"And this definitely is as fast as we can go?"

"Your Highness, I understand the urgency," the pilot assured her, "but if we go any faster than this, the reactor might overheat. We will reach the entrance point in about six days, that's the best we can do."

Silgvani sighed. She knew it was pointless. The ship was as fast as it was, there was no way to change that. That didn't make the situation any easier to accept. Hearing that Nadine had suddenly fallen severely ill had riled her up to a degree she didn't reach often.

Leaving the bridge, the princess went down to the quarters. The door to Nadine's cabin was open. Inside, she could see the small alien sleeping in her bed, which like usually bent much further than for any other user. But that was about the only thing that was as usual. Her red face and heavy breaths showed her suffering, even though she wasn't conscious.

It was truly disheartening to see her like that. While she had struggled mentally, at least on a physical level the Human had always seemed so... unstoppable. Silgvani of course knew that this durability had limits, but seeing her reduced to this state was something else. Memories of Kiyrtin in his hospital bed flashed through her mind.

Next to her sat Doctor Githaiy, wearing what looked like a set of welder's gloves. The doctor was currently in the process of wringing out a piece of cloth over a bucket before putting it on Nadine's forehead.

"How is she?" Silgvani asked, catching the doctor's attention.

"Ah, I apologize, Your Highness. I didn't see you."

"I couldn't care less about formalities right now, this is more important."

After a short pause, the doctor nodded and returned her attention to Nadine

"Unfortunately, I can't really tell. It seems like she is more or less the same since the last time you asked, but I don't know anything about how the Human body reacts to illnesses. The fact that it can heat up to lethal temperatures just so hopefully, they can survive it longer than the pathogen is... crass, for the lack of a better word. It's a good thing that she took off her protective suit before going to sleep. With my complete equipment, I might be able to do more, but for now, we have to trust Nadine's words and what little I learned about her kind so far."

That didn't exactly inspire a lot of hope.

"The broth she wanted should be done soon," the doctor continued, "maybe that improves her condition."

The princess cocked her head. Broth? It seemed like she missed something there.

"And what are you doing right now?" she inquired, pointing at the wet cloth.

"She wanted that, but she fell asleep before she could tell me why exactly. My guess would be that it cools off the brain a bit to protect it from the increased body heat."

"And what are the gloves for? They look like the ones the mechanics usually wear."

"That's because they are, our board engineers gave them to me. Nadine is currently secreting large quantities of her sweat. I won't get around touching her, so I had to improvise. On that note, please don't get too close, Your Highness. But besides the hazard, there is another problem. She said she would need to drink a lot, and she needs a lot of water to begin with. And since sweat contains water, I have to assume this increases her need for water even further."

Silgvani recalled the conversation she had with one of the servants back on the Unifier about why they had needed to leave soon.

"And we don't have enough water?"

The doctor nodded.

"Not if the amount she drank before going to sleep is any indication. We definitely have enough for the next few days, but I'm not sure it'll last for the entire way."

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"Is there no possible way around it?"

"Well, maybe," Githaiy explained. "Unfortunately, that was one of the many things I gave little priority in my tests. After I made the powder and confirmed that, mixed with our tap water, it gave her all she needed, there were other tests I considered more important. I don't know what reducing her water intake in her current state would do to her and, I apologize if I sound demanding, Your Highness, but we shouldn't do that right now unless we can't come up with another way. Maybe if I find a way to reduce her sweat secretion, she might need less water. Or if I manage to somehow cure her."

"And... you have no idea what could achieve that?" Silgvani inquired, even though she could already guess the answer.

"Not here. As I said, ships like this one only have the basics. If I had all my equipment, things might be different. I also had the faint hope that she herself might know any substances that might help her, but while their long lives allow humans to educate their children in a wide range of fields, even for them, medicine is something you need to specialize in. If I think about the things an old Human doctor with generations worth of experience could tell me... no, that's not important right now. My point is, outside of the simple treatments I'm already doing, she couldn't tell me much."

The doctor went quiet for a moment, seemingly thinking about something.

"Although, she mumbled something about a box. But she described it with a word that didn't get translated and she fell asleep right after so I couldn't ask her for details"

A box? Silgvani thought. I feel like that's ringing some kind of bell, but I can't put my finger on it. A box... well, obviously Nadine has used a multitude of things that could be called a "box", but none of them would help her here. Come on, think! What am I forgetting right now?

Unable to reach a solution, she let out a frustrated sigh.

"Just how by the First Ones did that happen?"

"It's my fault," the doctor immediately said. "I felt safe in the knowledge that both Vanaery and Tystrie as well as Vanaery and Humans were too different for a cross-species-infection and didn't consider the possibility of Humans and Tystrie being similar enough for it."

"So... this is the same illness that killed all those Tystrie?" Silgvani inquired, perturbed by the idea of the potential answer.

"By process of elimination, it has to. She couldn't have caught anything from any of us, and there are no other Humans here. Unless she happened to coincidentally catch something else with a high incubation time, she must have caught it on the Unifier."

"Then... will this kill her?" she asked with dread in her voice.

"I don't know. The lethality rarely is the same for different species, so I try to remain cautiously optimistic."

The doctor changed the wet cloth on Nadine's forehead for a new one.

"What I can't comprehend is how she got it. Both explanations I can come up with are equally unlikely. Either the germs were resistant to the disinfection process and I brought them with me; but even among similar species, the chance of them jumping over from such a short exposure is close to zero. Or the ambassador is lying, this disease isn't new, and she carries it. Nadine had enough contact with her that a species jump would be at least slightly possible. But she would have to be an asymptomatic carrier for that, and considering how devastating this illness is to the Tystrie... although, all the corpses I've seen were male, and the sexual dimorphism of their kind is quite pronounced... maybe..."

The doctor started to fall into one of her ramblings, slowly going off-topic and causing Silgvani to pay less and less attention. When she had found out that there was no attack happening, when Nadine brought up the colony, it had seemed like things would finally take a turn to the positive. Like she finally found a clue that might lead her to reunite with the other... humans... wait.

"Doctor?"

"Hm? My apologies, Your Highness, did you say something?"

"I just thought of something. What if this illness didn't need to... um, well... change, in order to infect her?"

"You mean mutate?" the doctor corrected. "But it had to, otherwise a Tystrie disease couldn't infect a Human."

"That's exactly my point. What if this isn't a Tystrie disease? What if it already... how did you call it, jumped? ... in the other direction?"

The doctor's eyes widened from the sudden epiphany.

"That would mean... oh no. If the illness originates from a human, then this could be... I would need to start completely anew... First Ones, why did we leave her escape pod behind?!"

"Escape pod?" Silgvani asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"Yes, the one we found her in. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume Humans put some basic necessities in their escape pods, just like we do, and maybe some medicine as well. I know we couldn't take it with us, but it could've been-"

"THAT'S IIIIT!"

The sudden outcry paired with a loss of control over her voice made the doctor startle and flinch back, but Silgvani didn't care.

"The box!" she continued. "That's what she meant! Before we left the Star Treader, Nadine wanted to see the escape pod to check if any Humans had responded to the emergency signal! When there were none, she took a small, red box with her! If nothing happened to it, it should still be in the palace!"

Hope suddenly returned to the doctor's expression.

"If we make it home in time, we might be able to help her! Even better, I might even be able to reverse-engineer the medicine!"

Silgvani closed her eyes and nodded. With a silver lining in sight, the next pressing matter was to find a way to ensure the Human's water supply would last, and then they'd just need to make it back.

Nadine... please stay strong.