Read Online The Virus by Steven Spellman - Free Book Online Page B

world as you know it. And it is very likely
that you’ll never see your family and friends alive
again.”
    Lieutenant Dan heaved
another deep sigh and slowly returned to his original position
behind the doctor. Once he got there, he continued his oration.
“This location,” the lieutenant general waved his hand in a wide
arc toward the entire grounds. “is a highly classified and
heavily-guarded fortress. And as with all fortresses, this one was
meant to protect something. Something more important than money,
more important than any high tech computer, and more important that
any one weapon.” He turned and again leveled his guarded gaze upon
Geoffrey, “Knowledge. We have known about alien life in our part of
the universe for decades. We’ve been bringing back primitive alien
life forms from the moon and mars since we got there. What looks
like alien bacteria or fungus, nothing complex but life . But nothing ever
lasts long once they get it back home. Everything always dies once
it’s been subjected to our atmosphere. Everything. It always just
turns to dust.”
    The lieutenant general’s
voice heightened a note or two as he continued, “Even received some
kind of transmission from the ‘higher functions’, as the science
personnel like to call ‘em. That crowd figures that if alien
intelligence can send a readable signal, then they have to be at
least as smart as humans, and since they’re aliens, it’s probably
best to assume they’re smarter than we are. So, anyway, they
finally receive a transmission from these ‘higher functions’ and
it’s in numbers. It’s been fifteen years, and the guys in the
offices still can’t figure it out. Whole messages written in
numbers.”
    “Well,” interposed the
doctor “it does stand to reason that if there is a universal
language, it would be some kind of math, or something like it.
Numbers are the only things that are likely to be the same on other
planets.”
    “That’s right. You did say
that you took up some kind of math before you got into medicine in
college.” Lieutenant Dan observed.
    “Infinitesimal calculus,” the doctor clarified “and I
only got into medicine as you say, when I got
here fifteen years ago.” He turned his attention back to Geoffrey,
and continued Lieutenant Dan’s narrative, “But even stranger than
that was how the
message was sent. It came on a burst of pure energy. Light, Son!”
the doctor nearly yelled, “Nothing can travel faster than light,
not even information, so these foreign intelligences have found a
way to actually use light itself to carry information. Light is of
prime importance in one way or another in many fields, including,
and especially, medicine. With the improvements we could make to
lasers for instance, if we could learn to manipulate them better,
we could possibly perform more complex surgeries with them and
completely disinfect open flesh even while it’s being removed or
repaired. The Cleaning Lights we all passed in the corridor are
just a start of what could be done with the knowledge we’ve already
garnered from these alien intelligences. And that’s just the
tip…”
    “Cleaning Lights?” Geoffrey
asked.
    “The lights you passed in
the hallway leading here. You couldn’t have missed them. Didn’t you
notice that they were much brighter than any lights you’ve ever
seen before?” Geoffrey had noticed that the corridor’s lights were
incredibly bright, but after the whole hidden entryway thing, he
didn’t take as much note of the phenomenon as he likely would have
otherwise.
    “What about them?” Geoffrey
asked.
    “Well, what they are,”
answered the doctor, with the same faint rise in enthusiasm as had
been witnessed in the lieutenant general a few moments ago, “is the
best sterilization agent the world has ever seen. When you came in
here and passed under and through those lights, your body was
nearly instantaneously purged of most of the potentially dangerous
microbes,