2017.01.19 - now updated with beta

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I really didn't want to do this, but I've kept you waiting long enough. My sweet beta is kinda missing at the moment and I hope she'll turn up eventually but if any of you feel like it: it really wouldn't hurt to have one or two more betareaders. As you are going to see, there is still some work to do but there are much worse texts out there ^^°
More beta readers would make my life much easier which would mean faster writing.

This chapter is short and as of yet my worst in this story but it will be followed by a much longer and way cooler chapter so please just hang in there with me.

Comments are highly appreciated in generall and especially right now.

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Matt was able to catch Chloe before she hit her head on the hard floor.

"Chloe?" He pushed the long dark strands from her forehead and looked into her pale face. "Chloe, open your eyes! Come on." She did not react. When he felt for her pulse it was very weak. Hastily he grabbed the radio.

"TJ, please respond." He got no answer. Worried he kept on trying to wake up Chloe. "TJ, do you read? I need you on the observation deck right now. Chloe collapsed."

When he finally got an answer it was not what Matt had anticipated.

"This is Varro. Tamara collapsed, too. I can't wake her up."

„What the...?" Matt looked around in panic, but the empty room gave him neither answer nor help.

"I got two more reports," Varro continued and Matt swallowed dryly. Did they get infected with a virus again? But there had been no signs for that. Chloe had not seemed to have a fever or any other troubles.

Matt reprimanded himself. He had to pull himself together. Panic was no solution.

"Bring TJ to the infirmary. I'll come too. Tell the others, too. Over."

He changed the channel. "Colonel Young, please respond." It took a moment until Young's sleepy voice answered. "What is it, Lieutenant?"

"TJ and Chloe collapsed and won't wake up. There are reports of two more cases. Varro is with TJ. I told him everyone is to report to the infirmary."

"Understood. I'm on my way," Young answered, sounding more awake.

Matt put away the radio, heaved Chloe into his arms, and carried her as fast as he could to the infirmary. There he was appalled to find that the number of stricken patients had increased. Including Chloe, there were already seven. For the first time in a long while the large room was uncomfortably filled.

Matt watched in relief as Young came in, getting an overview of the situation and the present people before giving orders.

"Marsden, Greer, put together teams of two. The whole crew is to meet in the mess. Find everyone. Barnes, have Wray and three other people get medical support from Earth. Meanwhile, the rest of you tend to the unconscious. We don't know what we are dealing with yet, if it is contagious, and if so, in what way. So be careful.

Scott, make a list of everything that everyone did and ate last. Find commonalities. Ask for Rush's help with the kinos and the surveillance of the ship. I want to know what's going on. Lieutenant, concentrate!"

Matt flinched. It was hard for him to let go of Chloe.

"Scott!" Young demanded his attention.

"Yes, Sir."

Vanessa stepped up to Matt and lay a hand on his shoulder. "I'll take care of her," she promised quietly. Matt nodded thankfully and finally got to work.

Half an hour later all crew members were gathered in the mess. Two more scientists had been found unconscious in their quarters. Only Richmond was still missing. An extensive search had been started.

So far, Matt was only halfway done with the list, but he already had the suspicion that they would find Richmond unconscious, too. It seemed as if all patients had been at Brody's and all of them had displayed a strange behavior before they lost consciousness. He had blamed Chloe's strange mood on the alcohol, but now that he was more sober and was putting the pieces together, it was obvious that there had been more behind it.

Doctor Brightman, who had switched with Wray, and her colleagues had found that they were in a coma-like state. It had put no one's mind at ease. By now they had taken blood samples from all those affected and were examining them for pathogens, which would take some time.

Meanwhile, Matt reported his findings to the colonel, who then called Brody over. "The Lieutenant says that all of these people were with you a couple of hours ago. Could it be the drinks?"

"Out here, always; but we didn't use anything that wasn't cleared by TJ and everyone had some of the juice, even me."

"Were there any abnormalities among the others?" asked Brightman, who had joined the small group.

"Some have been complaining that the lights are too bright. Otherwise, everyone has been mostly in a good mood, some just a bit more."

"Which is peculiar enough after the mood aboard the last few days."

"Why?" Brightman looked expectantly at the men. Scott took over when Young did not answer.

"One of our crewmembers was… is missing. Many took that unusually hard."

"Understandable. Be that as it may I'm not ruling anything out before we have the blood test results back, but food supplies are a good start. I need drink samples. We will examine them again in case anything has been missed. Sometimes two otherwise harmless substances mixed together can nevertheless become toxic once combined. With all due respect to Lieutenant Johansen's capabilities, her knowledge surely has limits.

Let's hope the cause is among them or else we'll have to extend our search. Apart from that, we need to find a way to wake them up as soon as possible. In their current condition it will only take a couple of days before organ failure sets in. I don't have the equipment to keep all of them alive for longer than that."

"If it becomes absolutely necessary, we can put them into stasis, but that should be our last resort. Do what you can, Doctor. We'll get you whatever you need if we can."

"I will do that, Colonel." Brightman turned away and got back to work while Brody went on his way to the distillery. Matt followed him after looking in on Chloe, but her condition was unchanged like everyone else's.

The distillery was a mess. Normally everyone cleaned up after themselves. They had rules about it, but no one seemed to have followed them this time. Matt had not realized it last night. Had they really been that drunk?

Brody indicated the large table where Chloe and Matt had been sitting too. Their used cups still stood there. "Most people were over there, but not all the patients are from that table if I remember correctly. Leftovers from the juices should still be behind the bar."

Matt looked in one of the cups. There was no solution, only slowly drying remnants of the drink and some brownish slimy substance. He smelled it carefully and made a disgusted face. The remnants of the alcohol were mixing with a nauseatingly sweet smell.

"What is this?" Matt showed the contents of the cup to Brody. Some of the other cups seemed to have the same residue. Brody poked the stuff. "If I would have to take a guess, I would say this had been the blossoms."

"What blossoms?"

"We decorated the cocktails with them. They came from a plant TJ had signed off on."

"The blossoms too?"

"What?"

"Did she sign off on the blossoms too?"

"I think so… probably. They weren't supposed to be eaten, now that you mention it. Most stuck to the berries, but some of the women had the blossoms. That would explain why there are only two men among the patients."

"Damn. Do you still have some?"

"Yes."

"Bring them." Matt took the radio. „Colonel, this is Scott, I think we found something. There is a plant whose blossoms were used in the cocktails last night. They were probably overlooked in testing because they weren't supposed to be eaten. We'll come back and bring samples."

"Understood. Good job."

O

Everett felt helpless. When they fought something they could only see under a microscope, something he could not fight with his own hands, he felt paralyzed every time. Meanwhile, the doctors thought Matt's theory about the blossom was the most likely. At least it ruled out a contagion and gave them a starting point for treatment. Having to utilize unfamiliar methods slowed down the process of finding a solution. There was still no cure in sight.

In the meantime, Richmond had been found. She had been lying unconscious in a remote corridor, a minor laceration on her forehead. Probably she had been surprised by the unconsciousness like everyone else. That they had now clarified the whereabouts of all crew members was only a small comfort.

„How is it, Doctor?" Everett asked. He got an irritated sigh in reply. No wonder, as it was not the first time he was asking that question, but she kept her patience.

"Sobering. It could take weeks to analyze the substances in the plant. Part of it seems familiar, other parts are completely foreign to us. Any substance or combination of them could have caused the current state of your people. For example, we identified something that looks like Mescaline. It would explain some of the symptoms, but not all."

"What's Mescaline?"

"An alkaloid… an organic compound that occurs in a certain kind of cactus on Earth. Most know it under the name Peyote. The reports of hallucinations, excitement and other behavior that the lieutenant gave me would fit, but the coma does not at all. That is why I still have no solution. Mescaline would have been processed by their bodies by now anyway.

I went through Lieutenant Johansen's notes and supplies, but I want to do some tests before I start giving your people anything. I could kill them with the wrong treatment."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Aside from letting us do our work? Not much. Though you could get us some more of that plant. It seems as if only the blossoms have these high quantities. What might also help would be to find an animal that eats this plant. Most of the times they find their own way of dealing with the plants' substances, which could help us."

"We can look for it, but I can't promise anything. I'll send a team immediately."

"Thank you."

Everett left Brightman with her work and went to assemble a team. There were enough volunteers who were tired of the inactivity like him. In the end he sent Varro and three other men, while ordering a mandatory break for Scott. Even though they were only collecting some plants, he did not want a hungover Lieutenant out there.

Everett had more than enough to do himself while the team was planetside. The crew had to be updated about their current situation and the inactivity of waiting would do none of them good. They had to get back to work. He himself had to arrange reports to bring to Earth when one of the stones became available. It was going to be a nightmare because the mistakes happening under his command did not seem to be lessening. David did not push him anymore, but there were still enough voices doubting his command and trying to replace him. But aside from the fact that he had made peace with the thought of commanding this crew, the only way to relief him of his duties was to replace him with someone on board or make a permanent connection with the stones. And he would definitely do neither. If they really wanted to replace him, then they should strengthen their efforts to build a supply line.

But he did not return to his quarters directly after he had given all his orders. His first stop brought him to the distillery. Someone had cleaned up, but now the room was empty. One more thing on his list of decisions. Should he close the distillery for a couple of days or even longer? But what would that accomplish?

It would make no sense to put the blame on Brody for their current situation. After what Everett had seen, the man was punishing himself already when this could easily have happened to Becker or the other members of the mess. A mistake that could cost them their lives out here. The only consequence they could take from this was to be even more careful.

Probably one or the other had lost their desire for alcohol for now anyway. Like him. The wish to drown all his problems in alcohol had been far too strong in the last couple of days. But he did not want to fall back into that dark hole. Compromising himself to Scott again or the crew was no option.

Everett turned his back on the distillery and followed the corridor to the quarters. It was Eli's room that he was headed to instead of his own. The chaos there had contained nothing that would have helped them in any way. Eli had left without leaving a trace. Without a hint showing them a way to get him back.

„How long are you going to keep us waiting?" Everett asked the empty room quietly. He had to think of how Eli had slept at his side. If they had kept it that way, Eli would have had no chance to go because he would have had an eye on the boy the whole time.

Everett called himself a fool before he could finish the thought. It was stupid to think that he could have stopped Eli. Especially not Eli and Rush together. After all, he had taken down his guard without much effort.

As soon as Eli returned, Everett would have to have the serious talk with Eli that he had repeated countless times in his head the last couple of weeks.

If Eli returned.

Everett did not know how long he could keep up hope.

Was it foolish to believe that Eli had a chance?

How long could they wait and do nothing?

The mandatory rest and recreation had turned into a disaster. A long row of events that were worsening every day.

How long until he would have to give the order to fly on? They could not go on like this forever.

To lose Eli for good would be a blow Everett did not want to imagine. Every single loss since the beginning of their journey had hit him hard. They always did, after all, he was only human. But Eli was different.

Maybe it was because he had no military background and his personality and mode of thinking was different from the rest of the crew. Or because he had changed so much since stasis. Maybe it was because Eli had sneaked into his personal space. No, not sneaked. He had pushed in without thinking and Everett had let it happen, which was completely inappropriate. It was even worse that he had woken a couple of times at night, feeling for Eli next to him unthinkingly. That was just wrong and something he did not want to deal with. So Eli's absence brought a moral relief that lay heavy on his conscience.

Everett was tired in a way that could not be cured by any sleep in the world. He had a feeling of crumbling inward, every day a bit more, and he could see it with the others, too. If they did not have any successes soon, despair would spread like a wildfire and do damage he could not yet foresee. He had seen how people could lose hope and turn against each other. If that happened to them, they would be lost.

A couple of times Everett hit the doorframe with his palm, frustrated that he was not able to get ahead. Then he finally turned to leave. He had had these kind of thoughts too often in the last two weeks and they were dragging him closer to the abyss bit by bit every time. He had to stop this.

Determined, he went back to work.

O

Doctor Brightman stretched and pushed a wayward hair strand out of her eyes. She still was not used to using the stones. The feeling of a foreign body was strange every time, but it fell into the background when she concentrated on her work. Only now and then was she reminded of it when a reflective surface did not show her the usual picture or when a movement did not have the usual radius. She actually felt a certain fascination for this technology, but it was not her field.

Her task was to heal these people. Not an easy task when the analysis did not show any clear results. It was even more difficult because she could not just go to the medicine cabinet and just crab the right drug. Her colleagues had been analyzing for two days by now, and as she had told Young, there did not seem to be an end to finding new organic compounds. The additional fresh samples she had asked for had made it even worse.

Time was running out and she had to decide on a selection of compounds soon. Tests on the patients would be at a certain point the only thing that would bring them forward, but in these surroundings she was hesitant to make that decision.

She was distracted from her thoughts when one of her colleagues gave her his newest notes. She skimmed over the words and breathed a sigh of relief. They looked promising. With them, she could finally work. She started to check the noted values with newfound hope.

About an hour later she asked Colonel Young to meet with her to give him her results.

"We took another round of blood samples and checked them. The values of the foreign compound have not gone down. So we have to eliminate the chance of the patients being able to metabolize it any time soon by themselves. We found something that seems to neutralize the compound among the samples the team brought from the planet. I would like to begin with Lieutenant Johansen. She has the lowest concentration in her blood so I can give her a smaller dosage..." She stopped.

"But?" Young asked impatiently. Brightman sighed.

"Like I said before, there are no guaranties. There is no way of knowing what kind of adverse effects there might be. The products of both compounds could make everything worse, but under the current circumstances this is our only solution. Otherwise I would suggest preparing stasis."

Young stayed silent and looked over to the patients. She did not know what he was thinking, but she had a rough idea. He had to make a decision where none of the options were favorable. Before she could continue to explain what could happen he nodded decidedly. "Do it. Wake my people!"

O

Varro had taken a seat at TJ's side and was holding her hand. Her fingers were unusually cool. There were people sitting at the sides of all the patients. They seemed to be as uncomfortable with the waiting and hoping as he was.

He looked up when the doctor stepped up to the other side of the bed, followed by Young. She had an injection needle in her hand and injected it into TJ's system without further explanation. Her look unsettled Varro.

"Will that help her?" he asked as he rubbed softly over TJ's skin to get a little warmth back into it.

"We will see soon. It can take a while to…" Brightman was interrupted when TJ's body started convulsing. "Damn it, I was afraid this could happen."

"Do something!" Varro and Young demanded at the same time, helping her to hold TJ still so she would not hurt herself.

"I need more of the blue root solution, one to twenty. Now!" she called over her shoulder to her colleagues and got another needle soon after. "Hold her still." She injected the solution. It did not seem to work at first. But finally the convulsions stopped and TJ's body relaxed.

Varro was about to sigh in relief but it was not over yet. "She's not breathing!" he yelled. Brightman used her stethoscope to hear TJ's lungs, and then TJ suddenly opened her eyes wide, taking gasps of air. Then she sank back on the bed and blinked tiredly. Her breathing seemed to normalize.

"Lieutenant Johansen, can you hear me?"

TJ nodded slowly and made a face.

"Do you have any pain?"

She raised her hand and touched her head and throat. When she tried to speak she could not get any words past her lips. Only on the second try did her voice obey. "What happened?"

"You've got the worst hangover you can think of," Young said.

Doctor Brightman explained it a bit more clearly. "You accidentally ate something that didn't agree with you. But you are on the way to recovery. We will explain everything later. Rest now. We don't know yet if the treatment will have any other adverse effects."

TJ nodded and smiled at Varro, who guided her hand to his lips and kissed the cool skin briefly. From the corner of his eyes he could see a look on Young's face that he was not quite able to identify.

"You know how it works, Lieutenant. Nothing to eat or drink for the next couple of hours. The infusion will give you all you need right now. Take care that she remains in bed and tell me as soon as something changes about her condition," Brightman instructed first TJ and then Varro.

"I will do that, Doctor."

TJ closed her eyes again while Varro continued to listen to Brightman and Young with one ear. Both turned a little away but stayed close.

"Unfortunately I can't tell if there will be any more complications at the moment, but I think we can risk using the treatment on all the other patients. We can't wait any longer, and we have to treat one after the other to keep the reactions under control. Let's hope the solution works for everyone."

"Okay."

O

Three days later Everett accompanied Doctor Brightman back to the stones. The other doctors had already gone back one by one. He should be going with her to give the report he had been postponing, but he still did not know what to say. Brightman would already report the course of the treatment. They had been able to wake all the patients, but had nearly lost Airman Haley, who had reacted worse than the others. But by now everyone had been released from the infirmary. They had been lucky.

"Thank you for your help," Young said as he shook hands with Brightman.

"Any time, Colonel, even if we can only hope that we don't have to see each other so soon again."

"Yes, let's hope so."

They switched off the stones and Camille returned.

"How is everyone?" she asked immediately.

"Much better. We were lucky again." She nodded softly and left the room.

Everett took his time. Giving a report of the incident did not tempt him at all. One thoughtless human act had nearly cost eight of their crewmembers their life. That would definitely get him criticism for his leadership and for the whole situation again.

Instead of using the stones he turned to another equally uncomfortable task. He actually had managed to avoid Rush since their argument on the bridge. Their communication had been limited to one-worded information via radio. An admittedly childish tactic, but it had worked. Rush had kept quiet and stuck to his work. The daily reports about the progress with repairs had spoken for themselves. If it had not been for the incident, one could have said it was a quiet time.

On the bridge, Everett was greeted by a by now-familiar sight. Rush was brooding alone over a console and was scribbling something in his new notebook. Doctor O'Brian, with the help of Brody, had finally managed to produce a stack of paper and had spread it among the crew.

"Camille is back. All the patients have been dismissed from the infirmary," Everett informed him without greeting.

"Good," Rush replied. He looked up briefly and was somewhere else with his thoughts again in the next moment, obviously. Silence spread between them while Everett leant on the railing that separated the two levels of the room, watching the scientist contemplatively.

Rush had a really twisted way of showing his trust in and worry for Eli. Now that he had some distance from the situation, Everett could see why Eli and Rush had done what they did. Why they had given up on all other options. But Everett's ego had a hard time accepting that they had felt the need to do it behind his back. It showed that Eli did not have enough trust in him. After Eli had constantly sought his proximity, it did not make much sense to him.

Everett admitted to himself that his first reaction would have been a clear 'no' if Eli really had come to him. If he had allowed Eli to go eventually, he would not have let him go alone.

"So, how is your project going?" he asked suddenly, pushing the idle thought away.

"Which one? I have many," Rush replied distractedly.

"The one where you try to get access to the Aza'an's data and localize their homeplanet to calculate a way through the gates." The name of the aliens still took some getting used to. Probably he pronounced it completely wrong.

Rush halted for a moment and shook his head. "No chance. There is nothing that I can use to determine a reference. How do you know about that project?"

"Volker and Brody aren't always as slow as you keep thinking."

"Hm."

"It's been thirteen days since Eli left."

"And seven hours and," Rush looked at the display. "Forty-seven minutes."

Everett understood the hint. Rush felt Eli's absence like everyone else onboard. He was not indifferent.

"How long?" Everett asked, guessing Rush knew exactly what he meant.

"I don't know. If they had only taken the nanites and let him go, he would be back by now. I don't think that the process is so difficult for that race. They seem too advanced for that. There must be another reason keeping him away."

Rush paused for a moment before continuing. "The truth is I'm not ready to give up on him. The past has shown that being away from the ship does not mean a death sentence. And Eli always comes up with something. But still, we should think about giving up this whole vacation thing and fly on, especially after this incident. We need new material that we can't get on the planets we can reach from here.

"If we go on it's the end for Eli," Everett stated grudgingly.

"No, he knows the way. As long as we stay on course he'll find us. He said so himself."

Everett did not know if he could believe that or if Rush was only trying to justify moving on. "Give us a couple more days." He turned to go.

"Colonel, my decision to help him was right," Rush said when Everett was at the door. He turned back again.

"You might believe that. I will only believe it when he is back."

"Of course."

Everett sighed and shook his head. „Don't stay up for much longer. You look tired."

"Sure Colonel."

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