by Juno Wells
Stacy
The lonely walk to her quarters at the end of the day with two warriors at her back was becoming a familiar routine. They had been much more congenial at one time. Maybe she pissed them off by failing to conform to their cultural expectations for queens. Stacy wasn’t the “prancing around in a gown and giving orders” kind of woman. Nor did she need guys washing her body, combing her hair or polishing her nails. She probably should have compromised a little more if she had it to do over again.
Truth be told, the other women were a little standoffish with her. She felt out of place with the other women on the ship, although there was no reason in the world she should be. They were mostly indigent women who signed up as an intergalactic bride to find a better life. By contrast, Stacy had a good life on Earth, even after the fall. She would probably still be there if she could have found a husband. They were scarce on the ground and most wanted exotic redheads or blonds. Her father attempted to force her into accepting the one offer she got. It had been from a hypochondriac with a nasty disposition. He spent their one and only date quizzing her about his imaginary medical symptoms. That had been a tedious two hours and she honestly couldn’t imagine living that way her rest of her life.
She’d told the other women that her father agreed to let her sign up because of the one-child rule on Earth. The truth was much more complicated. The man was too risk averse to ever agree to her leaving Earth. He’d come up with a hundred reasons why it was a bad idea. Rather than arguing every single point, she’d just signed up and caught the next ship full of hot aliens. She’d contacted him once they were away from Earth and he’d grudgingly accepted her decision.
Back then Stacy thought she had things all figured out. She negotiated a contract to become a bride of the Taladar elite along with a hundred other women and was looking forward to enjoying the good life. She made friends with Hope, Ella, and Riya, and she thought she had it made. Then her ship got raided by the slimy squid guys, and everything went to hell in a handbasket. After suffering at the hands of the squid guys for almost a month, they were rescued when Hope escaped and brought back help in the form of a thousand sexy dragon warriors. Now here she was with a full state-of-the-art medical suite onboard one of their battle cruisers. And they’d named the freaking ship after her. It was all too surreal.
Slipping into her suite, she began to get undressed, dropping clothing all the way to her cleansing unit. She just wanted to take a shower, to get something to eat, and to crawl into bed and wallow in a little self-pity. Women did that every now and then.
They were too far out for her to contact her best friend, Hope. After they were rescued from the squid men, Hope had settled down with a Draconian warrior and was into year two of her happily ever after. Stacy resisted calling when she felt bad, not wanting to drag her friend down with a bunch of whining about nothing. Then again, being lonely and wishing for a husband was no small thing. It sucked big time.
In the cleansing unit, she let the mister moisten her body before she lathered up. Trading off between the shower and mister conserved resources. Working the lather through her hair, she sighed. The real problem was having Meric in her face when all she wanted to do was forget the humiliating night she asked him to sleep with her. He’d woken up the next morning and made it abundantly clear he didn’t want to be involved with a woman.
Maybe once she got back to Dracon Two she could sign on with another ship. It would be a lot easier to cope if she didn’t have to deal with Mister Hot and Perfect quite so often. She stood for the drying cycle and combed out her hair with a comb she kept in the unit for that purpose. Then she headed out to grab something to sleep in. The door chimed. It was probably one the caretakers with extra towels. She was getting low. She grabbed a robe and slipped it on. Getting them to understand what a robe was had been difficult. They kept trying to make it into a gown somehow.
“Enter.”
When the door slid up, Meric was standing on the other side. Her heart sped up and she began talking without thinking. “Is there a problem? Did we find the Moltan ship?”
“I would like to speak with you about a personal matter.”
She blinked at him, trying to process why kind of personal situation he would need to consult her about. There was none that she could imagine. Gesturing to her small seating area, she responded politely, “Come on in. I’ll just put on a uniform and I’ll be right back.”
His eyes skated from her head downwards and back up again. “That is not necessary, my queen. I will not take up much of your time.”
She sat down on the settee and he sat beside her, too close in her opinion for a man who didn’t care for women. That’s when noticed he had a box in his hand. It was much like the gift boxes used on Earth, only it was clear.
Holding out the box to her, his wings fluttered slightly. “I brought you a gift.” His voice was a tad deeper than normal, and he seemed anxious.
She honestly had no idea why he would bring her a gift. It wasn’t a traditional gift-giving holiday for the Dracon or humans. “That’s a sweet gesture but wasn’t necessary.”
“I insist.”
Since there was a good chance she was misstepping socially again, she took the box from him and sat it on her lap. It appeared to be some kind of colorful intricately woven fabric and quite beautiful. Looking up to catch his eye, she asked, “Can I open now?”
“Please do.”
Lifting the clear lid off, she sat it aside. Lying on top of the fabric was a delicate flower rooted in a tiny vial to keep it fresh. It was similar to the one his son had given her upon his arrival in medical along with a folded piece of paper. The scent that wafted up from the box was amazing.
“Please save the note for after I leave.”
She lifted out the flower and brought it to her nose. “It smells amazing.”
“Calen educated us about how much human queens love flowers. I wish to please you.”
“I can’t imagine why.” Sitting the note and flower on the fancy crate she was currently using for a coffee table, she pulled out the folded fabric. It was super soft and luxurious against her skin. She rubbed it on her face and took a deep breath before speaking. It was clearly a throw or something of that nature. She could tell because of the size and one side of soft and the other fur. “What did I do to deserve a fancy blanket that smells fantastic?”
Rather than answering her question, he asked, “You like the scent of my gift?”
“Who wouldn’t? I can’t identify the scent but I love it.”
That’s when something happened that had never happened before. He smiled and placed his hand over hers. It was enough to send chills up her spine, but in a good way. He leaned towards her and whispered, “Read my words and sleep well, my queen.”
Watching the door slide shut behind him, Stacy leaned back against the settee with a sigh. This day was just getting weirder and weirder. Maybe they were passing through some kind of parallel dimension where people became their opposites. If so, Stacy decided she was staying, cause it sucked in the other dimension where Meric hated her. Something was making the captain behave strangely. The more she rolled it around in her head, the more she worried that it could be something medical. Maybe the ship’s air processors were malfunctioning and not putting enough of something the Dracon needed into the mix. He could have contracted some kind of strange alien virus.
She picked up the paper and began to read. The more she read, the more suspicious she became that something was wrong.
Queen Stacy of the Lionheart:
I wish you to know that I was hasty to refuse your attention. The best night of sleep I ever got was in your bed.
~ Meric ~
Okay she wasn’t just imagining it. Something strange was going on here, and she needed to get to the bottom of it right away. Draping the throw over the back of her settee, she went to get dressed, feeling energized by the mystery unfolding before her eyes. Meric was far too pragmatic and grounded to be do
ing and saying the things he was tonight.
The warriors outside her door jerked to attention when she exited her quarters. One covered his nose with his hand and waved his other hand around. The other frowned and held up both hands as if to ward off an evil spirit. That was a lot of peculiar behavior for normally stoic warriors to show. Her anxiety spiked when she realized that maybe she was the only one unaffected by whatever was going on.
This situation was like when the biological contagion locked onto the male DNA back on Earth all over again. First the males had begun acting strangely, flying off the handle and being easily irritated. Some started engaging in non-goal-directed behaviors, like pinching at the air or rocking back and forth. It was difficult to tell something was wrong at first. Then emergency rooms were flooded with people reporting nonsensical symptoms. It took the medical community months to find the contagion and years to fabricate an inoculation. They never did manage to find a cure, costing millions of lives. That was not going to happen to the Dracon, not on her watch.
“Are you well, Queen Stacy? Do you wish food to be brought?”
“I’m not hungry. We need to go back to the medical unit.”
18 Medical Emergency
Stacy
When Stacy rushed into the medical unit, the lights automatically came up and she immediately pulled Riya up on the com. Her smiling face shimmered into view, speaking immediately, “What’s up, Stacy. You look worried.”
“Has anyone been acting strangely on your ship?”
Shaking her head, Riya stared at her. “What do you mean by strange?”
“Strange as in warriors suddenly showing emotions instead of the blank expression they normally wear. Or people acting the exact opposite of how they normally act. I know this sounds odd but has there been any signs of non-goal-directed behaviors or anything like that?”
Her friend’s face grew concerned. “You mean like on Earth. Hell no, there hasn’t been anything like that going on here. I would have definitely noticed something like that.”
“We need to act fast to make certain we aren’t having a similar problem.”
The other woman’s expression grew wary. “The chance of something similar happening on this ship is one in a billion, Stacy.”
“That’s still more than I’m willing to risk. If there’s a similar incident and it spreads, it could wipe the Dracon from our sector of space.”
Finally Riya asked the question Stacy had been expecting, “Are you well?”
“I’m fine. It’s the warriors who are acting weird.”
“You’re letting the stress of our current mission get to you. You should call it a night and get some sleep, my friend. Perhaps things will look different in the morning.”
Riya’s chipper voice was pissing Stacy off. Her friend clearly didn’t understand the implications of their situation. After sending a message to the bridge to alert her crew of her decision, she told Riya, “My ship is under quarantine as of this moment. Don’t send anyone this way or accept docking requests from any of our shuttles.”
Riya nodded slightly, “Whatever you say, Stacy. Keep me posted about what’s going on over there.”
“I’m going to contact Kearney and Kendra aboard the Jeron.”
Until she saw the two women on her view screen, Stacy worried that she might be dragging them out of bed. Both of were in engineering, covered in grease again. They reported nothing unusual on their ships, so she notified them of the quarantine. They both appeared shocked. Hell, maybe she was losing her mind. The absolute horror of losing so many of the men to the biological contagion on Earth was spurring on her paranoia. There was no way she was giving up until she tracked down every lead.
Next she pulled up the ship’s environmental systems and began running diagnostics, occasionally pulling in her two bewildered guards. She didn’t find anything unusual, right up until the point that she did. In a remote part of the ship there was a node that served as a junction for repairing the four air flow systems that joined together in that area. They were getting miniature heat signatures they couldn’t quite lock onto. “I want warriors to go over that entire area. It might be some type of small rodent we’ve inadvertently picked up, but I’m not willing to take any chances. If you don’t find anything, have each system cleaned one at a time and a full diagnostic performed between cleanings.”
“It will be as you say, my queen. Do you mind if I ask what you are looking for?”
“We’re also looking for biological contagions, viruses or anything out of the ordinary. If there is mold or fungus growing, I want a sample and holographic images taken before it’s removed.”
Meric rushed into the room shortly thereafter. “What is going on, my queen? I was told you put our ship under quarantine?”
“I want to examine you. Move over to the healing platform, take off your clothing and lie down on the platform for the scanner.”
Reaching out to touch her arm, he looked at her intently. “I am well, my queen.”
She pulled over a smaller machine designed to process fluid samples and barked, “Move it soldier. That’s an order, and before you ask, I’m not kidding.”
Meric spun on his heel and did as she asked. Stacy was so focused on the task at hand that she didn’t even glance at his muscular body. She was in full doctor mode, and thinking of him that way was thoroughly inappropriate. Plus she wouldn’t allow herself to make stupid mistakes by being distracted. This was too important.
The big man continued to stare at her as she ran a full medical scan on him. After taking saliva samples, blood samples, and testing all his reflexes, she looked in his ears and up his nose. Running her hands over his wings, she searched for any sign of discoloration or necrosis. She even had a look at his horns before letting him up.
“It’ll take a bit for your tests to come back. I want to evaluate every person on this ship. Send them to me in batches of six at a time. I’ll also need at least ten warriors experienced in working backup in our medical unit. I made a short list while your scan was running and messaged it to you. You can get up, and you’ll be happy to know you’re in perfect health.”
Meric struggled back into his armored uniform and came to her. “Can I know what’s going on, my queen?”
“I believe there is a small but statically significant possibility we have a biological contagion loose on the ship. I’ve ordered a full-scale diagnostic on all our ship’s systems and we found some anomalous readings in and around junction 213. They’re searching the area now. I’m also having our crew clean the systems one at a time to be on the safe side. I don’t have time to go into all the details. I need to keep moving. I’ve got a lot of bodies to cover tonight.”
“I’ll send Phan and Timric to assist you.”
“Fine, but after I examine them, I’m putting them and the other assistants in protective gear.”
“Do you really think that is necessary?”
“The rational side of my brain says it’s probably not, but I’m not taking any chances with the lives of our crew, in case there is a dangerous contagion about. The probability that we do, is astronomical. However, if we’re unlucky enough to be that one percent, the loss of life could be substantial. If they’re suited up, then there is zero chance they’ll be exposed.”
“It will be as you say, my queen.”
Stacy hated to scare the crap out of everyone, but she had to be certain. If not for the strange readings in node 213, she might have let it go. But this was simply too important to take any chances.
The two boys came running into the room, tore off their clothing and hopped onto the two scanning platforms. Whatever Meric told them must have driven home the importance of their situation. Both were cleared and suited up. The other assistants arrived shortly thereafter and suited up. She briefed them all on what they were looking for and they powered through the majority of the exams by late afternoon.
As things were winding down, they ran up against one warrior who refused
to get onto the medical platform.
Glancing at the guards, she shook her head. “We don’t have time for this. Just stun him and put him on the platform. We’ll cut his clothing off.”
The moment the scan began, they knew they had a problem. Phan saw it first. “He’s not Dracon. You can easily tell by the number and configuration of his internal organs.”
“Good catch, Phan. I’ve never seen anything like him before.”
Stacy began cross matching his anatomy to known species and came up empty-handed. A closer evaluation revealed his wing base had been grafted haphazardly to his spine, making the wings nonfunctional. On a ship that wouldn’t be noticed. Because of space considerations, warriors rarely spread their wings. She noticed a thick skin-colored patch attached to the front of his throat. Peeling it back revealed a patch of dark skin with snow-white markings.
A woman stormed into the room and flew at Stacy, shoving her back. “Don’t you dare touch him!” Glaring up at her, she snarled. “Leave him alone. He’s done nothing wrong.”
Stacy gaped at the angry woman. “You know something? It’s been a really stressful twelve hours for me. I don’t know who or what species your friend is. Would you mind dropping me a clue here?”
The woman suddenly looked terrified. “I’m not telling you anything.” Her voice softened as she looked down at him. He moved slightly and her hand slid into his. “Why can’t you just leave him alone?”
Stacy gestured to the guards. “Put him in a cell. He’s medically cleared. I don’t know what’s so great about being a Draconian that he’d be disguised as one and we don’t have time to figure it all out right now. He doesn’t have any harmful pathogens showing up on our scanners. We’ll have to deal with him later.”
“It will be as you say, my queen.”
If she had to hear that phrase one more time, Stacy thought she was going to explode.
The woman snarled at the guards and put her body protectively over the alien. “Touch him and you’ll regret it.”
Stacy raised her voice. “He’s going into lockup until we can figure this out. If you want, you can go with him.”
