Disclaimer: Er- you read Chapter one right? Yeah… So… What do you need a disclaimer for?! Run away! Run away!

Chapter 3: The Errand

            Bill opened his eyes to find himself laying limply in his bed, a pair of worried faces hovering over him in concern. "Wow. Who died?"

            Effy stared at him incredulously. "You did, you big idiot."

            "Oh. How'd I do?"

            "What?"
            "Well, everyone wants to go out with a bang, yes?"

            "Yeah. You went out with more of a yeachh." She seemed happy to see he was all right, but with Effy, how could you really tell?

            "Lovely."

            "Oh, thank you."

            Nurse McNeil, affectionately known as Sarah to nearly everyone at the base, raised an eyebrow at the two quibbling commanders. "None of that now. Bill needs his rest more than he needs to argue with you, Effy."

            "But I'm so fun to argue with," Effy deadpanned.

            Bill sat up a little, only to get pushed down absently by Sarah. "Okay, I'm a little fuzzy on the whole 'what's going on' thing, right now. Um…what's going on?"

            "Well, you had a fainting spell after getting sick."

            "Yeah, you really freaked me out," the lioness added for no particular reason. All of a sudden she seemed to remember whatever had been bothering her earlier and stepped back, falling silent.

            Nurse Sarah went on. "You seem to have contracted the Aquaian Flu somewhere."

            The commander frowned. "That's impossible. I had that when I was a kid. It sucked."

            "The Southern strain?"

            "Yup. And the Northern, three years ago."

            "There are two strains of Southern Flu, hon. Did you have A or B?"

            "Uh…A, I guess."

            The white ermine straightened, and said far too cheerfully, "Well, congratulations. You've just caught the B virus. Don't you feel proud? One more and you'll be immune to all four of them."

            "Oh, I'm ecstatic," he said dryly. "How long is this going to last?"

            "You're in luck. Southern B is a twenty-four hour bug."

            He relaxed. "Oh good."

            "Just don't get out of bed until then."

            Bill looked askance at his desk, still vaguely to be seen through the adjoining door, and the stack of papers on top of it. "No arguments here."

            As if to prove his point, the phone on his desk started ringing.

            "Oh. I'll get it," Effy said quickly and jogged out.

            "Yeah. Tell whomever it is to go to Hell!" he called after her. He was joking. Unfortunately, he was talking to Effy.

            "Hi. Please go to Hell." There was a long second of silence. "Oh…heh. Hi, General. No. Of course I didn't mean that literally. It was just…a little office humor. Um…Bill made me!"

            Bill groaned. "Oh, thanks so very much." He clapped a hand to his forehead. "That's it. I'm a dead man. No way I live through this." Meanwhile, Effy was still talking to General Pepper, her voice now too quiet to hear, for a wonder. Now she was shaking her head, and then stooped to jot something down. Bill and Nurse Sarah watched in silence.

            "I don't know what she's doing, but I think she must be stopped," he commented conversationally to her. Before he could move, however, she hung up, and a moment later joined them in the bedroom again.

            "That was General Pepper," she reported.

            "Yeah. You don't say. Effy, what did you tell him?"

            She smiled brightly. "Just that you were sick as, heh, a dog. And had thrown up all sorts of interesting things."

            "You didn't!"

            "No. Scared you, didn't I?"

            Sarah spoke up, asking the obvious question. "So, what did you tell him?"

            Effy shrugged. "That Bill had the Aquaian Flu, again, so couldn't take that mission himself."

            "Um…what mission?" Bill looked a patient inquiry at her. You had to be patient, dealing with Effy.

            Her brow furrowed. "Well, he didn't exactly tell me. The minute I said you were sick, he told me he'd have to try to find someone else, then, hung up. Weird person, the General."

            "No doubt." The phone rang again. "Oh, honestly! What is this, the Katinian military or Uncle Jack's Pizza Place?!"

            Effy smirked. "Can't be. The food's not good enough." Once again, she jogged into the other room and picked up the phone. "Uncle Jack's Pizza Place, you buy 'em, we eat 'em. Oh, General! Hello again."

            "Aw… I'm going to kill her. I swear."

            Sarah, amused observer to all of this, now grinned at him. "You can't. You can't get out of bed. Kill her tomorrow."

            The one with the price on her head came back into the room just then, holding one hand over the portable phone's receiver. "Bill, it's the General again."

            "Yes. So I gathered when you said 'oh, General'. Call it a hunch."

            "He wants to talk to you."

            "No! And here I thought he called my phone because he wanted to talk to you, Effy!"

            "Bill, this is serious. He wouldn't insist on talking to you now if it wasn't important."

            He nodded, and stopped the jokes. "All right. You can just, put it on speaker phone, then."

            She nodded and hit a small button on the phone's side, nodding to Bill as a cue to begin talking.

            "Afternoon, General. What's the problem?"

            A clipped British voice emerged from the plastic. "I know you are ill, Commander, but this is very important, and it couldn't wait. We have garnered intelligence on a possible Androssian Movement near sector X, quite close to the nebula. We need someone to scout out the area and see if this information is founded."

            "Well, sir, I'd be glad to lend you a hand, but…" Sarah glared at him. "I'm kind of under doctor's orders here."

            "Hm. I see. I admit, I hoped that it wasn't that serious. This poses a problem. There are not many pilots I would trust near such a treacherous area, and your ship is specially modified to deal with the gravitational swirls."

            "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know what to tell you."

            Effy cocked her head. "Tell him I'll go," she volunteered.

            A cough came over the phone. "Well, I'm not really sure… your ship's not really equipped to handle it, Effy."

            "Well, you said it was near the nebula, right? As long as I don't have to go into the nebula, I'm fine. If the Androssians are preparing a raid, we need to know about it."

            Bill opened his mouth to protest and she gave him a very level look, daring him to say anything. He closed it again. Instead, he turned to the speakerphone again.

            "Why don't you send Delia to check it out, sir? She's a competent pilot, and…she's got nothing better to do than torture people anyway."

            There was a pause from the other end. "Commander Larnez is…otherwise occupied. I'm afraid I cannot use her for this mission."

            "I'll do it," Effy spoke up again.

            "Hm. Very well. This assignment takes full priority. You'll have to leave right away, I'm afraid."

            The lioness nodded briskly. "Understood, sir. I'm on my way."

            "I'll be waiting for your report, Commander." With those words he hung up.

            Bill raised an eyebrow at her. "Why did you do that?"

            "The mission's important, Bill. Someone had to go."

            "Yeah, but not necessarily you. You volunteered awfully quick, there."

            Effy shrugged, and forced a dimple. "Maybe I'm bored. Anyway, I have to go. Assignment takes priority, don't you know." And with those words she turned and left, leaving the husky with his mouth hanging open.

            He looked over at Sarah. "At what point am I going to understand her?"

            The ermine grinned back. "Hopefully never."

***

Well? How'd you like it? Hmmm, unless we can read minds, then I guess you'll just have to push the REVIEW BUTTON!! Good idea, yes? Pleeeease?! Oh please please please?!! (Sound desperate enough?) Okay, just one more for good measure- PLLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- Well, I had to make it count.