Priya, her family, and friends gathered at her house for her 29th birthday.
“I’d like to make it to 30,” Priya said.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Nisha said.
“I’m not. It seems like every week somebody tries to kill us off.”
“Priya’s right,” Amy said. “Yesterday, we hacked into a native humanist server. Several of us pretended to be native humanists for two years so we could hack in. We managed to infiltrate the IT departments of several NH groups. We overhear them communicating freely. We use drones too. There are many ways to kill people and they openly discuss killing us.”
“I know they have 1.5 billion members, but I thought the hard-core native humanists were a fringe organization,” Nisha said.
“They used to be,” Priya said. “But it’s becoming easier for them to speak freely now that a native humanist is president. Even in public at their rallies, there are posters supporting killing us. They say it’s protected free speech. The government doesn’t stop them.”
“We’ve tried everything to stop them,” Pablo said. “All our appeals are rejected, to the Supreme Court. The ‘shouting fire in a crowded theater’ argument is ignored. They think there’s no risk, and free speech should be protected. There are now 170 million new species kids in the world, as old as eight. That’s less than 2% of the world’s population. The Supreme Court thinks there are too many of us to be in the category of a protected minority group. They don’t think kids would ever be intentionally attacked, even though they have been.”
“Yeah,” Priya said. “A few days ago, we were attacked again.”
“What happened?” Nisha said.
“There’s an outbreak of the newest H1N1 virus variant in Brest France. That was one of several starting places for the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918. By another amazing coincidence, only new species kids are affected.”
“Old species people aren’t affected?” Nisha said.
“No. At least they’re not sick yet. Over 300 new species kids are in the hospital. That’s most new species kids in that town. None of them are old species. This is not a coincidence. It’s a bioterrorist attack on us.”
“But nobody calls it bioterrorism,” Pablo said.
“Can you look at the virus to see what’s been done to it?” Nisha said.
“We have people there now,” Priya said. “Soon we’ll know whether this vector was engineered to attack only us. We’re sequencing the genome now.”
“Have they quarantined the area?” Nisha said.
“Of course not,” Priya said “It’s only attacking us. They want it to spread.”
“Who taught you to be so skeptical?” Nisha said.
“You did, Mom. You taught me how to gather significant amounts of independently validated information before making judgment. We see the data before us.”
“It’s intentional,” Sophie said. “I just got word. The genome was engineered to affect only new species people, though it can be spread by the old species. It could also be extra deadly in new species people compared to the original H1N1 virus. It’s an intentionally enhanced variation of the original Spanish flu virus that killed about 70 million people back starting in 1918.”
“Have our team run the genome through the vaccine analysis algorithm,” Priya said.
“Already on it,” Sophie said.
“Good. I’m issuing a statement to all new species families in the world to shelter in place.”
“It might be too late,” Raven said.
“Why do you say that?” Priya said.
“There’s been a lot of air and tube travel in the past few days since this started.”
“Still, I’m going to issue the statement to slow it down.”
“The first new species child just died from the virus,” Raven said. “Here’s a picture.”
“That poor girl,” Nisha said.
“This is murder,” Priya said. “We need to find out who did this.”
“I’ve created several agents to track down any developments the minute they happen,” Amy said.
“Is the CDC doing anything about this?” Nisha said.
“No,” Priya said. “The US government told them to do nothing. Their latest statement says they’re reviewing the situation.”
“I guess they don’t think it’s dangerous,” Warren said.
“At least not to them,” Priya said. “My gut is telling me they’ll take no action to stop the vector from entering the US and elsewhere. France is taking no action to stop flights leaving the area. This looks like intentional genocide to me.”
“A second kid just died in France,” Amy said. “There are several influenza outbreaks in Spain, Italy, China, and other places. Hundreds of kids are being taken to local hospitals. I’m not sure if it’s the same vector, but it’s only affecting new species kids.”
“A new species kid just died of the flu in Germany,” Sophie said. “We need to do something now.”
“Sorry Mom,” Priya said. “We need to go to the lab to work on a vaccine. I wanted to talk to you about the IPO since we vested you shares in Genomaly, but that will have to wait.”
“It’s okay. I studied the 1918, and 2020 pandemics. This could spread quickly. Go, now!”
Priya and Sophie convened all employees for an emergency meeting at the Genomaly lab and got to work on a vaccine. By the end of the day, there were over 2000 known cases of the new species variant of H1N1 in over 30 countries. There were 40,000 additional cases of influenza yet to be identified. The death toll had risen to 40. Priya and Sophie worked until 2 a.m. and fell asleep in the lab. Many employees did the same thing. The sun rose quickly, filtering into Priya’s office on the fifth floor.
“I didn’t get enough sleep,” Priya said. “What are you looking at?”
“The news, it’s bad,” Sophie said. “There are now over 200,000 total cases of influenza. 36000 are known to be the genetically engineered variant. The other cases are too.”
“How many kids have died?” Raven said.
“Over 300.”
“I’m checking our network,” Priya said. “Several dozen of us new species adults have it.”
“It’s going to take over a week to get this vaccine ready for manufacture,” Sophie said. “Akna, Jamilla and their teams are testing it now.”
“Have any old species people been affected?” Priya said.
“Well, they’re carrying it, but none are getting sick.”
“Hold on, Mom’s calling,” Priya said. “Hi Mom.”
“Hi Pree. I just spoke with the CDC. They’re meeting to develop a plan to combat the virus.”
“Do they want to stop it?”
“Of course they do.”
“I don’t know,” Priya said. “They’ve known about this for several days, but nobody is taking action to stop it. People still travel to and from the infected areas. It seems like they’re intentionally letting the thing spread.”
“Well, all I know is they told me they’re canceling flights into and out of the US, as well as interstate flights. All high-speed tube travel has stopped. Other countries are taking similar action.”
“Now that the horses are out of the barn, they’ll close the door and claim they tried,” Priya said.
“You really are skeptical,” Nisha said.
“After what they’ve done to us, of course I am.”
“They’ve discovered the virus in San Jose,” Sophie said.
“And in LA and other places,” Raven said. “When I run the numbers, it’s accelerating and spreading quicker than the Spanish flu in 1918 when adjusted for the small population of the new species.”
“That’s because the virus is designed to be more aggressive and infectious,” Priya said. “Now, airplanes and tubes have spread it everywhere.”
“I’m starting to believe you,” Nisha said.
“About what?” Priya said.
“About their intentions,” Nisha said. “They spent several days before acting. Somebody must want it to spread.”
“Told ya,” Priya said. “I’m not a conspiracy nut, but it’s obvious what’s happening. When those bioterrorists did that virus attack on Paris last year, the entire city was quarantined within two hours. They took that seriously because old species people were getting sick and dying. These bioterrorists know what they’re doing.”
Within a week, the vaccine was ready, and distribution begin. Priya, Sophie, and Warren fell sick for two days, but the vaccine worked quickly. Within two months after that, the vaccine was distributed to most of the 175 million new species people. New cases quickly dropped to near zero. However, out of the 5,000,000 new species kids infected, 750,000 were dead. More than 2,000 of the 25,000 who were originally abducted also died. Priya and her friends attended many funerals during those terrible months. 2,000 empty holes were left in their social network.”
A few months later, they met at Priya’s lab to go over the results.
“I think we have it under control,” Priya said. “We lost so many, but I don’t think we’ll lose more.”
“It looks that way,” Sophie said. “But now there are some cases of old species people dying from it.”
“Yeah, I read about that today,” Warren said.
“We’re doing analysis on the virus now from a deceased old species individual,” Priya said.
“The results are in,” Sophie said. “It’s mutated. At least in the individual that died.”
“I think it’s worse than people realize,” Raven said. “In the past few days, I’m seeing search results going up where people are searching for terms like, ’virus vaccine.’ I think old species people are getting sick.”
“How many?” Warren said.
“Judging by the volume of searches, it looks like millions more than average are getting sick every day,” Raven said. “I can’t tell how many are sick from the mutated virus, but I think most of the new cases are from the mutated virus.”
“Where are they located?” Pablo said.
“All over the world,” Raven said. “In the past hour, all major airports have ceased operations.”
“See what I mean?” Priya said. “They didn’t do that for us. No old species people have died yet from the confirmed virus, and they’ve stopped all flights.”
“Not anymore,” Sophie said. “The first officially confirmed death of an old species person by the mutated virus just happened in Australia. It’s all over the news now.”
“When I run the numbers, news coverage is far more intense than it was when we got infected,” Raven said.
“Of course,” Priya said. “When it affects them, they care a lot more.”
“That’s human nature,” Pablo said. “People care more when it directly affects them. They’re working on a new vaccine. Will your vaccine work on old species people?”
“Not perfectly. There are too many genetic differences between our two species. A new vaccine will be made,” Priya said.
“I see more reports of old species people dying now,” Raven said. “I think it’s spreading. You should make a new vaccine for them.”
“It’s tempting not to,” Priya said. “What have they done for us?”
“Not much, but—”
“Yeah, we’ll make a vaccine,” Priya said. “This one has momentum behind it.”
Priya, Sophie, and the rest of the researchers at Genomaly got to work. Within a week, they had a viable vaccine. A week later after testing, they began mass production and distributed the vaccine formula to drug companies around the world so they could mass produce it. During that two-week period, over 50 million people became infected with the virus and 500,000 were dead, with increasing numbers dying each hour. Hospitals around the world became overwhelmed with patients. The stock market crashed.
It took four months to get the vaccine distributed to every person on Earth. By that time, 75 million old species people were dead. The perpetrators were still at large.