Ghasts V

On the next day, Martin was woken up by a terrible uproar. A huge racket. He had no idea what is happening, but quickly jumped out of his bed.

The moment he walked out, Johnson noticed a group of people standing in front of the field hospital. They looked agitated. Faces of many showed traces of fear.

One of the people he knew approached him, giving a short explanation of what happened. Supposedly, several people simply did not wake up on time, so their colleagues went to check what that was about. When they tried to wake those people up, there was no reaction. Much to their dismay, those people were dead. Doctors were investigating causes of their deaths at the moment. After all, several people did die at the same time, which was a bit too much to be cnsidered a coincidence. People were afraid of some local disease, an upcoming epidemic.

Johnson felt someone's hand on his arm.

- I've been looking for you, Martin - it was Rashid, whose face was visibly worried - Come with me, please.

They went away from the hospita and went to living quarters, specifically to a small conference hall, used by people overseeing the camp. The most important people in their group were all in there.

- Now that you are finally here, I guess we can start? - Kate Warner looked worried, and she did not even spare time to greet Rashid and Martin, only giving them a node - The situation is much worse than I could have ever imagined. We've made thorough check-ups on the bodies, using all the methods at our disposal, but none of them revealed even a slightest trace of any disease. Looking at the results, it's as if people died because of old age.

Her words caused a big confusion. After a short moment of silence, Hubert Dubois raised his hand.

- So, you mean that several people, including those in their thirties, suddenly got old and died? Just like that?

- I'm just sharing everything I know at this point.

- To me, it sounds like we don't know a thing then.

Colonists felt a lot of respect towards Hubert, so no wonder they selected him as their representative. The guy was still quite young and straightforward when talking.

- Oh, I'm sorry for being incompetent - Kate was obviously upset by his words - In that case, maybe you could give us a hand, Hubert? You seem to be a specialist in every field...

The way she said that made Dubois a bit flustered.

- Listen, Kate. I didn't say that because I'm a specialistm and I had no intention of belittling your work. I just stated the fact such news does not help us much.

- That's precisely why I asked for this meeting. What we have here is not something our medicine had to do in the past. It's something completely new. We need to find out what it is and do that fast, and it requires a lot of investigation.

Martin looked at Rashid, who was only sitting there and listening, scratching his beard.

- Did you manage to check connection between those people? - he asked, interrupting the quarrel between Kate and Hubert - I get there were no traces of bacteries, viruses or poisons, but they had to come in contact with some specific thing that's dangerous to us, right? There may be traces somewhere, so we need to find a place where we should look.

- Our soldiers reported that all of those people worked outside the tower recently - informed Jan, the highest ranking officer in the group - Martin should know them since they went outside together.

Johnson blinked quickly. Certainly, he might have been focused on his work, but several scientists accompanied them indeed.

- That's right, there was a small group with us - he confirmed - You mean that those affected people were them?

- Six people to be precise, four men and two women - Kate told him - They were all from research team. Are you aware what they were focusing on?

Martin shrugged.

- They were checking some structures outside. I recall them mentioning obelisks, and how these worked, especially in terms of interference, but that's pretty much everything I remember. We had our own job so I had not much time to ask them about details - he gave an answer, but during his talk, something pop up in his head - You mean there were six of them? So, I guess not all of them died in the end. I recall there were seven scientists there.

Rashid stood up unexpectedly, putting hands on Johnson's arms.

- Martin, are you sure?

- You mean about there being seven of them. I'm pretty much sure, but we can always check with the guys from the crew that went with me. What's that reaction for?

- There shouldn't be seven people there. Only six scientists got permits for work outside the tower's walls.

Remaining people looked at each other.

- I'll send the boys - Jan left in a hurry.

- That's a really suspicious thing - Hubert scratched his beard - Shouldn't soldiers check them in the first place?

- If they allowed someone authorized, that a big problem in terms of security - Rashid followed up on the topic - Of course, there is always a chance Marting is wrong, and might have counted someone else as a part of the group. Then again, if there were seven of them, that would be good trace to follow. We could do a check-up for that person to see if there are any abnormalities in their body. And knowing what they found out would have been much easier than going through documentation they left.

A while later, Thorsten, Liu and Julian entered the room. Being called in so suddenly surely made them look worried.

- Martin, is it ture that Akanji and the rest...? - Juliand did not have to finish the question, because faces of others said everything - Ok, I get it. Damn, what in hell happened?

- Before we get to that - Rashid jumped in - I have a question for you. How many scientists were there with you?

- Six.

- Seven.

They provided different answers at the same time. Thorsten claimed there were six of them, while the other two kept saying there were seven. Rashid scratched his head after hearing contradictory answers.

- I don't get what's going on here...

- I guess we would have to rely on logs and video footage then. Still, it means there is nothing we can be sure of at this point, so maybe you could let me do my job now? - Kate asked - Since Martin and the others were outside with those scientists, I'd better examine them. It'd be good to do the same with the soldiers who were on guard duty back there. Rashid, Hubert, could you take care of that?

The older of the two nodded immediately, while Dubois made an annoyed face before agreeing.

Doctor Warner led Johnson and his colleague to field hospital's room where they had medical tubes stored. Julian shuddered the very moment he saw these.

- Is that really necessary? I've never liked these thingies...

- Don't you know that several people passed away and they all were with you outside? If you caught the same thing...

- Ok, ok, I get it.

Still stressed, he took off his clothes for the examination and entered the tube.

Procedure was repeated for each of the mechanics. Kate started analyzing the data, but quickly started shaking her head.

- There's no use - she said, irritated - Nothing unusual. According to the equipment, you are all fine.

- Isn't that fine though? - Martin asked, surprised - You seem disappointed about us not being sick.

Kate smiled slightly.

- Don't get me wrong, it's great all of you are healthy, but it doesn't get me closer to solving this mystery. I'm now left with less popular solutions, which are extremely time-consuming when compared to how capsules function. Our advanced, technological medicine is at loss in this situation. I have nothing, nothing at all. Those people didn't even have a cold. I'm a doctor, and here I didn't see anything like that in my whole professional life. It's something unbelieveable, as if... their spirits left their bodies or something. It's driving me mad...

Martin was a tech guy, and his knowledge about medicine was limited to standard education one could get, but even it that he could understand what doctor Warner was getting to. If they knew for sure it was a start of some epidemic or just had a vague idea about the source of deaths, they could think about countermeasures. Unfortunately, without knowing the cause, reaction was not possible.

- You talk about spirits leaving people's bodies - Rashid, who just walked in, joined the talk, and many more lines could be seen on his forehead - That's going into metaphysics....

- You don't have to point that out! I know it quite well how crazy it sounds.

- Wait, Kate, calm down. What I'm trying to say is that, in such unusual cases, we should try non-standard solutions.

Doctor Warner was looking at him with visible curiosity.

- What are you trying to say?

- Most of things humanity did not understand in the past became the common knowledge through trials and research, feeding the science in general. If our ancestors saw our current technology, they would likely call it magic, so there is a chance in this situation...

- So, you are basically saying we should approach that like scientists? - Martin jumped in - For that, we still need some kind of a clue. Right now, all we have is a big nothing...

- Martin, not everything can be understood with standard schemes. That's my point here. I heard such stories about people losing their spirits like that. Shamans were fending off evil for centuries...

- Wait, Rashid, correct me if I'm wrong - Hubert entered the room in the middle of their conversation, and now interrupted his colleague - You want us to perform some kind of ritual?

Johnson had a feeling that both Dubois and doctor Warner would definitely burst in laughter if it was not for how serious the situation was. Therefore, despite how crazy it might have sounded, Rashid continued talking:

- It's not about rituals, Hubert. It's about what those people called shamans were often doing. They kept watching. Those who passed away went to sleep and never woke up.

- You suggest watching people sleep? - Kate made a facepalm - Why didn't I think about such a simple solution?

- Do you really consider that? - Dubois asked her with a confused face - Is it really going to help us find the cause of their deaths?

- I doubt it will be enough to determine the cause, but Rashid does have a point there. If we observe people during their sleep, if something is off, there is a chance we will be able to react, and maybe find some clues. It's not a bad idea - it may be good place to start I think.

- And maybe have people stay away from these obelisks for now? - Martin suggested.