The Andromeda Strain: Summary The book I read was Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain. It is a science fiction story about an outbreak of a deadly airborne virus. The virus came from an experimental satellite named Scoop VII. The satellite landed in a small town in northwestern Arizona named Piedmont. There were only 2 survivors out of forty-eight, an old person and an infant. There are four main characters who study the virus. They are Jeremy Stone, Peter Levitt, Charles Burton, and Mark Hall. It all starts out when a team of five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: