the black doctor replied with a shrug and
thumb jerk to the Daniels. “Just my stupidity to learn to fly as well as be a
doctor,” he grumbled.

“And for Helen to take advantage of it,” La Plaz teased. He turned
an expectant look at the Daniels as they unloaded gear. Both hunched their
shoulders. They were of a select group, the last two virologists on the
continent.

“We went camping,” Doctor Sam Daniels said gruffly, shrugging.
“Real camping, roughing it. Somewhere way off grid up north. Where we thought
no one could find us.”

“Which was true,” his wife Robby said apologetically. We took our
dog with us. No phones, no cars, we hiked in. Just the three of us and a tent
in the back wilds. Beautiful country, but very remote. Sorry.” She shrugged
helplessly.

“I am, but I'm not,” her husband said, giving her a smile. “We had
planned it for months and put it off twice. It was worth it, or so we thought.
But we're here now,” he said, turning to the others. “We've been briefed,
medicated, implanted, and stuffed to the gills with new knowledge. We're eager
to make up for lost time.”

“But first we need the implant keys,” Robby said looking pointedly
at the admiral. The others nodded.

“Yeah, forgot that,” Irons said with a snort and slight smile.
“Okay doctors, Sprite is the one you need for that. Let me get through what I'm
working on now and then she can help you.”

“Yes sir. Can she well, detach or something?”

“No, the commander is rather attached to me,” the admiral replied.
“Just let me finish up here,” he said, indicating the transhab project. Hank
and Jerry had taken the idea and ran with it, turning it into a complex of
inflated buildings. The noise from the filters and compressors were like an
aircraft engine, but it had its benefits.

“What is this?” Robby asked, looking at the tent. “Hey honey, we
go from one tent to another...” she teased.

“It's a tent to get out of the suits and clean up and get some
downtime,” Jerry said. “Which Hank and I are doing first. You just got here and
the other damn doctors keep hogging the clean room. You know some of us itch
too!” he growled, glaring at La Plaz. “And we've been in our suits a hell of a
lot longer than you!” he snarled, baring canines.

“Well!” the young doctor said, eyes wide in surprise at the show
of teeth. “Soooryy!”

“Right,” Hank said, clapping Jerry on the shoulder with a
restraining hand. “Doc, you kill this thing for good and we'll forgive you.
Eventually.”

“Gee thanks,” La Plaz said. “Well folks,” he said turning to the
others. “Since the admiral is currently busy, let me give you a tour while he
finishes up. Then you can jump into things after you've had your exam.”

“Exam? What exam? No one said anything about an exam...” Doctor
Salt said pointedly as they walked out.

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

Sprite had to go through the steps to initialize their keys. The
admiral was annoyed, but agreed to do it. While they went through the tests
Irons got to know them a little more. Both of the Daniels had been waiting for the
keys excitedly. They had a slightly longer recovery time than the first wave,
apparently Proteus did good work. Both had used the extra recovery time to read
and learn as much as they could.

Doctor Salt was an old friend, he'd been hauling them and La Plaz
and Ivanov around from one local outbreak of whatever minor virus came up to
another. They were a close knit family.

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

The next morning they were up bright and early and dived into the
work. The virology team consulted Sprite as Doctor La Plaz brought the
newcomers up to speed on their work. The spread of the pathogens had been
slowed, but the original Xeno organic nanites were still in play. They had to
find a way to deal with them So far they had calculated that one hundred twenty
thousand lives had been lost.

Pride and sadness spread throughout the staff, they had achieved
so much, but also lost so many in the process. The Daniels were particularly
guilty when the final numbers were reported. Sprite could tell both were
feeling guilty about playing hooky.

The shaken staff tried to shoulder aside their grief to get to
work. The latest attempt at a cure all was still failing, the vaccines couldn’t
keep up with the spread of the virus in someone already infected.

“So, what you're saying is we need to find another path. This one
isn't working, so shelve it and move on to something better,” Sam Daniels said
bluntly. La Plaz grimaced but finally nodded grimly. Sam had a way about him,
an ability to play out hunches that were insightful and brilliant. He was also
ruthless and blunt when he needed to be. La Plaz had to remind himself that the
virus didn't play any favorites, they needed to be focused and kill this thing.
He couldn't let ego get in the way of the job or more people would die.

“So, treatment options...”

“Suck. Once the virus is in the body, a vaccine is useless. Giving
the patients artificially synthesized antibodies is something else we have been
thinking about.”

“But it's not an easy plan. We need another method,” Doctor Ivanov
replied. “Trying to kill these things one at a time... I don't think any of us
ever dreamed of taking on multiple viruses all at the same time. It's been my
worst nightmare for weeks now.”

“And yet you're still hanging on,” Robby said, nodding to him.

“Dogged determination. And I'm too pig headed to give up. I refuse
to surrender to something I need a microscope to see,” the doctor growled. He'd
lost weight, shed over thirty pounds in the suits and under the constant stress
and strain. He was exhausted, but still determined to see the project to its
conclusion.

“Any other ways?” Sam asked. “Do we have any natural immunes?”

“Not natural no,” La Plaz said slowly. “Nohar and the admiral are
immune for different reasons. Nohar was inoculated during the war. We've given
him boosters just in case now that we've gotten a handle on this.”

“Oh. Okay, so what about the admiral?” Doctor Salt asked. “How is
he immune?”

“He's got nanites. And an energy shield. That sparkly thing around
him.”

“Oh. Wait, nanites? That's how he can do things?”

“Yes. And how he's immune. And yeah, he's cured some people with
them too. But it's hard on him,” La Plaz said.

“Wait, cured...”

“Yeah, it's like this....”

The doctors heard about how the admiral cured Fat Larry's son and
a ward full of people. Not everyone had lived, some had died despite the cure,
but many had survived and built up antibodies to fight the viruses off.  Sam
crossed his legs as they spoke, flicking his foot as he thought deep thoughts.
His wife and Doctor Salt looked at him, watching the foot. That was a sure sign
he had an idea percolating in his head.

“This... this is giving me ideas,” Sam said when the younger
doctor finished his impromptu presentation.

“An anti-virus nanite,” his wife said, beating him to the punch.
Her eyes were wide. She'd tried to snap her fingers but the gloves had stopped
that.

“You're kidding me,” Doctor Salt said, eying them as if they were
insane. “Are you serious?”

Sam shrugged, spreading his hands. “Why not? We program the thing
to kill the viruses.”

“But...”

“I think you need the admiral in on this,” Sprite said from the
holo projector she had been using. They turned to look at her. She smiled
grimly. “I'll page him for you.”

 The admiral entered as the team talked eagerly. They had a plan,
and had continued on it while he was in transit. He could see a map of a human
immune system on the holographic projector, on one of the vid screens nearby
there was an image of a spherical nanite. It had nubs sticking out all over the
place. He waited patiently as they wound down.

“What we can do, is inject this into a person. Healthy or not,
it'll work better with a healthy person. With an infected person they may need
a double dose or more time for it to be effective.”

“A treatment and a vaccine rolled into one,” Sam said nodding.