Stu stared at the man. "This Stuart Brakely...was the first zombie?"
"Correct. Subject 83456 bit him, just before it died. The alien creature was the source of the infection, and Stuart Brakely -- your counterpart, in this world -- was its first human victim. He became an irregular, a brainy, and he began spreading the infection immediately, first in his own small town, and later in Lon Halos and other western cities. He acted very deliberately; it was obvious that he wanted the infection to spread. And from Lon Halos, it spread to the rest of the world."
So this was the origin of the outbreak -- a bite from some kind of alien creature. But the rest of it...
"And this other Stuart Brakely became the Dread?"
"Indeed. Perhaps because he was the first zombie, he possesses a number of special powers, including the ability to control other zombies within a certain vicinity. He's nearly indestructible, according to the reports, and stronger than any rager. We're not quite sure how he acquired these powers, but naturally we've never had the opportunity to study him."
Stu had often wondered whether he had a double in this world, as Berly did, but he never would have guessed that this world's Stuart Brakely was the zombie commander who was menacing Lon Halos. "Well, shit," he muttered.
"I've spent the last ten years attempting to find a cure for the infection," Dr. Snowe said. "It hasn't been easy. It's a viral infection, but the virus is alien, and not entirely organic. It took a long time to figure out how it worked."
"Not entirely organic? What do you mean?"
"A typical virus attaches itself to the cell membrane, penetrates the cell, and begins to make copies of itself by hijacking the cellular machinery. The alien infection behaves similarly, up to that point, but it doesn't just make copies of itself. It uses the cell to create nanoparticles as well -- you might call them nanites. Do you know what a nanite is?"
"I have some idea."
"The nanites alter the host's physiology drastically -- for instance, they rapidly repair any damage done to the host's internal organs and some portions of its nervous system. The silver substance you see in a zombie's blood? It's a kind of nanite sludge."
"Nanites," Stu reflected. This explanation was getting wilder all the time.
"The ICON system uses nanites as well," Dr. Snowe continued. "But I'll get to that. After spending nearly ten years researching the problem in Akiva, I finally found the cure...or the hope for one, anyway. There was only one thing I was lacking. I needed a clean, uninfected DNA sample from Stuart Brakely, the original index case. And the only way I could obtain such a sample--"
"Was to get it from me," Stu finished. "His double, his counterpart."
"Exactly. We recalibrated one of the wormhole-engines we removed from the alien ship and used it to open portals to various parallel worlds, in the hopes of finding an uninfected version of Stuart Brakely. That alone took nine years of research and engineering, which all took place in the midst of this zombie nightmare we found ourselves living through. And when the machine was finally complete, we sent Virge and Wayman through the portal. It took them a year to find another Stuart Brakely. They visited six different worlds before they found you." He smiled. "And here you are."
Stu once again found himself staring at the old man. "That's what this was all about?"
"Yes."
"You brought me to this world, and put me through all this shit, just to get a DNA sample? If all you needed was a bit of blood--"
"Well, it's not just your DNA we needed. Blood, yes, but we'll need a sample of your cerebrospinal fluid for the serum as well, along with a sample of the mucosal lining of the--"
"All right, all right," he said, waving away the explanation. "I get it." He frowned. "How close are you to finding this cure?"
"Now that you're here, I believe I can have it ready in a matter of hours. Everything was essentially complete; your DNA was the only thing I still needed."
"And you're sure it'll cure the infection?"
"Yes. Well, some victims are beyond hope, of course. In healthy patients, the serum will prevent the infection from taking hold, in the manner of a vaccine. It should function as a cure for the recently infected as well, but there's nothing it can do about the encephalitis -- the inflammation of the brain -- that occurs in the hours following the infection."
"So it's couldn't cure a fully zombified person."
"I'm afraid not. It would eliminate the infection, however, and probably prevent the nanomachines from rapidly repairing the damaged portions of a zombie's organs. Exposing them to the serum via a chemical bath might neutralize them. I'm not sure about the mutates, however." He shrugged. "Vaccination, and a quick cure for the recently infected, would go a long way towards ending the plague. Our country, our world, has been brought to the brink, and we're unlikely to find our way out of it anytime soon, with gangs and warlords like the Desert King running around. If I can do something about the zombies, though...well, I'll have done my part. Much of this, after all, was my fault." He sighed suddenly. "I'm so tired."
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"What about the ICON system?" Stu asked. He didn't care how tired the man was; he wasn't going anywhere until he had learned everything he could.
"Virge didn't tell you about it?"
"He didn't have time. He died right after he gave it to me."
"Ah." He took a moment to gather his thoughts, then said, "The ICON system, and the entity behind it, are something of a mystery, to be honest. I do have some theories, but..."
"Tell me."
He shrugged again. "As I told you before, we're not sure who built the alien ship, or who sent it, or why it contained so many strange creatures. It did not seem to have a crew, or if it did, we never found any evidence of it. We did eventually learn that the ship's operations were being controlled by a unique entity, which we found suspended in a crystalline vial in what appeared to be the ship's main computer. It was partially organic and partially synthetic, with bioluminescent qualities -- it shone so brightly, in fact, that it was hard to look at. It utilized nanotechnology, and was apparently capable of producing its own nanites." He paused to shake his head in awe. "This alien technology...I can't even begin to conceive of the civilization that invented it. It works more like magic at times than any kind of science as we understand it."
"Go on."
"Well, as with many of the creatures we found on the ship, the entity had symbiotic qualities. I found that out when it accidentally bonded to me, as I was studying it. It took up residence in my own brain."
"Wait a minute. Are you telling me the ICON system is a living thing?"
"The entity is a living thing, or similar to one, anyway," he clarified. "The ICON system is merely the interface I created in my attempt to communicate with it. It's a relatively simple computer program which I installed into the entity's synthetic system. An Integrated Communication and Observation Node. An ICON system." He frowned. "The entity rewrote my code, however, and I never did have any luck in communicating with it, ultimately. It got into my brain after that."
Stu was having trouble making sense of this. "So there's an alien creature living in my brain?"
"Essentially. I gave it to Virge, to assist him in his quest, and he gave it to you."
"But why does it make everything seem like a video game?"
Dr. Snowe blinked. "A video game?"
"You know, with all the stats and skill points and all that."
"I don't understand."
Stu, trying not to lose his patience, took a deep breath and explained how he experienced the ICON system -- navigating its menus, allocating skill points, seeing quest messages and zombie designations, and all the rest of it. Through it all, Dr. Snowe stroked his chin thoughtfully, and when he was finished, he said, "My experience was different from yours. When I had the ICON system, I saw the world as a sort of vast library, with books of skills, and it rewarded me for solving technical problems, not for killing zombies. Virge's experience was similar to yours, as he explained it to me, but he saw things in terms of medals, trophies, and awards, perhaps because of his military background. Did you play a lot of video games before you came to our world?"
"Quite a lot," he admitted reluctantly.
"That might explain it. The entity scanned your subconscious and created a sort of game-like interface for you."
"But..." This didn't seem quite right to Stu. "What about the skills? What about the quests? How did it come up with all this stuff? And why does it reward me for killing zombies?"
"I'm not sure. I had to meet certain conditions as well, in order to unlock new abilities. One theory I had was that the entity was using my body as a factory for producing its own nanite offspring, but that in order to do this, it had to make certain gradual changes to the host..." He trailed off, putting up a palm. "I really don't know. I studied the entity for years, and lived with it in my brain for many more, but I never fully understood it."
"You're sure it's some kind of nanotechnology, though? It's these nanites that have given me all these abilities?"
He nodded. "But the technology is very advanced," he warned, "and there could be other factors at play. Unknown energies, biological systems of which we have no knowledge."
Stu leaned back in his seat, absorbing all this as best he could. Nanites? It did make a certain amount of sense. The skills he had acquired were almost exclusively limited to himself and his own body -- strength, speed, an enhanced sense of smell, a healing factor, an ability to see in the dark. If this mysterious entity was using nanomachines to make changes to his body and brain...
Other skills were harder to explain, however. What about his Zombie Radar, or the designations he could see hanging above the heads of the zombies he encountered? Was he enveloped at all times in some kind of nanite cloud, which was communicating this information back to him? And what about the quests? Had all of these come out of his own subconscious? Had everything about the ICON system come out of his own mind? He thought back, trying to remember whether the system had ever given him any information that he hadn't already had. It had sometimes provided him with at-a-glance zombie-designations that he didn't think he would have been able to determine on his own, but he realized now that it had never started labeling zombies as ragers or speedies until he had heard about these kinds of irregulars from someone else.
What about his stats? Was it possible his strength and defense stats didn't represent anything real at all, but were merely products of his own gamer mind? It would explain why he didn't have a luck stat; nanomachines couldn't really affect a person's luck. And it would explain why his SP gains from completing quests and scoring critical bonuses were so arbitrary. His own subconscious was deciding what kind of bonuses he deserved.
Was it the ICON system-entity that had allowed him to read the alien language he had seen on the Vroom? He had sensed some kind of strange presence while he was in the ship, also, a feeling of being watched. Perhaps that had been the alien in his brain, reacting to something. It did sort of fit.
He turned to Dr. Snowe. "Can I get rid of it? I don't know that I want this thing stuck in my brain for the rest of my life."
"You could pass it on to someone else, as I did when I gave it to Virge, and as Virge did when he gave it to you."
"How?" He had never seen an option for this in the ICON system menus.
"Are you really so eager to rid yourself of it?"
"I don't know," he admitted. It was true that he didn't like the idea of an alien entity living in his brain, but the ICON system did give him abilities that no one else had -- abilities that made him special. He liked that. But he wanted to go home; he wanted to put this world and everything about it behind him, including the ICON system.
He stopped himself. Not everything. He didn't want to lose Luna, or Lucky, or Millie.
"Dr. Snowe," he said wearily, "after you've taken your samples and made this serum...can you send me home? Virge said it was possible."
The doctor smiled weakly. "It's possible," he said. "I still have most of my equipment here; Ula and Rico were able to transport the essentials out of Akiva. But it takes a tremendous amount of energy to open a gate into another world, and we need all the power we can get right now, to keep the lights on and maintain the electric shell. Perhaps if we had more dynamo fluid..."
"But you can send me home?"
"I believe so."
He nodded. "Let's get started, then." He rolled up his sleeve. "Take your blood samples and whatever else you need. I want to leave as soon as possible."