I backed out of the drone, and turned to Marvin. His face was grey. I was sure I didn’t look any better. “I guess I screwed up,” I said.
“Look, let’s just clear out for now,” he replied. “Give things time to cool off. You can talk to Archimedes later.”
I nodded, and re-entered the drone. I floated over to Archimedes, who was not looking well. Deltans didn’t display shock the same as humans. His facial fur was lying in disorganized mats. But the wide eyes and flat ears were probably universal. A disconnected part of me started theorizing about why that might be, and I squashed it.
“Archimedes, I’m going to take off until things cool down. I’ll talk to you later.”
He nodded. I noted that Diana had a look on her face of either satisfaction or triumph. I’d never hated anyone as much as I despised her at that moment.
20. Parasite
Howard
October 2189
Vulcan
Things that make you go “Ew!” This definitely qualified. I couldn’t take my eyes off the video, as the doctor made an incision on the patient and proceeded to extract a small bundle of eggs. A few had hatched and the larvae were trying to burrow away. At that moment, right there, I was so thankful that I was no longer biological.
I glanced at Butterworth’s video feed and noticed that he was paying an extreme level of attention to his glass of Jameson. Huh, not a bad idea. I invoked a glass of Sam’s cognac and turned on my alcohol receptors. A slight buzz was just what the doctor ordered.
Finally, thank the Universe, the video ended. Butterworth turned to look at the video camera. A slight smile formed when he saw the glass in my hand. I shrugged a “what about it?” shrug.
“The parasite appears to be a large insect,” he explained. “The bite itches a bit, then disappears. When the eggs have grown enough, though, it becomes a large swollen area. By that point, we have less than a day to remove the eggs.”
“What if you don’t?” I knew I would regret asking, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“The larvae go for the heart. Fatal within two days or so. Then the larvae feast on the corpse. That seems to be the life cycle. We’ve lost four people and two cattle so far. The doctors think they might be able to come up with a blood test, but I can’t see poking every colonist every other day to draw blood.”
“Wonderful. Have we caught any adults yet?”
Butterworth shook his head. “No, nor do we have very good descriptions, other than that it’s about hummingbird-size. We’re working on it, but I was hoping you might be able to throw in some surveillance drones.”
“I’ll crank up the autofactory and start pumping them out. I’ll also see if I can modify the video and audio pickups to be more sensitive to insect sound and movement.”
Butterworth nodded to me and signed off. I gave orders to Guppy for the changes to the autofactory schedules, then sat back and shook my head. Gross.
*
The Spits and FAITH colonies were done offloading to Romulus. Colonists were staying in temporary quarters until the towns were built. AMI construction equipment worked full speed to clear some land and set out street plans. We’d learned from the USE’s experience on Vulcan, and we were building a fence right away. The wildlife on Romulus wasn’t nearly as big or plentiful, but there was a joke going around about carnivorous rabbits. Everyone was fine with excess caution.
The FAITH and Spits colonies were set up on separate continents. The land area on Romulus was divided into eight land masses, each about the size of Australia, and a number of smaller archipelagos. Separation of nations wouldn’t be a problem.
The really important item, from my point of view, was that our relatives were now awake. As part of our deal with Cranston, Julia Hendricks and family owned a communicator, so didn’t have to schedule time on the colony system.
At the appointed hour, I connected to the conference that Riker was advertising. I noted with a chuckle that we were up over thirty Bobs subscribing to the feed. I watched as Riker made the call and Julia came online. A dozen or so random family members jostled for position behind her in the video. And on her lap, with pride of place, was Space Cadet Justin.
“Unca’ Will!” he yelled.
“Hey, Cadet. Enjoy the space-ship ride?”
I could hear the pride and joy in Riker’s voice. I and every other Bob shared it. These were our sisters’ descendants, and a major reason why we put up with idiots like Cranston and VEHEMENT. I remembered Milo, who had expressed a strong lack of caring about humanity’s fate. A momentary wave of sadness washed over me at his memory. I wondered what he would have thought of the current situation.
I pulled myself back to the present, where Julia was talking about their experience. Well, trying to. Justin didn’t seem willing to give up the floor.
“…An’ we went in the big ship an’ we sat and it was boring an’ then there was a bump an’ they took us down a big hallway an’ they gave me a needle which I hated an’ they made me sleepy an’ they put me in a box an’…”
Amazing. He didn’t even seem to be stopping to breathe. The soliloquy went on for another minute, while Julia increasingly failed to keep a grin off her face. Finally, having said what he needed to say, he yelled, “Bye Unca’ Will” and shot out of frame. This prompted laughter from everyone, family and Bobs both.
Julia turned back to Riker with a smile on her face. “He has two speeds. Asleep, and what you just saw.”
One of the family members, who I remembered as Philip something, leaned forward. “Will, how long until some other colony gets planted on Romulus?”
Riker shook his head. “Can’t say. We’ve got two more colony ships heading to your system right now, but the enclave leaders will decide whether they want to settle on Vulcan or Romulus. Howard tells me that Romulus is looking a lot more attractive these days, though.”
There were chuckles from the family. News of the raptors had already spread.
Riker talked to Julia for a few more minutes, fielded some questions from other family members, and got Julia to promise to call him as soon as they were in private residences.
Then, it was over. As Riker hung up the call, I sat back to bask in the peculiar mix of joy, wistfulness, and melancholy that seeing our family always left me with. I had talked with a few other Bobs about it—it seemed to be a common reaction. I guess Original Bob wasn’t as much of a loner as he’d always claimed.
I signed off of the conference call, and turned to Guppy, who had been hovering.
“What?”
[Colonel Butterworth wants to talk to you. They’ve caught a parasite adult]
*
Ugly little bugger.