Epidemic Outbreak

II. Question of authority

"I was reading the documentation on what has happened to your workers these last few days," explained Officer Valentine when they were in the elevator, weighing the paper file - "But it's surprisingly poor."

"Did not you get the message?" Fletcher asked. "There was all the data on the case. We do not use paperwork much. The F & D Enterprise is leaving everything in favor of virtual systems."

"The olotesti make me a migraine," she replied. "So?"

"So you'd better take a couple of aspirins," Bones said, leaning against the elevator wall. "Anyway, the situation is summed up in one word: annoying."

- Forgive Bones. Tends to be a little 'too hasty.- Brenda said, giving him a look of reproach - It all started a few days ago, during the operations of extraction on the ground. PCP Ascendant is an orbiting mining ship, extracts and refines raw materials from asteroids while an outpost on the planet deals with ground extraction. Stop me if you already know about it.-

"Go ahead," she replied, shaking her head. "Something I know, but it helps me." It serves to contextualize.-

"Very well," Brenda said. "As I was saying, between the Ascendant and the mining outpost on Cassandra V we count about three hundred and fifty people, including workers and crew members. Last week, some troubling news broadcasts from the director of mining operations began to show us that some workers were suddenly ill. A couple of days later, one of them disappeared. According to the reconstructions he escaped from the window of the medical unit.-

- Have you ever manifested violent instincts before or during the illness? -

"No, or they would have called me," Bones replied. "Dr. Lassiter has examined the medical record, and believes that the fever has led him into delusion hallucinatory and that he did not realize what he was doing."

- Was it found? -

- No. They sent someone to look for him, but we never got any news about it.-

- Subsequently, the contacts became more radios.- Fletcher shooting - The broadcasts were often disturbed, and the director began to talk less and less, the few times he sent us messages. Toward the end, his speeches became incoherent. Probably he too was ill, so we established a preventive quarantine.

"In short, it became an epidemic," said Officer Valentine. "And why did not you ask for help first?"

- Captain Malkovich consulted with the F & D executives, who ordered us to investigate what was happening on the ground. - Fletcher replied - We tried to contact the director again, and in the absence of an answer we sent a medical team and some volunteers to check, but upon their arrival the site was found in the most complete abandonment. No bodies or survivors were found, the cargo shuttles were still in place, and land vehicles the same, while the communications failure was due to a fallen tree, which destroyed the main antenna. Many other similar damages have been found in almost the entire mining outpost, which is strange, as every plant within a hundred kilometers had been uprooted and burned at the beginning of the work.

- So, in other words, the workers have disappeared and plants have appeared in their place? -

- Exactly.-

- And how many people are we talking about? -

"About a hundred," Bones replied. At that point, the elevator reached the floor, stopping - Ah, we arrived on the bridge ... well.- mumbled - Okay, get ready to receive the Captain's welcome. And remember to praise him, adore him. "

"I'll pretend not to have heard you, Bones," Brenda said, while her facial unity held out an expression of indignation and contempt.

Captain Malkovich was a tall, broad-shouldered, black man. Fifty years played, he was proud to have served in the military for at least three decades, to have fought in the Third Secession in the system of Aldebaran and to have participated in the peace missions near Cethyas IX. After his leave he entered the service of the F & D Enterprise, and since then he had served on four different ships.