Chapter 18Lydia read through her father's work, startled at its clarity and gravity.
Infiltration of human pathogens by alien microorganisms was inevitable. Humans had spread throughout the galaxy far too fast for the research on alien pathogens to keep pace. Once an infectious vector had been compromised by an alien genome or had mutated in its exposure to extreme environments, it had the potential to spread among humans with a savagery unseen for centuries.
In one pandemic on pre-diaspora Earth, a pathogen had infected a quarter of the population and had killed a quarter of its victims. The Spanish Flu of 1919 had killed fifty to two hundred million people after infecting over twenty five percent of the human population. This haemagglutinin-1, neuraminidase-1 virus, or Influenza H1-N1,
