Scholarly Thinking

Kix was sitting in the barn alone, his elbows on his knees and his hands nervously rubbing together. Saria walked in and sat opposite him, five meters away. Outside the barn, Jester's voice shouted his impotent rage at her moving among his possibly infected brothers. Kix glanced at her, a worried look on his face. He lifted one hand to his lips and began chewing his thumbnail.

"How are they doing?" Her voice was soft.

"You shouldn't be here, Saria. I thought you decided that the pregnant women would be isolated." He glanced down. "Please go back, Saria. We don't want to chance losing your baby, losing you."

"I need to know how they're doing, Kix. I won't get close to you." She was too close already. He shuffled his chair further away from her.

"You should have stayed in the house." He accused, sighed and dropped his head. "They're both infected. I have to be by now. First Crux. Shy is tolerating it better than Crux, but that's still not good. Suu hasn't shown any symptoms. I wanted her to go to isolation, but she's says she's not leaving Shy." His face twisted, ."Now Djinn and Riven are ill. Saria, we have to do something. We can't…"

She shook her head, tears in her eyes. "There's nothing."

Somewhere in the back of his mind was the thought that if he didn't look at her, she couldn't get infected. He stared at the ground as he spoke. "Shy is shivering and his fingers are cramping. Djinn is deep in the coughing phase. Riven has a headache. For a while he complained that it was just due to taking care of Djinn and living in the tent; not being able to sleep all night because of Djinn's coughing. At some point, he shivered. When he saw that I had noticed, he admitted having chills. I moved them both into the house with Suu, me and Shy. I'm just back for some supplies."

He heard her soft sigh, glanced and saw her put her face in her hands. "They've updated the fatality rate. It's at eighty percent now." She said between her fingers.

"Saria," he wanted to comfort her in some way. He wanted to reach out his hands and hold her. They were family now. He was her apprentice. He clasped his hands together. He wasn't showing any symptoms yet, but he was infected. He had to be.

There was a long moment of silence, Kix racing through his mind to find something to say to her. Then he froze, wondering if what had just happened was like scholarly thinking instead of flash training or programming. Bringing together different facts and thoughts to form a unified thought rather than the linear procession of duties instilled by programming or the simple answers provided by flash training.

"Saria," Kix asked slowly. "What is the relation of red shadow virus to the other shadow viruses? If someone has had one of the other viruses would they be immune to other variants?"

"Not all, but some," she answered, seeing an odd expression on his face as he stared at the wooden floor.

"Blue shadow virus?" he asked, the odd look frozen on his face.

"That's been eradicated, but in shadow viruses, the more virulent forms often confer immunity to less virulent forms."

Kix wanted to keep his thoughts linear so he wouldn't miss anything, but everything he knew and understood piled in his mind all at once, all together.

"And blue shadow virus was the most virulent form?" He asked, though he knew. She nodded and he continued. "Would it be possible to make a vaccine from someone who'd had the virus before?"

Again she nodded. "It's possible, but I don't think we have the equipment."

"Would that help Shy, Riven and Djinn? Cut? Since they're already sick?" He looked up from the ground, looking at her.

"I don't know. It would depend, mostly, on how strong the patient is. How fast the antibodies started working."

He opened his lips, closed them and then opened them again. "It's highly classified but Rex and Jesse have both had blue shadow virus. They were cured with reeksa root." He rubbed his fingers. "Does that make a difference?"

"No. If they've had the disease, then they have antibodies for it." She looked at him with wide eyes. "Kix, are you giving me hope?"

Kix simply kept talking, wanting to get all of his thoughts out before they could vanish. "Saria, since we're all genetically identical, you wouldn't even have to purify the blood. It could even be blood to blood contact. Couldn't it? Just a …" his shoulders shrugged. "Just a small transfusion. It could work, couldn't it Saria? Tell me, my thinking is correct. Tell me it could work." Kix licked his lips, his eyes pleading with her.

She was stiff in her seat and her own eyes flicked back and forth, her lips moving, as she thought and remembered. Slowly she nodded, eyes still focused somewhere else. "It could work, Kix." She brought her eyes to his face. "Make it about 50cc for the men who don't show signs of infection, 100 for Shy, Djinn and Riven." She shook her head. "No, try Shy and Djinn first; see if there's an improvement. Then Riven, unless he deteriorates rapidly. If it works on them, then we'll do all the men. Even if it works on just one man, we'll immunize all the men. I'll try to think of how to purify it and make it a vaccine for the rest of us."

"Don't do that without talking to Cody." Kix frowned, there were protocols she should be aware of. Cody would tell her. "And Cut?"

Saria shook her head. "He's not here and we can't get into town."

Kix laughed, hopeful. "That," he smiled at her, "will be the least of our problems. Go on back to the house."

She smiled back. "When I walked out of the house, I told them not to let me back in."

"The porch then," ordered Kix absently. "You're quarantined to the porch. When it rains, you deserve to get wet and I hope Jester yells at you the entire day for leaving the house." He stood as she moved out the door. "I've got things to do but I'll probably need to consult with you." He grinned, there was hope. "So don't leave the area."

Kix watched as Jester escorted her down toward the house, making sure none of the men came within five meters of her. She seemed to listen calmly to his tirade though Jester shook with anger. He'd just come out of a three-day quarantine the day before Djinn and Riven met the drifters. He was so obviously livid as he walked more than five meters from her, glaring at anyone coming within fifty paces of her.

Kix grabbed a medkit and packed it with a couple of 100 cc syringe, several smaller syringes, needles of varying sizes and some sweet fluid replacement. He'd grab the first one he came to, Rex or Jesse, then go directly to Jester's house.

Since my taxes are done, hre's another installment.

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