The doctor nodded. Two guards walked outside to guard the entrance and they closed the door. The doctor and one of the guards took a seat the last guard stood against a wall.
"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.
"Reckless... you were reckless mister Ross. Safety protocols exist for a reason. They are to prevent things like this, to prevent people from taking thinks in their own hands without a single thought about what would happen if something goes wrong!
If something goes wrong, you do not go to a Luxury Liner full of people! When something like this occurs, you make sure it doesn't spread and you call for professional help."
The doctor paused.
"You are lucky however..."
He grabbed an inhaler from his pocket.
"Our researchers found something. It has yet to be tested, but we expect everything to work out fine"
He looked at John for a moment than grabbed his comm. unit.
"Jennet? I want you to go to Small Conference Room Number 3 on deck 2."
"Understood, doctor. I'll be there in a few minutes", Jennet acknowledged.
Andrew sighed and shook his head, "Yeah, I suppose things got slightly out of control. Erm... my apologies?"
He then took a curious look and inhaler doctor held in hand, "Heh, something in an inhaler indeed after all, seems I was on a right path.
The door opened and closed as an outside guard post let Jennet in. John stood up, gave a short bow and remained standing at the wall, not as much because of politeness as to discreetly assume a better vantage point.
"Greetings, doctor! Good day, Frial! Erm... nice to meet you... sir?" Jennet's eyes were now shifting between Dr. Whitesun, Mr. Ross and Sam.
"Oh, all right. I will tell once I feel some difference"
An awkward moment of silence followed, which was broken by Mr. Ross.
"Since we either way have half an hour of free time, doctor, maybe you could share what you have come up in your research? I mean, what is the nature of this thing we are dealing with? My curious side wants to know that badly."
"It is a mutated Gaian disease, it's mutation made it spread extremely quickly among humans."
He paused.
"Not very surprising of course and the rest isn't surprising either: The disease clogs the throat, causing difficulty to breath. The virus causing this can however be defeated by a powder developed by our researchers, the temporary medicine is a lot less effective. It can only make it stop growing or expanding for a while, it does not actually remove anything.
Unfortunately, The Medics do not have the means to produce the cure on a larger scale. We will need Cryer or ExoGeni to do this for us."
"Interesting, very interesting..." Andrew muttered.
John leaned forward, "Hmm, with more than three and a half thousand people across both ships, 400 of them hospitalized as of latest data at my disposal, I think we'll need quite a serious amount of it, just to be sure. With your assent, I will open a communications channel with Cryer to negotiate the production and delivery of required amount of medicine. I will forward the frequency once established to you, sp you can upload and explain the details of what we need."
Jennet used a pause in John's speech to speak up "Hmm, it seems that breathing becomes easier. At least slightly"
![[Image: yXeeIiN.png]](https://i.imgur.com/yXeeIiN.png)
![[Image: weekdaysig1.png]](http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/8526/weekdaysig1.png)
![[Image: b1acd07f-367b-4f70-9d9e-bc0616abc5d4_detail.jpg]](http://www.tvprogramm.sf.tv/img/pool/b/1/a/c/b1acd07f-367b-4f70-9d9e-bc0616abc5d4_detail.jpg)