Chapter 12

Teric walked into the central control room and faced the view screen monitor on the wall.  In a few minutes Kittamm had promised to be back online to see if she was ready to carry out his demands.

She had sent Mita Wilens and a few of his maintenance crew members outside to complex.  They put on space suits, cut a hole in the perimeter wall and were on their way around to the outside wall of the infected section.  They carried with them a computer pad with the entire schematic layout of the complex to find an environmental conduit near that wall.  Once located they would cut a hole in the wall, set up an air pump connected to tanks full of Gorsh’s cure in gas form and pump the infected section full of it.

So far all attempts to override the security device had failed.

At the designated time Kittamm appeared on the viewscreen, “Have you prepared a statement for me, Miss Jonsen?”  He was relishing every syllable.

Teric held up a computer pad and replied, “I have recorded a message on this unit with the appropriate codes that will convince a transport ship to allow you to board.”

“And if they ask to speak directly with you?”

“Part of the message is a statement that says we are too busy working on our inoculation and vaccination plans to waste further time with communication.  The statement also claims that I have spoken with important government and company officials that want you and your people on Home World without delay.  I am uploading the information now.  You will be able to retrieve it when you release the computer communications controls and then send it whenever you wish.  From the time you send the message it will take about an hour for the ship to arrive, dock and be ready for boarding.”

“Excellent,” Kittamm smiled.  “And now, I wish to bid you farewell, Miss Jonsen.  It has been a pleasure meeting you.  I shall never forget how helpful you have been.”

Before he cut the communication she hastened to ask, “Mr. Kittamm, may I please speak with my brother?”

He assumed a somber, serious countenance, “I am sorry, Miss Jonsen.  But that isn’t possible.  Is there anything else?  No?  Good.  Thank you for your time.”  Clearly he was enjoying this chance to throw her own words and manner back in her face.

She forced back a grimace and the harsh words that sprang to her mind.  She tried to entreat, “Please … Mr. Kittamm.  I just want to tell him he doesn’t have to go and …”

He cut her off, “Oh!  But your dear brother does want to go.  Very much so.  Perhaps as much as I do.  Goodbye.”  The viewscreen went dead.

She and her staff had saved the complex and cured the disease.  But now, without control of the station, it looked as if she might lose her brother.  She stood straight, tall and proud in the middle of the complex central control room filled with her staff and kept the tears forming in her eyes from rolling down her cheeks.
 
• • •
 
After she had reigned in her emotions she went to check on the progress of her Maintenance Foreman.  Wilens and his crew were taking off their space suits and answering as many questions as they could.  Teric gathered that everything went according to plan.  According to Gorsh’s calculations the virus would be dead in two to three hours after the inoculations had started.  The infected people would start to show visible signs of returning health immediately.

Within the proscribed hour, the ship had docked and was boarding its Natura passengers.  After another hour it was ready to depart.  Teric and her staff were still trying unsuccessfully to regain control of the complex functions in order to notify the ship and, or the local authorities of the situation and take Kittamm into custody.

Kittamm at that moment was starting to notice that some of his people were acting strangely.  A few of them had been bedridden and hours from death.  They had to be taken onboard on stretchers hidden in and under various containers.  Now they were wide-awake, talking easily and excitedly and asking where they were going.  Others, who had previously walked in a slow and tortured manner, were now standing and walking erect and confidently.

Something, he thought, is very wrong.

He had taken the precaution of bringing on board with him a piece of equipment that he understood to be used to test for evidence of the virus in an infected person’s blood.  He had Jehrac, who understood how to operate the machine, test several of his people.

They tested registered negative for the virus.

He had Jehrac start to test everyone.  The ship’s engines were firing; they were taking off.  As the ship was slowly rising off the mountaintop, away from the lonely Med Complex structures, Jehrac was obtaining negative test results.  Kittamm’s anger was also rising steadily.

Once everyone had been tested and Kittamm realized that his formerly infected followers had somehow been cured and were in good health he walked slowly to his quarters.  He ignored all of the people that asked him eager questions and pulled at his cloak rejoicing in their miraculous good fortune.  They were no longer of use to him.  Outwardly, he was grim but calm.  Inside his head was a turbulent, seething mass of concealed rage and hatred.  When he arrived at his ship quarters he closed and locked he door.  In the corner were several carrying cases that he had had one of his assistants bring on board from the complex.

They were crammed full of the potentially explosive medical devices with Feyhoth had previously threatened to destroy on of the testing rooms.

He carefully set them all out on the floor, laboriously activated them one after the other and unceremoniously set off the first of them.  They were the first and last pieces of advanced technology Nehra Kittamm ever learn to operate.

Far below, in the Med Complex, Teric watched the ship explode through an outside viewing window.

As she thought of her brother all the tears that she had bravely restrained in the control room returned.  They gathered around her eyelashes and reflected the harsh, bright multi-colored explosion at which she couldn’t stop looking.  After enough of her tears had gathered in her eyes they started to roll down her cheeks.  They rolled. Then they streamed.  Then they flowed.