Virus-72 Hours to Live (17 page)

"Mr. President I have Dr. Terly calling in
from CDC in Atlanta," announced Judy.

"Presenters, please stand-by."

"Go ahead Doctor."

"Thank-you. Mr. President I'm sorry to tell
you but Paul is in poor shape and we've put him one of our wards.
He was in poor condition when he finally collapsed and I suspect he
was in the terminal phase of the virus. I was his chief of staff,
and even though I think I've been infected, I will continue
providing updates on our progress as long as I'm able. I have no
family, they are in Los Angeles and I've lost contact with them. I
have no reason to leave, my husband is here with me and he has
agreed to stay here as long as we can."

"Unfortunately we haven't made much
progress. We do know that this virus is initiated in two ways. The
most troubling is called zero patient initiation or ZPI. For some
unknown reason, a perfectly healthy person will begin generating
the virus internally. It isn't common knowledge, but a large
percentage of our DNA material that we haven't understood in the
past is from Viruses. As we have progressed as a species, we
absorbed a small amount DNA from each of the virus' we dealt with.
Over time, those Viruses' provided a large chunk of our DNA.
Somehow parts of that DNA has become active. During the initial
phase, the virus is spread through coughing, sneezing and even
breathing. That is the most dangerous phase because it has no
symptoms and literally the person next to you can be infected and
you won't know. Once that person sneezes, coughs or wipes a mucous
membrane they pass the virus readily to those around them. These
ZPI patients appear to be about 10% of the cases. The secondary
method is through the mucus discharge. The fluid is full of the
virus and because of its aggressive nature it will infect just
about 100% of the people it contacts. These cases represent the
other 90% of the cases. If people can be separated, then the ZPI
cases can be isolated and the spread reduced significantly. I'm
sorry to say that we are beyond the effective use of that
technique, the worldwide system is vastly overburdened and there
are not enough resources to separate and care for them. We have
found a couple of people who appear to be immune, we are running
all of the tests possible hoping for some information, but we
haven't made much progress to date."

"Unfortunately continuing on the downside,
we have lost a large percentage of our staff and I'm afraid we
won't be able to keep this pace much longer. We are distributing
what we learn on an hourly basis to all of the infectious disease
laboratories in the world. Even if one of the labs isn't
responding, we still send them the information. We can only hope
our combined effort will yield some results in time. Sir, we'll
keep you posted as long as we're able."

"Dr. Terly. I'm sorry to hear that you might
have the virus. Your husband must be a good man, to stay there with
you and help to work on this. Give him my thanks."

"Thank-you sir. I'll sign off now and get
back to work."

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

Bill walked into the Desert Beach control
room and asked the duty officer Benson Mortly "How's everything
going, Benson?"

"Bill, we've moved 12 more cylinders of H-3
from the miners to the storage room. The service vehicles are being
cleaned and should start their return within the hour,"

"Thanks, Benson. How about the supply
vehicle?"

"Just a minute, I've got to bring up the
beacon and see where it is. Computer give me the location and
status of DB438."

"DB438 shows green on all systems and will
enter the moon's orbit in 12 minutes. The retrorocket will fire in
18 minutes."

"Is the tug set-up on the dual rail?"

"Yup, all set to go. Are you making the
first trip?"

"Nothing else to do today."

Moon surface to orbit and return was less of
an issue on the moon than either Earth or Mars. The moon's lower
gravity provided options the other stations didn't have. Fuel could
be produced from surface materials and the lower gravity needed
less fuel to reach orbit. The dual rail system was an ideal launch
mechanism and allowed a clean low fuel departure.

The tug was designed specifically for the
moon environment. It was long with the crew module on the nose and
the rockets on the rear. In the middle were four stations where
individual storage modules from the supply ship could be attached
and carried back to the surface.

After launch and reaching the supply ship in
orbit, the tug would nestle up beside the supply rocket. It would
attach to each of the storage modules and they would be
disconnected from the supply ship. When the tug had the four
stations locked on, it would return to the surface of the moon and
land near the dual rail. Mobile units would meet the returning tug
disengage the storage modules and move them to the storage area.
Then a unique mobile unit could rotate the light tug on its side
and place it back on the dual rail system for another launch. The
entire unloading and re-positioning on the dual rail could be done
in under half an hour and then the tug would be able to rendezvous
back with the orbiting storage vessel.

After all of the storage units were removed
from the supply vessel, the tug could dismantle the actual vehicle
and carry its component parts to the surface. The parts could be
recycled into shipping containers, which would be filled with H-3
tanks and used on the dual rail to return helium to Oasis.

Bill was always respectful of the moon
environment risks when he was operating the tug. While unloading
the supply vessel and transiting back and forth, he was alone. The
safety systems provided a significant margin of safety, but still,
being alone in such an environment demanded respect.

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

Bill finished putting his EVA suit on, his
wife Sally and Benson checked all of the connections. Unlike the
suites used by the Mars colony, the environment of the moon
demanded a stronger suit and it took longer to put on and secure
properly.

"Ok, honey. The suit is all buttoned up,
you're good to go," said his wife Sally as she patted him on the
shoulder.

"Ok, let me get my commlink synced up." Tom
waited while his suit computer checked all of the pressures and
mixtures then it established a link with the station computers.

Once that was done, it said, "All systems
are within limits."

"Ok, I'm all linked. See you guys later,"
Bill said as he lowered himself into the tunnels with the one-man
elevator in the control room. When he reached the bottom, he passed
through a vacuum door, which was an airlock and provided a backup
barrier for the control room and the tunnels.

The tunnels had a breathable air mixture and
were pressurized to about 10 psi. The suits were stored on the
pressure side of the tunnels so if a crewman was planning to exit
the compound and go onto the surface through a tunnel they had to
'suite-up' before entering them. In most cases, the tunnels were
for fast movement between habitats and not a place where the crew
would hang around. The long-term plan included building stronger
tunnels that would be part of the main flow of the facility and
most of the living quarters would be moved underground. They hadn't
reached that level of safety, but they were good enough to go from
A to B.

Getting into the tug wasn't too difficult.
One of the mobile units that stood by to unload the storage modules
would pick him up with a hook attached to his shoulders and deposit
him in the control module. Once there, it was just a matter of
strapping himself in and using the dual rail to launch. He remained
on suit air and pressure in the tug, so he didn't have to worry
about any pressurization issues.

Bill enjoyed the alone time in the tug. The
moon colony was a little cramped and it was rare to have time
alone. In the tug, he could get into orbit easily hook up to the
supply vessel and return, then do it again. It was on his schedule
and up to him to get the job done.

He finished strapping into the tug and the
auto connections were completed. He indicated to the onboard
computer that he was ready for launch and the computer indicated
that he was 1 minute 12 seconds from the launch window to intercept
the orbiting vehicle. The comm was quiet so Bill just sat in the
tug and looked at the view. The dual rail was inclined slightly to
the surface and was aimed between two peaks that were about 10
kilometers away. The sun was still about 30 degrees off the
horizon, which meant they had about 18 hours before the sun reached
the lowest point on their horizon. Locating the facility on the
crater rim meant that it didn't get into full darkness, but the
amount of light was reduced. The Earth was about to set towards his
right side and it was quiet. Time for a deep breath.

"Prepare for launch in 10 seconds," the
onboard computer indicated.

Bill leaned back so his helmet was against
the headrest in preparation for the acceleration. He gripped the
handles on his sides and made note of the capsule ejection loop,
which was between his legs. If necessary, he could eject from the
capsule and return to the moon's surface with a rocket stabilized
tether. Upon ejection, a tether would fire perpendicular to the
surface and fire a stabilizing rocket that would gently lower him
to the surface. He could then either wait for pick-up or walk back.
If that happened and the tug was lost, the colony would be in bad
shape. Depending on the damage done, they might be able to
reconstruct another tug using the various reusable parts, which
were recycled from the supply rockets.

"5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds,
prepare, launch," the voice in his headset spoke to him.

There was no sound just a constant 4 g
acceleration. He was clear of the dual rail in 4.2 seconds and his
launch rocket kicked in. The 4 g acceleration dropped to a
comfortable 2.5 and then lowered to zero as he approached orbit.
When the launch rocket thrust dropped off the computer informed
him, "Target craft is 10 O'clock and your approach velocity is 20
meters per second. Your approach vector is 20 degrees off thrust
line."

Everything was proceeding normally and Bill
was waiting for the 100-meter point where the computer would make
an automatic adjustment to his thrust line and slow him to 10
meters per second. Either at that point, he could wait for the
computer to make the approach within 50 meters or he could take
over and make the approach manually. He always liked to do it by
hand; it kept his skills sharp.

Fortunately, the pick-up at the supply
vessel went per plan and Bill linked up to four of the modules and
returned to the moon's surface on the next orbit. When the mobile
units removed the four containers, Bill sat quietly while the tug
was placed back on the dual rail and he prepared for his next
trip.

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

"Control, please put me on Desert Beach
freq," Joan transmitted to the control center.

"Roger, Joan; you're on freq."

"Desert Beach this is Oasis."

"Go ahead Oasis."

"We've been having a tough time here. We've
lost one of the OS210 crewmembers to the virus and, unfortunately,
most of the remainder of OS is coming down with the symptoms. One
of the Oasis crew who came on board 3 weeks ago suddenly and
independently came down with the virus. We've moved him into the
same isolated section as the OS210 crew. The bad news is, we may
all have been exposed, particularly his roommate. I've shut the
station down and directed everyone to stay in their quarters. If
any emergency repairs are needed, then we'll use small crews and
still keep everyone separated. All we can do is lock down and hope
some of us make it."

"What is the latest information from
SC?"

"We talked with them a while ago and they
don't know much more about the virus. The virus can start
independently within a person as well as transmitted by coughing
and sneezing. No one has an explanation and there is no talk of a
cure, vaccine or anything. It looks dismal for everyone. SC hasn't
come up with any new information. The medical people on site were
in constant contact with other medical facilities throughout the
world, but none of them had any answers. The disease is spreading
at a disastrous rate. Reluctantly SC admitted they were losing
people at an alarming rate also.

"Since we spoke we've been having problems
getting them online."

"Joan, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't what
to say. We may be isolated, but we can last only so long without
your support. I guess all any of us can do is sit back and see how
this plays out."

"Good luck Sally."

"Good luck Joan."

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

"This is the space station Oasis
transmitting in the blind. We haven't had any contact with the
Space Consortium for a couple of hours and we aren't fully aware of
what is happening on Earth. We are aware of the Hovarti virus and
the disastrous effects that it is having. OS210 docked with us and
it had one infected crewman. The remained of the crew is continuing
to deteriorate and the outlook is grim. The crew on Oasis may also
be infected. We had one spontaneous infection and that person was
moved to the isolation area with the crew from OS210. We fear for
the health of the supply ship and we also fear for the health of
the crewmembers on Oasis. If anyone hears this and can provide
help, please contact us. We will continue transmitting our status
in the blind. Oasis out."

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

"Oasis; Desert Beach. We heard your
transmission and we just wanted to let you know that we're here.
We're sorry to hear about Bernard. I never knew him, but some of
the people here have. They say he was a good guy and he had a wife
and two children. Our prayers are with all of you. I didn't want
you to feel totally alone.