I almost lost John to waiting for the right moment. Quinn is the man for you. Don't make my mistake." Louise smiled and nodded. "You don't need to tell me Rose, tell Quinn. He's still hurting over his first wife and can't let go."

Rose understood now, and decided she was going to do something about it.

Chapter 36 Panic

They said goodbye at the door with Mary sleeping on Quinn's shoulder. They looked so perfect together with Louise on his arm. They waved goodbye and Rose closed the door. The Time Lord picked up Alice and took her to bed. Rose waited downstairs. She wanted to see if maybe he would talk to Quinn.

He came back downstairs. "Aren't you tired? You've been up since six getting ready for this." "Yes, I'm tired, but this is important. I want you to talk to Quinn. Louise says he's not interested in a relationship because he's still hurting over his first wife. You've been there. Can't you make him see sense?" The Time Lord rolled his eyes and flopped on the couch.

"Rose, It's none of our business." "Don't you give me your Time Lord notions. We are not just observers. When friends are hurting, we help." He had a scowl on his face. "Don't ask me to do this. I have enough trouble with my own emotions let alone someone else's.

Especially Quinn. He's a proud man who doesn't wear his pain on his sleeve, and he won't appreciate me butting in." Rose was going to have to find a different tack. "You know he loves her. You know she is the best thing that could ever happen to him. You know how to let go of the past and recognize a good thing when you see it.

If he doesn't act soon it may fall apart and then where will he be? Where would we be if I hadn't..." The Time Lord moaned in surrender. "All right, all right. I'll talk to him. But, I'm telling you now I'm going to say it was your idea." Rose smiled, knowing she'd won. "All he needs is a kick in the pants and asked, what's the matter with you!" The Time Lord grunted in acknowledgement as he went upstairs to bed, trying to figure out how he would do it. But there would be no time for such things anytime soon.

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It began on a cold, wet monday in early spring. A child had fallen and scraped his knee. Nothing special about that, except no one expected what happened next. The boy developed a severe chill and then a high fever. Next the kidneys shut down, and his heart grew weak.

The wound itself was healing, but the boy seemed to slip away. By the 5th day, he was gone, and there were 6 more like him. The hospital staff was perplexed. They knew it was some kind of infection, but couldn't find it in his bloodstream. The antibiotics they used seemed to have no effect at all. In the end they were powerless.

Panic spread in the town. Parents were afraid to let the kids out to play. People stayed indoors in case it was in the air. All to no avail. Three more children and a teenager were next to contract the hellish thing. Again the hospital tried everything they could, but they were losing ground and lives.

President Sinclair called on everyone to stay calm, and the doctors worked around the clock, but with no results. The little girl who had fallen off her bike was gone, and the other two were not far behind.

The Time Lord came to the city council to see if he could help. He was given a complete report of all that had been done for the patients and all the research that was still being done.

He knew what it was, but wanted to see the teenager to confirm it. The parents quickly agreed. Everyone went to the hospital room where the girl was clinging to life in an induced coma. The only thing they had found to slow the deterioration.

He took out his sonic screwdriver and examined her. The results were as he suspected. It was the same fungus that had struck Rose in the old village. He wished he had better news for them. Even the most powerful drug he had would not cure the infection.

He gave them the only answer he had. "I've encountered this illness before. It nearly killed Rose. It's a virulent fungus found in the soil. I believe environmental conditions make it come out of dormancy and multiply. I think it might have been brought here by the terreformers and then mutated into its present deadly state.

Prognosis depends on how much of it gets into your system. It generally enters through any break in the skin, but in high concentrations can be airborne as well." The President was shaken, seeing the colony die in front of him. Thinking of the thousands on their way. "What can we do?"

"I'm very sorry sir, I don't know." One of the councilmen spoke up. "You said it nearly killed Mrs. Smith. What did you do to save her?"

"I'm sorry, that's not an option. I used up what I could to save her."

The President spoke again, "Doctor, Will you work with the hospital staff to try to stop this terrible thing?" "I will do what I can, Mr President. In the meantime let your citizens know how it's contracted. Any cut in the skin can be deadly."

The President nodded his head, "I'll have Quinn issue a statement to the colony." The Time Lord looked at the crowd of doctors and nurses who had gathered to hear what they could. A man in a white lab coat came forward.

"Doctor Smith, I'm Dr. Roger Fuller, head of the infectious disease lab. Will you follow me please?" "Dr Fuller." He shook his hand in greeting. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances." "As do I," he replied. The President and his council left, wishing them good luck. Reminding them that a ship full of thousands of colonists was due to arrive in two months.

After Rose had recovered from this fungus he had done a few experiments, but had no conclusions. As she had contracted it in the old village, he believed if they stayed away from the place it wouldn't be an issue again.

Now he knew he had to beat it or start digging graves. He needed to come up with a vaccine. The lab at the hospital was primitive, but he could at least start there.

They needed to isolate it in the blood, and then create a way to kill or remove it without hurting the host. But the information gathered by his sonic showed how the fungus entered the bloodstream, but quickly settled in the brain, leaving no other trace.

There it would multiply to a toxic level, shutting the body down piece by piece. The parents of the children killed by it were willing to allow an autopsy. When the skull was opened, it showed the massive damage done by the organism. Confirming the readings.

When they arrived at the lab, Dr. Fuller introduced his staff. A dozen discouraged people who looked like they had been through the ringer and had the fight kicked out of them.

"Dr Fuller, Your people need rest. Tired minds don't think well and we can't afford to make a mistake. You have a nearly empty hospital, find them food and beds and have them return in six hours. I should have something by then and will need their help."

"Dr Smith, You'll forgive me, but I know how to handle my own people. We have been working on this problem for ten days straight with 20 hour shifts. You think you can come up with something in six hours? And they already have beds that they refuse to stay in for long, most of them won't leave here voluntarily. What do you suggest I do, call security?"

The Time Lord did not suffer fools lightly. "If that's what it takes then, YES!" He addressed the lab techs directly. "Now you listen to me. You know who I am. I am the only one in the room who's successfully treated this illness. I do not have time to be patient with a lot of sleep deprived people. You will only slow me down in your present state.

You have done everything you could. Now, if you want to be of help to me, go, to, bed!"

Chapter 37 The Reshnak