Stranded in Space

by Rinelle Grey

  Amelie shook her head. “There might be diseases that would cause one of these issues, but they’re so diverse, affecting different aspects of the body. The only thing they have in common is being symptoms of ageing, or only happening to older people.”

  “So what does it mean?”

  Kugah suspected she had an answer. Or a theory.

  He was right. “What if it’s something to do with the wormhole?” she said slowly. “Either a normal side-effect, or something to do with whatever it was that went wrong.” She looked over at him, her eyes wide and worried. “If it is, how can I fix it? Where do I even begin?”

  “You need to start with making sure that this is, in fact, premature ageing, and not something else,” Kugah typed. “Can you do that?”

  Amelie frowned. “I took blood to check for Folly, and for Junie. I could run some tests and see if I can find anything.”

  Kugah nodded. “Let’s start with that.”

  Amelie nodded, and straightened her shoulders. She seemed happy to have some direction. Kugah watched as she sat at her computer, scrolling through data faster than he could take it in.

  He wasn’t happy that the crease in her forehead grew deeper and deeper. When she gave a heavy sigh, and turned her chair to face him, he already knew it wasn’t good news.

  “Both Junie and Folly’s telomere’s are far shorter than they should be. Dangerously short in fact. I’m pretty sure that if I tested her, Marlee would show the same.”

  “What does that mean?” Kugah typed. It was frustrating to have to keep asking questions that he was sure any other human would have known the answer too, but he wanted to understand. He wanted to be able to help her.

  “Telomere’s are the nonsense DNA on the end of each strand,” Amelie explained patiently. “Our DNA divides many times over our lifetime, and each time, we lose a bit of the telomere. Once it’s all gone, degradation of the DNA strand begins, and ageing starts for real.”

  “Is it caused by the wormhole?” Kugah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Amelie said in frustration. She ran her hand through her hair in a gesture of despair that was endearing and concerning at the same time. “I don’t even know how to start to figure that out, and it will have to wait. Right now, I need to tell Tyris.”

  Chapter 16

  Amelie asked Kugah to stay with Junie to watch the sedated woman while she talked to Tyris. There wasn’t anyone else. They hadn’t been counting on these sort of difficulties when they’d set out from Urslat.

  Tyris met her in the briefing room. “What’s up, Amelie? I only have a minute, I was helping Nerris repair the AWP. He’s hoping it will be up and running again in a couple of days. That sun Glesin discovered concerns me.”

  Amelie’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of the supernova, but the AWP concerned her even more. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  Tyris raised an eyebrow.

  Somehow, standing here, her idea seemed absurd. The idea that everyone on the ship was ageing at an advanced rate because of their trip through the wormhole was crazy. But then again, the technology was untried.

  Either way, there was a definite problem, and until she had something else that may have caused it, her concern was justified.

  “I think that our trip through the wormhole has caused some sort of premature ageing,” she blurted out.

  Tyris stared at her. For a moment, Amelie was afraid he was going to burst out laughing. But he didn’t. “What makes you think that?” he asked calmly.

  Amelie detailed her evidence. “I’ve had three people turn up at med bay in the last two days with diseases that don’t fit with their age. Menopause in a twenty-five year old, dementia in a forty year old, and eyesight degeneration in a twenty year old.”

  Tyris frowned. Typically, he latched onto the least concerning incident. “But people can have bad eyesight at any age,” he argued. “Lots of little kids wear glasses.”

  “That’s true,” Amelie agreed. “People have bad eyesight for a host of different reasons. One of them is age related, and it’s physically different to the others. After the third case came in, I looked into it a little more, and ran tests on the two people who I had blood samples from. Both show cellular ageing decades ahead of where they should be.”

  “What makes you think this is related to the wormhole?” Tyris demanded. “Because I was planning on jumping again as soon as Nerris fixed the engine. Everyone is going stir crazy locked up on this ship with no fresh air, and no new home.”

  “They’re going to go even crazier if they all end up suffering from dementia,” Amelie said firmly. “I’m not sure, not even remotely, but are you sure enough that it isn’t the case that you’re willing to risk it? These people have come down with these symptoms within days of our trip through the wormhole. Do you have a better explanation?”

  Tyris ran his hands through his hair. “What are we going to do? Can you fix it?”

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” Amelie said, panic rising in her chest. “I’m not trained to deal with this. No one is. I told you it was dangerous to travel through the wormhole without testing the equipment more thoroughly first.”

  “There wasn’t anything else we could do,” Tyris reminded her. “We all would have been in serious trouble if the Colonies had decided to change their policy on us. We couldn’t stay.”

  Amelie sighed. She’d been there. She remembered. That still didn’t make her feel any better. “I know,” she agreed. “I just wish there had been some other way.”

  “Perhaps this isn’t as bad as it seems,” Tyris suggested. “There’s still a chance these cases could be isolated, and not connected after all. So far, we haven’t had anything too serious, have we?”

  “Dementia is serious,” Amelie said flatly. “And while not being able to have a baby isn’t life threatening, it is a lot more than an inconvenience. And we all know that the outcome for ageing is death. If that isn’t serious, I don’t know what is.” He needed to realise that this was a big issue, one that wasn’t going to just go away if he ignored it.

  “Look, just assuming that this is as serious as you say, and that it was caused by our travel through the wormhole, who’s to say it’s permanent? Maybe we’ll spend all this time stressing over it, only to discover that it cures itself in a few days.”

  Amelie shook her head. He just didn’t get it. “This isn’t going to cure itself. Their DNA is affected.”

  Tyris frowned. “It can’t be that bad, or Folly’s family would have suffered from their first trip to Semala.”

  He had a point. Amelie considered it for a moment. “Folly’s father died in the asteroid strike, so we don’t know what would have happened to him had he lived a few more days. And Folly said her mother died not long after, though I don’t know what the cause was. That doesn’t set a good record.”

  Tyris frowned. “But Folly is still fine, and has been for twenty years since her last trip.”

  Patient confidentiality meant that Amelie couldn’t tell him that Folly wasn’t fine. She was one of the people she was concerned about. Even if she’d been fine as a child, whatever had protected her then had disappeared.

  “With any medical incident, there are people who are more resistant to it than others, and people who react more severely. At the moment, we’re seeing those with the severe or quick reactions. If I’m right, in the next few days or weeks, we’ll see those who take longer to react. After it hits them, we’ll find there are some who are resistant. That will be where our chances of finding a cure are. Even if we find one, it may not be in time to save everyone.”

  She was overstating it a little, perhaps. But she couldn’t help it. She was scared. Terrified even. She didn’t ask for this responsibility. She’d thought it was enough to take on a ship full of pregnant women. She’d prepared herself for the possibility that she might lose women or children she’d come to care about. She hadn’t even thought to prepare herself for a disaster on the sca
le this one could become.

  “I think it’s a big jump to go from three cases to everyone having…”

  Tyris’s words were cut off by the beeping of Amelie’s communicator. “Dr Benton here,” she answered.

  The woman’s voice on the other end of the line was clear enough that even Tyris could hear her. “Help, please! Kerit just collapsed, and he doesn’t seem to be breathing.”

  Amelie’s heart skipped a beat. Not Kerit. Tyris’s good natured brother had endeared himself to everyone on the ship.

  “I’ll be right there,” she said immediately.

  She looked up at Tyris, whose face had gone white. He didn’t panic though, just asked quickly, “What can I do?”

  “I need the stretcher from med bay, the crash cart, and two people to help me lift him if necessary. Meet me there.”

  Tyris just nodded, and headed out the door at a run. Amelie followed, heading straight for the patient.

  Folly met her at the door, her face frantic. “I don’t know what happened,” she cried, as soon as she saw Amelie. “We were just talking, when he clutched at his arm and collapsed on the floor. Is he dead?”

  Kerit lay in a crumpled heap on the floor, not moving. Chicken stood on his chest, batting at his face, making pitiful mewing sounds.

  Amelie knew just how the little creature felt.

  “Let me see,” Amelie said, kneeling down next to Kerit. No pulse, no breathing. Panic rose up in Amelie’s chest. She was too late. Not just for Kerit, for all of it. Everyone around her was going to start dying.

  She took a deep breath. She was a doctor. She could do something about this.

  Chicken jumped out the way as Amelie began CPR. Hopefully Tyris wouldn’t be long.

  Folly watched her, blessedly silent, as she focused on the rhythm.

  By the time Tyris arrived, a few moments later, she still hadn’t managed to get a pulse. Amelie grabbed the defibrillator paddles before the cart had even stopped moving. “Clear,” she said. Folly moved back, tears rolling down her cheeks. Tyris stepped close to her and gave her an awkward hug. Amelie checked, but Folly’s pet was nowhere in sight.

  Amelie applied the paddles and hit the charge, watching Kerit’s body lift into the air, then slump back down again. She felt for a pulse.

  Nothing. She upped the charge, and tried again. “Clear.”

  Tyris and Kerit’s parents arrived at just that moment, and checked in the doorway. “Kerit?” Imyne whispered, her voice disbelieving.

  Amelie ignored them. She shocked Kerit again, then checked for a pulse.

  Still nothing.

  Her mind worked feverishly. The arteries were most likely blocked, stopping the heart from beating. She rummaged desperately through the cart, and pulled out the plasminogen activator. If she could dissolve the clot, he might stand a chance.

  She punched the injection into his chest, blocking out Imyne’s gasp. Dimly she was aware of Kerit’s parents joining Tyris and Folly, but all her focus was on the dying man in front of her. If this didn’t work, there was little more she could do. By the time she could get Kerit to the operating table, he’d be dead.

  She waited a few seconds for the medication to take effect, then shocked him again.

  Her own heart thumped in her chest as she felt for a pulse.

  Please be a pulse.

  There it was. Faint and thready, but it was there.

  She sagged in relief, tears blocking her eyes, and looked up at his family. “His heart is beating again. We need to get him down to med bay for further treatment, but this is a good sign.”

  Folly burst into tears. “Thank you, Dr Benton.”

  Amelie smiled at her, then turned to Tyris. “Help me get him onto the stretcher.”

  As they wheeled the trolley down to med bay, Amelie kept a finger on Kerit’s pulse. She wasn’t going to lose him now. Folly walked at the other side of the bed, holding his hand.

  Chicken jumped off Folly’s shoulder and ran down her arm to cuddle up to Kerit on the trolley.

  Kugah stood up as they wheeled Kerit in. “Gegit?” he asked.

  “He’s alive,” Amelie told him. Her heart had barely returned to its normal rhythm, hardly able to believe she had come so close to losing someone. Especially someone of Kerit’s age and health. He was a surfer for goodness sake. “Just.”

  Kugah nodded, and stepped back, though he watched everything closely.

  Amelie hooked up equipment to monitor his heart rate. Seeing the familiar pattern of his heartbeat helped her immensely.

  Once he was settled, Tyris pulled her aside and asked quietly, “So is this another age related illness?”

  Amelie looked over at Folly and Kerit. Her eyes caught Kugah’s as she looked back to Tyris. Kugah hadn’t doubted her.

  “You have to ask?” Amelie said.

  Tyris sighed. “I’ll tell Nerris to hold off on the wormhole jump,” he said. “And I’ll call a general meeting. You don’t have to do this on your own. You may be our only doctor, but we have plenty of other scientists. We need to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.”

  His words eased a little of the weight on her shoulders. They had several biologists on the ship, as well as other scientists. With a team of people, she might just be able to do this. The question was, could they do it in time?

  “That’s a good idea,” Amelie agreed.

  Tyris glanced over at his brother, then back at Amelie. “When can you leave him safely?”

  Amelie bit her lip. That was the problem, wasn’t it? “I can’t” she explained. “It’s going to take a day or two of testing medications to be sure I have him on the right ones and at the right doses.”

  This was hopeless. How could she run med bay and solve the ageing problem at the same time?

  Tyris didn’t miss a beat. “We need to get you an assistant. Or two. I’ll get on it. If someone is here to watch him, can you do the meeting?”

  Did she have any choice? If she didn’t get to the bottom of this, no amount of medicating his heart condition was going to save Kerit.

  “Sure,” Amelie nodded.

  *****

  Kugah watched Amelie pour over her computer for almost an hour after Tyris had left and she’d settled Kerit. There was little he could do to help, even though he was worried about his friend. All he could do was watch this scene unfold.

  The door slid open, and a woman came in. Another man was only a few steps behind her.

  Their ailments seemed to be simple. Amelie took blood samples, gave them medicine or advice, and sent them on their way. As she did with a couple of others behind them. But with each patient, her frown became heavier, and her responsibility greater.

  Kugah ached to take this load from her shoulders. Eventually, he couldn’t stand it any longer. “Kugah gelp, KaGeeGee?” he asked.

  Amelie sighed. “I don’t know, Kugah. I’ve been running tests on everyone who comes in, and it’s all coming up the same. This issue seems to be widespread, meaning it has to be connected to the wormhole. I don’t see any other explanation. I just don’t know how to confirm it. Even if I could, I don’t know if it’s a product of every wormhole, or a consequence of the malfunction. How do I figure it out?”

  His physical speech failed him, so Kugah reached for the tablet. “Let’s go over the information we have,” he typed.

  Amelie heaved a sigh, but she pushed her chair back from the computer and turned to face him. “We have several cases of people with ageing related illnesses out of proportion with their actual ages. In the last week, all of them have been through a malfunctioning wormhole. Two of them have also been through a normal wormhole.”

  “Folly has been three times.” Kugah pointed out. “If every wormhole trip has the same effect, then why wasn’t she effected when she was a child?” Kugah asked. “That indicates it could be because the AWP malfunctioned.”

  “Maybe,” Amelie allowed. “But logic dictates that if everyone’s age is advancing at the same rate, t
hen the older people would be affected first. Neither Folly nor Kerit should be showing such serious symptoms before their parents. I think their extra trip through the wormhole explains why they were affected so severely.”

  She kept talking, obviously it was helping her work through her thoughts, so Kugah didn’t interrupt.

  “Let’s assume it is wormhole travel as a whole for a moment. If it is, then we might be able to learn something from Folly and her parent’s journey. Folly’s father died in the asteroid strike but her mother died not long after they arrived here on the planet. I don’t know how, we should find out, but it’s possible that she died from some sort of advanced ageing. If that’s the case though, why didn’t Folly die then?”

  “Working on the assumption that this was a result of wormhole travel, and not a malfunction,” Kugah typed, “the only logical explanation for Folly not dying as a child must be related to her being a child.”

  Amelie stared at him, her eyes wide. Kugah frowned. He had just been throwing out random ideas since he had no idea of human makeup to suggest anything from there.

  “Of course,” Amelie said. “Children’s telomeres repair themselves.”

  Far from making her happy, the realisation only made Amelie’s frown deepen. “So we can’t rule out that this is a side effect of every trip through the wormhole. I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. Far more urgent is figuring out how to solve it.” She turned back to her computer and pulled up some information. “The Colonies have studied the reversal of ageing many times, but without success as far as I know.”

  Kugah nodded, and moved his chair a little closer, so he could read over her shoulder.

  In actuality, he ended up watching her fingers, lithe and quick, flying across the keys. How did she type so fast? Obviously she knew the position of every key after long repetition. He couldn’t help being fascinated.

  Amelie was studying the information, unaware of his scrutiny. “Nothing at all that I can use” she said, her voice holding a note of frustration.