Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 44

Memoirs of Kitty Siam - The Plague Dance.

It did not take long to evacuate the village as we had evacuated twice before when strong storms with high wind and large hail threatened the village. From the plateau of the temple I could see the light from the torches moving through the darkness as the villagers made their way to the caves. Attu and his people arrived at the temple as I was going over the settings on the medical scanner and calibrating the temple shield's harmonics. I had asked for six men to assist with the wounded and to guard the temple, but Attu ended up bringing twenty-six with him including the monks. I found out that when he asked for volunteers he got more than he had requested and when he tried to limit the group to only six men, the others would not stay behind and insisted in being at the temple with their Priestess for whatever was about to happen. Their wives and girlfriends decided to come along which was a bit disturbing to me as I only requested a few able bodied men and ended up with a few dozen mouths to feed and souls to look after.

As I thought about what I could possibly have forgotten during my preparations I remembered it struck me that this world shared a similar history similar to Angkor. Both planets had been infected with the plague by the Zeta's rockets. I knew that upon landing here the survivors of the Shinawatra would become infected in the same manner, as our captors were when they landed on Angkor. I could not immediately vaccinate everyone that landed here but I knew that we would be treating many injured survivors. I pulled up the medical logs of the villagers that had been treated and looked at a few of their scans and soon enough I was able to identify the specific antibody that their systems had built up over time that made them immune to the plague.

Once I knew what to look for I asked the medical system to synthesize the antibodies that the villagers possessed, once that was done I started coding. It was easy to write a small subroutine into the temple's medical system that would transform the active plague virus in a human survivor into the antibody necessary to prevent re infection and make the patient immune to the Zeta's black plague in the present and in the future. Once that was done I slipped the subroutine into the medical system in a location that would force it to run anytime a scan was performed on a humanoid that was not from Angkor.

There was nothing much for them to do now except set up some tents on the hard stone surface of the plateau behind the altar. It seemed that Attu had some military training in his past and quickly had the men piling up logs and rocks around the edge of the temple. I was tempted to stop him but when I seen that he was leaving the main stairway free of obstruction I let him continue thinking that should a ship crash near the temple that the walls that he had built would deflect some of the blast since the shield dome did not reach all the way to the ground.

I was working on integrating the medical system with the shield in a limited capacity so that as the plague mist rained down on us the medical component to the shield would neutralize the virus. I hope that this could possibly protect some of the wounded from becoming infected. As I was checking out the new code that I had written the shield dome and Attu's walls passed their first test as a two man attack craft came streaking toward the temple. The craft was badly damaged and as it plunged toward the ground the occupants ejected before the craft struck the ground. It was still dark but with my night vision activated I could see their parachutes open and knew that they would come down between the temple and the village. Attu dispatched four of his men to bring them back to the temple.

I watched the parachutes glide down slowly toward the ground, and as I watched the ground around the temple was suddenly lit up as if the sun had suddenly come up. The light did not last long and I knew as I looked up in the direction of the fading light that the Shinawatra was gone and that the bright flash was caused when their reactor breached and exploded.

The battle above was over, now the Zeta's would begin trying to exterminate the survivors as they sought refuge on Anora. To aid the survivors in finding assistance I configured a secondary crystalline pylon at the opposite end of the temple to emit a brief holographic pulse into the night sky that would look like a blue flair to anyone on the planet surface looking for help. The blue flair or signal light was a signal to all space farers that help was near by. I figured that the Zeta would be looking for such signal so I configured the pulse that only the human eye could see it, and being that it was a light pulse, there would be no device in the air for the Zeta to pick up on their scanners.

Speaking of the Zeta's scanners, the technical data that I read in the schematics for the shield system for the temple also included a dampening field that would keep scanners in space or in the air above the planet from detecting a heat source or an energy signature under the shield dome. It was clear now that the Annunaki designed these temples for more than just prayer and healing the villagers. Unfortunately this temple was not equipped with a defense grid that would allow us to fire back at the Zetas.

When dawn came we could see the Zeta's black Saloof fighters patrolling overhead. These craft were more designed primarily for space warfare and were not suited for ground search, or ground attack. Their scanners were designed to detect enemy fighters in the vast expanse of space and had difficulty identifying targets on the ground. Natural occurring objects like trees could often be confused with living breathing humans on the ground. This is why on many occasions we would see the Zeta attacking an old tree standing alone on a grassy plane with no human or animal life near by.

Another problem for the Saloof fighter was that it was not well suited to maneuver in an oxygen atmosphere. While it did have control surfaces that let it function in an atmosphere, the fighter had to travel at high speeds to remain airborne else it would stall and crash to the ground. This limited the time that the pilot had to identify and engage a target. This wasted a lot of time and thankfully allowed many of the flight crews from the Shinawatra that had landed on Anora to seek cover before the Saloof made a wide high speed turn and attempted to engage the target again.

Unfortunately the crews that could not quickly leave a downed craft were sitting ducks as it was much easier for the Saloof pilot to engage an Orion command craft, or one of the many types of fighters that were stationed aboard the Shinawatra. This was the case when a group of our villagers attempted to aid the crew of a downed Orion. As they struggled to pull the crew from the wreckage a Saloof targeted the craft and our villagers were badly injured. Thankfully the temple's healing system was able to treat their injuries, but were unable to do anything for Colonel Sempolski and Major Kraznov who's bodies were incinerated when their craft exploded. Sadly I witnessed the destruction of Orion 412 from the temple's plateau and once again the dream came back to me and I realized that perhaps in another reality the Colonel would have been my Commander and I would have been the pilot of his ship.

For most of the day the Zeta fighters flew over head and from time to time they would launch a few missiles in our direction, then as fast as they came they were gone before the missiles exploded in the distance. Messengers came to the temple telling us that one of our caves had been hit but everyone inside was safe. Only a few minor injuries were reported. The count of the wounded and dead from the Shinawatra was growing rapidly and soon the number of the dead had surpassed the number of wounded by about 50%. I knew that the Shinawatra carried around 140 command and control and ship to ship combat craft, and that the ship its self could have up to three thousand crewmembers. There was no telling how many of them would make it to the surface but it was easy to see that the temple plateau was filling up with the wounded that had been treated or were awaiting treatment. Those that had been treated and could walk were taken to the caves. If the wounded made it to the temple there was a good chance that they would survive.

We had major problems with communications with the crew of the Shinawatra, as I was the only one that spoke the languages of Earth or the galactic standard language of the Pan Galactic Consortium. In most cases the wounded did not put up a fight or try to resist the assistance the people of the village were providing. Once the wounded seen that their fellow crew members were being treated well and that their medical needs were being addressed they allowed Attu and the monks to tend to their duties and did not try to interfere.

Things were going well with the healing system and the monks proved quite capable to run things in my absence. This is when I excused myself from the altar's control pad and informed Attu that I needed to join the search teams for a while. He did not quite understand why and protested that a valuable Priestess should not leave the safety of the temple. I did not have an explanation for him that he would understand so I just insisted that this was something that I needed to do for myself. Attu did not understand and let me go anyway, but he did send two men with me to look after my safety. It did not take long for me to lose them in the tall grass once I took off running and changed into feline form.

I spent the rest of the daylight hours searching for the path that I had traveled in my dream. I had found several that looked familiar but lately I had spent so much time traveling the jungles of different planets that one path began to look like all the rest. My nose sampled the air and my hearing was tuned to pick up even the slightest sound that could be another human. On two occasions I came across wounded individuals from the Shinawatra and since I could smell and hear them before they were able to see me I was able to change into human form before revealing myself to them. The last thing I wanted or needed was to be blasted by some scared private so when I transformed to human I dressed myself in my white flight suit then changed the color to match the grey flight suits that the flight personnel on board the Shinawatra were used to. I made myself a lieutenant since that was the rank I held in the Potaru Tansa Bushi (PTB) so long ago. I suppose that had I not been transported to the wrong Central Command facility I would probably have risen to the rank of Captain or Major by now.

It was getting dark and I knew that the latest group of survivors that I found could not make it back to the temple on their own in the dark I decided to go with them and show them the way. This time instead of putting on the flight suit I dressed myself in my flowing silk saffron colored robes and greeted them as Priestess Maew of temple Angkor. At first they were shocked that I had spoken to them in a language that they understood and questioned me as to how I had come to this planet so far away from the area of the galaxy that they called home. I really did not want to play twenty questions with them, nor did I want to tell them the truth so I was as evasive as possible and focused the conversation on getting them to the temple where the monks could treat their injuries.

Along the way we picked up a few more stragglers that were heading towards the temple. The blue holographic flare was working well and drawing people in groups to the temple. When we got to the temple I turned the group of survivors over to the women from the village that were working the triage area. I never taught them what triage was or how it should be accomplished, I did however learn that the people from the villages had suffered through many hurricanes and natural disasters and they were well able to identify who had severe wounds and who did not. For people who had been denied a high level of reasoning they sure were finding ways to amaze me on a daily basis.

Attu came to me as I approached the altar and offered me some bread and a cup of a herbal tea that was popular with the villagers. I was hungry and accepted his offering. As he led me to the steps behind the altar where we both sat to eat. There were people all around us but there was enough free space around the steps that we could talk without people listening in. Attu expressed his concerns that we were running out of room on the temple plateau and that we needed to start moving more people to the caves. I agreed with him that those that had been treated should be moved immediately. I knew what was going to happen in the morning and knew that it would cause a panic but I did not want to tell Attu or anyone else about my dream and what was to come.

After I finished eating I made my way to the altar Koru the monk was completing the treatment of a young sergeant who had broken his leg and hip when his escape pod came down roughly after one of the three landing thrusters failed to fire. As two of the women assisted him off the altar I took my place at the altar and addressed those present. The light of day was gone now and we were operating with minimal lighting just in case the Zeta had decided to send down ground troops to hunt the survivors. To get everyone's attention I brought up the lights over the altar so that a pale white light was shining down on me.

A hush fell over the crowd as I raised my arms and asked for everyone's attention. The villagers were no problem to quiet down, but the survivors continued to talk for a few more seconds. Once they saw me at the altar bathed in white light the villagers dropped to their knees and offered their standard greeting for a monk or Priestess, and in ancient Annu I returned their greeting. The crew of the Shinawatra took notice of what the villagers were doing and soon after their voices fell silent so as not to offend their caretakers. It was then that I offered a greeting and welcome to them as well in the galactic standard language, then I repeated my words in ancient Annu so that the villagers would understand me as well.

I introduced myself as Princess Maew the Priestess of the temple, then welcomed them to Anora Prime. I explained that we have been doing our best to care for the wounded and that our medical systems were running at full capacity. Next I introduced Attu as the acting Alpha of the village since Raku was with the villagers in the caves. I asked the men and women to look around and take note that we were running out of room on the temple grounds for the survivors that continued to arrive and that we needed to move those that could walk on their own to the safety of the caves on the other side of our village. This got many conversations started amongst the survivors and once the buzzing caused by many voices died down I asked for the senior officers present to join Attu and myself behind the altar so that together we could make preparations to get people moving.

I could see movement in the ranks and once several people were moving forward, Attu and I moved behind the altar and once again the monks took over the altar controls and began treating the wounded. Attu and I waited about fifteen minutes for the officers to assemble and when they did they conversed amongst themselves for a few minutes comparing date of rank to those that were of equal rank to decide who was in charge and what the chain of command would be for now. Once the junior officers were dismissed we were left with a Lieutenant Colonel, a Major and a Captain. All were representative of their different services. The Colonel was a deputy squadron commander, the Major was a bridge officer, and the Captain was the senior officer remaining from the Marine detachment that was also stationed aboard the battle cruiser at the time of its demise.

The Colonel attempted to take control of the meeting, and I suppose being the senior officer it was in his nature to do so but being that I knew what was going to happen come morning, and that I knew where the safe places on the planet were I respectfully cut him off and took charge. I had to do double duty during the meeting and serve as the Priestess of the temple and translator so that Attu knew what was going on.

Once I had control of the meeting I moved us all as a group back to the holographic emitter that was sending up the blue flairs. Once we were assembled at the base of the pylon I used my internal data connection to display a holographic representation of the temple, the village and the caves where our villagers were hiding, and where some of the wounded had already been taken. Next I identified several other caves that were with in several yards of the caves that the villagers were occupying then I asked the officers to organize their people and begin moving them to the caves. Attu spoke up and volunteered that he had his men ready to lead the group to the caves as soon as they were ready to move.

Once the officers were in agreement I turned to the Marine Captain and asked if he could leave a few of his men here at the temple as armed guards incase the Zeta decide to mount a ground assault in the morning. I watched his eyebrows rise as he considered my words. I think he was surprised that I used such military terms and phrases being a slender and demure looking Priestess. My next question to the Captain was about providing security at the caves in case the Zeta happen find their way there. I assured him that they can blast anything reptilian, but not to shoot anything human or feline. I did caution the officers that there were two known large felines in the area and that they are friendly and should not be shot at. I added that they are our Temple Cats and are sacred to the people of the village. The officers nodded in agreement.

I hesitated before bringing up the next subject and as the officers observed my silence and began to move off I called them back to me as I had one more thing to mention. I started by asking if any of them had seen the black obelisks on their way to the temple, and being that many of the survivors had arrived during the daylight hours they had seen them. As I mentioned that the obelisks were once rockets that carried a deadly plague similar to the ones that were used against the people of Earth I could see the color drain from their faces. The Colonel was the first to speak up and ask if this was a plague-infected world. The Major inquired as to how I knew about the desolation of Earth.

I told the Colonel that the Zeta had infected this world with their black plague over 60,000 years ago and that a weakened strain of the plague was still present on the planet. Before he began to panic I let him know that anyone that has been scanned by our medical system has been given a vaccination against the plague and that now they like the villagers here are now immune to the Zeta's plague.

I could see the look of relief on the faces of the assembled officers, but that look did not last long as I told them that I believed that in the morning the ships above will once again bombard the planet with missiles that carry the same plague. I confessed that I was not a doctor or an immunologist and that I hoped that the vaccine for the previous plague would protect everyone from what was to come in the morning. I used this point to emphasize that we needed to move as many people from the temple to the caves since we could not predict where these missiles might land. I stressed that once inside the caves that their people should move as deep into the caves as possible for this reason.

We continued to treat the wounded through out the night and the men from the village made many trips to and from the caves as they escorted, or carried the survivors. Out of approximately 3,000 people on the Shinawatra, we had treated around 140 of them before sending them to the caves. I was sure that there were more of them out there in the jungle, but we had no way to cover a large area in a short time to look for them.