Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (64 page)

Scientists
weren't easy to understand. Mi had said that Nil Ponn, the media
darling, was very qualified to give advice and Hal said Sop Lett
suggested he trust a newsman named Dok Finn to aid in any way the
media could. This was a rare time the media wasn't fighting against
everything anyone wanted to do.

The media
darling, Ponn, had the virus. He would have been sent to the
island, otherwise. He let it be known he continued his researches
for the time being. He was both presentable and articulate, which
made him the natural choice. He proposed that the people from the
networks speak with him through a glass wall, though logic would
say there were any number of the media people who had spread the
thing among most newsmen already. They made interviews at the scene
of the War of the Scrolls! That was most probably where Ponn had
picked it up in the first place. He had always been close to the
reporters.

Enn shook his
head. This was one HELL of a time to be in a position like his. A
nonpolitical ex-priest who was chairman of the ruling council of
the largest nation on Kroon immediately after the aliens disrupted
the society and destroyed their oldest and strongest institutions
with a few words finds himself being attacked by a virus that could
easily destroy the entire race. That sounds like a cheap novel! No
one would buy the damned thing because the plot's too complicated
and far too implausible. These things simply don't happen in real
life.

What about the
aliens? If we could only hope the signals will be seen or heard –
but signals sent before the beginning of this thing, before the
island was even prepared, won't reach an empire planet for three
hundred years. There won't be any Kroon by then.

The people were
beginning to be suspicious of one another and little cruelties were
becoming part of everyday life. One never knew who might have the
virus so he avoided contact. That led to much impersonal rejection,
which led to acid returns. To even say hello to a stranger was to
expect an insult in return. There wasn't one solitary damned thing
he could do about any of it.

Go on from day
to day and hope something will come from those people on the
islands. They're our only hope. It was a horrible responsibility
and Enn knew every one of them out there felt the weight of that
responsibility.

Enn called the
newsman and talked a few minutes, setting up an appointment, then
met with the council. He had a good meal ready at 20:00 when Dok
arrived and they talked for several hours. Dok was most relieved
there was no accident on the islands. He agreed this was probably
the only way the researches could hope to progress. As this thing
got worse there was little doubt the facilities on the mainland
would become swamped with those who were infected. That could
easily accomplish nothing more than shutting down research. People
in personal panic would end up preventing the very thing that may
save them.

Dok was
slightly past middle age, a pragmatist, very sharp and was
certainly not going to do anything to damage the research that
could save the race. He was a little put out that Sop would trick
him, but Enn lied a little. He told Dok that Sop wanted it
explained to him that he needed the spontaneity of Dok's mind in
the circumstances. It was through Sop's recommendation they were
meeting right now. Now Dok knew the truth and the reasons behind it
and could be trusted to do the right thing.

When Dok left,
Enn called the scientist, Dr. Nil Ponn, to say he was positive the
islands would soon be again in regular daily communication with
him, but his researches were now of doubled importance and his
government was behind him all the way and blah blah blah.

That duty
handled Enn went to bed. He always had the ability to will himself
to sleep and had no trouble this night, though he didn't doubt he
would awaken almost as tired as when he went to bed. He was getting
used to that, too.

* * * * *

Jak Tall
strolled through the kitchen area before going to bed. He'd smelled
ozone earlier and was sure there was a short somewhere, but
couldn't locate it very accurately. He didn't like electrical
shorts because of the damage they could do. One never knew when the
fire would start. If no one was around it could ruin a whole
section of this facility.

The meters he
had attached to each circuit had little recorders to find this sort
of problem. He checked each of them carefully, but no circuit was
drawing current that was even slightly past what was required.

He'd smelled
the ozone at noonmeal, too.

Something was
wrong here! The place could burn down! He had to do something
before this place was twisted wreckage. It could.... Well, it could
sustain damage. Most of it was fireproof. Mi Yinn thought of that
before the project was off of paper.

It seemed the
only time he'd smelled the ozone was when the stoves were in use so
it was those circuits. They didn't ever draw huge amounts of
current. Maybe it would be all right.

He sat on a
table and chewed the glamp twig for a moment, then snapped his
fingers, went to his shed and returned with a device to read
leakage of microwaves. He turned on the ovens and watched as the
needle went over to the danger zone near one oven. Microwave leak
on oven four had been breaking down the air and ionizing it. It was
as simple as that – no short.

He went back to
the shed, returning with his toolbox and some seal. He fixed the
oven in ten minutes, tested it and the others again just to be very
sure, put his tools away and went to bed. Consider the problem,
find it, fix it, relax. That was a basic part of his personal
philosophy. Some things were simpler than they appeared on the
surface. Most weren't. It was a matter of considering all the
angles.

Jak Tall slept,
as always, like an innocent baby. He had a mind that wasn't
cluttered with a lot of useless fear and worry. He was honest as
the next and moreso than most and didn't owe any man. Best to keep
life like that. Know your job, do your job. When it's time to eat,
you eat. When it's time to work, you work. When it's time to play,
you play.

When it's time
to sleep, you sleep

.

The
Horror
Grows

Enn Far
finished the memorial services for the first council member, Lok
Tenn, to die with the plague. She was popular and would be sorely
missed. Any of them would be missed. He was as much as forced to
conduct the services as he was both the acting chairman of the
council and an ex-priest of the Ithians. Several sports figures,
war "heroes" (Were there any such things? Enn doubted it.) and
actors had already succumbed, bringing home to the populace that
this was as bad as advertised. People were more and more isolating
themselves and their families from others. It was fast becoming
almost impossible to carry on a conversation with a stranger. If
one person tried to get within touching distance of the next he
might be violently attacked. People were striking out at one
another senselessly. There was no more congregating for shows or
musical entertainments and sports were as much as dead. There were
no mass live audiences anymore – and this was just starting. It
would get far worse.

A few were
showing much more compassion than anyone would have believed of the
Kroon, too. There was that in Kroon’s favor if there was nothing
else. People were truly caring about other people. It wasn't a
personal caring so much as a sharing of horror, but it was a start.
Enn could only hope they would be around to build on it.

There would be
no gathering after the service. The people were standing as though
there were squares and circles like those on the famous board game
and they must not step out of their own space. To do so would mean
touching and that must be avoided. Even these old friends in the
council, the keenest minds from the entire nation, were affected.
They had as much fear as anyone, or more. They could see the whole
picture that the average man could not.

Enn walked
along the aisle to lay the single white "Spirit of Hope Lily" on
the casket, saluted and went directly on out and to his private
office chambers. There was no point in staying there. Everyone
would leave. They were attending only from a sense of duty. If they
could have thought of any lame excuse whatever that would be
acceptable to the people they wouldn't be here.

Enn picked up
the com and called Dr. Ponn, who was still doing well. They talked
and Ponn said some people had a small natural resistance so the
virus affected them more slowly. Lok had been recovering from
another infection and was in a weakened condition from that. The
virus hadn't been resisted enough by her body's defense system. Any
infection from any source would allow this virus to attack more
quickly, it being what is known as an "opportunistic" virus and was
also a retrovirus, which meant little to Enn Far. Very few of the
terms he was supposed to throw around as though he were some kind
of expert meant anything to him. It was simply that appearance of
knowledge was somehow soothing to the deep fears of the people.

Who would
soothe Enn Far's fears?

There was
nothing very positive to report yet. There was an extract from a
plant in Fricke that slowed the effects slightly by coating the
nerves and causing the virus some minor trouble in reaching its
specialized point of attack. It was both rare and expensive so was
of such greatly limited use that only a couple of people in Fricke
were working with it. It could barely possibly be synthesized, but
that was a process that yet had to be worked out. The advantages
were minimal.

Enn said his
fond good fortunes and called the island. He talked awhile with Sop
Lett, who was working on the constitution "to keep from losing my
sanity." He then talked with Hal Korr, who was doing lab work with
Mi Yinn for the same reason. He would appreciate anything that
would take his mind off of what was happening in the rest of the
world, as they all would.

He hung up
after exchanging a few pleasantries and sat back to think. It was
the halfyear since the island began its work. People were beginning
to show symptoms all over and he was selected by unanimous vote of
the council to remain as chairman until the crisis was past one way
or the other. He had no real choice, still and always the reluctant
leader. It was the people's way of dumping their blames and fears
onto someone else.

That was not
true and not fair. He just wasn't meant to have this responsibility
and feared along with all the other fears that he wouldn't prove
strong enough to handle it.

There was a
fairly accurate statistical basis for the plague's spread and they
knew the number of people with the virus would double every two
point four years. Six point eight five million people had it now,
worldwide. People were dying at the rate of more than a hundred a
day. Almost everyone knew someone who was dead or very close to it.
The panic was over for most. An air of hopelessness descended on
the race, suicides were more than half of the direct cause of death
from the plague as the last forty five or fifty days were intense
agony and many would rather end it before that began. If there were
any hope of a cure the suicides may stop. People no longer had any
moral objections if someone diagnosed as having the virus took the
quick and easy way out. If there were any sign of hope that would
change. The faces of those who were diagnosed as having the disease
were pure agony to Enn. All hope was gone and fear lurked in the
expression and shone from the eyes. There wasn't a thing he could
say or do. He was truly impotent to even give a word of simple
encouragement. He held little hope himself.

So far no one
was found who had been closely exposed to the virus who hadn't
tested positive, but Ponn kept saying they were testing for the
antibodies and it was possible some would prove immune to the
disease. That was shown by the fact the body DID produce those
antibodies. The big problem was that those who were immune would
probably be carriers and could continue infecting many others. They
were, if anything, more dangerous than the ones who died from the
virus. Once the host was dead the virus soon died itself.

The race had no
way to fight the thing. They were shooting in the dark – blind,
deaf, no senses. They had no idea of where the target may be or,
indeed, if there even was a target. It was too possible there would
never be a cure, but perhaps they could find a preventative agent.
It was all too possible there wasn't a preventative agent, either.
That was the great fear. If it were true the Kroon race was
dead.

Still, there
was no other way. There was no precedent for this thing. There were
no methods. Everyone must take any small idea, no matter how
unlikely, and try. Perhaps the preventative was destined to come as
one of those accidents. History was full of that sort of thing. If
enough people shot at random sooner or later one of them would hit
something. Problem was there wasn't going to be a later so it had
to be sooner. There also had to be the something to hit.

What sickened
him personally was that there were those who would hold out a false
hope to people. They claimed cures simply to make a few stars for
themselves. Greed was far from extinct in the Kroon race! It seemed
to be its most lasting feature!

There were
those who truly thought they had something, but they always offered
it free. What must be stopped is the racket whereby a family with
one or more afflicted members was bled of all the stars they had
saved or could earn by those charlatans without any morals. Enn was
almost willing to sign a decree of dire emergency under which any
found doing that were to be publicly executed. There was certainly
precedent and there were as yet no constitutional guarantees.