Solace was supposed to have been a gold mine of talent and equipment, and instead they were left with the veritable black hole that had been brought. They had managed to scrounge up a few things, but nothing of significant value and not definitely not enough to make up for the lack of the labs now.
"My lab is low on just about everything," She told Tom in their morning meeting. These had been daily when they had labs, but it had been a few days since one had been scheduled. She scheduled this one. "Once I have depleted the cell cultures on hand, we won't be able to manufacture the vaccine on the ship," She told him.
Mike peeked his way inside the door. He was on submarine duty, something that Rachel admired, but meant that Tom was not exactly focused on what she was saying.
"Excuse me for interrupting," She told Mike, "But it seems to me that the longer we seek out this submarine, the further it takes us off our mission. We need to rebuild the labs or find one with enough stock of cell culture…"
Tom was not having it. "Where would you suggest we go?" He asked in a bearing tone. "Which lab?"
She looked at him shocked, unsure of the person who stood before her. They had come to an agreement so long ago that this was the calling and now he was doubting it?
"Go on," He said, "Pick one." He slammed the paper in front of her but did not wait for her to go through it. "Phoenix-destroyed, no survivors. Salt lake-destroyed, no survivors. Madison, Topeka, they're gone. Baltimore," He said as he looked to Mike and not to her, "Baltimore, which I so cleverly added to the secret lab network, gone. Florida. Everything we worked for!"
"Captain, do you think I'm not aware of this?" She shouted at him. She couldn't help it. She needed him to understand. "I have spent the last twenty hours trying to figure out why this could have happened. How this could have happened." She brought her voice down and thought maybe physical presence, closeness might do the trick, "But we need to stay on course or millions more are going to die."
He looked at her with a steeled look. "That sub is the mission now," And then he went to leave, but not before turning to look to her one more time, "We'll find the people who did this and we'll make 'em pay."
She closed her eyes and sighed as he left the room.
"I'm sorry Rachel. He's the captain," Mike said as he left the room and all she could do to him was nod.
She went back to her lab where she worked for awhile before Alisha Granderson opened the hatch and asked her to come with her. She was grateful to have something to do that wasn't counting the depleting cultures. "What's this about?" She asked.
"Dr. Hunter, he had a message for you, ma'am," Alisha said as they walked through the P-ways, down to the communications room. "It must have transmitted to the satellite right before the attack," She continued.
"Have you watched it?" Rachel asked.
Alisha shook her head. "Only long enough to know it was for you, ma'am. But even from what I saw, it wasn't easy to watch," She told Rachel as she opened the hatch, waited for Rachel to come in, and closed it again.
Rachel, eagerly put on the headphones and pressed play on the message. There he was with the gunfire in the background, clearly shaken up about what was going on, but he had something important to say and he said as much.
The tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at her friend who was trying to get the last message out to help. He talked about his work on the measles project and how he knew that she thought it was crazy, and she did, but he swore it worked. Worked the cure for the Red Flu. He was trying to transmit the data when people burst into his office and shot him at point blank range.
She took the video to Tom and Mike who were also both horrified by the grotesquely violent nature of the situation.
After the video ended, Mike spoke first, "Well, that's how they were able to get the locations of all the labs. Stole them from Dr. Hunter,"
She didn't want to talk about that. Because all that reminded her of was that they were supposed to be there much earlier than they were and maybe if they had been, they would have been able to save him.
"He was working on an experiment to turn my liquid injectable version of the cure into a powder, so it could be released over populated areas via helicopters, planes, drones even," She told them, wanting them to have the full context of what the video really meant, "I could manufacture a highly concentrated power, right here on this ship," She told them. "We wouldn't even need labs anymore. It would very much like crop dusting, mass inoculation without glassware, needles, all the infrastructure that we no longer have,"
"Do you think Hunter was actually able to do it?" Mike asked.
"I know that he had some good results aerosolizing the measles vaccine, but I won't know until we get down to his lab in Florida," She told them both, looking at Tom specifically, who seemed overcome with vengeance for the sub that she wondered if this would even reach him. "The formulas are locked away on his computers,"
"Absolutely not," Tom said. "It's a long shot and we have bigger fish to fry right now,"
That astounded her. "Really?" She asked. "Bigger fish? And by that I assume you mean revenge,"
"And by that I mean we're not going anywhere till we take out that sub," He said. He at least had the courage to say that in a normal voice.
Mike looked between Rachel and Tom, clearly uncomfortable with the scene. He had never really seen the two make such a scene to begin with. For the most part, they were usually together on what they had to do. They may have had different ways of going about things, but they both fervently believed in the mission at hand.
"The men who killed Dr. Hunter. Their accent, it was irish?" He asked.
She looked at Tom with discomfort, then answered Mike, "Yes,"
Mike gave her one nod then looked to his Captain. "Means the sub commander has people on the ground. Achilles was two hundred miles offshore when it launched on the labs. No way they were able to slip back and forth to Florida," He told Tom, who was thankfully listening.
"Dr. Hunter's lab location was hidden on the secure server," She told them both, tired of going over the facts. "The bastards never got the flash drive from their man."
"So how'd they find it?" Mike asked.
In what was not a stunning turn of events, Tom did not care. "Whoever killed your friend is long gone by now. This is a wild goose chase,"
"Have you forgotten what we are all doing here?" She asked him and really looked him in the eye, determined to make him see the facts. "Find the cure, save the world," And if that wasn't enough to convince him, she didn't know what was.
Thankfully, it was enough.
They showed up to the compound that housed Dr. Hunter's lab, several of the navy sailors in front of her, Tex beside making sure to keep her safe, and more navy sailors in the back. It was trashed, the whole place. From top to bottom. There were bodies of people who had fled; she guessed all of them were gunned down. Who knew if there were survivors but there weren't any here.
Inside the actual buildings wasn't any better. With Tex still by her side, they carefully walked through halls that were full of dead scientists. Tex squeezed her hand and she squeezed back as she gave him a quick glance.
She made her way through briskly, but not without taking stock of what hadn't been smashed to pieces. There was some cell culture that she asked Miller to put in a box, along with some glassware and needles that might be useful.
Then they made it to Dr. Hunter's actual office, where Tom and everyone else stood. It was the end of the road. Julius had been shot at point blank range and his body was just there. She stepped closer toward it and knelt down, held his hand for one last time while everyone else stood back. It was cold and rigored at this point, but it was better than nothing.
"He was a giant. The smartest man I knew,"
"Ma'am, they shot up the doctor's office pretty good. Bashed the computer to bits" Cruz informed her.
She looked at Julius one last time and let his hand go. It wasn't really him anyway. The spirit of the giant had left his body. This was just a collection of cells, dead cells now.
"I'm so sorry," Miller said. The way his voice trembled just a little, she could tell he meant it.
She nodded to him as a sad sort of smile came over her when she got up. "I found these cultures, so at least we can continue making the cure for now." She told Tom, who she knew was on a quest for the men who did this and all he wanted to do was shoot them out of the water. She understand that desire now. "See if there's anything in that box to help,"
She left the lab that they were all standing in to compose herself in the next room. Tex didn't immediately follow. She needed to be allowed to have some time to grief without everyone thinking about it. If he followed, everyone would.
When she noticed the diagram, she took out her camera. Taking as many pictures of it as she could, from basically every angle. It was the last thing that Dr. Hunter had given her. Even in death, he was trying to help.
"When you find the people who did this, Captain…" She said, "Kill them."
Everyone left through the same door, but Ravit, Burk, Danny, Wolf, and Tom went one direction, while Cruz, Miller, and Master Chief went another. They gave Tex and Rachel a large berth, but they hadn't left just yet. They had been assigned to separate teams.
She looked at him with a smile, "Don't play with any bombs this time?" She asked.
"I make no promises, but I'll try not to," Tex said with a smile. "I'm sorry about your friend."
She shrugged. "The world is burning. I only hope that we can heal it in time," She said and she looked at everyone who conspicuously had their eyes on the ground whenever they met hers after a brief second. "Come back, okay?" She asked
He nodded, and lifted her chin up and gave her a gentle kiss, "Always, princess,"
This made her smile a little bit. No one had called her a princess, well ever. As a child, the child of a missionary, such things weren't really talked about, and she didn't have a lot of other kids her age to talk about that kind of stuff. As she got older, she got into other things, things decidedly less feminine and people definitely didn't call her princess then.
"Alright," She said, "We better go,"
They parted their separate ways, her going safely back to the ship and him, going in a truck to follow the tracks that had been left by the people who had ransacked the lab and killed Dr. Hunter and his compatriots.
Tex hopped in the back, his gun hoisted on the side to make sure that if they ran into anyone hostile, they would have a clear look at what they were in for, before they made the decision to mess with them. After all, these people were still out there and it was going to be a crazy ride trying to find them.
They spent about a half hour driving through the swamps of Florida, till the tracks stopped. They were near some water with fan-boats. Danny and Burk got out first, then Ravit, and he trailed, keeping his gun up till they were all safely in front. He patrolled the area while the captain figured out where they needed to go.
Another half hour passed while the Nathan James found an encampment, and they proceeded with the fan-boats to the area.
On the Nathan James, Rachel went immediately back to the lab, where Dr. Milowsky and Bertrise were, ready to help. She brought the image that Dr. Hunter had drawn on the whiteboard. They drew it on one of their own whiteboards, to get a better look at it.
"I need to turn our liquid vaccine into an aerosol form," She told Bertrise and Milowsky. "And to do so I need the proper chemical base to cut with our vaccine to create a stable and dry formulation," She said, as she thought through the process. And the fact that this might be the only way to get the cure to masses of people anymore.
"Something that won't degrade its potency. A powder base brings with it all kinds of complications," Milowsky said, looking at the image that Bertrise was still finishing up on the whiteboard.
She nodded. "Which is why no one's been able to do it," She looked over at the whiteboard. "It's utterly organic. Completely simple,"
"Missing just enough pieces to drive us crazy solving it," Milowsky moaned, while looking at all research that had been piled into this one graphic.
It was astounding and yet horrifying that he couldn't get just a little bit more. She looked at it in awe, it had plenty of things it could be, but all of them rang a little dissonant for the cause. She thought out loud to herself about it, but it was no use. The simplest answer was not going to be it. They would have to work some more of it out.
"I have to ask," Milowsky turned to her, "Is it possible that Dr. Hunter never solved it himself?"
She shook her head briskly and went back to the desk, "No, he solved it." She assured them, "He gave his life to tell me," And with that, she let them work at the whiteboard together, Milowsky and Bertrise got along swimmingly, something she was proud of, so it made sense for them to work together on that. She went to her computer, put the model into a 3D image software and began to work there.
She had been at her computer for several hours when Bacon came through the open hatch with a plate full of food. He was the first person other than Tex who had been worried about how little she ate. And actually, considering, Tex probably put Bacon up to it, to make sure she ate when he was away.
"Uh, ma'am, I thought you might be hungry," He said.
She put her pen down, but held onto the cup she was clinging to, and smiled, "That's very thoughtful of you,"
"Chicken and Mushroom in a roux sauce," He said as he took the makeshift cloche off of it, "My specialty,"
"Is that right?"
"It's good enough for the president of the United States, so…" He didn't finish, but she could tell how proud he was of this dish.
"You prepared food for the president?" She asked, incredulously. He was a talented man, she knew that already, but it was so incongruous to her for him to be out on a ship at sea, making food for everyone when he could be cooking for the president. He had cooked for the president and now he was bringing her meals, what a step down.
"At camp David," He added. "It was his favorite dish, or so I'm told,"
"You're having me on,"
"No," He assured her. "No, ma'am. Only the best navy cooks get to cook for the Commander in Chief,"
"Why in heaven would you leave that job?" She asked him.
He shrugged. "You got to go to sea if you wanna make rank," He told her, "You know, it's an art preparing the perfect roux. Especially considering how hard it is to get fresh ingredients these days,"
He put the food in front of her and her stomach almost did a backflip, it smelled delicious. And she was interested in what Bacon had to say about making things. He made this thing so special and it was important to hear what he was saying, because well it was interesting. Though she knew food and cooking was science, she hadn't put much stock into really honing the skill. Not only was Bacon honing it, he was an expert and in that way he was also a scientist.
"You see, the real secret is sifting the flour just right, if it's too heavy the moment it hits that butter, you got yourself a fritter," She started cutting at the meat, but what he was saying, while also science that she was interested, might actually help with the science that she was currently embattled in. "But if you do it right, man, you got yourself a nice rich sauce," He told her.
And that is when everything clicked. "It's completely delicious," She said as she let the silverware clatter onto the plate.
He looked at the plate and though things had been cut, "Oh, Ma'am, you haven't even tried it," He said as he looked at her plate. But it was no matter, she was off to the races, drawing on her whiteboard, "I need a food base. If I can isolate it and have adhere to the vaccine and form the micropowder…"
He tried to get her to eat, but it was useless she was already running for Dr. Milowsky and Bertrise, to tell them about the big breakthrough they had.
Tex went into the encampment since he was the only one in normal clothes and milled about. He talked to everyone, who were more than gracious for the safe zone. And they were happy to feed him. He ate a little and then played with some kids. He told 'em that he had a bunch of friends outside the safe zone who weren't sick, but were incredibly dirty and embarrassed to be around people. They gave him clothes for that too. And he said goodbye as he took his basket of goodies and went to the team who was stationed, outside, and out of the peering eyes of everyone in the safe zone.
"They are a friendly group," He said as he put down the basket of treasures he'd just been given, "Handing out clothes, food, blankets," He told the captain. "It's an apocalyptic love-in. All that's missing is music and some wacky weed," He grinned.
Given the time though, he did worry about Rachel. She always forgot to eat if he wasn't there. Well, Bacon had hopefully taken up that sword, but he wouldn't bemoan the man if he didn't. There was only so much you could do with their little friendly scientist.
"Americans?" Tom asked.
Tex nodded. "Every one of 'em. No sign of no foreign fighters,"
Wolf and Danny pulled up with another truck, comandeered via the United States Navy, and any of the chuckleheads that would have been it, wouldn't be missed. Danny and Wolf told them about the company move, how everything seemed to be moving in a new direction, which Ravit confirmed from the other side, about the encampment.
They made a plan to infiltrate. Ravit, Burk, and Tom going through the encampment. Wolf, Danny, and Tex going in the truck. This made it so they weren't so obvious as a group. They would also be able to find a way to get the hell out of this place if they had to when they split up. That seemed smart since these guys were trained and if anyone noticed them, they would be fucked.
The truck had all their uniforms and their guns in the back, putting them in a bag that would be unassuming in the back. They followed the buses on the road, not entirely sure where they were going, but it would give them so new intel that was for sure. How good it would be? He didn't exactly know. This was just a long day. A very long day. And it seemed like it would just be getting longer.
They brought their whiteboard and some equipment into the mess hall and brought Bacon along with them, since he was the one who gave her the brilliant idea to use a food base after all. She and Milowsky worked over the problem of what kind of base to use, and she looked to Bacon, who she was hoping had some ideas. But he had been lost from the beginning and so she started back at the beginning for him. It was the least she could do.
They traveled north for awhile, Danny gave the XO the updates and Tex drove, with Wolf in the bed of the truck, keeping an eye out, but not guns out. They did not want to be seen as a threat yet.
As they got to the compound, Wolf took the bag with the weapons, and climbed out of the back. They headed inside. But the trucks were headed through the service entrance, the buses were going to the main building. Now they put their faith in Wolf to get them out of there when the time was right.
Rachel came out of the mess decks and onto the open air deck, where she found Russ, "Master chief, any word?" She asked. She was desperate to get Tex, and everyone else, back on the ship. They were hunting crazy bastards who killed all their labs. Who knew what would happen when they actually came into contact with them?
He shook his head and sighed, "Three teams on an undercover mission, wandering the swamps of central Florida, led by my commanding officer, alone and unafraid," He said as he looked at a ship's gun, making sure it was clean, "Ma'am, I love the Navy, but I don't know that I'll ever get used to this. I just pray they come back safe and we get this vendetta behind us."
She knew that feeling. But she knew that Tex and Tom, and everyone else, they were good at what they did. They were passionate about keeping this crew safe. That's what they wanted to do. And Tex, well, he had her on the ship. "They'll make it back," She told him. "They always do."
"Did you find anything useful in Dr. Hunter's lab?"
She showed him a standard issue Navy Mess mug with a smile. "Actually," She blew some powder into the air, and Master Chief dodged it with a grimace and looked back to her as if she were a little crazy, "Cornstarch. From the Chief's mess. It turns out the secret ingredient I was looking for was being used to make pancakes."
"So you found it?" He asked.
"Well, I have the recipe." She told him, "And now all I need is to build a machine to manufacture the micropowder. So I was hoping that you might be able to lend me one or two of your capable machinists?"
"I think that can be arranged," Master Chief smiled. Things might just be looking up.
"Hold up," A man in some schlubby shirts said and stopped the truck.
"Here we go," Tex said. He tucked the gun he had on the seat away in a couple of shirts. He did not want to get into a fight with these guys quite yet and a gun would just make them skittish.
"Howdy" Danny said to the guys out the window.
"Howdy?" Tex gave him an arched eyebrow.
"What?" Danny asked, "I'm from Connecticut."
"Whereabouts you boys come from?" The schlubby man asked.
"Pompano beach, baby," Tex said with a smile and a little drum on the steering wheel.
"Fancy pants." The man said, with a bit of a grin, "Well come on. We got shit to do. Pull up around back" And then he went to other business of keeping the compound running. Tex guessed that he was at least one of the higher ups on the operations front.
"Pompano beach? Nice pull." Danny said with a grin.
"Well, I knew a gal that had a houseboat on the intercoastal back in the late 90s." These guys, he knew they weren't really looking for the place, but knowing a place that was real helped. And it was close. And knowing that gave him some more credibility with them. It made them less open to interrogation as the new guys. And saying it gave him some good feelings to reminisce for, when the world wasn't so crazy, "It was a hell of a winter,"
"Don't tell Rachel that," Danny laughed.
"Oh, you know Rachel and I, we both have pasts," He said as they drove right on into the belly of the beast that killed their labs. Hopefully they would learn something useful.