The hand that heals

[rewritable]

Andrew sat down took a deep breath,

"Well, I have to tell short version of my past, so you understand my motives. Don't worry, I'll get to the current issues soon enough.

I have lived on Manhattan all my life. My official line of work for more than twenty years was computer security system development and management. My real passion and means of living, however, was being on the other side of the fence. Yes, you understood right, I was a hacker, a damn good one in my prime at that. Not for the money I did that, though. You see, I've always hated routine, I could only feel alive when in constant challenge. Rapidly changing security industry and the need to always be one step ahead of my counterparts was exactly my thing.

I stayed under the radar for about twenty years. But I guess I became reckless... or just old and clumsy. Seven years ago two men came to my doorstep and in short words explained that authorities now know what I am doing and they don't appreciate it one tiny bit. They did not have any solid evidence to present at court, but I knew that with that kind of trace on me my professional hacker days were over.

I tried to occupy myself with my "official" work, but the boredom and routine almost made me mad. In half a year I was close to a suicide. Finally I realized that I have to change my life completely, I had to pick up a new line of work to start from nothing and work my way up.

I decided to become a veterinarian. It honestly was the first thought that came in my mind and I thought "why not?". A great deal of basic information was available through Neural Net - various courses, university databases and so on - with my background I had no problems with accessing anything on subject. For what couldn't be learned remotely, I took a liberty to list my name to seminars and practicals.

After a year I decided I am ready, set myself up with a nice official document of education and opened a small practice. Yeah, I was kind of a charlatan at first, but with every case I got better and better at my new profession. Neural Net was still there to help in time when my knowledge was not enough.

In three and a half years I got fairly good at treatment of common pets and life started to bore me again. About that time there was a bloom in popularity of small animals from Gaia among the rich of Manhattan. As there was almost no veterinarians specialized in them, I decided pick up a study of those creatures.

Hmm, yeah, this and that were on Neural net, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. Once I had explored most of materials available, I made a decision to visit Gaia and continue my studies in animals' natural habitat.

After a brief stop on Curacao, where I became accustomed with OSC's information security protocols to an extent of being able to get myself a planet-side visa, I arrived on Shetland. I claimed to be a rich entrepreneur interested in wildlife research, so I had fairly much freedom planet-side.

Now we finally have come to part which interests you. During my last visit on Gaia I found Sam. He was ill and weak, and most likely wouldn't have survived in nature. That was big opportunity to study and treat one of Gaian species from a Gaian disease. I simply couldn't let it slip.

I won't go into details how I got past security on the shuttle and then on the liner. I doubt you are interested in hearing technical details on accessing and manipulating thermal scanner output signal with only a hand-held device.

Sam slowly got better and everything went well for a few days. Then things started to become complicated. I got ill, and I heard a few of the people I was on the shuttle with did not feel well, too. Then a researcher I was dining with. Though, that was nothing like we have here, more like a simple cold or something like that. Probably because we all had spent a good while on Gaia, or probably due to the set of injections we all were given prior to our first visits. Though, I knew from experience that if it continues to spread and some sort of investigation begins, my cover could be easily blown.

So, as soon as I felt better again, I packed and departed from Shetland. I needed a calm place to finish my research the treatment of Sam. Since I already had good knowledge of OSC security and way of operation, as well as their liners' planning, Hawaii was a logical choice.

Upon arrival, I changed access rights to data of my arrival just in case, then locked in my cabin and continued working. I did my best to keep outside contact to minimum, but I guess it was not enough. When first people were hospitalized with a disease in a way more serious form than on Shetland, I knew that there is a deep trouble and that I am a cause of it.

I did not trust the medical personnel on the ship, so decided to keep laying low and try to come up with a solution myself. And... well... I just am not used to turning myself in. So I moved here after the lockdown.

Umm... well, that's about it. Unfortunately, I have no scientific breakthroughs to announce. All I know is that I now feel normal again, Sam is getting better slowly, but doesn't seem to be affected by anything I've tried. Last thing I though of was trying if that inhaler medicine has any effect on him. Hence why I was in the medbay."

Andrew fell silent and looked first at Sam, then at Dr. Whitesun.

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