It has been a couple of hours since the science team found their samples and you are making sure that everything is ready for the next expedition. You get the overwhelming feeling of nervous anticipation for the science team. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
"I thought that was my job," Kelsey remarks as he joins you underneath the rover.
"Well if you want to do it on your own then be my guest," You pretend to get up.
"Oh come on. You know you need help," Kelsey responds. He is right but you are in a bit of a playful mood.
"I'm just playing with you Kelsey. We have to have fun somehow. You both get to work on making sure that the rover won't have any issues. It is a challenging job but after fifteen minutes of cleaning, you have finished. You double-check everything. It looks good. Five minutes later you have made it to the control room. It is abuzz with nervous excitement. It is funny to watch.
"Commander, we have evidence," It's Dane that brings your attention to the screen. It has an image of what looks like a microscope image of some bacteria. A smile slithers up your face.
"That's good," You respond. You don't know much about microbiology but you do know that means it's going to be an interesting couple of days. You hope that it is nothing dangerous. However, you get the feeling that something will go wrong. You realise that pop culture may have influenced you a little too much.
"Lilly, what's going on?" Kelsey asks. You can tell that he is confused at the gathering of scientists.
"Dane said they may have found life," you reply as you point to the screen. It has been a couple of days since the discovery and you are watching the scientists. You are also thinking about what this could mean for the people back on earth. It will be good to see if you can give them some information. You notice that Cassidy has covered a cough with her elbow.
"Hello, Lilly what can I do for you?" Your thoughts are interrupted by Dane.
"I was just admiring the work that you are doing from a distance," You respond.
"Can you tell Cassidy that I want her to see Ivan about her cough just to be on the safe side," You ask. You get the feeling that she has already seen Ivan but you can't be sure. You are also probably being a little paranoid.
"I already told her and she did," Dane confirms your feeling.
"I'll have to talk to Ivan then," You muse.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then. Commander," Dane remarks as he gets back to work. You head to the sickbay. Ivan is doing a physical for Jay. He has his face buried in the records. It is interesting to watch. He doesn't know that you are there.
"Tavares, Jay," Ivan mumbles as he makes sure he has the right set of information.
"Oh hello Lilly. What can I do for you?" He finally realises that you are here. He quickly imputes his notes into the pad that contains the data. You have to think of what you are going to say next because if Ivan confirms your suspicion it will be an all hands on deck situation.
"It's about Cassidy. Can you tell me if her cough is anything to worry about?" You pray that you are just being paranoid. He gestures for Jay to go and he does.
"Well, all I can tell you is that if her condition gets worse she should come to me," Ivan responds. You are about to leave but you are stopped.
"Sorry Commander," Dane barges past you. He is supporting a collapsed Cassidy. Ivan gets to work on helping her. You leave before you can get roped in. You head to the control center. You are worried that you may have to get some help from the team back on earth. You take a seat in front of the main screen. You are soon joined by Kelsey.
"Hey Kels I need your help," You decide to get his help because he may have the answer for you.
"What can I do for you schatzi," Kelsey responds as he takes a seat next to you.
"I think we may. Hang on," Your sentence is cut off by the comms chime. It's from the sickbay.
"What can I do for you, Ivan?" You ask.
"It's Cassidy. I'm sorry commander, her condition deteriorated too quickly. I have ordered the others in the lab to isolate and I have quarantined the sickbay and the lab. Which means unless I can find out what went wrong I'm stuck in the sickbay" He informs you. Dang.
"I'll let Huston know," You reply. A minute later you are getting ready to record the message. You are tapping at the desk with your free hand. You wish you had better news. Ten minutes later you have finished recording. You are suddenly overcome with emotion. You decide that you should get a hug from the one person that can make you feel a little better. You are interrupted.
"Hey, Lilly are you alright?" It's Roman.
"We have an all hands on deck situation. Do you think your team would be able to make a makeshift lab?" You ask because you get the feeling that the scientists will need one. Roman gives you an over-enthusiastic nod. You decide to leave out one major detail because you don't know how Roman will react.
"Oh, have you seen Ivan? I was supposed to help him check some of the medical equipment," Roman remarks.
"There has been an outbreak of something and he had to isolate himself," You explain everything that has happened thus far. You both head to the sickbay. Roman uses the keypad to open a comms channel. You can tell that Ivan has succumbed to whatever infected Cassidy.
"Hey, Commander, Roman," Ivan remarks between laboured breaths.
"I've also taken blood samples from Cassidy and I to do basic tests but all of them have turned up negative," More bad news.
YOU ARE READING
Constellations
Fanfiction"I am so sorry Neil" "It will be alright Lily," he responds. Lily Collins yearned to follow in her father Micheal Collins' footsteps but there was one problem. She was stuck serving coffee to people at NASA. One fateful day she ends up spilling cof...
