She blinked a bit at the light pouring in from the doorway. It took her a moment to recognize her surrounds, and a moment longer to realize someone was jostling her. Sleepily she replied to them, and they stepped back. A moment later as her memories were flooding back to forefront of her mind, her officer said, “Sorry to wake you, but you said to inform you immediately once long range communications are restored.”
She nodded, but there was an entirely seperate question on her mind. The young captain didn’t recall going to bed, much less heading to her quarters. The last things she remembered was dealing with that headache inducing pain in the ass. Vaguely she did recall a plan to stopby the medical bay. “How did I...”
Prempting the question, “Uko called me down to sickbay to carry you back to your quarters about nine hours ago. Apparently you passed out in sickbay.”
She nodded along listening, and then her eyes widened. She did what!? Crap of all the shitty places to pass out. It had to be sickbay, and then there was the bit about nine hours. That was way to long. Why the hell were the still letting her sleep? Questions that were clearly plastered on her face, as her officer sighed, “Sorry captain, Uko’s orders. I’m afraid you are off-duty until she clears you.”
The commander sighed, of course she was. Never mind that there was an alien ship out there. One who they were on shaky ground with now, thanks to a few utter morons. Never mind that her ship was in shambles and needed her. Uko had effectively grounded her. Well at least the comms were up again.
“I see. Guess I’ll have to stop by sickbay later.”
“Uko did say she had to talk to you before she allowed you to return to duty.”
She acknowledged that, and the officer left. Leaving her with some free time. Espeically seeing how she was apparently barred from duty. She glanced at her private terminal. She should probably head straight for sickbay, but she also wanted to chat with her sister. Slipping out of bed, she decided on a course of action, and discarded her clothes. Reaching into her closet she pulled out a fresh uniform, and paused breifly considering a shower. It had been awhile since she had showered. Maybe the water system had been fixed by now?
With that thought in mind, she checked out her attached bathroom. A luxury, afforded to officers such as herself, and was pleased to find that someone had indeed found the time to fix the water. A fact she took advantage of with a quick shower. Honestly she preferred bathes, but she didn’t have tub. So a shower would do. Not to mention on ships having a tub was a rare luxury. Especially on cruisers like hers, although she had heard that a few captains had spent the credits to install one on their own ships.
Clean, and dressed, the captain slipped out of her quarters and into the hall. Where signs of battle damage were immediately visible. Just down the hall, she saw a work team conducting repairs on a power conduit. One that had been damaged earlier. By now much of the debris that had littered the corridor after the hull had been breached just thirty meters down the hall from her quarters had also been cleaned up. So it looked better than it had. Although she could if she looked down the hall see right out into the stars. Only a shimmering blue barrier stood between her, and the vacuum of space.
Turning that way, she noted a work crew on the hull outside the breach. Several of them were manuevering a large metal plate into position. Evidence that work crews were already hard at work patching the holes in the hull. With progress like that, she figured it wouldn’t be long before they could get underway. She took it as a sign that her ship’s internals were finally starting to shape up again. With that thought in mind, the commander made her way down the corridor. Soon she reached the lift, the system was a little iffy lately, with some sections down completely. It might be better to just take the ladder. A quick inquiry revealed, that they had just taken the entire system offline for repairs, and it will be down for the next six hours, at least. So she took the ladder.”
----------------------------------------
It took perhaps a little longer than it should have, but she made it to sickbay quickly enough. Uko was at her desk, in the office, and urged her in with a friendly smile. “Ah, captain glad to see you. You know you gave me quite the scare when you passed out like that right in the middle of our conversation.”
She didn’t exactly remember the conversation, but now she felt a little worried, “...I did?”
“Oh, yes. Worried enough that I gave you an emergency check-up just to make sure nothing was wrong. Thankfully that was the result of exhaustion, but I do have a few concerns,” Uko paused, with a look that caused a pit to form in her stomach, “One of them rather serious.”
That did not sound good. Not at all, in fact now she was very worried, “Serious!? But, but I feel fine!”
Uko sighed, “Thankfully we caught it early, but its going to require an agressive treatment plan. I’ve already scheduled emergency check ups for the entire crew as well. In a way, I think you passing out on me was a blessing.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
If she had been worried before, now she no longer had words to describe the swirling pit in her stomach. With a quiver on her lips, she asked, “Caught what!?”
“I’m sorry, dear you’ve contracted Xesh’ran Rosh,” replied Uko.
She blinked, a frown on her face, “I’ve what?”
“Perhaps you’re more familiar with its other name, Flesh Puppet Disease.”
The young commander felt herself pale, her wide eyes looking for any sign this might be a joke. When she found none, the pit in her belly exploded, “Please tell me you are joking.”
The doctor’s face said it all, “I’m afraid not. The good news is we caught it early enough that its still treatable. Bad news, treatment is only effective in about 30% of cases.”
There was one lingering question in her mind. How was this even possible. As her legs turned to jelly at the life devestating news, “How?”
“Given your rather non-existent sex life as evidenced by your body, I’m pretty sure you were infected from contaminated food or water. I’ve already got a team looking through our food and water supplies to find out which stocks were contaminated.”
Great, she hated being reminded of her sex life, or lack thereof. In light of everything else, it seemed a small thing to have mentioned. “I,... I.. I see. What are my chances?”
“We caught it very early. None of the parasites have had a chance to make it your brain, and there are barely any in your blood. Most are lodged in your intestinal track, which means your odds are actually pretty good. Given the nature of your condition I went ahead, and immediately gave you your first treatment before I sent you down to get some rest.”
Normally she would have felt violated by a statement like that, but she knew Uko was just looking out for her best interests. So she just listened as Uko continued. Informing her that her treatment options weren’t optimal here, nor was this fully covered by her company health policy. Which meant her savings just went down the drain. It seemed she just couldn’t quite catch a break. Although she was still wondering what her chances were, a question that Uko seemed to be avoiding, which didn’t bode well, “and my chances are?”
Uko sighed, “As good as they are going to get, a fifty-fifty chance that we can cleanse your system of the parasites before it becomes too late. The ones in your tract will be easy to deal with, its the few in your blood that present the issue, and I’m afraid I don’t have the equipment for the preferred option, which leaves me only one option, and I’m afraid they are quite resistant to the usual anti-parasitics.”
She blinked, this was all bad news, “Does anyone else happen to have it?”
Uko frowned, “I checked, its not exactly a common item to carry on hand, but then again I only spoke to the doctors of our ships. I don’t know about the aliens. They are still here, we could check with them, but I might want to point out that some aliens have a policy of destroying any ship carrying those infected with Flesh Puppet parasites.”
The commander thought about it, and how they had swept in like knights of old. “Risk it. Go ahead and talk with their doctors. In the meantime, I think I’m going to talk to my sister.”
With that she left the bay, but the pit in her belly wasn’t going away. Before she even realized it she had made it back to her terminal, and was staring blankly at it.
----------------------------------------
After hesitating awhile, she finally made the call. There was a bit of a wait before Reia’s familiar face popped up on the screen. Reia smiled, “Neira! How are you doing!? I heard you recently got a high paying commision. Mission going well?”
Reia’s smile suddenly vanished, and even though she hadn’t said a word, it seemed she had picked up on something. “That bad? Care to tell me about it.”
Neira nodded, and after a moment she started. Soon she was practically gushing about how everything had gone wrong. Even mentioned how she got rescued from pirates by the very people they were sent to look for. Worse, someone had messed up, and now she was infected with flesh puppet parasites of all things.
Reia blinked, “What sector are you in right now!?
“Star sector, 497-11-234A, why?”
Reia nodded, “hmm, that’s not too far from where I am. What are you’re exact coordinates?”
Not sure where this was going, she gave them. Reia smiled, “I’ll see you soon!”
Then she closed the channel. Leaving Neira staring at the screen not sure how her sister would see her soon. If she had caught that right, she wasn’t even in the sector, sure she was by the edge, but even if Reia pushed her ship’s engines to the limit that would still take over a month. Not unless she was capable of warp five, but she knew no ship capable of that speed. Tapping her console, it shifted to an external view, and she noted the alien cruiser in the distance. Well it wasn’t like she was going to be going anywhere, soon. Given the damage to her warp engines it would take two weeks, maybe a little longer before they could get her engines into a workable state.
Suddenly her console beeped, an incoming message, it was from the alien cruiser. With a sigh, she accepted the call. Not sure who routed it here, but a moment later an alien man appeared on her screen, he gave her a smile she thought was meant to be reassuring, “I’ve been informed about your second problem. I’m afraid my ship has rather limited medical abilities, and we are unfamiliar with this flesh puppet disease. Regardless we will try to provide assistance, and I was recently informed that the Enterprise has completed her objectives and is now en route to rendevous with us. She will be here in about a week, and she has a full hospital.”
Not sure what to say in response, she ended up replying with an automatic, “understood.”