Focused Rescue

Tired.

That's all she had in mind now. Tired.

No, no, no, you need to stay awake!

Wearily, she dragged her body to the laboratory table. Every step was a challenge itself. Never before felt her body so heavy. Never before had the ground appeared so welcoming. But deep inside her mind she summoned the steadiness not to give up. Not now.

„Oof, I made it back, Bill!" she blared into the com and a crackling sound returned before Bill's response echoed into her face,

„Oh my goodness, Hanna, you made it back!"

„Right," she uttered in a rusty voice, „Look, I've got this sample."

Bill's voice was about to flip, „Great! Great! Now you stay awake, and you put this thing into the breeder!"

„Yeah yeah, I am tired but not dumb, Bill. You get the sample on screen at any moment."

„Sorry, I am just nervous. You are the only one still awake here to handle the breeder."

„Shut up, I need to concentrate." Hanna bit her tongue to stay awake from the tingling pain as she tried to focus on every movement she made. It was like struggling through a jam. Inserting a sample into the breeder was easy, but not with the disease that had afflicted her and her colleagues.

Two days ago, an archaeologist brought an artifact he wanted to examine closely. As he was interested in the organic matter on the artifact, they didn't run all the disinfection procedures. Which turned out to be fatal.

Well, almost. If Hanna sent the data to the center where Bill was co-hosting her analyzing device, lives could be saved.

„It's in, Bill. it's in," she mumbled and a thankful, „Yes, I see it," returned through the com. 

Then, Hanna finally gave in and slept.

##

A wild shaking of her body woke her up.

„Wha...What happened?"

„Hanna, we carried you, but we can't do it anymore. You need to stand up and run!"

„Why do I need to run?" Slowly, her vision improved, and she recognized her colleagues, who had gathered around her and were looking worried. John, one of her long-term working companions, bowed down to her and whispered,

„It's because they want to heal us, but we don't want that. You know, after we all woke up, we got superpowers."

And taking a breath he added,

„You would, too!"