'Hold still. Just hold still.'

Omitsu wedged herself in a corner of the room, rubbing her hands up and down her arms in a continuous motion. She open and shut her eyes repeatedly, drawing in gasps of breath. Yuya stood in front of her, his back to the event taking place behind him, trying to calm her ragged nerves. As if his own weren't worn down to shreds, he thought. Sweet Mary, we're all slowly spiraling down into a pit of madness. And it's picking us off one, by one, by one.

And now what would happen? Would they have to terminate Regan? It seemed so impersonal – that word: terminate. But at the same time, he welcomed such logical, detached thoughts. Yuya continued to look at Omitsu, and yet see past her into his own thoughts. The words that were coming out of his mouth – he couldn't hear them let alone comprehend them. It was all on auto-pilot for now.

Suddenly his mind lurched forward to an image of Regan's limp form lying on the examination table, with that monstrosity enveloping his entire face.

'God!' gasped Yuya, staggering backwards with his palm leaning against the wall to steady himself.

'Easy there,' said a voice, while a gentle arm was placed on his shoulder. Yuya turned his head a fraction and looked through worried eyes at Lexington's own. 'Why don't you take Omitsu to the lounge? Sit her down and get her a drink...' Lexington paused momentarily. The boy didn't need time out to think – that was just what was doing him harm. He needed to keep his mind occupied; something of a distraction was required. 'And then you get to work. I think it's high time we sent out an emergency distress signal. Not just to the Company – to any other bloody ship out there that is within range.'

Yuya nodded slowly.

'You think you can do that?' asked Lexington.

Yuya nodded again.

'-black mass at the center of his lungs.' muttered Lexington, holding the printed x-rays in his hands.

'What?' said Barnaby.

'There's something...something of an anomaly in his lungs. It's...um...too early to make any assumptions, but I guess it's safe to say this isn't human tissue we're looking at.' replied Lexington.

'Then what?' asked Reuban in a quiet voice. His quietness could not be attributed to calm. In fact, Reuban felt far past the point of nervous jittering and now sunk into a silent form of panic even he was unable to comprehend. He gazed at Lexington blankly – one might even say stupidly – wondering how on earth he had managed to salvage rationale, and to take control as he was doing. Reuban wished he could do the same.

Before all this it was entirely different. Back on the ship – it seemed as if that had taken place months ago – he held anger that was marginally keeping his fear in check. And now his anger had caved in, giving way to the intensity of this fear. And the best part was, thought Reuban ironically, we don't even know what we're supposed to be afraid of.

'Okay...okay.' Lexington brushed his white hair off his forehead and placed the x-rays down on a table for the three of them to see. He pointed to the upper part of Regan's thorax and then traced his finger slowly up the bronchial tube to his trachea.

'I think – I think it's got something jammed down his throat.' he began.

'To keep him from breathing?' asked Barnaby.

'Maybe the opposite. He's breathing, isn't he?' said Lexington.

Reuban looked briefly as he could from the x-rays to Regan, and then back to the x-rays.

'So it's simultaneously suffocating him and supplying him with oxygen.' spoke Barnaby, frustrated.

'Not suffocating. He'd be dead by now. He's breathing...because it's allowing him to.' Lexington scratched his chin, in an attempt to further his thoughts. 'And then there's this.' He jabbed his index finger at the black mass enclosed in Regan's lungs. 'Could it have inserted this into his lungs?'

'How? It would have damaged the tracheal walls on entering! It's too big!' said Barnaby.

'Maybe it didn't go about it that way...maybe it's like a waste product,' postulated Lexington.

Reuban looked at the x-ray and blinked. 'I don't buy that.' The two men turned to him as he continued. 'You're saying that thing remained dormant in that egg for God knows how long, then latches onto Regan's head only to shit into his lungs?'

'Why not? Flies do it.' said Barnaby.

The subdued entomologist in Reuban woke up momentarily. 'Flies do not lay their excrement in their hosts, Barnaby...they-'

'Oh God.' muttered Lexington.

'What?'

'Oh God, you're right... It's a virus. Or something like a virus. Makes sense doesn't it? It was dormant – non-living characteristics were exhibited while outside the host. And now it's in. It's in Regan and it's showing living characteristics. Just like a goddamn virus.' spoke Lexington quickly, as his thoughts raced ahead of his words.

'What kind of virus?' asked Reuban.

'I don't know.'

'A contagion?'

'Possibly.'

'We have to keep him in isolation...' said Reuban.

'We have to terminate him,' spoke Barnaby. 'He's a threat to every other life on board. We have to terminate him.' he repeated.

Reuban spun towards Barnaby angrily. 'I don't have the authority to do that!'

'Of course you don't. NASA wasn't anticipating the black plague on this mission.' retorted Barnaby.

'I couldn't do it. I won't do it.'

'You don't have to. Me and Lexington can handle it.'

Lexington shook his head. 'I'm not killing anybody. We don't even know whether this virus affects humans. It's obviously trying to jump species.'

'And it's adapted remarkably well, don't you think? It's in a foreign environment. It's managed to identify Regan as a host organism. It's managed to stick its...proboscis down his throat and start utilizing his lungs as larva fodder. What else do we need to know? We've tried yanking it off his face, but that doesn't work. And you're against sawing it off in case that kills Regan in the process...what other options do we have left?' argued Barnaby.

'Freeze him. Suspended stasis.' replied Reuban.

Barnaby opened his mouth, and then hesitated. Perhaps they were right. At this juncture, they simply did not have sufficient information. His protests weren't getting anywhere and he felt less inclined to take the life of a colleague than he had first believed. 'Okay. We'll freeze him.'

'Good man.' said Lexington, as he gave Barnaby a soft pat on the back.

'I think I want to talk to mom.' said Helen as she sat on the edge of her bed, facing her uncle.

'Yuya's establishing contact right now. Once he's sent the distress signal, we can ask NASA or the Company to send a top priority message to your mother.'

'I don't want to send letters – I want to speak with her.' insisted Helen.

'Not yet...Later, I promise.' Reuban bit his lip. He hated making promises of which were uncertain.

'I don't think this is right. Nothing feels right. I should never have come.'

'None of us could've foreseen this.' I'm sorry Helen, thought Reuban. I thought I was doing something – something for my family. I thought I could help you while helping my sister out at the same time. I thought summer at home was going to be a dull drudgery of divorce proceedings. I wanted you to enjoy yourself on this trip – have a little excitement. I didn't know we'd have this much excitement. Excitement? This isn't excitement. It's torture. Some form of mental torture. I'm sorry, Helen. I want you to know I'm sorry.

'I should've stayed with mom. It's where I belong,' Her face contorted for a moment as she tried not to cry. 'At home with mom.'

'I'll get you home.'

She changed the subject. 'Are you gonna let Jarreck out now? He didn't mean to do anything. And anyway, this isn't his fault.'

Don't try to be brave for my sake, kid. 'We're going into stasis after Yuya gets a message out and sets our course for earth.'

'So you're letting him out.'

Reuban swallowed. The others insisted that they tranquilize Jarreck before they went into stasis. So technically, yes, they were letting him out. Reuban nodded without going into any details.

Helen seemed satisfied. 'And your friend? Is he going into stasis with us?'

'We're freezing him – a form of suspended stasis different to the one you're used to.'

'What's wrong with him?'

'It's like I told you, Helen. He's got a virus. And right now we don't know how to stop it, so this is the next best step.'

'The other woman – Omitsu...Yuya told me what happened.'

'I thought I told you to stay in your room.'

'I'm not a four-year-old. You can't shut me up in here and expect me not to be worried. You can't expect me not to think – not to wonder what's going on!' she said, raising her voice.

Reuban looked into her eyes. It was so painful for him to do so. 'Helen, please,' he placed a hand on her shoulder. 'I'm sorry for everything. It's all so screwed up right now...and I don't know...I don't know what to do.'

Helen looked down at her feet. 'Not your fault.' she muttered. She looked up at him finally and smiled wanly. 'Least it's better than mom's excuses – admitting that you don't know, I mean. She usually says I'm too young to understand.'

'Thanks for the compliment.'

'I bet they're far and few between, huh?'

Reuban smiled. 'You got that right. So what'd Yuya tell you anyway?'

'He said that Omitsu was in the room when it happened. That she was too squeamish to do something to the egg and asked Dr. Regan to do it for her, and that's when it attacked him.'

'How does Yuya know?' asked Reuban.

'She must've told him, I guess.' said Helen with a little shrug. 'But you know what's funny? Dr. Omitsu...she doesn't seem the squeamish type. No offence, but I thought she was harder than the lot of you.'

Reuban sat still, unanswering. Helen did have a point. Omitsu was the one who'd insisted on bringing back the egg to the Aurelius. It was she who had taken all the readings, hooked its container up to the gas tanks and more or less kept it alive. She was the female Dr. Frankenstein. Oh Lord, now look who's getting carried away. Nevertheless, the thought persistently tugged at a corner of his mind and it took a blinking comm. light on the wall to distract him from his thoughts.

'Duty calls,' he quipped to Helen as he walked over to the speaker. 'Reuban.' he said into it.

'Reuban. Bad news or good news first?' spoke Yuya's voice.

Reuban looked over at Helen apprehensively.

'It's okay,' she said, 'I'm a big girl – I can take it. It's not like we've been getting cordial greetings for the past couple hours anyways...'

Reuban turned his attention back to the comm. 'Just tell me.'

'Good news: our course has been set for earth. We should get back in about twenty-seven days. The bad news is that I can't establish any contact with NASA or the Company. And we're not even that far out for our signals to be out of range. I've tried all nine stations.' Reuban heard Yuya pause. This was getting too much for all of them. 'Do you want me to keep trying?'

Silence.

'I said: do you want me to keep trying?'

AUTHOR'S NOTE (11/09/04

Once again, thanks for everyone's reviews...and for your patience. Anise, as far as I'm concerned, I will definitely try to complete this story. I haven't lost interest in my characters or the plot – which is a good sign. If you do need to read the next chapters (sometimes, I write parts of a chapter on different days), you could e-mail me. This way I could enlist your help too...as an extra editor! Help would be very welcome.

That's it from me then...I shall be off.