Patient Zero

A short story about survival, prion disease, and guilt. Morri Ganley, currently in possession of the death sentence of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, is taken captive by a cannibalistic alien species after a government-planned trip to the outer rim of the solar system. Save Earth, she had been begged. You will live beyond the year, beyond the war, if you do this. Her captors transfer her mind into a synthetic body while her flesh and blood body is sent to a processing plant to be consumed. Her life is saved, but the procedure's aftermath is catastrophic, with millions of the alien species dying from exposure to her tainted flesh. Haunted by the consequences, Morri struggles with guilt and finds a new purpose--she dedicates herself to medicine, working to understand and eventually find cures for neurodegenerative diseases like CJD. Determined to ensure that suffering from the long goodbye of neurodegeneration—human or otherwise—is never repeated.