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  Kumenoprix’s anxious expression gave the answer before he said, “Yes. Some of it.”

  “Tell me how, in theory you could make the Keulfyd virus.”

  Kumenoprix thought. They would know he knew. But this was not his area of expertise and he would not have to play dumb — he was comparatively dumb. “I would need the original virus and a very good laboratory equipped to do this. I would need first to culture a huge amount of the virus and keep some of the original as it is. Then I would have to make the virus immune to all the various types of antivirals that would normally kill it. That’s easy. Then I would need to make it more infectious by strengthening it and that also is easy. That would probably shorten the incubation period at the same time because it would then be more powerful and overcome the host faster. The bit I am not sure about is exactly how to make it airborne. There isn’t a reverse to that that I know of.”

  When he saw Cukudeopul’s puzzlement, he added, “I don’t know how to stop a virus being airborne, therefore I don’t know how to make it airborne.” He was absolutely truthful. He really didn’t know — and so he appeared truthful to the others. But what he didn’t tell them was that he knew it was possible. He just hadn’t ever bothered to find out how.

  Cukudeopul nodded. What Kumenoprix said made sense. He said as if thinking aloud, “So it is infecting more people more easily and it is more serious. The incubation period is the time between contact and effect?” Kumenoprix nodded. “And that time is shortening and it is airborne which makes it harder to stop, harder to contain, and more difficult and dangerous to treat. Plus the usual treatments don’t work, so we have no cure. According to their Chief Medical Officer, over half will catch it and a quarter will die, but he thinks that is probably understating it.”

  “What is the profile of the population that has it?”

  Cukudeopul looked blank.

  “Is this a city or a spaceship or what? What ages are the sick people?”

  “What difference does that make?”

  “Some viruses are a lot worse for the young or the old or both, and some are a lot worse for the young and healthy. Is it a normal population?”

  “All adults. Mostly young adults.”

  Kumenoprix thought hard. “For most Keulfyd viruses I know, they are a lot worse for children and the old with some rare exceptions. If I knew what the virus was I could tell you that — but then so could any of your doctors.” He looked enquiringly at them.

  “Normal,” said one.

  Kumenoprix told Cukudeopul, “This must not reach populated areas. The death rate could double or more. If it is killing a quarter of the healthy it could kill three quarters of the total population, which includes the young, the sick and the old. Can it be quarantined?”

  “I am unsure but I will so order.”

  “Order it quarantined for two days more than the longest-known incubation. At least. Of course, even that will not work if there are carrier states or slow-onset cases. ”

  Cukudeopul looked grim. “I sincerely hope not! People who are carriers have caused havoc for us three times before that I know of. A carrier in a spaceship is our worst nightmare. A person with no symptoms who carries and spreads the disease. If the sickness onboard is not reported, it could spread from planet to planet. And this disease is airborne. We will have to hope there is no carrier state.”

  “Most diseases that affect your Race do not because they were the first to be eliminated,” said Kumenoprix seeing the alarm on Cukudeopul’s face. “I know of only two Keulfyd viruses in existence now that are airborne. One is mild and not a problem. The other could be eliminated with a concerted effort. But almost as bad as the carrier state are what we call slow-onset cases.”

  “I’ve heard of those. Would they be as bad? They’re rare, aren’t they?”

  “Yes,” answered Sikleffidisk, the Chief Medical Officer. “These are either diseases with very long incubation states or people with very effective immune systems who somehow manage to delay the onset of an illness. The incubation period is very extended, sometimes to weeks instead of days for highly infectious airborne diseases. Less infectious diseases can take years to progress, even decades. Some of these viruses hide in places that were dangerous or difficult or expensive to detect, such as the brain ventricles, bone marrow, or spinal fluid. Some hide in the eyes or linger on there after the disease seems to be over.”

  The meeting ended with a grim silence and Kumenoprix worried all the way back to his lab. He had a very bad feeling.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Two months after Dai arrived, he asked Sarah to join him for dinner. She looked around at the mostly Niseyen clientele eating, drinking and socializing. The Niseyen had set up their own restaurant. Their reluctance to drink water had been noted, and here were all their favourite beverages. Dai lined up samples and Sarah started to taste test. She indicated the ones she liked. All this time, Dai was wondering what to say and how much to tell her of what he had just learnt from his crew who had arrived on Terra. A lot of what he now knew was fairly innocuous but what should he say? He decided to wing it.

  “My ship is on Terra and several things are puzzling them,” he said speaking softly, a scrambler beside him. “I would like to ask a few questions if I may.”

  Sarah smiled. She had been waiting for this. She had expected him to be in communication with his ship although she had no idea how. “Go ahead.”

  “You didn’t tell us Terra was a water world.”

  “Dai, I’ve only seen one planet. Mine. We arrived here at night. I have no idea what is normal. This planet is about fifty-fifty, I’ve heard. What is normal?”

  “Average is sixty-forty, I guess. That’s sixty percent land. There are other worlds with very little land. Most inhabited planets are sixty to eighty percent land.”

  Sarah thought. “Is that why oxygen has to be made on most of them?”

  “Yes.”

  “And water, something I just take for granted. On Earth seas absorb carbon dioxide and forests make oxygen, which is why we don’t have to make it. What’s wrong? Why is this a problem?”

  “My people are going to have a lot of problems with believing that our species originated on a water world,” Dai said wondering how he could explain what an understatement that was.

  “Dai I must be thick but I don’t see the problem.”

  He sighed, “And I find it hard to explain. Just accept that it is going to be problem for the Niseyen to accept.”

  And that moon of Terra’s is a monster. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that size before in relation to the size of the planet.”

  “Something else is bothering you. What is it?”

  “My crew spotted nuclear power stations.”

  “I thought you knew about them.”

  “I guess we didn’t think there would be so many. We also checked the oceans and found a great deal of pollution in the seas and rivers and on the land. My people won’t like that either. The shear numbers of your people were a shock and we see what you meant about overcrowding. We also saw a great deal of wealth versus a great deal of poverty.”

  “It is what it is Dai. Do you not have obscenely wealthy people?”

  “We do but not the poverty, not to that extent. My crew were horrified by some of the things they saw. They saw people, children, living in conditions that were appalling. Children who looked as if they were starving. They saw children in what looked like prisons.”

  “They’re refugee camps.”

  “They’re prisons. For women and children. I have told my crew not to talk about this but I find it very disturbing and ominous. Why are they there?” Why in prison?”

  “I find it hard to explain that except to say that those are the ones we are trying to bring here. As many of them as we can.”

  “What have their parents done that they are there and why are the children with them and not being looked after properly?”

  “These are people whose homes have been dest
royed and I guess the most honest answer is that we are so overcrowded that it takes time to find somewhere for them to go, to absorb them. They have done nothing wrong.”

  Sarah looked at his face and saw he was deeply troubled and having trouble believing her.

  “Why are they in prison?” he repeated.

  “I have no adequate answer for that. They are, eventually, absorbed into somewhere else. We want to bring as many here as we can and they will make good citizens. Maybe not so much the first generation but their children will do well. There will be initial problems, trauma, grief, depression, anxiety, health problems but they will be well worth saving.”

  “Well we do at least agree on that.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Cukudeopul was shocked to read in the latest report from Oberterk that a virus, maybe the same one that had been on Torroxell, had spread there, apparently transmitted by a Keulfyd who had deserted from the Attack Force. The Nashi were adamant he did not appear sick. His name was Lidisihad. He could be their worst nightmare: a carrier on the run. Carrying the virus from Torroxell to Oberterk and then to no one knew where. And he was on a ship by himself. The Nashi reported he had arrived with a slave, possibly a Niseyen, but the slave had been injured and had died. The Nashi were unsympathetic. He had dumped the slave in the slave pen then returned days later and been unable to find it and blamed the Nashi, saying it had important information. So he had left, alone, destination unknown. This was appalling.

  Cukudeopul read that this virus, probably the same one, was spreading over Oberterk via the original sick people and people who had been in contact with this Lidisihad. It now appeared to have a carrier state, a very rare facet of Keulfyd viruses. This was terrible. Where there was one known carrier, there would be others. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to contain. And it was spreading out at random from the airports and spaceports. Cukudeopul felt sick. He would order a sample to be checked to see if it was indeed the same virus.

  All his political life he had striven to preserve his people, to remove all obstacles to them being, eventually, the sole survivors in the known universe, or at least the sole survivors for the planets they liked. What could he do? He ordered an extended quarantine and containment for the new areas affected and a shoot-on-sight order on Lidisihad. It looked as though Lidisihad had known he was a carrier. Why else would he be running? The fact that he was essentially a pirate and had every reason to run was something Cukudeopul forgot.

  The strict containment and quarantine orders appeared to be working as fresh outbreaks on Oberterk almost stopped — but then, a week later, disaster! The virus was now on Medala which, although a Niseyen planet, had a large Keulfyd population. Two days later it was reported on two Keulfyd planets, luckily not old or heavily populated ones. No one knew where Lidisihad was but they knew where he had been by the infections breaking out. It seemed as if he was deliberately spreading it. Or were there other carriers?

  Cukudeopul ordered Kumenoprix to come. Again Kumenoprix brought his report but again Cukudeopul was interested only in the virus. He wanted Kumenoprix’s advice. The two sat down for a drink and a bite together as they had so often done and tried to brainstorm what to do. Kumenoprix said, “I have been thinking hard but I don’t know how to help. However, another problem has been dominating my thoughts. It has now been nearly three months since your Healing Machine treatment and you still have not restarted all of your treatments. If you leave it much longer, some of your organs will start to fail again. The normal procedure following a Treatment is a drug holiday, which in effect occurs in the Machine, followed by a re-evaluation of what the new medication needs to be. With your systems so compromised, that has not been possible. I just ordered a reduction in some medication while I recalculated but I normally do this with you and with your doctors. That has not been completed and I am becoming frantic! I made a preliminary medication order but it has not been re evaluated and adjusted. Your doctors are probably of like mind.”

  “Forget that for now. I am concerned only with this virus.”

  Kumenoprix refocused with an effort. Embarrassingly he had known more than Cukudeopul’s doctors about how the virus could have been altered. “How to counter it? This I am a lot less sure of. My area of expertise is geriatrics and organ failure, not disease.”

  The Nashi courier waited and waited as her bosses continued to delay, claiming that they were waiting for a dispatch to come. Aware of the Nashi tactic of using delay as an insult (or keeping other Races in their place), the Keulfyd security team leader didn’t believe a word. Finally, in a shower of rain, the courier came, apologizing for the delay. To his astonishment, she said, “I’m sorry the dispatches have gotten wet. I fell in the rain and spilt the bag’s contents.” He could see she was quite wet, which surprised him because Nashi hated water. And she did appear embarrassed, which was astounding for a female. They normally didn’t apologize to anyone. But then she did look very young. Nashi body language was fairly easy for most Races to follow. Keulfyd security were excellent at this and he prided himself he was no exception.

  Annoyed, the team leader took the encrypted discs and dried their covers then handed them to the clerk, who ran them through the decryption program. He wiped his hands on his clothes and returned to work.

  The Nashi courier was elated. It had worked! She waited impassively for most of the day while Cukudeopul and some of his inner circle worked over the dispatches. She then took back the answers — but her bosses were much more interested in her observations. “The security team leader misread my behavior. What an idiot!” she said gleefully. “I acted embarrassed and apologized and acted nervous in order to divert his attention and it worked! He wasn’t suspicious of what he should have been. I would never have taken the shorter route and gone outside in the rain. Not without a very good reason!”

  The Nashi courier ship left the planet that day.

  Five days later, Kumenoprix turned up on time in the staff room off the main control room waiting for the dispatches and hoping to compete with security on the codeword and with one he had made up. They all seemed vaguely unwell. He could no more not enquire than not breathe. A few minutes later his genuinely stricken face told them all they needed to know about what could be happening here. Kumenoprix was not acting. These were his friends. As one of the few here who was safe to move around, Kumenoprix quickly organized quarantining different sections of the huge Base. But it was a city in its own right. Thousands lived here, mostly Keulfyd, and they moved about freely. Kumenoprix suggested that security order a “Standstill”, which they did, but he believed it was much too late. Worse, people had come and gone from and to the city from the mainland of this, the main planet. The virus was on the Prime Planet.

  So Kumenoprix did something he had never dared do before. He demanded admission to Cukudeopul. He got it. He explained his frightening suspicion: “I can do very little for everyone else — there are just too many people — but I do have two alternatives for you. I could just keep you alive using the ‘hold’ on the Machine. Alternatively, I could treat you and several others by treating just the symptoms. Putting people in and out of the Healing Machine. For the virus itself I can do nothing. But I could treat maybe five to ten people, maybe a lot more depending on how the body responds, treating just the symptoms. If I do this, there is a chance that will give you all, or some of you, enough time for your body to defeat the virus. I don’t know how much of a chance this will be. According to your doctors and my knowledge, because of your age you will be at greater risk. There should be survivors but I may be one of the few that will stay well enough to treat people. This will be the major problem, people dying because of inadequate treatment. To think you were not exposed would be ridiculous. How it got here, no one knows. People come and go all the time. But this does seem peculiar in that this is the first outbreak notified on this planet.

  “I agree with your security staff. I think some one has targeted the Keulfyd and you
in particular. I think this is an assassination attempt.” Well, that was a good choice of words, he thought, as he saw the expression on Cukudeopul’s face change. He sighed. “No one seems to be substantially worse than anyone else but all of today’s security shift are ill. You touch what they touch and they enter your presence. Are you feeling sick?” He held his breath.

  “Yes,” said Cukudeopul. “Not bad, but off-color. But I am sure I had this virus when I was young. I was very sick, so I remember. Will this not stop me getting it?”

  A smile lit up Kumenoprix’s face. “It may not stop you getting it because it has been changed, but it should help. If I can get you more time, your body should remember how to fight it.”

  “But you told me my immune system is badly compromised.”

  “Not for this. For this it should work. It is new diseases or diseases you have little or no immunity to that are the problem. There are three major parts to your immune system. One part acquires new immunity by detecting illnesses — this develops in children last and fails in adults first, as it has in you. The second part analyzes, identifies and remembers diseases. And the third part attacks disease. Your immune system has great trouble learning now, but it should remember and it should still be able to fight. And remember, an almost unique facet of Keulfyd immune systems is that they can often identify a mutated virus whereas other Races’ immune systems can only recognize an exact match with what has been encountered before. So your immune system will activate when it detects something familiar, especially when you have active immunity from getting the disease itself, not passive immunity conferred by an innoculation. Remembering or identifying a known pathogen and attacking it are the last functions to be lost. That is what kills the young and elderly in your Race, new diseases and very mutated diseases. Your doctors think that this disease has mutated but not hugely. Does that make sense?”