Asteroid Belt

Asteroid belt history
Asteroid belt history2
"Don't cut through... don't blow the doors" Rhod said silently into his helmet mike "Then you can't get in, because we will lose pressure. These people don't have helmet, and if you blow through both doors you'll kill them. Just go through two at a time... one at a time for Skiff."

Slowly someone stood up... they wore a damaged security uniform, but the way that his hands were shaking on the gun barrel showed that he was not used to holding a gun. "T-take off your helmets..." he said shakily, glad that he had a gun right now "Let us see your faces."

Sojana glanced at the Captain. Her countenance wasn't exactly reassuring to a group of frightened humans.

The boys heeded the captain's instruction, having already figured that out from Jim's assesment.

Rhod was scanning the group... a lot of them were hidden from view behind benches and helmets, but he could tell they weren't all humans here. "Do it" he said gently to her, reaching up and pulling off his own helmet. The moment he did he almost choked; the smell in the air was familiar, blood, death and other bodily fluids that escaped founded bodies. It was the smell of fear, fear and battle.

Sojana did as he asked and unfastened her helmet. The odor of the room flooded into her helmet before it could even clear her head. She immediately closed her nostrils but her frills picked up on the scent any way. All three sets of her eyelids felt sticky as she blinked but as she turned her eyes on the group she wondered how they would evacuate them all. "We're gonna have to return to the ship for evac masks. I could have the boys do that now if you like?"

"Good idea" Rhod said, though he was clearly thinking that there might not be enough masks for everyone "Tell them to check on doc as well, if he's done with the liver transplant then he can come here. I'm sure there are more injured hidden in the rooms back there." He nodded towards the back, the doors closed securely so no innocents could get caught in a cross fire. How many evac masks had they brought? How many did they need? And by God how were they going to get everyone out?

There had been some mumbling from behind the barricade as the masks were removed, though it wasn't anger or intense fear. Finally the same person who had popped up before appeared "Alright... alright I'll take you to the chief..." They let their gun swing by their side as they waited for Rhod and Sojana to join them.

"Maybe we can get some answers" Rhod muttered under his breath as he stepped forward slowly, keeping an eye on the armed gunmen around them. None of them seemed very trained, or very coherant at least...

Sojana relayed te information to the boys and Doors ordered Skiff Jim and Rhodes to head back towards Dresden and procure as many evac masks as they could carry. They headed back across the narrow walk and pass the malfunctioning turrets. Doors stayed behind, just incase. He doubted he could even help from this side.

"Our team are going to get evac masks" Rhod said, waving to Sojana with one hand to get her to join him as they walked through the crowd of terrified survivors. They were heading around back, towards a sheltered room with highly resistant glass in the door; it was where the cheif of security should be staying, if it was him they were going to see.

Sojana tried to keep her posture relaxed though considering the sight of the goings on outside, her finger was poised, hovering over the trigger of her weapon should someone decided to suddenly attack.

As the door swung open, the two found themselves standing in front of what appeared to be a Vidian, a rather large male one whose skin looked so riddle with scars that it was being held together by them. "I see the cavalry's arrived" he said in a calm voice, tilting his security helmet back slowly and staring at the two in front "A little too late."

"We received the distress beacon at the very end of the battle, we came here as soon as we could" Rhod said in a stiff voice, as if trying not to be insulted by the attitude of the Vidian. "We are trying to get as many evac masks for the people here, we have a doctor, hopefully he will be arriving soon. He is tending to my own people right now."

Sojana, like most female Vidians was dwarfed by her male counterpart. she stayed back a few paces so she wouldn't be forced to look up at him to see into his eyes. she'd only met one other male since coming to the captain's ship but he was in lockup with the other criminals on board.
(i forgot to tell sod)

(please tell him, I can RP even though my main guy isn't there)
The male vidian stood up smoothly, a little growl coming from his throat as he noticed Sojana; it wasn't threatening, it was simply... a male noticing a female in his presence. "Mmmm... I suppose you are here to take us to your ship? This one is rather unusable since it ripped in two."

"Of course" Rhod said carefully "But in order to actually accept you on board I must know what is going on here. What happened? Why are so many people dead? Who is responsible for this?" He was half way between an order and a question, unsure how to react to this Vidian; he wasn't afraid of the man, but he didn't know how he'd react.

When he grwoled at Sojana she offered him the usual response for a female. She blew out a short puff of air threw her nose and closed her nostrils again so she wouldn't have to scent the multitude of refugees.

The vidian was grinning... which was either a good sign or a bad sign, and almost impossible to distinguish between the two. When he looked over at Rhod however his face became grave again "This ship was struck by a meteor a few days back. Nothing Major, the ship just kept on going. However the biologists said that something was interesting about the smear left behind by the rock. They took samples... They didn't know that years before it had been space refuge released by a ship at war. It had been a new weapon... but for obvious reasons they must have stopped creating it and flushed into space, hopefully killing it. It didn't. It hibernated. We took it on board... and it got into the food. This is the results of two days after the first reported case of Dicrocoelium Dendriticum in the crew."

Sojana received a message from Rhodes and relayed to the captain that they had enough evac masks to accommodate the lot of them. She did so quietly as to not interrupt the male.

"Have they got the doctor?" Rhod asked gently, not wanting to interupt the Vidian either. They might need the doc to explain some things, or just treat some of the wounded around here.

The man was still talking, even though the others had quietly conversed beneath him. "It controls you like a puppet, drives you crazy if you fight it... The only way to fight it is to sedate those affected and treat it with proper medical supplies, or the patient will attack and attempt to infect anything around them. Unfortunatley we have been unable to access the medical bay, as our suits were ruined in the defence of this area."

Sojana gave Rhod a nod. "They're on their way with the masks and the doc now. Dresden thinks we can fit most of them on the ship. Rhodes is staying behind to see they can make any more room."

"I have a feeling most supplies will be taken up dealing with injured once we get there, room might be freed up in the hold after that" Rhod said gently "I hope we are readily supplied with sedation." He looked over at the Vidian, who seemed to be watching him expectantly.

"I said" the Vidian repeated, sounding rather urked "Have you seen what happened to the engines? Last we heard someone took a weapon to them and ripped the ship in two."

"We've managed to repair what we can, in the front of the ship" Rhod replied "We got the power back on and I contacted the computer. I have transferred data to my own system and we are set and ready to leave. My men should be arriving any moment with supplies and a medical professional."

"Sir..." Sojana interrupted. "Skiff and Jim have arrived with the evac masks. They've got the doc."

"Bah! Why did you have to drag me up here? Isn't one of you a damn field medic? This is the field, why can't you do your damn job? I was in the middle of surgery damnit!" Shaq'l'phard fussed as Skiff and Jim showed him into the room

"Watch your footing doctor." Doors told the doc as he crossed the walk leading to the room the refugees had hidden themselves. There was still an air-locked door between the two groups.

"BAH! I don't need you to tell me how to walk!" Shaq'l'phard huffed as he shoved past Doors. "I've been walking for decades before you were even thought about being conceived!"

"If you'll excuse us" Rhod said firmly to the Vidian, not sure if he could hear them "We have to meet our team at the door." Nodding to the Cheif he turned and headed out, walking back to the door quickly. Rhod's mike was built into his helmet, a design flaw he made sure to note because he constantly had to rely on Sojana "remember, through the door two at a time. It will seal behind them, then pressurise before they can get through."

Sojana nodded to to the captain and relayed this over the comms, amending one small bit considering the relative size of the doctor.

"Alright doc," Door's told Shaq'l'phard "You're to go first, watch your appendages. This door will seal and pressurize behind you."

"Naturally." Shaq'l'phard mumbled as he stepped through into the airlock. The door shut and sealed with a HISS behind him

Inside the room Sojana informed the captain that "Rhodes is saying we should be able to fit everyone in the ship. They're ready when we're done here."

"Alright, hope we have some sedation" Rhod said gently, nodding to the doctor and looking over towards the man he'd talked to before. "Alright, show us to your wounded. We have a doctor here, he's going to help patch them up a bit better."

The men were casting Shaq'l'phard suspicious looks, but the one Rhod was staring at nodded and waved for them to follow. He went over to the back doors, where the general main hall of the security wing should be, where statements are taken and criminals lead through in order to get to the cells. Inside were people lying down, the kind of silence you get from people who have no idea if they're going to see the next day filling the room, broken only by a soft cough or a wretching noise. There were guards in here, armed ones, standing beside the doors to the cells. "In there is where we keep the ones we can't control" the man said, pointing towards the cell doors "We've only got so much sedation, and we need to feed them at some point..."

"Then I should see to them first. Once their wounds are healed, they should behave a bit more." Shaq'l'phard explained, thinking to himself, besides if they are cooperative, I can get an extra meal.

Sojana brought up the rear and nearly wretched herself when she scented the second room. She contained herself as asked the captain. "You want me to send Jim in and have the boys start taking the healthy ones to the ship?" If she were here by herelf that would be her course of action, but this time she had a superior officer to answer to and she didn't like having to bounce her ideas off of him before following threw.

"I wouldn't if I were you doc, these aren't ones who WILL calm down. From what we've heard half those wounds out there were probably self inflicted, and this entire thing was the crew going crazy. Keep the ones in the cells until last, the sedation will last longer as we carry them out" Rhod said firmly before turning to Sojana "We can start taking them in now it's all set up, but try to get the lads to take names as they bring them in. It'll give us enough time to take care of as many as possible, slow down the precedure a bit so no one panics and makes off with our ship while we're getting the last of them in."

Shaq'l'phard grumbled and squinted at Rhod. "Then point me towards those you want me to treat, captain."

"Triage doc, war zone time. Go for head injuries, shattered bones, bleeding wounds, people who look like they've had bandages put on by themselves" Rhod could understand Sojana's feelings of annoyance of having to bounce every idea off of him. Surely Shaq should know how to do his job by now.

Sojana relayed this to the men and began sending refugees threw the doors two at a time. Doors cataloged their names and identification numbers on his console, Jim and Skiff began escorting groups of five to the ship, alternating trips as to not clog the corridors.

Shaq'l'phard grumbled and moved to his first patient. He looked at the wound on the man's head, poked it gently with his finger. And then grabbed a few things from his bag. "You'll live, just going to apply a local analgesic to the wound so that it doesn't hurt at the moment. Fixing you up the rest of the way will have to wait until we get to a safer environment." He made it quick as he applied the ointment and then smoothed out a bandage across the man's forehead. "Move along. Next patient!" He called, preferring for them to come to him, if they could. He hated all this moving around

And for once something happened for him, the man in front of him was quietly moved aside by a few of the more capable ones and a new patient was brought forward. His head was a mess, bad bandaging keeping what looked like a fractured skull together. It was as if someone had tried to reconstruct fine china with masking tape.

Oh good gods.... Shaq'l'phard thought as he looked at the man's skull. There was really nothing he could do for him here, he'd need the machines he had back on the ship to do this man any good, but the way he was moved forward, he couldn't tell people that...clearly he was of some importance to them. He opened his bag and tried to find something that would help keep this man alive until they got back. He swallowed hard and pulled out the medical tape. It would hold better than the masking tape at the very least. Using his years of expertise, he gently wrapped the man's head, making it tight enough that no parts would fall loose.

The man couldn't respond, even though his eyes were open he was staring at the ceiling. It was an injury that might mean years of physical therapy if he was lucky. After they were sure that the doctor was done the physically fit ones came and took him to the doors so the people could transport him back safely. There were still a lot around however, a lot of injured and probably even more dying...

There was very little that he could do for those who lay dying under these circumstances. Shaq'l'phard understood that, but could the others? He concentrated his efforts on those he knew would survive and provide answers to there questions. If someone coded however, he was there to lend what assistance he could, he would not allow someone to die while he could provide.

"Doc's working well, you could almost believe he's been at a MASH" Rhod said to Sojana as he watched them all working "Not many left now... at least..." He didn't want to point out the ones the doctor skipped over... They were already too far gone. "How are your men doing with the packing?" he asked her gently, figuring he should stay on top of things.

"Everyone who can walk or crawl is on board. They're getting the last of them now." Sojana answered, she'd be glad when they left this floating death trap.

"Do you think doc will have enough sedation for the infected lot?" Rhod asked, staring at the door leading to the holding cells. Did they even have a cure for this thing?

"If we call ahead and get the chemists working on it maybe." Sojana said. It felt to her as if they were about to take a bomb on board their own ship. If this thing became uncontainable how long would it take to spread to the entire ship? "I only hope the Chief has enough space to hold them all."

"I'll make that call when we're done here" Rhod muttered "Get all the sedation we can... I think sickbay has some restraints and contamination areas..." He sighed softly and walked over to the doctor "The tranquilizers come in dart form Doc? I don't want this to get nasty, getting near them might be a bad idea."

"Yes, but I didn't think we'd need that many. I only brought a cartridge of them. I figured one of you military types would remember to bring the gun of course?" Shaq'l'phard asked him in return, looking up briefly from a patient

"Sojana" Rhod stepped back and nodded to her "Pride aside, I'm certain you're the best shot here right now if you feel up to it." Not an order, a request, she could back out of it if she wanted to; something most would not give someone of lower rank.

"What are you asking sir?" Sojana asked. Surely it didn't take much skill to use a tranq-gun, after all Jim was qualified being a medic.

"The traq gun is simple, I know, and I'm certain that most of us here could get every single shot in, but I want to be absolutely sure. A single drop of tranquiliser wasted might mean one of our own gets infected, or the infection gets out on our ship. I want you to do it... I'm certain you can make every shot count" Rhod was ardament, he wasn't going to argue with her if she truly insisted but he felt that this was the best choice in the matter.

"Yes sir." Sojana told him and told Jim over the comms to bring her the tranq-pistol. "Are you really expecting any of these people to frack out on us?"

"I'm expecting the worst. It's not fun but it's my job" Rhod said with a determined air, looking over at the doctor again "Have you got some darts on you or are they all in the ship?"

"I've got the cartridge here in my bag." Shaq'l'phard replied, fishing it out before the captain got a chance to even think about getting it himself. He hated when people riffled through his things

"Sojana, if you would be so kind" Rhod said, nodding to the cartridges before casting a glance towards the door leading off to the holding cells. There were still guards there, they hadn't moved, they'd had to stay there and make sure the infection didn't get out again.

Sojana took the cartridge and when Jim and Skiff came by for another stretcher of wounded Jim handed over the pistol. Sojana slung her rifle around to her back and loaded the magazine into the pistol. Doors was still cataloging the names of the refugees.

Rhod moved over to the doors, opening them up; he was instantly greeted by an inhuman hiss. A woman was pressed against the bars of a cage, fingers clawing madly through the air as she tried to reach through the bars and grab him. She had a large wound down her right arm, two fingers stuck out oddly as if they'd been broken but still she tried desperatley to snatch at him. There were six of them like this in here, some more able bodied than others, all with their eyes set on the open door and the new people. Thankfully none shared a cell.

"May I speak Fredrickally sir?" Sojana asked, had Rhodes been around he would have corrected her with "frankly" instead.

"Of course" Rhod said, watching as figures pressed against the bars so hard that imprints were left in their bodies. He encouraged frank speaking, he just wasn't sure what it was about.

"Wouldn't it be more merciful to just jettison this lot and not risk an outbreak on board our own vessel?" Sojana asked. She knew it would probably sound cruel to a human, but if these were Vidian infected she wouldn't bother risking the rest of her people.

"If we find that one of our own gets infected by someone we've just brought on board with a latent case then we will have no test subjects. Not only can we save more people, we can try and find a cure for this in case we ever find ourselves coming across it again" Rhod shrugged at Sojana "Bringing people back from this trip is risking contamination, if we have some already infected for designing a cure then we can stop any infections on our own ship."

"Yes sir." But Sojana sounded doubtful. What if there was no cure and they were unable to contain an outbreak? Their ship would end up just like this one had.

"If you would please?" Rhod asked, nodding towards the rabid people behind the bars "Anyway... when we get to our ship there will be working cryo-pods. We can keep them there while we work on a cure.."

"Yes sir." Sojana told him and began unloading a round each into the nearest infected. She emptied the first cartridge with the first ten shots and reloaded with one of the spares Jim had given her.

"Get these out of here now" Rhod said, waving a firm hand from the waiting men to the stunned infected "We don't have time to waste. Lets just get back alright? We'll sort out what we have to do when this ship is cleared."

"I'm a few short sir." Sojana told him as she finished up. "I've no problem using a bullet instead."

Rhod looked around to find the doc, frowning slightly "Any more tranq bullets? No... no we can't risk it, we need all the tranquillisors on board that ship to last us back." Rhod sighed and closed his eyes, looking at the few left. What once had been beautiful dresses and innocent faces were caked in blood and rage. People of all kinds distorted by this... this thing. "I'll do it. You get the men ready for the way back, tell them to be firm but kind. We're dealing with scared people after all. And don't talk me out of it, they are your men and they listen to you."

"Are you sure you don't want me to do it?" Sojana asked, looking at the last four mud caked faces. She'd used the rounds on the women and children first, at least these last four where men.

Rhod had already cocked his gun, staring placidly at the snarling face behind the bars "I told you not to talk me out of it." He snapped that, it was an order, a superior officer reminding her of her place "You heard what I said so do it. I'm going to finish in here."

"Yes sir." Sojana replied and left the captain to his work. Outside the door she keyed her mike and ordered her boys to finish up, they'd be shoving off shortly.

There was a faint click from Rhod's gun, then the sound of the shots rang out in the almost empty hall. Everyone but the small rescue crew and a few guards had left now, and as Rhod came out of the room holstering his pistol it was clear it was time for everyone to leave. "Lets go" he said, turning to look for Sojana and the doctor.

Sojana relayed Rhod's order over her comms. "Pack it up boys, we're out of here."

Rhod moved over to the doctor, pushing him softly on the wing to get his attention "You did good doc, but we've got to head back now. I think some of the infected have got some bad injuries, but we can treat them on the way back. Have you got all your stuff?"

"Of course I do. My stuff has never left my side." Shaq'l'phard insisted, getting to his feet and picking up his bag, he headed for the doorway

---

After traversing the damaged ship Jim, Rhodes and Skiff arrived back at Dresden's craft. Over the comms Rhodes relayed that they had returned.

Kai pushed herself up on her arms, not caring one way or the other if the doctor was done. She wanted to see the men when they returned. With her computer parts temporarily out of service such as they were, her biological brain was curious. Kai watched, waiting for the doctor to either tell her she could move or tell her to hold still.

Dresden checked the atmosphere levels and opened the doors for Jim and Rhodes. "Find anything?" He asked.

"The captain and Soj found a whole mess of refugees." Rhodes told him. "We need upwards of sixty evac masks and the doc here."

"I'm all done here, unless you require other organs, Kai." Shaq'l'phard told her as she made to sit up. He hoped that the answer to that was no, he hated that he had to give up that liver he found. Opening his bag, he slipped Kai's damaged liver into it to take the place of the previous one. He looked at Rhodes and Jim. "What in the world do you need me for? Isn't one of you a field medic?"

"Thank you, doctor," Kai said as she pushed herself up fully so she could stand. Her computer parts connected with the liver, and her feeling returned. In the process, her mech eye blinked on again, casting an eerie read glow on everything for a moment before it calmed again. "Do these people require other assistance?" she asked.

"Come this way," Dresden said, opening the back door to the holding area. He lead them down a narrow hall and dropped a panel down to reveal a wall of evac masks and gear.

Rhodes waved Jim to follow he and Dresden, Skiff stayed where he was since Rhodes hadn't beckoned him. "Do you know how many are in stock?" Rhodes asked. He began handing the individually wrapped masks and canisters to Jim so he could hand them off to Skiff, who would no doubt, be carrying the bulk of them.

"Mm, seventy-six, I think," Dresden said, examining the label on the storage unit. "You can make a couple of trips if there aren't enough for everyone." He passed more masks Rhodes's way.

"Perfect." Rhodes replied, he relayed this over the comms, telling Sojana that they were good on the masks. Then he asked, "How many bodies can you fit in here?" He couldn't imagine more than a dozen or so more but Dresden knew his ship better than Rhodes did.

"Hmm," Dresden mused. "Well, the passenger's area seats 14, and there are some sleeping compartments down the hall here and along the inside of this wall there, and if we utilize some of the cargo space we can fit about...fifty or so safely." He thought for a moment. "We can fit more in the passenger's area but I wanna run some cables through and deactivate gravity to get everyone back through the asteroid field without a lot of injuries."

"What if we take out the seats in the passenger area?" Rhodes asked "Lighten the load, maybe take out the beds in the sleeping quarters?" He handed the last of the evac masks to Jim and ordered he and skiff to meet back up with the boss. If there was cutting to do Rhodes was going to stay behind to do it. "Don't forget to take the doc too."

Dresden narrowed his eyes. "How much upwards of sixty are we talking here?"

"Not sure." Rhodes told him, scratching his slightly stubbly chin. "But I'd say they were rounding up."

"Start bringing 'em in," Dresden said. "There will be enough room." He turned and lifted the inside wall to reveal a beehive grid of sleeping chambers. He went up to the cockpit and flicked a meter. "Be advised, Hal is operating in .5 g." Everything immediately felt lighter, like they were on a moon. "Hey Kai, are you feeling able-bodied?"

"As able as usual," Kai said, immediately activating her grav boots to keep her more stable on the deck.

Rhodes gave Dresden a little salute and relayed this to Sojana over the comms.

"Come on back," Dresden told Kai, heading down to the cargo area. "I need you to spot me in case I clog my filters and end up crushed under a crate." He bounced around the large cargo area, pulling up boxes easily three times his size and weight and stacking them against the wall. He latched each of them to hooks protruding from the walls to keep them tethered.

Kai nodded and started helping keep the crates from crushing Dresden. It was pretty simple, but good exercise for her at the moment, especially since she was trying to keep herself from over exerting her fleshy parts.

Rhodes directed Jim and the first group of refugees to wait outside the airlock while he found Dresden to announce that the first of them had arrived. "Dres, the first load is here. Want me to start seating them or you wanna give them the whole "This is your pilot speaking" speech first?"

"No, that's fine," Dresden replied, locking down the last crate. He drifted up to the cockpit and opened the airlock. "I'll deliver the safety spiel once they're all in. Send this lot to the sleeping compartments, and send the more claustrophobic down to the cargo area." He flipped up both sides of the benches in the passenger area and pulled down the belts and hooks on the walls.

"Aye aye." Rhodes told Dresden and did as he instructed while Jim left for another load. By the time Rhodes had everyone situated Skiff had arrived with the second load.

It wasn't long before Rhodes and Dresden had packed every able-bodied crew member into the ship. The medical bay and most of the sleeping compartments were kept open for the injured. Dresden showed the shaken crew how to strap themselves in, then picked up the PA. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Dresden Vasquez, I'll be your pilot. We will be experiencing extreme turbulence, so for your safety and the safety of those around you, stay seated and with your safety harness on at all times."

Ka'aias helped as best she could with the new passengers. Anyone who had spent any time with her would notice that the girl was paler than normal. Her mech eye flickered every now and then. She rebooted it slightly with auxiliary power, not wanting her computer components to crash.

Sojana's men finished up squaring away the last of the refugees and were waiting anxiously for the captain, doc and their boss.

The last of the crew clambered aboard, finding that it was incredibly cramped the moment they did. Still, there was just enough room, the doc even had enough space for a small sick bay where the infected would be kept under sedation. Rhod was checking up on the people in the ship, those they'd rescued and those who had done the rescuing.

First things first however, Rhod approached Dresden with some difficulty and put a hand on his shoulder "Alright, we've got a full load of passangers, it's a few million miles to out home ship, we're carrying infected onboard, it's space, and there are some sun-gasses." He nodded and gave Dresden's shoulder a squeeze "Hit it."

Sojana couldn't stand being crammed in this close to everyone, especially not when there was some sort of contagion mulling about. She couldn't wait to get back on board.

Kai went to sit in her seat and buckle in. She felt less than well, which was odd. She had never been sick in her life, so she had no idea what this feeling meant and brushed it aside.

"Yes sir," Dresden said. The ship shuddered as it broke the connection with the fallen wreckage and Dresden soon found that the extra weight threw the ship's velocity curves out of alignment. A couple of seconds of adjustments and it was more or less pilotable. He pulled up to the edge of the asteroid belt. "God save us," he muttered inaudibly under his breath, then launched the ship into a series of near-death maneuvers. The crew and refugees aboard should be thankful they were in low gravity and strapped in, or else they might be getting worse than a few bruises from the restraints. The roar of the engine was punctuated by sudden silences sprinkled with the tinkling of asteroid dust against the hull and the occasional ion fire as they navigated the treacherous asteroid field.

Rhod, who was still navigating about, was managing to keep himself from slamming into things by gripping onto railings, walls and sometimes people. He managed to somehow drift over towards Sojana and her boys, bobbing slightly with every asteroid they missed. "How are you holding up?" he asked, being suddenly wrenched downwards by a powerful swerve.

Jim was visibly green around the gills but Rhodes had a wide smile on his face. "Fine sir, so long as the greener doesn't yack on any of us."
Doors and Skiff gave the captain a thumbs up and Sojana only said "I'll be glad when we get back on board sir." She was steady enough in space but this, being around so many humans, crammed into one place, on a boat that was swerving and dipping at what felt like random, made her feel uneasy. She already longed to put her claws back on steady ground if they could ever find it.

"Good to see you're mostly alright" Rhod chuckled "Have you got a bag Sojana? It wouldn't be advisible to have a comet shooting through here and landing on some unfortunate's head wound."

"Vidians do not regurgitate." Sojana told the captain. Though that could have been part of her problem. She'd been in more turbulent circumstances before, but then again she hadn't been packed into a ship tighter than a tin of Cruvarian Cutworms that smelled like month old bile and filthy humans.

"Look after her lads" Rhod said to the boys as he bobbed around slightly from he comets, which would soon be gone he was sure. "I've got the check on the doc and Kai" he said, nodding to them and pulling himself carefully across towards the doctor and Kai, stopping in front of them this time as he said "Everything going alright over here?"

Rhodes went to pat Sojana on the back like the true smart alack he was, but she smacked his hand away when he tried. She was fine, it was the smell above everything else that made her stomachs churn. She did her best to keep her nostrils sealed but somehow the overwhelming fester continued to permeate her senses.

Ka'aias had seen far better days. Today even her ability to turn off pain receptors was doing nothing for the nausea and the headache that was forming. Her skin was also paling, not that someone without robotic eyes would even notice that her already silvery skin was taking on a slightly greenish color. She gave Rhod a quick glance and a nod before closing her eye and making a very human gesture of crunching up her face in pain.

Luckily for Ka'aias Rhod did have one robotic eye, a frown spreading across his face as he noticed the girl's reaction. "What happened?" he asked, moving forward towards Ka'aias "Still not repaired from earlier? Did something get you? Is it just the trip?" He knew Sojana was feeling sickly herself, but Ka'aias... she seemed honestly in pain. He looked around for the doc, giving him a quick wave; he didn't want one of his own people sick.

Kai looked up at the captain and grimaced again. "It seems that I have not recovered fully," she said. Having had the experience of loosing too much blood a few more times, this was the closest she could connect in her mind to her current feeling. 

Shaq'l'phard scoffed and shook his wing at the captain when he waved at him. He just wanted to be back in his nice clean and quiet hospital

"DOCTOR GET YOUR FEATHERED ASS HERE RIGHT NOW!" Rhod snapped, not in the mood for the bird to play about with him. Kai could be sick, he needed the doctor's attention on her right now and he wasn't going to wait.

"What?!" Shaq'l'phard demanded as he hobbled up to the front of the ship. "She'll be fine, she just had a liver transplant. I'm certain her body is just adjusting to the new organ's presence, with any luck it won't be rejected. If it is, than she'll just have to hope I can fabricate a match when we get back to my hospital wing."

Kai, while all this was going on, was becoming more pain filled and, as hard as she tried, she could not shut her pain receptors off. It was as if...they were not in her control. The doctor, being the one who operated and the one she had told about her ability to turn off pain, should have been the first to realize something was wrong. But he seemed more worried about being out of his comfort zone. Ka'aias, on the other hand, swallowed convulsively. Her mech eye flickered off, and her entire body seemed to shudder.

There was this... silence around the ship as even the wounded seem to cease breathing, only the hum of the oxygen filters and the engines filled the air. Eventually one of the wounded near the group who were talking said "Liver... transplant?"

Rhod was on this in a second. "Doc, this thing, the thing that all these people had, it was called... Di-croc-oe-lium Den-dri-ti-cum or something. Do you know what that is?" he wasn't an expert on these subjects but he didn't like how every single man, woman, child and alien had gone deathly silent at the doctor's words.

"Dicrocoelium dendriticum is a part of a group of trematodes that can infect the bile ducts of humans. Because the bodies of these parasites are long and narrow, infections are generally confined to the more distal parts of the bile ducts. As a result most Dicrocoelium dendriticum infections of the biliary tree produce only mild symptoms. These symptoms can include biliary colic and general digestive disturbances, including bloating and diarrhea. However, in heavier infections, bile ducts and the biliary epithelium may become enlarged in addition to the generation of fibrous tissue surrounding the ducts, and as a result, causing hepatomegaly or cirrhosis. In one unique case, an infection with Dicrocoelium dendriticum was associated with a skin rash urticaria." Shaq'l'phard cited from one of his many books. He looked up at the captain from above his glasses as if the man had just suggested that he were a human, rather than an avian species.

"So they'll shit themselves to death?" Rhodes asked and got a smack on the back of the head from Sojana for it.
"It makes smaller creatures want to be eaten by larger creatures." she told him. "But it can cause heightened aggression and violent tendencies. On Vidia we call it Mind Chiggers, but it's not been known to attack the higher evolved."

"And we're carrying a lot of them" Rhod pointed out, looking around at the injured people they were carrying about, but the ones they had sedated were the problem with that. "Look, doc, I just want to know, is there a way to cure it and how does it pass from person to person?" he was glancing to Kai, he didn't like this... they'd given her a transplant before they'd checked what had happened. An infection... this could be bad.

While all the talking was going on, bad things were happening in Kai's system. Her biological eye blinked twice, the veins within it burst under the pressure her heart was under. The white of the eye turned violently red. Her mech eye blinked like a light bulb that was trying to come back on. Kai's skin broke out into sweat, something that had never happened to her before, and her entire body shuddered. Her hand, which was on the armrest of her chair, curled, creating a horrific sound of tearing metal as she destroyed the armrest without thought.

"Um... Ma'am..." Jim said suddenly, he was in close proximity to Kai and her new ordeal had become obvious once she'd rent the arm from her chair. "Ma'am..."
"Don't call me that." Sojana said turning to Jim, since Rhodes and the others had taken to calling her "Boss" she'd learned to prefer it. "What is it?" But Jim was pointing to Kai and Sojana could see for herself that not all was well with the cyborg. Immediately she lifted her weapon and aimed it at the back of Kai's head, figuring it was a decent off switch if she decided to share her mind chiggers. "Sir!" She said in an attempt to get the captain's attention.

"ON IT!" Rhod yelled out, turning to the doc and saying "Sedation. NOW!" He turned to Kai, what the hell could you do? He should have read that manual. He gripped the hand still holding the arm rest, trying to push it down and turning to the men "Skiff! Front and centre, we've got to try and hold her down till the sedation gets here!"

With so many people on board it took the hulk of a man known as Skiff a moment to get to the Captain's side. "Sorry about this Mis Kai." He said and placed his large hands on her forearms and flipped them behind her head. Once her arms were secure he placed himself on her knees to keep her from kicking him in the junk if she so choose.
Sojana had been given the last of the sedation cartridges and checked her pistol, there were none left. Since Jim was closer than the Doc she capped him on the back of the head with her hand and ordered. "THE MAN SAID SEDATION!"
Jim scrambled from his seat and dove his hands into his medical pack, all the sedation had been used on the infected, but he had a healthy supply of morphine. He kept so much because Skiff was so large and had a tendency to need more than the others. He loaded a dose and tapped out the bubbles. He was a more than a bit trepidatious as he approached the struggling robo-girl.
"For the love of Webeden!" Rhodes cursed and took the needle from the fumbling Jim. In one swift move he stuck Kai in the neck and delivered the dose of morphine. "Grow a pair why dontcha?" he said and thrust the needle back at Jim with a disgusted expression.

Rather than sit tamely, Kai did start to struggle. Without the help of her robotic parts, and working on pure human instinct, she was trying to get away. When the needle was pressed into her neck, however, her robotic eye flared to life and she suddenly flipped, throwing Skiff into Jim and Rhodes. Crouched on her chair like some sort of wild beast, Kai opened her mouth, but nothing came out short of a slight static-y sound.

The men clamored to the ground unceremoniously as Kai threw them off of her. Sojana and Doors both had their weapons trained on her and Soj didn't bother asking the captain if she were permitted to shoot. With a quick flip of her claw she changed her battle rifle from projectile fire to plasma and fired directly at Kai's face. Sincerely hoping that the charge was enough to disrupt the circuits in her head and give them a few minuets to restrain her before she rebooted.

"Don't shoot!" Rhod yelled the moment too late, wincing as the projectile smashed agaisnt Kai's head. She was automatically protecting herself, the infected part of her was down, but her machine part was fighting; firing on her was an act of violence and judging from the way Rhod tossed himself at the side of Kai, trying to disoreintate her inner mechanisms slightly as he desperatley attempted to remember the handbook.

The shot to the face did little to Kai's computers, but it did cause a large red patch of oozy blood on her face and neck. Since her pain receptors were down, she didn't feel it. Rhod jumped on her from the side, and Kai leapt out of way, rolling towards Sojana and tackling the Vidian with her enter 90 lb frame. The only problem was, even with what was the body of a tiny girl, she propelled herself with the force of a freight train at full speed directly into Sojana, who, with the gun pointed at her, was the largest threat and needed to be neutralized.

"Dammit! dammit!" Rhod yelled, he didn't need either of them damaged but... "Computer in giro, spegnere sistema di vita!" He'd had that sound file stored inside his head, the first thing in the book was how to blow up your crew mate, something he didn't like. He hadn't thought he'd need to do something like this, he hadn't gotten to the point where you could safely power her down. This would destroy her... but temporarily, she would get back on her feet, if slowly.

In an immediate reaction to Rhod's shout, Kai's body seemed to glow unnaturally red and disintegrated, causing red liquidy matter to fly into Sojana. The computer parts, a rough outline of skeleton and half a face, landed on the ground, skidding to a halt next to Sojana. The red light pulsed on and off at a regular interval, denoting the healing process was beginning.

Not many creatures could knock a full grown Vidian hen off her feet like that, but Sojana's went down, having not expected it. Her plasma round should have prevented that. She struggled with the cyborg but an instant later... Her immediate reaction was to spit. Whatever had struck her, some of it had gotten in her mouth, but thankfully, her double eyelids had prevented it from blinding her. As far as flavor went, being a predator by nature, it wasn't so bad and this Vidian had been coated in things far more foul. But Kai was infected with the mind chiggers... if Sojana began exhibiting the same signs as the infected, things would end up being much worse than a few infected humans. Nothing would stop her from consuming human flesh and no one wanted that, least of all the boys.
"BOSS!" Rhodes exclaimed, now seeing their chief down drenched in infected robot gew. "JIM DO SOMETHING!"
"What can I do?" Jim asked, trying desperately to untangle himself from Rhodes and Skiff before any of the infectious fluid could make it towards them. "Do I look like I have a quarantine kit handy?"
"Are you alright?" Doors asked her, due to their close proximity to one another it was a miracle Doors hadn't gotten any on him, then again, he hadn't shot Kai in the face ether. He instinctively reached his hand out to help her up.
"Kun chint hizmanah!" Sojana cursed and spat again, her frills were up, a sure sign of agitation. She stood without taking Door's hand, she didn't want to infect him, he'd get her job if all this ended badly. She managed to wipe away some of the gunk and answered Doors. "Fine... but if I start acting like her shoot me, with a real bullet." She indicated the direct center of her chest where the soft spot in her plating revealed her heart.

"No one is killing anyone" Rhod said, forgetting that he'd just turned Kai into a puddle on the floor and a robotic skeleton "If she starts acting weird you punch her in the head until she stops struggling. Sounds bad but it's better than a bullet to the heart." He looked around at the others... humans, Vidians, Chlarins, Thrille, there were so many people here... it seemed strange how easily humans had been whittled down compared to others. This was a mostly human ship, there were less humans than other species. It felt... strange. "When we get back Sojana, you're in quarantine understand?"

"Understood." Sojana replied but when the captain wasn't looking she turned to Doors and tapped her chest again. Punching her in the head wouldn't work, not if she really wanted to eat someone. "Anyone have a towel?"

Rhod frowned down at himself, then reached down and took his shirt off. He held it out at arms length to Sojana "Clean yourself, clean the spilt... goo... it should absorb it pretty well. The goo might not be infectious right now, that instruction kills all of Kai's flesh, but... there's too much of a chance that you got infected to not keep you in quarenteen." She wasn't going to be put in cryo pods like the infected, she might not be infected, there was a chance that blast would have killed the disease but he didn't want to take his chances. For all he knew it would just happen slowly.

Sojana removed his tags and salad and handed them back to the captain before mopping what was left of Kai off her face, arms and chest. She was left feeling sticky and she couldn't wait to find a shower once they were back on board. She supposed she'd think twice about shooting a cyborg in the face again.

"Fascinating...." Shaq'l'phard mumbled as he backed away from the scene, careful to avoid contact with any of the goo that was left of Kai.

"Not the first word that comes to my mind." Rhodes said cocking his head to the side as he watched The Boss clean herself up. Skiff elbowed him in the side, saying with that simple gesture that now probably wasn't the time.

A faint red glow began to emanate from the robotic skeleton that was all that was left of Kai. The pulsing eye stopped, throwing up a sudden hologram of an older man, obviously in his late 70s. He looked at a point in the wall. It wasn't a live feed, it was a recording. "Ah-hem. Yes, well. You have seemed to activated the 'self destruct' sequence in Cyper K, and as such, if I am not mistaken, it is little more than a red paste now. At least that meant you read the manual. If you have not gotten to the section about regeneration, you will have to put it in an incubation chamber in order to have the biological functions repaired. If you need to access its database, you can plug a computer into its eyeport. I think that is about it." The old man in the hologram made to move, then sat back down. "Oh, yes, one other thing. When its biological systems are repaired, you will have to reboot it. Chapter ten in the manual has those steps." The man stopped talking and the hologram promptly vanished.

Rhod gripped the items Sojana had given him carefully, holding them at arms length. It wouldn't get inside him, that would be disasterous. He watched the dogtags... and noticed they hadn't been swaying for a while. They must be out of the asteroid field. Only a smooth ride until they landed... technically. "Sojana, your boys will be in the decontamination shower with me and the doc, just incase there are any hints of it on us. You will have a private shower in your quaranteen area. Is that understood?" His eyes turned to the hologram as it appeared, frowning at it and nodding slowly "Alright... looks like I've got reading to do after all of this." He didn't like how tits up this entire thing had gone.

"Understood." Sojana replied "But someone might want to follow me in with a durangthang."
"She means a mop." Rhodes replied helpfully.

"We will, as well as several people armed with tranq guns" Rhod said slowly "Just incase. Actually..." He turned his head towards the cockpit, calling out through the ship "Dresden! How long until we arrive? And are we within range of radios yet?"

Sojana looked at Doors. "You remember the dosage right?"
"You mean for you?" Doors asked. "Seven hects right?"
"Right."
"I'll make sure they get it right." Doors told her. Even tranquilizing reptiles on Earth was tricky, if they messed up or shot her with too much it could easily kill her.

"We'll be in range shortly, sir," Dresden said over the comm. The cockpit was segmented off from the main body so he hadn't been privy to the whole affair. "Everyone alright back there? I thought I heard a shot."

"Everything is" how could you say everything was undercontrol when one of your best officers just got infected and another one was goo "handled." Smooth. He looked around, then gave a thumbs up to Sojana and the others before moving out, heading towards the cockpit to make a call.

"You're not going to explode and turn into goo are you?" Jim asked Sojana once the captain left for the bow.
Sojana just looked at him, and exhaled sharply threw her small slitted nostrils, a sign of irritation and a quick check to make sure none of Kai had made it up there.
"That was a standard shutdown protocol for her kind." Doors informed Jim. "A sort of backdoor should an irreparable malfunction occur."
"So no goo then?" Jim asked, only to be sure.
"Shut up!" Skiff and Rhodes said in unison. They sincerely missed the days when Howell was still with them. He never had any obnoxious questions or trepidations about preforming his duties. Jim was a sorry replacement for their former medical officer and the new guy shrank back into his seat and would remain quiet for the remainder of their trip.