Pandemic

Comment:

This is a relatively short chapter. It's the build-up to the next chapter, in which a breakthrough will finally happen. Prepare yourself for action! I'll try to publish it within 10 days to speed up the pace.

Rocket was working in Sam's holodeck when Peter came in. "What'cher doing?" the captain asked.

"Sam set up an interface so I can work with his system," the raccoon said and pointed to an abstract floating hologram that looked like a small head of an animal with a muzzle. "I can talk ta this guy and he can run queries. The amazin' thing is, this system can find anythin' in the entire universe. I asked it ta look fer buildings and teleportation devices that are compatible to the ones on Indezon. It already found ten. Some of them are outside the visible universe."

"Sam trusts you with his stuff? Isn't he afraid you'll make a bomb?"

Rocket smirked, "It's almost as if he wants me ta try everythin' out. He didn't give me a lot of instructions, jes' said 'find out yerself'. "So that's what I'm doin'." He asked, "Computer?"

"Yes, Rocket," the floating head spoke back.

"Make Peter's augmented vision system visible."

Two black marbles appeared in front of Peter's eyes.

"Detach them."

The marbles fell and Rocket caught them. He weighed them in his hands. "Here, keep 'em in yer hands," he asked Peter.

Star-Lord rolled the objects in his hands, threw them up and caught them. "I can't feel any mass."

"Yes, but if they were really mass-less, they would float in the air" He probed the marbles with a standard matter analyser and said, "Check this out, they don't register as anythin'. No matter, no energy."

"Yet I can feel them. They're solid. Do you think they're holographic?"

"Not without a holo-emitter."

"Maybe they have built-in emitters?"

"No, that would result in mass. And they would be a lot bigger." Then he commanded, "Computer, hide the augmented vision system."

The marbles in Peter's hand became invisible. Rocket probed the empty space that was left and concluded, "This system uses some hidden dimension I've never heard of. They are completely undetectable."

"So this is pretty advanced stuff."

"It sure is. But the computer interface refuses ta explain how it works."

"Would you be able to create a weapon with this technology?"

"You bet! Imagin' ya can hide a bomb that is completely invisible and undetectable ... the bad guys wouldn't know what hit them. I bet there's more stuff like this. They've got advanced teleportation too. If we could use it, we were able ta walk into the compounds in seconds instead of doin' it the hard way."

"Maybe Sam doesn't agree with that for some reason."

"Yet I got the feelin' that he wants me ta snoop around fer some reason. Besides, he's smart and he knows I'm smart, so he knows what he can expect. If he really wants me not ta see somethin', he better put it behind a big lock. I bet he did. Take this computer interface: as far as I checked, we're in an ordinary holodeck, except the resolution is incredible. The funny thing is, I can't see where the output is comin' from. The data source isn't inside this space-time continuum."

"That's impressive. By the way, can I have my goggles back?"

"Sure, computer, restore Peter's vision system in its previous state."

"Complied," the tiny head said.

"So, if you're not playing around, you're looking for target locations."

"Yes, I told ya I'm workin' on a list. There, 11 pops up. Holy flark, ya see that? 25 billion light-years distance. That's uncharted space. I don't even know how we can get there, 'cept by using the cube teleport system itself."

"I don't know about that. If they control the system, they can send you anywhere."

"I'm trying ta hack the system. If we control the teleport, we can use it how we like it."

"Good work, Rocky. Can I get you something?"

"Send Groot over. I may need his brainpower."

"OK," peter said while he left. He didn't know that Groot was that brainy.

Tama had set up a meeting with Sam. Sam had used a back entrance of the Nova headquarters and managed to sneak into her office without getting noticed. When he got in, he didn't say a word but first checked with one of his devices if the room was bugged. "What did you decide," he asked when he was done.

"I studied your material. I also checked the medical data of Centurion Yon and Nova Prime. Recent health check data suggest an elevated metabolic marker for mild psychosis, but it's not conclusive. I also studied the file you gave me about Drax. It's rather disturbing."

"Do you believe me then?"

"I've no reason to suspect that any of this is forged. It still feels a bit unreal to me, but I have to follow common sense. So I am at your disposal. What's this plan you and Dey worked out?"

"What would the normal procedure be if Nova Prime would suffer from insanity?"

"The Nova Force would detect it and make another Corps member Nova Prime."

"But that hasn't happened."

"The contingency plan for such an event would be that the Centurions unanimously put her out of office and select a new Nova Prime. However, there's a lot of red tape involved and as one Centurion is infected, this option is not available."

"Then we have to look at less preferable options."

"The circumstances seem to dictate that."

"I'm thinking about a ruse. What if we make them believe they need treatment for something else? And then treat them for the brain disease instead? Without their consent."

"That's a possibility. As they are not accountable, we need to act on their behalf."

"OK, so that would not be an unethical action in your book?"

"The way I see it, no."

"If only the Centurion and Nova Prime are called for treatment, it may raise suspicion. I think we need to make this a part of a general plan, like for example an inoculation for a pending pandemic."

"I'm not OK with that. Inoculations have side effects. They're only acceptable if there's a real pandemic."

"I agree. But what if we create a fake epidemic."

"That's not ethical either. You may create panic and cause harm."

"I know. But in this case, it's not an isolated ethical decision. We need to include the repercussions of letting this situation continue. We can be pretty sure more officers will be infected and will disappear."

"A logical thing to do would be to inoculate all Nova officers against the brain-altering virus. I saw that you developed a vaccine."

"Correct. But we can't tell the truth about the vaccine. The infected people may sabotage the inoculation campaign."

"So you would suggest, we launch a campaign for something else, but give the treated a shot against the virus?"

"Yes. To make it more believable, we can disguise the brain virus antibiotic as a vaccine against the simulated pandemic or even mix them together. For the two infected officers, we need to administer something else. It needs to be an agent that sedates them."

"OK, due to the circumstances I concur with that approach. We should camouflage the brain virus vaccine."

"Fine. Tell me which vaccines you have in store and which outbreak would be sufficient cause for quarantining the building and starting inoculations. I can switch the vaccines with help of Dey and the Guardians. We then can simulate an outbreak in the building."

"OK. I don't like it but if we do it fast, we will not risk panic."

"What about your staff?"

"I can issue quarantine. They will follow protocol."

"And how can we sedate the two infected? I think you should be the one to treat them."

"I can make changes to the schedules of the emergency protocol, so Nova Prime and Yon will resort to my care."

"OK. Next thing, the epidemic needs to be something high Nova officers including Nova Prime have no natural defence against."

"We probably should use Veruvian Plague. Outbreaks are rare, but severe."

"Got it. Lastly, I need to teach you the procedure to heal an infected person."

"I suggest we get to that right away."

The rest of the day, Tama made Sam familiar with the medical equipment the Nova Corps used. After a few hours of instructions, he understood the machinery well enough to be able to adapt the procedure he developed with the Tangerine equipment to Nova Corps technology. Tama memorised the procedure. They walked through it a number of times to make her confident enough to perform it.

At the end of that day, Sam sneaked out and went back to the Milano to update his partners.

Meanwhile, Rocket had developed an attack plan. The first component was a jamming device for the teleporter. A hole had to be shot into a cube building from above. This projectile trajectory would be safe enough to minimise the chance of collateral damage. Through this hole, the jamming device would be launched into the building to block the escape/ backup route.

The next device he designed was a custom laser cutter that would cut a person-sized hole through the solid metal in seconds, again without the risk of harming insiders. He figured an invasion force would need a number of cutters so they can work in parallel.

The army needed good bio-suits in case the virus reactor would be hit. The Nova Corps had standard bio-suits. But Rocket created a few extra nevertheless. In case the plan to rescue Nova Prime would fail, they had no other option than to go in themselves, with their own equipment.

He integrated his tranquiliser gun into his favourite self-made weapon. He was aware that this was a rescue operation and he should avoid casualties if possible. But he just felt better using his big blaster instead of a tiny popgun.

Finally, he created a routine in his view screen/ computer to override the transporter control. That way, the invasion force would be able to use the teleportation network to get to locations that were just too far away for any FTL spaceship.

The crew met to put everything together and to plan the mission. Rocket laid out his attack plan, which sounded as well prepared as ever, so there wasn't much discussion.

Sam explained what he had been discussing with Tama. "I have a sample of the Veruvian Plague vaccine. I'll ask my crewmates to make a batch of brain virus vaccine that looks just like it. Furthermore, we need a volunteer to get arrested and to get very sick with fake Veruvian Plague."

No volunteers stepped forward.

Peter said, "I think we don't have a lot of options. Drax can't be out because they still believe we haven't found him. Rocket?"

"It really sounds like fun, but no. Ya know, doctors and me ..."

"So I'm the only volunteer then?"

"Ya figured that out pretty quickly, Pete."

"The nice thing is, you don't even have to act," Sam said with an ironic smile. "I can infect you with something that looks just like it, but doesn't kill you."

"I can't wait to try."

Sam grinned.

The next day a Starblaster arrived at Nova headquarters. Dey came out with Peter in chains. The captive coughed and seemed drunk. When Dey processed him, a colleague of him said,

"But that's Star-Lord. Do you really want to arrest him?"

"It's for his own good," Denarian Dey replied. "He needs to sober up; we let him go next day."

The moment Peter was put in a cell, he started making a lot of noise. He screamed, "Get me out of here! I'm dying!"

Dey came personally to his cell to warn him to keep quiet. But then he saw how Peter had a green face and how brown blisters popped up on his skin.

The Nova officer quarantined the cell. He instructed his subordinates to keep their distance. He called Tama, the head of the medical department.

Soon she arrived in a bio-suit and looked at the patient. She came out, took a shower, changed into a fresh bio-suit and went back to Dey. The Denarian was scratching his hands. They showed brown blisters. She ordered him to quarantine himself and issued a virus alarm. The building went into lockdown.

Immediately, she contacted Nova Prime and ran to her office. She told her about the emergency and explained the protocol. All personnel with suspicious symptoms had to go into quarantine. The rest needed to be vaccinated directly. All activities were put on hold. A wing of the building was evacuated and set up for vaccinations. The doctors and nurses sped to the different floors of the improvised vaccination centre. Personnel were called and dispatched to the different floors. Even the Centurions and Nova Prime had to go there without delay.

After an hour, all personnel had been vaccinated. The primary safety zone was reduced to the cell blocks where Peter and Dey were locked up. Two nurses in bio-suits tended to their needs. The other medical personnel treated the building, floor by floor, with an anti-viral agent. Half an hour later, the building was scanned for viral particles and came out clean. The office was safe for reopening.

Tama was called during these hectic events. Nova Prime and a Centurion had not been feeling well. They were found unconscious in their offices. Tama told the nurse who accompanied her that they may have had an adverse reaction to the vaccine and needed immediate care. She asked two loyal nurses to assist.

An hour later. Tama had treated both Nova Prime and Centurion Yon. Each of them was taken to a private patient room to recover. Tama stayed with Nova Prime and waited for her to come around.