DM Arnold - The Altian Plague (The Earthbound Series)

THE ALTIAN PLAGUE

Volume IV of the Earthbound Series

A novel by D M Arnold

For more volumes in this series, visit

http://www.virtualimprint.com/earthbound/

Edition of 6/18/2007

Copyright (C) 2004-2007 by D M Arnold. All rights reserved.

Published by VIRTUAL imprint

http://www.virtualimprint.com

Table of Contents

After completing the third volume of the Earthbound Trilogy, I began a fourth story set several years after the conclusion of Planetbound . I ended up abandoning this project because -- well, because Planetbound pretty much puts a period on things. Once your characters ride off into the sunset, it can be less satisfying if they ride back in again.

A reader's suggestion started me thinking, and I realized there is some room between the final chapter of Planetbound and the epilogue -- enough room for another story or two. This is where The Altian Plague fits. I hope my readers won't mind taking the step or two backward from the conclusion of the original Trilogy that enables us to resume Nyk's story...

-- D M Arnold, April 2004

Nykkyo Kyhana climbed to the surface at the Canal Street subway station and hiked ten blocks to an office building in the Tribeca section of Manhattan. He mounted the stairs and opened a door marked FloranCo. Good morning, Jaquie.

Good morning, Mr Kane.

He nodded toward lower Manhattan. I see they're starting to remove the debris in earnest.

Yes, she replied, but it could be a couple of years before things return to normal.

Did you know any of the victims? he asked.

No, thank God. I feel so sorry for you, Mr Kane -- losing your wife and father-in- law -- and, with a little one at home. How are you coping?

Fine -- considering. It's difficult for Suki's mom...

Seymor stepped from his office. Can I speak with you, lad?

We'll talk later, Nyk said to Jaquie.

Before I forget. She handed him an envelope.

Nyk examined its contents on his way into Seymor's office. It held two airline tickets: A one-way to Kansas City and one-way from Milwaukee.

You're going through with it? Seymor asked.

I certainly am. Dyppa will make a fine contributor working in our Wisconsin lab.

I wish I shared your confidence, Nyk. I like Dyppa, and I hope she works out. But -- frankly, the book says, 'no.' We've had big trouble with other Agents who've had histories of addiction...

Dyppa has completed her rehab, Nyk replied.

Nonetheless... You know how susceptible Floran psycho-addicts are to the temptations found here ... alcohol ... and worse -- stuff that's physically addicting, not just psychologically.

She wasn't responsible for her addiction. Zander did that to her. I spent time with her, Seymor. She told me she was desperate to be clean and I believe her. Her caseworker says her prognosis is excellent.

What about her age? She'll be the youngest Agent we've ever put into the field.

She's past the age of consent...

But, not the age of majority.

Her mother has consented to this assignment. Dyppa's intelligent and eager. Seymor -- we need someone who can help with the potato blight. The homeworld plant breeders are stymied -- they need fresh genetic material, and I've exhausted what I can do in that small lab in Queens. Dyppa is the first Floran who's shown interest and ability to perform this assignment. She'll work out.

Well -- as her sponsor, it'll fall hard on you if she doesn't. What are your plans?

I leave for Kansas City tonight, and Grynnya will take me to the relay station. The inbound Gamma-5 packet has been diverted and I'll ride to Floran on that. I was planning on spending a couple of days in Sudal visiting Suki -- if that's all right with you.

Nyk -- whenever you want to travel home to visit her -- go right ahead. You don't need an excuse. I'll understand.

Thanks, Seymor.

Does she know you're coming?

No -- I wanted to surprise her. Suki likes surprises.

Nyk stood at the security checkpoint at LaGuardia. He placed his case on the belt and watched it roll through the X-ray scanner. He stepped through the metal detector and it beeped. He rolled his eyes and wondered if this was to be the drill for all his future flights.

A security screener motioned him aside. Raise your arms, she said and passed a hand wand over him. It buzzed as it passed over his right wrist.

He unbuttoned his cuff and presented his wrist. I broke it and I have a pin in it, he explained.

She nodded toward a table where his case sat. He stood as she popped it open, rifled through its contents and gave him a sideward glance. Nyk smiled and shrugged. She snapped it shut. Okay, go get on your flight.

He picked up his case and headed for the departure lounge. As he waited for his boarding call he examined his right wrist. At the base of his thumb was a lump, about the size of a grain of rice. He rubbed it. Beneath it, under his skin, was his Floran personal ID chip. You're going to give me trouble every time I fly , he thought. I know it .

Grynnya pulled her shuttlecar to a halt inside the communications relay station parked above Earth's sun's north pole, outside the heliopause. She parked in a stall beside another, similar vessel. If you don't mind, she said, I'm going to ditch you and run. I want to get home before I lose the dark.

Nyk nodded, hopped out of the car and headed for the pressure door. He could hear the bay depressurize as the door closed behind him. He looked around the station's main workroom. Behind a bulkhead was the control room. There, a comm technician could monitor the communications traffic routed from one Floran colony, through the station to another. Most of the time, however, the station was unmanned.

The hegemony had many such stations. This one was unique -- not only was it specially equipped to serve as a staging point for Floran ExoAgency missions, it was the link through which Floran agents on Earth could communicate with their homeworld. Each Agent had been issued a laptop computer. Custom software could connect via the Internet to clandestine uplinks, and from there to the homeworld network.

Nyk undressed and stowed his Earth clothing in his personal-effects locker. He stepped into the decontamination chamber and stood on a platform over a tank of liquid. Clenching the mouthpiece of the breathing tube in his teeth, he slipped his feet under restraining straps, hesitated a moment and then pressed the activation button.

The platform lowered him into the tank. He clamped his eyes shut as his face sank beneath the surface. Inhaling through is mouth and exhaling though his nose he counted the seconds as the decontamination fluid did its work ridding his skin of Earth microbes.

The platform began to rise. His face now clear of the liquid, Nyk blew the remaining droplets out of his nose; then he stepped to a second platform for the rinse and repeated the process.

One step remained in the decontamination process. He opened a panel and removed a vial and an injection apparatus. After attaching the vial, he pressed the actuator to flush air from a short tube and needle. Holding the needle parallel to his skin he punctured a vein in his forearm, pressed the actuator and watched as a mixture of broad-spectrum bioagent, synthetic antibodies and immune- system booster emptied into his vein.

As much as he despised it, decontamination was essential, he reminded himself. His people had worked hard over five thousand years to eliminate pathogens from their environment. Earth's biosphere, by comparison, was a soup of microorganisms. An Earth illness would spread rapidly through his native population. How he would hate to be the one responsible.

The vial empty, he dropped it into the waste reprocessor and walked to the wardroom where he donned a Floran tunic and xarpa . Nyk pressed a control to repressurized the shuttle bay. The pressure door opened and he stepped in to examine the shuttlecar assigned to the Wisconsin lab.