Gardner, James Alan - League of Peoples 07 by Gardner James Alan

Author:Gardner, James Alan
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

"So that's what we've found so far," Festina said into the comm. "Tut—time to report what the guy told you."

She handed the comm to Tut as he said, "I'll try." Speaking into the comm, he continued, "But I gotta say, a lot went over my head. These weren't good conditions for getting the guy's story."

"We know," Festina said. "Do your best."

"Okay. Sure. Okay." Tut took a deep breath. "The deceased was named Var-Lann. Team Esteem's chief microbiologist. That's why he survived longer than his fellow surveyors. Var-Lann's job was growing bacterial cultures, playing with viruses, stuff like that—so he was at special risk from germs.

Before coming to Muta, he volunteered for some new experimental treatment, boosting his immune system a few hundred times."

Tut pointed at the scorch marks left behind when Var-Lann's implants had vaporized. "One of those gadgets produced special white blood cells. Super germ-killing leukocytes. That's why the man lived long enough to tell his story."

"What was his story?" Festina asked.

"I'm getting to that," Tut said. "The night before things went haywire, Var-Lann was working in his lab as usual. He happened to be studying live microbe cultures, trying to figure out the relationship between something and something else. I didn't understand the details; I hope it doesn't matter. But he was watching these little guys go about their business when suddenly a new set of microbes came barging in and ate everything in the test cultures. Really fast. Like within thirty seconds."

Festina's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, barging in?"

"Var-Lann was growing the cultures in what he called Level Two containment—a closed environment supposed to keep out unwanted microbes. He thought he'd taken all the necessary precautions to avoid contaminating his samples, so he was mightily pissed when these new bugs showed up. Var-Lann checked where the new bugs came from and found they were everywhere. In the air, on every piece of

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equipment, all over his own skin... anyplace he looked, gathering by the trillions. Quadrillions.

Quintillions."

Tut paused... maybe trying to think of what came after quintillions. Then he just shook his head.

"Var-Lann had never seen this new microorganism before. Nothing even close. It certainly didn't match native Mutan life. This bug was one hundred percent alien."

Festina winced. "Why am I not surprised?"

"On this planet?" Tut said. "Of course, it's no surprise. The Fuentes and Greenstriders had colonies here.

They tracked in microbes from their homeworlds—maybe from other worlds too. By now, Muta's biosphere has lots of bugs that aren't native. It wouldn't even be surprising if a bug became superaggressive. Organisms outside their native environment can develop all kinds of fluky behavior."

"Really?"

Tut gave Festina a look. "I specialized in micro, Auntie. Bugs released on other planets usually just die because they can't find the right food or living conditions. Once in a while, though, they multiply like a son of a bitch—either because they have no natural enemies or because they're just stronger and meaner than anything on the new world. Sometimes you get a die-off and a bloom.

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