Chapter Twelve
In the thirty-seventh hour
The general consensus reached late that evening, almost a full day later, was that the treatment worked. It killed the virus without irrevocably damaging the human body in process. It was, by the estimation of Phlox and his team of scientists, fast-acting and consistent in its results. It was what they had been looking for. Everyone was elated. A few crewmen, much to his discomfort, even clapped Phlox on the back when he announced that the remedy was ready for use and that twenty-seven hyposprays had been filled.
It was then, during those brief moments of well-earned celebration that the realization hit him. His eyes drifted to the forgotten communicator on the corner of his now cluttered desk. Crewman Cutler had yet to check in. She was running late. He involuntarily shuddered. Or possibly something had happened and she was unable to make her report.
"I should be going." Phlox told his assistants, lifting two racks of hyposprays from his desk.
Sub-commander T'Pol, who was in attendance, but hardly in the mood for celebration, questioned, "Alone, doctor? Hasn't someone already demonstrated the danger of the precedent?"
Phlox pursed his lips ever-so-slightly before holding out one of the racks to her and nodding, "I suppose so, sub-commander. I presume, of course, that you are offering to come along."
"I am. We were among the first to receive vaccinations, which hopefully are not incompatible with our respective body chemistries, and therefore we may prove the best protected." she told him, accepting the proffered collection of hyposprays.
"Then I suggest that we hurry to the airlock. I have a bad feeling about what may have happened or may be happening over there." Phlox informed her, watching her emotionless eyes glance at the device on his desk as he spoke.
The air on the station seemed cooler than that onboard the Enterprise. Phlox wasn't surprised. Zeller had probably gone to great lengths to keep her patients cool and comfortable. It was darker too as he walked through the corridors with the Vulcan science officer at his heels. Only the clatter of their feet on the deck disturbed the silence of the docking area. The pair knew the layout of the station well enough that they only nodded silently when their paths diverged, his leading toward the sickbay and hers toward the mess hall and shuttle bay where he would meet up with her as soon as possible.
Phlox entered the small and crowded space, hoping to find both Doctor Zeller and Crewman Cutler. He was half disappointed to find only Cutler there, lying very still and quiet on a cot wedged into a corner. The lights of the infirmary had been dropped, but he increased the level of illumination as he entered, almost as though by habit. He eyed Cutler for a moment and shook his head before moving toward the critically ill patients, which included Lieutenant Nogales. Phlox quietly checked their vital signs as he administered the hyposprays to those who had not passed on. Three of the beds were occupied by dead men. No one remained who was strong enough to move them to somewhere more appropriate.
Then he knelt by the makeshift bunk where Crewman Cutler slept, oblivious to his presence and activities. He cautiously took a tricorder scan of her vitals. The fever that raged through her body was barely being kept in check by the medications, but it was as much the fault of fatigue or exhaustion as that of the disease that she was lying there. Phlox administered the spray gently, her eyelids fluttering in response to the sensation. The absence of Doctor Zeller troubled him, but he knew of no surer way to locate her than by asking Crewman Cutler.
"Can you hear me?" Phlox asked her quietly, shaking her by the shoulder and noting that she was lying on her side and looked very unwell. Had her condition deteriorated so quickly?
"I can't believe you've come." she murmured as she opened her eyes and smiled softly.
"Better late than never, I suppose." he said glibly, warding off the tremendous relief that he felt.
"So you did it?"
"You had doubts? I don't know what to think, crewman!" he chuckled, helping her into a seated position.
"I didn't really have doubts ..."
"I know." he admitted, not bothering to confess that he had had them. "Where is Astrid? She needs to have one of these too." he told her, gesturing to the hyposprays.
"Doctor Zeller sleeps in the stellar cartography lab. I can show you the way." offered Cutler.
"No, crewman, I think you have helped enough for now. Rest quietly and don't overtax yourself." he cautioned with a very Denobulan little smile.
The laboratory of those who mapped the stars was not located too far from the sickbay. It was no struggle for the doctor to find. He considered knocking, an old earth custom, or pressing the buzzer next to the door, but it whisked open almost immediately when he reached it. Astrid had not bothered to secure it. Doing so had become something of a moot point. It was pitch dark in the room when he stepped over the threshold.
"Astrid?" Phlox called uncertainly, fumbling for the lights with one hand and clutching his precious cargo with the other.
"This is unexpected." coughed Zeller, who did not sound at all drowsy compared to Crewman Cutler.
"Is it really?" asked Phlox absently as he turned up the lights.
"Are you here to blind or to heal? Stop that!" she hissed as they became brighter than she preferred.
"Sorry. I was going for the latter." said Phlox, dimming them slightly.
"Seriously?" she questioned as he got his first good look at her.
"Oh, Astrid." he breathed, looking at her drawn features, jaundiced skin, and trembling hands where she lay upon a bunk obviously built for her use. Her stately beauty had diminished and she looked impossibly frail, but what made him voice his surprise was the empty, hollow look in her eyes. The defiant, arrogant spark had dwindled and died.
"Well?" she questioned, swinging her legs over the side of the bed with some effort. "Are you going to stare at me in my ... unfortunate state for all eternity or are you going to give me a hypo, doctor?"
"Again, the latter." he murmured, taking one from his set and quickly administering it.
"How long until it begins to work?" she questioned.
"You should feel some relief in about half an hour, but the symptoms will not dissipate for two hours."
"Then I should be with my patients in the meantime." she nodded, starting to rise.
Phlox caught her by the arm and gently prevented her from standing as he told her, "Cutler is watching over the patients in sickbay, I'm sure. You should stay here."
Something familiar flashed briefly in her eyes, but she did not resist.
"Whatever you say, doctor. I suppose you are in charge now, aren't you?"
"Only until you are fit for duty again, Astrid." he assured her, walking toward the door of the lab.
"Perhaps when this is all over, we can collaborate on the report?" she suggested.
Phlox smiled thoughtfully and replied, "I believe I would like that, Astrid."
As he hastened through the corridors of the station, Phlox was forced to remind himself that people didn't change over night. She could not go from being Astrid Zeller, prominent racial theorist, to someone willing to collaborate with an alien in scarcely a week's time. It just didn't happen that way. When she was well and less fatigued, when she felt more like herself, surely she would behave accordingly. But those few moments when Astrid was someone that he could relate to had been refreshing and quite priceless.
"If only people did change." Phlox murmured, stepping onto the lift that would take him to the main shuttle bay of the station.
Phlox could hear the commanding monotone of Sub-commander T'Pol's voice long before he reached the bay, where most of the remaining patients were being treated. Given time and some training, he mused, she would make a skilled nurse and her bedside manner would rival his own. For a moment the thought amused him, then he entered the shuttle bay, ready to deal with the business at hand.
"What is your opinion regarding moving our patients to the Enterprise?" he asked her, once she had told him which patients had and had not received the medication.
"It would be more efficient, but it would require a large number of crewman for the task, especially since many of these patients will not be able to walk for some time." she replied coolly.
"Is that a yes or a no, sub-commander?" he inquired, looking up from administering a hypo.
"It is an affirmative, doctor. Should I make the necessary arrangements?"
"Please do." he said, gesturing toward a nearby comm panel on the wall.
It had required the bulk of both the security and science personnel from the Enterprise to carry out what Lieutenant Reed classified as an evacuation of all personnel from the science station. Phlox, glancing at the station's infirmary, chuckled as he realized that his own sickbay would be just as crowded soon. Crewman Cutler gave him a quizzical look as the last crewman was carried out on a stretcher. Another pair of Enterprise crewmen appeared at the door.
"Your turn." he said, offering her a hand.
"I could walk, if only I had a shoulder to lean on." she said wistfully. A little smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Cutler looked as though she could manage it.
Phlox waved the crewmen away and toward the lift to the mess hall, which was not yet emptied of its temporary residents, and helped Crewman Cutler to her feet.
"You're in luck." he told her. "I'm going your way."
As they stepped into the corridor, two crewmen with a stretcher passed by. Cutler was surprised to see that its passenger was none other than Doctor Zeller. Phlox and Cutler fell in line behind them.
"Is she going to ...?" questioned the young crewman, astonished, as ever, by how sick Doctor Zeller looked.
"Die? Not anytime soon, crewman." Phlox reassured her, cautiously keeping a guiding arm around her waist. She was strong, but unsteady on her feet, which surprised the doctor nonetheless. Cutler was one of the fortunate few leaving the station under their own power.
"Not anytime soon? Where's your bedside manner? My God, Phlox, is that the best you can do?" asked Zeller, opening her eyes and glancing over her shoulder.
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A/N: Only one more chapter to go! Got to wrap this up after all.
In the thirty-seventh hour
The general consensus reached late that evening, almost a full day later, was that the treatment worked. It killed the virus without irrevocably damaging the human body in process. It was, by the estimation of Phlox and his team of scientists, fast-acting and consistent in its results. It was what they had been looking for. Everyone was elated. A few crewmen, much to his discomfort, even clapped Phlox on the back when he announced that the remedy was ready for use and that twenty-seven hyposprays had been filled.
It was then, during those brief moments of well-earned celebration that the realization hit him. His eyes drifted to the forgotten communicator on the corner of his now cluttered desk. Crewman Cutler had yet to check in. She was running late. He involuntarily shuddered. Or possibly something had happened and she was unable to make her report.
"I should be going." Phlox told his assistants, lifting two racks of hyposprays from his desk.
Sub-commander T'Pol, who was in attendance, but hardly in the mood for celebration, questioned, "Alone, doctor? Hasn't someone already demonstrated the danger of the precedent?"
Phlox pursed his lips ever-so-slightly before holding out one of the racks to her and nodding, "I suppose so, sub-commander. I presume, of course, that you are offering to come along."
"I am. We were among the first to receive vaccinations, which hopefully are not incompatible with our respective body chemistries, and therefore we may prove the best protected." she told him, accepting the proffered collection of hyposprays.
"Then I suggest that we hurry to the airlock. I have a bad feeling about what may have happened or may be happening over there." Phlox informed her, watching her emotionless eyes glance at the device on his desk as he spoke.
The air on the station seemed cooler than that onboard the Enterprise. Phlox wasn't surprised. Zeller had probably gone to great lengths to keep her patients cool and comfortable. It was darker too as he walked through the corridors with the Vulcan science officer at his heels. Only the clatter of their feet on the deck disturbed the silence of the docking area. The pair knew the layout of the station well enough that they only nodded silently when their paths diverged, his leading toward the sickbay and hers toward the mess hall and shuttle bay where he would meet up with her as soon as possible.
Phlox entered the small and crowded space, hoping to find both Doctor Zeller and Crewman Cutler. He was half disappointed to find only Cutler there, lying very still and quiet on a cot wedged into a corner. The lights of the infirmary had been dropped, but he increased the level of illumination as he entered, almost as though by habit. He eyed Cutler for a moment and shook his head before moving toward the critically ill patients, which included Lieutenant Nogales. Phlox quietly checked their vital signs as he administered the hyposprays to those who had not passed on. Three of the beds were occupied by dead men. No one remained who was strong enough to move them to somewhere more appropriate.
Then he knelt by the makeshift bunk where Crewman Cutler slept, oblivious to his presence and activities. He cautiously took a tricorder scan of her vitals. The fever that raged through her body was barely being kept in check by the medications, but it was as much the fault of fatigue or exhaustion as that of the disease that she was lying there. Phlox administered the spray gently, her eyelids fluttering in response to the sensation. The absence of Doctor Zeller troubled him, but he knew of no surer way to locate her than by asking Crewman Cutler.
"Can you hear me?" Phlox asked her quietly, shaking her by the shoulder and noting that she was lying on her side and looked very unwell. Had her condition deteriorated so quickly?
"I can't believe you've come." she murmured as she opened her eyes and smiled softly.
"Better late than never, I suppose." he said glibly, warding off the tremendous relief that he felt.
"So you did it?"
"You had doubts? I don't know what to think, crewman!" he chuckled, helping her into a seated position.
"I didn't really have doubts ..."
"I know." he admitted, not bothering to confess that he had had them. "Where is Astrid? She needs to have one of these too." he told her, gesturing to the hyposprays.
"Doctor Zeller sleeps in the stellar cartography lab. I can show you the way." offered Cutler.
"No, crewman, I think you have helped enough for now. Rest quietly and don't overtax yourself." he cautioned with a very Denobulan little smile.
The laboratory of those who mapped the stars was not located too far from the sickbay. It was no struggle for the doctor to find. He considered knocking, an old earth custom, or pressing the buzzer next to the door, but it whisked open almost immediately when he reached it. Astrid had not bothered to secure it. Doing so had become something of a moot point. It was pitch dark in the room when he stepped over the threshold.
"Astrid?" Phlox called uncertainly, fumbling for the lights with one hand and clutching his precious cargo with the other.
"This is unexpected." coughed Zeller, who did not sound at all drowsy compared to Crewman Cutler.
"Is it really?" asked Phlox absently as he turned up the lights.
"Are you here to blind or to heal? Stop that!" she hissed as they became brighter than she preferred.
"Sorry. I was going for the latter." said Phlox, dimming them slightly.
"Seriously?" she questioned as he got his first good look at her.
"Oh, Astrid." he breathed, looking at her drawn features, jaundiced skin, and trembling hands where she lay upon a bunk obviously built for her use. Her stately beauty had diminished and she looked impossibly frail, but what made him voice his surprise was the empty, hollow look in her eyes. The defiant, arrogant spark had dwindled and died.
"Well?" she questioned, swinging her legs over the side of the bed with some effort. "Are you going to stare at me in my ... unfortunate state for all eternity or are you going to give me a hypo, doctor?"
"Again, the latter." he murmured, taking one from his set and quickly administering it.
"How long until it begins to work?" she questioned.
"You should feel some relief in about half an hour, but the symptoms will not dissipate for two hours."
"Then I should be with my patients in the meantime." she nodded, starting to rise.
Phlox caught her by the arm and gently prevented her from standing as he told her, "Cutler is watching over the patients in sickbay, I'm sure. You should stay here."
Something familiar flashed briefly in her eyes, but she did not resist.
"Whatever you say, doctor. I suppose you are in charge now, aren't you?"
"Only until you are fit for duty again, Astrid." he assured her, walking toward the door of the lab.
"Perhaps when this is all over, we can collaborate on the report?" she suggested.
Phlox smiled thoughtfully and replied, "I believe I would like that, Astrid."
As he hastened through the corridors of the station, Phlox was forced to remind himself that people didn't change over night. She could not go from being Astrid Zeller, prominent racial theorist, to someone willing to collaborate with an alien in scarcely a week's time. It just didn't happen that way. When she was well and less fatigued, when she felt more like herself, surely she would behave accordingly. But those few moments when Astrid was someone that he could relate to had been refreshing and quite priceless.
"If only people did change." Phlox murmured, stepping onto the lift that would take him to the main shuttle bay of the station.
Phlox could hear the commanding monotone of Sub-commander T'Pol's voice long before he reached the bay, where most of the remaining patients were being treated. Given time and some training, he mused, she would make a skilled nurse and her bedside manner would rival his own. For a moment the thought amused him, then he entered the shuttle bay, ready to deal with the business at hand.
"What is your opinion regarding moving our patients to the Enterprise?" he asked her, once she had told him which patients had and had not received the medication.
"It would be more efficient, but it would require a large number of crewman for the task, especially since many of these patients will not be able to walk for some time." she replied coolly.
"Is that a yes or a no, sub-commander?" he inquired, looking up from administering a hypo.
"It is an affirmative, doctor. Should I make the necessary arrangements?"
"Please do." he said, gesturing toward a nearby comm panel on the wall.
It had required the bulk of both the security and science personnel from the Enterprise to carry out what Lieutenant Reed classified as an evacuation of all personnel from the science station. Phlox, glancing at the station's infirmary, chuckled as he realized that his own sickbay would be just as crowded soon. Crewman Cutler gave him a quizzical look as the last crewman was carried out on a stretcher. Another pair of Enterprise crewmen appeared at the door.
"Your turn." he said, offering her a hand.
"I could walk, if only I had a shoulder to lean on." she said wistfully. A little smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. Cutler looked as though she could manage it.
Phlox waved the crewmen away and toward the lift to the mess hall, which was not yet emptied of its temporary residents, and helped Crewman Cutler to her feet.
"You're in luck." he told her. "I'm going your way."
As they stepped into the corridor, two crewmen with a stretcher passed by. Cutler was surprised to see that its passenger was none other than Doctor Zeller. Phlox and Cutler fell in line behind them.
"Is she going to ...?" questioned the young crewman, astonished, as ever, by how sick Doctor Zeller looked.
"Die? Not anytime soon, crewman." Phlox reassured her, cautiously keeping a guiding arm around her waist. She was strong, but unsteady on her feet, which surprised the doctor nonetheless. Cutler was one of the fortunate few leaving the station under their own power.
"Not anytime soon? Where's your bedside manner? My God, Phlox, is that the best you can do?" asked Zeller, opening her eyes and glancing over her shoulder.
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A/N: Only one more chapter to go! Got to wrap this up after all.
