Project Charon 2 by Patty Jansen (best interesting books to read TXT) 📕

their members used to work in station operations and could calculate how many people were likely to live in the other half of the station based on their use of power and other vitals, like oxygen. Tina asked so many questions that Arkady ended up contacting the man and asking him to come to Thor’s apartment.

His name was Matt. He was very slim and short for a man, and he arrived wearing baby-blue polka-dotted pyjamas. Yes, it was late. When Tina raised her eyebrows at his attire, he said, “My daughter’s. She’s out there somewhere. She’s a teacher. We have to keep believing.”

It was precisely those sections—the schools, the administrative offices, the hospital—that were in the sector of the station that the pirates had confiscated. Matt had escaped capture because he was working a night shift on the day of the occupation.

He detailed with great precision where the greatest concentrations of people were and where their communication hub and command centres were likely to be.

Tina asked about the room with the frozen people that Jens had told her about.

“Oh yes, that’s very likely to be here.” He spun his projected model in the air and pointed at a section that was darker. “We call this the cold zone. There is little human activity here. The agriculture plant is in this section as well. I don’t know about this room that young Jens has talked about. I don’t disbelieve him, but my data simply doesn’t show me anything about it, because there is little human activity.”

“And the command centre is here?” Tina pointed at the model. “And this area around it has a high population?”

“As far as we can track, yes.”

Tina was reminded of what she loved about being a scientist: separating truth from hype, fact from rumour and, sometimes, whupping the backsides of rumour-mongering politicians with hard data. Never piss off a scientist, the saying went. They were likely to hit back with a list of your little lies and misbehaviour dating back twenty years.

Damn, she loved and missed people like Matt.

She said, “This cold zone is on the other side of the docks. If we could get in, we could walk through this sector into the more densely populated area.”

“You could, or you could not, depending on how the entrances are guarded.”

“My guess: not terribly well. I know a bit about security. I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen. I think Artan and his mates are too busy with whatever they’re doing to expect any action from the station’s population. I think, on the whole, they’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sneak in.”

Thor said, “You could absolutely do this, if you pretend you’re maintenance crew.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Arkady said. “If you were caught, you would endanger all the work we’ve done so far.”

Thor said, “What’s the point of having the information if you’re not going to use it?”

“We’re too few.”

Tina said, “Look, you don’t have to send anyone with us. You don’t even have to give us anything. We’ll study the information you have, but won’t take any of it that they can use to track back to you. This is my operation. You can help, or you can stay in the safety of your apartments. I’m going.”

Not much later, the two women and Matt left, but Arkady stayed behind.

He said, “Look, I’m sorry. I know this is not what you wanted.”

“I would have expected a bit more support.”

“These people are scared. It’s not like they’ve never tried anything, but they’re scientists, not fighters, and many have lost friends and family members even after the occupation.”

“It’s all right. You don’t have to defend them.”

“But I do, because I feel responsible for giving you hope.”

“I never had that much to begin with. But I am going to try this. Because that’s what you do for your family.”

“Yeah.” He looked at his hands. “I wish I could still do that for mine.”

“You really have no idea what happened to your brother?” Tina asked.

“We haven’t heard from him, other than that message that he was probably going to be dead by the time we got it.”

“But he might have survived. He would have been far too valuable for the pirates just to kill him.”

“Oh, he would have realised that. He wouldn’t have let the pirates get their hands on him.”

Tina realised that this was precisely what Vasily would have done. “I am so sorry for your loss.”

He nodded, and they were silent for a while.

“One thing no one really understands,” Tina said, “is the mechanism by which this infection, if you can call it that, spreads from person to person—when it’s not done deliberately, at least. I feel there is a story to be told there. It has something to do with a rapid-growth stage in the life-cycle called ‘bloom’.”

“We found out a few things,” Arkady said.

“Have you continued to work with it?”

“Not recently, but this is from reports made to the scientific ethics commission. We’ve encouraged people to make submissions about current or past projects and it’s shaken loose a treasure trove of information. Interestingly, it’s come both from Federacy and private projects. I think this is because we’ve sold ourselves as an independent body, and to an extent, we are. We’ve been an outlet for scientists who weren’t happy with what they’re seeing.”

“And what have you found out?”

“We’ve learned that the infection can be present for a long time, but it only gets turned on with light.”

“That’s true for most multi-cellular organisms,” Tina said. “The vast majority of plants only thrive in the presence of light. Most animals depend on light in some form. Do we know whether light makes the host receptive to the infection, makes growth in the host possible, or something else?”

“At this stage, we’re not even sure what sort of organism it is.”

“It’s the ultimate basic form of life,” Tina said “It’s material from which life is made. I’ve heard people call it God’s putty. All living things could be made