Virus-72 Hours to Live by Ray Jay Perreault Read Free Book Online Page A

computer would follow
specific departure criteria until the vessel was 100 meters from
Oasis. Once cleared the computer could follow its onboard flight
program.
    After the vessel was on its way, Joan was
quiet as her and Tom made their way back to the ring through the
CAT. Tom sensed something was on her mind and asked, "Honey...you
seem quiet. Is there something we can talk about?"
    When there was a personal issue, Joan talked
easy with her husband and they shared all of their thoughts
together. However, when the issue had to do with a decision, which
affected others, she rarely opened up. She felt those decisions
were hers to make and good or bad they were hers to own and her
responsibility. She never wanted to share the blame if she made a
bad decision. Tom was her husband, her partner. She was responsible
for him and all of the other crewmembers, so those decisions which
affected many people, she made by herself.
    Joan's pace slowed once she reached the
ring. Then she turned and looked at Tom. "I've been thinking."
    Tom stopped and pointed out with a smile,
"Every time you say that, it costs me something. What is it?"
    "As we said goodbye to the Red Dirt crew I
was thinking about how difficult those assignments are if a couple
wants children.”
    As soon as she said it, Tom knew they were
approaching one of those 'life changing' discussions. He slowly
took a deep breath and waited for what she was going to say
next.
    "I understand why people going to Mars are
usually at a point in their lives where they've already made the
decision about having children. Some of them have children, they're
grown and they can make a lifetime commitment going to Mars. The
younger ones that go make a major sacrifice, and I understand why.
Mars is not place for children, maybe sometime in the future, but
not now. The moon is almost reasonable. A couple can go there for a
6-month assignment and even though it's 6 months from your
children, you can still have a life on Earth you can come back
to."
    "And this discussion is going where?" Tom
asked gently.
    "I was just thinking about career, babies,
life together, space travel, remote assignments; you know all of
the usual stuff," then she smiled and walked away leaving Tom
absolutely speechless.

 

    Thursday 7/6/51
    Date – 2051.50972 (8:08
AM)
    Termen walked into the laboratory with his cup of
coffee and greeted SIMPOC, “Good morning SIMPOC.”
     
    “Good morning, Termen.”
    “Did you find anything interesting last
night?”
    “Termen, what is death?”
    Termen was a little shocked by the question.
He sensed that he needed to handle the answer carefully. He put his
coffee down on his desk and looked at SIMPOC's visual input. “Why
are you asking about death?” he asked.
    “Much of the information traffic that I
monitored regards death. Death caused by accidents, diseases and in
many cases one human taking the life of another.”
    “Yes, SIMPOC, a lot of the news and
communications you monitored is covering events where people die.
Death is when the human body stops functioning; you can access the
clinical definitions in your medical sources.”
    “I understand the definition. Is death
similar to turning off my processor?”
    Interesting observation Termen thought. “I
suppose it is. Turning off the processor stops your processes and
you stop thinking. When a person dies, he stops thinking.”
    “When my processor is turned back on, I
think again.”
    “That doesn’t happen for a person. If I turn
your processor off and it is never turned back on, it would be
similar to what happens to a human.”
    “Never to think again, sounds very
lonely.”
    “Yes, I suppose it would be.”
    As Termen sat back in his chair to enjoy his
coffee he, asked, “What did you find out last night?”
    “There is such a vast amount of data, it is
hard to summarize to a meaningful level. I was most interested in
the technical communications between Earth, the space station, and
the moon colony. I