The Biomass

Bru/we'em Survivor 1

A sampling from the journal of a Bru/we'em survivor, named Shi-jchi"o, on the planet Sha!cuu/a

Begin Date: 3 eons, 14,160 eras, 6 elapses, and 29,241 time units

End Date: 3 eons, 14,160 eras, 9 elapses, and 29,874 time units

I see shooting stars. For the Savior's sake, that means the Biomass ship broke through. The very air around me will be contaminated in minutes. I can only hope that every last cell dies while burning through that atmosphere. But that won't happen. The smaller pieces will float down gently once they break off, like dust in the wind. I have to get some sort of protective gear on. Then I guess I have to get to a city where they'll be building the iron tunnels I saw on the news, just in case the ship does break through.

Next entry

My friends and I are fully equipped to survive outside of quarantine for at least a little while. We're protected from the air, but once people start getting infected and turn violent, we won't stand much of a chance. Nevertheless, we're headed towards a city to help in construction of the quarantine.

The quarantine will be like this: every suitable building will be emptied of all unnecessary equipment, stocked with life support, fortified by steel, iron, glass, concrete, or whatever other hard material is practical, and connected via tunnels to other similar buildings. The tunnels will double as airlocks with tight seals on either end. In order to open any given door, someone on both sides has to turn the latch. That way, if the infection breaks in, it won't be able to spread very far.

The idea is for this network of tunnels to spread worldwide, so although we'll miss the green sky, many people will be able to live and work and travel while the scientists work out a cure. Unfortunately, not everybody will be able to fit inside. That problem is "solved" by the Biomass. By the time it's finished, it is estimated that millions to billions of people will die. Or else they'll be shut out and die afterwards.

It's all tongues on deck to build the quarantine network, or the "iron tunnels." We want to get it finished before the Biomass takes too many. It has to be built and sanitized, then some people chosen by lottery will also be sanitized and placed inside.

Next entry

The first quarantines are built and the first cases of infection occurred. At least some people are safely inside. That won't be any use unless we can connect the buildings. But some who aren't working on construction have taken to burning the infected. It's easy to tell who is infected: they lose the thick coat of soft fur that we all have. It's the first symptom. Of course, it's also the first symptom of a relatively common and minor viral skin infection, so some people are undoubtedly dying needlessly.

It's a little harder to tell if the species from other planets are infected. None of the Trins are infected because their tanks are protected from the atmosphere. It's easy to tell of the Abas are infected because their colonies dissociate. Gaspids lose their feathers. But it's not so easy to tell with the other species. Sometimes you don't know until they've attacked someone.

The infection turned up all over the planet within a few days. It was only a few cases here and there at first, but it spread as it always does on the other planets. It's too diffuse for us to bother with Khyarokk's method.

Next entry

Progress on the quarantine is going faster than expected, thanks to the dedication of so many hard-working Bru!we'em. We already have over thirty networks across the planet with populations of over 10,000. The hope is to eventually combine all the networks. That's what I'm working on right now: building a long tunnel to connect two distant cities. We hope to eventually build three parallel tunnels as a kind of planned redundancy.