Chapter One
Coridan was a dilithium-rich
Class-M world in the heart of the Federation. It was home to
more than 190 million people, and housed some impressive Chodak ruins dating
back more than three hundred thousand years.
Additionally, the centuries-long civil war that ravaged the planet some
time ago created countless historical monuments and museums to peruse. Really, there was nothing not to like
about the planet—but with each hour that passed, Alan Christopher could feel
the dread begin to creep into his system.
“I hate ceremonies,” he lamented to Talyere
Rosat as they strolled through the myriad corridors of deck eleven. Christopher intended to stop in the science
lab for a quick update on the temporal situation—but if Kendall Johnson was
having as much luck as Erin, it wasn’t going to be much of an update.
Talyere, for his part, simply decided to tag
along to get some exercise. “I have
perused the Federation database,” said the Overseer, “and the ceremony should
not take more than two or three hours.”
Christopher sighed. Two or three hours too many, as far
as he was concerned. “Why couldn’t we
have a little temporal anomaly now?
I swear, those things always come up at the worst possible time. I mean, you never hear of some boring
ceremony being disrupted by a tachyon minefield.”
Ceremonies were generally something
Christopher tried to avoid—and most of the time he was successful. But by order of Starfleet Command, this
ceremony on Coridan was an occasion not to be missed. Adding insult to injury, this was some sort of religious
ceremony—the fine denizens of Coridan were celebrating the birth of Alura, one
of their most sacred deities. And if
there was one thing Christopher loathed more than ceremonies, it was religion… As such, religious ceremonies were perhaps
the most evil form of congregation in the known universe. Alan would have much rather been scrubbing
the waste extraction facilities clean—with a toothbrush. Or just about anything else, for that
matter…
The very notion of some divine entity
presiding over the entire universe—the universe this entity supposedly
created—was absurd. As far as
Christopher was concerned, the universe began with the Big Bang billions of
years ago, with no divine intervention required. It was pure science.
Talyere smiled thinly. “Perhaps you should look at this ceremony
not as a burden, but as an opportunity for enlightenment? After all, if my memory serves, the reason
you are out here exploring the galaxy is to expose yourself to new and wondrous
things, is it not?”
“It is,” Christopher begrudgingly
admitted. “But it would have been nice
if Starfleet had chosen someone else for this enlightenment. I’m enlightened enough as it is…”
“Yes, of course,” said Talyere, the
skepticism in his voice obvious.
The pair wandered a bit further before
finally coming upon the science lab.
Knowing Talyere would probably not follow him inside, Christopher paused
at the doorway to allow their conversation a proper conclusion. “Why don’t we meet in the mess hall around
noon for lunch?”
Talyere readily nodded his agreement. “I have an appointment with Admiral Rhyslin
at eleven, but I don’t anticipate that lasting much longer than an hour. Noon is certainly acceptable.”
Christopher nodded and headed for the lab’s
interior. “I’ll see you at noon, then.”
When it came to cats, hairballs were not an
uncommon event. Over the years, Erin
had been witness to many nasty-looking gifts on the floor, but none of them had
struck her with fear. There was just something
about last night’s hairball that struck a chord in her heart. Something wasn’t right with the little fur
ball, and until she knew what that something was, Erin knew her weary
heart would find no solace.
Not wanting to alarm Angela, Erin made
arrangements for the little girl to spend the morning playing with her friend,
Erika. It took very little convincing
to get Angela to go (she was quite eager to see Erika, actually), and once
Angela was situated with her friend, Erin made her way back home to get
Cleo. She found the cat curled up on the
sofa, happily licking away at his paws.
She gently scooped the little cat from his nest and carried him to
sickbay.
A few minutes later, Erin stood beside
Doctor Sarah Hartman at the foot of Cleo’s biobed, simply watching as the
little cat resumed his grooming. Sarah,
on the other hand, was far busier with the mess of data flitting about her
medical tricorder’s colorful screen.
“Have you noticed any change in his stool?”
asked Sarah. Her voice was utterly
neutral, so Erin couldn’t even begin to guess if something was wrong or
not. “Any blood, or discoloration?”
Erin considered the question for a
moment. In general, she tried not
to look at the wonders in Cleo’s litter box, but from what she could recall,
there hadn’t been any dramatic changes over the past couple of weeks. “Definitely no blood,” she said. It was certain she would have seen something
like that. “And if there was any change
in… coloration, it was so very subtle that I didn’t notice.”
Sarah provided a calm nod as she input this
new information into her tricorder.
Since treating animals was not her forte, Hartman didn’t have the
expertise to diagnose Cleo off the top of her head; even so, Erin trusted the
good doctor would perform her duties above and beyond the call of duty.
“Well,” Sarah gleaned from the chirping
tricorder, “it looks like Cleo might have contracted an infection of some
kind. Based upon my initial tricorder
readings and the information you provided, it looks like he’s got livathi
flu.”
Erin paused. “Is that bad?”
Sarah shook her head. “It’s fairly common, actually.” She snapped shut her tricorder and ran a
gentle hand across the cat’s soft fur.
“You found Cleo in a wooded area, didn’t you?”
Even after three years, Cleo’s rescue from
Alarin III was still fresh in Erin’s mind.
“I broke my leg saving him from a lava tube,” she wistfully
recalled. “But it was worth it, I
guess. We’ve been best buds ever
since.”
Sarah flashed a thin smile; she probably
didn’t care to hear all of the details, and since the two of them were
just starting to get their personal problems sorted out, Erin decided it best
to leave the story for someone who wanted to hear it.
“Livathi flu is normally contracted
after being bitten by a small woodland insect in the livathidae
family. They’re indigenous to several
planets in the Beta Quadrant, including GSC-44209. The sickness can lie dormant for years… Cleo has probably been infected since you brought him aboard.”
Erin frowned. “Why didn’t we detect the illness earlier?”
Sarah stroked Cleo’s fur a few more times
before the cat finally grew tired of her administrations—with one quick motion,
he batted the doctor with his paw and moved to nip her hand with his sharp
little teeth—but Sarah quickly withdrew her hand before any harm was done. “This particular illness is very
elusive. As long as it’s dormant,
sensors cannot detect it—however, it can be treated with a few doses of
unefrazine.”
The news brought a smile to Erin’s
face. “That is good to hear,” she said,
the relief in her voice apparent. “When
can we start?”
“Not just yet,” said Hartman. “Before we do anything, I want to make
absolutely certain that we’re dealing with livathi flu. I’d like to keep your cat for a couple of
hours to run some additional tests.”
Though Erin had wanted to keep Cleo’s stay
in sickbay brief, she very quickly realized it was better to be safe than
sorry. And a couple of hours really
wasn’t such a long time, anyway.
Besides, there were a lot of things she could be doing during those few
hours, and with Angela occupied with her friend, Erin knew there was no better
time to indulge herself. “Very well,
then,” said Erin happily. “I’m probably
going to grab a quick bite to eat in the mess hall… and then maybe go down to
the holodeck for a little while. Call
me if you need me.”
Sarah nodded agreeably as she moved to
perform the next round of scans on Cleo.
“I’ll keep you informed,” she said.
“Enjoy your lunch.”
Because she decided to eat lunch a little
early, Erin found the mess hall a far quieter place than she was used to
seeing. The lunchtime rush had yet to
commence, and at a glace, Erin counted only six other people in the room with
her. Of those six, she only spoke with
one of them frequently—Lucas Tompkins.
She flashed the engineer a pleasant grin as she strolled up to the
replicator; he provided a quaint nod in return.
For Erin, lunch was usually little more than
a small salad or a sandwich. But since
today was her day off—and since she planned on spending some time in the
holodeck—she decided to splurge, and have something a little more substantial:
“French bread pizza and a glass of pink lemonade.”
The computer bleeped its acknowledgment, and
moments later, Erin’s lunch appeared in the replicator basin amidst a swirl of
wispy blue light. She happily grabbed
her plate and wandered over to the seat beside Lucas. “Hey,” she said, carefully setting her plate on the table.
“Hey, Erin.” He briefly looked up from his half-eaten sandwich and, at long
last, smiled. “What’s up?”
“Not too much,” she said as she sat. “I finally take a day off, and Cleo isn’t
feeling so hot… so I’ve been worrying about him all morning…”
“Nothing wrong with the little guy, is
there?”
Erin shook her head. “Sarah didn’t seem to think it was anything
serious—she’s running some tests just to make sure, but it’s probably just the livathi
flu.”
Lucas cringed. “Heh… That’s a nasty bug,” he proclaimed. “When I was a kid, the whole family went
camping on Livenzi V… the dog got bit by some insect and came down with the livathi
flu a few weeks later…” His voice
trailed off before the story could get much further.
“What happened?” asked Erin, eager to know
just how the story concluded.
Lucas took another bite of his sandwich and
shrugged. “The dog was all right,” he
said quietly, “but it was pretty rough when he was sick. Sounds sort of stupid, but I was attached to
that dog…”
Erin knew just how Lucas felt. When she saw Cleo trembling in the floor
last night, the fear in her heart ran just as deep as it would have if Alan or
Angela had been ill. “Pets are just as
much a part of the family as any human,” she said. “It does sound kinda silly, but… I love Cleo. I can’t imagine a day without him and his
little meows.”
“Well, I’m sure Cleo will be okay,” he
assured Erin. And not wanting to get
overly sentimental about his childhood pet—or any pet, for that matter—Lucas
dismissed the conversation with a deep sigh.
“So, what are you doing with your day off?”
“I was going to go down to the holodeck
after lunch,” said Erin, picking away at her lunch. “Maybe get in a few rounds of velocity before Angela’s play date
comes to an end. After that, I
don’t know what I’m going to do. Read a
book, maybe? Color with Angela? I’m sure us girls will think of something
to do.”
“Heh…” Lucas took another bite of his
sandwich. “Well, if you get bored, the
two of you can swing by engineering and help run a shipwide level-two
diagnostic—Commander Harrison doesn’t seem to think the ship is running at peak
performance, and he wants to know why.”
Having lived through several level-two
diagnostics, Erin had to admit, she wasn’t tempted in the least to give Lucas a
hand. It took a good hour to run the
diagnostic, and the better part of a day to sort through all the data it
produced. “I’m sure you and Jayla have
everything under control,” she said evenly.
“Besides, if you really need help, I’m quite certain Kendall and Megan
would be willing victims… I mean, assistants.”
“Victims…” Lucas expelled a dread-filled
sigh. “That sounds about right. That damn diagnostic is as close to torture
as you could hope to get.”
“Just be glad it’s not a level-one
diagnostic,” said Erin. She took a sip
of her pink lemonade and smiled deviously.
Lucas polished off the remainder of his
sandwich and hastily pushed himself away from the table. “Heh… If this was a level-one diagnostic,
you would be one the unfortunate slaves to engineering.” He quickly rose to his feet and brushed the
few crumbs from his uniform. “See you
later.”
Erin smiled. “See you!” she chirped as the engineer departed—and once he was
gone, Erin was left to her lunch. She
happily chomped away at her French bread pizza, savoring every last bite. Within a couple of minutes, her plate was
empty—but the chair beside her was not.
“What’s up?” asked Alan as he seated
himself. “Enjoying your day off?”
She took a sip of her blissfully sweet
lemonade. “So far, so good,” she
chirped, happy to see Alan at her side.
“Sarah says Cleo probably just has a little bug. I’m going to pick him up from sickbay this
afternoon.”
Though he had tried valiantly to be
nonchalant about Cleo’s little episode, Erin knew that Alan harbored just as
many concerns as she did about the little cat.
Only now, after the crisis had passed, did he acknowledge those
fears. “That’s good,” he said, the
relief in his voice obvious. “So… you
girls got anything planned for this afternoon?”
Erin shook her head. She had given the afternoon a fair amount of
consideration, but had yet to come up with any concrete plans. “I’m sure Angela will think of something,”
she said. The girl always seemed
to have some sort of fun activity in mind.
“Well, we should be in orbit of Coridan
sometime this evening,” said Alan.
“That stupid ceremony isn’t until tomorrow, so we could go explore New
Coridan later on…”
That sounded like fun. New Coridan was the largest city on the
entire planet, and was undoubtedly filled with dozens of shops and other
interesting goodies. “I am definitely up
for that,” said Erin evenly. She took
another sip of her lemonade—and then realized that Alan didn’t have a thing in
front of him. “Aren’t you eating?”
“I’m waiting for Talyere,” he
explained. “He’s going to meet me here
once he’s through chatting pleasantly with Admiral Rhyslin. It would seem the situation in Elorg space
continues to deteriorate.”
“I don’t doubt it,” said Erin. With the Cerebrate Zalsar slain less than a
day after his installation, things were undoubtedly descending into chaos. “It’s probably only a matter of time before
all hell breaks loose. Again.”
Alan flashed a faint smile. “Well,” he said evenly, “then we should
enjoy the calm while it lasts…”