Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David; Kevin David Anderson; Sam Stall Anderson; Sam Stall

Author:Kevin David; Kevin David Anderson; Sam Stall Anderson; Sam Stall [Stall, Kevin David; Kevin David Anderson; Sam Stall Anderson; Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Humorous fiction, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Fiction - Science Fiction, Science fiction fans, Congresses and conventions, Science Fiction - General, Zombies, Black humor
ISBN: 9781594744631
Publisher: Quirk Books
Published: 2010-09-14T07:00:00+00:00

bite or two before their ‘meal’ gets

away. Those would-be victims then

crawl into a corner, die, and rise

again—under new management, of

course.”

“Reproduction via a crappy

hunting

strategy,”

Gary

said.

“That’s

not

a

very

elegant

approach.”

Sandoval gestured toward the

window.

“But it works,” he said.

“I don’t suppose you developed a

vaccine,” Jim said.

“I’m afraid not. The disease is

universally fatal. We learned this by

studying

forty-six

intentionally

infected animal specimens, plus

seven

accidentally

infected

humans.”

“Seven?” Rayna said. “You only

mentioned four.”

“After the incident with Patient

One,

we

instituted

extreme

safeguards. But in spite of those, the

organisms managed to reach three

more people. When it became

apparent that they were still taking

victims

even

under

highly

controlled conditions, active study

ceased.

Now

we

focus

on

containment. Or at least we did,

until this week.”

“How did they get out?” Gary

asked.

“I don’t know all the details,

because I wasn’t there when it

happened. On Wednesday evening

at 5:12 p.m. a massive computer

anomaly opened the doors to the

containment facilities. Many of the

specimens they housed hadn’t been

examined in years. It wasn’t worth

the risk.”

“What caused the computer

failure?” Gary asked.

“It might have been a cyberattack.

Though I wonder if the aliens

themselves were responsible. After

seeing the insidious approaches

they’ve used to infect biological

entities, I can’t dismiss the idea that

they found some way to infiltrate the

complex’s computers.”

“So if all hell is breaking loose,

why did you come to GulfCon?”

Jim asked.

“Given what happened, the

gathering was even more important.

Plus, at first there seemed no need

for urgency. In case of general

contamination, the facility was

equipped

with

a

fail-safe

mechanism. A thermobaric bomb

that incinerated everything in the

bunker.”

“That’s the accident they’ve been

talking about on the news,” Jim

said.

“Correct.

The

bomb

was

powerful enough to vaporize all

organic and semiorganic matter. But

not quite powerful enough, in

theory, to penetrate the facility’s

six-foot-thick outer wall. In the

event of containment loss, it could

turn the place into a crematory.”

“And yet . . . here we are, hiding

from zombies,” Rayna said.

“Indeed,”

Sandoval

said.

“Approximately two dozen people

from the Johnson Spaceflight Center

were

slated

to

attend

this

convention. One of them, or perhaps

more, was infected and carried the

alien plague to Houston. I suspect it

was Colonel Oliver Cronin, the

base security chief, but that hasn’t

been confirmed.”

“What was his costume?” Gary

asked.

Sandoval seemed amused by the

digression. “He came as Bele, from

the original series episode,’Let That

Be Your Last Battlefield.’ He was a

big fan of the old Batman TV

series.”

“Bele, the Star Trek character,

was a big Batman fan?” Jim asked

impatiently.

“No, Colonel Oliver Cronin, the

base security chief, was a big fan of

the old Batman series. The actor

who played the Riddler on that

show was . . .”

“Oh! I know! Frank Gorshin!”

Gary exclaimed.

“Exactly. Frank Gorshin played

the Riddler, but he also played

Bele. It was a fairly easy costume

for our colonel to put together. All

he had to do was paint half his face

black and the other half white and

acquire a silver jumpsuit.”

“I remember this episode,”

Rayna said. “It was about two guys

fighting an interplanetary race war.

One group in their society had black

on the right side of their faces and

white on the other, and the other

group had the exact opposite

arrangement.”

“Really a dumb paint-by-numbers

premise,” Gary mused. “It bordered

on self-parody.”

“And yet Gorshin received an

Emmy nomination for his role,”

Willy pointed out.

“Which was stupid,” Gary shot

back. “They give the guy who was

black on the right side an Emmy

nod, while the guy who was black

on the left side, who did exactly the

same amount of work . . .”

“Lou Antonio,” Willy said.

“Yeah,

black-on-the-left-side

Lou didn’t get squat,” Gary

continued, indignant.

Sandoval tried to follow the

banter, his head cocked to the side

like a dog that’s heard a strange

sound.

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