The hand that heals

[rewritable]

A woman in her thirties wearing a plain uniform lying nearby tried to stand up and walk to doctor, but a coughing spell made her slow down on this try. She leaned at the wall and spoke quietly, taking care to keep her breathing under control: "That would be me, doc. I passed the routine health screening just 3 weeks ago and it showed no deviations of norm. I never get sick. This filthy thing being the only exception. "

She stepped away from the wall towards Dr. Whitesun and stood straight: "My name is Jennet Simmons, captain of Hawaii"

---

[TheJarl]

The doctor nodded.
"Very well... come with me..."
He gestured with his gloved hand for her to follow him. He didn't go back to the makeshift hospital at once though, instead he first stepped towards John.

"Sir, could I please have those notes? And I also want to see this temporary medicine. If one of my men can manage to decipher his hand-writing entirely as well as analyse the medicine, I am confident that it will greatly aid us."

---

[rewritable]

John handed over the notes: "Here you are. You can also ask questions to him personally. In those moments when he is conscious, that is. Combination of disease and overwork has taken its toll from him.

The supplies of medicine are located over there" John waved at the far end of medical bay, "There is half of all we have left, rest we moved to bridge for security reasons. Our reserves should be enough for about 36 hours, after that, we'll have to contact Cryer to replenish supplies. It is a quite common one, developed ages ago by Cryer for asthma patients."

Jennet followed the doctor, stopping only for a moment to speak to John: "Frial, go make yourself useful and finally find how this disease got aboard my ship, goddammit! By any means necessary"

---

[TheJarl]

On the way the doctor mumbles:
"Asthma? I must admit it seems similar... but asthma isn't contagious, then again... diseases develop... maybe this is a more advanced form of asthma... well I guess that's we are gonna find out"

---

[rewritable]

"This is ridiculous... who and why would take any bother to lock data about part of incoming traffic.?And how, without anyone noticing?" John said to two encryption specialists he had found among the ranks of passengers.

"Mmm... it seems that a loophole in security system design was used. Basically someone created a new clearance level above the topmost one and just assigned it to that data. Since technically no security breach was done, system made no alerts. That could be done from any terminal in ship. I think we retrieve access, but it will take a bit of time" said one of them, other just nodded and turned to screen

All right, John thought, the information of small craft traffic must contain some clue about what we are dealing with and where it came from. Accessible data about scheduled OSC liner moorings, last ones eight and six days ago, contained no information that would be out of ordinary.

---

[TheJarl]

The pair soon arrived at the makeshift hospital. Several beds were already in place and some equipment as well Raimon points at one of the beds.
"Please lay down. Then I will first ask some questions"

---

[rewritable]

Jennet first sat down on side of the bed, looked around, then laid down.
"Impressive work you've done, setting up a hospital from nothing in such a short time..."

---

[TheJarl]

"Preparation is of the essence, miss. While we were getting moored the crew was already on their positions to unload everything as quickly as possible.
He grabs an electronic notebook and a pen
"Now tell me, can you describe the symptoms of this disease? How are you feeling? Does it hurt and how? As much and as detailed as possible."

---

[rewritable]

Jennet gathered her thoughts for a moment before replying,
"First, the throat is sore, it's quite painful all the time, it's dry, I'm having difficulties to swallow. Then there is the cough, it strikes regularly, usually it is quite bearable, but if I forget to breathe slowly or attempt to do some physical task, it can come in a strong coughing spell, which also makes it very difficult to breathe during it and right afterward. That is, you try to inhale, but your lungs just don't move, not the way you want them to. Sometimes that is accompanied with a dizziness, with vision blacking out and loss of sense of balance. That is for me. Some have this state almost constantly, others are beyond that and are fully unconscious"

Jennet asked for a glass of water, then continued,

"That is also how I passed out for the first time, before Frial contacted you. I had some cough and slightly sore thoat before that, can't say exactly, for some three or four hours, but I didn't pay much attention to that. After a few hours, it got worse, with coughing spells starting. Then, finally, after one such spell I found myself unable to breathe in, moments later world faded out"

---

[TheJarl]

Raimon nods and 'writes' everything down on his device and then gestures at a few doctors who quickly step towards him in response.
"Get a few boxes of the temporary medicine, and get the people unloading to also start unloading boxes with inhalers."
The men nod at him and walk off.

"Thank you very much, miss. Now I will let one of my nurses take a sample of your saliva, or spit as it is commonly referred to."

A nurse walks towards her.
"Open your mouth, please."
When Jennet does so the nurse scraps a cotton swab across her inner cheek.
"Thank you very much"

---