SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

Sandis was one of the first to stumble into the classroom. The last day of the spring term wasn’t known for high turnouts, not with the Festival of the Revealed Trinity the following day. Most skipped class and blamed clan or religious obligations for their absence.

Their teacher, a visiting professor from Sandis’ own homeworld, was a lot more tolerant of the honest ones who simply wanted a chance to lie in or over-indulge. The festival was simply another day, albeit one where the three stars of the Sirian system revealed themselves together in all their glory. But born on a planet of eternal twilight where the entire horizon was a net of stars, Sandis wasn’t easily impressed by three of them.

Sandis liked the chance to have a day off like any other student but today was Ask Anything Day , a tradition among the staff where they would talk about whatever their students wanted to know.

“Morning Sandis!” Rheia called. “A little eager, aren’t we?”

“Oh I’ve been waiting for this for months. After all, I get to ask you anything.”

“Within boundaries, you do.” She sounded intrigued, intentionally not reading Sandis’ mind to find out what he wanted to ask about. “It should be good way to spend a morning, then.”

Rather than teaching from the podium in an amphitheatre, Rheia had chosen one of the smaller rooms for the day. She descended to the floor and indicated the students, wandering singly or small groups, should join her. They pulled cushions and low chairs into a circle. Today they were not teacher and students, physician and trainees, today they were people, and most of those who had turned up had been trying to word their questions like you might a genie’s offer of three wishes.

Rheia was dressed in purple skin and goat ears, soirei tattoos flowing under the summer dress she’d chosen instead of her normal red physician’s uniform or teacher’s garb. Appearances could be deceptive and most of the students knew that was just an outfit she wore, that Rheia of the Ashterai was born on another planet a long time ago, one that had just been contacted by the Union.

Some people asked about life and the cessation of it (“Not my area but you’ll find out when you die, you’ve done it before, after all.”). Others wondered about space-time (“It’s a river, you can see the whole thing but if you get too close it pulls you under.”) and one girl even asked what the answers to next term’s examination questions would be.

Rheia had laughed at that one: “I’m not telling you that! It’ll get me fired. You’ll have to wait, be patient and revise. Now then. Sandis, you mentioned having a question for me. Care to surprise me?”

“Is there any scientific basis to the human belief in zombies?” Sandis asked.

She stared. “Zombies? Really ?”

“Yes. It’s a valid question, right?”

He’d said the world in English, zombie . Contact with the planet, known locally as Terra or Earth, had only happened a year previously, and while Rheia understood the interest in a new world, Sandis was sure it baffled her that someone would be so curious about a creature that didn’t actually exist.

“Have you been reading Wikipedia again?” she asked, unable to hide her surprise. “Because if I find you using that or any other source not supported by the medical faculty’s peer review panel, I will fail you.”

“It was in a book I read, a horror novel I found in the archives.” The others looked at him. “What? I like medical fiction. It was a book about autopsying a zombie with long and complicated medical notes at the back. Oh, and pictures, anatomical drawings. I thought it was a real record for the first hour or so.”

“What’s a zombie?” Malani asked.

“It’s an Earth legend,” Rheia said. “Originally, zombies were supposed to be the dead who had returned to life, animated by people who said they had magical powers, abilities to control the dead like mindless slaves. Then popular culture embraced the idea, but re-cast zombies as caused by a plague. You die, you turn into a zombie. They bite you, you die, you turn. The only way to kill a zombie is to sever the spinal column or destroy the brain.”

“So it’s caused by an infection? A virus?” Sandis asked

“Sometimes, but not always.” Rheia was speaking carefully, as if she couldn’t believe she was entertaining a discussion on zombies in the same way she might the Arcadian plague. “Traditional zombies were slow, but popular culture began talking about slow and fast zombies. Faster zombies usually means they haven’t been dead long.”

“So a fast one was bitten more recently?”

“Generally yes. Some sources suggest that the reason most zombies are slow is that their brains are functioning at the lowest power setting: no emotion, no memory or conscious thought, just the core brain. All they have to motivate them is the need to feed on living flesh and, by extension, to infect other people with their condition.”

Sandis saw that Rheia continued to treat this as if it was a disease, a scientific discussion, and not a random trope from an alien civilisation. The young men, woman and others sitting around her were all destined to be doctors, nurses and members of the School of Medicine and so she was hell bent on treating even the most outlandish conversation in a clinical manner.

“Are they real?” another young man, Gaavi, asked.

“Real…” Rheia murmured.

Sandis clarified, not just for his own benefit but for his classmates as well: “Do they actually exist?”

Belief was personal and many humans—he knew from his reading—believed zombies not only could exist but that their appearance would herald an apocalypse. Some humans even stocked up on supplies: food, water, and basic survival tools in anticipation of the end of things, and bought weapons that would offer protection from a zombie horde.

“There are visual narratives, movies and television shows produced for entertainment purposes focusing around their existence, or around a world overrun by zombies. Of the various apocalyptic scenarios for Earth, it’s one of the less far-fetched, especially if you add in human scientists tinkering with viruses they didn’t quite understand.”

“That’s insane,” Tahi muttered.

“That’s sensible,” Sandis retorted. “Everyone should have an emergency kit.”

“There’s a difference between flooding or winter storms and a plague of mindless aliens who want to eat you. Cannibalism? Mindless monsters? Really, Sandis?”

“Before you start judging, Tahi, remember other races’ histories.” Rheia said. “The Mihari, for example. Half their society is held in place by a subjugated underclass—”

“Yes but the Helot talk, they have minds and feelings, they’re just subjugated by the aristocracy,” Tahi interjected. “There’s a difference between soulless and mindless. Plus the Helot, they’re not cannibals.”

“I didn’t mean the Helot, the lowest caste. I was referring to the Sankai, specifically the Rulani, the Mihari’s engineered clone army. In fact, a bit of history for you, who’s heard of the Chiitai Conglomeration?” Rheia asked. “Come on, some of you must have. Malani, you’re from the outer rim of Union space, you must have heard tales of the Great Hiveworld? They were the ones who first realised how to control another being so completely that they are, effectively, zombies.”

“Deep space trader talk. Legend, nothing more than that. Hives of sugar and coloured glass…mothers and daughters left while the clans warred. Black creatures that descended like locusts.”

“What about the Sankai?” Rheia asked. Not giving them the answers, but instead prompting them to start asking the right questions, as anyone wanting to go into the medical sphere should.