The Plague Forge [ARC] Read Online Free PDF Page B

danger zone in terms of time. But the tests are all negative. She’ll be fine with a little more rest and a decent meal.”
    “When can she leave?”
    The doctor shrugged, then nodded past Skyler. “Now, from the look of things.”
    He turned to see Tania emerge from the curtained area in one of her jumpsuits, a white one with blue stripes that ran from the neckline down the arms. She tied her hair back into a loose knot and gestured for Skyler to rejoin her.
    “Thanks, Doctor,” he said, and went back.
    Before he could get a word out, Tania held up a hand. “We won’t speak of it.”
    “Never happened,” he agreed.
    Her gaze went back to the container. “I guess we’d better decide what to do with this.”
    An hour later the alien object sat on a table in the cafeteria, a crowd of people around it. Someone had even brought a special microscope, the images it produced enlarged on a few slates that were passed around, eliciting excited commentary from those who studied them.
    Skyler kept to the periphery of the group. He held his tongue for the most part, except occasionally when they asked him questions. Apparently Tania had been chastised for not allowing such an opportunity with the first object that was brought up. Somewhat hypocritically she’d also been criticized for allowing these alien objects aboard without careful decontamination measures. Tania defended herself, and Skyler, by explaining that in the excitement to explore the Builder ship she’d simply forgot.
    There’d been a time when such carelessness could not be explained away, or overlooked, so easily. But here, now, with everything at stake, her excuse earned scattered grumbles and more than a few sympathetic nods.
    Food was brought in—a mix of fresh fruit and cut vegetables, some hummus, and nutrition bars likely brought up from the growing mountain of scavenged supplies in Camp Exodus. Someone even produced a bottle of cider, which lightened the mood in the room slightly.
    Ana came in at one point, a sheen of sweat on her skin. She ate some food, said a few polite hellos, then begged off from the gathering of scientists to find a place to shower after her low-gravity antics. She didn’t like being around the colonists much, especially the scientists. “They treat me like some kind of circus curiosity,” she’d once said to him. He couldn’t blame her.
    When she’d gone, Skyler turned back to the group and caught Tania looking at him. She glanced away when their eyes met.
    By late evening the people in the room had dwindled to what Skyler assumed were the most senior scientists on station. Zane Platz came by, and Tim was there, too, hovering about Tania like a manservant. His affection for her was so obvious, Skyler found it amusing if a little boyish. To his surprise, Tania didn’t seem too bothered by it. She even squeezed Tim’s arm at one point, giving Skyler an unexpected twinge of jealousy.
    A natural pause in the conversation gave him the chance to ask the question.
    “Well, what do we do with it?”
    They’d been debating just that all evening, but never with enough seriousness to call their conclusions a decision. Skyler asking the question served to crystallize it, and to his surprise they all turned to Tania.
    “I think we should take it over there and install it,” she said.
    A few of the people present shook their heads. “Hold on,” one woman said. “This thing has the ability to coat subhumans with some kind of weaponized armor. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d like to understand how that works.”
    Others voiced similar ideas, concerns, worries. For his part, Skyler held Tania’s gaze. He saw an apology there, and her eyes darted to the door and then back to him. “Outside,” she mouthed.
    He met her in the curved hallway, the sound of the animated crowd vanishing as the door clicked shut behind them. They stood an arm’s length apart, dense red carpet at their feet. A few curious onlookers