IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE
Chapter 5: "The Spreading Plague"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Somebody did this on purpose?" exclaimed Minako.
"That would be speculative at this point, but not out of the question. This infection is spreading very fast," Ami told Serenity and Minako. "Faster than first thought. It has proven to be very virulent. Just the sort of thing that could have been engineered as a bio-weapon."
"How bad is it?" Minako asked.
"It's already spread to forty-two percent of the population, that we know of, in just a day. And without knowing the incubation time frame, there could be as many as twice that number already infected but showing no overt signs of infection."
"Well that's scary enough," Minako said, "but I was talking about how bad is the disease? Are we talking a runny nose for a few days or The Black Death?"
"That's a bit melodramatic, don't you think?" Ami questioned.
"Hey, remember who you're talking to," grinned Minako.
"So far symptoms have been nasal congestion, scratchy throat, elevated temperature and minor loss of vision and hearing," Ami related. "Normal symptoms for an upper respiratory infection."
"But . . ." prodded Minako, for she knew her friend.
"But this disease is something I've never encountered before," Ami continued, "so I hesitate to predict how it will progress. So far it hasn't responded to standard treatments. If the body's natural immune system managed to overcome the infection, symptoms will last from three to seven days, possibly longer in infants, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. If it doesn't respond to the immune system, a patient could be sick for weeks. And the progressive weakening of the body, particularly the respiratory system, could lead to more serious, permanent complications."
"So anywhere from a runny nose to The Black Death," Minako decided.
"You're over-simplifying," bristled Ami.
"Maybe I should do something," volunteered Serenity from her bed.
"You can't even cure yourself! Don't even think about it!" Minako barked.
"Yes, Serenity, there is no evidence that this virus is any more potentially fatal than any other virus currently in circulation," Ami added. "There's no reason to tax yourself at this time."
"And if it does become fatal?" Serenity asked, then wiped her nose with her hand.
"Such idle speculation without a basis in fact is pointless," Ami advised her.
"In one syllable words, don't borrow trouble," Minako added.
As if in answer, Serenity sneezed rather inelegantly.
At eleven fifty-four, Jun was at the front gate, waiting for Tomohiro to arrive. She was dressed in a conservative dark blue sleeveless dress and matching heels, the ensemble created for her by Cere with the help of the palace garment replicator. The young woman had her green hair styled in her traditional Quechuan weave, but with metal adornments on the brown portion, the equivalent of Quechuan formal. Cere had also taken charge of her make up, covering the boyish parts of Jun's face and accenting the girlish parts. Jun checked her chronometer for the fourth time and anxiously continued to wait.
Off to one side, hidden from view from the gate, Palla-Palla surreptitiously watched Jun. The teen was torn by her mission. She desperately wanted to reassure Ves that Tomohiro was a good person, as much for Jun's sake as for Ves's. She wanted this relationship to blossom, filled as her head was with romantic stories of princes and princesses and true love, stories often told to her by Jun herself. On the other hand, if Tomohiro was a bad person, Palla-Palla wanted to know so she could warn Jun.
But she kept hearing the voices of the nuns from the orphanage admonishing her over and over again about how eavesdropping was wrong.
"Hi, Tomohiro," Jun greeted him as he approached. She smiled very easily. "I'm glad you could find the place."
"It wasn't hard to find," Tomohiro replied. He was wearing a casual green jacket and beige slacks, as well as a respirator over his nose and mouth. Jun's heart thumped upon seeing him. "It looks like lunch may be out of the question, though. The quarantine has all of the restaurants closed for now."
"Yes, I heard," sighed Jun, her mouth and nose covered by a respirator as well. "I'm sorry you had to get stuck in Crystal Tokyo by this."
"One of those things," he shrugged. "I just got out of quarantine in Kyushu and here I am, back again." He looked Jun in the eye. "But it's not all bad."
"I guess not,"said Jun, trying to keep her composure. "Oh, I know! The palace has a cafeteria. We can have lunch there. It's not quite as nice as a restaurant, but the food is superb."
"OK," Tomohiro smiled. "One place is as good as another if the company is right."
Keeping silent because she was afraid her voice would quaver, Jun waved Tomohiro in. The guards nodded to them and Jun led him into the palace.
"Wow," Tomohiro said as they entered the atrium. "I've never been in the palace before. It looks like you could fit half of Crystal Tokyo in here."
"Almost," Jun grinned. Unseen, Palla-Palla worked her way back inside.
"Ves-Ves!" Palla-Palla telepathically spoke to her fellow Amazon. "Mr. Tomohiro-Sir is a very nice man and he likes Jun-Jun a lot! Ves-Ves doesn't have to worry at all!"
"Oh yeah?" Ves thought back. "Well if you think so, it's good enough for me. Where are they now?"
"Jun-Jun and Mr. Tomohiro-Sir are going up to the cafeteria to eat lunch," Palla-Palla reported.
"OK. I'm feeling a little hungry. Maybe I'll head down there and scope this guy out myself," Ves return thought. "You want to come?"
"Yes, thank you very much!" Palla-Palla thought and scampered for the stairs.
The Princess of Crystal Tokyo and her husband were sitting on one of the palace balconies, overlooking part of the city beneath. Between them was a table holding a tray with several dishes of food. The pair sat and ate and enjoyed each other's company.
"This is very enjoyable," Helios said of the food. "Once again, Makoto-San has come through with a culinary delight."
"I'll have you know that I cooked this," Usa told him.
"Indeed? I was unaware of your culinary skills, Maiden."
"Well, you never asked," she said, then grinned slyly. "You were too busy kissing me passionately."
"Priorities, Maiden," he grinned back. "Why did you never tell me?"
"Never came up," she shrugged, then smirked again. "I guess I was too busy kissing you."
"Your talents never fail to impress me," he said. "Have you always been able to cook delicious meals?"
"Not always," Usa said and took a mouthful of rice. "I think I was twelve and in one of my 'oh, I'll never be as good as Mom' moods. And suddenly I realized that Mom wasn't good at everything, that her cooking was one step above toxic. So I went to Aunt Makoto and she taught me the basics and a few touches. I'll never be as good as her - - who is - - but it turned out to be something I was pretty competent at." She looked over at Helios. "And like Aunt Makoto says, cooking for someone you love gives you extra incentive."
"Well, you have succeeded most . . ." Helios began.
At once, the air was cut by the sound of metal impacting with metal. Usa and Helios looked to the sound. An air car, flying wildly and out of the traffic lanes, had clipped a weather adjustment tower. Parts of the tower were leaning at a severe angle, threatening to fall. The air car struggled to stay aloft, then gave up the struggle and began a wild descent to the pedestrian walkway below. Instantly Usa was out of her chair.
"Moon Eternal Make Up!" she shouted, instantly transforming into Sailor Moon.
Sailor Moon looked to Helios to encourage him to transform, but her mate had already done so. Leaping upon his back, she grasped him around his neck as the great Pegasus thrust into the air. The pair crossed the distance to the plummeting air car in moments.
"Helios, it's going to crash into that pedestrian carrier!" Sailor Moon exclaimed. Furiously she tried to think of what she could do, for her powers were restorative and not forceful.
The Pegasus responded with a beam of light from his crystal horn. The beam struck the air car, shoving its course away from the pedestrian carrier below. As security drones converged on the scene, Pegasus dived forward and looped underneath the stricken air car. Placing himself between the air car and the street below, the winged equine began furiously flapping in place, hoping to create enough of an air cushion to soften the craft's impact.
Sailor Moon brought up her Senshi Communicator and hit a specific channel. "Security drones, this is a Princess Usagi interface! Divert all hover car traffic away from Avenue E between Miles Road and Yumigachi Road!"
"Acknowledged," came the synthetic voice in reply.
When the air car came too close, Pegasus darted out from under it, letting the craft fall to the pavement. Swinging around, the equine landed. Sailor Moon was off his back in a second and popped the hatch of the air car.
"Caution, Maiden," Helios, transformed back into his human form, warned. "I sense great distress in this man. He is in the throws of delirium."
"Medical units have been dispatched," a drone hovering over her shoulder advised.
Sailor Moon peered in at the lone occupant of the air car. The man seemed feverish and his breath rasped as it escaped. Immediately she wondered if he was a victim of the viral infection that was going around the city.
"What about the weather tower?" Sailor Moon asked, turning to Helios as he approached.
"Security drones have the situation in hand," he advised her.
"I wish I could check on that man," Sailor Moon grumbled. "But if he's suffering from the viral infection like I think he is, I shouldn't go near him without an anti-contamination suit."
"The medical unit is here, Maiden," Helios said. "Your job is finished."
"Yeah," sighed Sailor Moon. "Wish I could have done more."
"You're right," Tomohiro said as he put down his fork. "This place does serve delicious food. Nothing but the best for the palace, I guess."
"It's all thanks to Kino-Sensei," Jun replied. "She supervises the cooking and she's really tough on them. But she has a great sense of what tastes good and she teaches it to anyone who takes a job here."
"You've got a lot of respect for her," Tomohiro observed.
"Sure," shrugged Jun. "Just like you've got a lot of respect for that Meguro-Sensei you were talking about. You were talking about those new discoveries in zoology just now."
"You really want to hear about that?" he demurred.
"I thought it was fascinating how you explained things in animal behavior," she told him. "I knew that stuff by observation, but knowing why they do it just makes my memories of the Amazon that much more vivid."
Jun noticed something had caught Tomohiro's eye. He noticed her inquiring look when he glanced back at her.
"I think you've got a fan club," he chuckled and nodded over her left shoulder.
Looking behind her, Jun saw seated at a table four tables down from them were Ves, Cere and Palla-Palla. Immediately Palla-Palla waved at them until Ves swatted her hand down. Jun turned back with an embarrassed grimace on her face.
"Those are my sisters," Jun sighed. "Adoptive sisters. The one with the crimson hair is, um, Cerese. The one with the red hair is Vanessa and the one with the blue hair is Athene."
"Checking out the gentleman caller?"
"Trolling for gossip, more like," muttered Jun.
"Now, they probably just care for you and want to make sure you're in good hands," Tomohiro assured her. "It's nice to have family that cares. I'd certainly want to know all about the guy my sister starts dating."
"Oh, I'm sure they're all just looking out for me, in their own ten-ton gorilla fashion," Jun said to him. "Spying on my social life for gossip is just a sidelight."
"So tell me," Tomohiro leaned in. "How did a diverse group like you four become sisters, anyway?"
Jun felt her chest clench. What to say? She knew Tomohiro knew she was a Senshi. But she didn't know how much of her background was familiar to him. If stories about evil queens and Dead Moon Circuses came tumbling out of her mouth, not to mention the circumstances of her very conception, how would he take it? The thought of driving him away suddenly became more than she wanted to risk.
"We," Jun began, looking at her folded arms, "met in Brasilia - - in an orphanage there. We sort of bonded there."
"Do you remember your parents?"
She looked at him and he seemed genuinely sympathetic.
"No. I was an infant when my mom - - died," she said. "And I was taken from my father. He's gone now, too. I was raised in the jungle by a - - I guess you could call him a cross between a hermit and a shaman. But he was the best father I could ever have. But he died when I was eleven, and the authorities sent me to Quatro Pi."
"Wow. You've had a life for someone as young as you," Tomohiro said.
"So what about your family?" Jun said, changing the subject.
"Pretty standard issue Japanese," he shrugged. "Dad's a computer maintenance tech. Mom was a nurse until she got pregnant with me. My sister Aiko is studying to be an astro-physicist. No boyfriend yet, so I don't have to go storming off to spy on her." Jun laughed at that.
Then two men in medical issue anti-contamination suits approached the table. They stood, imposing in their stance, next to the table. Jun and Tomohiro looked up at them.
"You are Tomohiro Shimizu?" one of the men asked through his respirator.
"Yes," Tomohiro said.
"Could you come with us, please?" he requested. It was a neutral request, but there was an undertone to it that hinted it wasn't a request.
"What's this all about?" bristled Jun.
"We're checking everyone who entered Crystal Tokyo from another region for signs of the virus currently in the city," was the reply.
"You think I'm a carrier?" Tomohiro asked incredulously.
"We're trying to eliminate that possibility," the man said. "This was ordered by Dr. Mizuno, Chief Medical Officer of Crystal Tokyo.
"Did the disease migrate from an animal species?" Tomohiro asked.
"We're trying to eliminate that possibility. You were recently in the nature preserve near Kyushu."
"SO WAS I!" snapped Jun, standing to defend him. "Why aren't you taking me?"
"Jun," Tomohiro began.
"You're right," the man responded. "Maybe we should. If you two will come this way."
The group of four got three steps toward the door. Then they found their path obstructed.
"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING THEM?" snarled Ves belligerently.
"Ves, it's OK," Jun hissed.
"THE HELL IT IS!"
"Ves, they're not the Brasilia police. We'll be all right. They're just acting under orders from Mizuno-sensei."
Reluctantly Ves backed from their path, though she glared the entire time they walked to the door.
"Well, this isn't exactly the way I would have wanted to end our date," quipped Tomohiro.
Jun felt like crying.
A man stood outside a hospital cubicle, his hand on his young daughter as she clung to his leg. Inside the cubicle, his wife of six years was laying in a bed, unconscious. Her breathing was labored, so much so that intravenous oxygen was being pumped into her system to keep her blood oxygenation level at a life-sustaining mark. The woman, who was normally so active and energetic, lay still and pale as death.
"Dad," the young girl whimpered, "how soon until Mom is well?"
"I don't know, Mira," he said. Staring at his wife in that bed, he felt the nagging fear that this was her last day on Earth. But he couldn't curl up and weep. He had to be strong for Mira. He was her father. She was depending on him to be strong for her.
A loud beep engulfed the room and filtered through the door to the outside hall. Moments later medical personnel stormed into the room as robot arms emerged from the bed and began injecting and scanning the patient within. Mira clutched the leg of her father even tighter, fearing the worst. Her father struggled not to panic, not to storm into the room and hold his wife's hand.
After an eternity, one of the medical personnel came out. She came up to him and he feared what she was about to say.
"I'm sorry," the doctor began. And the world of two people collapsed. While inside the room, one of the nurses turned to the other.
"We'd better notify the Ministry of Health," she said. "That viral infection just claimed its first victim."
Continued in Chapter 6