Host Age
The first story takes place in what appears to be the relatively near future. Set in London, it deals with the appearance and spread of a mysterious new plague. The plague defies all efforts to treat it or stop its spread, showing varied symptoms in different victims and mutating rapidly. A sinister aspect soon appears when scientists making progress in fighting the plague are repeatedly sabotaged by unknown persons. Also, the plague seems to be spread by multiple typhoid Mary individuals, found unconscious on trains with large amounts of cash but no identifying information.
Eventually it is discovered that the plague is being spread by human military forces who have traveled through time from several centuries in the future. The head of this group explains that the plague was developed by an aggressive alien species with the purpose of destroying humanity. The plague's effectiveness derives in part from atrophied immune systems resulting from long-term prevention of exposure to any infectious agent. Traveling to the past is a desperate measure to introduce the virus to humans with more robust immune systems in the hope that the survivors will be better able to resist the virus when the alien species creates it.
Read more about this topic: Entry To Elsewhen
Famous quotes containing the words host and/or age:
“The host is rushing ‘twixt night and day,
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“At any age we must cherish illusions, consolatory or merely pleasant; in youth, they are omnipresent; in old age we must search for them, or even invent them. But with all that, boredom is their natural and inevitable accompaniment.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)