Symbiosis: Chapter 35

“We not cancel games!”

“You must postpone them until after the crisis is over, or, at least contained,” Jackson insisted. He stood as tall as he could but he still had to look up into Yee Odalis’ face to meet his gaze.

“You understand not tradition and important games. All people come, people on all planet. Most journey to New Hope festival to choose leaders.”

“It’s going to set us back years; you’ll be starting all over with the pandemic.” Jackson cleared his throat and sat down in one of the discomfited chairs in the medical office. “We came light years in our fastest ship at your request to stop the spread and contain the outbreak. “If you can’t stop the games, tell me who can and I’ll talk to them.”

“We did not request,” Odalis said.

“I’m sorry, you’re right, it was Akadar.”

“Akadar ask Kiians solve, they not make disease go away. Kiians tell Akadar to request humans help, not Pegasi help.”

Jackson closed his eyes and let the new information sink in. The Kiians suggested that humans come to help. Why humans and not any other advanced race? The mummy, the mostly human mummy, they found on Cuatro had the same disease as the Cinconians have.

“The Kiians thought humans could cure the plague? Why?”

“I said before, Captain, Yee Akadar and Kiians not include New Hope peoples at time.” Jackson scratched hard at his head and started to pace in a circle in front of Odalis. The body and this plague are linked, and the Kiians know more than they’re admitting to.

“I sent my crew to ask the Kiians to provide people to help. The few dozens of us can’t treat half a billion Cinconians. If the Kiians won’t come to help…”

“We have all people needed. The Ortars help.”

“The Ortars?”

“Those That Work,” Odalis said. “You see them. They pale, small, long fur. They work as we ask.”

“All of them?”

“They are,” Odalis began and frowned. “Otars not attend schools, all live together, only work, not thinkers. All Yees can command their Otars to work on medicals with humans.” Was Odalis was referring to that race, that caste, as slaves? Perhaps, but he didn’t have time to think about the social norms, just the medical ones.

“Humph. Okay, Doctor Adams wants a thousand pairs of feet at every Site to go out into the communities with medicine. Can they do that?”

“Yes, they always do. Do what a yee ask.” Jackson wasn’t sure Odalis understood what he meant by ‘can’.

“They follow instructions well?”

“Yes.”

“Do any speak Kiian or Human language? How can we give them orders?”

“We tell, not humans tell.”

“My team can write down the instructions, we will get it translated, and then all the Otars can read the instructions?”

“Inst… in … read? Otars not read. But yees read and tell Otars.” Tom nodded as he thought he’d made a break through. “But after our games to choose new chancellor of New Hope Colony.”

Jackson’s hands clenched. It was still a stalemate but at least he’d moved a few pieces.

“I’ll be in my room, talking to my team,” he told the white Cinconian, who nodded. On his way down the hall he thought about the new tidbits. Yee Akadar had been the instigator of the mission, and Yee Odalis was simply following suit.

“Adams,” the doctor answered.

“It’s Jack. How’s it going at UMA?”

“I found out something this morning. There is some kind of outdoor event game going on in a few days and that’s all anyone wants to talk about now. Something about elections I think.”

“Same problem here,” Jackson said. “Look, I can’t talk them out of it, but I did get Odalis to commit bodies to the medical stations. You know those furry ones always sweeping and cooking? I think they’re a slave caste.”

“You didn’t know that?”

“They don’t seem ill-treated, although they aren’t educated. I don’t have time to debate the morality of their civilization. Odalis assures me in his broken ‘human’ that we can put something together, get it translated, then distribute it to the stations and then the Cinconians can take it from there.”

“We’ve managed to set up a pretty large production facility here, and a lot of those Otars have helped. As soon as Mr. Lee can bring the raw materials we can get moving.”

“Lee has the list. I’ll touch base with him. Anything else besides these games going to throw us off schedule?”

“Jack, I want to use an attenuated vaccine I was working on aboard Maria Mitchell using tissue cultures from Quixote and Rianya.”

“A what?”

“It should be effective with a single dose against Y. pneumonia. But the catch is it’s reactive. It can make a body sick if the body is compromised to begin with. So I want to make a killed version as well to take with us.”

“I thought we were giving antibiotics to sick patients, not vaccines.”

“We may encounter Cinconians that aren’t sick with Yersinia and will still need a vaccine. I’m not going to give anyone a course of ciprofloxacin prophylactically.”

“Doc, bottom line me. How long?”

“I don’t know for sure. Five or six days if I have incubators and lab equipment. I think I can use what’s here at UMA headquarters.”

Jackson sat back in his chair. Naked Neptune, it was gonna be another damn week.

“Maria Mitchell’s at Cuatro. It will be a bit before they’re back. They might as well go ahead with their election games. I can’t see that anything we have to say about spreading infection will stop them.”

“We could treat everyone who comes with the modified vaccines. Look at this as an opportunity for a huge immunization party.”

“That thought crossed my mind as well. Alright. I’ll talk to Lee, get him started on the raw materials, I’ll let Odalis know his Otars will work and they can expect us to be vaccinating those who attend the almighty important games.”

“You sound tired, Jack, get some rest.”

“I’m still standing. Don’t worry about me. Thanks, Doc.”

~~~

“We’re about to enter orbit around Cinco,” Ensign Rougeau announced. Quixote stood behind the navigator as the icy features of Cinco’s surface began to grow larger and richer in the bow windows. The black space began to disappear.

“Thank you Mr. Rougeau. Assume a geo-standard orbit at the UMA longitude. Mr. Watson, please hail Captain Jackson at the New Hope facility.” Although accustomed to standing when he spent time on the bridge Quixote decided to ask the captain about modified seating options for non-humanoids.

“Mills to bridge.”

“Quixote.”

“Have you contacted the captain?”

“Not as of yet, Mr. Mills. I’ll contact you as soon as I am able to patch him through. I didn’t forget.”

“Thanks.”

“Sir, I have Lieutenant Lee in the shuttle,” Watson said. Quixote nodded and stepped a little closer to the com panel. Humans often had difficulty with his voice if he wasn’t relatively close to the sound receiver.

“Mr. Lee, what’s your status?”

“Glad to hear from you Maria Mitchell. Things have gotten a bit dicey here and we’ll be coming up to secure supplies needed for the vaccine manufacture.”

“Is the captain nearby?”

“No, sir, he’s stationed at New Hope. I’m at Site One.”

“Mr. Watson?” Quixote asked the man next to him.

“There was no response to the private coms at New Hope. I tried all three.”

“Mr. Lee, when do you next check in with New Hope?”

“Well, sir, about an hour ago, and, um, I can’t raise them. I heard from Dr. Adams, though. He wants me to rendezvous with you to pick up medical supplies. I have a manifest to transmit.”

“So where is Captain Jackson?” Mr. Lee’s pause gave Quixote just enough time to worry.

“I’m afraid I don’t know, Quixote, sir.”

“It’s urgent I speak with him regarding several different situations we’ve encountered. Before you come to get supplies, I’d like you to find him. I suspect he will insist on accompanying you.”

“Aye sir.”

“And Mr. Lee…we have taken a geosynchronous orbit near the UMA longitude. Seems there is a Pegasi spacecraft doing the same but at the New Hope longitude.” Another pause.

“Understood. Any message, sir?” Quixote tilted his head to Mr. Watson and blinked once, slowly, the small round pupils growing large.

“Communications, Mr. Lee, will follow protocol by Factor Eleven.”

“Aye, sir,” came the reply. “Lee out.” Quixote stepped back toward the elevator.

“Quixote,” Mr. Rougeau called. “Do you suspect the Pegasi are tapping?”

“If they know we’re here, or discover we’re here, I could bet my life on it.” He called the elevator; the steps were not particularly simple for a Draconian to take on the down trip. “I’ll be in sick bay.”

Mr. Mills stopped him as soon as the doors opened.

“Did you get a hold of Captain Jackson?”

“I’m sorry, he’s not available. You must know that I’ll have him contact you at his first possible convenience. May I ask how Ms. Zalara is doing?”

“She’s starting to come apart at the seams. I can’t distract her, she won’t play with Honey, watch pictures, she won’t do her schoolwork.”

“Her affection for her mother is irrepressible. She is still here in the sick bay?” Mills nodded in the direction of one of the bed chambers. “Call the galley and ask them to prepare us some dinner and bring it here, would you mind?” Quixote stepped as quietly as he could, his claws clacking on the floor. Zalara sat by Rianya’s bedside. Xe had so little experience with the human family unit; what would one of the humans do?