Defy the Worlds (Defy the Stars #2)(11)
“Earth may have manipulated the virus,” says the doctor. “Made it even more virulent.”
“It was man-made in the first place, so maybe so.” Not that anyone knows why Earth bioengineered the Cobweb virus, only that they did. If she’d been able to learn the reason—if Ephraim Dunaway had known it—maybe she could give them some clue about the virus that would actually help. But she’s powerless.
Looking across the room, she sees Mrs. Gatson huddled under a blanket, shivering. This is the only time she’s been out of bed today. The spiderweb rash across her skin barely shows against her pallor. Mr. Gatson hasn’t even tried to rise. Noemi can’t leave the house while they’re this sick, even though she doesn’t know what to do for them.
“When should someone go to the hospital?” she quietly asks the doctor. “How high a fever, or—”
“I’m not sure hospitals will be able to help,” the doctor replies. “They’re already overcrowded, and the situation’s going to worsen when the advisory goes out.”
“What advisory?”
The screen answers her as a brilliant orange border appears, the one the government usually uses when making significant announcements via personal comms. Noemi could read the full text at the bottom, but a single word jumps out, one that blots out everything else:
PANDEMIC.
That one word tells Noemi that Earth has done what it meant to do. It’s weakened their planet and made them vulnerable to attack.
Genesis has withstood thirty years of war, yet one virus may bring down this entire world.
4
ABEL HAD THOUGHT TO PUT IN FOR RESUPPLY ON Stronghold itself, but as soon as they enter the system, that plan collapses.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Zayan breathes as the operations console lights up with warning signals. “The entire system’s on lockdown. Is it another Remedy attack?”
“Unknown.” Abel’s sharp eyes are already looking for either Remedy fighters or security mechs in pursuit of them, but he sees nothing. No space traffic at all, actually. Maybe people have fled the scene of yet another terrorist incident.
Eight space stations and four transit vessels have been destroyed by Remedy since their first, most public strike against the Orchid Festival on Kismet. The death count from these attacks has risen to nearly ten thousand—and that’s if Earth is accurately reporting all the deaths, which Abel doubts. The radical wing of Remedy claims violence is justified to overcome the greater violence Earth visits on its colony worlds, but when he looks at this, all he sees is bloodshed.
He can’t condemn them entirely, because not every member of Remedy is a terrorist. Ephraim Dunaway, the doctor who helped Noemi and Abel escape Stronghold six months earlier—he is a decent man, one who’s trying to reveal Earth’s wrongdoing in order to help people. But they met another Remedy member, too. Riko Watanabe claimed to want justice but sought only revenge.
If Noemi were here, they could discuss whether violence can ever be justified in the pursuit of freedom. She might have a different point of view.
“Abel?” Harriet has an odd look on her face. Abel realizes he’s smiling softly. Remembering Noemi has this effect on him.
Amending his expression, he decides to test his ability to make jokes. He’s been working on that lately. “I’m just relieved we’re running into more trouble. When things go too smoothly, I worry.”
He must’ve done it right, because that makes her laugh. “Come on. Even we catch a break sometimes.”
“Not today,” Zayan says with a grimace. “Receiving signal now—it’s a planetwide quarantine warning. Cobweb.”
Harriet swears in French. Abel says nothing, because for a fraction of a second he’s not in the here and now. He’s remembering six months ago, when Noemi’s skin was covered in the telltale white lines of Cobweb and her fever had spiked so sharply he thought he might lose her.
All Abel’s knowledge, all his many talents, did no good. It was the quick treatment she got on Stronghold, and the assistance of Ephraim Dunaway, that saved Noemi’s life. He doesn’t like remembering his own powerlessness.
Zayan’s console blinks, informing them they have clearance to land on one of the outer peninsulas, where the disease has apparently been contained, and Harriet’s hands are already on the controls. “Go in for landing?” Zayan asks.
Abel weighs the potential risks, then shakes his head. “I’m not willing to risk your health.”
“Or your own,” Zayan says. “You’re not immortal, you know.”
“True.” Abel’s life span is most likely somewhere around two hundred and fifty years. He still has more than two centuries to go.
“Let’s get out of here.” Harriet begins turning the ship away from Stronghold. “Back through the Earth Gate, then? Even if we shouldn’t land there for a while due to—well, whatever it is you’re not telling us—we could pick up some more mining work in the asteroid belt.”
“Not right now,” Abel says. After Gillian’s demonstration, he badly needs to talk about what he’s seen, and there’s only one person he can discuss this with. “Take us to the Stronghold Gate to Cray, top speed.”
“Cray?” Zayan frowns. “Nobody gets landing clearance on Cray unless they’re preapproved by the scientists. To do that, you have to be a researcher or a merchant or—”