Chapter 9

Doctor Elizabeth Wesson sat across from the Captain. Despite everything, her services had not been needed either immediately after the event or onboard the Olympus. She had explored the battlestar and discovered the equivalent of a sickbay that Ensign Gravelson told her was called "Life Sciences Center". All of a sudden, she had two deaths and a critical injury in addition to finding herself on a ship infected with Regner's syndrome. She sat across from Captain Berg and Commander Hasan.

"How could Weiler die of Regner's? Wasn't he inoculated?" asked the commander.

"I can only assume he was. It is a Starfleet requirement. Without access to the library computer, I cannot say for sure. It is possible his parents protested vaccination and got a deferment but more likely it just did not take. It happens occasionally. Regener's is a tricky disease and the vaccine is not as fullproof as we would like."

Regner's Syndrome was deadly and catastrophic. One of the first spaceborne viruses discovered, it had the ability to encapsulate itself in microscopic shell that protected it from the extremes of space. It could drift for decades or even centuries until it came across carbon-based life forms. Once it was detected, the virus would come alive and basically drain its victim of nutrients to reproduce. Even today, it was not clear what triggered the virus to activate but once it did, it was a horrible event. Early space explorers had ships decimated in hours as they watched their crewmates wither and die. What made it especially deadly was that once a confined space such as a spaceship was contaminated, the spore could stay inert almost indefinitely which led to rescue and medical crews falling sick during rescue efforts.

"Captain, I have ordered tastren gas to be shipped from the Kongo on the next shuttle run. We should have enough to saturate the Olympus and clear out the infection. It should be taken care of in the next 24 hours. We do know that once this virus is activated, if you left inert for about 6 months in an oxygen atmosphere, it will die off." The doctor took a breath, "I wonder if this explains what happened to the crew."

"What do you mean," asked the captain, " we haven't found any corpses."

"No, but if they did not have a vaccine or cure, the best answer is to get off the ship asap. If you leave life support on, you could come back in a few months. Can I borrow Samantha Gravelson to help with some of the medical journals? I may be able to find something out."

"Just make sure you take care of the infection," emphasized the captain somewhat needlessly.

Ensign Gravelson was looking over the medical logs of the Olympus with Dr. Wesson. The logs were encrypted but the Kongo's portable computers had easily overcome it. The tastren gas had arrived from the Kongo and had been distributed via the Olympus' ventilation system. Dr. Wesson assured her that any residual infection would be eradicated but she was still a bit unnerved by everything. She had a feeling that the last couple of days had not yet taken their final toll on her.

"Doctor, I think I found something. There is a protocol for 'Hades' plague' which looks a lot like Regner's. They seemed to understand that is was space borne and deadly with a very unpredictable infection pattern. They did not have a cure. The protocol is basically when it is detected is to drop everything and get off the ship immediately. No exceptions. That might explain why this ship is just hanging out here."

Elizabeth nodded but added, "but where did they go? The nearest system is two light years away. At warp, a short journey but it would take what, a hundred years to get there at best speed?" She paused for a moment. "Okay, summarize your findings and I'll let the captain know."

Samantha looked into the adjacent room where the remains of the Cylon centurion lay. Lieutenant Commander Scogaska was going over the wreckage and making notes. The lieutenant walked up to him inquisitively.

"What do you make of our friend?" she asked. Scogaska looked up for a moment and shrugged.

"An interesting piece of technology. In same ways very crude. The motor mechanism is simple and its strength is really based on brute force more than engineering finesse; however, the computational capabilities are interesting. It seems very poor at multitasking. When it shot at Mr. Newman, it was stationary and easily hit the target, but, when it took to pursuing you, its shot efficiency went down greatly. It was also easily provoked into a poor strategic decision of following you despite the more advantageous choice being to stay and cause more damage to the crew on site. Much to my good fortune, it is also able to make very nuanced decisions. It seemed to recognize that I was not human despite a general resemblance and did not attack me for that reason. I am still working out all of the technical aspects of the entity but it is formidable."

"Hmm" she said trying not to take the off-hand comments to heart. She was still shaky about the last couple of days. To distract herself, she took a look around the room. She had not spent any time here.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"It seems to be a combination sickbay and science lab. Mr Clarkson is over there if you wanted to see him."

Samantha walked over to the injured student. "Well, I see you found a way to get out if performing work details," she quipped.

He looked up and tried to smile, "you know I own this ship, right? You should be nicer."

"I don't think I am going to be as nice as you want me to be," she responded. She did take a breath and said more sincerely, "thanks for saving my life."

"I was just trying to cop a feel," he replied. "I think I got away with it."

Despite herself she smiled slightly but gave a disapproving look. To change the mood, she started looking at what were apparently sample trays in the science area. She saw similar symbols to what she had before. Almost without thinking she began to translate.

Σίδερο –Iron

Άνθρακας – Carbon

δι-λεπιδόλη What the hell was that. Bi-lepidolite? Never heard of it. What something seems familiar.

She poked her head into the other room where the Andorian Science officer was still working, "Scogaska, any idea what bi-lepodolite might be? "

Scogaska looked up with a start. "Where did you see that he asked?" The urgency on his face surprised her.

"There's a specimen box in here labelled with it."

He ran into the room and looked around almost franctically "Where!?"

The young ensign pointed at the correct container inquisitively. "What is it?"

"Lepidolite is another work for Lithium. I think you just dilithium."

Captain Berg, Commander Hasan Lieutenant Commander Scogaska, Chief Engineer DeSoto and Crewman Smith all crowded around the container awaiting the verdict from Scogaska about the composition of the material they found. There were a number of crystals of various shapes.

"It's dilithium. They must have found it somewhere and kept is an oddity. For a ship with no warp, it would have no value."

"Chief, are these usable?" asked Hasan. The crystals certainly did not resemble the well-formed inserts that the Kongo normally used.

"I don't know captain. They certainly don't meet Starfleet standards. The quality isn't bad but the shape is going to be an issue."

"Commander if I may," interjected Andrew Smith," Commander Scott of the Enterprise had a similar problem on the Enterprise and was able to fit crystals of about these composition into their warp drive and even went into combat with them. They actually came off a necklace."

Captain Berg looked at the eager engineer, "Are you comparing yourself to Mr. Scott?" he asked.

"No sir. Bluntly it was a combination of Engineering skill and luck that got them through; however, at the academy one of our projects was to recreate that feat. We were able to fit and run a warp drive through crystals that were not in any better shape than these. Well, in a simulator. But they are very accurate as you know, sir."

"Commander?" has asked.

"Sir, this is the best chance we've had in over a month. Crewman, can we test in advance somehow before we actually try to bring warp drive back online?"

"Commander, the power distribution system is a mess. We had to make a lot of modifications to meet the power requirements," DeSoto made sure to take charge of the conversation and, at the same time, his engineering team.

"Alright, DeSoto get a crew back to the Kongo and let's start putting things back together. Scogaska, see what we can do in terms of a preflight simulation. In the meantime, let's keep word of this quiet until we know what we are actually looking at," the captain looked at each crew member to ensure that the orders were understood.

Satisfied, he took out his communicator and said, "Berg to Rodriguez."

"Yes sir."

"We are going to need a shuttle run to the Kongo and I would like you to pilot. Top priority and precious cargo."

"Yes sir. Oh, by the way, I was able to fix the Viper we found. The repairs were pretty simple. I have been spending some time in their flight simulator and I would love to take it out. It may come in handy."

"Later Lieutenant," of course she was spending her spare time fixing an alien ship, he thought. "This comes first."

"Yes sir," she responded, somewhat disappointed.

"Captain to the Control room. Captain to the control room," a voice suddenly bellowed through the hallways. The Federation crew had not gotten into the habit of using the ship's internal communication system but they did develop an alert system using it.

"Now what?" he mumbled. "Come Commander. Apparently, we have work to do."

A few minutes later, he arrived in the large command room. He recognized right away that the control was in an alert mode. The crew was not agitated, they had seen too much for that, but a readiness that had saved them many times before.

"Report," Captain Berg ordered. He noticed that Lieutenant Kiko Rodriguez had beaten him to bridge and was looking at the alert system. It was flashing red as it had when they first encountered the cylon raiders. Somehow it seemed more menacing this time.

"Looks like three large ships have come into the edge of scanner range for the Olympus, sir. Each seems larger than this battlestar, much larger than the Kongo. Not moving particularly quickly but definitely heading this way. It is not clear on whether or not they see us."

"Any more information?" he asked.

"Yes Sir, the computer identifies them as baseships. Every weapons system on the Olympus has some on automatically."