*
Az had been thinking, “Li, we have some decisions to make. Like where do you want to live?”
“Huh?” said Li whose mind had been elsewhere.
“Where do you want to live? We have four planets to choose from.”
“What do you mean? How will we get to them?”
“Li, the planet is full of spaceships.”
“Can you fly them? I thought you could just fly planes and aren’t they all disabled?”
“A spaceship is just a fancy plane. I can fly anything including those Flying Fortresses. Not legally, but I can. I even have a spaceship license. And with time we can find or make the part that is missing. Well, Akira thinks he can make it. Did you think we would be marooned here even if we won? Why did you think I’ve been telling you about Petislay?”
“I thought you were just making conversation. And distracting me. We never thought you could fly spaceships! Oh. I’ll have to tell the others.”
“So where would you like to live?”
“Oh.” she thought quickly. “Petislay, at least I want to check it out first.”
Az’s mouth opened in shock, “Not Terra?”
“No, definitely not Terra! Maybe Torroxell but not Terra. I’d like to go to Petislay first.”
“Oh. Wonderful! My parents will love you! Especially my Mother.”
Az looked over at Stella and Kaz. What a relief! He would have gone to Terra but he had been apprehensive. He suddenly realized with a shock, that sometime over the last few days his thinking had changed. Now, he was anticipating a future. Life after the war!
Now what about those two? He looked around. No one in sight. He grabbed Li, dragged her behind a bush and thoroughly kissed her. She laughed and blushed at the same time. She snuggled into his pelt laughing at the feel appeal.
The day off was a great success for all Terrans and associated Allies.
Counter Attack
For the Aliens, the day was not so good. It began with the Keulfyd becoming more and more worried about the sickness that was spreading and worsening. Now there were People sick on the spaceships. Some of the first to be sick were now getting better but they were most unwell and would not be capable of working for a while. A few were worsening. They were starting to bleed from their stomachs. The doctors still had not worked out what the cause was.
The parasites were happily multiplying on the Sasgys and the Bidifix. Mathew had lied to the children. The parasites did not cause itching. There had been no indications, until today, of the problems to come. This morning, many of the Sasgys and Bidifix had woken feeling vaguely unwell. Due to the illness among the Keulfyd, the attack on the cities had been delayed a day or two. They were ahead of schedule. It did not matter. Because it was now a day off, very few of the Sasgys or Bidifix reported sick. There was no reason to. They could now rest. They thought they were just tired. They had, after all, been working hard and steadily, most without a day off. Most had no job allocated today or only a few hours. Those that had to work, felt well enough to work a little. Those that didn’t, thought a day off would fix them. Because of the under reporting of illness, there was no alarm.
The Trydshell and the Opodskell also had woken with some of them feeling vaguely unwell. They also thought they were just tired since many had felt not great for several days. A day off would fix them, they thought. Few were assigned work and none were too sick to perform it. Few reported sick.
But the Vubicik were reporting sick though in small numbers as yet because, again, most did not have to work today.
The nurses, who were trained to care for multiple races, saw more of the whole picture. Some of them were feeling unwell. They still worked. They did not report sick but they did talk among themselves. There was little communication between the cities and the spaceships. This was due to the organization of the Attack Force, where initially each spaceship was assigned separate cities and they worked competitively not cooperatively. Communication was left up the Keulfyd. Preoccupied with their own problems, they were not listening to others. But the picture was incomplete.
Another hindrance to clarity was that the doctors were mostly trauma specialists. That was what they were employed for. That was what they primarily treated. A force of mostly young people, who had had full medicals prior to or during transit, were not supposed to get ill. They were not diagnosticians.
The next morning however, the picture was clear. Most People were feeling unwell. Some were very unwell. The penny dropped. This looked like Biological Warfare. By late morning all but one of the diagnoses were correctly made. By midday, the Keulfyd virus was identified also. That was because the doctors now had the missing information; Biological Warfare. They broadened the scope of their investigation looking at all illnesses and specifically at illnesses with this potential. They then found the virus that they had not programmed the computers to look for. They thought this virus had been virtually eliminated through inoculation so it was off the Common Illnesses Register. But worse was to come. They were now looking specifically for signs of virus tampering. They found it.
The Chief Medical Officer, Isjidakawi, reported now in full to Tyrid and Lijfomid, “This virus has been tampered with. It is more infectious than it should be, it is more virulent, and its incubation period is shortening. It is worsening with each generation. That is the opposite of what it should be doing. This virus normally is at its worst when it first starts. Then its virulence decreases, the length of time between generations increases and the severity lessens. It is doing the exact opposite. The first ones infected are mostly recovering although they will be unwell for some time. The ones they infected are much worse.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean by generations?” asked Tyrid.
“One generation is the time from initial infection, to catching the virus, to another catching it from that first person. The generation for the virus.” Tyrid indicated understanding but Lijfomid looked puzzled. “Getting caught by one Person and reproducing in that person, and then spreading to another. Often diseases change in how bad they are, during that time. Most of our diseases decrease in severity, rate of infection and virulence.” By his expression, Lijfomid had now got it. But not completely. He asked,
“Sorry, but what is virulence. Exactly.”
“The rate of infection. How many catch it.”
Lijfomid was thinking hard. He had heard these terms used but hadn’t been sure of their exact meaning. But now he needed to understand the problem in order to plan ahead. He thought he understood now. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. This new programme is the best and the latest we have. It checks for mutations and tampering among many other things. This virus has been tampered with. I am certain. These changes are not natural.”
“How much worse? Will some die?”
“You don’t understand. We are beaten. This virus had a fatality of around 9%. That’s 9% of those that became infected. Centuries ago, it used to occur most years, in the winter. That was before we had climate control. About 20% of the population could catch it in a year when it was considered highly infectious. I’m talking a death toll in the population of 1.8% of the total population. That’s a lot of people in a population of 15 billion. Or whatever the population was then. At that it is rated serious. That fatality rate assumes treatment at a good medical facility. We are not equipped to handle this. We will need huge amounts of clean blood. We do not have it. Not stored and not in the population here. There are not enough of us who are unaffected to be a reservoir. There are at least 45% infected on the ships. That’s a shocking rate of infection! I’ve never heard of a rate that high! And it’s rising! The cities will be worse. Testing is continuing. That 45% is only those who show sufficient numbers of virus to be detected. The actual rate of infection will be higher and it is continuing. This virus is airborne. We just found that out. We have isolated the medical facility but it is too late. This virus was never previously airborne. That also is new. Airborn
e diseases are now incredibly rare. They were the first ones we eliminated. This is Biological Warfare. This is deliberate. We have been targeted. Someone knows who we are and where we are. It would take years, maybe decades to develop this virus as it has been altered. We are finished. We must surrender.”
More in touch with his crew and their physical health, Tyrid understood. His bridge crew were making mistakes, tired all the time, their concentration was rotten and some couldn’t focus properly. Either their attention or their eyes! He had had to move them around to different jobs and he was frequently having to send them to the hospital or off duty. Some had collapsed at their posts. Reports of sickness and crew unable to do their jobs were coming in from all over his ship, from his medical staff and his officers. He knew this was bad but he had come to this meeting expecting to be told how soon he could expect them to recover. And he had noticed the first signs in himself two days ago.
“Stop exaggerating. There will be enough of us to continue. Even with double the death rate,” argued Lijfomid.
“You are not listening! Can’t you count?! It will not be double. The only ones who are sure to survive this are those who have already survived. Or those that had a full treatment in the Machines. I only know of eight who have had that. They may still catch it but they should have some resistance. They should survive. I will check with the Okme but I suspect of the ones who have just been treated, only those who have had a Full Treatment will have some resistance. But there will not be enough People to care for us. There are not enough facilities, respirators, the vaccine does not work; we have already tried it. Without the vaccine, the fatality rate was 30-40%. The infection rate is already at least 45%. Calculate a fatality rate of 40% of those 45%. Nearly a quarter of us dead and another quarter too sick to work. And who is going to look after us? But it will be worse. I feel it. Looking at the increase in the virulence, I suspect most of us will catch it and most of us will die. If this is the second generation, what will happen in the fourth of fifth? If enough of us are left alive. And who will crew the ships?
But it is not just us. I don’t understand what is happening. The Vubicik virus also shows signs of tampering. It is much worse than it should be. And there seems to be a huge rate of infection there too. The virus affecting the Trydshell and Opodskell is one of the nastiest illnesses they have. It will kill large numbers of them. More because we cannot treat them. And because their sanity will be in question, we have to disarm them. They cannot fight.
The Sasgy toxin has been tampered with. The parasites are proving very difficult to kill. We do not have enough treatment for the toxin, nor solution to kill the parasite producing it. We have run out. Almost all of them seem to be infested.
The Bidifix virus is also nasty. Again, we have run out of the solution to kill these pests. Again, the rate of infestation is very high. High meaning almost all of them. All the death rate data assumes full medical facilities.”
“Will you stop panicking? These illnesses are not that severe. I have looked them up.”
Isjidakawi, who had tested positive for the virus, lost his temper, “There are nearly 3000 just of us! There are medical facilities for 350! That is not enough facilities even for the sick of our Race! We are equipped for trauma not illness! We are already running out of supplies! Most of our medical staff are sick! Including me! Have you had a Full Machine Treatment?!”
“No,” said a now very frightened Lijfomid who was finally catching up with the math.
“Neither have I. We are not young. It is hopeless. We are dead without an anti viral. Whoever is doing this should have it. This has taken a lot of work. Years of work. A full laboratory or more. A lot of research. I wouldn’t know how to start. Which enemy is it? Who is doing this? Why is this attack so encompassing? Why all the other Races as well? Who is the intended target? I thought it was us until I calculated the fatality rate of all the other affected Races. I don’t know for sure who the target is now. Or why. This is so confusing.”
Tyrid by now was in shock. He didn’t pay attention to much apart from his ship. He had had no idea that disease was rampant in the other races. He had considered asking for some help from them even though other races on his bridge drove him nuts. Scrap that plan. For the first time he wondered if they would survive this. If they could. He never expected to die like this.
But this was the puzzle. The three looked at each other in confusion. “How did this happen? Who is doing it?” asked Tyrid. “An inside job?”
“I think so,” said Isjidakawi. “The Yakkidimux are our chief suspects as they are aggressive and numerically the largest race not affected. But they all seem as frightened as everyone else and paranoid about the least sign of illness. And their medical science is not that good.”
“Could they have contracted this out?” asked Lijfomid. “And who should we surrender to?”
And there was another little problem, unsaid, worrying them all. The identity of the Planet Attackers was a closely guarded secret. Should this secret get out their own people would deal most unkindly with them.
They ended the meeting with no decisions and more confusion and despair than before. Lijfomid thought furiously. He had to urgently reduce the risk to themselves from themselves. He suddenly thought of the hunter/killer satellites that were still orbiting. If someone changed the ID of a Flying Fortress, which was very easy to do, the ship would be targeted. He had to get those satellites down! He ordered them all recalled. Many had already returned, out of ammunition or fuel. What else? The cleanup satellites! They could also be used to target the ships as they could be programmed into an intersecting orbit and ordered to ignore ID signals. Colliding with one would cause a lot of damage. He ordered them recalled as well. Normally these tasks were done last.
Casually, he explained that this could and should be done now to save time and effort later due to all the sickness. And their job was done. This made sense to his staff so they made no comment. Over the next several hours, the satellites folded up and landed near the ships on the ground, or docked within the ships still orbiting. Due to the lack of fit personnel, it would take a few days for these to be stowed away but that could wait and it was another hazard dealt with. To the crew this made sense. Another job to be dealt with as and when they got around to it. The storing away could wait.
Lijfomid was exhausted. He hadn’t worked so hard in years. He couldn’t eat, he could barely tolerate fluids, he felt awful. All he wanted to do was sleep. His stomaches hurt so badly and he felt nauseous. He kept vomiting up blood. He was frightened but this only served to make him more alert and more cautious. He just had to survive this. He took a moment to consider his own fate. His fortune was well diversified and well spread. His risk taking was planned and careful. He never risked it all, he hadn’t for decades. He would survive with enough to restart. Heck he could retire if he really wanted to. He could hide. He had been prepared for something like this for years. Best to get on with it then.
He trudged back to his cabin and accessed the carefully hidden Communication panel. Only one other person on board had one of these panels. It had cost him a small fortune to have it installed but it would now save him a very large fortune! He could send a message off world. To do so was forbidden but no one would detect this. Which was why he had installed it. He sent off a pre-arranged signal to his wife and children. It would take a while to get there as it would be redirected so its point of origin could not be traced and vice versa. It helped one survive to be paranoid. His wife would now set in place a plan rehearsed for years. Just in case this went badly. It might. His instincts were now screaming and they were generally right. He wondered if he would survive. He had aliases organised; vastly expensive and elaborate thanks to some unregretably deceased People who had tried to cheat him. He would be physically unrecognisable if this nonsense carried on. He chuckled at that unintended consequence. He was going to lose a lot of weight. Pity. Weight was status for Keulfyd and their bodies were designed to com
pensate. Muscles grew largerand stronger, including the heart and other internal organs. Added weight did not make them unhealthy. It made them formidable.