Extract Delta-7 colony was a beautiful place, considering what it had been only seven
years ago. It was amazing what the hand of man had accomplished! Out of a large
barren asteroid of ice and rock, drifting in interstellar space, the
Terraformers or ?Shake and Bakers? as they are commonly called had constructed
an artificial planet, which was now almost ready for large-scale colonization.
The process was extremely complex, but Genesis Technologies Corporation had done
this hundreds of times before. Planet Engineering projects reached out as far as
200 light years from Earth to the most remote outposts, but the most populated
sector, was the Calandon Delta Group, a cluster of nine star systems
approximately 40 light years from Earth.
The vehicle continued on its programmed course, as the two of them slept, until
the Nav Computer made the announcement.
?ATTENTION!.... DCS System Link will be lost in approximately ten minutes.
Nav-Con requires acknowledgment of this message within 90 seconds, or emergency
touchdown procedures will be initiated.?
The cockpit lights and console lit up, and an alarm started beeping. Steve woke
up, and reached for the joystick throttle lever. He pushed the yellow button
that confirmed that he was ready to retake control. When the DCS link signal
dropped, he handed the Con back to Mark. The trip had taken approximately nine
hours, at the average speed of over 275 Miles Per Hour.
When the PE?s did their greenhouse-warming thing, the permafrost melted, and
the water started flowing off the mountain. Instead of following this ancient
riverbed, the water drops down this meteor hole into the caves below. After it
enters the cave, the water winds it?s way through the center of the mountain,
through underground tunnels and caverns, before it empties out into Crystal
Lake. That?s why there?s that waterfall we see from the old campsite, that seems
to fall from the middle of the mountain, and not off the top.... The reason it
LOOKS like it?s coming out of the middle of the mountain, is because it?s coming
out of the middle of the mountain.?
?.... And we?re going to ride the river through the mountain??
?You got it!?
The vaccine that was used to treat HIV II had been known to produce resistant
strains of the virus if the treatment program was not followed properly. One of
the resistant strains of the virus was suspected of causing H3V. This particular
virus isn?t contagious through contact, but the exact mechanism for contracting
the infection was unknown. An investigation a year from now would uncover the
fact that it was intentionally introduced into random batches of children?s
vaccine supplies.
Susceptibility to the virus was believed to be a defect in the Genetic
Engineering of the twenty-second century that compromised a child?s immunity
once they entered puberty. This belief is based on the fact that 97 percent of
first diagnosed cases were juveniles between 11 and 15 years old. Left
untreated, H3V is eventually fatal. The symptoms of an attack include a rapid
onset of extremely high fever, nausea, chills, rapid heartbeat, diarrhea, and if
the disease is advanced enough, sometimes death.
?Mark, we?re going to be asleep for about 40 years on this trip, but it won?t
seem any longer than waking up after a good night?s sleep. I know you?re
scared, and I won?t lie to you, and so am I. When we wake up, the world will be
different, but we won?t be any more than just a few months older. We?ll be on
Earth, where you always said you?d like to visit, and by then, there will most
certainly be a cure for this, not just temporary treatments. Just as a
precaution, I?m gonna? hook us BOTH up to the Prototype. We?ll be in there
together, alone, for a long time....
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