<USS Avalon> "Bio-Hazard"

Bio-Hazard
by Lieutenant Sussanna Jameson and Ensign Jayden Cross


The General's order was still ringing in her ears as she marched into Main
Science. Get the weapon ready, he'd said. Easier said than done. They'd been
working on it for months, tested it, found its faults, retested it, found
more faults, and tested. The cycle was endless. It was a simple enough idea:
a biological weapon designed to destroy all living tissue but leave the
technology in tact. The virus would then degrade quickly, becoming
completely harmless within twenty minutes. Easy. Well, you'd think so,
wouldn't you?

The current issues they were having were to do with the degradation process.
Creating the virus truly had been easy, it was nice and virulent. They'd
tested it on mice and rats at first, all died quickly, if a little
painfully. Then they'd extended the trials to species from Risa itself.
Again, death was quick. But the main problem was that the virus stuck
around, it just wouldn't die. But Ensign Cross had been working on that,
hell everyone had. The difference was that Cross was a true expert at these
things, almost like she had a gift for it.

Striding into the Science lab, Anna scanned the assembled scientists. "The
General says to get this weapon finished. So let's move, shall we?" Turning
to look at Cross, she said, "My office please."

Jayden looked up as Jameson barked the order at her. Pushing the wayward
strands of hair from her face, she stood and gave an almost silent, "Yes,
sir," as she hurried into the office, nearly colliding with another of the
scientists. Standing in front of Jameson's desk, she twisted her hands
together, fidgeting, anxious to be back to work. Catching the nervous habit,
she transferred her hands behind her back, lab coat bunching up behind her.
Jayden looked at the other woman expectantly, trying not to bite her lip.
She knew that the habits made her look unsure of herself, but in actuality,
she was just impatient.

"Don't look so frightened, Jayden, I'm not going to eat you." Anna's voice
was soft as she considered her colleague. "The General wants what we
promised him: a working bio-weapon. I'm not in the mood to swing for it, so
I said that we could deliver. We can deliver, can't we?"

There. Something to work with. Removing her hands from behind her, Jayden
began walking back and forth updating on the progress she'd made in the last
72 hours in all detail. She gestured excitedly as she talked about
breakthroughs and defeats and how they'd even started tracing it back to the
drawing board.

"Hold on there, stop, please." Terms began swimming through her mind,
spinning over and over, making her dizzy. Untangling some of the phrases,
Anna realised she'd heard something unpleasant in there. "Back to the
drawing board? Please tell me I didn't hear that correctly." That was bad.
It had taken them months to get this far. If they started again, they'd all
end up crucified for it.

"No, no, no, I started tracing my steps backwards, trying to find the
molecular chain that wasn't breaking - the reason for the non-dissipation
factor. But that was almost two days ago. I think I found it. We were
getting ready to test it when the alert sounded."

Slumping back in her seat, Anna nodded. "Thank fuck for that. Don't scare me
like that again, okay? I kinda like having all my limbs in working order.
So, test." She made a shooing motion with her hands. "Let me know if there
is anything I can do."

"We don't have time! If Murgo wants this now... you're gonna have to take my
word that it works."

Blowing out a breath, Anna focused all her attention on the woman in front
of her. Well, she's never let you down so far, has she? There was one hell
of a head on those shoulders, that was for sure. But can I trust her? If
this goes wrong, no one will be safe from the consequences.


"I trust you." Standing, Anna crossed over to Jayden and put a hand on her
shoulder. "Let's get this thing built, shall we?"

"Um... it's built, sir."

One step and she practically tripped. Anna stared openly at Jayden. "Without
testing? You built it without testing it? You... you actually..." You stupid
bloody woman. "I'm not sure if that's arrogance or genius, Ensign. Show me."

"Five prototypes for emergency use only. Isolation lab four."

They both strode over to the lab, pulling on suits and stepping inside. Hull
breaching armour glistened under the artificial lights. Anna stepped up to a
console to run a diagnostic. She could see the changes made in the
bio-signature of the virus, they were impressive. I wish I could truly
believe that this is going to work.


Glancing up at Jayden, Anna frowned. "You made adjustments to the plating as
well?"

"No," Jayden shook her head vigorously. "I didn't do it. Security and
Defense research along with Engineering did. Said it would do more damage
before it could be stopped."

"I see," she mumbled. Doing one more set of scans, Anna stood back to
appraise the missiles. "How quickly can we make more if these work?"

"If you put all your man-power with security and engineering..." Jayden
paused, running calculations through her head, "you can probably output six
in a twenty four hour period." She nearly flinched, knowing that probably
wasn't good enough.

"I see." Don't explode, Anna, it's not her fault. "We need to cut that time
down. Get everyone moving on it." Turning to face Cross, she let her
irritation and the resulting anger fill her face. "NOW!"

"I can't order that, sir. You have to do it." Jayden felt the hot sting of
tears in her eyes, the last 72 straight hours in the lab wearing on her
mentally and physically.

"But you can get yourself moving, can't you?" Impatience crept into her
voice. Storming out, Anna glared at everyone.

"We need to make more of these weapons," she said, addressing the
scientists. "We need to do it quickly and we need to do it now. Anyone got
any questions?" Without waiting for a reply, she stepped over to the nearest
console and started her own part. "Oh and Jayden, if you can't keep up then
I suggest you go to bed. We don't need someone here who is half-asleep and
will only fuck things up, am I clear?"

Anger flashed in her eyes. Love my weapons, but criticise me, she thought.
"Fuck you," Jayden spat. "I haven't fucked up anything yet." She'd pay for
that. Oh, how she'd pay. But her temper was uncontrollable sometimes. No
wonder Elijah was mad at her so much.

"Grab a ticket and get in line," came Anna's immediate response. "If you're
so damn good then prove it."

"I already did." And with that, Jayden turned and walked out the door.

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