37. Just wait
x
"Can you imagine it? Miller, a father?" Burk said with a light tone as they seated themselves in the wardroom.
"Hey, he loved her." Cruz said with a serious look on his face which said knock it off and have some respect. Just because Miller had seemed like a scared little boy, didn't mean they had an excuse to joke about him.
Burk nodded and looked a little ashamed of his words, not thinking entirely through his comment when he had said it.
"Good, you're all here." Commander Garnett stepped inside the room with her safety glasses and ear protection which gave them the expression that she came up from the engine room.
"Where's Captain Chandler?" Danny asked and as he said it Dr. Scott came in and said "He's down with the flu." "Not the Red Flu." She added quickly. Perhaps she should have come up with another excuse, fever or something.
Andrea glanced at Rachel, they had agreed that the only ones who should know about what happened with Niels, should be the four of them, herself, Rachel, Tom and Smith. The less people knew, the better. It was going to be hard to not reveal the real reason behind Niels death, but she didn't want another panic wave going through the survivors on her watch.
Andrea sat down and gave way for Rachel to speak. After all there was little she could say about their future plan. The only thing they could do was wait for Commander Slattery, hoping that whatever he was planing would work.
"Since the situation on land is more severe than we thought.." Rachel began as she walked around the wardroom with her arms crossed on her chest.
"Our supplies to manufacture the vaccine are limited and we risk of being targeted if and when we would return to the states." She gave a look at the people.
"But I have been working on making the cure contagious. Just like our prisoner, but instead of carrying the virus, the idea is to carry the cure." She explained.
"It would spread like a common cold, making the distribution of the vaccine more easier process." She said.
"And what about our prisoner?" She heard Danny's question and remembered that he had been on the ship when it happened.
She sighed and met Andrea's gaze. They had decided that they shouldn't tell them the truth, but these were the people who have been on this mission from the very start. People they trusted.
"The truth is, he's dead." She said bluntly.
"And the Captain isn't down with the flu. It was Tom who did it." She explained and the looks in the room were a mixture of surprise, understanding and relief.
"This information doesn't leave this room. You understand that? Last thing we need is to worry the survivors with this." Andrea stood up and used her best expression of a commander in charge. Everyone nodded to her.
After the shocking revelation Rachel continued that she had taken samples from the patient zero and was hoping to narrow down which virus mutation hold the key to the mutation, that he had been a carrier to the virus.
"Dr. Scott will continue her work and we will be sticking to the plan Commander Slattery started. At the moment we just have to wait for him." Andrea stated after Rachel was done.
"And what if he's dead?" Burk asked, glancing around him. Someone had to say the obvious. They couldn't be sure whether he was alive or dead. What if his plan hadn't worked?
"Since Taylor isn't back, we can only assume that things are going as planned." Andrea replied, keeping the hope alive. That someday this nightmare might be over. That someday they might get to go home. That someday the world they had once known would be the same, although how could it be the same when so many people were lost to the most contagious disease of all time?