Chapter 18- Outbreak

Jim had extended his offer to me to go down to the surface as well, but I declined in favor of getting in some study time with Pavel who was only too eager to share his expertise on all things mathematical. I sat in Sulu's chair on the bridge and was just a little intimidated by all the controls at his station. I was paranoid I might accidently bump something and send the ship in full reverse at warp 9 or something.

Pavel was almost breathless as he explained the nuances of non-linear equations and I sat politely and smiled, but could see no relevance between that and statistics. However, he was so passionate about his topic I couldn't stop to correct him. Spock sat in the Captain's chair and watched the whole affair with a slight smirk in between glances at the tiny blue planet on the screen that looked like a perfectly round sapphire. In Uhura's absence, he had patched the away team's communications through to the intercom system on the bridge so he could better monitor the situation.

"Sulu, got your specimen jars?" Jim's voice drifted down.

"Aye, Sir."

"Everybody double check your suits. It looks pretty wet down there."

"Aye, Captain." Sulu and Uhura answered in unison.

"Ok," he sighed, "take us down, Scotty."

"Aye, Captain." Scotty cheerily replied. "….uh…..shite."

Pavel, Spock and I all looked anxiously up at the ceiling. Shite was never a good thing.

"Christ, Scotty! Thanks a lot!" Jim sputtered. "Drop us in the middle of the damn ocean! God, I hope there aren't any sharks or anything like that circling us."

"Negative, Captain," Spock interjected. "Scans did not pick up any fauna."

"Good. Hurry up, Sulu. This water is damn cold and I am freezing my nuts off."

"Captain," Uhura said in a barely controlled panic, "something just hit my leg."

"Probably seaweed or something." He reassured her, but you could hear the tension in his voice. "Still, maybe we should all gather samples so we can get the hell out of here. Don't swim too far off."

There was some splashing and the sound of rapid, shuddering breaths as the cold water sapped all the heat from their bodies and hypothermia set in. "Bridge to Medical." Spock summoned. "Report to the transporter room with warming blankets and stand by."

"Goddamn it." McCoy sighed. "I just knew it. On my way."

Pavel and I glanced at each other and smiled. No away mission would be complete without some complication. Our smiles quickly faded when we heard a gasp and gurgling sound and Sulu's worried voice call, "Captain?"

"He was just here!" Uhura exclaimed. There was more splashing and then, "Sulu!" Chekov bolted upright in his chair and looked at the blue orb peacefully rotating on the screen as though he could see his friend. "Scotty!" she yelled, "Get us out of here!"

"Aye!" He responded tensely. "Just a second…"

"We don't have a second!" She screamed. "They are drowning!"

Chekov looked at Spock in panicked anticipation for permission to go to his friend, but Spock denied the silent request with a slight narrowing of his eyes. "I will go check on him and give you a call." I promised heading for the lifts. I knew Spock's decision was not malicious, he needed Chekov to stay on the bridge, but it was hell for Chekov to just sit there. Instead of going all the way down to the transporter rooms, I went to sickbay and in under a minute, McCoy came crashing through the doors carrying Jim over his shoulder followed by Scotty who had Sulu. Uhura walked in on her own shaking like a leaf.

McCoy dumped Jim onto a table like a sack of potatoes and went to work giving him chest compressions with a grim look on his face. "Come on, damn you." He growled while he gave it all he had. I would have thought Jim dead if the monitors didn't say he still had a weak pulse. His lips were an eerie shade of blue and his skin was pale, but McCoy kept at it even though it became clear he was quickly running out of strength. Across the room, Sulu was undergoing a similar ordeal and Uhura tensely watched with a blanket draped around her delicate shoulders while Scotty stood by her helplessly. We all looked in relief at Sulu when he groaned and then turned his head so he could raggedly cough up a good amount of water. He looked like hell, but at least he was alive. It took several more minutes for Jim to finally cough and spew water all over McCoy who was already soaked from carrying him. He quickly wiped the water from his eyes and looked irritated and exhausted, but satisfied. The self congratulatory mood rapidly evaporated, however, as he set to work on getting his friend warmed and tending to his weak vitals.

I reported back to Pavel as I had promised and although he was happy his friend was going to be ok, I knew he would feel better when he could talk to him for himself. Spock received the report on Jim's condition with a stoic sense of duty knowing that he would be acting Captain for the next day or so. I knew McCoy wouldn't be at dinner, nor would Scotty or Chekov so I just ate in my room and checked on them in sickbay. Uhura was tired and didn't want to talk, so I let her go knowing that she would be safe with Scotty. Sulu was sleeping peacefully, so I didn't disturb him and Jim had been given a sedative to keep him from walking out because McCoy wanted to make sure he wasn't going to contract pneumonia from having so much fluid in his lungs.

I found McCoy in the office with his head down on his desk. He had changed into dry clothes and his wet uniform lay in a pile by the door. It was a testament to how tired he was, that type of thing would usually be a major violation of his OCD clean rules. "Hey." I greeted patting his shoulder.

"Oww." He winced.

"Are your muscles sore?" I asked kicking his wet clothes out of the way. He nodded yes with his face pressed against his desk, making his features twist and contort. I stood behind his chair and gently massaged his shoulders and was rewarded with a couple of happy sounding grunts. "You had a hard day." I observed.

He lay there with his eyes closed for a few minutes before grumbling, "I thought that was it. I thought today was the day I was going to lose him."

"But you didn't." I encouraged moving from his shoulders to his neck. I hesitated when my fingers ran over the faint scar at the base of his neck. I didn't know why, but I felt overwhelmingly guilty as though I should have somehow acted faster to prevent it. His eyes flickered open, but it wasn't because he too was aware of the mark, at least not in any way that had any bearing on the task at hand, but he didn't want me to stop.

I carried on as if I didn't notice and he again closed his eyes with a faint smile. "I think I could die right now." He muttered. "Oh wait, I can't. Jim's still around."

"That's right." I stated emphatically letting my hands drop from his neck. "And the rest of us too."

"Mmmph." He huffed. He again opened his eyes to look at me over his shoulder. "More?" He asked hopefully. I smiled and obliged the cranky doctor. "Ahhhhhh." He sighed contentedly with a smile. I didn't so much mind because things very often didn't go his way and it was a small thing for me to try and ease his physical discomfort. After all, we had a deal.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by a very strange page from Spock requesting me to meet him in sickbay. I didn't even bother changing, I rationalized it by thinking that if it were an actual crisis, it wouldn't matter what I was wearing because time would be of the essence over apparel. When I arrived, Spock was standing in the middle of a packed sickbay overflowing with crewmembers and very few medical staff.

He immediately took notice of me and seemed a little surprised. "Thank you for coming, Doctor. As you see, the ship is experiencing something of an outbreak."

"Of what?" I breathed taking in the sheer number of very sick looking individuals.

"I am not certain. Have you experienced fever, chills, joint pain, sweating, or a rash in the past 12 hours?" He queried calmly. I shook my head no in confusion. "Those appear to be the chief symptoms of this illness. Whatever it is, it has spread throughout the entire ship in hours and appears to be highly contagious. I suspect the origin lies with the away team as they were the first to display the symptoms."

I looked around the room and couldn't even see Jim or Sulu on the beds for all the standing people crowding the room. "Where's McCoy?" I asked. "Shouldn't he be handling this mess?"

"He would, however he may have become infected during his care of Jim and he is currently confined to his quarters. It would appear, Doctor, that you and I are the only unaffected individuals on the ship. I have run some preliminary tests on blood sampled from the Captain as well as my own and it would seem that I simply lack the receptor the agent binds to. Now I must ascertain why you remain immune. May I collect blood?"

"Sure." I reluctantly agreed trying to think of how we were going to handle this mess. I winced when he inserted the needle and although he didn't say he was sorry, I gathered that he was by the way he lowered his eyes. He filled two vials and shook them well. I held a small wad of cotton to the site until it stopped bleeding. "What do you suggest we do with them?" I asked nodding toward the overfilled main room.

He glanced back as though he had forgotten all about them. "We will have to collect vital data on each one and suffice with palliative care until I am able to isolate the agent and identify it." I frowned. He stared off with 'we' but it seemed he really meant 'you.'

"Alright." I sighed. "It will do no good to have them all cramped up here like cattle. You stay here and do your thing and I will send them to their rooms and make rounds. If any seem to be fine I will isolate them from the others and if any are in danger, I will send them down here."

"But I am not a physician." He protested. "I will not know how to treat them."

"Neither am I, Spock, but you learn by doing and using logic to think your way through. I know you can do that." I grabbed a small travel bag from a cabinet and packed it with a tricorder and a PADD before turning to the expectant crowd. "I want everyone to go back to your rooms, I will come and check on you there. If any of you feel you are desperately sick and in dire need of attention, stay here." It sounded like Night of the Living Dead as people grumbled and shuffled their way out the door and into the hall. I turned back to Spock and said, "If I can find any medical personnel that are able to help I will send them down to help you. Good luck, Spock."

He nodded and walked over to look down at Sulu who was now awake and moaning in misery. He lightly placed his hand on the pilot's arm and I found it incredibly surprising coming from a man who insisted that he knew nothing of comforting gestures.

I began on the lower decks where the crew members slept two to a room. It was a good arrangement for me since it allowed me to move faster through the list. Every room was the same: I scanned them to get a temperature reading, made a list of symptoms, told them to drink water, put all the information on my PADD and moved on. I got slogged down when I reached the Officer's decks since it was one person to a room and I had to repeat instructions.

I had used my code so many times to override doors I didn't even have to look at the keypad anymore. I quickly punched it in and entered McCoy's room. He was in bed, curled into a ball of absolute misery. I sat on the edge of his bed and he squinted hard at me. "What are you doing?" He demanded. "You shouldn't be running around."

I passed the scanner close to his forehead and he glared at it in distain. "I have no idea what is going around, but it looks like Spock and I are the only ones that have not caught it." He had a fever of 102, but his skin was cool to the touch.

"Green blooded bastard." He growled into his sheets.

"So, I am making house calls in your absence to gather data that might help Spock figure out what this is." I sighed entering his information and rattling off the list of symptoms. He grunted for yes and remained silent for no. It was a great indignity to him, but I had to lift his shirt and roll up his pant legs to look for any signs of a rash that about half of those infected displayed. I had also noticed that those that seemed worse also had bloodshot eyes and white spots in the mouth, so I turned up the dim lights enough to check.

"Goddamn this is embarrassing." He slurred as I held his mouth open and peered in.

"Imagine how I felt when you took a grand tour of my body. This hardly amounts to that, so quit your bitching and get over it." I laughed.

"That doesn't count!" He protested with a scowl.

"Blah blah blah." I mocked. "Just keep your ass in the bed, drink water, and sleep."

He looked at me with such incredulity and shock I couldn't help but smirk. He was accustomed to giving orders like that, but he didn't like taking them. "At least let me see what you got so far." He grumbled resigned to his fate.

"I will send a copy to you when I am done." I promised. "But I have a few more stops to make, so you be a good boy until then." I patted him patronizingly on the arm and he narrowed his eyes. "I will come back and check on you again when I am done." I said in a softer tone. "We have a deal, remember?" He smiled faintly in response and in the private communication we shared he looked as though he appreciated it. I smiled back at him and thought it strange that we had gone so long without using it.

When I finished the decks, I still had outstanding slots on the PADD for Scotty and Chekov. On a hunch, I went to the bridge and found Chekov laying on the floor in front of his station. "Hello, Doctor." He waved weakly. I knelt beside him and went to work.

"What are you doing up here by yourself, Pavel?" I asked sympathetically.

"I'm not alone." He corrected pointing toward the conference room. "Scotty is sleeping on the conference table. The bridge must be manned at all times and I vasn't feeling too bad at the time I agreed to stay."

He had a very mild fever and his blue eyes were thankfully clear. He was definitely infected, but not as bad as most others. Scotty, on the other hand, had all the signs and symptoms of a raging infection. He barely moved while I examined him. I tried to encourage him by saying that Spock was working on a solution and hopefully he would find something soon, but he responded in slurred Scottish nonsense.

I was almost relieved when Spock paged me. "Doctor, I believe I have located the cause of your immunity. You carry antibodies specific to the virus that causes the illness in your blood. While the virus is present, your T-cells have rendered it inactive and unable to replicate. I believe I can synthesize a booster using your antibodies, but I will require more blood."

Vampire.