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    The Giving Plague
    The Giving Plague
    The Giving Plague
    Ebook29 pages24 minutes

    The Giving Plague

    By David Brin

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Not all villains succeed at being evil. Not all diseases deserve the word plague. Fate can be ironic indeed. The chilling short story, The Giving Plague, follows microbiologist Forry, a self-proclaimed cynic, jealous of his “boy wonder” colleague who discovers a unique virus that could change humanity. Transmitted by blood donations, the virus manipulates humans toward altruism and charity. Forry decides that he will do anything to take credit for this discovery...until a more deadly alien virus infects the human race, forcing him to wrestle with his own inner demons.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Brin
    Release dateMay 26, 2012
    ISBN9781476218175
    The Giving Plague
    Author

    David Brin

    David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international-bestselling novels include Earth, Existence, Startide Rising, and The Postman, which was adapted into a film in 1998. Brin serves on several advisory boards, including NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC, and speaks or consults on topics ranging from AI, SETI, privacy, and invention to national security. His nonfiction book about the information age, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. Brin’s latest nonfiction work is Polemical Judo. Visit him at www.davidbrin.com.

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    Reviews for The Giving Plague

    4/5

    27 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An excellent novelette which askes the question of what constitutes life. In the process emulates some of the trends and popular pandemics that seem to ravage our time since this peace was first written (1988).
    • 5/5
      David a tin shows us what the untended consequences of good intentions are in a clever way that keeps you guessing.
    • 5/5
      Superbly twisty story about Les Adamson, who theorises about the most cunning virusinfection strategy ever, narrated by his less ethical co-researcher Forry.

    Book preview

    The Giving Plague - David Brin

    The Giving Plague

    A Short Story

    By David Brin

    Smashwords Edition

    Copyright 2012 David Brin

    ***

    1

    You think you’re going to get me, don’t you? Well, you’ve got another think coming, ‘cause I’m ready for you.

    That’s why there’s a forged card in my wallet saying my blood group is AB Negative, and a MedicAlert tag warning that I’m allergic to penicillin, aspirin, and phenylalanine. Another one states that I’m a practicing, devout Christian Scientist. All these tricks ought to slow you down when the time comes, as it’s sure to, sometime soon.

    Even if it makes the difference between living and dying, there’s just no way I’ll let anyone stick a transfusion needle into my arm. Never. Not with the blood supply in the state it’s in.

    And anyway, I’ve got antibodies. So you just stay the hell away from me, ALAS. I won’t be your patsy. I won’t be your vector.

    I know your weaknesses, you see. You’re a fragile, if subtle devil. Unlike TARP, you can’t bear exposure to air or heat or cold or acid or alkali. Blood-to-blood, that’s your only route. And what need had you of any other? You thought you’d evolved the perfect technique, didn’t you?

    What was it Leslie Adgeson called you? The perfect master? The paragon of viruses?

    I remember long ago when HIV, the AIDS virus, had everyone so impressed with its subtlety and effectiveness of design. But compared with you, HIV is just a crude butcher, isn’t it? A maniac with a chainsaw, a blunderer that kills its hosts and relies for transmission on habits humans can, with some effort, get under control. Oh, old HIV had its tricks, but compared with you? An amateur!

    Rhinoviruses and flu are clever, too. They’re profligate, and they mutate rapidly. Long ago they learned how to make their hosts drip and wheeze and sneeze, so victims spread the misery in all directions. Flu viruses are also a lot smarter than AIDS ‘cause they don’t generally kill their hosts, just make ‘em miserable while they hack and spray and inflict fresh infections

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