If this had been going through his mind before his transformation, Ivan would have suspected he was stoned. Since hallucinogens probably didn’t work on nanites, he’d have to go with the idea that this was a deliberate message. Was it a war? Was the computer trying to save humanity from something?

Was something coming?

47.Anomalies

47.Anomalies

Dr. Narang looked up at the knock. Her office in the isolation module qualified for the title only because it contained a desk and chair. Without even a door—or hatch, this being Navy property—her privacy was more symbolic than actual.

Dr. Samuelson shook his hand in the air briefly. Knocking on the metal wall, the only viable option, was painful. He sat down in the only other chair, folding his lanky frame into the small space, and resting his elbows on his knees.

Narang pulled a folder from the basket icon on the corner of her tablet’s screen. “All right, Henry. I’ve scanned through your report, although I haven’t had time for a full read. But it doesn’t look like there are any surprises.”

Samuelson’s eyes goggled. “How quickly we get blasé. The report is nothing but surprises.”

Narang gave him a tired smile. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, I guess. In summary, we have completely and utterly failed to infect anything else, living or otherwise. We have completely failed to detect any trace of nanites in any of the other crew. The nanites show no propensity to wander about, now that they’ve finished converting Pritchard. They don’t defend themselves, they don’t even particularly show anything like a survival instinct. The only tropism we can identify is a desire to get back to Ivan Pritchard.”

“And identifying them…”

Samuelson waved a hand in dismissal. “Is ridiculously easy. They glow in AQRI scans. In fact, we can turn down the saturation until biological tissue barely registers. No way we’d miss one.”

“On the other hand,” Narang said, “we can’t kill them, except one at a time. There’s no antidote, vaccine, phage, antiseptic, or other method of mass killing the things.”

“Not without killing any humans in range, no.”

Narang pushed the folder back to the basket icon. “I’m about to do my progress report, Henry. I called you to discuss the short-term and long-term risks. Not only of the nanites in general, but about the idea of releasing the crew.”

Samuelson took a deep breath and blew it out before answering. “Okay. First, the safest thing to do would be to nuke the isolation module, the mining ship, the Naval base, and us. I assume that’s not an option?” He raised an eyebrow and Narang gave him a mocking smile.