Meanwhile back at the Hub, Martha and Jack was running test on the samples she had taken from Lux. Well, Martha was, Jack was in his office, looking through a book he had documenting alien diseases. He had told Martha to come get him when she found anything wried. Whch was eaxcatly what she did. "Jack," Martha said, standing in the doorway, "There's something you need to see."
As they walked to the Infirmery, Martha began to explain. "At first the test didn't show anything I didn't already figure would be there, you know, a undetermined infection in the mucus, things like that, but then I looked at her blood, her white blood cells are doing overtime fighing whatever this is, which in and of itslef would not be unusual, as that is what the white blood cells' job is, fighting off infection, but they are losing the battle, same thing with the antibodies, which can happened, but then I decide to look at her DNA. "
"And what did you find?' Jack asked as they entered the infirmery.
"This," Martha said, pulling up the results of the test, revealing a DNA strand.
"And what excatly am I looking at here?" Jack asked.
"From what I'm looking at here," Martha began, sounding as if she barely believed it hersef, "The deisase somehow attached itself to Lux's genedic code."
A look of recination crossed Jack's face. "I think I know what this is."
Martha looked up at Jack. "What?"
"There are very few deasiases that attack themsleves to DNA like this,"Jack said, "Only one has all of Lux's symtoms. The Diego Plauge."
"The what?" Violet asked from over Rex's cell phone, which he had on speaker so they both could hear Jack and holding it out in his hand.
"Diego Plauge, named for the capital city of the planet it was first documented on." Jack explained, "The whole city was nearly wipped off the map before they figured out a cure. "
"So there is a cure? Rex asked.
"That's where it's get complicated," Jack said, "The there are two stairns of the Plauge. One that's spread by physical conact, the second way is one not found on Earth. If someone becomes a carrier of the deseaise, it can affect their offspirng's DNA and eventually infecting them with an active viris, kind of like a sleeper cell. This form of the viris is a harder to get rid of. You have to actually remove the viris from the infected person's DNA. I'm not even sure if we evenhave the eqipment."
Everyone was quiet for a moment. At last Rex asked, "How long does she have?"
Jack though a minute, then said, solemly, " Nine more days. If she's lucky."
Violet looked in the room at the girl who was in a exteremly fitful sleep. "The way she's suffering you call living like this nine more days, lucky?"
Again all was quiet for a moment, then Martha said, "If there's a way to save her we'll find it. I've been trying to get in contact with Helen." After the Darrow inicednt Martha and Helen had exchaged contact information, in case Martha needed Helen's insight again. But it was still somewhat hard to reach her.
And with that Jack added in, "I'm gonna try to get touch with some people see if maybe they have the stuff we need. "
"What do you want us to do?" Violet asked.
"Just keep doing what you've been doing," Jack said, "Watch her, call if there's any change in her conditon or anything unexpected happens."
"But one last thing ," Rex said, "How did she get this? I mean, yeah, carrier DNA, I get that, but how did they get an alien viris in the first place? I mean, is she not fully human?"
"That's another weird thing," Jack said, "From the looks of things, she is fully human. Hopefully Neal and Gwen will get something. " Just then there was a sound of a phone ringing from his office. "Look, I think that's my guy, I gotta go." And with that he hung up and ran back to his office.
Violet and Rex looked at each other. "So we're really supose to just stand around here?" Violet asked.
"What other choice do we have?" Rex replied.
"Yeah," Violet admitted, "I supose you're right."
Just then they heard Lux say ,"How did you get past the two outside?"
"They were talking to someone on their phone," A female voice said.
"Did you see anyone go in?" Violet asked in a low voice.
"No I didn't." Rex said.
The pair stormed into the room and found a figure in an old brown coat, a a black skirt sticking out from under it, indicating that this person was female. They couldn't tell from her face because it was covered with a black rimed hat with a translucent black veil over her face that obscured her features so they couldn't be made out. Lux, who's face they could see, looked like a deer in the headlights. The woman made for the door but Violet and Rex grabbed a hold of her. Violet pinned the woman's arm behind her back as Rex ripped off her hat. He was shocked by what it reveled. The woman's skin was like that of a human's, but she had a catlike nose, and pointed ears.
"Well," Rex said, "This explains a few things. So what is this, some kind of experiment? See how humans respond to your dieases?"
"Please," The creature replied, somewhat despertely, and in English, much to their surprise, "It's not what you think-"
"You know what I think," Rex said, "I think they sent you down to see how the Pluage was progressing, if she had died yet!" Rex was starting to get visibly, angry.
"Rex, clam down," Violet urged, "We need her to tell us what's going on. Just...call Jack and tell him we have a situation over here."
Just then Lux found her voice again. "Don't hurt her!" She screamed, "Pleased!"
That got Rex and Violet's attention. They both turned around to look at Lux. "Lux," Violet said, "She did this to you..."
"No, she didn't!" Lux practially sobbed, "She's my mum!"
Rex and Violet looked at each other again, then at the alien woman, and Lux. "Okay," Violet said, " Here's what we're gonna do. Rex, you call Jack, Lux and this alien chick, you two start explaining..."
Meanwhile, back at the libary, Gwen and Neal were also in for a surprise. They were at the edge of the rows of the books and could see a man in his late thirties with glasses, a girl of about fourteen with short blonde hair, and a boy the same age as the girl with light brown hair. All of them were franicly looking through stacks of papers piled on the tables. They were so engrossed in what they were doing that they didn't even notice Gwen and Neal. At least not until Neal said, "What the-"
That got their attention as they all looked up simotainously. The adult male step forawrd. "How did you get in here?" He asked.
"Let's just say you're gonna need a new door," Gwen replied, "Are you Andrew Giles?"
"Why do you want to know?" The man asked, weary.
"A girl, Lux, gave us your name and address," Gwen explained, "She though you could she some light on this situation with her. You see,she's really sick, and we don't know what sort of desisese she has..."
"We know," The girl said, stepping forward, "We're looking for something that might help her right now. You see," She picked a picutre off the table and walked over to the pair, "The same desiase killed my sister,Darlie-Lynn, last year."
Gwen and Neal looked at the picture to see the young girl in front of them, standing beside yet another girl that looked like Lux, except this one had curly hair. "Seriously?" Neal exclaimed, "Again?"
"My sediments excatly," Gwen said, then she looked at the group and continued, "This is the second pciture we've seen of a girl who looks like Lux, except that girl's name was Amber. And now we have another girl who except for her hair is identical to Lux and this one died of whatever Lux has. I want to know what the Hell is going on here, and I want to know it now."
"Alright," The man said, " I am Andrew Giles, and this is Miranda Cuttingham, and Busby MacHeath. We're all friends of Lux."
"I'm Gwen and this is Neal," Gwen said.
"Well, then," Giles said, "Gwen, Neal, you might want to sit down. This is rather a long story, and believe me, there's a lot to tell."
Neal and Gwen sat down at the table. "Now," Giles said, "The first thing you need to underatand is the Lux, Amber and Darlie-Lynn aren't the only ones. In fact, there are two more. Betula Jackson," He slid a picuture of a girl in a too-big school uniform with hair that went pass her shoulder blades, but other than that she looked excatly like Lux, " And Caraway York." This picture were at a mall with two Goth girls with their arms behind each other necks. Except for the sort black hair the one on the right was identical to Lux. "Well, three if you count this girl." He rummaged through pile of journals and pulled out a picture of a man in his early fourties standing next to-you guessed it-a girl idencitial to Lux with her hair in pigtails. "Echo Black, the orginal."
Neal looked up. "Orginal?"
Gwen rubbed her face. "Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means."
"I'm afraid it does," Giles said, "Except for Echo, all these girls are clones. Including Lux."