Contagion: The Shadow War Comes to Earth (The Earthforce Saga)

ABOUT CONTAGION:
A Space Opera that sings with choruses of microbiology, virology, and genetic engineering!
One part Star Trek, one part World War Z, and one part War of the Worlds, the Earthforce series has everything—AI, Robotics, Virology, bio-engineering, a cast of mutant hybrids on Earth and battles in space on distant exoplanets, and finally on the Earth itself as Humanity struggles for its survival against Aliens that emerged from the realm of Dark Matter.

Two women from the Survey teams sent to Planet six in the Dharman System are the hope of Humanity as it faces a threat far more dangerous than the Kroth. The Earthforce Outreach Expedition led by Karpov to the Cyonid spiral extension has founded a series of off world colonies at Sirenus, Beowulf, Regia -7, Draconis and finally Dharma-6, when they discover a strange plague has appeared on each of these worlds. Making a rendezvous with Commodore Tico’s fleet at the Dharman system, Karpov meets The cast of the Wild Zone Dharman Trilogy, and Lieutenant Ryan explains how the dread Colony Virus was discovered on Dharma-6. It is an alien microbe from another world, the domain of Dark Matter, that has somehow managed to cross over into the normal world of Baryonic Matter. The entities behind this virus are called the Shadows, but what is their real form? Do they inhabit the ships Karpov has been engaging, or are they actually the very same contagion that has spread through the off world colonies—the Colony Virus?

Clues to the true nature of the Shadows pile up when they begin to grow clones of an Earthforce Captain that perished in the Wild Zone of Dharma-6. Infected by the Colony Virus, it now uses the Captain’s DNA to clone copies of the man, and use them as a mercenary force that can crew ships the Shadows have built to operate in the realm of Normal Baryonic Matter. If the Shadows are not in those ships, then where are they? Fedorov now becomes convinced the Shadows are actually the Colony Virus, with no real macro-form other than any host the virus infects to mutate and enslave. Now the virus is intent on using Humans as its next host, where it is able to grow a new organ capable of dominating and enslaving the Human brain.
The war against the Shadows then takes a dramatic and dangerous turn when the Colony Virus is identified on Earth! The contagion begins to spread through many biospheres, in Norway, Alaska, California, Central America and then into Florida and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. With no way to stop the spread of the virus, the war against this contagion now threatens the very existence of Humanity. Will they become a mutated species enslaved by a virus so devious that it can form massive colonies inside its targeted host and achieve sentient consciousness?

Captain Anton Fedorov knows the only solution is to try and negotiate with the Shadows to obtain peace, but first he needs a bio-weapon so terrible that he can demonstrate credible deterrence against the Colony Virus. Now Doctor Elena Chandros from the original Dharman survey team must use all her skills with the remarkable robotic aid CLEM to find a weapon Humanity can use against the Colony Virus, and the blood of Lieutenant Lydia Gates holds a secret Chandros can use to build a lethal champion to face the enemy in the microscopic world of the microbes. Fedorov asks Chandros to try and build the most terrible and virulent bio-weapon she can think of to fight the Colony Virus, and the answer lies in one of the most ubiquitous and dangerous microbes ever to live on Earth—a viral Phage.

Continues the Earthforce Saga within the Kirov Series