Plague Wars 06: Comes the Destroyer (25 page)

Fortunately his fellows were alert and had charged forward as soon as the man had made his move. Shan stepped out of the way as blue lightnings blazed in the corridor, accompanied by loud cracklings and the explosions of light fixtures. The near-naked figure fell to the floor, stunned by thousands of volts of electricity.

“Bind him, quickly, in every way you can think of. I have reason to believe he can alter his body shape, or at the very least he can get out of restraints like Houdini,” Shan ordered.

As Schaeffer and Clayton used up two dozen code-locked zip cuffs binding wrist, ankles, elbows and knees, Shan pulled a roll of duct tape out of his pocket and began to wrap the man up like a mummy. He had no idea how long the EMP blast would keep him unconscious.

Next, he pulled out a regulation body bag and said, “Slide him into this.” Once wrapped in plastic, Shan sealed that up with tape as well.

“Won’t he suffocate?” Schaeffer asked.

“I have reason to believe he will not, but if he does, I take full responsibility.”

Schaeffer shrugged and watched as Shan hefted the body easily onto one massive shoulder, and then at a signal, led the way toward
Artemis
. In the early hours of the morning there were only a few people out, and those that did see the three stewards did not question them.

The officer on watch at
Artemis’
main hatchway passed them through without comment, having been told beforehand to expect the three and possibly a fourth. While Shan knew that the scuttlebutt of how they had carried a body aboard would quickly spread, that was actually better in his estimation than a story about arresting a protesting Lieutenant Colonel Simms.

“Straight to BioMed,” Shan ordered unnecessarily. He’d already told them that would be their first stop. If he happened to be completely wrong about Simms, they could always move him to the brig.

“Wake up,” Shan snapped at the ship’s doctor and the corpsman dozing in the BioMed lab in full biohazard suits. They were there at his request, made in Huen’s name, but had been waiting for some hours. The body bag Shan dropped onto the operating table inside the biological containment unit brought them around quite effectively.

“Seal your biosuits and get ready to deal with an alien life form,” Shan snapped.

“A what?” the corpsman said.

The doctor didn’t bother asking questions, but sealed his suit, and then made to close the examination room. Shan stayed inside, without a suit, but ordered the other two to go outside and watch through the large window, cutting off Schaeffer’s protest after borrowing his EMP cannon.

Then the doctor finished sealing the room. “Is it dangerous?” he asked.

“Possibly.” Shan hefted the electric weapon. “If it gets out of control, step back. This was effective before. If necessary, we will dissect a corpse.”

“What is it?” the doctor said.

“Either it’s human and I will be very, very embarrassed, or it’s a Blend, an enemy agent.”

The doctor gasped with what Shan thought might be delight. “If it is…I’ll be the first to dig into one…” He quickly used a scalpel to slice the duct tape on the bag over where the body’s mouth should be. A few more cuts and he had exposed the man’s face, his eyes and ears taped shut but his mouth and nose unimpeded.

“Take tissue samples and use these protocols to test for biological anomalies,” Shan said, handing the doctor a flash drive.

“Where did you – never mind,” he interrupted himself as he took the drive and put it in a decontamination drawer. “Do you think there is any danger of infection?” He began to swab the man’s mouth and nose, and then used a biopsy needle to take a couple of plugs of flesh. The patient remained unresponsive, but Shan could tell he still breathed.

“Probably not, but I want to make sure. Your first priority is to determine for certain if this man is human or not.”

Shan and the corpsman remained with the immobilized subject while the doctor hustled out of the containment facility through the decontamination room.

The corpsman looked at Shan as if realizing for the first time that the steward had no protection. “What if he is infectious? You are already exposed.”

“Have no fear for me,” Shan replied, and the corpsman shrugged.

Long minutes went by, with the two inside and the two outside watching the man, and the doctor hurriedly running tests with his automated analyzers according to Shan’s protocols. Eventually the physician returned, his faceplate open to show a stunned expression. “It’s not human. The cells…they’re amazing. It’s a Blend?”

“I believe so, doctor. Is there any sign of disease or infectiousness?”

“No, none.”

“Keep it in isolation, then. I will leave a steward here at all times, as well as two Marines sealed in full combat armor, until the admiral decides what to do with it. And say nothing to anyone. This is top secret.” Rumors would get out, but Shan was less concerned with stopping them than merely slowing them down enough for him to set certain other plans in motion.

He strode quickly to rouse Admiral Huen in his quarters.

“Yes, sir. The first we know of, though of course, the covert services on Earth might have some we do not.” He cleared his throat. “Now I need immediate authority to search Simms’ quarters. I believe the creature we have in custody
is
Simms himself, but there is also a chance that the real colonel is some kind of puppet that the Blend controlled biochemically, just as it incited those Marines to sedition with its touch.”

“Of course. Have the paperwork drawn up immediately, and you have my full authority to commandeer whomever you need. Aerospace Police or ship’s Marines, perhaps?”

“Yes, Admiral. I must get moving on this.”

“Agreed. Dismissed. I will be on the bridge if you need anything further. Pass the word to get the prime watch up there, too.”

“Yes, sir.” Shan departed, moving as fast as Huen had ever seen.

On the bridge Huen was gratified to see Lieutenant Commander Johnstone at CyberComm. The man was an absolute wizard at his station, if a bit casual for his tastes. This time he looked clean cut and more properly uniformed than usual. Huen recalled that the man’s wife, a Marine, cohabited with him on the base. He supposed she was having a positive effect on his appearance. That triggered another concern.

“Johnstone, have you been briefed on the situation?”

“Umm, not really, sir. I was told we are on condition yellow and the prime watch was to report to duty.”

“Very well.” Huen sat down in the Chair. “The situation involves potential internal threats to this ship and this command. It may involve the base Marines. I understand your spouse is among them?”

“Yes sir.” Suddenly, Johnstone became very still.

“Have you noticed any unusual behavior since you two arrived here…six weeks ago?” Huen peered down at the display on the arm of the Chair, reading details about Johnstone from his personnel file.

Johnstone gave a significant look around, as if asking about the others listening.

Huen replied to his unspoken question. “Forgive me, Lieutenant Commander, if this is an awkward request, but I trust everyone here, and this is of vital importance. If you know something, please tell me.”

Johnstone swallowed, then spoke. “My wife, First Sergeant Jill Repeth, has been informally investigating some serious issues she discovered within the base Marines. These might involve the battalion commander, or even others of higher status here on Callisto. Or off.”

“What kind of issues?” Huen kept his voice deceptively mild, while flogging himself mentally. Obviously his hands-off approach, trusting the base’s Marines to police themselves, had failed. Then he realized that if, as Shan asserted, they had an actual agent of the Meme Empire in custody, they could hardly be faulted.

“Drugs, for one, sir. Disciplinary problems – gambling, smuggling, failure to train properly. And less definable things as well. She said there was a…cultural problem. Because of the battalion commander.”

“The commander?”

“Yes, sir.” Johnstone glanced around the bridge again at the rest of the prime watch, who were now staring at him, fascinated. Years of routine duty on a pseudo-warship sitting at a training base apparently made this quite an interesting turn of events for them. “Because the battalion commander only joined EarthFleet Marines recently, she felt he had a culturally incorrect approach to handling combat troops.”

Huen folded his hands in front of him, his elbows resting on the arms of the Chair, and leaned forward to stare at his CyberComm officer. “In other words, he’s a bad commander that exacerbated problems in the unit instead of dealing with them.”

“As you say, sir.”

“I’ve recently become aware of some of these issues myself,” Huen went on. “I have directed my stewards and the ship’s Marines to take certain steps to investigate this matter quite thoroughly. Every member of this crew is to give every assistance to them, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” all of the watchstanders replied in near-unison.

“There is also a possibility of something worse than a commander gone bad. It is conceivable that political forces, criminal elements, or even Meme agents present a threat to this ship and this base. The ship is the first priority, and after that, we will coordinate a full internal security review for the base. And that,” Huen said with a calculated wave of his hand, “is why we are all up in the middle of the night, the tertiary watch is on the auxiliary bridge, and all entry points are guarded.”

By 0600 the prime watch had relaxed somewhat, as nothing seemed to be happening other than routing a few requests through the bridge. Admiral Huen had authorized the base analytical lab staff to be rousted out of bed at Shan’s request, and were even now testing all of the blood samples they had on file against his anti-Blend protocols. It now seemed particularly fortunate that First Sergeant Repeth had instituted frequent drug testing, so at least one Marine unit could be cleared.

“Bravo Company is clean,” Shan reported to Admiral Huen. “I have ordered the company commander in your name to muster in full combat gear in case other personnel must be suppressed. Also, there is no sign of Simms. I believe the creature we have in BioMed is he. Or it.”

“Very well. Continue.” Huen smiled inside at that term.
Suppressed
. There was nothing suppressive about recoilless machineguns and fragmentation grenades. While nonlethal weapons were common on Earth, Fleet Marines had to be ready to kill aliens, not “suppress” other humans. They did have a supply of Needleshock ammo, but he suspected anyone on the receiving end of the vetted Marines’ weapons would deserve what they got.

“The next order of business is to obtain and process updated blood samples from the rest of the Marines. Once we are certain we can rely on them, I respectfully suggest we go to Condition Zebra and begin to do the same for all base personnel.”

“All base personnel?” Huen made a mental calculation, starting with the count of fifty thousand people on Callisto. “That will take weeks.”

“Yes, sir, but it must be done.”

“Agreed. BioMed,” Huen turned to the appropriate watchstander, “pass to the senior physician that I want her to work up a plan to test this entire base for Blends. Also have her assign someone to liaise with ship’s Marines to make the brig secure for holding Blends.”
And if that is not possible
, he thought,
I am not averse to killing them rather than risking their escape, especially if, as Shan suspects, they can change their appearance.

Next, Huen dictated a brief report to be sent at flash priority to Admiral Absen on
Orion
, assuring him that he believed everything was under control. Then he notified the Aerospace Training Wing commander of the situation, ordering him to suspend all other operations and to put a squadron of his instructor pilots on alert with armed Aardvarks, after they had been blood-tested.

The rest of the day turned into a grinding administrative nightmare that tested Huen’s peacetime leadership skills to the utmost. It wasn’t long before the rest of the base got wind of the rumors and he had to lock everything down with emergency drills and curfews. The corporations protested, but as he’d learned over the last years, threats to their funding got quicker compliance than any other kind. With the carrot of increased compensation for overtime, they even agreed to use their corporate security to help keep order until the crisis eased.

Eventually Huen turned the bridge over to Captain Rikard, his executive officer, and rotated the watch. Then he used the opportunity to go down and take a look at what they had caught.

When he walked into the small but well equipped BioMed lab, he found the staff there looking morose and tired. One corpsman tried to call the area to attention but Huen waved him down and approached his senior physician, Commander Guptra. “What have we got, Doctor?”

“I’m afraid the patient is dead, through no fault of our own,” she said distractedly. “I believe he killed himself in some biological fashion. We have tested for contamination but there appears to be none.”

“Perhaps the creature had insufficient warning to prepare any such thing,” Huen remarked.

“Or was simply unable. It’s not magic, Admiral. I would suspect that if it intended to release some kind of plague in the base, it would have done so.”

“Unless it was saving that for when the Destroyer showed up. Now we are testing everyone and we will continue a program to do so, until…”

The doctor smiled tiredly. “Until we win or die. I understand. Admiral, I’d like to stand some of my staff down for rest. We’re really not equipped for this kind of round-the-clock operation.”

“Use your best judgment, Doctor. Just make sure that thing is no threat to anyone. I don’t want to find some kind of xenomorphic monster rampaging around the ship like a science fiction movie.”