The Synopsis Treasury (12 page)

Robert E. Vardeman

Robert E. Vardeman is the author of more than 200 novels in the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, high tech thriller and western genres. In addition to his own invented worlds, he has done numerous tie-in novelizations, including Sony’s videogames
God of War 1
and
2
,
Fate of the Kinunir
(
Traveller
), and titles for
Battletech: MechWarrior
,
Magic: The Gathering
,
Pathfinder
and many more. He has co-edited the anthology
Golden Reflections
(with Joan Saberhagen) and
A Career Guide to Your Job in Hell
(with Scott Phillips). He launched a shared steampunk world,
Empires of Steam and Rust
, in 2012 and has published such titles as
Gateway to Rust & Ruin
in it.

Forthcoming novels include a weird western trilogy,
Bitter Medicine
, and
The Great West Detective Agency
(under the pen name, Jackson Lowry).

He lives in New Mexico where he pursues the high tech hobby of geocaching and occasionally showing up in indie movies. More information can be found at his website www.cenotaphroad.com.

This is the outline for book two of the Biowarriors series published by Ace Books, February 1990. The cover by Richard Hescox is a good one and the final book in the series,
Space Vectors
, is my favorite of all my covers (also by Hescox). The dedication was to my wife, Patty, as the book was being written just prior to our wedding.

The books were sold at the same time on the basis of three detailed synopses. Some of the references in the
Crisis at Starlight
synopsis assume familiarity with characters, situations, and locations introduced in book one:
Infinity Plague
. The difficulty with middle books in trilogies has been dissected at length elsewhere. Aware that there can be this “sag” in second books, I tried to make the story as action-filled as possible, with significant problems resolved but the three-book arc story looming with even more drama and better-defined menace than at the end of book one. In a way, the book is a cliff hanger intended to draw readers back to find what happens while not boring them with endless narrative setups for that resolution.

The idea of finding an abandoned alien space station the size and complexity of
Starlight
intrigued me. Thorough exploration would be a series all by itself (and might be one day—the synopsis suggests many other paths to take.) The Earthly political alignments are probably not likely but the Berlin Wall had not fallen when I proposed the series and a USSR-Latin American alliance seemed an interesting axis to postulate. If I were doing it today, this might be downplayed but a US-Asian alliance still seems a possibility with backwaters to investigate.

The series arc deals with genetically engineered (gengineered) diseases that get out of hand, yet have their uses as bio-warfare weapons on planets that can be quarantined. Ethical considerations go by the wayside after the plague is unleashed—the story involves further use of the plague or finding ways to stop it.

—Robert E. Vardeman

Outline
Infinity Plague
= 285 pps in 23 chapts for 85,500 words

1 Book two,
Crisis at Starlight
, opens with the
Hippocrates
, the alien ship and the armed escort lining up on the Frinn ship’s route. They starlift, “feeling” their way along using special sensors to study the disturbances caused by the alien engines in the myriad space-time geometries defined by Christoffel tensors. Only when the disturbances end abruptly do they know they have reached the Frinn system.

2 In the two months before arrival, Jerome Walden and Anita Tarelton do as complete a work-up on the alien body as they can. The Frinn have poor eyesight but their sense of smell is extremely acute. Holes in the alien’s uniform over sweat glands indicate dependence on pheromones for communication. Tarelton works to decipher the purpose of the four chromosome pairs that the infinity plague unravels in the alien DNA; without more data she is at a loss to figure out the use of the extra pairs.

3 Walden and Egad watch Zacharias and Sorbatchin plan their mission. Both man and dog agree that Zacharias is more eager than good. Sorbatchin depends to some degree on his Chilean advisor Pedro O’Higgins, but it is Miko Nakamura who is subtly in charge. She is a civilian but knows how to manipulate people. Egad learns that the Frinn probably contracted the virus from the North American Alliance research station rather than from the Sov-Lat’s—the Sov-Lats have concentrated on their race-specific weapons to the point where they can wipe out only Asian descent humans. Walden shudders at this. Such warfare on Earth might destroy everyone. It might be for the best that they have found an alien enemy to unite against.

4 But the truce between Sov-Lat soldiers and the NAA mission is strained, especially when it comes to allowing NAA technicians aboard the Frinn vessel to study it. Egad is a great help. The Sov-Lats consider him only a pet and he is able to roam freely. However, his perceptions are limited and his outlook is definitely canine. Walden is not sure what to make of everything Egad reports about the Frinn ship.

5 The strain grows. The relationship between Walden and Anita Tarelton begins to fall apart. She seems perversely drawn to Reynard Zacharias.

6 The tiny flotilla enters normal space in the Frinn system—or so they’d thought. They do a quick survey and find no habitable planets. More careful study fails to detect any hint of colonization on those barren worlds.

7 Zacharias is furious. Nakamura and Sorbatchin are more thoughtful. The Sov-Lat commander uses the sensors aboard the Frinn ship and locates a homing signal. The Frinn have not colonized a world in this system—they have built an immense space station that blazes with the light of a miniature star. Captain Telford quickly dubs it
Starlight
.

8
Starlight’s
discovery makes Zacharias even madder. He thinks the Frinn use this waystation as a buffer between their homeworld and their conquering armadas to prevent a mission such as the one he envisions against them.

9 Zacharias and Sorbatchin agree to approach the huge radiant alien space station in the captured vessel. Aboard will be all the armor they can pack in along with three combat teams. A quick strike, Zacharias says, will bring the station under their control. Walden is skeptical. Tarelton accuses him of being negative because Zacharias is such a good strategist. Walden wonders if she might not be right until he sees the expression on Nakamura’s face. Nakamura does not think this is a good idea either.

Walden talks with Nakamura. She is willing to go along with the effort, just to learn what she can of the Frinn. Lack of knowledge is the most damaging thing for the woman now. To fight a war, she needs to know her enemy. She fears that the Frinn have studied humans but those who knew the most about the aliens are long dead on Swann.

Walden volunteers to go along. He needs to know if the aliens have infected the station with the infinity plague. The virus is harmless to humans but deadly to the aliens—or so it seems. He must know for certain. An ugly suspicion is forming in his head. The infinity plague might be accidental, a quirk of fate. Humans fashioned the virus for other purposes; it affected the Frinn adversely and, since the installations on Swann were obviously weapons oriented, the Frinn assumed they had been attacked. Walden worries that the plague will spread throughout the alien worlds. Humans have done terrible things in the past, but only to others of their own species.

Humanity might wipe out an entire species of intelligent life—and do it unintentionally.

10 They near the space station, easily five hundred kilometers in diameter and constructed of a glassy substance that reflects light well. When they cannot respond to the orders given by the docking master, they are fired upon. The
Hippocrates
stands clear; the escort and the alien ship use what weapons they can to force their way through to a landing grid.

11 From here it is constant battle. Although the Frinn were taken unawares, they fight well. Zacharias and Sorbatchin push forward into the heart of
Starlight
, looking for the control center. Egad and Walden find themselves cut off with a small squad led by Pedro O’Higgins. The Sov-Lat officer is killed when they have a skirmish with a robot fighting machine. The robot is destroyed but many human soldiers are killed or wounded. Walden has Egad sniff out a safe spot where he can tend the injured. He isn’t a medical doctor but he has a considerable amount of knowledge about medicine. With the few automated analysis devices he brought with him, he tends the injured.

12 Walden and Egad go exploring in this relatively deserted section of the space station. They turn up a Frinn, who fires at them. They play a game of hide and seek through labs and offices, Walden depending on Egad’s sense of smell to hunt down the Frinn soldier. Walden and the Frinn fight. Walden wins, with Egad’s help, capturing the alien.

13 The Frinn speaks English flawlessly; he is a member of the crew that returned from Swann at the first outbreak of the infinity plague. Walden tries to get as much information from the Frinn as possible, but it is Egad to whom the Frinn speaks.

14 Walden sees that it has all been a ghastly accident. The Earth laboratories did not engineer the plague; it just happened to work better on the Frinn than it did on Earthmen. In spite of the human’s high-blown name for the virus, it had proven ineffective as a human weapon, and the lab workers treated the virus carelessly. The Frinn were infected, the human scientists never considering that the alien physiology might react differently.

Walden promises the skeptical Frinn all the help possible in stemming the spread of the virus, but it might be too late. Starships have already lifted for the Frinn’s homeworld, taking along many of the infected crew—but not in isolation. The Frinn have a moderately well developed medical science but have not encountered engineered plague. The idea of developing such a weapon of war seems inconceivable to them. In this, Walden can share their bemusement.

15 The Frinn Walden has captured reluctantly reveals his name: Uvallae. He wants to believe Walden’s theory about what happened, but events show a different motivation for the humans. Zacharias has cut through the center of the station, laying waste to everything as he goes. Sorbatchin has taken a patrol on a seek-and-destroy mission killing hundreds of Frinn.

16 Walden tries to convince Uvallae this is a horrible mistake and that a bigger threat has been created. The Frinn might wipe out their homeworld by trying to tend those who fell ill on Swann.

The first thing Walden must do is call off Zacharias’s attack. To do this he reunites with the soldier’s armored force. Uvallae comes along, more a prisoner than an ally. He is still leery of Walden’s motives, even though Egad has tried to convince the Frinn of the humans’ true intentions.

17 Zacharias had begun a hunt for Walden, needing the scientist’s expertise. Sorbatchin has located a laboratory and the soldier is afraid the Sov-Lat might learn something that can be turned against the NAA. Walden marvels at how long-term animosity can continue, even in the midst of a battle with aliens. And it is all misguided.

18 Before they can reach Sorbatchin, the Frinn automated fighters attack in strength. Zacharias is killed, along with most of the human soldiers. Walden, Uvallae, Egad and a handful of others escape. They blunder through the station, finding only damage and dead bodies, both Frinn and human. They find a tight knot of Frinn in what Walden believes to be
Starlight’s
control center. The humans extensively use computer-controlled equipment. The Frinn have gone even farther in their automation. As a result, it is difficult for them to reprogram the station to respond quickly to the unexpected human invasion.

19 Walden tries to convince the Frinn that a truce is in everyone’s benefit and that it has all been a ghastly mistake. Uvallae proves the deciding factor. He argues the human’s case. Walden is unsure how the Frinn arrive at the decision to stop fighting, but they do. He contacts Miko Nakamura and tells her what has happened. She stops the wild pillaging that Sorbatchin is engaged in.

20 The Frinn feel that they have surrendered and are prisoners. Walden insists that they are not. The research team from the
Hippocrates
enters the station and begins trying to save as many of the wounded as possible. That the human scientists work as diligently on the aliens as on their own sways opinion among the Frinn.

However, when Walden suggests that the
Hippocrates
continue to the Frinn homeworld and aid in stopping the infinity plague, he encounters more than a little resistance. It takes considerable work to win over the Frinn into a hesitant acceptance that the plague might kill their entire race and that only the humans can stop it. Even in their rank, the infinity plague is working. Walden and Anita Tarelton work to find a cure—or even a way of slowing the effects of the plague.