Zion's Children - pt 35

Of the two, it was General Hiawithus who took the news the hardest. He sat down so quickly and heavily into his chair, that Marcus Alexander feared he had broken something.

"Surely..." Even words failed him.

Levi clasped his friend's shoulder with his hand. It was one thing to speculate about a matter, another to have it turn out to be the truth.

"Byrin is close to finalizing the sequencing on the antibiotics for this. I've looked over his work, and I have to agree with his conclusions. The Conglomerate did this to you...us." Marcus sat across the desk from his commanding officer.

"I authorized those vaccinations...I did this..." Archibald Hiawithus was close to sobbing. Tears pooled in the bags under his eyes and slowly leaked out and down his saggy cheeks. "Levi, I am so sorry..."

"It's not like you knew, Archie...I know you better than that," Levi said in a soothing tone.

"What happens next?" the general asked.

"Like I said, Bryin's almost finished..."

"Can he prove it?"

Marcus hesitated. "Not at this point, it's all speculation really. But give him enough time, and I'm sure he'll be able to prove it."

"Send him to me when he's able. I still have a few friends in the Hierarchy. I can't promise any action will be done, but a case will be made to the Presidential Council to rebuild Zeta Muria and make things right." He might have looked frail, but the desk thundered as the general brought his fist down on it.

"That's not necessary," Levi said. "We just want the Conglomerate to leave this planet."

A feminine throat clearing interrupted them. "Grandfather, if you give me a moment, I can tell you why that would be a bad idea."

Levi straightened and regarded his granddaughter with questioning eyes.

Zion's Children - pt 34

Byrin spent the time waiting for the computers to analyze Lily's blood and spit out a formula for an antibiotic to battle the nameless disease compiling all his information on it. When he returned to Conglomerate space and the Core worlds, he meant to present his findings to his superiors in order to root out the people who had done this. He just hoped it wasn't people he knew.

Or worse - his superiors.

"How will you know the antibiotics will work once you have a formula?" Miri asked, sitting next to him. She had thought about returning to her home to tell her grandfather of the breakthrough, but hadn't yet. She was afraid that he would order the ConFleet personnel offworld
once he learned of the plot against their people.

"I'll test it on one of the patients. Probably several actually. It'll take some time to get the dosing right." Byrin sighed. "We're not through this yet."

"No, we're not." Miri glanced over to where Doctor Alexander and Lily were working. Well, they were pretending to work. They were having a quiet conversation between the two of them. It was always good when two people could have a meeting of the hearts at times like these. At
least that's what she hoped was going on.

"I'm still not sure how they were able to pull this off," said Byrin. "I mean, how do you infect an entire population? I'm pretty sure that this isn't a normal contagious virus, because we all have it."

Miri shrugged. "I don't know. We've never known anything like this. In fact, in general we were a very healthy people. Grandfather couldn't see the point of everyone being vaccinated when your ConFleet first arrived. We've always been healthy, so what was the point. But of course they insisted. Something about boosting our immune systems since we were getting offworld visitors now, and how we wouldn't want to get sick from any new bug they brought with them."

It was as if lighting struck Byrin again. If there was a God, such as these people worshipped, then surely He was striking Byrin hard with revelations. "Of course!" the doctor declared. "That's why we all have it! Since they can't ever be sure who has Jewish ancestry, this would be a sure fire way to kill everyone that has even a smidgen of the right DNA. The bastards included it in our vaccinating shots!"

"Grandfather's not going to like hearing any of this," sighed Miri.

"No one will."