What? No Babies?

by Frank Tilton

An Air Force doctor notices babies are no longer being conceived. Elsewhere, a lieutenant in the Air Force’s NORAD command center pursues his curiosity about a comet. Both are ridiculed. Yet both are right to be concerned. Kinderman’s Comet had partially vaporized as it passed through perihelion. Earth passed through the comet’s tail and became contaminated by an undetected virus. The virus came to be known as Semens Mortis, for it caused male sterilization worldwide. The story follows Doctor Dan Holland who learned how “Copernicus must have felt …” as he tries to convince contentious Washington that he knows the cause of the world-wide zero conception rate. Holland continues to treat patients who want babies, including Amy Simmons who so desperately wants a baby she begs the doctor himself to father her child. Washington and the rest of the world slowly awaken to the reality of the virus’ scourge. Yet few are willing to listen to this Air Force physician who argues, “We’re trying to find a way to keep human beings on the planet. There’s no time now for politics.” Drugs, alcohol, and human folly begin to reduce a rapidly declining population. A world without children emerges. School playgrounds rust. America comes to look like Pompeii without the ashes.

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2011