Cats and Dogs – Virus
"Cadets, how are you feeling?" Although Cruger's voice is level, it's more than clear he's irate, and maybe a bit concerned.
"Wep, it's kide of a longk story," Jack murmurs, horribly congested.
"You have the pneumonia crossed with the common cold," Kat supplies instead, coming back from her station with five bagged thermometers.
"Nod az longk as I thought, I guez," Jack sighs.
"You're all on bed rest," Kat then turns to Cruger with hardened eyes, "and you shouldn't even be here, since you haven't had your boosters yet."
"Dr. Manx, please," Cruger murmured, though he could see she wasn't going to budge on the matter. "Fine, just give me a few minutes with them?"
"Ten minutes, Doggie, or I'll give you the damn shots myself."
Upon Kat's exit Cruger sits down by the bed of the red ranger. "How are you feeling, cadets?"
"Beed bedder," Jack groaned.
"I understand. The truth is that you got this from the battle you fought today. Kat detected a pathogen there but because she didn't have it identified I sent you anyway. I apologize; I had no idea you would contract the flu." When Cruger finishes his story most of the rangers have sat up against their pillows, save Bridge, who looks absolutely dead to the world.
"Why don't you and Kat have it, if you've both been exposed too?" Z asked, without the chest congestion but having more of the stomach issues part of the illness.
"I have an advanced immune system, as does Kat, though they work in different ways. Mine is always active, but I need periodic white cell boosters to keep it functioning at its peak," says Cruger.
"Which Kat will drag you to in about nine minutes," puts in a fever ridden Syd.
"To which she will—" Bridge starts but is interrupted.
"Don't correct me!" Syd snaps, cranky from her condition. Sky raises a hand sharply, his only defense against his horrid migraine.
"Yes, she will, but Kat is immune for a different reason," the rangers turn their attention to Cruger again. "Kat's body is covered in a microbial layer of fur, able to repel any invading threat smaller than a pea. The fur is undetectable against her skin to all but a photon microscope, but it can repel mosquito bites, pathogens, and even most earth venoms. Kat has complete immunity to just about any virus on this planet."
"Just about?—then what does affect her?" asks Sky.
"There was one time about seven of your earth years ago when Kat contracted the poison of a rattlesnake. Most of its venom was dissolved against her fur but some of it did get into her system and it did make her violently ill for about a week. She was cleared after six days and it has remained irrelevant since."
Brige sits up now and looks at Cruger with glassy eyes. "Wait, Commander...how do you know Kat has a microscopic layer of fur over her skin?"
All eyes turn to him, inquisitive and almost a little accusative. "Yes, Commander, why?"
Cruger frowns a bit at them and shifts awkwardly. "I just know, okay!" When the answer doesn't suffice he sighs. "I know because of a Hazmatt shower we were forced to share one time. It was completely pointless, since the radiation couldn't get through my scales and Kat's fur protected her. That's how I know."
Although it seemed to pacify the overall curiosity Syd remains intrigued. "Really? She told you?' Cruger nods. "In a Hazmatt shower...did you look?"
"No!" Cruger snarls, heat rising imperceptibly to his cheeks. "Of course not!"
"No offense, sir, I know you're not that kind of guy, I'm just saying... " Syd makes some vague hand gestures in the air. "Any guy would be at least tempted. Right, Jack?"
Jack is asleep.
"See?" Syd smiles victoriously.
"That is not the point, Cadet Drew, and I think you're approaching a line, here," Cruger says firmly, trying to give her a warning in mercy for her ailment.
"Sorry, sir," Syd sighs, giving up her fangirl interrogation.
"Doggie!—time's up, and you are getting that booster shot." Kat comes in armed with a hypodermic needle large enough to spook a rhinoceros. She sees the cadets' alarmed looks. "This is the only level of syringe tough enough to pierce his neck."
"His neck?" Syd, Sky and Z look confused.
Kat pulls down her Commander's collar, finds the softer part of his neck where his scruff would have been as a pup, and stabs the needle base deep. The teens' shoulders jump, startled at the ferocity of the action. "There, now you won't need it again for another fifty years."
Cruger growls in response, scratching the slight itch from the needle. "Great... "
"Kat, what happened the time you had to share a Hazmatt shower with the Commander?" Syd asks with boldness and innocence in her voice.
Kat freezes and stares at Syd with a vaguely offended and completely bewildered look. "What?!"
"Commander Cruger was explaining that you have fur we can't see, but we wanted to know how he knew."
"Sydney, that never happened, you're hallucinating," Syd is slightly scared of the finality in Kat's tone. "Furthermore, as far as you're concerned, the only virus I've ever had to deal with personally is that of a computer, understood, cadet?"
Syd nods and watches as Kat basically hauls the Commander from his seat by his collar and storms out.
Kat looks up at Doggie, face tinted. "I can't believe you told them about the Arizona State incident."
"I didn't tell them anything but that we had a Hazmatt shower, and a useless one at that." Cruger protested in his defense against his young, small feline friend.
"Well..." Kat trails off and lowers her voice, "did you tell them what happened in the shower?"
"No," Cruger also lowers his voice, remembering the incident well. "I told them neither of us saw anything."
"Good," and Kat veers off into her lab.
"Good," and Cruger veers into his office.