NABC Book 2: Chapter 20: Parasite
Book 2: Chapter 20: Parasite
Book 2: Chapter 20: Parasite
Howard
October 2189
Vulcan
Things that make you go “Ew!” This definitely qualified. I couldn’t take my eyes off the video, as the doctor made an incision on the patient and proceeded to extract a small bundle of eggs. A few had hatched and the larvae were trying to burrow away. At that moment, right there, I was so thankful that I was no longer biological.
I glanced at Butterworth’s video feed and noticed that he was paying an extreme level of attention to his glass of Jameson. Huh, not a bad idea. I invoked a glass of Sam’s cognac and turned on my alcohol receptors. A slight buzz was just what the doctor ordered.
Finally, thank the Universe, the video ended. Butterworth turned to look at the video camera. A slight smile formed when he saw the glass in my hand. I shrugged a “what about it?” shrug.
“The parasite appears to be a large insect,” he explained. “The bite itches a bit, then disappears. When the eggs have grown enough, though, it becomes a large swollen area. By that point, we have less than a day to remove the eggs.”
“What if you don’t?” I knew I would regret asking, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“The larvae go for the heart. Fatal within two days or so. Then the larvae feast on the corpse. That seems to be the life cycle. We’ve lost four people and two cattle so far. The doctors think they might be able to come up with a blood test, but I can’t see poking every colonist every other day to draw blood.”
“Wonderful. Have we caught any adults yet?”
Butterworth shook his head. “No, nor do we have very good descriptions, other than that it’s about hummingbird-size. We’re working on it, but I was hoping you might be able to throw in some surveillance drones.”
“I’ll crank up the autofactory and start pumping them out. I’ll also see if I can modify the video and audio pickups to be more sensitive to insect sound and movement.”
Butterworth nodded to me and signed off. I gave orders to Guppy for the changes to the autofactory schedules, then sat back and shook my head. Gross.
* * *
Riker talked to Julia for a few more minutes, fielded some questions from other family members, and got Julia to promise to call him as soon as they were in private residences. ṛἈNo͍bƐꞨ
Then, it was over. As Riker hung up the call, I sat back to bask in the peculiar mix of joy, wistfulness, and melancholy that seeing our family always left me with. I had talked with a few other Bobs about it—it seemed to be a common reaction. I guess Original Bob wasn’t as much of a loner as he’d always claimed.
I signed off of the conference call, and turned to Guppy, who had been hovering.
“What?”
[Colonel Butterworth wants to talk to you. They’ve caught a parasite adult]
* * *
Ugly little bugger.
Hummingbird-size turned out to be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was still one of the biggest insects I’d ever seen. I didn’t much care for insects, and I had an urge to stomp on this one. It looked like some odd combination of hornet and spider, with two sets of wings. The stinger was particularly nasty-looking. Retractable, it could inject eggs in its victim up to an inch deep.
I had to turn off my gag reflex, watching the necropsy.
Well, now we had specifics. I bundled up all the data and shot off an email to Bill, asking for suggestions. Then I connected to Butterworth.
“Howard. You’ve seen our new neighbor?”
“Yeah, not my favorite creature. I’ve sent something off to Bill, and I’ve got a couple dozen new drones ready. I’ll program them with the data and get them to scan the area. See what we come up with.”
Butterworth nodded and disconnected.
The colonel looked outwardly calm, but I knew this was worrying him. Big things like raptors, we could handle. Small stuff, not so much. Humanity could conceivably end up prisoners in their own homes if we didn’t get control of this pest.