Epilogue 2

Dreamland 2

(Section 31 Headquarters)

Admiral Brand, head of Section 31, read the report on his computer screen. She had succeeded. Both the wormhole and all copies of blue prints and references to it were destroyed. He smiled. That was good. What was not so good was the fact that she and her crew still had not returned. He dismissed it. Nobody had expected them to get even this far. Besides she would show up, even if it was after a few millennia of floating aimlessly through space. The thought made him look at his right wrist. The familiar blue tattoo smiled back at him. This in turn made him notice his Admiral's bars on his sleeve; the promotion was given to him only a few months ago.

"Access file: Samantha Brown. Authorization: Brand, Alpha, Alpha, Omega, Omega," Brand said, using the access code that belonged to the head of Section 31 for the past two hundred years; a second code given to him on the day that he became the head of Section 31.

"Access granted," the familiar female computer voice stated, and Samantha Brown's file was released. The picture, however, was not hers, Brand new. It was a cover to protect her true identity. Dorff had gotten so close. Brand still shuddered at the thought of it. Paul luckily had picked up and played along, making Dorff believe that only Samantha Brown had access to her own file.

He punched a few buttons, and the briefing he got on his first day played before him once more. This woman was Samantha Brown, or more exactly Dana Katherine Scully, four-hundred-plus-year-old Immortal. The first few years he hadn't noticed a thing, but then shifting through historic files and present-day news reports as he his job required, he recognized certain anomalies, not in the last place that some of the pictures resembled the same woman giving the taped briefing now running on his computer screen. Eventually he had the computer run comparisons, and the computer had confirmed his suspicions: they were the same. Then he had started actively looking into her, and a few days later the symbol that now adorned his wrist had popped on his screen with a message from Admiral Stevens to meet in person. Three days later he was given the tattoo and official status as Watcher. He had joined only after demanding that he would not be made to use Section 31 actively to monitor Immortals. If information about Immortals came his way it would be relayed to the Watchers, but that was all.

The briefing could still cause chills to run down his spine. It entailed the hidden agenda of Section 31: protect this secret and protect the Federation from what the secret entailed at all costs. An agenda of which only Section 31 agents were aware of. *And certain Immortal founders of this agency,* Brand added wryly to himself only. The genetic structure of the Purity virus showed on his screen. The deadliest virus ever created. It was not so much a virus as an oily substance which entailed the virus. Its incubation period: several seconds. Its effects: override infected patients' self-preservation drive with the drive to protect and complete the virus' purpose: the growth of a bio-genically engineered exterminator with the virus/oil as its blood with the patient acting as a living incubator. Depending on body heat and environmental temperature the exterminator will, as far as is known, hatch within six to forty-eight hours.

Next was the description of the exterminator: intelligent but not sentient with a simple programming. First: procreate by killing suitable life forms and let virus grow new exterminators from the life form's bio-mass. Second: exterminate all Humanoid life forms with the exception of its creators. Its hide was armored, almost to the point of bullet proof with sharp pointed extensions. And they learned. If you build ships, they would learn how to use those ships against you soon enough.

Next was the explanation of the secret war that had been fought throughout the latter part of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. And a theory where the so-called 'aliens' came from, ending with their final destruction. Then the truly frightening part, the part where it was revealed that some had managed to avoid destruction and managed to escape the Sol system and were directly responsible for the start of the Romulan - Earth war. The big point was, of course, that if one group managed to escape, a second could too and there was not enough information from the Romulans to know for certain that the first group of escapees had truly all been destroyed. And then of course there was virtually no knowledge at all about the original creators of Purity which had crashed upon the Earth about fifty thousand years ago. There was only sketchy and questionable information that Purity was about a hundred million years old. Enough time for the asteroid that brought it to Earth to travel from the nearest galaxy, but Brand doubted that it came from another galaxy; most likely it had simply spent millions of years in one or multiple solar systems until something had catapulted it free from the star's gravity once more. If Brand had to take a guess, he would estimate the age at about ten million years. But he had no idea of what had happened to its creators. Most likely they had lost the war that had prompted the creation of the virus, but how completely? And even if they were extinct, could Purity still be simmering on their home planet somewhere, waiting for someone to land there and infect?

Then came the description of the other bio-genically engineered creatures the 'aliens' had used. Among others a deadly and virtually immortal shape-shifter, the race that had made the Romulan - Earth war possible after infiltrating the Romulan military and intelligence systems. They were however all wiped out, and even if they weren't, after two and a half centuries they would die of old age which effectively eliminated their threat by now.

Finally the briefing came to its last part, the hidden directive, only known to Section 31 operatives: the Purity Directive. Upon detection of the Purity virus, the Purity Directive will become active. All other directives and protocols including the Prime Directive will be temporarily disbanded while the Purity Directive is active. (Added note 2268 by Admiral Trevor Mason, Head Section 31: the Omega Directive forms an exception. The Omega Directive has been deemed Purity Directive's equal, if some day both directives become active at the same time, both directives should be pursued with equal fervor.) Purity Directive: destroy all instances of Purity virus, with the exception of known locations throughout the Sol system, at all costs.

Brand agreed with that assessment; the known locations were on Earth somewhere under the pyramids, the dark side of the moon and beneath the renovated Cydonia region of Mars. (Of course everybody thought that they were nothing more than natural formations on which now the Human built face and city were residing. Brand grinned as he remembered the part of the Level 35 files - as he had started calling them - in which the same immortal Dana Scully had said, 'When they asked me what to do with the most prominent Mars features that couldn't be hidden under the vegetation formed by the Mars terra-forming project, I told them, "They want a face, give them a face."') Each location was deep beneath the surface of said celestial bodies, and the chance that some of the virus might escape and infect the non-Human, and thus non-immune, members of their community if they should try to destroy those stashes, was simply too great. Sensors in starships were programmed to ignore the virus when they were in the Sol system. When Brand thought about that he thought wryly, *If a starship ever detects Purity outside Sol and activates the Purity Directive its captain will get a rude awakening, whether he's asleep or not.*

Not to mention myself, he added, while turning off the computer and thinking of the message that would immediately be dispatched to him should it ever happen. He walked to the window and looked out over the plain that was part of Dreamland 2. A few tourists walked across it, having no idea that inside the mountain resided the best kept secret of the Federation. With a shudder running down his spine, Brand thought, *I hope the Purity Directive never ever becomes active.*

The End

Author's notes: So tell me what you think of it. To Be Continued in 'Two Little Ships, Far Far Away'. (Hey I couldn't keep Dana walking around bald, I had to give her, her hair back.) But first. Anybody who has read the 'Double Helix' books, didn't you think as well, that General Thul seemed a bit small, a bit too less evil, a bit too short lived, to pull off, what he supposedly did. Well, I did. Building a Dyson's Sphere (even though it wasn't a true Dyson's Sphere, but big none the less) in only thirty years, and designing the virus in the same time, just didn't seem in conjunction with the rather small ambition of only destroying the Federation. I think there was somebody bigger, more evil, behind Thul lurking in the shadows. Somebody with a longer life line . . . So the next story will be Double Helix book 7: The Final Solution.

Comments to [email protected]