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Hi folks....I just got this bug in me to write down some things yesterday...this is basically a string of short tales about a typical day on Planet
DAWN-UN HQ
“Good morning, John, you wanted to chat with me?” Jeff Smith said as he entered his friends office.
John Killian looked up briefly from the data pad he was reading. He merely nodded and had the barest hint of a smile upon seeing his old friend. He had known Jeff and been his friend since the early days of planetfall, when they both served in the Peacekeeper Exploratory Force. Since then both men had made names for themselves, and now despite the regeneration treatments they both were showing gray hairs and receding hairlines. Still, Killian noted that his friend carried two cups of synth-coffee and that he placed one in front of him.
“Jeff,” John spoke, “What the hell is this!?” He tossed the data pad to Smith as the man sat down. Smith’s refelexes had not slowed with age. He caught the pad in mid flight without spilling a drop of his cup of synth coffee.
Smith didn’t really read the pad. He sat across from Killian and scanned it briefly. He already knew what it was. After al he had only sent it to Smith the night before. Killian was the Director of Intelligence and Recon Affairs at UN Headquarters, meaning he was the man in the long line of bureacracy that approved (or denied if need be) probe team missions. Killian was the Medical Liason Officer, meaning he normally had little to do. Killian was obviously annoyed, but intriugued by the contents of the data pad. Smith said nothing, and placed the pad on Killian’s desk and sipped his drink.
“Okay, Jeff....I’ll bite...” Killian began, “Why are you sending me a request for probe team operations on a University of Planet Base? A request that asks, I may add,that we steal information on Gene Splicing, even though we Gene splicing capabilities?”
Smith put his cup down on the desk and scooted his chair closer to it. “ John, the UoP has some techniques in this area that we haven’t mastered yet. Oh, we’ll master them in a few years, but we haven’t the time.”
“What are you talking about?” Killian queried.
Jeff Killian sat back in the chair and took a deep breath. “Basically, John, we need to breed some cats.”
There was an uncomfortablr silence. Killian stared at his friend, his pale blue eyes widening. He really felt that his old friend hads lost his most. “CATS?”
“Yes, Cats....like “meow,meow”...you know Cats.”
“We already have CATS!” Killian almost shouted. Like most buerucrats, he didn’t like to have his time wasted. The early colonists on planet carried with them the genetic material of many earth animals. Though it took time to get the infrastucture together the factions mostly had the abiltiy to grow these animals from the gene stock as needed. Cats were among them, but the common cat from earth didn’t deal well with life on planet. Citizens in bases below size designate five couldn’t own them, and even then there were few that could afford it. Cats, dogs, gerbils, etc were a luxury. It was expensive to grow them and expensive to feed them. The few common cats that existed on planet were fully the property of the rich and famous.
“I see you don’t understand” Smith sighed, “You didn’t read the details of my request, did you? We don’t need the run of the mill cat...we need genetically altered cats and we need them badly.” Smith picked up the pad and pressed a few control buttons, “Computer,” he spoke aloud, pausing only to hear the acknowledging chirp of Jeff’s office computer, “display image in file 012-1327.”
With this command the holographic emmitters in John’s office hummed to life and produced an image on the desk...a hideous image. It was nearly the size of a small dog and it had greasy spiky black hair. It had short but sharp teeth and stood on its hind legs. It had pink hands and feet and three soulless eyes on its head. John would have called it a rat, an animal he learned existed on old earth, but he knew that Earth rats had only two eyes.
“We call them the Vermin.” Jeff said. “They’re native to planet and from what we’ve learned they exist in small packs. At least they did. Since mankind has established bases here, they’ve moved in. These creatures aren’t as ferocious as they look, but they are mean...and they’re natural carriers for the planet virus called Chironian Blood Fever. They’re literaly coated with a type of flea that helps transmit it. “
“Its....vile looking!” Killian snarled at the image. The three milky blue eyes of the hologram seemed to be focused on him and it gave him chills. Without a word, he shut the hologram off. “I’ve never heard of this ‘Vermin’ and the newest cases of Chironian Blood Fever have been contained.”
Jeff shook his head sadly. “No they haven’t. UN Health Authority kept it queit and they did a good job of it, if you didn’t know. The Vermin live mostly in the below sections of our bases...where the drones live...the ‘ghetto’ for want of a better word....they’ve been breeding like wildfire and its causin a real health risk.”
John thumped his fist on the desk top, “Dammit, Jeff, what do you know? spill it!”
“The Vermin are breeding, John. UN Health Authority estimates thart within a year the virus they carry will infect the entire population. As you know, we don’t have a cure for Chironian Blood Fever. We can immunize people but the drugs needed are hard to create and we can’t immunize the entire population in time. No one cared before because it was the lower class dones that were falling sick...but if we don’t act, we’ll have a plague on our hands.”
Killian chewed his lip for a seond...”For this you need Cats?” he asled.
“Ever since the the UoP band the Human Hive began fighting”, Smith explained, “ The Uop has restricted access to all of thier research.. When the Hive stole their secret documents on Plasma Steel Zakharov has become obsessed with security. So most of the experts at the UoP won’t tell us anything, even though we know they have the same Vermin problem. Now, as you said, we can breed cats, but earth cats are fragile here on planet and a typical cat would be torn to shreds by one of the vermin. But if we could just fill the gap in our genetic engineeering knowledge we could breed a cat that could hunt these damn things down in the lower levels and save us all.”
John’s face became red. He was angry that this information wasn’t gviben to him before, but he knew that the bureucracy oif the Peacekeepers had made his job in this case that much more difficult. “Jeff,” he said calmly, trying not to be upset with his friend. ‘Why not just send troops to the lower levels and eradicate these beasts?”
“You think we didn’t try that?” Jeff answerd. “UN Health Authority has sent two dozen different missions to get these nasties. The Vermin are too good at hiding and evading human beings. The only way to kill them that way is to burn the base down. But a cat bred to hunt them and kill them...now, that would work. At least in our computer simulations it would...and thats our best chance.”
“Why?”
Killian punched a code on tha pad, turning the holgram on again...but this time the image was of a cat. Not a normal cat, mind you. Killian was startled to see it. The image hade saber teeth and long sharp claws. Its fur was an orange shambles on its body.
“The bubonic plague killed millions on ancient earth but might have been hampered if our ancestors didn’t kill the cats as witches familiars, Smith explained, “ Our genetically enhanced cats could be programmed to hunt down and kill these vermin. They could also be programmed to not harm humans, made sterile and have limited life spans so we don’t find ourselves neck deep in mutant cats. All we need is a little bit of information on Gene Splicing that we know the UoP has, but won’t share.”
Smith leaned forward and looked his friend in the eye. He was deadly serious. “We really need this information, John. If we don’t act now we’ll have a plague of Chironian Blood Fever that makes the Prometheus Virus look like a common earth cold.”
Killian met his friends stare. Then he sipped his coffee and rubbed his eyes. “You know that Commisioner Lal has to personally approve of all Probe Operations. I have my daily briefing with him in two hours. Do you know that this is going to send the man into a fit? After that fiasco with the Spartans last month, Lal’s been feeling the strain. He’s going to go thermal when he sees this request.”
“I don’t want to put you on the spot, old friend, but as the Medical and Health Liaison, I insist that you inform Lal of the situation.” Smith said.
“You realize that if he approves this, and if the UoP learns of our pilfering, they’ll most likely want to go to war over it. Zakharov’s been real jittery lately...who knows what kind of crazy weapons he’s dreaming up now.” Killian warned. “No....I am not going to ask this of Lal...you are.”
“Me?” Smith looked shocked. His duties normally kept out of any face to face meeting with Lal.
“Yes, you.” Killian insisted. “Look at it this way, old friend, either Lal gives this the go and we succeed, or he gives it the go and we fail...in which case we’ll both probably find ourselves re commisioned in the PK Army. Or Lal fires us both and we can retire and play chess all day. At least until we die of Chironian Blood fever.”
Smith chuckled. Killian smiled grimly.
“Two hours then.” Smith stood up, preparing to take his leave. “I’ll get my research materials together and meet you here.” Then he strode out of the office.
Killian watched him go and then gulped down the rest of the his synth coffee. “By Nessus!” He thought, “First thing in the morning and this...I need a vacation....”
DAWN-UN HQ
“Good morning, John, you wanted to chat with me?” Jeff Smith said as he entered his friends office.
John Killian looked up briefly from the data pad he was reading. He merely nodded and had the barest hint of a smile upon seeing his old friend. He had known Jeff and been his friend since the early days of planetfall, when they both served in the Peacekeeper Exploratory Force. Since then both men had made names for themselves, and now despite the regeneration treatments they both were showing gray hairs and receding hairlines. Still, Killian noted that his friend carried two cups of synth-coffee and that he placed one in front of him.
“Jeff,” John spoke, “What the hell is this!?” He tossed the data pad to Smith as the man sat down. Smith’s refelexes had not slowed with age. He caught the pad in mid flight without spilling a drop of his cup of synth coffee.
Smith didn’t really read the pad. He sat across from Killian and scanned it briefly. He already knew what it was. After al he had only sent it to Smith the night before. Killian was the Director of Intelligence and Recon Affairs at UN Headquarters, meaning he was the man in the long line of bureacracy that approved (or denied if need be) probe team missions. Killian was the Medical Liason Officer, meaning he normally had little to do. Killian was obviously annoyed, but intriugued by the contents of the data pad. Smith said nothing, and placed the pad on Killian’s desk and sipped his drink.
“Okay, Jeff....I’ll bite...” Killian began, “Why are you sending me a request for probe team operations on a University of Planet Base? A request that asks, I may add,that we steal information on Gene Splicing, even though we Gene splicing capabilities?”
Smith put his cup down on the desk and scooted his chair closer to it. “ John, the UoP has some techniques in this area that we haven’t mastered yet. Oh, we’ll master them in a few years, but we haven’t the time.”
“What are you talking about?” Killian queried.
Jeff Killian sat back in the chair and took a deep breath. “Basically, John, we need to breed some cats.”
There was an uncomfortablr silence. Killian stared at his friend, his pale blue eyes widening. He really felt that his old friend hads lost his most. “CATS?”
“Yes, Cats....like “meow,meow”...you know Cats.”
“We already have CATS!” Killian almost shouted. Like most buerucrats, he didn’t like to have his time wasted. The early colonists on planet carried with them the genetic material of many earth animals. Though it took time to get the infrastucture together the factions mostly had the abiltiy to grow these animals from the gene stock as needed. Cats were among them, but the common cat from earth didn’t deal well with life on planet. Citizens in bases below size designate five couldn’t own them, and even then there were few that could afford it. Cats, dogs, gerbils, etc were a luxury. It was expensive to grow them and expensive to feed them. The few common cats that existed on planet were fully the property of the rich and famous.
“I see you don’t understand” Smith sighed, “You didn’t read the details of my request, did you? We don’t need the run of the mill cat...we need genetically altered cats and we need them badly.” Smith picked up the pad and pressed a few control buttons, “Computer,” he spoke aloud, pausing only to hear the acknowledging chirp of Jeff’s office computer, “display image in file 012-1327.”
With this command the holographic emmitters in John’s office hummed to life and produced an image on the desk...a hideous image. It was nearly the size of a small dog and it had greasy spiky black hair. It had short but sharp teeth and stood on its hind legs. It had pink hands and feet and three soulless eyes on its head. John would have called it a rat, an animal he learned existed on old earth, but he knew that Earth rats had only two eyes.
“We call them the Vermin.” Jeff said. “They’re native to planet and from what we’ve learned they exist in small packs. At least they did. Since mankind has established bases here, they’ve moved in. These creatures aren’t as ferocious as they look, but they are mean...and they’re natural carriers for the planet virus called Chironian Blood Fever. They’re literaly coated with a type of flea that helps transmit it. “
“Its....vile looking!” Killian snarled at the image. The three milky blue eyes of the hologram seemed to be focused on him and it gave him chills. Without a word, he shut the hologram off. “I’ve never heard of this ‘Vermin’ and the newest cases of Chironian Blood Fever have been contained.”
Jeff shook his head sadly. “No they haven’t. UN Health Authority kept it queit and they did a good job of it, if you didn’t know. The Vermin live mostly in the below sections of our bases...where the drones live...the ‘ghetto’ for want of a better word....they’ve been breeding like wildfire and its causin a real health risk.”
John thumped his fist on the desk top, “Dammit, Jeff, what do you know? spill it!”
“The Vermin are breeding, John. UN Health Authority estimates thart within a year the virus they carry will infect the entire population. As you know, we don’t have a cure for Chironian Blood Fever. We can immunize people but the drugs needed are hard to create and we can’t immunize the entire population in time. No one cared before because it was the lower class dones that were falling sick...but if we don’t act, we’ll have a plague on our hands.”
Killian chewed his lip for a seond...”For this you need Cats?” he asled.
“Ever since the the UoP band the Human Hive began fighting”, Smith explained, “ The Uop has restricted access to all of thier research.. When the Hive stole their secret documents on Plasma Steel Zakharov has become obsessed with security. So most of the experts at the UoP won’t tell us anything, even though we know they have the same Vermin problem. Now, as you said, we can breed cats, but earth cats are fragile here on planet and a typical cat would be torn to shreds by one of the vermin. But if we could just fill the gap in our genetic engineeering knowledge we could breed a cat that could hunt these damn things down in the lower levels and save us all.”
John’s face became red. He was angry that this information wasn’t gviben to him before, but he knew that the bureucracy oif the Peacekeepers had made his job in this case that much more difficult. “Jeff,” he said calmly, trying not to be upset with his friend. ‘Why not just send troops to the lower levels and eradicate these beasts?”
“You think we didn’t try that?” Jeff answerd. “UN Health Authority has sent two dozen different missions to get these nasties. The Vermin are too good at hiding and evading human beings. The only way to kill them that way is to burn the base down. But a cat bred to hunt them and kill them...now, that would work. At least in our computer simulations it would...and thats our best chance.”
“Why?”
Killian punched a code on tha pad, turning the holgram on again...but this time the image was of a cat. Not a normal cat, mind you. Killian was startled to see it. The image hade saber teeth and long sharp claws. Its fur was an orange shambles on its body.
“The bubonic plague killed millions on ancient earth but might have been hampered if our ancestors didn’t kill the cats as witches familiars, Smith explained, “ Our genetically enhanced cats could be programmed to hunt down and kill these vermin. They could also be programmed to not harm humans, made sterile and have limited life spans so we don’t find ourselves neck deep in mutant cats. All we need is a little bit of information on Gene Splicing that we know the UoP has, but won’t share.”
Smith leaned forward and looked his friend in the eye. He was deadly serious. “We really need this information, John. If we don’t act now we’ll have a plague of Chironian Blood Fever that makes the Prometheus Virus look like a common earth cold.”
Killian met his friends stare. Then he sipped his coffee and rubbed his eyes. “You know that Commisioner Lal has to personally approve of all Probe Operations. I have my daily briefing with him in two hours. Do you know that this is going to send the man into a fit? After that fiasco with the Spartans last month, Lal’s been feeling the strain. He’s going to go thermal when he sees this request.”
“I don’t want to put you on the spot, old friend, but as the Medical and Health Liaison, I insist that you inform Lal of the situation.” Smith said.
“You realize that if he approves this, and if the UoP learns of our pilfering, they’ll most likely want to go to war over it. Zakharov’s been real jittery lately...who knows what kind of crazy weapons he’s dreaming up now.” Killian warned. “No....I am not going to ask this of Lal...you are.”
“Me?” Smith looked shocked. His duties normally kept out of any face to face meeting with Lal.
“Yes, you.” Killian insisted. “Look at it this way, old friend, either Lal gives this the go and we succeed, or he gives it the go and we fail...in which case we’ll both probably find ourselves re commisioned in the PK Army. Or Lal fires us both and we can retire and play chess all day. At least until we die of Chironian Blood fever.”
Smith chuckled. Killian smiled grimly.
“Two hours then.” Smith stood up, preparing to take his leave. “I’ll get my research materials together and meet you here.” Then he strode out of the office.
Killian watched him go and then gulped down the rest of the his synth coffee. “By Nessus!” He thought, “First thing in the morning and this...I need a vacation....”
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