Free Second Earth by Stephen A. Fender

he could add to his statement was,
“I’m not doing it because I was ordered to,” but the words didn’t have a chance
to come out before Melissa spoke again.
       “I promise not to get into too much
trouble,” she said sweetly.
       “I’m not sure I like that promise,” he
replied, placing his weapon back into its holster. “A little trouble every now
and then is good for the soul. Besides, it’s been anything but dull since I met
you.”
       Melissa nodded. “So it has, Commander,” she
said, and then turned her gaze back out to the side of the skimmer as the first
crumbling buildings of Crystal City slipped silently past the personnel
carrier.
       Laid out in series of concentric circles
with the Crystal Towers at the heart of the sprawling metropolis, the city had
once been one of the most beautiful establishments in Beta Quadrant. The
buildings, most of them a consistent gleaming white, had shone like a beacon in
the lush greenery that surrounded the place. Now the city was little more than
a mess of collapsing edifices and land pockmarked with craters. Nearly
one-quarter of the buildings the team had passed were crumbled into the
streets, and there didn’t appear to be an unbroken stretch of pavement longer
than twenty yards.
       The personnel carrier was currently
traveling along a road that had definitely seen better days. It had large
cracks and crevices in its surface, with dense overgrowth blossoming from
portions that yielded fertile soil. Shawn could see that the sidewalks—once
laid out meticulously—were warped and uprooted in places, making any prolonged
journey across their surfaces perilous at best. The trees that had lined this
particular street were long dead, having given up the last of their leaves many
years ago. The thick trunks that flanked the streets remained standing,
petrified monuments to the beauty that once was and would probably never be
again.
       As the team continued down the wide road,
they found they had to occasionally avoid the odd vehicle abandoned in the
center of their path, or the collapsed building that blocked their way. From
time to time they needed to slow the craft down, giving Shawn and the rest of
the team ample time to survey what little was left of the downtown area. As Cal
Vross had described back on Darus Station, there were few human remains here in
the city. The occasional skeleton of a former inhabitant was lying exactly
where he or she had fallen. Some were in their vehicles, others were on the
streets and sidewalks, and still others could be seen inside any of the
numerous storefront and restaurant façades the hover carrier passed. Still, it
was easy to see that the vast majority of the population had died at Delta
Base.
       “This place gives me the creeps,” Shawn
heard Montoya’s Hispanic voice whisper from the front of the carrier.
       As the hovering carrier traveled through a
four-point intersection and rounded a corner, the team was greeted by the site
of a city park, its swing set long abandoned, the park benches blown over, and
the once-fertile fields of grass having long since decayed to dust. Sergeant
Adams nodded his head leisurely. “I hear that. And I thought the Icarus was spooky. The sooner we can get
out of here, the better off I’ll be.”
       “Not afraid of ghosts are you, Sergeant?”
Roslyn asked from beside Montoya.
       “Not usually, ma’am, but…I mean, look
around.” Adams waved a hand out toward the former park. “I think this place
qualifies as the exception to the rule. All these bodies—the ones here and the
ones at Delta—they all died exactly the same way and at exactly the same time.
What could have done that?”
       Lieutenant Commander Brunel narrowed her
eyes as she contemplated Adams’ words. She craned her head over her shoulder at
looked squarely at Melissa. “Some form of viral infection? A plague?”
       Melissa shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid I
can’t say at this