The Alpha Incident story
A space probe returns to Earth from Mars, carrying with it a deadly organism which has the lethal potential to destroy all life on Earth.
7 total · 4 major · 2 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| invasive life form from outer space | major | A Martian microorganism with some of the characteristics of a virus and other characteristics of an enzyme imperiled all animal life on Earth after it arrived on a space probe returned from the Red Planet. Infected people could stay alive only for so long as they could stay awake. |
| quarantine dilemma | major | Dr. Sorensen singlehandedly held a a handful of people in small rural community under quarantine after someone there got exposed to the microorganism. |
| sleep deprivation | major | Dr. Sorensen and the other infected people under quarantine drank coffee and took government issued amphetamines in an effort to stay awake for as long as possible, because they would die the moment they fell asleep. |
| the need for sleep | major | Dr. Sorensen and the other infected people in quarantine became irritable and in some cases more and more irrational as they tried to stay awake for as long as possible. Anyone who fell asleep would died horribly from the microorganism. |
| coping with unwelcome romantic attention | minor | Jack Tiller was pestering Jenny with romantic overtures. |
| crime | minor | Jack Tiller spoke sarcastically about using their idle time while under quarantine to solve the problem of big city crime. |
| perpetual energy machine | not | Perpetual motion was twice said but not in the context of a perpetual motion machine. |