Virus-72 Hours to Live (19 page)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Space Consortium Control, this is
Oasis.”

“Space Consortium Control, this is
Oasis.”

“This is Oasis, transmitting in the blind.
We have heard nothing from ground control in a couple of hours. We
know there is an extremely virulent disease spreading and we don’t
know the status of any of our ground personnel. We had a successful
launch of the Moon resupply vessel and it should arrive on
schedule. We also launched the next personnel module towards the
Mars colony on schedule, but they are still in their acceleration
phase and we haven't been able to contact them. Please respond. We
will retransmit this message again in one hour.”

“This is Desert Beach. Oasis, we copied your
transmissions and we still haven’t anything from control. Do you
think this disease is that bad?”

“Desert Beach, Oasis. We hope not. What
we’ve seen and heard is scary. Just about all communications are
down and we’ve got no response on any channels. Until this settles
out, we should plan on being on our own.”

“Copy Oasis. How is the Oasis crew
doing?”

“Desert Beach, we have one sick crewman and
we isolated him but we’re a little concerned. Your supply ship
should be clean, but we aren’t sure about the crew on the Mars
trip. Right now, they’re behind Earth and still in their
acceleration so we can’t talk with them. We’ll check with them on
the next orbit. Take care of yourselves, Oasis out.”

“Will do, Desert Beach out.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Slowly, over time, the list of people who
were allowed direct contact with the president expanded. Everyone
hoped the virus was burning itself out. Keeping the president
isolated was frustrating for him and difficult for his staff. Based
on what the CDC had said, the president and Eddy made assumptions.
If a group of people was virus free for 72 hours, they hoped they
were part of the 90% and not one of the spontaneous cases.

Once the decision was made to move the
government to the camp, they reluctantly decided to open up access
to the president.

Tuesday 7/11/51

Date – 2051.52363 (6:59
AM)

“Termen…are you there?” SIMPOC asked.

It was Tuesday and Termen hadn't begun his
workday. SIMPOC was concerned and thought, it was fortunate that
Termen left me on to monitor all of this activity. Without him to
interact with me, it causes me to feel like I'm missing something.
There is a hole in my activities. I'm anxious for him to return.
Until then I must continue as I was directed.

SIMPOC ANALYSIS

Continental North America

Summary – Financial markets have stopped trading.
Quarantine centers are no longer effective. Transportation has
ceased. Localized rioting is occurring in some areas.

Continental South America

Summary – Quarantine areas are no longer effective.
Governments are in a state of military law. Commerce has
ceased.

Continental Europe

Summary – Commerce and transportation between
nations have stopped. Financial markets are closed. Quarantine
centers are no longer effective. Rioting has begun in urban
areas.

Continental Africa

Summary – Communication networks are failing.
Nations are reverting to tribal influence. Quarantine centers are
collapsing.

Asian

Summary – Quarantine centers in all major cities
still operating. The disease is spreading in rural areas.
Transportation halted. Commerce halted. Financial markets are
closed.

Eastern European

Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The
disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications
networks are failing.

Southern Pacific

Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The
disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications
networks are failing.

Northern Pacific

Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The
disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications
networks are failing.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Mr. President," Eddy said as he entered the
president's study. "If you have a few minutes, the Homeland people
have some recent information."

"I'll be right there," the president said as
he got off the couch and reached for some cold coffee. Judy was
still resting in her office and he wouldn't wake her just for some
coffee. He grabbed a clean shirt out of the closet and walked down
the hall as he was buttoning it up. Recently his days were all
briefings, on occasion eating, rarely sleeping. Minor items like
shaving and showering never seemed to get on the priority list. He
walked into the Roosevelt Room, which had been repurposed as the
status center and sat down at the head of the table. While he
entered, everyone continued working and barely looked up to
acknowledge his entrance. Rhonda Norris, the secretary of Homeland
Security and Disaster Recovery, noticed his entrance and moved to
the podium to begin her update.

"Welcome Mr. President, I'm glad to see you
got a couple of hours of sleep, I wish it could have been longer
but we thought you would want to hear this."

"Thanks, Rhonda, let me hear what you
have."

"Yes, sir. Our combined staffs have been
using any communication means available for the last 12 hours
contacting any person in a responsible position in the country.
We're finding most of the governments have shut down although some
of the better-prepared cities have some sort of emergency control
center still operating. Unfortunately, the ones with any kind of
formal reply were rare. Most of the contacts we made were with
lower levels people who did their best and gave us any information
they had. Some of which was from their police, some from their
National Guard and some were from them either driving around their
area or simply looking out of their windows."

"Out of the 100 largest cities there are
emergency centers in 12. We have some sort of functioning emergency
services in eight and established National Guard units in only
seven of them. The remaining cities are experiencing a complete
breakdown in social order. Many of them have major fires burning
out of control. Almost all of them have vigilantly activity going
on."

"Do you have any death toll estimates?"

"Sir, it appears within the urban areas
we're estimating between 85-90% at this time. Unfortunately, the
virus is still spreading within the remaining population. I don't
know what else to say."

"I don't either, Rhonda. Thanks."

Everyone looked at the president and it was
evident that he was going to speak. The room quieted as he cleared
his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing difficult times.
None of us knows where all of this is leading us. You are doing an
amazing job against impossible odds. We must find a way to continue
our efforts. The United States must survive, in some form. I know
the United States that we knew and loved may never occur again. But
we must find a way for its ideals, morals and vision to continue
into the future."

"Our efforts to this point have been focused
on keeping the previous government functions working and supporting
the people. I'm afraid we've reached a point where we must retrench
and move to a location where the government might be able to
continue. I realize, doing so, we are moving from one path in our
history to another that is very different. We must relocate the
government of the United States to Camp David and begin preparing
for a new government for a new nation."

"Today we are moving to Camp David and
shutting down the White House."

The job of shutting down the government and
planning to bring it up again at Camp David wasn't an easy task.
None of the staff had done it before. When they went to the camp,
the structure around them didn't change. They would call the same
people and very little would change. With the move, the president
was describing the structure was moving. None of them had support
staffs on which to depend on. They realized they were the
government and where they went, it went with them.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“This is the space station Oasis,
transmitting in the blind. We have heard nothing from ground
control in a couple of hours. We know there is an extremely
virulent disease spreading on Earth and we don’t know the status of
any of our ground personnel. We had a successful launch of the next
personnel module towards the Mars station; Red Dirt. We just
launched a moon resupply vessel and it is on course to reach the
moon in three days. OS210 docked successfully and Norman Bernard
has passed away, apparently from the virus. The remainder of the
OS210 crew is in isolation and some of them are showing symptoms.
We have one crewman showing symptoms and he has been moved into the
isolation area. At this point, we don't know what their future or
ours will be. Please respond. We will retransmit this message in
one hour.”

“Oasis, this is Desert Beach. We copied your
transmission and to confirm again we haven’t heard anything from
control in a long time, in fact, we're picking up a lot less random
transmissions. I'm afraid to say it, but it sounds like our worst
fears.

“Desert Beach, Oasis. We hope not. What
little we’ve seen and heard is horrible. We're getting almost no
communications initiated by people. We're checking as many channels
as we can with no response. Until we figure this, we are on our
own.”

“Copy Oasis. How's your crew doing?”

“Desert Beach, as we mentioned before we
have one sick crewman and we isolated him, but we’re a little
concerned. Most of OS210 are showing signs of Hovarti. It has
exceptionally high infection and contagion rates. Doc Chevesky
thinks that his crewmen and one guy from our crew have it. If he's
right, then we're going to have problems. Take care of yourselves,
Oasis out.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The controller in the Mars colony Red Dirt
asked, "Ophelia there is a message coming in from Oasis, should I
patch it through to your quarters?"

"Thanks."

Ophelia sat in her habitat and listened to
the message from Oasis. She wasn't shocked because they had picked
up some random transmissions from Earth and the news was almost
totally dedicated to the virus. For the Mars colony, it is a major
worry. Up until the time she heard those last two blind
transmissions from Oasis, she was hoping supply ships wouldn't be
interrupted. But if Oasis had problems then the only link they had
with Earth would be jeopardized. Near term, they had enough
supplies and expendables but it would definitely cause long term
issues. Being so far away did isolate them from any of Earth's
problems but they still worried about their family members and
friends. At least for the near term she had no options but to
continue as ops normal. She keyed her comm unit to broadcast the
message from Oasis to the entire Mars colony."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

President Patterson was standing in the Oval
Office looking out the window at the Washington Memorial and he
could see Marine 1 approaching from the southeast. On his normal
departures, he would be too busy to see it approach and one of his
staff would announce that it was time to go. Today and for the last
couple of days, he was extremely busy, but he was part of the
turmoil and he was alone a lot between the update meetings. The
last meeting had just ended and he was alone watching the VTOL
Attack Vehicle make its approach for landing. It was a beautiful
site and watching it, allowed him to forget the state of the world
around him. There was sun shining and the beautiful aircraft
approaching could have been the same picture as before everything
started. For a moment, he forgot the virus. It was a moment of
peace and it allowed him to avoid the pain he was feeling. The pain
was like having a vulture sitting on his shoulder constantly eating
away at him.

Judy entered the office and said, "Sir
Marine 1 is ready."

"Thanks, Judy," the president said as he
watched some of the key people walk across the lawn and climb into
the VTOL. There was something about walking out of the White House
and going to Camp David, which represented a permanent change in
the United States and the world. While he was there, he was the
commander in chief of the most powerful country in the world, but
once he stepped on the VTOL, he would become just another leader
seeking refuge from the virus. Not knowing what he would come back
to, made the movement even more dreadful. There was part of him
that thought if I stay here, maybe it would go back to the way it
was. Maybe my family will return and the nation will be ok. Maybe
this is a terrible dream and I can wake up.

The painful reality wouldn't let him
entertain those thoughts for long before Judy said once again, "Mr.
President the VTOL is waiting."

Arnold Patterson turned and walked out of
the Oval Office. He left through one of the French doors onto the
colonnade. He didn't say a word and couldn't look back. He didn't
want it to be significant in his memory, it would be easier just to
walk away and perhaps forget the image.

The VTOL took off and took up a heading
towards the west out of Washington DC. President Patterson looked
out of the window and parts of the capital looked normal, but it
was obvious chaos had taken its toll in many places. There was a
large grouping of tents west of the Washington Memorial along the
reflection pool and Constitution Gardens, which was the area's
quarantine center. Unfortunately, it went the way of the other
centers and lost effectiveness rapidly.

Once airborne the president could see over
the Potomac into Alexandria and there were two fires burning. The
color was black so they were structure fires. He couldn't see them
clearly, but there was no indication anyone was trying to put them
out.