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Chapters (32)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. Transcript
  5. ZAHRA
  6. Fragment
  7. JAS
  8. Transcript
  9. ZAHRA
  10. Fragment
  11. JAS
  12. Transcript
  13. ZAHRA
  14. Fragment
  15. JAS
  16. Transcript
  17. ZAHRA
  18. Fragment
  19. JAS
  20. Transcript
  21. ZAHRA
  22. Fragment
  23. JAS
  24. Fragment
  25. ZAHRA
  26. JAS
  27. ZAHRA
  28. Transcript
  29. Fragment
  30. JAS
  31. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  32. What’s next onyour reading list?

SPEC SECURITY—RESTRICTED ARCHIVE REF. #39364832-B

SHIP-TO-BROADCAST COMMUNICATION TRANSCRIPT (AUDIO)

Source: HOUSE OF WISDOM, SPEC RESEARCH

TimeDate: 07:21:12 01.04.393

[VERIFIED IDENTIFICATION—HOUSE OF WISDOM, SPEC RESEARCH: Captain Lilian Putnam Ngahere]

HOUSE OF WISDOM: I don’t know if these transmissions are going through. The comm system is—it’s completely fucked. Pilar hasn’t reported back. The computer isn’t answering any requests for diagnostics and I—okay. Let me try this.

[10 s elapse. Background noise indicates shipwide medical alarm system is active.]

HOUSE OF WISDOM: This is Captain Lilian Ngahere of the vessel HOUSE OF WISDOM. The time is—fuck, what time is it. It’s after 0700. I haven’t had a response from Orbital Control since before 0200, but our receiver may be damaged. This is a warning to any and all ships responding to our distress call. There is an unidentified infectious agent afflicting the crew and residents of this vessel. Repeat: the population of this vessel has been exposed to a highly contagious and fatal infectious agent.

[Shipwide medical alarm continues.]

HOUSE OF WISDOM: I don’t know how many are dead. The doctors suspect it might be an aggressive viral encephalitis or hemorrhagic fever—or something like that, they were going to test for Marburg-Exo and Zeffir-1 and, another, I can’t remember, because of how it’s spreading . . . I don’t know what the tests showed. I’ve lost contact with the medical staff. I’ve lost contact with everybody.

[Shipwide medical alarm continues.]

HOUSE OF WISDOM: It happened so fast. Kichi Akimoto in Deep Space Archaeology was the first. We were supposed to meet today. She wanted to report on the data Gregory tried to steal from UC33-X. It’s not important anymore. She’s gone. I’ve never seen her like that. I’ve never seen anything do that to a person. She was so panicked, and then—then she wasn’t. She was so different. Conscious but unresponsive. Did Gregory do this? He told us we would regret sending him away. We would regret separating him from his work. He was so angry, but he never denied it. He said he was hiding the data because we couldn’t understand it. He’s always been arrogant about his work, but this—I should have reported his threats. I didn’t take him seriously. He’s a good scientist. I didn’t want to . . . It doesn’t matter now.

[Shipwide medical alarm continues.]

HOUSE OF WISDOM: I’ve tried to send the medical analysis in a data burst. I don’t know if it’s going out. If there is anybody aboard who remains unafflicted, I need your help. This is an unrestricted call for immediate emergency reporting to the bridge. Fuck, I don’t know if anybody is listening.

[ARCHIVED BY AUTOMATED COMMUNICATION PRESERVATION SYSTEM]

ZAHRA