My fellow researchers and I were actively discouraged from sharing our research with each other. A few things were made public, like the combat suit research, or the adaptive cleaner bots, or the improved protein production process. All nanite research was in deep cover, though.

Officially, my research was in studying nanite integration in children and finding a solution to those whose bodies naturally rejected nanite therapies. On occasion I even did some of that. For wealthy clients the company sent my way, or the rare good publicity where a simple fix would generate good PR. There were still a few issues like that in a few places on Earth before the collapse.

What I actually did was far more ghoulish. Broken men and women were sent to me when the company thought they could draw some benefit from their suffering. Occasionally I was asked to determine cause of death when nanites might have been involved.

While I had no doubt that Doctor Emilio Sorle was a brilliant botanist, his cover was likely no more authentic than my own.

The access panel easily accepted my credentials. Zombie apocalypse may not have been on the list of acceptable reasons for another researcher to be allowed entry, but the risk of an experiment escaping evidently was. The hatch opened silently to a room utterly overgrown with plant life.

I could feel the weak gravity field pulling me down as I entered the room. Vines crawled over every surface, while miniature trees spread out above. The lights were almost completely covered in vegetation, but illumination escaped here and there from various points on the bulkheads as well as the ceiling itself. A gentle hiss of what almost sounded like light rain came from within the mini jungle.

After a stunned moment of confusion, faint lights could be seen flickering under the small trees. Tiny bots flitted among the shadows, fulfilling the role of bees by the look of things. They also provided enough light for the smaller plants to survive on with so much of the light consumed by the trees and vines.

There was no sign of any containment whatsoever. There was no telling where the real research was with only around three feet visible from the entrance.

“Huh. Didn’t know they put a forest into this space station,” Sam commented. I had not noticed him arrive.

“They did not. I suspect this is around seven years worth of wild growth from several hydroponic trays and pots.”

“Well then. Fortunately for us the substation relay is in the corridor off the middle security station. Vera and I are going to take a look and see what we’re dealing with. I think Doc Delveccio was asking for you though,” he said.

“She was,” the tall brunette smacked Sam lightly on the back of the head. “She specifically told us she needs your help with something.”

“Yeah. She did.” Sam muttered sheepishly.

I nodded and shut the hatch. Just in case. The mini forest wasn’t going anywhere.

“We’re going to work our way back towards the cafeteria, fixing what we can as we go.”

“The horde from the maintenance shaft will eventually go back down. They will likely leave behind enough to exploit what’s left of the food sources in the cafeteria though. They will have to be dealt with before we can begin securing the level and working on the substation.”

Killing them without alerting the larger horde in the shaft was something that would require some thinking on.

“Yeah, we know. There are also many more ways onto level 5 than there were on the Security level. Engineering has dedicated lift shafts, ladderways, and tunnel access in addition to the main maintenance shaft and the elevators in the cafeteria. Securing the level will take a lot more work than getting Security secured.”

Sam and Vera began discussing ways to possible modify the security gates as I returned to my lab. Dr Delveccio was still working on Hank’s gut wound as I entered.

“Doctor Zolnikov, can you give me access to the systems here? You appear to have advanced imaging and miniature manipulation tools, but I am currently locked out.”

“Of course.”

My lab network seemed to welcome me like an eager puppy as I connected to the systems once more. In seconds, the catgirl veterinarian was directing the exam table’s manipulators like an orchestra, slicing away the remnants of the suit in seconds. Imaging was slaved directly to her HUD as she suctioned away blood and cleaned various bits of gunk and suit fabric from the wound.

“I’m surprised you have such capable tools here, Doctor. Have you ever assisted in surgery?”

“Autopsies mostly. My patients were here for nanite maladies.”

“Ah,” she said, yanking a sliver of darkness from the wound. I recognized it as a fragment of a zombie’s claw. I had plucked such slivers from my suit before.

“The attack appears to have perforated an intestine and nicked his right kidney, here and here. Nasty work, that, and the stomach has been leaking a bit. Do you have-? Ah, found it. We’ll get that mess cleaned up right quick, once we seal this intestine back up.” She hummed a happy sounding tune while she worked. It was not one that I recognized.

“Much easier to work on human sized guts.”

Doctor Delveccio continued to hum to herself and talk as she worked to patch Hank back up. Her movements were deft and sure, swiftly directing the manipulators dancing around the wound. I was used to seeing slower, more deliberate actions on corpses. Living surgeries appeared to need a much more brisk pace. Or perhaps that was just her own way of working.

Quenton stood by, watching the surgery as well. His face was scrunched up as he twisted his hands together over and over. Perhaps a distraction was in order. For Quenton. So he did not distract the woman attempting to heal our companion. I got his attention and waived him over, out of the busy catgirl’s line of sight.

“Come with me. While Doctor Delveccio is busy working on your friend there is another task that needs doing.”

“Hank’s my brother. Do Sam and Vera need some help?” The sandy haired young man’s eyebrows rose in apparent hope.

“Actually it is a different task. The laboratory next door appears to be suffering some sort of failure. I would like to know what that is, but the compartment is blocked by vegetation. If his lab is set up like mine, the office should be in the far right corner.”

I opened the hatchway. Quenton gaped at the near wall-to-wall plant life.

“You want me to get through... that?”

“Yes.”

“Are you nuts?!”

“No.”

“But that’ll take forever!”

The young man’s unwillingness appeared to stem less from concerns of time than of effort. At least, that is how it appeared to me.

“You have a long knife that you took from Security Medical, correct?”

When I noticed him carrying a blade nearly a foot and a half long I halfway expected him to have taken it simply because he thought it looked cool or some similar reason.

“I just thought it looked cool...” Quenton muttered, head hanging.

“It will prove an adequate tool for clearing vegetation, at least.”

Vera appeared to have heard the tail end of our conversation as she approached, her expression darkening as her gaze locked onto Quenton. I chose to leave the elucidation of his error in her capable hands. By the sound of things, this was not the first time the young man had been caught in need of some pragmatic education.

At that moment Doctor Delveccio appeared at the door to my lab and waved me in.

“How is Hank?”

“He will live. Might take a week or two to heal up completely. The intestine shouldn’t leak, but I would recommend no solid food for a few days, just in case.”

“There is a nutrient paste dispenser inside the lab. Will that do?”

“Admirably. There was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about, though.” She shut the hatch behind us, giving me an unreadable look.

“Doctor Zolnikov, this is the first time one of us has been injured by a zombie. I’d like you to take a look and see if what I am seeing here is correct.”

I had already accessed the imaging logs by the time she finished speaking. There was no need for me to use the display by the exam table.

“If you are asking if those are zombie nanites, I believe you are correct. His own colony appears to be keeping them in check, but the zombie nanites are attempting to consume Hank’s. Currently they are in a stalemate, by the look of things.”

Doctor Delveccio took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not making eye contact.

“So he is infected. Can he turn without the biological component?”

“I do not know for certain. There is another matter that concerns me, though.”

“What could possibly be more important than one of our own being infected!?” The ability of people to shout while whispering was something that had always made me wonder a bit.

“The fact that everyone else is showing signs of nanite infection as well.”

“WHAT?!”

“As I said, the-”

“I know what you said! How can all of us be infected with zombie nanites, too? The rest of us weren’t even injured! We were in suits most of the time!”

My laboratory’s scanning process never stopped. It was originally a safety measure I designed to keep any possible nanite contamination from going unnoticed. The scanning imagery was clear.

“As to that, I do have a theory.”

“Does this theory have a way for us not to turn into those things?”

“Theoretically.”

“I thought that anyone who got infected was immediately zombiefied.” The silver haired catgirl frowned, her eyes glancing over my lab without seeming to see anything in it.

“As did almost every doctor and researcher studying it in the days leading up to the collapse.”

“Well, the ones that we saw go zombie seemed to turn all at once. I don’t think anyone ever managed to isolate the infection, biological or nanite.”

“At least one did. The rest of the scientific community called her a crackpot.”

“Really? The entire world and the colonies were facing the apocalypse, and some scientists were dismissing the one person that had answers?”

She looked skeptical at this. It made me wonder how the scientific community had changed in the past few years.

“Yes. From what she discovered, the infection works in three main stages. Initial infection, suppression of the immune system, and the corruption and mutation of the brain. Once the second stage is past, the last one appears to happen very quickly.”

Doctor Delveccio shivered. I reflexively checked the lab’s heating unit but it showed no signs of failure.

“Anyway, you mentioned you had a theory about how to keep us from becoming one of those things.”

“It may be dangerous.”

“More dangerous than one of us zombifying at a random moment?”

I should have expected that response, in retrospect.

“It might kill you.”

“Becoming a zombie will kill me. And before you tell me that I’m the only doctor here, we need to take care of this quickly. The only people that know about this are you and me. And it will only cause panic if we present this to the others without a solution. So explain to me exactly what the risk is.”

“Excising the zombie nanites is a normal procedure. But the way I have been draining zombies is quite similar.”

“How similar?”

“Nearly identical. It involves injecting a controlled thread of nanites into your body and pulling the zombie nanites out in a carefully controlled manner. Normally, this is even less involved than a biopsy or blood draw. Excised nanites are then quarantined in a sealed container.”

“So we can get actual zombie nanites in a controlled fashion this way?”

“Theoretically.”

“Sold. Being free of zombie nanites is the goal, but gaining a safe sample of the nanites is a definite win. Once we do this, we need to make restoring communication a priority. The rest of the system has to know what we’ve learned.”

“I must remind you there is still risk involved.”

Doctor Delveccio smiled. It was not a nice smile. More of a predatory grin that gave a hint of the rather sharp canines that most body modded catgirls kept hidden.

“That is a risk that I am willing to take. I’ve seen how you flinch from human touch, Z. You think that you’re a danger to us somehow, and I’d bet this is the cause. Sack up, Z. You’re not going to shrivel me up into greasy, ashy smoke.”

It was humbling to admit, but evidently my concerns were not quite as hidden as I’d hoped they might be.

“I will admit that it will be much easier here in my lab. I do not have the same control elsewhere.”

Doctor Delveccio lay down down on one of the other exam tables away from the hatch. I attempted to treat this like a normal procedure. It was not to be.

“Tell me what you’re doing, Z. I need to take my mind off this.”

“It’s not terribly interesting.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Very well. First I going to place the nanite storage unit on your stomach like so. The adhesive will keep it in place for the moment.”

Every step of the process she kept demanding answers, description, and more detail. Injecting the nanite thread took bare seconds.

“Interesting.”

“What is interesting?”

Doctor Delveccio tried to peer at her belly button, near where the storage unit was resting, rising and falling with her breath. I mirrored the imagery that the deep scan was showing me, flicking it to her HUD.

“What are they doing there?”

“I do not know. They are not simply attempting to suborn your colony’s nanites.”

“They’re doing something in the upper intestinal tract. Are all the infections in roughly the same place?”

“They are,” I said, showing her the scans once again.

“Why the small intestines and why there? It doesn’t make much sense. Why not in our skulls? They need to take over the brain to complete the zombification process.”

“They need to suppress the immune response before they can do that. But they’re not. At least, they are not attempting to do so at this moment in time.”

While she was looking over the scans, the process completed. It took more effort than I expected to corral and push the zombie nanites into the storage unit. They kept trying to squirm away. It was only do to the enhanced control that came from the lab’s support systems that I managed it in the end.

“Process complete. You are now free of the infection.”

The storage unit was tiny, but not too tiny. The smallest size that I had experimented with tended to get lost far too easily. These were around the size of one of the 10.5mm cartriges that we used in our pistols, perhaps a touch longer. I handed it to Doctor Delveccio who looked at it with a scowl.

“I still want to know how we got infected in the first place. Are you sure that we are safe here?”

“There is no way for zombie nanites to get into my lab undetected. I have tuned the scanner repeatedly over the years specifically to pick up nanites from any source. That is how I found your infection after all.”

“We’d better get Hank taken care of next. I’ll go grab the others.”