Radiant

Festina’s eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, barging in?"

"Var-La

Tut paused… maybe trying to think of what came after quintillions. Then he just shook his head. "Var-La

Festina winced. "Why am I not surprised?"

"On this planet?" Tut said. "Of course, it’s no surprise. The Fuentes and Greenstriders had colonies here. They tracked in microbes from their homeworlds — maybe from other worlds too. By now, Muta’s biosphere has lots of bugs that aren’t native. It wouldn’t even be surprising if a bug became superaggressive. Organisms outside their native environment can develop all kinds of fluky behavior."

"Really?"

Tut gave Festina a look. "I specialized in micro, Auntie. Bugs released on other planets usually just die because they can’t find the right food or living conditions. Once in a while, though, they multiply like a son of a bitch — either because they have no natural enemies or because they’re just stronger and meaner than anything on the new world. Sometimes you get a die-off and a bloom. The bugs dwindle down near the point of extinction and limp along for years… then suddenly, pow! Some tiny mutation lets them adapt to their new world, and they grow like gangbusters." Tut shrugged. "Var-La

"But," Tut continued, "Var-La

I looked down to where the man had been lying. No sign of any Mayday device. It must have self-destructed with everything else. Still, it didn’t surprise me that Team Esteem had a few hair-trigger Maydays among their supplies… nor was I surprised that Var-La

Obviously, the Unity had come to the same conclusion as the Technocracy navy. Which is why Var-La

I wondered how long the device had lasted before it got EMP’d.

"So Var-La

"Ah." Festina only said the one word. Maybe she didn’t even say it aloud — maybe I only perceived it through my sixth sense — but I could tell this was what she’d been waiting for. The moment when things went wrong.

"Yeah," Tut said. "Var-La

"He wasn’t sure how long the seizure lasted — probably no more than ten seconds. By the time he stopped shaking, his teammates were crowded around him. Var-La

"Var-La

"With his own two eyes. His teammates vaporized simultaneously. Poof, up in smoke."

"Outside the mess hall?"

Tut nodded. "Their bodies just vanished. Clothes and implants self-destructed a few seconds later. Good thing the camp has gravel on the ground, or the implants might have started a fire."

"The gravel wouldn’t show much sign of fire," Festina murmured. "That’s why we didn’t notice any evidence of burning. And the wind blew away any ash." She looked at Tut. "What happened next?"

"Var-La

"The cloud EMP’d it," I said.

"Seems so," Tut agreed. "Var-La

"The cloud EMP’d the brain-link too," I said.

"Right. So Var-La

"Good thinking on his part," Festina said. "You have to admire a man who did what he had to do."

"It wasn’t easy," Tut told her. "Var-La

Festina looked pensive. "Var-La

"Absolutely. He’d had all night to study them, and…" Tut broke off. "You know how a virus reproduces?"

"The virus invades a cell," I said. "It hijacks the cell’s protein-making facilities and creates copies of itself. Sometimes hundreds of copies, built with stolen materials from the cell. Once the cell is full of new viruses, its outer membrane ruptures, and the viruses scurry off to do the same thing in other cells."

Tut nodded. "That’s the idea. Regular cells become Trojan horses, chock to the brim with freshly manufactured viruses. That’s what Var-La

"When you say ‘normal cells,’ what do you mean?" Festina asked. "Normal Mutan bacteria?"

"Normal Fuentes bacteria. Team Esteem had found lots of Fuentes bugs in Drill-Press: microbes that weren’t native to Muta, growing undisturbed since the Fuentes left. The new bacteria that Var-La