Alien Alliance (46 page)

“Wait until the second moon comes up and all
is quiet. Sneak out like I sneaked in. Take my suit. Drop the guns.
Drop everything technical and artificial. Get going until I find
the Cats who will be in the trees near where we landed. Go
underground with them. Wait until they say it’s safe for me to go
and then go to the Priskya who will hide me in those underwater
caves. Stay there until the Priskya say it’s safe to go and tell
the universe what happened here.”

“Donny, Plan D.”

“As for everyone else except when the Cats
say it’s safe I am to try to make my way to Helkmid where Alan and
Dieter will be. When I get there, Alan can go to the Priskya or the
Cats if it is safer there.”

“Very good,” said Rani. “Everyone knows
where to go and how to get there?” She looked around and they all
nodded.

Julia and Rani sat down together. Julia
sighed, “I know this plan has been gone over and over but there are
so many variables like what happens if we win in some cities and
lose in others?”

“Mathew’s right. We keep it simple. Stick to
the Plan. No complications. First priority is the safety of the
children. Let the Cats sort it out. I trust them and the Cats and
Priskya can communicate, remember.” Rani didn’t know how Mahmoud
would fare either. She had trouble with the thought of him killing
anyone. She hoped it wouldn’t damage him psychologically.

“I trust the Cats but Helkmid is up to
something. Donny thinks so too. But I trust him too. We have to. He
was too ready, too prepared. All that huge amount of research done
on the Keulfyd virus and not the research he was supposed to do!
Kelly said it probably took him decades. It’s as if he expected
something to happen.”

“Maybe he did.”

“Then why did he come to Torroxell? Why did
he risk it? And why did he let Donny and Mahmoud in.”

“More to the point, why did he let them out
again when they knew he and his staff were there? Why did he trust
us? He had a lot to lose if we ratted on him.”

“Maybe he thought the Aliens would just
shoot first and not ask questions. He would have been right I
think. They don’t ask questions, they just gas.” Julia looked
around cautiously but it was safe. No children in sight.

*

The next day Rani went over the plans again
in more detail until the kids were word perfect.

“Plan A, Bea and Bella.”

“Wait till the second moon comes up and all
is quiet. Sneak out like we sneaked in. Take our suits. Drop the
guns. Drop every other piece of technology and everything
artificial. Get going until I find the Cats who will be waiting for
me near where the planes landed, under the trees. Go with them
underground. Wait till the Cats say to go, in a few days or weeks,
to the Priskya if I can. They will hide me in that underground
cave. I stay there a few years until the Priskya say it’s safe and
tell the universe what happened here. Tasha and Alia to try to get
there too.”

“Plan C, Ilse.”

“I’m to go, with Bea, Harsha and Bella to
the Cats. I’m to stay there until they tell me it’s safe to reveal
what happened here.”

“Plan D. Donny.”

“I’m to go first to the Cats and then when
it’s safe, to go to Helkmid if I can get there safely. The Cats to
decide and get me there. I’m to look after Dieter.”

Finally, Rani was satisfied but that didn’t
stop the worry. Was this going to be enough to keep her children
alive? She trusted the Priskya and Cats though. And Helkmid was
well prepared to hide. But how did he hide from the scanners? Yet
he had said he could. He had said he had a shield, just big enough
which was why he had known so much about how to run the power grid.
His shield had to be re powered at times but it ran on the same
battery type things the Healing machines ran on and he had a lot of
them.

Frequently, the topic of Az and Kaz came up.
Ludmilla, Minka, Kelly and Helene were all talking in a group.

“I think either those boys have a
domineering mother or their society is matriarchal,” Minka declared
and Ludmilla added,

“The latter, I reckon.”

“What makes you think that?” Asked
Kelly.

“Watch them. They take orders off Mathew but
sometimes argue or challenge. They take orders, conspicuously, from
other people, two especially, without much arguing and even if they
hate the orders.”

“What? What have you noticed?” asked
Helene.

Minka looked pointedly at Kelly, “There’s a
competitiveness from them around men too. They take suggestions
from Sarah as an order, they respect women, they take orders or
requests from women, and they’ll take ANY order from Kelly.”

Kelly looked shocked. But then she thought
hard. It was true she realized. “Why?”

“They want your girls, Kelly,” Minka said
softly, “and I think they genuinely like you. They certainly
respect you. Don’t panic,” she said as she saw the look on Kelly’s
face, “I would guess around women, they are the most honourable men
on the planet.”

“What do I do to stop them?”

“You can’t stop them Kelly. Only the girls
can do that. If they want to. Only the girls should stop them. And
why bother to try? Tomorrow we may all be dead. If the boys are
dead tomorrow, at least the girls will have the memories,” Minka
sighed. “I never married the boy I loved,” she said softly.

*

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.

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. Airborne
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.”