The 48 hours Part 2

Posted on Wed Jan 23, 2019 @ 6:46pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Major Victor Crowe & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen

2,388 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Victory/Runabout
Timeline: Immediately after away mission, spanning 48 hours

Hour 24:

Cassandra walked onto the bridge, making a slow pass around the rail before coming to stand by the center seat. "Any word from the runabout?"

Alec turned his chair at Cassandra's question. "No, they been quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary."

"I'm getting worried," Cassandra said, quietly. "Aside from their understandable cabin fever, they've been greatly disturbed by what they saw on the other ship. I'd like to recommend they all be given at least 48 hours before returning to duty, especially Lieutenant Tanaka."

Alec nodded his head, "I don't see any reason why that can't be arranged.Though I think that you're going to get an argument out of Nicole when she hears she off for 48 hours. I can hear the howls of protest already."

"I'll deal with Nicole," Cassandra said. "I just need your confirmation."

"Fair enough. I don't need to give her another reason to dislike me." He replied, "You have it. They will have 48 hours off before they resume their duty shifts."

"We're at the halfway mark," she said. "Downhill from here, right?"

"Downhill from here," Alec agreed, "Let's just hope it doesn't turn into an avalanche."

Hour 28:

Nicole had given them all a brief checkup and they were now clustered in the cockpit. "Well, we're well into the red zone as far as when symptoms should be showing, according to the other ship's logs. So far, no one's showing any problems."

"Except our need to be free of his cage," Osika said.

"Soon," Nicole said. "We're more than halfway there. Tomorrow morning we'll be free. In the meantime..." She stood up and walked to the replicator and called up the manifest. A moment later she pulled out a large circular board and several projectiles.

She affixed the board to the rear wall of the cabin and handed each of them a few of the darts. "Let's see who's got the best hand-eye coordination," she said. "Objective is to hit the center of the target."

Arashi took the darts first. "Ok, I'll go." He closed his eyes and visualized the dart board in his mind. He opened his eyes and threw his first dart. The first dart flew in a graceful arc and hit the bullseye. The second dart was a bit off the mark, hitting right above the bullseye. Throwing the last dart, it hit a triple 20. Having never played darts before, he thought that he did well. "How's that? I think that was pretty good myself," he said without ego. He just felt good that he was doing something, anything to get his mind off of what he saw.

Nicole's eyes narrowed. She couldn't tell if he was faking humility, or had no idea of the score he'd just gotten. She took her three and let them fly. Hand-eye coordination was essential for a surgeon, and she didn't get to be chief surgeon by having fumbling fingers. She matched his score perfectly and gave him a smirk. "Yes, not bad at all," she said.

Osika was next, scoring a single 20, single 5 and double 12. She shrugged and sat down as Raylen stepped up, getting a double twenty, then a single five, and then one right at the top of the board.

"Okay, next round, you two throw backwards over your shoulder with a mirror," she said, looking at Nicole and Arashi.

Hour 35:

Nicole sat going over another padd of data. So far they'd ruled out everything in the samples for the third time. Absolutely nothing was raising a flag in their system as a dangerous pathogen and no unknown diseases. Nicole was rubbing her temples in frustration. They were missing something and she didn't know what.

"We are missing something," Doctor Stahn said.

"I'm aware," Nicole said.

"We can only conclude that there is nothing to find," he said.

"What kind of logic is that?" Nicole said, sitting back. "They didn't all spontaneously die of nothing."

"Correct. They did not all spontaneously die," Doctor Stahn replied calmly.

Nicole made a rude gesture through the window. After a moment of thought, she hit the comm, linking them to the cargo bay lab, the science lab and Sickbay. "Listen up," she said, her voice echoing through the cargo bay. "We are missing something obvious. We have everything we're going to have, so let's start from scratch. What do we know with absolute certainty?"

"The ship's crew is dead," Doctor Stahn said.

"So we work from that basis," Nicole said. "They're dead. There has to be a reason. Doctor Stahn says they didn't die spontaneously. Prove him right or wrong."

"The ship's CMO was alive long enough to perform multiple autopsies," Nurse Stavros said.

"Most of the readings of the bodies indicate a similar progression of symptoms," Nurse Mirina added.

"But the autopsy logs indicate it happened in a standard spread pattern," Doctor Osika said. "Like a disease."

"But it spread really rapidly," Maggie said.

"Too rapidly," Nicole said. "That speaks to an artificial accelerant."

"Poison," Maggie said.

"We'd detect it," Nicole said.

"A natural compound," Maggie countered. "Something that breaks down rapidly once the damage is done."

"We'd still find waste products," Cannivali said. "Poison isn't metabolised properly, that's what induces vomiting, and we tested that."

"Correct," Nicole said. "So if it's not a toxin, it's a disease. Bacteria or virus?"

"Virus," Osika said. "Bacteria would have broken down the bodies faster, and we'd find live traces."

"A virus could mutate to kill faster," Doctor P'k'ala said.

"Or be engineered," came Camille's voice from the comm system. "This might be artificial."

"Agreed," Nicole said. "So for now we go with a virus, natural or otherwise. Why haven't we found it?"

"Because we do not know what we are looking for," Stahn said.

"Or we do, but we aren't admitting it," Nicole said. "So let's go back to the bodies. Symptoms! Call 'em!"

"Rash, respiratory damage, skin damage," Osika said.

"Medical records indicate transfer primarily through the bronchial passages causing irritation," Stahn said.

"Bloating, but that could be a result of decomp," Cannivali added.

"Notes indicated swelling along with rash," Stahn said.

"So what can cause any or all of those?" Nicole said. "That's our first list."

"Our scans didn't show anything inorganic that might promote a virus," said Camille, "but what if the virus is what's inorganic? We've encountered silicon-based life before. Maybe a silicon-based virus, or a hybrid with something carbon-based, that can affect human tissues? The immune system probably wouldn't recognize it."

"Which would account for not finding a highly elevated amount of antibodies," Nicole said. "Possible. Pretend you were designing an inorganic virus and compile a list of compounds that you would use and start checking."

Suddenly, something else occurred to Camille. She was annoyed she hadn't thought of it before. "What if it's a virus from a non-human host? Something that a crewman brought aboard that mutated and jumped to a human host? Certain strains of influenza are mostly harmless to birds, but can be lethal to poultry workers."

"So it jumped species..." Nicole said, then realized one of the things that was bothering her. "It's the whole crew...." she said quietly. "The whole crew was affected! What was the diversity of the species in their complement?"

"Records indicate 85% human, with the remaining 15% comprised of standard Federation races including Vulcan, Tellarite and Bolian. No unusual cross-species interaction," P'k'ala said.

"Wrong," Nicole said. "There was one very unusual cross-species interaction. We said it at the start: they all died from the same disease."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Tellarites have similar hemoglobin to Humans," P'k'ala supplied.

"But Bolians and Vulcans don't," Osika countered.

"But they do share certain physiological characteristics," Nicole said. "And those could at least let the virus in the door. So we're looking for a virus that can affect a variety of major Alpha and Beta Quadrant species, something that the body doesn't perceive as a strong threat, which is how it was disguised, that causes our symptoms," Nicole said, excitedly. "Pull all the stops out of the medical database, I want a short list in two hours! Camille, have your team continue following the inorganic side of the investigation just in case. If you can conclusively rule it out, help narrow down possible carriers.

A loud chorus of "yes ma'am" came from the medical staff as everyone sat down to get to work. Nicole turned to Raylen and Arashi and tried to give them a supportive smile. "We're almost done. I suggest you two get some sleep and we'll all be home in time for brunch."

Hour 37:

Nicole's console lit up with a message as the comm system came to life. "We have a list," Doctor P'k'ala said.

"Downloading it now," she said, pouring over it. Despite how much the list was narrowed, there were still dozens of illnesses on it. "Get materials together to start running tests. I'll cull this first and we'll begin trials."

"Yes, Doctor," Doctor P'k'ala said, closing the channel.

Having nothing better to do, Jim decided to review what was known about the now-destroyed freighter. One: the pathogen was placed aboard the ship by a disgruntled crewman, and that crewman became Patient Zero. Two, the doctor aboard the freighter was able to perform autopsies on the dead crew before being overcome. Shit, my lack of knowledge in the medical field is gonna be a hindrance. "Holbridge to Dr. Anderson, Is there anything I can do to assist while you're still in quarantine?"

Nicole looked at the others, confused, and mouthed, "who?"

"Intel," Raylen mouthed back.

Nicole thought for a moment. "Track the ships and people who came in contact with the freighter, including all comm traffic. See if you can establish who had access before the illness hit. Look for unusual activity at least five days ago."

"Might take a few hours, but I'll get on it." Holbridge replied as he took a seat at a workstation on the bridge and began to work.

A few more minutes of studious silence passed before the comm system kicked in again.

“Biolab to Runabout,” came Camille’s voice over the comm systems. “No evidence of anything inorganic, so we can rule out the silicon-based virus. Also, a mutation to expand host range like this must have been significant. Its structure must facilitate such mutations. Probably single-stranded DNA, or maybe its genome is in multiple pieces. That should help narrow your search.”

"It does," Nicole. "Thank you Camille," she said, closing the channel.

"Well," Osika said, looking to her, "brings us down to, what? A few dozen?"

"Eighty-seven possible viruses across the major species," Nicole said. "We're much closer, but still a ways to go."

Hour 40:

The main communications screen in the runabout activated and Cass' face appeared. "I should have known you'd be awake," she said. "Do you know what time it is?"

"0212 hours," Nicole said, not looking up from her padd.

"And you need sleep," Cass said.

"I'll get sleep when we ID this virus," Nicole said. "I can hardly

"Well it gets worse," Cass said. "I want all of you off duty for 48 hours after this."

"Sod off," Nicole said.

Cass sighed. "I thought you'd fuss. I'll knock you down to twelve, but you need to rest after this. No arguments."

"Because 'no arguments' is so me," she said. "I'm still going to review the updates and work in my lab. We both know this."

"I know," Cass said. "But take some time. Get a drink, unwind. You've been cooped up in that shuttle for two days. Stretch your legs at least and go in fresh. You're no good to your team if you're nerves are frayed."

Nicole couldn't argue, although she wanted to. "Twelve hours, and I get to still review what's being done and put in my own notes," she said.

"Deal," Cassandra said. "Now, get some sleep."

"All right, all right," Nicole grumbled. "Good night." Without waiting for a response, she closed the channel, put her feet up on the console and closed her eyes, falling asleep listening to the sounds of the computer.

Hour 48 (Almost):

"I am going to go insane," Raylen said from the co-pilot's chair.

"The last few minutes are always the hardest," Nicole said, finishing her scans. So far, everyone was still as healthy as they were coming in. It appeared their precautions had worked. The chronometer was ticking down, and even though she knew it wasn't slowing, it was all she could do to resist having Raylen check to make sure it was in synch with the ship's time.

Truth be told, they were overcompensating. The forty-hour mark was when the latest that the virus seemed to be gestating, but she wanted to be sure. She'd had Penny remotely seal the shuttle and override their ability to get out, just to be sure no one did something stupid in a panic, or try to shave a few minutes off.

Suddenly the comm system came to life. "Naroot to Runabout: prepare to disembark. Welcome home, even though you've been here the whole time."

"Beep, beep, Penny," Nicole said.

The clock finally ran down to zero, and there was a hiss as the hatch to the runabout opened and everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Ladies and gentleman," Nicole said, "get out."

She let the others file out first and then stepped onto the deck of the shuttlebay herself, hearing the staff there whoop and applaud as they emerged safe and sound.

She let out a breath of relief and held up a hand. "The five of us have been put off duty for the next 48 hours, however I will be back in twelve. Please make sure you are forwarding all notes and work to me as you go as I will be following it." She looked to Osika and Cannivali. "You two are to take at least half the offered time off. I need us all at our best."

The others nodded and left the cargo bay. Nicole followed, but veered over to look over the mobile lab and see what they'd set up thus far. She got about half a dozen steps when a hand grabbed her arm and yanked her back towards the door.

"I'm going!" she snarled at Cassandra who smiled as she dragged her friend out the door.

 

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