Patient Zero

Posted on 22 Mar 2023 @ 5:11pm by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast

860 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Antioch
Timeline: Five days after Meeting the Antiocians

The young page stepped out of her housing complex and double-checked that the door was secure behind her before walking away. This area of the Antiocian capital was a safe place, but one could never be too careful. The night streets were incredibly crowded. In fact, as far back as she could remember from her childhood, this was the most crowded Festival she'd ever seen.

Then again, Hadrea had grown up in a small estate away from the Capital, with a population of only a couple of hundred people, so the Festival was somewhat more subdued than it was here.

Hadrea's friends had pressed hard for her to get out of her apartment and join them for the Festival. Her first instinct had been to curl up under a warm blanket and sleep for the four days of the Festival - this whole business with the aliens had left her not only physically exhausted, but mentally as well, as she tried to reconcile their arrival with the ancient beliefs that had been passed down to her through generations, that the Antiocians were the most advanced form of life in the universe. Her mind might have accepted the concept of intelligent life "out there", but deep down in her heart, was another matter entirely.

She embraced her friends as they met up on a street corner, and they held hands as they wove their way through the crowds. They had to shout in each other's ear to be heard over the noise of the street merchants and the Artists who were performing in the streets under the encouragement and the applause of the amused masses. Hadrea made a mental note to commend Guilder Eliska, Head of the Artists' Guild, who would have overseen the preparations for the Festival. She and her friends applauded as an acrobat performed intricate contortions and folded her body in unfathomable ways while wearing a bright red skin-tight costume that left nothing to the imagination.

They moved on to a performer who wore light crystals, projecting rays of multicolored light onto a canvas in intricate and moving forms in sync with a partner who was playing an egandungu, a traditional instrument made of a long wooden neck from which strings were attached to a resonance drum. Hadrea's friends pressed her on to a food cart, where a vendor was selling candied mula'har shanks, the meat slowly braised in the sweet sap of a jembar tree. A bottle of fermented kubar milk was passed around.

Hadrea had to be careful not to stumble on anyone as they reached the park, where a popular band was getting ready to play music. People were sprawled on the ground ready to listen to the music, while others were in various states of intimacy - such things were to be expected during the Festival. After all, it was a celebration of life.

As Hadrea and her friends made their way through the crowd searching for an open space that would accommodate their group, she felt the increasing soreness of her throat. She blamed the exertion of the past few days, and the heavy workload brought on by the aliens' arrival. She wished she could share the information with her friends, but Tashi Oromani had ordered secrecy for the time being, while Elder Versta of the Writers' Guild worked out the best way to announce the aliens' arrival to the population.

They finally found a spot in the open field to accommodate their group, and they settled on the ground. Hadrea embraced her friends, but she was too tired to accept their invitations for further intimacy, so she simply sat and listened to the music instead.

After the concert was over, she had to be helped to her feet by her friends. The trees lining the park caused a bottleneck as the crowd drifted out. Hadrea felt her throat getting worse. She sneezed, and felt something warm and sticky on her upper lip. She touched her face and looked at her fingers. They were bright red. She frowned, just as one of her friends pointed out the blood that had splattered the front of her tunic when Hadrea had sneezed.

Hadrea's friend handed her a handkerchief to wipe the blood and cover her nose, and strongly urged her to return home and get some rest. She'd been working too hard, and Tashi Oromani should know better than to overwork someone so young.

Hadrea parted ways with her friends, everyone agreeing that the evening had been incredible despite Hadrea's illness, and returned to her apartment. She washed the blood off her face and undressed for bed, certain that she'd feel better after a good night's rest.

The next morning, Hadrea awoke with her throat on fire, coughing badly enough that at some point she imagined she was about to expel her left frontal lung. In the early morning light, she saw that her coughing had produced blood splatters all over her bedsheets.

Aching all over her body and shivering, she took a scalding hot shower, dressed warmly, and slowly walked the five city blocks to the Medica, each step more difficult than the last.

 

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