By the time Ashley has arrived on the deck back from her duties, Felix has already set up in a comfortable corner at the far side of the conference table. The relatively large conference room was only half lit due to a recent power surge caused by Cryer's energy hungry equipment next door, resulting in a poorly illuminated corner Felix has settled in.
The door slid open with a small swish. Ashley, though exhausted but still stunning to casual eyes, walked in tapping on a data pad. The room was silent, except from the occasional chirps from the pad itself. Ashley looked up, realising she was directed incorrectly, frowned and was about to drag her tired self back out.
"Over here, Ashley" A voice came from the dark side of the conference table.
"Felix, is that you?" Ashley turned and approached the barely visible silhouette in question, which shrouded itself in relative darkness.
"It's called tactical camouflage," The figure, now recognised as Felix, leaned towards the light and spoke with a half hearted grin, "One day you'll thank me for all the techniques I've taught you on concealing your emotions."
"Very funny," Ashley rolled her eyes and replied, "This is no time for your mind games, Lix, we've got a gathering of all representatives and you're to give a concluding statement on behalf of Cryer."
Felix grinned again, this time even less convincing. He fetched a flask from his suit jacket and took a sip.
Felix looked up at Ashley, who stood still in front of him, and said "Well? Didn't you say I have a presentation to give? Start preparing the materials then!"
Ashley turned around and muttered "Right away sir", under her breath.
It wasn't long until the conference room was populated by people from all involved sides - Cryer senior coordinators, Medic doctors and staff of the Hawaii.
Amongst the speakers, there was also the liner's very own Captain Frial and chief Medics physicians Doctor Whitesun, Exogenis' Frosthearth, and Dr. Ross. The only personnel that seemed to be missing was, the self proclaimed medical expert from ExoGeni, Julian. A quiet hubbub was generated as soon as the communion of powers was gathered in this moderately sized conference room.
Still half hidden in the shadows, as usual, Felix carefully observed each individual's facial expressions and mapped them against his own mental database of face reading in attempt to assess any potential frauds or threats. So far everyone seemed genuine.
Another ten minutes had passed, until a bemused Julian staggered awkwardly through the doorway.
"Hmph, just as I thought." Felix said to himself, "amateurs."
He stood up and cleared his throat, politely gaining the attention of all in the room. Then he stepped into the light, revealing his whole self.
Felix gave a short beam, this time unnaturally convincing as though it came from a close friend. With a short pause, he began his lengthy conclusion to Cryer Pharmaceutical's quarantine and treatment operation onboard Luxury Liner Hawaii.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming to the executive representative gathering for the joint operation onboard Luxury Liner Hawaii.
I'd like to begin by concluding that, from Cryer Pharmaceutical's point of view, this operation was an overall success. With the superior quarantine conditions established and maintained throughout by our elite Emergency Response & Control teams, we've effectively minimised the potentials for casualties during this period of confusion to a below average but still acceptable figure of 3.67%.
Furthermore, with some small help from Medics and ExoGeni, the distribution and administration of medical treatment directed at this specific pandemic – now officially recorded as C2-819118-Hw for our convenience – is now complete. With the last known cases of said condition eliminated, our medical experts will be able to share their findings with you if you wish. As we speak, Cryer's recovery and finalisation operations are already in motion. We'll ensure that any traces of the viral agent are eradicated and any material that came into contact with it reduced to sub-atomic particles.
However, as you may have already known, our brief time here was not at all uneventful. According our logistics accounts, a total of 8 deaths and over 20 injuries had occurred since our arrival. 3 of which involving our very own employees. Our private investigations show that most of them occurred under accidental circumstances, therefore the Hawaii will not be held responsible. I wish to express my profound condolences for those and their families who paved way to our success with their precious lives. For more detailed information, please ask for our chief logistics manager's personnel reports.
To conclude, I'd like to thank you all again for your participation in this operation. I'm pleased to announce that Luxury Liner Hawaii is no longer under Cryer Pharmaceutical's quarantine and supervision. Our humanitarian presence onboard will terminate in approximately 12 hours. Your assistance was greatly appreciated by all. You all performed excellently under this particularly stressful environment and I commemorate your perseverance. It's been a pleasure working with you.
I'm Executive Coordinator Felix Cabulb and Cryer Pharmaceutical's influence officially ends here. Thanks you for listening."
A round of applause followed as Felix retreated back into the corner and sat back down. Ashley, who stood beside him and provided presentations throughout the speech, whispered.
"Nice one, sir."
Without a word, taking advantage of the illumination, Felix extended his hand towards Ashley's direction to grab her hand and caress it gently. The couple enjoyed this simple act of affection in silence.
John slowly started to stand up from his seat near the door to deliver his own speech. As he did so, another vaguely familiar figure near him jumped upright. John recognized the figure as Andrew Ross and discreetly sat back down.
Andrew was obviously eager to give his part of presentation. His brown hair was slightly less unruly than usual, which suggested that he had even tried using a comb while preparing his appearance for the speech. His vivid eyes quickly scanned the people present.
"Khm, may you excuse me, I, ehm, we, that is, I and Dr. Julian of the Cryer's, have some things discovered and I think can take the liberty to announce them to you.
So, as of the disease and the infectious agent causing it, we have determined the following:
The agent has an incubation period of about 8 days, it also has a period of inactivity for about a day, that is 24 hours, from around day five.
Our main concern was the effects observed in the autopsy of one of the passengers, which seemingly did not fit with what we could observe in other patients. That, as we finally understood, is a rather peculiar case and fits logically with the nature of the agent. You see, if there is a weakness, injury or rupture in membranes, the agent can spread further than lungs. It adapts to the new environment, which can cause a nasty effects from our, human, perspective. In this case, it most likely was able to turn the bodily fluids into a sort of acid. That in turn damages even more organs and membranes, allowing the agent to spread even further. End result is as we all observed.
That's one thing I wanted to tell. There is one more.
As you maybe know, at least most of you, it was my actions that inadvertently caused this situation we were in. I think I owe you an apology to some extent. Sorry.
Now, if you excuse me, I have Sam to feed."
Andrew left his position at the table and went to the door. He patted John on the back as the latter stood up.
John straightened his posture and gathered the thoughts that seemed to float everywhere expect in his head.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
A lot have happened over the last few days. First and foremost, I would like to thank The Medics and Dr. Whitesun personally for the swift response to our call of help. Thanks to their selfless efforts we were able to establish the origin of the disease and the ways to combat it.
I also express my gratitude to all the Cryer employees involved in delivering the medicine required, supervising the quarantine and doing the maintenance work in liner's systems to prevent the possibility of re-occurrence of such or similar situation. Their experience has also been invaluable in further analysis of the agent. My condolences for the loss of life of your employees.
Finally, a lot of thank for the ExoGeni team, who did not deny their help and arrived to lend aid and help with the research despite the misunderstandings we had in communication.
The aftermath and recovery from this event will be long and not easy, but the worst is way behind.
In the end I would like to note that effective immediately I am relinquishing all authority aboard luxury liner Hawaii and hand over full command to its captain Jennet Simmons.
Thank you and have a nice day"
John nodded and stepped back from the table. Though, instead of sitting down, he discreetly moved along the few seats that separated him from Jennet and whispered her in the ear, "Please, handle all requests that may come your way. Also, please, send a message to my officer team to start the preparations for department of Lightning without me, I'll join them later."
"What, you can't leave like that in the middle of meeting, it's.." Jennet snapped but John did not let her finish.
"My shift's long overdue," he muttered as he slipped out of the door. Jennet sighed at the thought of double paperwork she will have to go through and returned her attention to the next speaker.
***
"Oh, you will like it. Viewing the cloud from here is marvelous enough, but flying right through it is an unforgettable feeling." about 10 minutes later John was walking with Tanya to the back of Crying Lightning's docking bay. "Of course, you need a right ship for that. IR-7, more widely known as Raven's Talon is perfectly suited for that. It's a custom model, refitted to my specifications. Now, there it is, the beauty"
They had come to a door to small separate compartment on one corner of docking bay. John waved the keycard and stood with his back to the door to watch Tanya's impressions.
The surprised frown in her face made him turn around. Compartment was empty.
***
In the nearby cloud Andrew had just finished the first chapter of flight manual of John's fighter. He hoped that the captain does not get too attached to things. Bad habit. He will return the ship of course, after a few days or weeks, but now he needed to be alone for a while and think. Last few days had given a lot of food for thought. Now he had to decide what to do with his life. Sirius was a playground way too exciting to waste time making hasty decisions.
"Let's see if this thing is really as difficult to fly as the manual suggests," Andrew mused, pushing the speed lever to cruise position.
"Good luck to you, Stella. You can always contact me."
He walked away and shouted
"I thank you all people! Me and my men will go now, but do not hesitate to call us if you need us. Good luck and good health!"
He walked out and soon Medics could be seen carrying their stuff back to the Centre of Healing. The doctor smiled content as the ship finally took off.
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