Contagion
The War Against the Shadows Comes Home to Earth
Humanity has fought wars throughout its entire life history, mostly against other humans as tribes, clans, nations, and empires clashed the world over. And Humanity has also fought wars against other life on Earth, sometimes hunting or fishing it to extinction, other times simply destroying the environments and biosphere’s the other life depends on. As an apex predator, Humans had no natural predators in the macro world to be wary of—except other Humans. Yet one nemesis remained on Earth that did attack Humans—the Microbes. Throughout history, plague has ravaged cultures all over the Earth. At one point as many as 60% of all Humans in Europe were infected and killed by the bacteria Yersinia Pestis, which caused a bubonic plague pandemic known as the “Black Death.” The bacteria was carried by fleas on the ever present rats in Medieval settlements.
In our time, we have all been living within the “Antibiotic Window.” Modern medical sciences have developed potent antibiotics to defend us from the microbes, but one by one, the mutating bacteria and viruses have slowly developed immunity to our medicines, and they are now mostly immune to them. Only two or three of our most potent antibiotics can still be relied upon to kill. The Antibiotic window is closing, and future generations will be much more at risk to microbial infection than we ever were.
In the Earthforce Saga, and in the Dharman Series trilogy, the nemesis facing Humanity is again a microbe, but one unlike any other ever discovered on the Earth. It was first encountered in the Offworld Colonies first founded by Karpov and Fedorov in the book Outreach (Kirov series #77). On one of those colonies, Dharma-6, the true nature of this virus was learned by an enterprising Special Services Lieutenant named Timothy Scott Ryan. This new alien virus had a most unique capability—it could think! This could not happen in the small individual viral spores, but only when they gathered into a larger colony, linking together until their mass was sufficient to spawn sentient consciousness.
Because of where it was first found and what it did, this virus was deemed the “Colony Virus” by Humans, and it invaded all the biospheres and life forms of Dharma-6 even before the Outreach Expedition ever reached that star system. For over a thousand years, the Colony Virus was resisted on Dharma-6 by a massive entity, deep within a hidden subterranean ocean on the planet. That entity had been creating the genomes of life and releasing them up through the shallower aquifers of the planet, which all life there drank from. Dubbed “Mother Heart” by those that first discovered it, the renowned genetic biologist Dr. Elena Chandros learned that “Mother” had been at war with the Colony Virus for centuries on Dharma-6—until Humans showed up with their innate curiosity, hubris, and rapacious hunger for resources. Upon discovering the Colony Virus, Humanity learned it was not even a thing of their world, but something that was first spawned and created in the realm of Dark Matter. It was a Dark Matter virus that had found a way to transition into the world of Normal Matter, (which makes up only 5% of the Universe.) So to the Colony Virus in its sentient form, Humanity was the pestilent nuisance, an intruder, and soon an enemy. Fortunately, the Colony Virus did not kill its host, but it caused mutations to repurpose it to its own designs. Any biosphere it infected would bring the process of natural selection and evolution to a halt. Needless to say, this was the most dire threat to all life in the universe Humans knew that could be imagined.
How do you fight a virus that can cause mutations in any life form it infects? That is the premise of the story depicted in the last several volumes of the Earthforce Saga. First encountered in the third book of the Dharman Series trilogy, Nightwatch, the aliens that brought this deadly virus to the normal universe came in strange organic ships. They were not engineered, but appeared to be the outer chitinous shells of some massive crustacean. When the Outreach fleet joined the fight against them, Karpov’s military prowess found this new enemy easy prey. Then Fedorov concluded that this Alien race, which they now called “The Shadows,” did not have a natural macro form. It was the Colony Virus itself! Now in this next volume, Contagion, the battle against the virus has finally reached Earth. The war in space had been nothing more than shadow boxing, for the Dark virus had other plans. Instead, they searched diligently for the homeworld of this ingenious and disruptive life form they were fighting, and then they finally discovered Earth.
Contagion, (Kirov Series #79 also book #9 in the Earthforce Saga), is the story of what happened on Earth after its biospheres were found and invaded by the Colony Virus.
Don’t miss Contagion, On sale 10 OCT, 2024!
Contagion
Kirov Series Volume #79
Earthforce Saga #9
344 Pages, About 90,700 words
By John Schettler
Prologue
Part I – Virology
Part II – Goblins
Part III – Plasma Strike
Part IV – Surf Riders
Part V – Asilomar to Attu
Part VI – Alaska
Part VII – Evolution
Part VIII– Skeeters
Part IX – Leviathans
Part X – The Phage
Part XI – Microbes
Part XII – The Trojan Horse