Subject: Horus Vico
Extraction: Successful
Medical Scan: Complete
Medical Status: Clear. No infection detected.
Sal peered at the meditube. The subject she had been ordered to extract from Colony D was safely encased within the airtight compartment. The Commissariat had already ordered Vico be released into general population on Vessel 381 but Sal's instincts warned her to delay executing the order.
Colony D had gone dark long ago and every reconnaissance team entering the atmosphere had gone dark soon after landing. Horus Vico was the latest team leader. His successful extraction was a matter of chance rather than a result of Sal's lauded analytical skills. He simply had not bothered to hide himself in Colony D's teeming cities.
Her earpiece crackled ominously and she bent to the meditube for the iris scan. The tube slid open. She stepped aside, allowing the medical team to assist Vico. He rose on shaky legs, adjusting to the heavier gravity.
"My office. Twenty minutes," she snapped.
Vico nodded. His eyes scanned the smooth, grey walls around him. He looked out of place. Lost. Confused. Nothing about his appearance eased her mind. Rumours of a Level 10 virus might not be rumours after all.
Vico was five minutes late. She let him stand before her panel while she finished tasks she had started while waiting. Finally, she looked at him. He looked back steadily. She pulled a package from under her panel and placed it in front of him. His eyes widened and he reached for it, stopping only when she held her palm out.
"Team Leader Vico, please explain." She waved her hand over the package. It held the unusual clothing he had worn at extraction. Faded leggings, a shirt woven from colourful plant fibres and shoes of extruded sap, animal hide and synthetic materials.
"Mission Objective: Assimilate," he responded.
Sal nodded, pleased by his precise answer, but her suspicions had not been laid to rest. "Lack of communication?" she probed.
Vico's eyes gazed into hers. They were soft and dark with heavy brows. He smiled as he answered. "Not important, Sher."
"Not acceptable," Sal fired back. "Explain."
"Colony D successful. Nothing to report." He almost slouched as he delivered this explanation.
Sal's eyes narrowed. This was exactly the kind of response she had been warned to watch for. "Elaborate on successful."
"Population thriving," he barked.
"Elaborate on thriving."
He stared at her for a moment. "Sophisticated and varied culture. Art. Cuisine. Vibrant nightlife."
Vibrant nightlife. Sal mulled that over before asking her next question. "Negatives?"
"Overpopulation. Pollution. Starvation. Disease."
She could guess the cause. "Excess? Indulgence?" The rumoured symptoms.
"Affirmative."
"You regard Colony D as successful?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Affirmative."
Sal waved a hand in dismissal. She pressed the silence symbol on her panel and spoke to security. "Monitor Team Leader Vico. Report unusual activity."
She unsealed the package containing Vico's clothing and removed the item that caught her eye. It was a shirt unlike any she had ever seen. Its pink was so rich it almost glowed. She pulled it on over her grey bodysuit and looked at her reflection in the viewports. It was a transformation. She was tall and fair but this colour made her stand out in a way she had not imagined was possible. A tingle swept through her. Pleasure. It was pleasure. She snatched the shirt off and folded it carefully back into the package.
It did not take long for reports to reach her ears. Vico complained at mealtimes and combined food groups. He sang during ablutions and while pacing the long corridors. He drew pictures of big-eyed creatures, leaving them in the mess hall for others to discover. He beat out strange rhythms on the tables and doorways and moved with the beat. But that was not the worst of it. The worst of it was that others started to sing and move. Others copied the drawings or mixed their rations. Junior officers were beginning to question commands.
She ordered Vico to report to her office. When he stood before her, late again, she asked him the simple question the Commissariat had suggested. "Why?"
"Because I can. Because we should. Because I want to."
Sal actually understood this absurd answer. She should not have obeyed the Commissariat's orders. She gasped. These thoughts were the product of the virus. It was dangerously infectious. Even as she coldly regarded Vico she burned to wear deep pink again. To strut the corridors and feel the eyes of others following her. She was infected. She must take corrective action.
She swiped the communicator on her panel, looking Vico in the eye. "Virus E confirmed. Contact with colony leads to psychological infection, destruction of reason and extreme mutation of ego. Highly infectious. Eradication necessary. Vessel 381 self-destruct sequence initiated."
"Don't destroy the planet," Vico begged, his eyes wide. "They're unique. All of them. Quarantine, don't destroy. The other lifeforms are irreplaceable!"
Every word he uttered sealed their fate. She accessed weapons control. "Fire on Colony D," she ordered.
The entire ship vibrated as planet-killers were propelled from the missile chutes. An image revealing the glowing blue arc of their trajectory appeared on Sal's panel.
"Sher, abort! They're defenceless!" Vico stood, hands folded neatly behind his back, as if his physical compliance could change the facts.
"Negative, Vico. You are infected. Colony D is infected."
"Earth! It's called Earth and it's not a disease!" he shouted.
"Virus E must be eliminated."
Vico stared at her, eyes black with emotions she could not identify. "At least I won't have to put up with grey-brained scum like you for much longer," he spat. He strode out of the room, no doubt to put on a final infectious display of egotistical individualism.
Not a bad idea.
Sal opened Vico's package again. She buttoned the pink shirt slowly, peering at her reflection in the forward viewports. She was resplendent. She lifted her chin and waited for the cure.