Brightly Burning(75)
Best Regards,
Karmina Ocampo
Fleet Tribune
To: Ocampo, Karmina (Lady Liberty) From: Clarke, Joy (Stalwart)
Subject: URGENT news tip
Try Tucker Mason. Population and Control Department.
Hermione
To: Clarke, Joy (Stalwart)
From: Ocampo, Karmina (Lady Liberty) Subject: Need more information
Hermione, I need more to go on. I looked up Mason but didn’t find anything related to a virus. If I’m going to talk to him, I need to be able to ask him the right questions, press for the right information. I feel like you’re withholding something from me. You seem to know a lot about this alleged virus . . .
To: Ocampo, Karmina (Lady Liberty) From: Clarke, Joy (Stalwart)
Subject: Need more information
Check the travel logs to the Olympus within the last month. Look for the name Hanada. Would have had medical cargo with her. Check traffic from there to other ships, particularly ones like the Empire. They would be distributing vaccines to the wealthy and skipping everyone else. The virus presents like a mild flu for the first few days, then escalates. They burn up with fever, and their organs just . . . liquefy.
We have seventeen cases here already. Three have died. We’re running out of time, so please investigate and go to print as soon as you can! The Stalwart has already enacted quarantine procedures. Everyone else needs to, too.
EXCLUSIVE: SENIOR CABINET MEMBER MAY HAVE BROUGHT DEADLY VIRUS INTO FLEET
by Karmina Ocampo
Fleet Tribune Staff
A top government official could be linked to the outbreak of a new virus that so far has claimed the lives of twenty-eight citizens fleetwide and infected scores of others, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Fleet Tribune.
Cargo records show that Secretary of Resources Joseph Ralphs had viral samples delivered to him on Olympus approximately one week before cases started to appear on the fleet. The Tribune also found Ralphs received a similarly marked shipment within a week of the onset of the Kebbler outbreak, which decimated the population by 20 percent nearly seven years ago. A source with knowledge of both deliveries says the viruses were part of a government-wide plan to control the fleet’s burgeoning population and conserve resources.
Director of Population and Control Tucker Mason denied these claims but said Ralphs has been suspended immediately, pending an investigation. Mason also called for an immediate fleetwide quarantine.
The records indicate that both shipments came from Rochester virologist Mari Hanada.
LADY LIBERTY OWNER HUGO FAIRFAX IMPLICATED IN HANADA OUTBREAK
by Karmina Ocampo
Fleet Tribune Staff
In the last week since the Fleet Tribune broke the story, more than six hundred cases of Hanada virus have been reported fleetwide, with a death count now approaching sixty. The virus is named for Mari Hanada, who created the strain on board the private ship Rochester. Sources indicate Hugo Fairfax is more involved in the scandal than previously thought.
Fairfax became captain of the Rochester at fourteen after his mother, Cassandra, murdered his father, Phillip, the virologist who created the Kebbler virus. Hugo Fairfax brokered the deal with former Secretary Ralphs to provide the new viral strain, as well as vaccines for the fleet elite.
Both Hanada and Fairfax are being sought on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. The search for them is ongoing.
To: Mason, Tucker (Olympus)
From: Ainsley, Stella (Stalwart) Subject: Hi
I don’t know what you did to get the Tribune to spin your lies, but your reprieve won’t last long. Ocampo may have blocked my messages, but I’ll find someone else to listen. I’ll find proof, and I will take you down.
You won’t get away with this.
To: Technical Support (Olympus) From: Mason, Tucker (Olympus)
Subject: Communications embargo
Please block all nonessential communication traffic to and from the Stalwart until the end of quarantine. Hold all incoming and outgoing messages for my review.
Chapter Twenty-Six
My back burned under the solar array, intense heat soaking into the black fabric that was meant to keep me cool but was in fact powerless against the onslaught. But the crops took precedence over my comfort, and food needed light to grow. Beside me, issued a groan and a curse. Jon stood from his crouch, stretching tall until his back gave a resounding crack. At least I wasn’t alone in my misery.
“Please tell me the quarantine is ending soon,” I said, sighing as I stood for the first time in an hour. We threw down our tools and retreated to a patch of shade below a steel walkway. George and Joy followed our lead.
“My uncle says two more weeks, at least. There are still a few dozen cases in sick bay, and he doesn’t want to risk it.”
“If I’d known being vaccinated meant I’d have to take field duty, I would have passed,” Joy said, inspecting her hopelessly dirt-caked fingernails.
We all glared at her with varying levels of contempt, George’s being the gentlest. People were dying. Stalwart had lost fewer than we might have without my warnings—?and limited supply of vaccines—?but any loss was too much. The death count was hovering just under one hundred, one-sixth of the ship’s population gone in the month the virus had raged through the fleet. Better than a third, like it had been last time. But it was one hundred too many.