Quantum Disturbance

Humanity is on the path of colonising Jupiter's moon Europa. Eric Jonson, the commander of the Europa One ship, neglects the fact one of his astronauts exhibits symptoms of schizophrenic attack and so does the entire crew. Ship's engineer Albert Schmidt suffers greatly in a pipe explosion which almost kills him and saturates a sector with radioactive contaminants. Fellow crew members barely extract him alive, as they risk their own lives. Andre Blanc, ship's communication expert, makes a decision to wake his coma induced friend, and he does so with nude photographs he secures from an elderly doctor. The Crew discovers a serious problem with the communication antennas. The Ground Base Director Roger Simons sends a warning of ever increasing static, his message is cut off and the catastrophic failure of the communication antennas materialise. Andre Blanc spacewalks and discovers that antennas are slightly dismantled. Upon further inspection he experiences disturbing visions and suffers a cardiac arrest. Though doctors give up on him, Albert Schmidt doesn't accept his friend's death and begins the reanimation again. He finally revives him. Andre Blanc rests in medical room. The first astronaut to experience such disturbing visions pays him a visit, though she keeps secret what she saw, and leaves Andre baffled.Ground Crew holds meeting to discuss radio problems. It lasts for hours. Several scientists approach with ideas and opinions, but nothing satisfies the director Roger Simons, who constantly drugs himself with medication. Eric and Albert repair one of antennas with success. The second antenna is missing the receiving module and its support. Though they manage to recover the second module, extreme low levels of oxygen forces them to return to the ship, which they do just barely. The moment they do, they finally hear the long awaited voice from Earth. At the same time, inside the ship the crew is being briefed on the current situation, but one of the crew scientists begins to doubt that the doctor is the one who is making the crew sick and it's sabotaging the radio receivers. During his secret conversation with Andre Blanc, whom he informs of his doubtful thoughts, he experiences a paranoid panic attack but overcomes it. The crew is in state of joy after completely restoring the radio and successfully establishing the contact, but on-board computer unintentionally kills the joyful mood by informing them how four out of 10 astronauts have tested positive for an unknown virus. The AI assures them the virus is not of alien origin, but most probably brought from earth and mutated to the point of being unrecognisable. Ground Base holds an emergency conference, led by Director Roger Simons and his vice Director. Prior to the conference the two engage in a confrontation in Roger's office, which quickly escalates into fight. After the brawl, the Director shares his sedatives with vice Director, and half sedated they hold the meeting. During the break, Roger goes to his office, where he falls unconscious. He dreams about his dead wife, who helps him figure the problem that plagues the astronauts. He is rushed to the hospital. The conference continues without him, and attendees are asked to vote for execution of 'Code Infinity' which is created in case of extreme emergencies. Its main purpose is to sever ships communication, and send it towards interstellar space to be lost forever. After collecting the blood samples, doctor does a thorough analysis and realises the entire crew is infected with the yet unknown virus. The crew is briefed for the unfortunate turn of events, and the Captain orders his crew to help him remove ship's antennas so such code will never be received. The Executive Director Giles Brock mercilessly orders his team to respond with execution of the code, but just seconds before the plan gets implemented, the crew of Europa One successfully removes the radio receivers, creating confusion back on Earth.

• | Author: Arton Haziri
• | Publisher: Independently Published
• | Publication Date: May 18, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 510 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1099143012
• | ISBN-13: 9781099143014