카라

Kharaa. Yes. There were rumors Alterra and the TSF let it spread, so they could take over the Steppes. I don’t know about that. But it it hit us so fast. Did it really ride on the outside of our ships? Or do the spores just...fly through space?

We called it kharaal, the curse. Not all of us spoke Mongolian, but we knew that word. It started with the carpet, toiruulga. Then monsters would grow. If you didn’t have nanos, they would grow in you too. We had to leave everything.

Now this. The virus that fills this ocean, and fills our blood. We thought it was kharaa at first, but it’s not a bacterium. How can a virus cross between alien species? Nahema tries to explain it to me. I cannot understand how such a gifted young woman carries such anger. Or why she seeks me out.