Invasion

'It's been more than six hours now,' Cassy said. 'Maybe even more. I wasn't all that sure of the time when I was stung. So much has been happening.'

'What happened to Nancy and Jesse?' Pitt asked. It was a question he'd avoided, but he wanted to change the subject.

'Nancy was stung,' Cassy said. 'They infected her in my presence. I couldn't figure out why they didn't do it to me until later. Jesse was a different story. I believe the same thing happened to him as to Eugene. But I'm not sure. I didn't see it. I just heard it, and there was a flash of light. Nancy said it was the same as before.'

'Harlan thinks those black discs can create miniature black holes,' Pitt said.

Cassy shuddered. The idea of disappearing down a black hole seemed like the epitome of destruction. Even one's atoms would be gone from the universe. 'I saw Beau again,' Cassy said. Pitt turned to glance at Cassy before looking back at the road. It was the last thing he expected her to say. ''How was he?'' Pitt asked.

'Horrid,' Cassy said. 'And he's changed visibly. He's mutating progressively. Last time I saw him it was only a patch of skin behind his ear. Now it's most of his body. It's strange because the other infected people didn't seem to be changing. I don't know if they will or if it has something to do with Beau being the first. He's definitely a leader. They all do what he wants.'

'Did he have anything to do with your being stung?' Pitt asked.

'I'm afraid so,' Cassy said. 'He did it himself.'

Pitt shook his head imperceptibly. He couldn't believe that his best friend could do such a thing, but then again he was no longer his best friend. He was an alien.

'The most horrid part for me was that there was still some of the old Beau inside,' Cassy said. 'He even told me that he missed me and that he loved me. Can you believe it?'

'No,' Pitt said simply, while fuming that Beau, even as an alien, was still trying to take Cassy away from him.

Beau was standing to the side in the shadows behind the command control unit of the Gateway. His eyes were glowing fiercely. It was hard for him to concentrate on the problems at hand, but he had to. Time was running out.

'Maybe we should try to charge some of the electrical grids again,' Randy called over to Beau. Randy was sitting at the controls. A minor glitch had developed, and as of yet, Beau had not suggested a solution.

Yanked from a daydream about Cassy, Beau tried to think. The problem from the beginning had been to create enough energy to turn the powerful, instantaneous gravity of a group of black discs working in concert into antigravity and still have the Gateway stay together. The reaction would only have to last a nanosecond as it sucked matter from a parallel universe into the current one. Suddenly the answer came to Beau; more shielding was needed.

'All right,' Randy said, pleased to get some direction. He in turn alerted the thousands of workers who immediately swarmed back up into the superstructure on the gigantic construct.

'Do you think this will work?' Randy called over to Beau.

Beau communicated that he thought it would. He advised to power up all the electrical grids for an instant as soon as the augmented shielding was completed.

'What worries me is that you told me the first visitors are due tonight,' Randy said. 'It would be a calamity if we weren't ready. The individuals would be lost in the void as mere primary particles.'

Beau grunted. He was more interested that Alexander had entered the room. Beau watched him approach. Beau didn't like the vibrations. He could tell they hadn't found her.

'We followed her spoor,' Alexander reported. He purposefully stayed out of Beau's reach. 'It led us to where she'd taken a vehicle. Now we're looking for the vehicle.'

'You will find her!' Beau snarled.

'We will find her,' Alexander repeated soothingly. 'By now her consciousness should be expanding, and that will help us a great deal.'

'Just find her,' Beau said.

'You know, I don't have any explanation,' Sheila said.

She and Harlan were seated on laboratory stools on wheels that allowed them to zip from bench to bench.

Harlan had his chin cradled in his hand and was chewing the inside of his cheek. It was a habit he'd developed that indicated he was deep in thought.

'Could we have done something stupid?' Sheila asked.

Harlan shook his head. 'We've been over our protocol several times. It wasn't technique. It has to be a real finding.'

'Let's go over it once again,' Sheila said. 'Nancy and I had taken a tissue culture of human nasopharyngeal cells and added the enabling protein.'

'What was the vehicle for the protein?' Harlan asked.

'Normal tissue culture medium,' Sheila said. 'The protein is fully soluble in an aqueous solution.'

'All right, what next?' Harlan said.

'We simply let the culture incubate,' Sheila said. 'We could tell that the virus had been activated because of the rapid synthesis of DNA over and above what was needed for cell replication.'

'How did you assay that?' Harlan asked.

'We used inactivated adenovirus to carry DNA probes labeled with fluorescein into the cells.'

'What next?' Harlan asked.

'That was as far as we got,' Sheila said. 'We put the cultures aside to incubate further, hoping to get viruses.'

'Well, you got them all right,' Harlan said.

'Yeah, but look at this image. Under the scanning electron microscope the virus looks like it's been through a miniature meat grinder. This virus is noninfective. Something killed it, but there was nothing in the culture capable of doing that. It doesn't make sense.'

'It doesn't make sense, but my gut instinct is that it is trying to tell us something,' Harlan said. 'We're just too stupid to see it.'

'Maybe we should just try it again,' Sheila said. 'Maybe the culture got too hot riding in the car.'

'You'd packed it well,' Harlan said. 'I don't think that's the answer. But fine, let's do it again. Also, I have some mice that I have been infecting. I suppose we could try to isolate the virus from them.'

'Great idea!' Sheila said. 'That might be even easier.'

'Don't count on it,' Harlan said. 'The infected mice are amazingly strong and incredibly smart. I have to keep them apart and under lock and key.'

'Good Lord,' Sheila said. 'Are you suggesting the mice are becoming alien too?'

'I'm afraid that's right,' Harlan said. 'In some form or fashion. My supposition is that if there were enough infected mice all in one location they could collectively act as an intelligent, single individual.'

'Maybe we better stick to tissue cultures for the time being,' Sheila said. 'One way or the other we've got to isolate live, infective virus. It has to be the next step if we're going to do anything about this infestation.'

The hiss of the air lock pressurizing sounded.

'That must be Pitt,' Jonathan shouted. He ran out to the air lock door and peered through the porthole. 'It is Pitt, and Cassy is with him!' he shouted back to the others.

Harlan picked up a vial of newly extracted monoclonal antibody. 'I think I'd better put on my physician hat for a little while,' he said.

Sheila reached out and motioned for him to give her the vial. 'Emergency medicine is my specialty,' she said. 'We need you as the immunologist.'

Harlan handed it over. 'Gladly,' he said. 'I've always been a better researcher than clinician.'

The air lock opened. Jonathan helped Cassy step through the hatch. She was pale and feverish. Jonathan's excitement moderated. She was sicker than he'd realized. Still, he couldn't help but ask where his mother was.

Cassy put her hand on his shoulder. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'We were separated very quickly after we were caught in the supermarket. I don't know where she is.'

'Was she stung?' Jonathan asked.

'I'm afraid so,' Cassy said.