Alien Virus (11 page)

“The morning will be grand – there’s no
hurry. I’m no going anywhere.” We said goodnight and headed for our
room.

*

The next day, I had a smile on my face that
I had difficulty hiding. I was floating on air, and we held each
other all the way to the ferry. We talked nonsense, looking into
each other’s eyes, smiling, laughing, happy.

We’d arranged to meet the others in
Trennabies, a
cosy
coffee shop in the
main shopping street in Kirkwall. After we hugged and kissed each
other, Kate got the drinks. Then Tony spoke.

“Well, how did you two get on? Find anything
suitable?” We looked at each other and smirked. Sandi looked out of
the window. “What were the islands like?”

“Oh, right.” I tried to compose myself. “It
seems to be a toss-up between Eday and Papa Westray as far as feel
and location goes. We both liked Papay very much,” I tried not to
look at Kate – it would only start me grinning. “But there wasn’t
really any ready-to-move-into property. Unless you count a
stone-walled croft with just that: stone walls. No roof, and a mud
floor.”

“But the walls were straight,” added
Kate.

“Oh, yes very straight,” I confirmed. Tony
nodded, trying to offset out flippancy with some seriousness.

“I see. What about Eday?”

“We liked that – liked it very much, didn’t
we Kate?”

“Yes. Probably Kevin more than me. But it
had the nicest feel of all, I’d say – and very safe there I think.
Sanday was a difficult to get to know because of the shape. Westray
a bit too big, and we couldn’t be so private there. You’d be
expected to take part in community life – and we might not want to
do that. On balance, I’d probably pick Eday. But I’d like to go
back to Papa Westray.” She smiled at me.

“Yes, me too,” I agreed. Tony nodded,
pensively.

“Good. Well, it sounds like we all need to
look at Eday. As for Shapinsay and Stronsay, we had an interesting
couple of days. Shapinsay has its own castle, and we all liked the
island, but the castle is open to the public, so we’d always have
visitors around us – tourists coming across from Kirkwall or
Stromness. In contrast, Stronsay seemed more of a possibility –
didn’t you think so Sandi?”

“Yes, at first. Gareth and I certainly felt
at home there.” She looked at him, and he smiled back. If a picture
could paint a thousand words. Sandi continued, “The only drawback
was Papa Stronsay – the small island nearby.”

“It’s full of religious freaks,” explained
Gareth. “Some sort of weird Christian order. They all wear habits
and beads, and look very odd – like they’ve just time–leaped from
the thirteenth century. You can’t go direct from Papa Stronsay to
Kirkwall without going through Stronsay, so we’d end up bumping
into the buggers all the time. Not good. There were two of them on
our ferry and I felt like bopping them one.”

“Thanks for your Christian viewpoint,” said
Tony. “But I agree – I don’t think it would be a good idea to be so
close to them – we’ve no idea how they would react to us,
particularly if they’ve been contaminated by the virus.

“I agree,” nodded Sandi.

“So it sounds like Eday is our best bet just
now,” confirmed Tony. We nodded our agreement. “But before we sail
to Eday, there’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.
It’s never really seemed like the right time before; but now we’re
all together up here, I need to let you in on something. But not
here. Gareth spotted a quiet place earlier…”

“It’s got the local brew,” Gareth
smiled.

*

Everything in Kirkwall was close at hand,
and ‘The Bothy Bar’ was only a minute’s walk from the coffee shop.
It was dimly-lit with a large, open log fire at one end and
cosy
, private areas around the bar, with
chairs and tables constructed out of large wooden logs – mimicking
a traditional Orkney Bothy.

Once we’d sat down with our ‘
Dark
Island’
ale, Tony quickly scanned the bar to make sure no–one
else could hear, then looked at us in turn to make sure he had our
complete attention.

“It’s about Frank,” he said. And then he
dropped the bombshell: “Frank’s not dead.” You could have knocked
me down with a feather, as they say.

“What? But that’s impossible – I saw it in
the paper… we both did. Right Sandi?” I looked at her for
confirmation and she nodded quickly. “And both the doctors and
police confirmed it.”

“I honestly believe they did Kevin; and if
Frank was a normal human being, then you would be totally correct.
But Frank can’t die – he’s not human.” We all looked at Tony in
complete disbelief, waiting for his explanation of what seemed
totally impossible. Tony took a deep breath. “He didn’t come here
in a spaceship or anything like that. He used a body, a human body
– just like we use a spacesuit when we go to the Moon or another
planet. He has to have a body to connect with us, to talk with us.
So in one way, he is human. It’s his inner self – his soul – that’s
alien.” We were all astounded. “Whatever the Police or the hospital
told you was a cover up. Frank has a natural immunity to the virus
– he understands it better than anyone else on Earth.” So many
questions flooded my brain… I couldn’t access them quickly enough.
“I know this is a shock,” Tony continued, “and I know your natural
reaction will be to reject the idea. That’s okay, it’s normal. It’s
exactly what I did when I heard this… until he proved it.”

“Proved it? How?” asked Gareth. Tony took a
sip of his drink, then another quick look around the bar. Nobody
seemed interested in us.

“Frank knew that I would never believe he
wasn’t from this planet unless he demonstrated it. So one night he
took me to the University’s Medical School, next to the Infirmary.
He seemed to know all the right doors for where he wanted to go.
They keep bodies in the basement for the third year medical
students to work on – to learn their trade in anatomy. Some are
very fresh – they have to be for the dissections of certain organs
– otherwise they atrophy. I don’t know exactly how Frank managed to
get the key to the basement, or even if he needed one. But the next
thing I knew we were in a room full of stainless steel body draws.
He instinctively went straight to one, pulling out the draw and
exposing the corpse. I’d never seen a dead body before, and was
taken aback at first. Then he said, ‘Watch me.’ He lay down on the
floor took a deep breath and closed his eyes. After about four
minutes, he seemed to be in a deep sleep; and then the most amazing
thing happened – something I’ll take with me to my grave. The body
in the drawer actually
sat up
, and
opened its eyes
. I
didn’t know whether to run or scream. Then the head turned to face
me and said in a croaky, unrecognisable voice: “It’s me, Tony –
don’t be afraid. It’s Frank.”

“You mean, Frank had actually transferred
his consciousness to a dead body?” I asked in complete
amazement.

“Yes,” Tony answered. “Exactly that.”

“And he can do it at will?” Kate asked.

“Yes – but only with dead bodies – where the
‘occupier’ has departed. Ideally, just at the time of death –
before the decay of the body begins in earnest.” We didn’t know
what to say – we were shocked, dumbfounded and totally bewildered.
Tony sat back and studied our reactions, as we looked at each
other. This was a revelation none of us could ever have
anticipated. Then Sandi posed the question we all wanted to
ask.

“Where is Frank now?”

“Ah, I thought you’d ask that.” He put down
his drink. “The answer is, I don’t know. From what I’ve heard, he
couldn’t have gone back to the same body – it was too mangled from
the ‘accident’. He could be anywhere. But you can bet he’s still on
Earth.”

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“It’s no coincidence that Frank and the
virus are both alien. He came to Earth at the roughly the same
time: he
followed it here
.” This was getting more and more
incredible. But we didn’t want Tony to stop.

“Followed it from where?” Kate asked.

“I know you’re going to find this fantastic
– and I don’t blame you if you think this is completely off the
scale of reasonable. But Frank told me he followed the virus from
his own planet – from his own Galaxy.”

We were shocked for a second time. There was
silence as we tried to comprehend what we were hearing.

“Why… why would he do that?” asked
Gareth.

“Benevolence. Not all races are like Man –
in fact, very, very few are like Man. The majority have an inherent
need to look after others – to help out, to benefit other races –
regardless of self.”

“How do you know this Tony?” Kate asked. “I
know you’re an Astrophysicist, but how can you possibly know about
other life–forms in the Universe? We’ve only just reached the stage
of accepting that there
could
be other life in the Universe…
we’re nowhere near knowing it’s nature.”

“From Frank… he’s told me everything.”

There was another stunned silence. My mind
was racing now.

“You must know how unbelievable, how utterly
crazy this sounds Tony…” He nodded. “But just for the sake of
argument, supposing this is true, why would a single alien from
another galaxy travel alone to another part of the Universe to try
to stop a virus affecting a planet with a population of seven
billion?” That was about as rational as I could be at the moment in
time.

“Whoever said he was alone?” replied
Tony.

Gareth sat back in complete disbelief. “I
need another drink,” he admitted. “Anyone else?” We
all
needed another drink. After Gareth returned with a tray of beers,
we couldn’t wait for Tony to continue.

“There are thousands of aliens here from
Frank’s planet, Kevin – all with the intention of helping us to
understand and eliminate this alien virus.”

I was suddenly aware of people watching us,
as was Tony, and we decided to continue our conversation back at
Tony’s hotel. Everybody wanted to hear more.

***

Fifteen

On an evolutionary scale, Frank’s race was a
million years in advance of human kind. Entering or leaving their
physical bodies was as normal as you or I getting in or out of our
cars. And without the hindrance of a body, they could travel at the
speed of light with ease, enabling intergalactic travel to
anywhere. So evolved were they that even the most advanced brains
on Earth would seem like very primitive savages to those of Frank’s
race.

Yet the nomadic virus had hit his planet
hard, decimating the population. It would have wiped out his race
completely, had they not developed an immunity to its functioning.
As soon as the virus knew it was blocked, it left the planet as
quickly as it had arrived. Without hosts, it would eventually
wither and die. It could not exist on thin air, or even on
vegetation. The parasite needed animal life to survive.

Where it had come from, no–one knew for
certain. But they suspected it was the result of some tragic
catastrophe at the boundaries of the known universe – some sort of
accident that caused the mutation of an intelligent life into
minute mindless beings – and the loss of their home planet.
Consequently, they were condemned to wander space and time –
programmed to seek out and live off other live forms.

Frank’s race – which he spoke of as The
Great Ones – was able to communicate with every type of life within
its Universe. But all efforts to communicate with the virus were to
no avail. When the virus finally left their area of space, it was
essential to stop it destroying other worlds, and towards this end
Frank and others from his lands volunteered to track it down and –
if necessary – destroy it.

Though destroying life was totally contrary
to the Great One’s code, protecting other intelligent life forms
was a far higher priority. Frank and his race still hoped that
there was a way to reverse the virus’s programme and bring it back
into the fold; but failing that, termination of its life–force
looked like the inevitable endgame.

How long Frank and his fellow souls had been
on Earth, Tony couldn’t say exactly – but he knew it was at least
ten thousand years. Aliens from Frank’s planet were spread around
the globe – mainly in areas where the virus was densest and at its
most virulent. Capital cities were the most infected. With millions
of potential hosts in close proximity, conditions were perfect for
the virus to multiply.

*

Unbeknown to Tony, Frank had already found
another body by the time they had reached Orkney. With death an
hourly occurrence in London, it wasn’t difficult to find a suitable
cocoon. Every day, somewhere or other around the Earth, a person
clinically dies and then suddenly comes back to life. He or she is
not the same person after the experience – which their friends and
family put down to the trauma of them returning from the brink of
death. Many seem to have developed a completely new attitude to
life – more of a selfless nature. A feeling of being at one with
the Universe. Whilst some people are pleased by the change in their
friend or relative, others find it very distressing, and so bodies
have to be carefully chosen before ‘entry’. Those with fewer
connections to other beings are generally best.

So it was with Frank – who now was
officially Steve Saunders.

Frank smiled at himself in the mirror in the
hospital: he was happy with his choice. A decent body – an athletic
twenty-eight year old with jet black hair, brown eyes and rugged
features. The only damage was from an overdose of sleeping pills –
taken in a successful suicide attempt after the death of his wife
and child in a tragic fire. Frank was glad that he didn’t have to
endure the tortuous thoughts and emotions that Steve Saunders had
lived through before taking his own life. Memories always left the
body with the soul, and Frank’s knowledge of Steve’s life would be
pieced together by what he read in the newspapers and conversations
with the nurses at the hospital. But amnesia after the trauma of
the death of his family was perfectly understandable in his case,
so Frank was never worried about doing too much research into the
former inhabitant’s life.