The Outbreak

Harmony, the capital is located right in the center of the country of Lapis. It is considered to be the most advanced city. Right at the heart of Harmony was a Plateau. On top of it was a huge building with 6 towers that were floating around it. This was were the main government buildings were located, with the Rulers tower centered in the middle. Each tower belonged to one of the Ministries. The six were: Defense, Science & Research, Education, Health, International affairs and Social affairs. At around 10 P.M, the minister of Science and Research, Dr Hugo was still in his office. He sat on his chair observing the view of the city from the very top floor of the tower. A pop up sound came from his computer. Hugo turns around slowly to look at his screen. The notification reads, “Atlas (Head of Research) is calling.” He clicks on accept. Atlas appears on screen.

“Good evening Dr. Hugo.”

“Good evening Atlas.”

“Oh, you are still in the office-am I interrupting?”

Hugo looks at the view of the city behind his desk, “I was just looking at the view. It’s been 50 years already…how time flies.” He glances back at Atlas again and asks with a smile, “Isn’t it beautiful now?”

Atlas nods in agreement “If it weren’t for you we couldn’t have reached this far.”

Hugo felt a mix of both pride and irritation upon hearing that, he added in a low but firm voice, “and Sirius...it was his hard work and dream as well.”

“Ah- Yes, of course!”

As Hugo looked at the view again and said in a low voice to himself, “If only you were here to admire the view with us my friend…” for a moment, he let himself be immersed in the past. Then slowly turns around to face his screen. “Well, what news do you bring me Atlas?”

“Yes, do you remember the expedition team that we sent around 7 years ago. The one lead by Dr. Vera.”

Hugo takes a moment to recall then nods.

“We have just received a signal from their spaceship. It should be arriving sometime this week.”

“Sounds great, is there anything more? Surely that is not all you wanted to report to me now is it?”

“Well yes, there is another reason, I believe this will be made public soon but I wanted to inform you of it as soon as it came to my attention. I was in contact with one of our units stationed in Neo Tapica earlier, there seems to be an issue.“

Hugo raised an eyebrow while his hands were busy playing with a pen. “Well, what is it?”

“There seems to be an outbreak…a disease of some sort. They are planning to announce it to the public tomorrow.”

Hugo remains quiet for a couple of minutes. Atlas seemed to be rather flustered as he was waiting for a response from the Minister.

“Do we know anything more about this outbreak? If we might have a solution for it?”

“I have instructed one my subordinates to look into it. We do not have sufficient information on this yet since our units were unable to get too involved with it. But based on what we have heard so far… It does seem to be somewhat familiar.”

Hugo grins and says, “Perfect. Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow before offering anything. If things go well, we can save our fellow neighbors from this danger.” Atlas agrees with him. The call ends shortly after.

Hugo gets up from his chair and takes a moment to stretch. He walks towards the door, but something stops him from leaving. He stops and looks back. His desk was placed at the middle of the spacious room, with a large glass view of Harmony. On the left were shelves on the wall, with books mostly. He suddenly noticed a gentle beam from the moonlight shining onto the bookshelf. Rather-it was shining on something. As he got closer he saw a photo of himself when he was younger standing next to two individuals. One was a young man who had a warm smile on. His Cyan blue eyes still look bright and full of life in that still, old photo. Sirius. The other was a female, Natalia. They were all wearing lab coats. He remembers that day clearly. It was when their team won an award for their project. They were also granted scholarships, to pursue further studying and research. The beam faded while he was still focused at the photo.