The hand that heals

[rewritable]

7 hours before quarantine

Final mooring procedures were completed and two liners floated side by side on Hiran's orbit. Ramps securely connected both vessels and first inbound passengers already walked from Crying Lightning to their respective accommodations on Hawaii. Most of them were still strolled along Lightning's promenade deck or stayed in their cabins waiting for outbound tourists to vacate their premises on Hawaii.

Captain John Frial made his way through the ramp and went to the bridge of Hawaii. Captain of stationary liner Jennet Simmons was already awaiting him.

"Good day, captain," John greeted his colleague, noticing that she looked rather tired, "So, what is the issue you wanted to discuss with me? You sounded quite anxious over the comms"

"Ah, yes, good day to you, too, Frial" Jennet waved a greeting absentmindedly, "It's not overly important, not at all, just... irritating and slightly confusing, to say."

"So, to cut to the point, about six hours ago one of our guests were taken into medical bay with difficulties to breathe, high temperature and occasional fits of cough. Our medic, an intern he is actually, was not able to diagnose the matter, but could limit the symptoms and stabilize the patient." Jennet continued

"Later intern reported several other guests complaining about dry cough and slightly sore throat. Since all guests had their cabins in the same deck, my chief technician is almost sure that a leak in conditioning system and following allergic reaction to evaporating coolant is the cause of this; symptoms are said to be like ones we have. Deck is cleared and my crew is working on locating the cause of leak, they should have some results in about an hour.

So, as we didn't know how widespread the leak is and it is likely that other guests turn up with the same complaints, we decided to wait for your arrival and transport all of them in one go, without the need of risky long-range shuttle deployment. What I ask is, that you and Lightning stay here just a few hours longer so we can locate all the affected people and prepare them for transport"

4 hours before quarantine

"It seems more seriously than we thought" Jennet said, "A few guests' symptoms became more acute, leading to difficulties in breathing and even fainting."

Chief technician walked in, shrugging as he caught Jennet's stare. "What, you still haven't found that leak?", she snapped.

"There is no leak, captain. We double and triple checked all systems in that and surrounding decks. There is no trace of any technical anomalies whatsoever."

"Keep..." Jennet started and coughed, "Keep searching, there must be some cause, goddammit!"

1 hour before quarantine

"Captain Simmons, are you feeling well?" John asked.

"It's nothing, just dry throat because of all these orders I have to shout" Jennet tried to smile, regaining her breath after a coughing spell.

Communication system indicated a new message; Jennet walked up and started reading it. John couldn't help but notice that she bit her lip anxiously while reading.

"I have some bad news, we have another guest with symptoms" Jennet tried to sound calm.

"So, that makes a total of about 35, about 10 of them acute" John estimated, "I thought you expected more people turning up with allergic symptoms? What's different with this one?"

Jennet hesitated, then said: "He was not on that deck. He was not even on this liner. This one came here as a passenger aboard Crying Lightning just few hours ago, he couldn't possibly get exposed to any leak"

15 minutes before quarantine

"95 hospitalized 30 of them acute. Jennet, what we have here is an epidemic" John was walking back and forth on Hawaii's bridge "The intern reported that he is feeling unwell, too, this is slowly getting out of our control"

"How, in the name of Sirius!? All passengers are checked for all known contagious diseases upon arrival. We..." Jennet bent double by a strong coughing spell, then slowly regained her breath.

"Jennet, you need some medical attention, now"

"No, no time for that, I'm fine" Jennet straightened and turned around shakily.

John barely caught her when she collapsed.

---