Episode 617: Contagion, Part 4
Part:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Special Features
Joshua asks Kiera to tell him the second she suspects that this is something outside the norm, let him know. Immediately. Don’t quarantine, don’t do anything. Just let him know. First.
She assures him she will and Joshua goes off to find Nika. As Captain she needs to be informed and as XO, it’s Joshua’s responsibility to do it. He finds her, as usual, on the bridge. He closes the door behind him softly and Nika says into the quiet:
Nika: What now?
Joshua: So … one of our passengers is sick.
Nika: You’re doing it to me again.
Joshua: I’m sorry. I do that. I have to kill that tick...
Nika: When you bring me bad news, you go “So ….just so you know …”
Joshua: So … one of our passengers is sick. What’s odd about it is that she took two immunization doses on Anvil, which suggests that anything that would be normal wouldn’t get through.
And while Joshua’s filling in Nika on what he knows, Kiera checks Fleming again. Fleming actually looks worse.
Joshua: She’s running flu-like symptoms. She was looking, well, not well, but—
Kiera calls the bridge on the comms.
Kiera: Joshua.
Nika: (takes call) Yeah, Kiera, what’s up?
Kiera: Good. I got both of you. She’s doing worse. I’m going to lock down med bay.
Quarantine. Joshua stays Nika from responding.
Joshua: Here’s the important thing I was getting to—when I grabbed her, all the passengers were having a substantial fight about something. A large argument and the moment I showed myself, they all pulled into a group and did the We’re-not-going-to-share-our-business-with-anybody-else. My inclination is that they might know something. So I’m going to talk to Kiera first to see what’s going on, learn what’s worse and how in what way, and then I’m going to go to confront the passengers and ask them if they know anything.
Nika: What were they fighting about when you got there?
Joshua: I don’t know. It was just all over the place and mentally I was having to put my walls up.
Nika: Was it a particular group fighting or were they all fighting?
Joshua: Actually it was focused on her. They were fighting among themselves but it was centered on her.
Nika: You go talk to Kiera. I’ll go talk to the passengers.
Joshua: I think you should talk to Kiera first. The more information you have, the more you’re forearmed, the more you can nail them down about this. Aside from assigning blame, we need to find out what they know. Because if whatever our passenger has is on the ship already, we’ve already got it. So we’ll figure out what she’s got and then we’ll pass it down.
It’s not long before the pertinent crew members are standing outside med bay discussing what the best action will be.
Joshua: Give me something, please. What’s going on?
Arden: She has an infection in her lungs. We’re doing a lung biopsy right now to figure out what’s going on. There’s tissue damage, generic issues, but it’s not responding to any treatments we’ve given it so far.
All that and its only been a couple of hours since we discovered she was sick and brought her to med bay. What the hell does this woman have?
Arden: She hasn’t collapsed into a puddle yet.
Joshua: No, but she’s doing dramatically poorly.
She’s sedated, at least. Valerie Fleming cannot feel the pain and the trouble she’s in. A mercy. Our two docs study her symptoms, her medical history as far as they know it. They rack their brains trying to find an ailment that fits the facts before them.
Kiera: Arden, this doesn’t make any sense. Help me.
Arden does, but at the moment, they’re both stonewalled. Some critical part of the puzzle is missing, a vital piece that will make everything click into place. Joshua goes down with Nika to the passenger lounge to see if they can find it.
Arden and Kiera continue working with their medical samples and equipment, trying to discover just what is making Fleming ill. They find a tiny abnormality in the woman’s plasma and Kiera peers at a tiny horny looking spore—it’s anthrax.
Here’s the thing, we have enough antibiotics stocked on our ship to treat Fleming … but it will take all we have. If anyone else comes down with it, we won’t have enough to spare. And what are the odds of anyone else catching it?
Well, the filters on our air scrubbers aren’t fine enough to sift out the spores.
Arden gets on the comm to Nika. She and Joshua pause on the stairs then double back up.
Arden: Make this heap go faster. We need to get to Persephone yesterday.
Nika: What’s going on.
Arden: Come to the door and I’ll tell you.
Kiera: Arden, don’t let her come to the door. We have no way to airtight this. They need to be kept away from this area.
Arden: But she’s already been here.
And the atmo system is circulating the air from med bay throughout the ship anyway. Joshua and Nika get filled in at the door. Nika asks what kind of antibiotics we’re looking at. Massive doses of the -illins. Nika reminds Arden to raid her own special stash of antibiotics to help Fleming. Because Nika’s allergic to the usual sorts of penicillin, it may be her substitutes could give Fleming an edge. Joshua and Nika resume their trek below decks, armed now with the knowledge of what is wrong with Fleming.
They pause before entering the pax lounge. It’s quiet. There is no fighting. Nika and Joshua step off the bottom of the stairs and look around. Two people are sitting in the lounge, Bianca Meyers and John Mercier.
Nika: Mr. Mercier, yes?
Mercier: Mmhm.
Nika: Miss Meyers?
Meyers: Yes.
Nika: I assume the rest of the passengers are in quarters?
Meyers: I assume so, yes.
Nika has Joshua issue a deck-wide call to bring everybody to the lounge. Once everyone’s assembled, she opens with a question.
Nika: Are any of you close to Miss Fleming?
Dan Holden: Valerie? What’s wrong with her?
Nika: That’s what we’re attempting to ascertain. She was coming down ill when you were all coming aboard.
Holden: Yes, she said she was coming down with something, the day after we landed here, on Anvil.
Nika: So you’ve been in close proximity to her all along?
Holden: Yeah.
Nika: How long have you been on the planet?
Holden: Two weeks?
Nika: When did the rest of you come in contact with her?
Actually, they’ve all known each other for years. At which point, Nika refines her question: How much contact have they had with Fleming over the past couple of weeks? At that, Bianca Meyers looks daggers at Dan Holden, more than is appropriate. Nika mentally thanks her for the tip and looks at Holden.
Nika: Mr. Holden. I’d like you to go up to med bay with Joshua. Miss Fleming’s illness has progressed to a relatively alarming stage at this point and because you’ve been in close proximity to her for the past couple of weeks and you have not come down with it, I’m hoping to you have some antibodies to fight her illness in your bloodstream. I want you to go with Mister Drake. (off Joshua’s look) They need to know. I’m telling them now.
She looks at the assembled passengers.
Nika: For the rest of you, unfortunately because her illness has taken the turn it has, it is highly probable that everyone on board has been exposed.
There’s shock and alarm.
Nika: Please do not panic. We don’t know at this point how virulent this illness is and we’re still trying to figure all of it out.
Joshua’s watching the rest of the passengers and catches the look John Mercier throws: she deserved it. Joshua delays going upstairs and takes Nika aside into the corridor forward of the lounge. He tells her that the passengers are holding back on us, dancing around the issue. Nika doesn’t want to tell them it’s anthrax and Joshua says no, that’s not what he meant. His point is the passengers already know, they’re involved, and there’s a chance that they might still have what made Fleming sick on them. They all carried luggage aboard. Nika softly says she was about to ask them if any of them had brought on board medications.
Joshua: I know but once again, Captain—
Nika: How would you like to go up and … You know what?
Joshua: (groks) No, I don’t—.
Nika: Nope.
Joshua: Captain.
Nika: Go.
Joshua quickly and quietly explains that he’s not objecting to her chosen course of action. He’s merely pointing out to her, in private, his own concerns and impressions so as to allow her to make better informed decisions.
Joshua: Captain, you told me that if I had concerns I needed to get you aside and speak them.
Nika (angrily): I didn't say to do it mid-conversation where it's pretty clear that you disagree with what I'm saying! It entirely undercuts my authority!
Joshua: No it doesn't! And if I can't do it mid-conversation when it needs to be done, I might as well not do it at all!
Nika: You don't like how I'm handling it, you take over.
Joshua: That's not what I meant!
Nika: No, seriously, you don't like the way I'm handling it, you should go ahead and handle it. (gestures back toward lounge) Clearly you have a better idea in mind, which is fine.
Joshua: No, it's not. And you need to quit doing this—just because I say I don't agree doesn't mean I want to take over!
Nika isn’t entirely convinced and Joshua subsides, taking Dan Holden up to med bay as originally ordered. It’s up to Nika to manage the passengers now, no matter what Joshua thinks of the situation as he’s read it.
Dan Holden, if anything, becomes more anxious.
Holden: Do you know what this is? Is she going to be okay?
Joshua: I don’t know, actually, if she’s going to be okay. I’m not 100% convinced that one of you passengers isn’t involved in this to begin with. That whatever she’s got—no.
They come off the last of the stairs and make their way forward to med bay.
Joshua: Arden.
Arden: Yes?
Joshua: What’s she got?
Arden: Anthrax.
Holden: (soft) … Anthrax … that doesn’t make any sense.
Joshua: Arden is practically the best doctor this side of the Verse and he has an amazing consult. I trust his judgment on this. If he says she’s got anthrax, then she’s got anthrax. The question here is, I’m reasonably sure that—Arden, how many antibiotics do we have?
Arden: We have enough to treat Valerie, but not anybody else, for the rest of the trip.
Joshua: And I don’t have any idea whether the rest of us have contracted anthrax. Do you or anybody else know anything? To be honest, I’m really not concerned at this juncture in pointing fingers in the blame game, I just want drugs if you have them.
Holden: Yeah, there may be people have something against her but do we have drugs against it? Maybe if I were back on Harvest we could have but …
Joshua: (sighs) But we’re not.
Holden: We were all inoculated against anthrax because we all work with agrochemicals all the time. She should have been inoculated against it as well.
Joshua: I’m not, once again, unless it helps her out and keeps us from dying from anthrax as well, I’m—
Something catches in the corner of his mind’s eye and Joshua stops. Looks. Sees. There’s some conflict in Holden. He’s not simply the loving boyfriend. Armed with that knowledge, Joshua goes on the offensive. He keeps his gaze on Holden as he calls out:
Joshua: Arden. What stage is she in? How likely is she going to die?
Arden: Really?
Joshua: Yeah, really. How likely is she going to die?
Arden: She’s stage two and has a 90 percent prognosis of death.
Joshua: If you’re holding something back, now is the time to give it up.
Holden: I honestly do not know anything about—
Joshua: (hard) There is something going on. I know it. I will not—
Holden: I tell you, there are people in this group who have access to anthrax and who have things against her.
Joshua: Who?
Holden: Who doesn’t?
Kiera: Against her?
Joshua: What’s the deal?
Holden tells him. He says that Valerie basically threatened everyone. With? Joshua asks. She claims to have something on every single one of them.
Joshua: But why? You don’t threaten people unless you want something out of it. What did she want?
Holden: She’s done some … It’s hard to explain. NBC, Viridian—we all work together and it’s very competitive.
He tells Joshua about their jobs, their connections, their petty conflicts. They’ve been working off and on together for years out on the Rim. On Harvest, communications weren’t all that great and they had to work together. And now they have been called back to the Core because of the war. She had information on all of them and now that they were on their way back, she planned to talk to her superiors and that made her feel safe telling the others that she had the upper hand on them.
Holden: I guess she was wrong …
Joshua: Is there anyone, including yourself, more likely to—
Holden: If I wanted her dead, I had more opportunity than any of them.
Joshua: Do they have it in them?
Holden: I don’t know. Maybe yes. I don’t know.
Joshua: You know them better than I do.
Holden: I don’t know them that well. I don’t think Bianca would do it. I don’t think … I don’t know. Maybe …she would. She was pretty upset about...
Kiera: What were you guys working on?
Holden: I was transferred out of agrochem, so I wasn’t even doing any of that stuff anymore. I was in microtechnology.
Kiera: Doing what?
Holden: Surveillance. Robots.
Kiera: What was Valerie going to say to her NBC heads?
Holden: About?
Kiera: About anything. You said she was threatening everyone.
Holden: She didn’t tell us what it was. Maybe that was her mistake. Maybe if she said what it was, then there wouldn’t be a need to … for anyone …
Kiera: But she was feeling bad before she got on, though.
Holden: Yeah, that’s true … And so it must have happened before, then. Somebody must have known that she may have something …. Or maybe it was something else. I don’t know.
Kiera: What did she work with?
Holden: Agro-chem. Genetically modified plants. That sort of stuff.
Kiera: Plants or did she do animals, too?
Holden: Well, plants and insects involved in plant technology, primarily. Perhaps some microbes that would be used as anti-fungals.
Kiera: Are you being drawn back to the main installations of the Core? Where are you being drawn back to?
Holden: Yeah, I assume we’d be brought back to them.
Kiera: When did she see you before she left?
Holden: What do you mean?
Who did she see? Have lunch with? That sort of thing? Holden tells her that she saw everyone, because they were all travelling together. And how long were they all travelling together? The last two weeks. Same room? Did she share a room with anyone? Well … yeah. Yes, we all know you and she were seeing each other, Joshua reassures him. That much is pretty obvious. So it’s possible he’s been exposed to anthrax too.
Holden: But I feel fine.
Arden: And you could simply have a longer onset time. Let’s test you and be sure.
Joshua takes that as his cue to go back down and see what Nika’s gleaned from the rest of the passengers. While he was gone, Nika’s been questioning the passengers and she starts with the man who threw that snide look.
Nika: Mr. Mercier, do you have something to say?
Mercier: Nah … just, people get their due.
Nika: Really?
Mercier: I didn’t do it. Though I wish I did.
Nika: What makes you think someone … did something to her?
Mercier: Why? Well … It ain’t likely she’d just suddenly get a deathly illness in the middle of nowhere.
Nika: Really?
Mercier: Nobody else gettin’ it? Sounds like poison or somethin’ me.
Nika: Now that’s an interesting … thought process goin’ on there. So why don’t you tell me what it is you have—
Mercier: Go ahead. Search my stuff.
Nika: Why don’t you tell me what it is you have in mind in terms of why someone would dislike her that much?
Mercier: Well, let’s just say that, ah, she’s … plannin’ on airin’ some dirty laundry when we get back into the Core.
Nika: On who?
Mercier: Is there anybody here which is not—? Ahh, … all of us.
Nika: All of you? And what is it that all of you have done that is so awful that she would feel it required to run home and tattle?
Stony silence from the passengers.
Nika: Mm-hm. Interesting. Well, being as now you’ve given me reason to be concerned about the fact that one among you is now a suspect in a possible poisoning, I’m going to take the liberty as Captain of this vessel to have all of your quarters searched. And you may all remain here in the lounge while that takes place. In the meantime … (sweet smile) … Just to let you know? Anthrax is deadly to everyone. So … if we don’t find enough medication to reverse the situation, none of us are gonna make port.
That gets everyone’s attention. They whisper among themselves and you can hear them repeat the word: Anthrax? A couple speak up and say “We’re all inoculated against anthrax.”
Nika: Yeah. That’s what she thought, too.
Bombshell delivered, Nika watches the passengers carefully. They seem genuinely puzzled and alarmed, but not in the manner of the guilty being caught. Nika grimly hits the nearest wall comm and pages the engine room.
Nika: Irina. I would like you to come down to the guest quarters and join me.
Rina: (via comm) Yes, ma’am.
Rina clicks off the channel and Nika turns to the passengers.
Nika: Now, which of you actually work in the lab with her?
Mercier: None of us did.
Nika: She worked in the lab by herself?
Mercier: None of us worked in her department. She was in grains.
Nika: Grains.
Mercier: Yeah.
Nika: Hm. What about you guys? What about your specialties?
Emile Grand: I haven’t done science in a while. I’m mostly marketing, now.
Nika: Okay.
Kuo Sun-Li: Neurochemistry is my specialist position. But that doesn’t really involve anthrax or anything like that.
Mercier: Mostly … poisons … toxins … bioweapons—Nah! Heh. Just kiddin’ yah. I’m mostly, ah, a salesman of grains used in brush alcohol.
Nika: Okay.
George Ashcroft: We’re not from NBC. I’m primarily an administrator. I just manage the department. I don’t have any scientific training.
Nika: Okay.
George Ashcroft: I know enough to sell the products but I was transferred to Harvest to go into the agro-business but … I’ve only been there a few months. Don’t know much about that sort of stuff. Before that I was in the, um, weapons department based in Londinium.
Bianca Meyers: I used to work at NBC with Fleming but … ah … I’m now with Virdian in their agro department.
Nika: All right. So … at least enough of you have some clue of what we’re facing here.
Mercier: Ms. Meyers left out a little detail ’bout how she was fired by Ms. Fleming.
Meyers: (quietly) Yes. Yes, I was fired by her.
Nika: For what?
Meyers: Insubordination. I didn’t kill her. Or poison her, or whatever.
Nika: (dry) Darlin’, around here, insubordination is a way of life, so …. You’re just as much an accessory as anybody else.
Rina: Are you talking about me again, Captain?
Rina comes off the bottom stair and walks into the passenger lounge.
Nika: (grins) I am. I would like you to go ahead and take a look through the guest quarters. Mr. Mercier here informs me that our ill guest may have gotten what she deserved and someone poisoned her. I’m actually interested to know whether we have any medical supplies aboard which may help the matter. And once you’re done going through the inventory, we’ll sort them out.
As Rina starts to move, Meyers speaks up.
Meyers: Captain? You said anthrax, right?
Nika: That’s what it appears to be. However—.
Meyers: Just a concern about the searching, you know that a microscopic amount is enough to infect someone. Shouldn’t she wear a bio suit or something if she’s going searching?
Nika: Darlin’. We’ve already all been infected.
We’re on a spaceship. Closed loop atmo. We’ve probably been breathing it in the second it came aboard.
Nika: She’s been walkin’ around loose for the week.
Meyers: Unless it’s contained on some—
Nika: She’s already been infected for the last week.
Meyer: It’s not an infectious disease. It’s just powder. It could look like a simple powder or something like that. It could be in someone’s pocket and it might not spread.
Rina: In other words, I might touch it and I might spread it and contract it myself, right?
Meyer: Yes.
Nika: Go on.
Nika nods toward the quarters and Rina takes out a bandana and covers her face bandit-style, tucks the loose ends into her collar, and zips her coveralls to the top. Work gloves cover her hands next and thus minimally prepared, she starts her search.
She starts with the first one on the left, facing the bridge. As she steps inside, Joshua steps off the stairs into the lounge. Nika raises a brow at him.
Nika: Oh, I’m very glad you’re back.
Joshua: I’m not.
Nika: Really?
Joshua: We’re gonna have to have another one of those discussions.
Nika goes back into the hall with him, away from the lounge. She keeps her voice low against eavesdroppers.
Nika: The passengers’ comment on finding out that she was unreasonably ill was to jump immediately to her being poisoned.
Joshua: Well, yeah. Dan pretty much said that every single one of them had a reason to. Which is fine but …
Nika: Spit it out, Joshua.
Joshua: No, it’s fine. You’re having her search. I hope she won’t … find something that …
Nika: She’s likely not going to.
Joshua: I’m hoping not—
Nika: By giving the illusion of clearing them, I’m hoping we might actually have a—
Joshua: Despite the fact that I have some natural, like, you notice I’m not rushing to pull her out of search or anything, I have some natural concerns that she’s going to stumble across something that will infect her when we only have so much medicine aboard. But even ignoring that, you oughta not be .. you oughta not be so fucking prickly, Nika. If I want to pull you aside and tell you something, you can’t take it as a “stop doing what you’re doing, I want to take over the Captain of the ship”. Cuz I don’t want to captain the damn ship. I just want to make sure that you know what I’m thinking and then you can go and take that into account—
Nika: Are we really doing that out here?
Joshua: What? You asked me to pull you asi—.
And a series of Chinese curses come out of his mouth.
Joshua: I’m not doing this, Nika.
Nika: I asked you to pull me aside and have a conversation, yes, but doing what you did there, when we were in the middle of the conversation? You made very clear that you disagreed with what was going on.
Joshua: Can I not disagree with something and still … and expect you to do what you have to do? If I must be in 100%—
Nika: The point is that you gave the impression to them that you were disagreeing.
Joshua: (sucks it up) Okay.
Nika: I’m okay with you handling it if you have a better way of handling it.
Joshua says nothing, not sure he can reason with Nika at this point. They both take a moment to breathe. Then:
Nika: What would it take to sabotage the immunization packets?
Joshua: I don’t know. To be honest, my concern is it wasn’t anything in the immunization packets.
Nika: Yeah, well that’s the thing. If we can clear them or at least give the illusion of clearing them and it is one of them, we have that going for us.
Joshua: I’m more worried that it was something she did.
Meaning Valerie Fleming.
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