The Altian Plague by DM Arnold (best book club books for discussion .TXT) 📖

to Earth.”

“So, now Altia is the pariah colony.”

“That will change. We can't blame an entire population -- no matter what their politics may be -- for the actions of a few, Dyppa.” She smiled. “For the time being, the colonies are exercising due prudence.” He looked toward Janna's assistant. “Venn -- we'll see the prisoner now.”

“This way...” Venn led Nyk and Dyppa to a clinic located within the palace walls.

A medic greeted them. “Have you been inoculated?” he asked Dyppa.

“No.”

The doctor obtained a syringe. “Extend your arm and make a fist.” Dyppa complied. He felt the veins in her elbow, pierced her skin with the needle and squeezed the plunger. Then he handed her a surgical mask. “Best to wear this. The vaccine needs half a day to work.” She slipped on the mask. “I should warn you -- it's not a pleasant sight.”

The doctor opened the door to a treatment room. Lom was lying on a pallet. He was being administered oxygen. His breathing was labored and red blotches covered his face and arms. His ankles were shackled together and chained to the pallet.

Dyppa knelt beside him. “Oh, Lom!”

“Lyla,” Lom panted. “Now I know you're on their side.”

“I'm on the right side, Lom,” she said through the mask. “Don't you see? All this was a waste.”

“We'll take our fight to another front -- another world.”

“No, you won't. Within days the entire hegemony will be inoculated against your plague. Lom -- at one time I might've believed your way was the right way. Now I know it's wrong. Don't you see? You were promised something The Seven can't deliver. You've been used -- duped. They don't care about the likes of you or me. They're thugs who want to enrich themselves the same way the offworlders do.”

He moaned. “I did this for you, Lyla.”

“Not for me,” she replied.

“I wanted to improve your life.”

“No, Lom. My mother is amfin to a member of the New Altian Senate. I KNOW how he's working to change things. Life on Altia IS better than it was a year ago. We can't solve all our problems overnight. This isn't the way. Returning to a rule of thuggery isn't the answer. It'll put us backward -- not forward.”

“Lyla...” Lom gasped. “I never stopped loving you.”

“I never stopped loving you, either, Lom.” She looked toward Nyk. “Lom - - there IS a way to make things better. Tell me who leads The Seven.”

“No one. No one man leads.”

“Who developed the virus? Do you know?”

“I've heard a name.”

“What name?” Lom's eyes rolled back in his head.

Dyppa held his head and caressed his face. She reached behind her ear and began to unhook the mask. “Don't Dyppa!” Nyk shouted. “The vaccine hasn't had time to work -- you won't be protected.”

She looked at Nyk and back at Lom; then she removed the mask, stroked his face and kissed his lips.

He began to reach for her. “Your real name is Dyppa?” Lom wheezed. “I like Lyla better...”

“Lom, tell me what name.”

He struggled to lift his head. “Egon ... Egon ... Han...ri.” He settled back onto the pillow, gasping for breath.

Nyk felt his heart sink. “Egon Hanri,” Dyppa said.

“I heard,” Nyk replied. “He was Senta's thesis advisor. He probably invented the Ricin genome, too. I'll bet he's the one who abducted her.”

Lom struggled to take a breath. He groaned, shuddered and went limp, his eyes staring at the ceiling. Dyppa stroked them closed.

“Get her to a treatment room,” the medic said to some orderlies. “Start a booster infusion. Take this one to the morgue.” One of the orderlies took Dyppa's upper arm and led her, sobbing, down the corridor. Another dragged in a levitating gurney.

Venn escorted Nyk back to the quarters. He sat at his desk and placed a call. “Kronta -- we know who developed the virus. It's Doctor Egon Hanri, Professor Emeritus at Floran City University ... Senta's thesis advisor.”

“That's not possible! I don't believe it.”

“Believe it, Illya.”

“Where did you hear this?”

“From a reliable source.”

“What source?”

“Do you have a need to know?”

“I need to know how much trust to put in this. Nyk, what source?”

“From the lips of one of the attackers -- right before he died. I doubt he had a motive to lie about it. Reliable enough for you, Illya?”

“I'm calling Internal Affairs right now.”

“Illya -- be careful. He probably has Senta.”

Nyk stepped into a treatment room. Dyppa was on a pallet raised to a sitting position and she held a basin on her lap. An I.V. line ran to a vein in the back of her left hand. She coughed.

“Dyppa -- how are you doing?”

“Not real well. Look.” She pulled back her sleeve and he saw red blotches on her forearm. “The medics think I will recover, though. There were some synthetic antibodies in the vaccine -- enough to save me.”

“It was a brave thing you did -- and a foolish one.”

“It was the right thing. Lom died in my arms.” Her eyes brimmed. “I hope it comforted him because it certainly doesn't me.”

“His information will help us crack this ring once and for all.”

“I feel terrible -- like I did when I snitched on my handler.” She wiped away tears. “I thought I could save him.” She shook her head. “I really thought I could save him.”

“He was beyond help.”

“I don't mean today -- when I spoke to him in Altropolis. I thought I could convince him. If he had told me that name then -- none of this would've happened and he'd have been a hero.”

“He IS a hero, Dyppa. Little things like that make men heroes. You're a hero, too.”

“Oh, Nyk...” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. The sobs turned to coughs. She gasped for breath, her body shaking. Her spasm subsided and she lay back on the pallet, wheezing, her face red. “Maybe if I think of him as a hero,” she gasped, “I'll get over it faster.”

Nyk pulled a stool close to the pallet and sat. He took her hand and stroked her forearm. “Don't upset yourself, Dyppa.”

“I was wrong.”

“About what?”

“About Lexal. It's a beautiful world. It reminds me of Earth.”

“Me, too.”

“It's cold like Wisconsin.”

“Wisconsin isn't cold like this all the time.”

“I was wrong about the people. They're sweet. They're not monsters -- they're like you and me. I was wrong to be their enemy.”

“I doubt any of them were your enemy, Dyppa.”

“Princess Janna visited me. She spent the whole afternoon sitting with me and we talked.”

“Talked about what?”

“About her and me ... about Altia and Lexal ... about my work on Earth. She's so kind and gracious. I see why her people love her. She gave me this.” Dyppa opened her gown. Between her blotchy breasts nestled a pendant comprising a blue and white gem-studded disk eclipsing an orange enamel one.

“It looks like Lexal and Lexal Prime.”

“Yes,” she replied. “Janna explained it to me. It's the Order of the Twin Worlds. She said it's given to Lexalese citizens who risk their lives for the colony. She said I'm the first offworlder to receive one. Imagine ... me -- an Altian...” She picked up the pendant and looked at it. One of her tears fell onto it and she buffed it on her gown. ” ...and I can't bring it to Earth with me.” She closed her gown. “Nyk ... hold me.”

He put his arms around her and she rested her head against him and sobbed. “Dyppa -- you relax ... do what the doctors tell you to do ... get well. We need you on Earth. Will you do that?” She nodded. He stroked and kissed her hair. “Good.”

“Nyk... I really do think I could love you.”

“I know I could love you. I'm beginning to.”

“First, I have to give myself permission to love again. I don't know how long that will take.”

The sound of a throat clearing startled Nyk and he looked up from his desk. “Yes, Venn.”

“Someone to see you.”

“Thank you, Venn. And -- thank you for your attention. I'll probably be leaving tomorrow, and I wanted you to know much I appreciated it.”

“Thank you, sir.” He gestured and Sirk entered.

“Nykkyo,” the captain said, “if you'll present me to the Chancellor.”

“This way.”

Nyk approached Wygann's office and rapped on the door jamb. “Yes, Nyk?”

“Chancellor, I'd like you to meet Captain Sirk of the Altian Security Forces. He was a member of our task force. Captain, Chancellor Mykko Wygann.”

Sirk extended his hand. “A pleasure, sir. On behalf of Altia, I want to extend my deepest regrets for the incident. We worked hard to stamp out these terrorists.”

“Not hard enough, it seems,” Wygann replied.

“If we could've prevented this -- we would've. We tried. We were making progress, but we ran out of time.”

“I see.”

“Believe me when I say no one in the legitimate Altian government had anything to do with this.”

“Indeed. Can you explain why your consul was the go-between?”

“I'm sorry, I'm not following.”

“Your consul trafficked messages between the attackers and Seven leadership.”

Sirk attempted to speak.

“We have irrefutable evidence -- vidphone call logs.”

“If this is true, then we will take him home to face justice.”

“I'm afraid we can't satisfy that request.”

“Chancellor -- he is an Altian citizen protected by diplomatic convention. I insist.”

“Maybe so. He is also dead -- a victim of the virus. He expired this morning.”

“What of the man who shot you... You seem to have recovered rapidly.”

“Another virus casualty... Captain -- why ARE you here?”

“This incident involved Altian citizens engaged in an illegal activity. It is my responsibility to investigate so any culpable can be turned over to our legal system.”

“Investigate to your heart's content, Captain. You won't find much, though. They all succumbed to the virus. Now, if you'll excuse me.”

“Chancellor.” Sirk snapped to attention, turned and left.

Nyk lay in bed in his guest room. Andra pulled herself against him. “Not a single Lexalese fatality,” he said, “only a few hundred requiring hospitalization -- it's a remarkably successful vaccine.”

“I was worried for the infants and children,” Andra said.

“Parents with infants and the elderly were told to seal themselves in their houses during the Grand Assembly. Older children tolerated the vaccine well.” He kissed her hair. “I understand a motion to censure Wygann has been killed in the High Legislature.”

“Voted down?” she asked.

“Killed in committee.”

“Why censure Mykko?”

“His decision to quarantine the planet after the attack was initially perceived as a ploy to hold offworld visitors hostage. Now, cooler heads prevail and the delegates realize his actions probably prevented spreading the virus to unprotected colonies. He also demonstrated the vaccine can not only prevent the disease but cure it -- if administered promptly enough after exposure.”

“As in Dyppa's case. I hadn't heard of a censure motion. How did you?”

He kissed her forehead. “You see -- there are advantages to having a boss who's the ExoService liaison to the HL Committee on Colonial Security.”

“Mykko was right,” she replied. His way wasn't the right way -- it was the only way. It's the reason HE's chancellor -- it would've been too risky a decision for me to make.”

“Me, too,” he said. “Successful leadership is managing risk -- not avoiding it.”

“Mmm ... that sounds like something we learned at Vebinad. Mykko's risk paid off. It started a process.”

“What process?”

“The Altians are performing a thorough house-cleaning of their bureaucrats and mid-level functionaries. When the old regime was dissolved and the new senate installed, they left the lower levels intact. THAT's where The Seven had its operatives.”

“So,” he mused, “the External Affairs minister was clean but his consuls were tainted.”

“Exactly. With the planet sealed, what's left of the independence faction has no place to go -- nowhere to hide.”

He pondered. “I haven't seen any of that on the news.”

“That's because,” she replied, “it's being done quietly, so as not to embarrass the current Altian regime -- and, to keep the culprits off guard.”

“How do you know about it?”

“Secret, summit-level communications have begun between the Lexalese and Altian capitals.”

“And, how do you know THAT?”

She kissed his cheek. “You see -- there are advantages to being a member of Janna's closest and innermost circle of personal friends.”

“So, Kronta might be right. Maybe we HAVE broken this once and for all.”

“And,” she added, “now we know who was responsible for the virus.”

“Yes -- Illya tells me they have Egon Hanri in detention.”

“Are they going to interrogate him?”

“No -- they can't. You see -- he possesses an ore-worker's implant.”

“Why would he have one of those?” she asked.

“He was born on Altia and was an ore-worker until he saved enough to pay his way to Floran to attend university. It was there he distinguished himself as a geneticist.”

“If they can't use truth drug -- what are they going to do?”

“They're attempting to wait him out. I'm sure he knows what