To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch19 Ultimatum

Ultimatum

The tense and likely epic space battle ended with little help needed on Alwen's part, she and Bachir had spent the whole time prepared and ready to receive patients for treatment. And when the action was over, and no one made their way to the med bay she and Bachir went right back to their research. Some days were like this on the Astaroth, just endless down time. It felt wrong to her sometimes, but after a month of wandering the decks looking for any potential injuries and finding nothing she had excepted that sometimes nothing went wrong, or that the crew was really good at hiding cuts and scrapes.

So now she had followed in Bachir's example and attended to her research whenever the chance arose. They were on attempt number 41 of their blindness prevention drug, attempt number 40 had left her sick for days after it had accidentally annihilated the bacteria in her intestines. It was lucky Bachir had thought ahead and grown small colonies of the vital bacteria beforehand, otherwise who knew how long it would have taken to recover.

He had developed them to see if the genome shifting ability of Torweni life could be adapted into a reactive and adaptable version of his Panacea to fight the 'common' cold. Which was a catchall term used for the over two hundred viral strains that resulted in an upper respiratory infection. It wasn't really deadly to a healthy Terran, but when it jumped the species barrier and infected non-deathworlders it killed thousands within days of exposure.

Terrans had to get multiple painful shots that resulted in much more severe symptoms than the actual cold to keep other species of the Union safe. Stations like Femeri or Parox pumped an aerosol version through its ventilation to inoculate the whole station to the deathworld diseases, while giving the Terrans runny noses and sore throats for months. The body did eventually get used to the spray, but only after several years, and the earlier the inoculation was introduced in a Terran's life the easier the transition was. But for people just going off world it was a painful process.

After nearly three Terran months aboard, the disease hadn't jumped species and infected her, primarily due to the facts that the normally vicious and deadly pathogens had no way of dealing with the utterly weird and bizarre nature of Torweni bacteria. It couldn't out compete it and died off swiftly, and her own native bacteria and viruses weren't strong enough to effect the frankly psychotic Terran immune system. So trying to cross hybridize the two different pathogens might result in a revolution in medical science and pathology, or so they hoped. So far the results were inconclusive.

She had just swallowed the pill when there was a banging on the lab door. Alwen looked through to see that Alice, still wearing her armor from their recent mission on the Kruhur station? was waving franticly, trying to get her attention through the thick glass of the sealed room. She was always a bundle of chaotic energy after a mission, something to do with the insane levels of adrenaline that was released into the Terran bloodstream during battle. An amount that would have been lethal to her own system, and a biological feature almost entirely exclusive to deathworlders.

"I think she wants your attention" Bachir rumbled wryly. He had a soft sense of humor that was very endearing.

Alwen rolled her eyes and pressed the intercom button that let her talk to Alice without leaving the sealed environment. "What?" she asked.

"It's movie night, we're feeling ironic" she said bouncing on her toes.

"What does that mean?"

"It means we're watching Pirates of the Caribbean and drinking lots of Rum. Ya in?" she asked with a grin that exposed all of her pearly white fangs.