New Earth Read Online Free PDF

pigmentation in your hair.”
    “Yes. A bit disconcerting.”
    “It’s not a problem, except cosmetically. But it is kind of strange.”
    “I think it looks rather distinguished.”
    Yamaguchi smiled minimally, but then she turned back to the screens. “There is something that concerns me,though.”
    The virus, Jordan thought. It’s still detectable.
    He got to his feet, pulled on his belt, and took his phone from Yamaguchi’s desktop. The physician was intently studying her computer screens.
    “You were exposed to a bioengineered virus when you were in India,” Yamaguchi said, her eyes still on the screens.
    Jordan sagged back onto the exam table. “The biowar,” he said. “There werelots of gengineered bugs in the air.”
    Yamaguchi nodded, then finally looked up at Jordan. “This one’s nestled in your small intestine.”
    “It’s harmless,” said Jordan, with a confidence he did not truly feel. “The medics back on Earth concluded that it’s dormant and will remain so.”
    “For how long?”
    “Indefinitely, they told me.”
    Yamaguchi said nothing, but her face had tightened into a concernedmask.
    “After all,” said Jordan, “I passed all the physical exams Earthside. They allowed me on this mission.”
    Pointing at the central computer screen, Yamaguchi said, “Your record shows that your wife died of a similar virus.”
    Jordan felt his face flame red.
    “Her immune system had already been compromised by a different infection,” he explained. “Mine wasn’t.”
    “I’m sorry,” said Yamaguchi.
    “I’m really in fine health,” Jordan insisted.
    “Yes, so the scans show,” Yamaguchi admitted. “But your little hitchhiker worries me.”
    “It’s dormant,” Jordan repeated.
    “For how long?” Yamaguchi asked again.
    “It’s been several years—not counting our time in cryosleep.”
    “Cryogenic temperature didn’t harm it,” the physician muttered. “According to your file, the medical team back on Earth was hopingthat the virus wouldn’t survive freezing.”
    With a sardonic little smile, Jordan replied, “They used me and my hitchhiker for an experiment—to see what long-term cryonic immersion would do to the virus.”
    “Didn’t bother it a bit,” Yamaguchi murmured.
    “Look, we have all sorts of bacteria and viruses in our bodies constantly, don’t we? Most of them don’t affect us at all. Some of them are evenbeneficial, aren’t they?”
    “This one isn’t. It was designed to kill people.”
    Like it killed Miriam, Jordan admitted silently. Aloud, he said, “Well, it hasn’t killed me.”
    Yamaguchi didn’t reply, but the expression on her face said, Not yet.
    “So what do you want to do, send me home?”
    Yamaguchi almost laughed at the absurdity of that. “No,” she said. “As long as you’re asymptomatic there’s nothingwe can do. Except…”
    “Except?”
    “Let me study the literature and see how much I can learn about these engineered viruses. Maybe there’s some way to destroy them.”
    “Perhaps they have a built-in limit to their life spans,” Jordan suggested.
    Yamaguchi shook her head hard enough to make her hair swish back and forth. “No, no, no. They’re not nanomachines, with off-switches built into them. They’reviruses, alive but dormant. Not even stem-cell therapy can deal with them.”
    “Perhaps nanomachines?” Jordan suggested.
    With a nod, Yamaguchi said, “Specifically designed to attack the virus and nothing else. That could work—if we had the nanotech facilities aboard ship.”
    “Which we don’t,” Jordan said.
    “We can’t. Safety regulations. We can’t run the risk of having nanomachines infecting theship.”
    “Yet they use nanotechnology on the Moon. Out in the Asteroid Belt.”
    “But not on Earth,” Yamaguchi said. “And not on this ship.”
    “I suppose not,” Jordan sighed. “I’ll just have to live with the virus, the way I have been.”
    Yamaguchi said, “I want to check you on a