The Whorls of Jupiter

Chapter 15 Going Viral

August 5th 2521

Cal checked Keun's pulse and looked at the governor, "Allison, he's alive."

"I can't contact anyone in the colony. You think I'm concerned with the life of one marine?!"

"We need to help him now! Otherwise it'll just be the two of us."

With a look of realization the governor ignored him and sprinted away and stomped up the stairs to the control tower. She shoved a still smoldering officer aside and and touched the comms, "Good, it still works." Using her governor override, she looked at the vitals of everyone on the station by region. Everyone was dead. All souls in the colony itself were gone. While the sensors weren't designed to count individual lives, each sector registered as lifeless. Allison sat for a moment in disbelief and swallowed. This is going to be quite the setback on my career. With any luck by surviving the impossible maybe I can swing this as being a hero and improve my tough persona? Either way I didn't work this hard to let some flashing alien undo everything now.

She saw her private sports coupe rocketing away on the air traffic control screen and checked its course. It's still heading straight for earth... There's still time to stop it. She set the comms to record and broadcast her message on a wideband transmission, "This is... Governor Allison Shaw of the Europa colony. A... A WMD has been smuggled into the station and deployed. Most of the station is dead. The threat is existential. Some kind of airborne pathogen that spreads like lightning and kills in seconds. Two hours ago there were over a hundred thousand souls in my colony..." she paused and allowed a hint of emotion into her voice to project both urgency and allow a marketable human moment for when she inevitably was put on trial, be it with her Bridgemoor superiors or an insurrectionist uprising. "The terrorist responsible still has the WMD. He's heading straight for Earth aboard the private sports coupe Fiche Microcosmo. I'm requesting that anyone. All available forces..." Allison let go of the comm and sighed, Bastard! That ship cost me a fortune! "To fire on that ship! The WMD inside is an extinction class weapon. He cannot be allowed to reach Earth. God help us. Please stop him before it's too late."

Cal and Vasquez loaded Keun onto a rolling pallet when she returned, "I heard your speech. Not bad considering you lied your ass off."

"As if they'd believe me that an alien can kill that many people that fast. They'll question it but it's the best chance we have to get them to take the shot. Where's that insurrectionist bitch?"

Vasquez shrugged, "Ran off. Probably looking for a usable ship in another dock."

"Armed?"

Cal scanned the hangar in case Nastaya decided to return and have another go, "Could be. She lost the rifle but there's no telling if she'll pick up something from a fallen guard or something..." Looking back at the governor he asked with annoyance, "You gonna finally help me get him to the medical center?"

Allison looked at Keun's burns. They weren't as extreme as she'd assumed but some of his tattoos were ruined. She struggled not to wretch at the sight and smell of his burned flesh, "Fine."

***

General Buchanan stood on the deck of the Aries Olympus in orbit over Martian space and listened to the repeating broadcast from Europa's governor.

"General? We have a window of a few minutes to intercept. Estimates of successful destruction are 98%."

"Stand down Lieutenant."

"Sir?"

"Something's not right. It could be a hoax. Besides, it's heading for Earth. We're only weeks away from war. If what the governor says is true it'll save us the trouble of nuking them ourselves."