QUARANTINE
Chapter 2
By Kiddo
Disclaimer:
I don't have any rights to the TV show "seaQuest DSV," and I am not making any money with this story.
A big "Thank You" goes to Jackie for beta-reading.
I know that we are not allowed to reply to reviews in a chapter. But I must say something to Kates. In germany children are not inoculated against chicken pox, they only get inoculated against them if they have a disease where any other additional illness would be dangerous or deadly. (Andsince I'm from Germany,Istick to the german facts).And I know that the time of exposure of the virus and the first symptoms is much longer. (I have a note about this, but only at the end of the story). But for this story it works better if everybody gets sick fast and therefore Iignore the medical facts.;-)
Half an hour later, the senior crew of the seaQuest, with the exception (of course) of Miguel Ortiz, was sitting around the table in the ward room.
Twenty minutes earlier, Dr. Smith had informed the captain about their sensor chief's condition, and now the others knew as well.
After sitting through Dr. Smith's detailed report, Bridger looked around at everyone. "You see that we have a big problem here. If our luck fails to hold out, then a large portion of the crew could be disabled. On a submarine like this, sickness can spread like wildfire. It's also too late to take the sick crew members back to the main land because chicken pox are highly contagious, and people who still feel well are probably already infected." The captain looked at each one in turn. "What about all of you? Who here has already had the chicken pox and won't be able to catch it?"
Ever since Dr. Smith had said the words 'chicken pox,' Tim O'Neill's face had gotten paler and paler. "I never had them."
Lt. Brody grinned at Tim. "Really? I thought that every child had them. I can remember the time I had them quite clearly. Itchy, gross red bumps everywhere..."
Commander Ford nodded. "Yeah, not very pleasant. My brother was the one who infected me with it."
Lonnie Henderson thought back also. "Half of my school was out sick with them, and even a few teachers. But aside from the bad itching, we had a lot of fun. Because so many of us were sick it meant that we could play together and not have to sit alone at home and be bored."
Dr. Smith nodded in understanding "Yes, it was nearly the same at my school. What about you, Captain? Have you already had chicken pox?"
Bridger nodded. "Yes." Then he looked at the seaQuest's computer specialist. "What about you? Did you already have it?"
The blond teen shook his head. "No, but I'm inoculated against it."
Wendy Smith picked up on that; chicken pox was not something that children were normally inoculated against. Unless, of course, they had . The dark-haired doctor had always thought that the young genius was fit as a fiddle. She looked closely at the teenager; had he concealed something from her?
Lucas didn't miss the expression on the doctor's face. "Don't worry, Doc, I'm just inoculated against every little thing so that I won't get sick. Sickness means that my parents would have to take care of me."
Dr. Smith and the crew members who hadn't been there during the first tour looked shocked or upset.
Lucas wasn't keen on fielding any questions about his parents and decided to change the subject. "Hey, what about Darwin? Can he get infected?"
Wendy hesitated for a moment, then, she shook her head. "No."
"Are you sure?" asked the blond teen.
Dr. Smith shook her head again. "Unfortunately no. And I think that you probably know more about dolphins than me."
The computer genius nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. Just to be sure, I think I'll do some investigating."
The doctor now turned to the captain. "With your permission, I'd like to ask Dagwood if he'd be willing to give me a hand in medbay if I don't have enough people. As a Dagger, he's immune to chicken pox, and I have no idea how many of my staff will be out of the picture."
Bridger nodded. "That goes without saying. But please, ask him if he wants to do it."
Dr. Smith nodded. "Of course."
Some time later, Lucas went back to his cabin. He sat down in front of his computer and started his dolphin research.
He was in the middle of reading an interesting and helpful article when Tony Piccolo stormed into the room. "Hey, Luke. I heard that Ortiz is under quarantine - what's going on there?" That was one of the practical things about his room mate; he could always count on the teen to have important and interesting information to share.
Lucas's eyes were still fixed on the screen. "Don't call me Luke. And by the way, Miguel has the chicken pox."
The ex-prisoner fell down laughing on his bed. "Unbelievable! Chicken pox! It seems that Miguel is still a little kid after all." Piccolo just couldn't stop laughing.
"Tony, it's not funny. The older you are when you get them, the worse you feel. It's probably our tough luck that he's already infected everybody who never had them."
Piccolo was still smiling. "Calm down, Wolenczak. It's not that baaad. After all, I lived through it."
Lucas scruntinized his roommate for a moment and imagined Tony as a child with chicken pox. The teen shook his head to chase those thoughts away; he really didn't want to imagine that. He was sure that Piccolo had been one of those children who was always whining and had driven his mother to insanity.
Tony peered over the blond genius's shoulder to get a look glance at the screen. Maybe for once Lucas was looking at something interesting, perhaps the Playboy website or something like that. But when he only spotted a dolphin, he looked away in disappointment. Why was the teenager only ever interested in the boring stuff? "What are you looking at?"
"I wanted to find out if Darwin can get infected with chicken pox," explained the computer genius.
"And?" asked Piccolo.
"No danger for Darwin." His voice had the obvious sound of relief.
The next day, Brody, Piccolo, and Lucas visited Miguel in medbay. Because of the fact that Jim and Tony had already had chicken pox as children and Lucas was inoculated against it, they were allowed to keep Ortiz company for a bit.
Poor Miguel really felt horrible, and his body was covered with a red rash.
Jim was sitting on a chair next to the bed and told the patient the latest gossip going around the ship. It didn't matter if Miguel was interested or not, he had to get this out. "Henderson told me that the red-head from the kitchen told her that Seaman Davidson…."
The blond teenager and Tony looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Sometimes Brody could be such a gossip-monger.
Unconsciously, Ortiz started to scratch the skin of his left armpit. Lt. Brody acted quickly and gave Miguel a quick slap on his hand. "Don't scratch that, there will be scars."
The sensor chief made a face. "It's easy for you to say, after all you're not the one who isn't allowed to leave medbay and has to put up with this terrible itching."
Jim shook his head in disbelief. "Don't make such a fuss! I have also had the chicken pox, but unlike you, I was a little kid, and I was very brave and didn't scratch. I don't have a single scar from that."
Miguel twisted his face again but decided that it was better to say nothing and only threw a despairing look at Tony and Lucas.
The next day, however, Ortiz wasn't the only one who had to stay in medbay. Seven more crew members, including Lt. O'Neill, had also come down with the chicken pox, giving Dr. Smith a lot of work.
To Be Continued…
Written august 2004 / Translated winter 2005