Second wave begins
14 August 1918: Wells Next The Sea, Norfolk
"That will be the last of the zeppelin raids here, I think. Too big, too slow, way too flammable." Scythes Engineer Edward Smithfield was not impressed with the LZ 112/L70.
"Aye," said the Maritime Reaper. The newly dead had been reaped by Maritime, the airship having plummeted into the sea. "Great lumbering thing. Same as the L31 back in 1916; they don't learn, do they? One little De Havilland biplane shot her down in flames. The 'plane's ammunition was the 'Pomeroy' exploding bullet type. L70 burned like a torch and fell like a rock. The Führer der Luftschiffe was aboard as an observer. That's going to affect their program. The other four zeppelins dumped their bombs in the water and ran home, which suggests they weren't all that happy about the mission to begin with."
"Eric agrees. He says the Germans need their aeroplanes to support their army. They've been planning heavy bombing of Paris and London to force an armistice, but they are beginning to worry about French and British reprisals as they retreat," said Alan. He was well into his third consecutive shift of duty. He had volunteered to escort Smitty, wanting very much to hear his opinions and to learn from them.
Smitty turned to examine a twisted mass of scorched and rusting wreckage which the Humans had raised from the North Sea. "Only a month old. Seven Maybach engines, reduced to six when an extra gas cell was added, and six propellers. Tail-fins and tail-planes are self-supporting and cantilevered. Terribly impressive on parade, as long as it has a windless and uncontested sky. Firetrap. Maneuvers like a crock of sauerkraut. They've taken the Zeps as far as they can go, at least for military purposes. And even when they are not in combat, a spark or a lightning strike can ignite them. No, aeroplanes are the future. It will be fun to see what the Humans do with those in the next few years."
"Fun," said Alan, tasting the word and finding it bitter. He was worn to the bone but trying to sound encouraging. Evidently he succeeded. Smitty swept on.
"Once the war's over, there will be all sorts of business applications for aeroplanes. Fewer wings, stronger materials, better engines, finally they'll figure out that the propellers actually slow them down… Alan, are you all right? You sure? Okay. Then they'll start thinking size, cargo, passengers. Fast transport over distance…"
Alan thought of the spread of disease worldwide, no longer limited to sea travel. Faster… Should he mention that to Eric, to Spears, to Major Elihu? Too early. Surely that would be at least fifty years in the future, at least? But Eric thought that world war would return as soon as all the participants raised a new generation of soldiers. Twenty years. Wars sped up technological and social change. Engineering might become a respectable course of study. Pandemics were rare, too, and Human medical research might learn to keep pace with lesser outbreaks. He would wait and watch.
"Humphries?" said the Maritime Reaper. "Dutch, you need to take him home. He's asleep on his feet."
"We've been busy, training admins to take up civilian Reaping duties in the City. We are probably going to be sent away as emergency support to areas hard hit by influenza. Smitty, you about done here?"
"Yes. Thanks. Let's go check in with our respective departments. Shall I buy you breakfast?"
19 August 1918
Senior Maritime Reaper Olaf Haaken. With Director Spears and Senior Reaper Alan Humphries, over Spears' new maritime map of the world
"All the military ports will be infected, of course, but so will other points of travel. The sailing ships were more confined in their routes. The steamships can go against or without the winds."
"So that opens new destinations to them," said Will, "or year-round access to old ones?"
"That's right, Director. The trade-off, of course, is that they are dependent on fuel. Your disease is going to travel and spread through the coaling stations. It already has, actually. The armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Mantua, out of Devenport, England, arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, last Monday." Haaken pressed a thumb to the map. "That's here, halfway down the continent. They had over one hundred sick on board."
Humphries nodded.
"Custom demands that all visiting Captains pay a formal call to the Colonial Governor. They and their officers are expected to attend the Governor's dinner parties, to amuse the ladies and to bring the latest news from home."
Humphries nodded again.
"The Captain of the Mantua sent a note that he could not come ashore due to illness on board. That's standard quarantine, originally designed to contain a rat-borne disease. The Governor discussed it that evening with his staff and guests, but no one wished to disrupt naval schedules in wartime. A collier took a coaling crew out to the ship the next day. Several of the other ships sent medical officers to help out in the Mantua's sickbay."
"Oh…dear," said Humphries.
"Most unwise," said Spears.
"Indeed. They have no notion of how this disease spreads. Your influenza is now raging in the African laborers' community. They'll bring it aboard any ship they service. They are also spreading it inland. It's incubating in the Colonial population as well. Freetown's Death Books indicate an enormous death toll starting in five days. The medical officers have taken it back to their own ships, none of which are quarantined. Some of those ships are already underway to other African destinations. There was a Brazilian flagship there too. Two troopships, bringing native African support troops home from Europe, will arrive to refuel in a few days. Maritime Reapers will join both ships. They will reach Cape Town in mid-September and discharge all surviving passengers to take the railroads home. Other troop transports will visit other African ports with the same effect."
"Oh, my..."
"Mombasa, over here on the east coast, will receive an infected ship from India at the end of September. The Land Reapers of Africa have been expecting this from the class sizes at the local Academies; they call it the Slingby prophecy. They've planned and prepared. Talk to them if you want detailed estimations of the disease's progress on land. It will spread through the rest of the continent quickly as native porters are released from forced labor. Maritime has Reapers aboard all plague ships, of course, our own Lists direct us.
"A British mail ship, the SS Demerara, will stop at Dakar in September and pick up the disease there. It will reach Recife in Brazil mid-month, with sickness on board. It will then proceed to Rio de Janeiro. The Land Reapers are expecting it. Another Brazilian ship, La Plata, will also stop in Dakar, carrying a medical mission to Europe. We'll reap 156 of her crew before she makes landfall in Brest.
"The ports of Brest and Boston already have it, and so does any ship which has passed through them, and any destination they will reach. September and October will see a huge surge in infections and deaths. SS Leviathan will leave Hoboken, New Jersey for France at the end of September, carrying 9,000 severely crowded military personnel and the ship's crew. The disease will break out immediately. They will arrive at Brest a week later with 2,000 sick, ninety dead and everyone else carrying the contagion."
"How do your Lists extend so far ahead? We rarely have more than a month's notice for far greater numbers. We had to fight to get that much."
"It's because of the distances. If they want a large Maritime presence in the farthest reaches of the Big Wet at a specified hour, they have to give us the time to get there and back. The long-range portals make that a lot easier – thanks, by the way – but we have been very careful to mention to the Highers that it's new and experimental technology. We always point out that it may not be completely reliable without a few centuries of testing. So far that's kept them from shortening our range of view."
25 September 1918, London Cafeteria. Alan Humphries and Asa Kincaid (Senior Reaper, Portland, Maine, USA, on assignment with the American Expeditionary Forces)
"…Should be back in about six weeks. Sorry. Fortunately, there's a slowdown now – I'm sure Slingby has mentioned that the second wave is on the front lines. Both sides have huge numbers of sick soldiers who have to be treated, fed, and defended by others who are also sick. They can't march, can barely walk, so they can't maneuver or attack. Drives the generals nuts. A few Reapers can be spared to go home. My superiors are only recalling ten of us."
"Thank you, Asa. We appreciate the help you've given. Be careful, please. I don't know if your demons are beginning to sneak around the current truce, but ours are. Is this just one city?"
"Yes, a large and overcrowded one. Philadelphia. Big manufacturing city. The influenza is already present in the Navy Yards. Next Saturday the city is going to throw a huge parade to sell war bonds. They've been warned against it, but the government wants to wring every possible penny from the civilians. Everybody will turn out, forming one huge closely-packed crowd two miles long. About twelve thousand of them will die in the next month. Some citizens will flee the city, taking it with them wherever they go. We'll go with them. We'll probably be sent back to the battlefield once the worst is over."
"Perhaps the war will be over by then. Or, you might be sent on to India. Chandra Gupta and Gerritt Vanderveldt are in the Bombay area now. They will welcome your help; the death toll there is enormous."
"If the war's over, I think we'll be kept at home to deal with our own problems. The flu will travel inland from both coasts. It's a sizeable country. But we serve where we are sent. By the way, there's a fellow who's been asking around the bars about you. He's perfectly plausible and pleasant. Sleek, slick and smiling. For absolutely no reason, he makes me want to punch him. I've mentioned him to Slingby and Ten Hagen. Good luck, Alan. Stay safe."
27 September 1918, Director's Office, Chichima Onayemi with Director Spears and Personnel Officer Jacobs. Because Grell insisted upon this consultation
"Sir, sorry, but that's not going to work. Victims of high fevers can often see us approach. Africa has been colonized, subjugated, enslaved and raped for generations. A white man in a suit, or a white woman for that matter, is not going be able to Reap in the native communities and the forced-labor battalions. The souls will see you as slavers and overseers. They'll panic and fight you frantically and viciously. You need black Reapers, or Reapers who can assume a black glamor and the local uniform. Put your white Reapers in the white enclaves. That's how India is handling it - Senior Gupta is working in the native population while Senior Vanderveldt is Reaping the colonial whites."
"Thank you, Senior Onayemi. If only African Reapers are acceptable to native Africans, then that is what they must have. Our purpose is to collect, not to traumatize. Is there any other source for suitable Reapers outside of Africa?"
"Anywhere slaves were sold, sir. The Carribbean. The Americas. Europe. Slavery produces a lot of suicides. So does colonization, so you may not need as many additional Reapers as you think. Cotton plantations, sugar cane plantations in the rum islands, rice fields in the malarial areas. Mines, mills, cities, fields. Ask among them how many they can spare – and ask the black managers, not the white. You need them to come because they want to, not just because they were told to. Treat them with the same respect you demand for your own people. Same thing in China, and in any other area where Europeans have proven themselves the enemy."
Will bowed his head slightly and was silent for a minute. "Miss Onayemi, I confess my ignorance of your people and their cultures, and of many other peoples. Thank you for your teaching me that I know far less than I need to know."
"Sir, with respect, you are very young in the Realm. You have only ever known London, as a native of England. How could you know anything else, when such identities are stripped from our memories at inception?"
"I did travel once to Germany."
"Same color, similar cultures. Not a challenge. Sir, we are all souls of the Creator's making. The rest is just decoration. Invite the people you need. Don't give them nitpicky orders that do not apply to the area. Turn them over to the local experts for deployment. Let them do their work. Remember to thank them for it."