Post by Lorpius Prime on May 12, 2011 1:19:14 GMT -5
Colleen Muyskens felt the mirror image of Casey Rukavina. Her mind was fraying at the edges and she was slowly losing control. It was a terrifying and painful experience, and she felt every second of it.
She had long ago given up trying to shut out the voices completely. They were too loud, too insistent, and too scared. She spoke back now, offering what little empty comforts she could; desperate lies that everything was all right, that everything was going to be all right. If they could hear her, they didn't believe it. Colleen was losing faith, too.
Another spasm ripped through the flesh of her back and tore at her brain. The pain was unbelievable, unbearable. Colleen actually laughed wildly. She was so much tougher than she had ever realized to have survived this long. All the times at the Academy when she had thought she was close to giving up, all had been nothing compared to this. Still, she was alive and sane. Perhaps not for much longer, but just making it this far was an accomplishment, wasn't it? Colleen giggled with pride.
Some deep, animal part of Xi Feng wanted to turn and run from the smile on Muyskens' face.
"Fuck you, Chief Burroughs!" the Lieutenant shouted. Then she vomited a bloody stream onto the floor.
Xi Feng blinked. The only "Chief Burroughs" she knew had been one of the physical fitness instructors back at the Academy in Houston. A transfer out of the US Air Force, he was probably the most unpleasant instructor among the whole faculty. If that was who Muyskens meant, then Xi Feng sympathized. On the other hand, she worried that the Lieutenant was losing track of the present and regressing back to her school years.
"Can't you at least sedate her?" she asked.
The doctor, a Lieutenant Commander, shook his head. "No. Or, rather, we have. It hasn't had any apparent effect, and I don't want to risk an overdose. We don't have much choice but to play this one cautiously, there are just too many unknowns."
Xi Feng forced herself to look away from Lieutenant Muyskens. "Are you even going to be able to move her like this?" she demanded.
"Yes," he said. Then he frowned, "Though it might be a little messy. I imagine we'll have to be careful about vomit on the shuttle. Maybe we can fix a curtain…"
Xi Feng let the man trail off in thought. Looking back at Muyskens, she almost wished she could have let the Tadpoles see to the Lieutenant here on the Uruguay. But no amount of sympathy would permit Xi Feng to allow aliens on board her flagship. However badly Lieutenant Muyskens was suffering, she had sworn the same oath to defend Earth and Humanity as Commodore Lee. Xi Feng was seeing to it that her subordinate would be treated—and she dearly hoped the Tadpoles could help—but the Task Force's security still came first.
Pascual fidgeted nervously. Ordinarily, that would have involved shifting his weight from one foot to another. But since he had no weight aboard the Discovery, that same motion would have propelled him away from his spot—and probably into something sharp, given Pascual's luck. Instead, he settled for holding onto a handlebar and alternately pulling himself up to the ceiling, then pushing himself away.
Or maybe, he thought to himself, I'm lifting the whole ship, like a dumbbell. Pascual thought that was how relativity worked, anyway. Contact with aliens and the expansion of civilization into space meant more Humans than ever were familiar with what had previously been "advanced" physics concepts. Pascual still had trouble wrapping his mind around most of it, though. He hadn't gone into politics because of his scientific aptitude.
The Tadpole shuttle had docked almost fifteen minutes ago, but the airlock between it and the Discovery remained sealed. Pascual hoped there wasn't some sort of mechanical problem with the doors. The Tadpoles had been docking their transports to the colony ship for nearly a week now, but whatever modifications they used to adapt their equipment to the Humans' was obviously kludge work.
When the hatch finally clanged and worked itself open, Pascual was so relieved that he barely noticed the rush of hot, sticky air from inside. Until complete control of the Discovery was finally turned over to the aliens, atmosphere in the ship's working areas was only being kept uncomfortably warm. Pascual waved his free hand absently in front of his eyes to ward off the heat.
A Tadpole filled the hatchway. Most of its head and torso were obscured by a metal crate about the size of a refrigerator that it was holding in its two large hands. That occupation meant the alien had to move extremely delicately as it boarded the Discovery, so as not to launch itself wildly into the hallway without the benefit of gravity to hold it down.
"Hello!" buzzed the high-pitched voice of Dr. Vurk as the Tadpole finally emerged into the hallway. He peered around the crate to look at Pascual, and his face warped into an unfamiliar expression that Pascual decided indicated happiness. Pascual himself realized that he was relieved to see the familiar alien, and he exhaled deeply.
"Sorry about the delay," Vurk said as he moved to one side to clear the airlock hatch. "We forgot about the lack of gravity, and some of this needs careful handling."
"Uh—" Pascual started to say.
"Coming through!" another Tadpole said in what sounded to Pascual like a huffy voice. Vurk's mate, Dr. Onadunwe, glided out of the airlock next. She was also carrying a crate, though this one was only the size of a large suitcase.
"Hello, Ambassador," she nodded at Pascual, then reached out with one hand to a ceiling handle to stop herself and her cargo. "I'm sure my husband would like to chat, but I understand the situation with your comrade is rather urgent. Will you show us the way?"
As she spoke, Ambassador Rokden and his assistant left the shuttle, too. Rokden was empty handed, but the assistant carried another metal crate almost as large as Vurk's.
"Ah," it took a second for Pascual's brain to catch up with his mouth, "of course, yes. Right this way." He waved for them to follow, then launched himself down the hallway, taking great strides along the handlebars. The Tadpoles followed easily enough, with Rokden reaching out an occasional hand to steady Dr. Vurk.
"I want to express my sincere regrets," Rokden said to Pascual after a moment of travel. His low, gurgling voice had a reassuring strength to it. "And my apologies if it does indeed turn out that we are responsible for your crewman's illness. I never even considered the possibility of our environment acting as a pathogen to your species. It was an unforgivable oversight, especially in light of our current troubles."
Pascual felt his lips tightening and he nodded, though he kept his attention on the handlebars ahead of him. "I appreciate that sentiment, Ambassador, and I'll pass it on," he said. "But in truth, we were just as negligent ourselves, and must share any responsibility."
He had seen Lieutenant Muyskens as she was transferred from the Earth Fleet shuttle to the room they'd cleared out on the Discovery to treat her. She had been wracked with convulsions and her comrades had been forced to tie her down to a stretcher. Their Earth Fleet uniforms had all been sprayed with bile and blood. Pascual wished he'd never even looked, and he regretted all the unkind thoughts he'd had about the Lieutenant during their trip.
"What's in the boxes?" he asked, trying to take his mind off the memory.
"Half a hospital," Vurk said, cheerily. At the moment, Pascual couldn't be sure if that was just the alien's regular voice, or if really was that unconcerned, or if he was feigning unconcern in attempt to cheer the others or himself up. "We weren't sure what we might need."
"I did not bring any surgical equipment," Onadunwe added. "I am sure your own doctors would be much more qualified to handle any operation, and have their own supplies."
Pascual grimaced at the thought of the Tadpole trying to perform surgery on a Human. "Yeah," he said.
An awkward moment of silence welled up, and was only broken when the little group finally reached the compartment the Fleet had claimed for the treatment of Colleen Muyskens. A small sign by the door actually marked it as the planned location of a clinic for the future Discovery station, though it had not held any supplies or even furniture prior to this day. An Earth Fleet Petty Officer Pascual didn't know and two Spacer Apprentices stood guard outside.
Pascual caught a bar and tensed his wrist to bring his momentum to a halt with one hand. He was getting better at maneuvering in microgravity, and managed not to flip his legs embarrassingly up into the ceiling.
He nodded to the spacers at the door. "We're here."
The Petty Officer returned his own, more precise nod of a salute, and opened the way to the Ambassador and the Tadpoles who were their comrade's best hope.
Commodore Lee Xi Feng managed not to mutter anything so crass as the "it took you long enough" that she wanted when Ambassador Molinas finally showed up at the makeshift operating theater with the Tadpole doctors in tow.
Instead she simply said, "Doctors," with an acknowledging nod. Then followed that with, "Ambassadors," to Molinas and the Tadpole Rokden.
"Where is the subject?" one of the Tadpoles asked. Xi Feng thought it was Onadunwe, but she had not yet perfected the ability to recognize Tadpole features.
"Just through here," Task Force One's lead physician answered from beside a door leading into the wider chamber where Muyskens had been strapped to a table.
The Tadpoles carrying equipment began to move towards the entrance, but Xi Feng held up a hand.
"Ah, before we go in," the Human doctor said, "I had hoped you could share your thoughts or insights as to what might be happening. In case, uh, it's something that might alarm the patient. She is still conscious."
Delirious, though, Xi Feng thought unhappily. All the same, she had agreed that the Lieutenant Commander's caution was prudent when he explained it to her.
"I would be reckless to speculate about the symptoms you have described without knowledge of Human physiology," the same Tadpole who had spoken before replied. "But from the description and images of the foreign body you provided, I suspect it could be a…" the Tadpole trailed off, searching for an appropriate word, "fungal infection," the alien finished after a moment. "I have tools which can confirm this from a sample and identify the species. I also have poisons and phages to kill any such infection, but I do not know if they would be safe to administer to Humans."
The medical officer seemed less than enthusiastic about this information, but he nodded his understanding. "I'll take you in, then. But please stand back from the patient unless I give permission to approach, understood?"
"Of course," the Tadpole doctor agreed. It and the other two carrying supplies hefted the boxes in their arms.
Rokden remained in his place beside Molinas, showing no apparent intention of entering the theater and interfering with the medical professionals. He did, however, look at his companions and gave them a last instruction in clear, pointed English.
"Do your very best," the Tadpole Ambassador said.
She had long ago given up trying to shut out the voices completely. They were too loud, too insistent, and too scared. She spoke back now, offering what little empty comforts she could; desperate lies that everything was all right, that everything was going to be all right. If they could hear her, they didn't believe it. Colleen was losing faith, too.
Another spasm ripped through the flesh of her back and tore at her brain. The pain was unbelievable, unbearable. Colleen actually laughed wildly. She was so much tougher than she had ever realized to have survived this long. All the times at the Academy when she had thought she was close to giving up, all had been nothing compared to this. Still, she was alive and sane. Perhaps not for much longer, but just making it this far was an accomplishment, wasn't it? Colleen giggled with pride.
* * *
Some deep, animal part of Xi Feng wanted to turn and run from the smile on Muyskens' face.
"Fuck you, Chief Burroughs!" the Lieutenant shouted. Then she vomited a bloody stream onto the floor.
Xi Feng blinked. The only "Chief Burroughs" she knew had been one of the physical fitness instructors back at the Academy in Houston. A transfer out of the US Air Force, he was probably the most unpleasant instructor among the whole faculty. If that was who Muyskens meant, then Xi Feng sympathized. On the other hand, she worried that the Lieutenant was losing track of the present and regressing back to her school years.
"Can't you at least sedate her?" she asked.
The doctor, a Lieutenant Commander, shook his head. "No. Or, rather, we have. It hasn't had any apparent effect, and I don't want to risk an overdose. We don't have much choice but to play this one cautiously, there are just too many unknowns."
Xi Feng forced herself to look away from Lieutenant Muyskens. "Are you even going to be able to move her like this?" she demanded.
"Yes," he said. Then he frowned, "Though it might be a little messy. I imagine we'll have to be careful about vomit on the shuttle. Maybe we can fix a curtain…"
Xi Feng let the man trail off in thought. Looking back at Muyskens, she almost wished she could have let the Tadpoles see to the Lieutenant here on the Uruguay. But no amount of sympathy would permit Xi Feng to allow aliens on board her flagship. However badly Lieutenant Muyskens was suffering, she had sworn the same oath to defend Earth and Humanity as Commodore Lee. Xi Feng was seeing to it that her subordinate would be treated—and she dearly hoped the Tadpoles could help—but the Task Force's security still came first.
* * *
Pascual fidgeted nervously. Ordinarily, that would have involved shifting his weight from one foot to another. But since he had no weight aboard the Discovery, that same motion would have propelled him away from his spot—and probably into something sharp, given Pascual's luck. Instead, he settled for holding onto a handlebar and alternately pulling himself up to the ceiling, then pushing himself away.
Or maybe, he thought to himself, I'm lifting the whole ship, like a dumbbell. Pascual thought that was how relativity worked, anyway. Contact with aliens and the expansion of civilization into space meant more Humans than ever were familiar with what had previously been "advanced" physics concepts. Pascual still had trouble wrapping his mind around most of it, though. He hadn't gone into politics because of his scientific aptitude.
The Tadpole shuttle had docked almost fifteen minutes ago, but the airlock between it and the Discovery remained sealed. Pascual hoped there wasn't some sort of mechanical problem with the doors. The Tadpoles had been docking their transports to the colony ship for nearly a week now, but whatever modifications they used to adapt their equipment to the Humans' was obviously kludge work.
When the hatch finally clanged and worked itself open, Pascual was so relieved that he barely noticed the rush of hot, sticky air from inside. Until complete control of the Discovery was finally turned over to the aliens, atmosphere in the ship's working areas was only being kept uncomfortably warm. Pascual waved his free hand absently in front of his eyes to ward off the heat.
A Tadpole filled the hatchway. Most of its head and torso were obscured by a metal crate about the size of a refrigerator that it was holding in its two large hands. That occupation meant the alien had to move extremely delicately as it boarded the Discovery, so as not to launch itself wildly into the hallway without the benefit of gravity to hold it down.
"Hello!" buzzed the high-pitched voice of Dr. Vurk as the Tadpole finally emerged into the hallway. He peered around the crate to look at Pascual, and his face warped into an unfamiliar expression that Pascual decided indicated happiness. Pascual himself realized that he was relieved to see the familiar alien, and he exhaled deeply.
"Sorry about the delay," Vurk said as he moved to one side to clear the airlock hatch. "We forgot about the lack of gravity, and some of this needs careful handling."
"Uh—" Pascual started to say.
"Coming through!" another Tadpole said in what sounded to Pascual like a huffy voice. Vurk's mate, Dr. Onadunwe, glided out of the airlock next. She was also carrying a crate, though this one was only the size of a large suitcase.
"Hello, Ambassador," she nodded at Pascual, then reached out with one hand to a ceiling handle to stop herself and her cargo. "I'm sure my husband would like to chat, but I understand the situation with your comrade is rather urgent. Will you show us the way?"
As she spoke, Ambassador Rokden and his assistant left the shuttle, too. Rokden was empty handed, but the assistant carried another metal crate almost as large as Vurk's.
"Ah," it took a second for Pascual's brain to catch up with his mouth, "of course, yes. Right this way." He waved for them to follow, then launched himself down the hallway, taking great strides along the handlebars. The Tadpoles followed easily enough, with Rokden reaching out an occasional hand to steady Dr. Vurk.
"I want to express my sincere regrets," Rokden said to Pascual after a moment of travel. His low, gurgling voice had a reassuring strength to it. "And my apologies if it does indeed turn out that we are responsible for your crewman's illness. I never even considered the possibility of our environment acting as a pathogen to your species. It was an unforgivable oversight, especially in light of our current troubles."
Pascual felt his lips tightening and he nodded, though he kept his attention on the handlebars ahead of him. "I appreciate that sentiment, Ambassador, and I'll pass it on," he said. "But in truth, we were just as negligent ourselves, and must share any responsibility."
He had seen Lieutenant Muyskens as she was transferred from the Earth Fleet shuttle to the room they'd cleared out on the Discovery to treat her. She had been wracked with convulsions and her comrades had been forced to tie her down to a stretcher. Their Earth Fleet uniforms had all been sprayed with bile and blood. Pascual wished he'd never even looked, and he regretted all the unkind thoughts he'd had about the Lieutenant during their trip.
"What's in the boxes?" he asked, trying to take his mind off the memory.
"Half a hospital," Vurk said, cheerily. At the moment, Pascual couldn't be sure if that was just the alien's regular voice, or if really was that unconcerned, or if he was feigning unconcern in attempt to cheer the others or himself up. "We weren't sure what we might need."
"I did not bring any surgical equipment," Onadunwe added. "I am sure your own doctors would be much more qualified to handle any operation, and have their own supplies."
Pascual grimaced at the thought of the Tadpole trying to perform surgery on a Human. "Yeah," he said.
An awkward moment of silence welled up, and was only broken when the little group finally reached the compartment the Fleet had claimed for the treatment of Colleen Muyskens. A small sign by the door actually marked it as the planned location of a clinic for the future Discovery station, though it had not held any supplies or even furniture prior to this day. An Earth Fleet Petty Officer Pascual didn't know and two Spacer Apprentices stood guard outside.
Pascual caught a bar and tensed his wrist to bring his momentum to a halt with one hand. He was getting better at maneuvering in microgravity, and managed not to flip his legs embarrassingly up into the ceiling.
He nodded to the spacers at the door. "We're here."
The Petty Officer returned his own, more precise nod of a salute, and opened the way to the Ambassador and the Tadpoles who were their comrade's best hope.
* * *
Commodore Lee Xi Feng managed not to mutter anything so crass as the "it took you long enough" that she wanted when Ambassador Molinas finally showed up at the makeshift operating theater with the Tadpole doctors in tow.
Instead she simply said, "Doctors," with an acknowledging nod. Then followed that with, "Ambassadors," to Molinas and the Tadpole Rokden.
"Where is the subject?" one of the Tadpoles asked. Xi Feng thought it was Onadunwe, but she had not yet perfected the ability to recognize Tadpole features.
"Just through here," Task Force One's lead physician answered from beside a door leading into the wider chamber where Muyskens had been strapped to a table.
The Tadpoles carrying equipment began to move towards the entrance, but Xi Feng held up a hand.
"Ah, before we go in," the Human doctor said, "I had hoped you could share your thoughts or insights as to what might be happening. In case, uh, it's something that might alarm the patient. She is still conscious."
Delirious, though, Xi Feng thought unhappily. All the same, she had agreed that the Lieutenant Commander's caution was prudent when he explained it to her.
"I would be reckless to speculate about the symptoms you have described without knowledge of Human physiology," the same Tadpole who had spoken before replied. "But from the description and images of the foreign body you provided, I suspect it could be a…" the Tadpole trailed off, searching for an appropriate word, "fungal infection," the alien finished after a moment. "I have tools which can confirm this from a sample and identify the species. I also have poisons and phages to kill any such infection, but I do not know if they would be safe to administer to Humans."
The medical officer seemed less than enthusiastic about this information, but he nodded his understanding. "I'll take you in, then. But please stand back from the patient unless I give permission to approach, understood?"
"Of course," the Tadpole doctor agreed. It and the other two carrying supplies hefted the boxes in their arms.
Rokden remained in his place beside Molinas, showing no apparent intention of entering the theater and interfering with the medical professionals. He did, however, look at his companions and gave them a last instruction in clear, pointed English.
"Do your very best," the Tadpole Ambassador said.