The Abyss of Time

Chapter Thirty Two

The quad riders returned two hours later, and confirmed that the same thing had happened to them.

"There were midge creatures all around us," said Jack, looking pale with fear. "We didn't think anything of it until we felt them prick us, right through our suits."

"How do you feel?" asked Miller as Jack joined the rest of his family in their tent. They went through the ultraviolet decontamination procedure the same as normal, just out of habit, even though they all knew how pointless it was now.

Jack rolled up the sleeve of his coveralls to look at the bite mark. There was a bruise there, similar in appearance to the one that Jaime had had, although not quite as dark in colour, perhaps. The others were the same, and they stared at them in silence as they contemplated how much time they had left. Hours? Less?

"If those midges were medical instruments," said Tensy to Alan Felgin, "wouldn't they have been sterile?"

"At first, maybe," the scientist replied. "Until they punched their way through the filthy, germ ridden surfaces of our surface suits. There's no way they didn't introduce bacteria into our bodies. No way."

"So what do we do?" asked Jack.

"We can't save ourselves," Felgin replied. "I'm afraid there's no hope of that, but if we can chart the progress of the infection, we may learn something that the others at the Alpha site will be able to use."

"If they haven't been infected as well," said Miller.

"We just have to pray they weren't," the scientist replied. "I'd like permission to print off some scientific equipment."

"Of course," Miller replied. "No point worrying about conserving rare elements now."

Alan and Connie suited back up and went outside, therefore, while Miller remained in the tent with his family. At least we're all together, he told himself. If we're all going to die, at least we have each other to give and receive comfort from.

They hugged each other and talked to each other as the time passed. Jack and Tensy wept over their children, who cried in terrified bafflement. Miller and Zanele searched their heads for something they could say, something that would offer the children some reassurance and comfort, but they knew words would be useless and so they just held their hands, letting them feel the depth of their love for them.

Every so often they would look at each other's bruises, to see how fast they were spreading. Miller thought they were spreading slower than Jaime's had, and he seized upon it as the source of a tiny grain of hope. Humans do have an immune system, he reminded himself. It must be primitive when trying to combat germs from a billion years in the future, but even so, was it possible they might be able to fight off the infection? Perhaps if the midge things had only introduced a tiny number of bugs into their bodies. Few enough for them to have a chance. He didn't say any of this to the others, though. Giving them false hopes would be cruel.

Maybe it wasn't so false, though, he dared to think, as the bruise on his arm, that had now completely encircled it and was spreading down towards his hand, began to change colour, slowly changing from a dirty blue brown to a dull gold. "What's going on?" he said aloud, staring at Lucy's shoulder where the same thing was happening. "This didn't happen to Jaime."

"I feel fine," said Zanele, looking puzzled. "Jaime was unconscious when his bruise got this big, but I feel fine."

"So do I," said Lucy. The others nodded as well, and the two small children stopped crying as they sensed the new atmosphere of hope in the tent.

"How's that possible?" asked Tensy.

At that moment, though, Felgin's voice came over the communications channel. "We've discovered something," he said excitedly. "I don't think we're going to die. Come out here, all of you. We've got to show you something."