Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 1 - Alien Flight by David Buck Read Free Book Online

navy had collapsed after four months of epidemic deaths. But Steve knew that both forces had come close to hostilities as the Australian forces enforced the quarantine on shipping and small boats entering Australian waters.
    The refugee threats of contagion later resolved to the occasional drifting boat full of dead and dying refugees that were routinely sunk by patrolling Australian naval vessels. After eight quiet months in Australia, in part to the draconian quarantine restrictions, a small aircraft with several ill Indonesians had finally made an un-authorized landing in September 2040 at Karratha. The plane was loaded with sick passengers had caused the true outbreak of the Asian flu in Australia. Within two weeks the aged, the young and the infirm in many cities and towns were seriously ill with the disease.
    Steve still felt the loss of his parents, who had initially missed the catching of the disease for nearly twelve months, before succumbing to the serious illness within three weeks of each other. Steve’s youngest niece had also been lost before she even reached her third birthday. The extended tours enforcing the travel and quarantine restrictions had severely exhausted the crews of many navy ships, as suitable replacement crew members were simply not available to replace victims of the flu. HMAS Adelaide and two of the submarines had been later forced back to the HMAS Stirling naval base with severe maintenance problems.
    Steve knew that the technical and support resources of the Australian Navy was heavily impacted by deaths of so many serving personnel. He considered further the latest new as he hurried to his command chair. Hopefully redemption was at hand if the epidemic toll was finally falling away. The Australian Navy could now hopefully switch across to just providing humanitarian aid to the people fortunate enough to survive the greatest tragedy in human history.
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    In the early months of 2040 a deadly epidemic spread across first Asia and then the rest of the world, with millions of people succumbing to strains of a new flu like virus. Researchers in western countries analyzed the new virus and identified it as similar to earlier viruses like swine flu. However this new virus appeared to have a high affinity for genes from other viruses that greatly increased the virulence.
    The Asian flu spread rapidly over the world due to the availability of modern travel. The large populations of China and India were decimated, even as the western countries mobilized their emergency health systems and imposed draconian travel restrictions. Fortunately the modern anti-flu medications in developed countries offered some relief from the ravages of the Asian flu, providing the victim was otherwise healthy and relatively young. With the world-wide stocks of modern anti-flu medications not at a level to protect everyone, the decision was made to only provide the medication to young adults and children.
    In the now deserted rural lands of India and China, bonfires were lit to deal with the masses of fatalities. The affluent citizens of Asian coastal cities looked after their own interests first, even as the countries tumbled into lawlessness and violence. The Asian flu spread elsewhere through Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The modern societies with access to good medical facilities fared considerably better than the more disadvantaged countries. In all countries a pattern emerged as the aged, the very young, and the infirm were the most at risk from the Asian flu.
    The modern countries with smaller populations faired better than the bigger western countries like the USA. Western countries including Canada, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand lost ten percent of their populations, whereas the USA and Western Europe lost over twenty percent of their populations. The population losses continued to