Moon Base by E. C. Tubb

Author:E. C. Tubb [Tubb, E. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575107533
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2011-09-29T07:00:00+00:00

There was an inlet valve on the side of the case in which the rat crouched in terrified immobility. Jeff opened a cabinet, took out a small container and passed it to Ottoway. He poised it in his hand.

“The contents of this vial,” he said with unconscious dramatic effect, “if released in the air of this room, would kill every living thing in the station within five minutes.”

He screwed it to the inlet valve of the case and rested his fingers on the release screw.

“The virus it contains was one developed from nucleic acids and is quite artificial. It does not occur in nature. It is anaerobic, that is it can live without free oxygen, and has still remained virulent after being subjected to immersion in liquid helium and boiled in pressurised steam. It fulfils all the requirements of the perfect biological weapon. Now watch as I show you how it works.”

Ottoway twisted the screw and the members of the Commission tensed, leaning forward on their chairs. Macdonald did not tense, he had seen this before, but he felt a little sick. It was never pleasant to see a helpless creature die.

A faint spray came from the vial, immediately dissipating into the air of the case. For a few seconds nothing happened and then, quite suddenly, the rat slumped. It was not dead, the eyes still shone with life, but it looked as if paralysed.

The nose twitched once, the tail stirred a little and then fell like a limp piece of string. Suddenly the light went from the tiny ruby eyes.

“Fifteen seconds,” said Ottoway. “I know that you didn’t time it, gentlemen, but you can take my word for it. A man would take a little longer.”

“Incredible!” Connor was, Macdonald noticed, sweating and his eyes held a horrified expression. “Did it suffer?”

“Of course it didn’t.” Prentice was quick to soothe the other’s fears. “It just fell asleep. Isn’t that right, Ottoway?”

“Not exactly. The virus attacked the acetylchline in the creature’s body.” Ottoway looked down at the case. “To be able to move, your brain has to send a message along the nerves to the appropriate muscles. The nerves are not continuous threads of tissue. They are, if you like, more like a row of bricks each almost, but not quite, touching the other. Acetylchline is the stuff between the segments of nervous tissue that enables the electrical stimulus to progress over the minute gaps. Ordinary nerve gases affect this message carrying capacity to some extent but the virus you have just seen at work utterly destroys it.

“A person attacked by the virus becomes paralysed, a helpless brain locked in unresponsive flesh. For a short while, life, that is consciousness, will continue and then death provides a welcome relief. There is no cure, no natural resistance, no hope of survival once attacked. The death-rate is one hundred per cent. Our calculations have shown that one single container of the virus, released in any large town, will totally destroy every inhabitant of that town within three hours.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.