Phoenix In Chaos (Exodus)

by Robert Stadnik

  Suddenly, the medical klaxon blared, indicating a ship wide emergency. “This is Chief Medical Officer Myers to the crew. Emergency medical quarantine is in effect. All non essential human personnel are to report to their quarters immediately. Captain Roberts, report to medical. Repeat, full medical quarantine is in effect.”

  “What the hell?” said Alex’sis.

  “Julie, you have the command deck,” said John as he ran out of the pit. There was no indication that there was a problem with this illness going around. Myers said the virus developed from the bacteria carried in the Aldarian xixia plant. The doctor had hoped the inoculation he created after John fell ill last year would immediately kill the virus in others. But instead, the inoculation was only slowing the virus, not killing it. The medical staff concluded the inoculation would render the virus inert over time.

  John was shocked on what he saw upon entering medical. It was packed full of people. Every bed was occupied. Cots had been pulled out to accommodate the sick. The captain looked around and saw Myers with Thresha attending to one of the patients.

  “Doctor, what the hell is going on?” John asked.

  “Captain, this crisis only manifested in the last thirty minutes,” said Myers. “People are collapsing throughout the ship from the virus.”

  “You said the inoculation would take care of it,” said John.

  “Nurse Gil,” said Myers to one of the nearby nurses. She took over treating the patient as Myers ushered John and Thresha to his office. “I didn’t see it until the first cases started coming in, but the virus creates a mutation in the inoculate itself.”

  “How’s that possible?” asked John.

  “I don’t know,” Myers replied as he coughed. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. The inoculate does break down the virus as its supposed to, but in the process the virus alters the inoculation, turning it into a unique virus all on its own. This new variant has its own pathology and I haven’t been able to determine how to treat it.”

  “Captain, Drix and my people are immune to this virus,” said Thresha. John looked to Myers who nodded.

  “We’ve already verified that Cresorian and Aldarian physiology are immune,” said Myers.

  “That’s good,” said John. “So you can focus purely on human biology. How serious is it?”

  “Three of my earliest cases died in the last few minutes, which is why I declared the medical emergency,” said Myers. “It’s highly communicable in the air. Even with the environmental filtration system I expect most of the human crew has been infected.”

  “Including me,” said John. “Most of the command staff are exhibiting symptoms.”

  A sick Professor Donavin stumbled in the office. John and Thresha grabbed him to prevent the chief engineer from falling down. “Captain, my entire engineering team is sick and incapacitated. Only three Aldarians are left down there. PHOENIX needs engineers to maintain its systems.”

  John helped Donavin to a seat. “Don’t worry, professor. I’ll make sure PHOENIX doesn’t suffer from lack of staff.” He looked at Thresha. “I’m going to need you to coordinate sending your people to critical departments to keep the ship running.”

  “Of course, captain,” said Thresha. “But there will not be enough of my people to help make up for the loss of human workers.”

  “We may need to rely on the computer to automate some of the processes,” said Donavin. “We should also get some of the bots reassigned to some of these tasks.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” said John, trying to reassure the engineer. “I’ll send some Aldarians to the command deck for operational training.” John had avoided training any Aldarians on command deck operations. They were pacifists and refused to harm others, even if their own lives were at risk. John didn’t want to put them in positions that might put them in danger. But if this epidemic was going to incapacitate his crew, he would need bodies up there manning the stations.

  “I will begin dispersing my people,” said Thresha as she left the office.

  “I’ve been working closely with Velni,” said Myers, referring to the only Aldarian who had been trained as a doctor. “He’ll take over medical once I’m unable to continue working.” Myers grabbed a medical scanner and passed it over the captain. “In the meantime, we should determine where you’re at with the virus.”

  John saw the look of surprise on Myer’s face as the doctor reviewed the data. “What is it?”

  “I’m not seeing any indication of the virus in you,” said Myers. “You’ve been in proximity with infected individuals. There should be some sign of the virus in you.”

  “Lucky you,” said Donavin. “No offense, captain, but I’d rather trade places with you.”

  “There’s more,” said Myers. “I’m picking up some antibodies I’ve never seen before.” He pressed a button on his desk. “Doctor Velni, please report to my office.”

  A few moments later the Aldarian entered the office. “What is it, Doctor Myers?”

  “I need you to do a comprehensive exam on the captain. He shows no sign of the virus and I’m picking up unique antibodies in his system.”

  “Why can’t you do the exam?” said John.

  “I estimate in a couple of hours I will be too sick to work,” said Myers.

  Myers proved accurate in his statement. An hour and a half later, he collapsed and was moved to a cot. Velni had the main surgical bay cleared of everyone so he could exam John. The captain watched helplessly as crew members were brought to medical in droves. It wasn’t long before he spotted Julie and Alex’sis being brought in. Julie was unconscious and Alex’sis was awake, but babbling incoherently due to her high fever.

  John contacted the Onixin cruiser Claz and informed them of PHOENIX’s medical alert. It was agreed that to protect the Onixins from infection, they would eject the Quix weapons shipment into space and get picked up by a REPO. Hendestaun would be contacting her homeworld to alert them that PHOENIX would be heading there for protection if the ship’s situation continued to deteriorate.

  Included with the weapons shipment was the binus crystal containing the transmission from Earth. As much as John wanted to see it, he couldn’t bring himself to do it while the crew was suffering. He felt it would be selfish of him enjoying a message from home while the crew was sick.

  “Captain,” said Thresha, returning from dispersing her people throughout the ship. “My people have been placed to assist with ship operations.”

  “Do we know how many people are sick?” asked John.

  “At last report over twenty-eight hundred have fallen ill,” she replied.

  “How many dead?”

  “Ten.”

  John lowered his head. Ten dead, with thousands in danger of dying and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. This was a situation only the medical personnel could solve. All he could do was sit and wait for them to find a cure.

  “We are tracking the progression rate of all infected individuals,” said Doctor Velni. “We do not expect any more fatalities until tomorrow morning.”

  “That leaves us only eighteen hours,” said John.

  Drix arrived to medical and headed into the surgical bay. “The Quix weapons have been delivered and secured in the hangar bay. Vori Hendestaun sends her wishes that we will overcome this crisis.”

  “Why don’t you two get some rest,” said John to Drix and Thresha. “You’ve both been working non-stop for too long.”

  “I cannot rest while my friends are suffering,” said Thresha.

  “I too will not rest while the crew is incapacitated,” said Drix. “There are tasks that must be performed.”

  John appreciated their commitment. “Well, one thing we need to address should be the bots. With most of the techs ill, we don’t have enough people to reprogram the bots to cover some functions that need monitoring.”

  “I can gather the Aldarians who are trained as technicians to work on that,” offered Drix.

  “Thanks,�
�� said John as Velni reentered the surgical bay. “Doctor, isn’t there anything I can do to help?”

  “I am still running tests on the virus using the antibodies extracted from you,” said Velni. “You can help by remaining here.”

  John didn’t like that answer. How could he sit here and do nothing while the crew suffered?

  Thresha could see he was anxious to do something. “Perhaps if you visited with those who are ill will help occupy your mind.”

  It was a good idea. If nothing else, John could try and lift their spirits.

  As Velni and the remaining medical staff continued to work on a cure for the virus, John wandered around medical, spending time with his sick crew. He didn’t think he was doing much, but his visit had a profound impact on them. They appreciated that their captain was willing to spend time with them. Many of them never had the opportunity to meet him during their almost two years in space. John offered them encouragement, asked them about their lives and duties on the ship. He never rushed any of them, talking to each person as long as they had strength. He learned so much about them, never realizing what a diverse group of people comprised the crew. He walked away from each visit feeling he had made new friends.

  The hours past and the last thing John remembered was laying down on a cot listening to William the farmer bragging about his prized pig giving birth to a litter six weeks ago. He must have dozed off because he remembered being gently nudged awake by Thresha.

  Realizing he fell asleep, John quickly sat up. “What time is it? I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

  “It is alright, captain,” said Thresha. “It is morning, 0930 hours. Velni found a cure for the virus a couple of hours ago and is administering it to the crew.”

  John looked around and, although medical was still full of people, many of the cots and beds were empty. He watched the doctors and nurses rushing to each patient, administering treatments to them.

  “So he found a cure in time before any more people died?” asked John.

  Thresha nodded. “Velni discovered by combining the antibodies with Drix blood chemistry that it created an inoculate that destroys the virus. I do not understand the exact science behind it…”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said John. “All that’s important is the crew is safe.”

  “Those who were ill will need a couple of days to recover,” said Thresha. “Velni referred to medical protocol and issued the order ship wide.”

  John was relieved that this crisis was over. The loss of the human crew members would most likely have forced John to return PHOENIX to the solar system, and ended the mission to find the Screen. He laid back down and closed his eyes, happy about the outcome.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  The message from Earth had a profound effect on the crew. The senior staff reviewed the message first before releasing to the rest of the ship. They found it contained clips of news reports from the past year. None of them were prepared to learn how their departure had affected people back home. The public craved the data transmissions PHOENIX sent and they overwhelmingly supported the ship’s mission. TERRA’s refusal to acknowledge the ship’s existence did nothing to abate people’s excitement about the adventures PHOENIX experienced.

  John released the complete message to the crew and it was all everyone was talking about. For Drix and the Aldarians, it gave them some new insight about the humans’ home star system.

  For Julie, the message hit her hard. One of the news reports was about her father in Nebraska. TERRA made no qualms in declaring the participants in the EXODUS Project as traitors working outside the authority of command. As his daughter was the executive officer of a stolen starship, he had been targeted by TERRA with an intensive investigation. Julie was helpless to do anything for her father, but she remembered what he told her the last time they spoke. He said she needed do what she felt was right and not worry about him. She followed his advice, but she felt guilty that he was paying the price for her decision.

  John, on the other hand, was unaffected by the message. He felt disconnected about the events unfolding back home. Crew members related how the PHOENIX movement might be affecting their loved ones back home, but he had no one to worry about. He could only speculate how his sister would react to all of this is she was alive.

  The fact that PHOENIX’s departure from the solar system had such a huge impact on the public was irrelevant to John. He took this command to fulfill his dream, not to create social upheaval back home. Yes, he wanted to put a stop to whatever the Screen had planned for humanity, but it wasn’t so he could be a hero back home. He was doing it to stop an aggressive species, a species that had not only imprisoned humanity, but had tortured other races in this part of space.

  “Captain? Captain.”

  “Huh? What?” John looked at Professor Donavin, who was gathered with the senior staff in the board room.

  “The Quix energy weapon,” said Donavin. “We haven’t been able to modify the ship’s plasma network to make it compatible. Our plasma doesn’t have a high enough energy output for what the weapon needs to work.”

  “The Quix and Onixin have been successful in adapting quadrin to speed up the reactivation of the Quix’s starships,” said Julie. “They might be able to help us adapt the PHOENIX’s energy grid to power the weapon.”

  “The Quix science bureau is scheduled to contact us at 1300 hours today,” said Alex’sis. “We can bring it up to them during the call.”

  “Fine,” said John. “Anything else?”

  “The Senfo’s planetary defense system has been completely restored on their homeworld,” reported Julie. “And over three hundred thousand of their people have been removed from stasis. But they’re still not willing to engage in any cooperative endeavors until they’ve awaken more of their people.”

  “Why don’t the Onixins send some of their people to help?” said Chris. “They have plenty of cruisers in service now.”

  “The Senfo do not wish to have visitors to their homeworld,” said Drix. “They are concern any regular traffic to their star system might alert the Screen. They have not even reactivated their fleet of ships until they have enough military personnel awaken to staff them.”

  “We’ll adhere to the Senfo’s wishes for now,” said John. “Everyone’s dismissed. Professor, I’ll be down in engineering later to go over your proposal regarding the maintenance bots.”

  “Thank you, captain,” said Donavin. Everyone got up and left, except for Julie, who remained behind to speak with John alone.

  “You were pretty quiet,” she said as she sat next to him. “I take it you must be thinking about the transmission Billy and David sent.”

  John nodded. “But not for the reason you think. I thought I’d be happy about the support we’re getting back home, but I’m finding myself not caring about it.”

  “Oh,” said Julie, looking down.

  “Julie, don’t misunderstand me. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about what’s going on with your father, or the family members of the crew. I hate the thought that TERRA is harassing them. I’m more committed to completing our mission just so we can get back home. Whatever consequences are waiting for me, I’ll gladly take if I can reunite you with your father again.”

  Julie was touched by John’s words. “Thank you for saying that. It means a lot to me. I know he can take care of himself. I just hate the idea of TERRA harassing him because I’m not there.”

  “If we succeed in our mission, TERRA’s going to have a lot to answer for,” said John.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  “This is not a typical phenomenon.”

  Gerry Miltoff agreed with the Quix’s statement. “Our scientists concur it’s unusual, but conclude it’s a normal occurrence in this part of space. He was talking with a Quix scientist over a communications link at the navigation station on the command deck along with Kevin. The three were going over readings from the sensors in the survey being conducted in the area PHOENIX was travel
ing through.

  “One would not expect to find such strong magnetic readings outside the proximity of a major stellar body,” said Proministaun, the Quix scientist. “Has it impacted the propulsion capability of your vessel?”

  “No,” replied Kevin. “But it’s distorted the location of local star systems. Plotting a route through this region has become difficult. We dropped out of our jump as a precaution and have been working to improve our sensor resolution. But so far we can’t seem to compensate for the magnetic influence.”

  “Given our location, it’s highly unlikely we’d impact a stellar body if we resumed our jump,” said Gerry. “But it’s strange that none of our modifications are reducing the sensor distortions.”

  “I agree,” said Proministaun. “Have you consulted with your Cresorian? I understand he is well versed in sensor technology.”

  “Drix has tried everything but hasn’t been successful either,” replied Kevin.

  “I have some computational schematics that may resolve this issue,” said Proministaun.

  Down in Central, John was in the coilquin enjoying the soothing hums emanating throughout the Aldarian temple. He hadn’t come here in months, since he stopped having the nightmares about the Io. But he found he needed refuge from some things weighing on his mind.

  John was certain that the Ni would have opened communication by now, given everything they’ve uncovered about the Screen and their impact on other races. But the gaseous aliens never replied to any of PHOENIX’s transmissions. He even had the Onixin and Quix send messages to the Ni homeworld, but they also had no success in getting a reply. Were that Ni so xenophobic that they would ignore the threat the Screen posed, or was it possible the Screen may have already done something to them? Without a message from them, John couldn’t risk returning to the Ni star system. They had clearly communicated that PHOENIX could never return and John couldn’t risk their response if he returned the ship there.

  It was the lack of knowing that was hard. The last indication John had about Screen activity was their attack on the alien trading outpost, but that was weeks ago. Was the Screen monitoring the PHOENIX? Did they know of the ship’s dealings with the Onixins, Quix, and Senfo?