The Initial Fold: A first contact space opera adventure (The Fold Book 1) by Nick Adams

Author:Nick Adams [Adams, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916105621
Publisher: Elliptical Publishing
Published: 2019-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

‘Ed – Ed – wake up,’ called Marilyn, shaking him roughly.

‘Wha – what – what is it?’ he mumbled, wiping the sleep from his eyes. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s still the middle of the night,’ said Marilyn.

‘Marilyn, we did it three times and—’

‘No, not that,’ she said, with a look of real concern in her eyes. ‘Gabriel is very agitated. Phil got sick and put himself in the auto-nurse to have himself diagnosed. The machine put him immediately into an induced coma. Gabriel then tried to contact either Mike, Tony or Steve but they’re not responding. Please, Ed, this has never happened before, not in several millennia.’

‘Okay, okay, I’m awake. Why haven’t you gone over to check?’ he asked, struggling to get into his underwear.

‘Their cottages are at the far end of the island, out of range of our holo reflectors,’ she said.

‘Don’t they have reflectors inside?’

‘Yes, but they’re private, and I need their authorisation before I can access the zones,’ she said.

Ed slipped on his trainers and opened the door, looking back at Marilyn. ‘Tell Gabriel to give me as much light as he can to show me the way.’ He disappeared out into the dark, crossed the beach and headed up past the bar and restaurant building, underneath the two shuttles and off into the darkness.

Suddenly, beams of laser light coming from above pinpointed three cottages about two hundred metres ahead. Gabriel was showing him the way from his orbit. He reached the first cottage and banged on the door, but got no response. After three attempts, he tried the door and found it locked.

‘Authorised entry is not permitted,’ said the cottage, making Ed jump out of his skin.

‘Fucking hell,’ shouted Ed. ‘I nearly had a baby. Are you a sentient security system?’

‘Semi-sentient,’ said the cottage.

‘Can you contact Gabriel up in orbit please, he’s concerned for the safety of Mike, Tony and Steve. We want to check they’re all right,’ said Ed, feeling an idiot for talking to a door in his underpants in the middle of the night.

It only took a few seconds before all the lights came on and the door clicked.

‘Entry authorised for Edward Virr,’ said the cottage.

Ed soon found Tony. He was dead and on the floor next to the bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling and covered in an ugly rash of sores.

‘Ah, shit no,’ said Ed. ‘Tony, what have you done? What the hell is this?’ He turned and ran out the front door, across to the next illuminated cottage and shouted his name at the front door. Immediately, the lights came on and the door clicked.

‘Entry authorised for Edward Virr.’

He crashed through the front door and nearly fell over Mike. He’d made it into the lounge, where he lay face down, three metres from the door and just as dead.

‘What the fuck happened?’ said Andy as he sprinted into Mike’s cottage, only just avoiding the body on the floor.

‘It seems to be some sort of virulent virus,’ said Ed. ‘Must be very fast-acting,’

‘I’ll check on Tony and Steve,’ said Andy.

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