Outbreak on TRAPPIST-1e

Aquarius Constellation: TRAPPIST-1 - Red Dwarf. Spectral class M8.0±0.5.

TRAPPIST-1e – Exoplanet.

40 years after the crash landing of the Res Obscura. Crew: 22,300. Survivors: 20,987.

*** 

Zora was already starting to regret her actions. She marched quickly down the semi-dark corridor. Thin tubes of dull blue light pulsed in the floor and the ceiling.

Zora’s hand brushed periodically over her pocket. Still there. The relief was short lived and moments later the urge to check again was overwhelming. The thud, thud of her boots and the swish of her pant legs was the only sound.

Moments later she reached control room. Zora waved the stolen access card over the panel and the door hissed open. She had waited hours for Overseer Vasilia to finally retire for the night. The control room was deserted. The far wall was floor to ceiling windows, beyond there was only a heavy blue glow.

The center of the room was filled with pedestal-like work stations. Zora rushed over to the central one and pulled the cube from her pocket. She waved the access pass again and inserted it into the station. It hummed and glowed and a Holographic Screen sprang to life. 

‘Show me Fourth day, 3 orbits ago. Vat 88A.’

Video footage of the day began to play, but the Vats were unattended so early in the morning.

           ‘Second Quarter.’ Zora snapped impatiently and the video skipped to later. She dragged her finger across the screen, fast forwarding the recording further, until she saw a familiar figure. Even in a full Bio Suit, she would know him anywhere.

‘Jorin.’ She whispered.

Zora slowly pressed her finger to the screen and it began to play once more.

                                                           ***

Zora removed her hand from the glass that separated their living room from the outside. Beyond it the uniform surface of the rocky planet stretched to the horizon. The Aurora lights danced brightly in the sky and looming over them all, Rubicund. The name given to the Red Dwarf by the marooned crew of the Res Obscura.

It was large in the sky and its dim red light turned the planet into a hellscape. But it was breath takingly beautiful with the Auroa dancing above. Rubicund’s strong magnetic field resulted in these bright and common light shows.

Orbiting so close to the sun meant it took the planet E only 4.05 days to orbit Rubicund. The Surface temperature average was 9 degrees Celsius. Tidally locked the planet experienced no day/night cycle. On one side of the planet there was only constant red light, it was dry, rocky and host to extremely hot deserts. And on the other side constant darkness and thick glacial ice.

Their city, Perdita, was located in the twilight zone, a thin band around the planet where the light was constant but dim and the temperature was bearable. This was also the zone where the Algae thrived.

Zora was Ean, she had been born here. Her parents were of course crew members of the Res Obscura. They filled her head with tales of Earth, of blue skies and blue water. But the only blue Zora knew was from the Algae tubes, filled with a concoction that flowed through and lit their enclosed and dark city.

Electricity was precious, it kept them breathing, protected and alive, its careful storage and allocation was essential. So why waste electricity on light when the native Algae glowed almost as bright as a bulb?

‘Zora?’ Jorin touched her shoulder gently and she leant against him for a moment.

‘I don’t want to talk about it Jorin, We’ll just try again.’

He sighed. ‘Isn’t it ironic that our parents were limited to one child per couple and now that we have the resources and stability to have three-’

‘-Don’t finish that sentence. We. will. try. again.’ Zora whispered.

Jorin pulled away from her. ‘And if it happens again? And again? What then Zora?’

‘You only see the misery of it Jorin, but I find hope in it. There isn’t anything else here for us. I need a purpose beyond the Vats.’

Jorin was exasperated. ‘My question stands. How many times before that constantly crushed hope destroys you? Destroys me?’

Zora scowled. ‘What do you want me to do? I’m not ready to give up Jorin!’

‘Well, I’m not ready to watch you break yourself on this mountain.’ Jorin shook his head and stalked off.

Zora turned back to the view, her vision blurred with red hued tears.

                                                           ***

Zora pressed pause. Her hand flittered to cover her mouth. Jorin had fallen into the Vat! They had denied it. They had lied. But she knew! She knew something had happened.

But people had fallen in before! Sometimes they got a bit ill if their suits were compromised, but nothing like this had ever happened. This couldn’t be all? Zora hit play.

The thick Algae made it difficult for Jorin to make much progress towards the gangway he’d fallen from and he was slowly sinking. Jen was down on her knees hauling in the rope, which in her panic, she’d flung too wide the first try.

A sob escaped Zora’s throat as she watched. Oh God! Did he drown? Is this why they wouldn’t let her see him? Were they still trying to recover the body from the bottom?

With a massive effort Jen launched the rope once more and it landed almost on top of Jorin’s disappearing face. He grabbed it and Jen quickly returned to the winch.

Moments later she heaved him back onto the Gangway. More people in Bio Suits arrived and finally, supported by Jen, Jorin limped away off camera.

Zora leant back and took several deep breaths.

She felt no relief, because he never came home.

At first Al-Tech had told her he was sick and had to be quarantined. Nothing serious they said, just a precaution for a breach in his suit. She now knew they had told her an outright lie when she had asked if he’d fallen in. But two weeks passed and still they wouldn’t let her see him, or even give her any real update on his progress. The next day one of the Al-Tech Managers and a Member of the Res Obscura Council had knocked on her door and told her he’d died.

No she could not see him.

No the body could not be returned.

His sickness was something new, it was a risk to all life in Perdita and the Doctors needed to figure it out.

But he’d been in his Bio Suit and only in the Vat for a few minutes!

The last fall was only a year or so ago and nothing had come of it. None of this was making any sense! Why were they lying? Where was her husband!?

Zora approached the window in the control room, below the cavernous space that housed 2,300 vats of Algae, glowed brightly. The Algae was a type of Cyanobacteria, a native, bioluminescent, blue-green Algae, captured from the planets lakes. Zora knew because she was one of the Biologists employed by Al-Tech.

Zora’s eyes wandered back to the Holographic Screen still up behind her and she jolted, morning toll was in 45 minutes!

She had to return the cube before anyone noticed its absence.

She waved her hand over the panel and the station released the memory cube. She pocketed it, once she returned this she’d have to come back here, to the video control station. She would access the cloud, where all video footage came to rest, before it grew old enough to be imprinted onto a cube and sent off to storage.

Then she would have to delete all of the footage of her since she’d left her room and then some more. That way they wouldn’t know what had been done, or by who. The hardest part would be returning the stolen access pass.

                                                       ***

           ‘Zora!’ Jen looked taken aback to see her again so soon. She had been almost hysterical when she visited last. 

           ‘Can I come in?’

Jen hesitated.

           ‘Look, I just wondered if there was anything else your dad could tell me. Was- were his last moments peaceful? Was he in any pain?’ Zora made sure to choke out a loud sob.

           People walking by in the hall were staring.

           Jen pulled her inside and shut the door.

‘Zora, I know how hard this is for you.’ She placed her hand over her heart and Zora had to suppress the urge to slap her.

           ‘Truly, I miss him too and I’m so sorry. But everyone did everything they could.’

Zora let Jen lead her to the sitting room again.

           ‘My father doesn’t have any more information he can give you right now. Until the Doctors can figure out what’s happened, we just have to keep calm, for Perdita’s sake.’

           Zora let her head hang and her tears fall. The tears were real enough, but so was the rage bubbling in the pit of her stomach. She wouldn’t hesitate to use them against this woman who knew more that she pretended.

           ‘I’ll get you some water and then maybe we can talk about some better memories? There are a few stories I was wanted to run by you. Stories that show what a bight life he lead. I thought maybe I could tell one at the funeral?’

           Zora looked up into her face and blinked slowly to stop herself from wrapping her hands around this woman’s throat. Jen lent back a little.

           Zora schooled her face, ‘Uh…I think I need some water.’

Jen gave her a little confused smile and went to the kitchen.

           Zora zipped across the room and gently opened the far door. This was Jen’s father’s study, Captain Henrik Ashburn. He was the Re Obscura Council member that had broken the news to her. She tucked the pass back into his top draw, exactly in the position she had memorized and then quietly shut the door behind her.

           By the time Jen returned Zora was sitting back on the couch.

She smiled up at Jen. ‘Thank you so much, I think one of your stories is actually a really good idea.’

                                                       *** 

           ‘I don’t think its appropriate for you to be here Mrs Kensey. I understand it’s a hard and sudden loss but this is a research facility. I really don’t think I can help you.’

           ‘Help me? Well you could give my husbands body back so that I can cremate him and we can both be at peace! Neither myself nor my husband consented for you to withhold his body from me in the event of his death and certainly not to experiment on it!’

           Dr Carroll was thin man, the hollows under his eyes were dark, as if he had indeed been spending the last few weeks relentlessly pursing answers for the Re Obscura Council.

But Zora would not let these people fool her again, it was certainly not for her sake. Nor did she believe her husband was dead. No going back.

           Zora pulled the blaster from her back pocket and held it steadily.

‘I disagree Doctor. I think you can help me, you’ve just been instructed not to.’

He stood up instantly, his eyes wide and held his hands up in front of him.

‘The only real question is,’ Zora continued, ‘Is it worth your life to keep my husband from me?’ 

Dr Carroll swallowed. ‘Mrs Kensey, your husband is gone.’

Zora shook her head. ‘I don’t think he is, I think he is sick and you have locked him up. But if he is dead, then I will walk away.’

           Dr Carroll shook his head a little and Zora stepped closer.

‘Now!’ She hissed. ‘I will not ask again Doctor. Or you’ll be as dead on the floor as you claim my husband is.’

‘Oh, now you’re nodding. Ok lets go. Make a sound or any sudden moves and you’ll be end up with a hole in the middle of that clever brain of yours.’

Dr Carroll lead Zora out of his office and down the long hall to the research laboratories. Zora had chosen the early hours of the morning again, knowing the Dr would be the only one still working.

They passed through several sets of doors until they reached a set of red doors with ‘RESTICTED’ printed in capital letters across them.

Dr Carroll pointed to several bio suits hanging nearby.

‘We should put those on. It’s just procedure but…’

Zora sighed but she let him put his suit on and then very awkwardly put her own on. The Doctor made no move to stop her. When she was ready, he stood in front of the red doors, but hesitated.

           ‘Mrs Kensey…you should know what you are about to see will be…distressing.’

Zora swallowed. If Jorin really was dead maybe they had diced him up into little pieces, there would probably be slices of him sitting on glass slides, floating in- No! She had to know.

           ‘I know.’ She whispered, her voice muffled behind the glass of her helmet.

Dr Carroll scanned his access pass. They walked through and into a large, white, sterile room.

There was another room at the end, walled off by thick glass.

           Jorin was in that room. Jorin and another woman. Zora’ heart thundered in her ears as she approached slowly. Something was wrong. She knew instantly. There were blue, scales and growths on his skin and both he and the woman were moving strangely, shuffling. Their heads lolled to one side.

           Zora stopped breathing as she stepped to within an inch of the glass. Jorin turned.

Dead, milky blue eyes gazed back at her. His skin was grey, he really did look like a corpse.

‘Jorin?’ She whispered.

There was no reaction.

           Zora turned to Doctor Carroll. ‘What the fuck is this?’ She demanded, waving the blaster.

           He held his hands up. ‘I-I’ll explain, if you’ll just take a breath.’

Zora glared at him.

           ‘Right well, we-I think that the Algae has mutated.’

‘No fucking shit!’ Zora growled as she pointed the blaster right at his temple.

‘Uh-yeah ok-well we knew that almost immediately. He had a breach in his suit, probably tore it getting back onto the gangway. But the onset of his symptoms was fast, just minutes and they were severe. He was vomiting blood and it was coming out of his nose. Then he had some kind of fit and after that…there was just this…thing!' Dr Carroll indicated the shuffling corpse that was once her husband. ‘He bit my assistant.’

           Zora choked, ‘Bit her? What happened to your-‘

Zora turned and looked at the woman shuffling in there with Jorin.

‘Yeah. That’s what happened to her.’

Dr Carroll had tears in his eyes.

           ‘At first I still thought they could be cured. But they are dead. No heart beat. Its animating them somehow. The Algae mutated…but not just randomly, it fused with a fungus.’

Zora let that heavy fact turn over in her mind and she gasped as it hit her. Goosebumps broke out all over her body. ‘The fields?’

           Dr Carroll nodded. 'I still don’t know how the cross contamination happened. But we brought mushroom samples with us on the Res Obscura. They are now our main food source because of the vitamin D they contain.’

           Zora let her head fall back and stared at the ceiling through her tears.

‘How contagious is it?’

           Dr Carroll shook his head. ‘From what I can see its impossible not to catch it. It's not just contact with these two, its contact with the Vats. I’m trying to study a small sample we collected to see if the Algae has mutated far enough to produce spores.’

           ‘The Council?’

           ‘They don’t want anyone to know, there will be mass panic. I recommended the contents of every Vat be disposed of. That entire cavern needs to be decontaminated and we should burn all the fields. But they are stalling.’

           ‘You have video recordings of this room and these patients Doctor?’

           ‘Yes, I do…I am willing to give it to you. It might already be to too late but…’

Zora nodded, she pressed her hand against the glass. Jorin shuffled blindly away from her.

           ‘I’m so sorry Jorin. I really thought I’d walk out of here with you today.’

Tears slid down her cheeks and she wiped them away roughly. ‘I love you.’

           Zora stepped over to the nearby control panel. Dr Carroll scrambled over and waved his access pass once more.

Zora's finger hovered over the fire symbol. She looked into the Doctors eyes. He nodded.

Zora pressed it. A whirring sound came from the walls and two small panels opened in the chamber and filled it with jets of flame. Soon the entire room was a roiling storm of fire and the two shuffling figures were engulfed. A burning hand pressed against the glass.

Fresh tears squeezed from her eyes and Zora wrenched herself away.

‘Come Doctor, we have a coup to start.’