Chapter 2: Patient Zero

The first symptom appeared twelve hours after quarantine began. Omar developed a persistent cough that he attributed to the dry recirculated air, but within two hours the cough was accompanied by a fever that climbed steadily despite medication. His skin developed a faint luminescence, a pale blue-green glow visible in dim light that concentrated around his temples and the veins of his forearms. Mara isolated him in the medical bay, which was equipped with basic diagnostic tools but nothing approaching the capabilities of a proper hospital. She drew blood samples and examined them under the station's microscope. What she found made no sense. Omar's blood contained particles that resembled neither bacteria nor viruses. They were crystalline structures, geometric and precise, that appeared to be assembling themselves from minerals present in the blood plasma. They were growing. 'This is not a pathogen,' she told the group, gathered in the cafeteria at a safe distance from the medical bay. 'At least not in any conventional sense. It is a crystalline formation that is using the minerals in Omar's body as raw material. I have never seen anything like it.' 'Geothermal,' Anika said immediately. The geochemist leaned forward with the intensity of someone connecting data points. 'The island has active fumaroles. We have been monitoring unusual mineral deposits in the volcanic vents for weeks. Silicate structures with geometric properties that I noted in my last report as anomalous.' 'You think the agent came from the volcano?' 'I think something in the volcanic emissions seeded the atmosphere with these crystalline structures, and our ventilation system pulled them inside. Omar has spent more time outside than anyone else this month, monitoring his weather instruments. He had the highest exposure.' Mara checked the biosafety sensors again. The concentration of the unknown agent was still rising. Whatever was growing in Omar was also growing in the air they were all breathing. Isolation might already be pointless.