CHAPTER 64 #2
“Right. Computer, leave a message for Lanicar and Trunar here to take the ouerbxo tablets.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Ok, computer, create at least five needles full of the correct dose of aelrjenine in each replicator of the palace.”
“Working….Command complete.”
“Selica, I’ll take the top floor. You take the second. We’ll meet back down here.”
“Andie, we can get everyone done in the palace in time, but what about everyone else in the city?”
“Crap, you’re right. Even when we finish here, there’s no way we can get this dose out to all the Ptexari. We’re looking at possible extinction here.” Selica looked at me in horror.
“Computer, how many offworlders are in the city?”
“There are 1,788 offworlders or beings of offworld origin in the capital city.”
“How many Ptexari are there?”
“There are 401,846 Ptexari in the capital city.”
I thought for a minute. I couldn’t do the math, but it didn’t matter.
We had to work with what we had. “Ok, computer, we’re going to set up a new protocol.
Create a map of the capital city and surrounding areas, including the village I live in.
Divide that map into 1,000 areas of approximately equal size.
Disable all locks of all buildings on this map.
Create five needles of aelrjenine in each replicator located within the map area. ”
“Working…Command complete. Map displayed.” I looked at the map. “Ok, computer, I’m going to record a video message. Please record now.”
“Recording in progress.”
I pulled on all my acting skills for this. I was a Princess of the Ptexari. A member of the royal house with actual authority to command people to organize a city-wide disaster response. In a firm, clear voice, I began.
“Hello. My name is Princess Andrea of Earth, mate of Prince Dakleth of the Royal Ptexari House of Prithikam.
If you are receiving this message, it is because you, like me, are an offworlder unaffected by the Jetabi plague that has swiftly overtaken our Ptexari citizens.
I am requesting your help in stopping this epidemic.
In every replicator in the city, you will find five needles of emergency aelrjenine, which must be administered to every Ptexari in the city. After this video, you can request your comms panel to show you how to properly inject the medication into a Ptexari patient.
If you respond ‘affirmative’ to this video request, the computer will assign you to an area of the city.
You will be responsible for injecting as many of the Ptexari as you can.
At best estimate, we have less than two days to administer this life-saving medication to our Ptexari citizens.
Without it, the disease has a seventy-two percent fatality rate.
You can request a replicator to create more of the aelrjenine if needed.
After administering the medication to all residents in a home or business, place the empty needles into the replicator recycling area and ask the computer to enact the ‘Jetabi Plague’ protocol.
This will activate the replicator to create ouerbxo tablets needed by the patients when they regain consciousness as well as a message for them explaining what has happened.
The computer will also place an x over the building on the map so that we know it has been covered.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Computer, end recording.”
“Ok, computer, establish new protocol…” I directed the computer to establish the protocol I’d outlined and to assign respondents to a zone in the city. “Did I miss anything, Selica?” I asked.
She looked at me wide-eyed. “I can’t believe you thought of all that just now.”
“My people recently dealt with a plague. Fortunately for the Ptexari, this one already has available medication. Let’s just hope it works,” I said. “Come on, let’s go.”
I ran to the third floor. My heart was pounding, not knowing who I’d find inside the first room.
Many of the rooms contained guests that I didn’t know.
I dutifully checked each room, grabbed injectors, and administered each one.
After the first few, I was basically stabbing people in the neck, all pretense of gentleness gone.
We had to get to as many people as we could.
I choked back a sob when I got to Kashtinela’s room. Seeing her lying so pathetically in her bed killed me. I gave her a kiss on the forehead as I left. “Get well, sister,” I said.
Dakleth. Oh, my sweet Dakleth. He was slumped half on, half off his bed.
Tears were streaming down my face as I heard his labored breathing.
I inserted the needle gently, then gave him a full body hug.
I wanted nothing more than to lie down with him, pull up the covers, and hold him until the illness passed.
What if something happened to him while I was gone? It was almost more than I could bear.
I spent longer in his room than I’d like to admit, looking for any signs that the medication was working.
I couldn’t see a change, and I was terrified.
“Don’t leave me, Dakleth,” I whispered. “Not when we’ve just found each other.
” I poured love and hope into the bond. I hoped he could feel it.
Eventually, I pulled myself together. There were so many others who needed me.
Dakleth would want me to go. He understood the importance of duty. Oh, but it hurt to leave.
I brushed my lips against his and enacted the protocol for the tablets to appear, and then I was on to the next.
King Akapa looked so small. He was a tall Ptexari, as they all were, but usually, he seemed much larger-than-life.
Maybe it was his commanding presence, or his unflappable calm.
Today, though, he looked weak and pale. “You have to live,” I said as I plunged the aelrjenine in his neck. “The country needs you.”
On and on it went. I completed the third floor. I trusted Selica had already completed or was doing the second floor still. I went to the first floor and called for her on my wristband. “I’ve completed the third floor,” I told her. “Where are you?”
“I’m finishing up the second now,” she said.
“Ok, I’ll start in the east wing of the first.”
“Very well. I’ll start in the west and meet you in the middle.”
“Thanks, Selica,” I said.
We kept working. It took us about three hours to find and inoculate everyone within the palace.
Afterwards, M’Pak helped me with the guards and staff on the Palace grounds while Selica started on an assigned block from the computer.
M’Pak could smell the Ptexari, so he could lead me to them, which was a tremendous advantage.
I instructed the computer to leave messages about the ouerbxo tablets on the wristbands.
They’d have to manage to get to a replicator inside the palace. It was the best I could do for now.
More than 1,100 offworlders had responded affirmatively to my message and were assigned to blocks within the city.
I had doubled up two per area, and then asked the computer to identify the most important sites outside the city - the spaceport, domestic airport, ports, administrative offices, and the like.
I reached out to other cities and asked if they also had cases of Jetabi plague.
Some did not respond at all, so I instructed the computer to send out my message to offworlders in those cities and to enact the inoculation protocols there.
Those where I did get a response, I let know that the plague was spreading and they needed to vaccinate their citizens as soon as possible and prepare for a pandemic.
Most believed me. Some, infuriatingly, did not. I didn’t waste my time trying to convince them. They’d figure it out soon enough.
I wanted to work on another block of the city, but I was fielding frantic calls left and right. There was no emergency response team. There was just…me.
It was baffling, really. The Ptexari and offworlders had access to the exact same information I did through the Network. They just seemed to want reassurance about what to do.
They had brilliant ideas. One offworlder wanted to light up all the comms panels outside the dwelling doors red.
Then switch them to green when he left, so other volunteers would know that room was clear without having to check their wristbands.
Was that ok? Of course it was, I told him.
What a great idea. I sent an update to all the volunteers, letting them know it was his idea, and I encouraged them to do the same.
The mayor of an unaffected town wanted to create a hotline for people to report sickness to track the spread of the disease.
Go for it, I encouraged him. One governor was concerned he wasn’t getting a response from a local military base and wanted to send inoculated volunteers there. Brilliant, I said.
They didn’t need me. But for some reason, they wanted my approval before they implemented any of their plans.
They wanted a sounding board, a cheerleader, a commiserator, a director, a friend.
I did the best I could. I was playing the part of a leader.
It was the greatest acting role of my fledgling career.
Somehow, I, Andie Rivers, a twenty-four-year-old aspiring Broadway actress, singer, and/or dancer, had become the leader of an entire planet.
The next sixty hours were grueling. Within about four hours, most of the palace members had awakened and taken their first ouerbxo tablet. I instructed the replicators to create more at the prescribed hour with new instructions for patients.
Selica returned in the early morning hours, utterly exhausted. Neither of us slept that first night, and we ended up crashing midway through the next day. I had to turn my messaging off with an autoresponder. I slept for about three hours, then I was at it again.