The trail ended abruptly at the metaphasic cloud. "If Enterprise went through that at warp she'd be lucky to survive." Galaxy said. "We don't have much of a choice but to go through. The trail did lead us here." Excelsior replied. Galaxy nodded and the two entered on impulse.

...

"Aishi!"

The man looked up from his work. "Again?" He asked.

Beginning during the night, Enterprise developed a stomach bug. No doubt caused by all her coughing. She spent the last 12 hours throwing up. Aishi shoved a pan under her muzzle and the starship puked noisily into it. Aishi noticed the more she threw up, the more severe her coughing became. A little investigating found the cause.

"The way you're designed means that anything you swallow goes through the same canals as your breath. Hence why you cannot breathe while you eat. When you throw up that bile comes up those same passageways. It's so acidic that its irritated them, hence your condition." He explained.

She groaned. "I've got far too big a head cavity for the rest of my body. Like a bulldog with its big flat nose." She coughed again, wheezing harshly each time she tried to take a breath.

"I'm sorry." Aishi said.

"For what?" She rasped.

"For not being able to heal you." He replied.

"As I said before. It's not your fault." She coughed again, though it was not as harsh as before. She was weakening. She rested her head on her makeshift pillow, eyes closing. "Continue your work." She murmured, her voice fading.

Lately, Enterprise had taken to sleeping more and more. Most likely because she was too weak to do much else. Aishi let her rest as he continued his work. Having been up for almost a day himself he found he was nodding off while working. He tried to stay awake and keep working until he couldn't stay awake any longer...

He wasn't sure how long he was out for. At least 8 hours. It was afternoon now. Enterprise was still unconscious, but something had changed. He could no longer hear her breathing. Not even so much as a wheeze.