Location: Main Medical Bay
ICU Ward 1 Bed 3
The Absolution's Chief Medical Officer held on to the Crewman's bedrail with white knuckles. Somehow Crewman Yancy ended up on the wrong end of a nasty stab wound to the gut. Yancy shook and groaned, his skin turning a shade near as pale as Manu's own. The man's sickly sweat smelled sweet, he hugged his stomach as his teeth chattered. His fingers had begun to deepen to a disastrous blue. Manu took hold of a hand and peered at it, feeling out for the man's blood pressure.
"He's gone into Septic shock. What the Hoth was he stabbed with? This isn't right. . . " Manu eyed the nurse and she shook her head. His buddies had brought him from the crew levels, he'd been sprawled on the deck beside an emergency supply closet, bleeding out. His blood had been tacky to the touch.
Manu put his hands on either side of the man's head, pushing into the crewman's mind until he saw the flashes they all had seen - confusion, disjointedness, a lack of short term memory. All Manu got was the imprint of a savage, jagged pain and the seeping of the crewman's comatose body on the floor. Manu brought his hands off Yancy and shuddered. He started to feel an odd chill creep up from his fingers up to his wrists.
"What the. . . SH--"
SMACK
Doctor Xextos hit the floor twitching, as a thick tint to the vessels and veins running up his arms became visible under his translucent skin.
"Crash Cart! Crash Cart! Code
Red, repeat Code
Red 1-3! Doctor Xextos is down! B'narl, run! Get Lieutenant [member="Jericho"]!" The nurse hit the internal Medical Bay Comm, as she and another nurse grabbed Manu's scanner and knelt beside him. "Our crash cart is
gone! We have no defibrillator!
" One of the nurses immediately started chest compressions as the other checked Manu's airway and pulse. "He's not breathing."
"What happened!?" A junior Doctor rushed the scene, his long silver hair flying behind him. He helped the nurses lift Manu's seven foot tall bulk onto a gurney "I don't know! He put his hands on Crewman Yancy's head and when he took them off, the blood vessels in his hands and arms started turning colour. . . oh goddesses. Nobody touch Yancy!"
Doctor Raste glanced from Crewman Yancy's hunched body to Manu's and swore.
"Cancel that Code, Nurse."
"But Doctor..."
"Do it! A cart won't do Master Xextos any good."
"I don't see how. . . "
"Manu Xextos is immuno compromised. Master Xextos brought me from the Brynjar to treat him quietly. He was hoping to find a cure in the Reaches. . . his heart won't handle a jump. His immune system never adapted to the mutated pathogens since he woke up in this time. He's been battling organ failure for a year. So far no modern medicine has been able to heal him, but he's kept himself alive through his connection to the Force. Now cancel that code!"
The nurse worked her mouth open and closed, before rushing to the internal comm. "Cancel Code Red. Repeat. Cancel Code Red." She said, as she watched Manu's body still from its' shakes. Doctor Raste pulled a thin chain from around Manu's neck and revealed an Amulet with a Healing Crystal of Fire Fragment cut inside. He placed the amulet on Manu's brow and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"Manu, your work's not done. Stay with me, my friend. May the Light bring you healing in this place, may the Light bring your body strength and retrieve the might of your faith. Come back to me." He placed his palm atop the amulet on Manu's brow and closed his eyes. A shimmer arose from the amulet itself, as Raste prayed to whatever mercy the Force had left for the displaced father of the Echani Royal House.
Manu quivered and gasped awake, fighting to sit up with his arms over his knees.
"Don't touch me! Don't. . . Kavi. . . "
Doctor Kavi Raste cupped his hand to his chest and grinned.
"Come now, didn't think I'd release you to [member="Erryn Xextos"]' soul that easily, did you Manu?"
"Crewman Yancy." Manu pushed off the gurney and almost took a nose-dive to the floor. He held firm of the bedrail and took a deep, cleansing breath. The discolouring of his veins had settled in his arms and shoulders, he felt his arms engorge, swell and grow stubborn. As he looked over at Crewman Yancy, Manu heaved a sigh.
"Crewman Bob Yancy, time of death . . . " the nurse recorded the process sombrely, as Manu glared around the room.
"Wrap him up and double seal him. Put his body under quarantine. I want anyone and everyone who has had physical contact with Yancy or his bodily fluids quarantined now. Lock this ward down. No one in, no one out."
"But Doctor, what about you?"
"Let me worry about me. Document the time anyone touched him. I need to see how fast this is incubating in an immune healthy patient." Manu made his way to the wall mounted comm unit ([member="Jorus Merrill"] still had his commlink) and punched a Medical-Only channel.
"This is Chief Medical Officer Manu Xextos. Stop what you're doing. A toxin of unknown origins has infected members of the crew. Patient Zero was Crewman Bob Yancy, now deceased. Any and every person, item, supply and location Crewman Yancy had contact with since we left port needs to be quarantined and checked. The infection spreads through bodily contact, we have yet to determine any other form of contact, but we are investigating it. ICU Ward 1 is Quarantined until further notice. Scrub with any disinfectant you have and gear up in what gowns, gloves and masks we have left. Do not make skin-to-skin contact with any patient until we figure this out. Begin checking patients for increased temperatures, paling skin, shortness of breath and discolouration of blood vessels. The toxin did not show up on conventional scans. Doctor Xextos out." [member="Jericho"] [member="Maya Whitelight"] [member="Rianna be Ar'klim"]
He leaned against the wall and took several gasping breaths.
"Lock the doors, Nurse."
The nurse moved slowly to the task, her lips tight together. Another of the nurses had burst into tears as she scrubbed her hands with the only towel she could find. It didn't help the dark tint that had slowly begun to crawl up her fingers knuckle by knuckle. Manu flicked the comm channel to Captain Merrill's personal channel.
"Captain, we have a serious problem. One of the crewmen has died of a toxic stab wound. The infection has spread to anyone who has had skin to skin contact with the deceased. His blood was all over the emergency supplies compartment on Deck 9. I've quarantined ICU 1, with myself four nurses, eleven other patients and Doctor Raste inside. . . Sir." Manu fought with the words, his mouth clamming up with the same arid heat as his newly beloved deserts of Sabarene.
"I've been infected, Sir. I'm exhausted, stretched myself too thin last few hours. . . I'm going to wait till I have the stamina and try all the healing abilities I have to bear. Pray there's a cure for this. . . "
Over the Comm, Jorus would be able to hear the sudden sound of a body hitting the floor.
"Doctor! Nurse Fendian!"
"Don't touch her."
"We all touched you, Manu. Nurse Fendian did CPR on you for Kae's sake! If it spreads that fast we're all dead already." Raste's voice lulled through the comm,
"She had a cut on the back of her hand. . . Nurse Lily Fendian. Time of death. . . " Raste's voice whispered to nothing as Manu punched the wall beside the comm with a clang of flesh on metal.
"It likely travels through the bloodstream, if Nurse Fendian's death is any indication, Captain." Manu's voice thinned out to a steady line of strain. "I could use a science officer to help with the samples I take from their autopsies. I recommend a full quarantine of everywhere Crewman Yancy has been. We have no antibiotics, no bacta, no drugs. I'll keep you posted, Sir."
Manu took his hand off the comm and stood back to look at the ICU.
"Doctor? We're out of body bags."
"Strip the beds, wrap them in sheets and make sure their uniforms are zipped and sealed for containment." Manu bent to his knees and began to meditate, searching his compendium of knowledge and instincts of the Force for a solution to this mess.
