<USS Avalon> "The Dying Ship"

"The Dying  Ship"
Various Crew  members
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mac rummaged through the last box of  spare gel packs and swore loud and 
long. Whatever'd got to them, it was ship  wide and virulent enough to kill 
even 
those in storage. Tapping his combadge, he  waited...and waited...and 
waited...finally he just shouted across the hold.  "Jericho, take the J-tube to 
bioscience, and a handful of packs. See if they've  got anything. Prater, you 
head to 
the bridge. Let the Captain know the  situation. They're all infected. All 
dying. Even if science has a cure, it's  unlikely to be instant. This bird's 
going down." Almost as an afterthought, he  shouted, "And keep your eyes out 
for 
our Chief. He's most likely trying to find  a way to bypass them. Tell him to 
give me a hollor if he finds a way to do  that."
 
"Aye, sir," Jericho shouted back,  gathering up a fistful of packs and 
entering a tube, heading off in the now-dark  J-tubes and hoping he didn't get 
lost. 
 
 
"Yes, sir," Prater shouted, shoving two  down his pants for safe keeping and 
singing as he crawled along in the  blackness..."HI HO...HI HO...IT'S TOO THE 
BRIDGE I GO..." as loudly as he could  to stave off the nerves that seemed 
ready to overwhelm him. 
 
Vilya shook her head at the  ensign.  They still had low, if flickering, 
lights.  "We need to get  our guest out of here, Ensign, and quickly.  Prophets 
forfend that she be  stuck here and be injured or worse if we are."  Zachan...
 
Phillipa had been working with the  systems going up and down at Ops since 
they started, and was finally able to get  something on the planet, "Captain, 
the planet below is our guests... I know it  is, I think.  I was able to get 
scans of the surface and underground, and  bio-signs match."  Huffing, "That 
was 
before the console went out the last  time."
 
Relieved, "At least something is going  right today. Try and let our guest 
know, and get them departed, I  think they are with Lieutenant Li."  Finally 
looked at Skyler, but wasn't  talking to her, "What's the closest ship 
facility?  
Izar?"  Trying to  think, "but that's going to take a while, if the engines 
can't go too fast,"  just talking and not really at anyone.  "Izar it is, Lyta, 
once our  guest's ship is away, lay in a course for Izar, best speed."
 
Vilya turned her best smile on the  spider.  "We seem to be having a bit of a 
technical problem but your ship  is just fine.  Mr. Garrity and I worked on 
it our selves after all.   While I wait on word from the captain, why don't you 
board and I'm sure Ensign  O'Donnell will be happy to work on opening the 
shuttle bay doors."
 
Prater dropped unceremoniously onto the  bridge and headed for the captain's 
chair. "Sir, I got me a couple things you  got to see for yourself," he 
announced, reaching into the front of his  pants.
 
Lyta tapped out the coordinates to  Izar. "Course plotted sir. Best 
speed...slow." She looked at Skyler and the  Captain and just shook her head.
 
Skyler looked at Keith, who appeared to  be looking through her. "Sir, do you 
want to hear my idea or would you rather  not?" His mind was definitely 
somewhere else. 
 
Prater withdrew two dead biopacks from  the front of his trousers and waggled 
them first at Ketchum, then at Skyler.  "They're going, sir. All of them. 
Even the ones in storage. Mac says tell you  even if science has a cure, it's 
not 
gonna happen fast enough to save our  hide's, sir. He said tell you that this 
bird's going down."
 
Annabelle dropped out of a vent right  behind Mac with a soft thud. "I can't 
find him anywhere!" She huffed in  frustration. "All the biopacks in section 
4Alpha are busting. Sick goop  everywhere. I need a bath."
 
 
After the initial startle, Mac just  nodded. "Don't you go worrying, 
sweetness, you know Bean. He's probably working  on a temporary way around them 
somewhere right now. Trying to buy us time to get  the hell off the ship. What 
I 
want you to do is find Anna and head toward  whichever escape pod you were 
assigned to, okay? If things get too much worse,  which I'm sure they will, I 
want 
to know the two of you can get the  hell off of her quick, got it?"
 
"Yes Dad." Annabelle teased as she gave  Mac a smile. "You find Josh and try 
to join us OK?" She gave him a hug and then  headed out to find Anna. 

 
"They are not all going at once. I  managed to bypass the sick or dead ones 
in my office. If you treat the circuitry  like the veins and arteries of the 
body you can bypass the affected ones saving  the ones that are still working. 
Similar to open heart surgery in the 21st.  century. Then you had to by-pass 
the clogged artery, in this case we bypass the  gel packs that are infected." 
Skyler looked at the engineer and back at Keith  who was still in neverland.
 
"Bypass my ass!" Prater hissed.  "They're none of them going to keep on 
working. We've been scanning them all  over the ship and they are ALL infected. 
ALL 
dying or dead. Maybe they were  still hanging on while you were in there, 
lucky you, but I can guarantee they're  not still now. Get it? The shit's hit 
the 
fan and they're all infected. All of  them. Dying as we speak, did you see 
these?  Are you so busy shooting dirty  looks at the back of the Captain's head 
you're no can't see anything else  anymore? They're dying, dammit, so just 
pack up your pickininny and find a pod  'cause this birds going DOWN Baby!" 
Pausing just long enough to catch his  breath, he gave her a slow appraising 
stare, 
then waggled his eyebrows and  asked, true to form. "By the way, what're you 
doing after we're rescued?"  Winking lewdly, he passed the dead gel packs to 
the captain and sauntered up to  her, trying his best to be cool.

Looking at the engineer  Skyler wanted to bash his head in. "First of all, 
you don't speak to a superior  officer in that manner. I am not shooting dirty 
looks at the Captain." Where  the hell did we pick this jerk up from, the loony 
bin no doubt. "I suggest  you put your eyebrows back where they belong and 
find your own damn escape pod,  before I put you out of your misery. You are 
not 
my type so get the hell off  this bridge and try and do something 
constructive, like disappear." This  isn't the first time I have had to leave 
this ship 
via an escape pod and I  will be damned if I do it again. Georgia will make 
sure Melanie and the baby are  on a pod and okay. 
 
~~Melanie, you and Vevay need  to find an escape pod and get to it 
immediately. Take Georgia with you please?!  Just remember I love you and 
always will. 
Take care of my niece and yourself.  ~~ 
 
"You think I wanted to come to  the bridge? No, I wanted to go to the shuttle 
bay. I wanted to go where it was  safe and warm, but Mac said I had to come 
and warn you. So, Captain Ketchum,  sir. You can consider yourself warned." 
Smirking at Skyler he added, "And I'll  see you  later, toots." Winking again, 
he 
blew her a kiss then  climbed back up into the ductwork and left the way he'd 
come.

In the  shuttle bay Mary stared at her superior aghast as the arachnid suited 
up and  climbed aboard her craft. Why do I get the feeling things are 
changing for  the worse here?
 
"We have to get her out of here then  ourselves, Ensign.  Now," Vilya said as 
she practically dragged Mary over  to the control panel in the safe room.  
"If the mechanism doesn't work then  there's a manual backup."
 
Skyler watched at Prater left the  bridge and thanked whatever gods there 
were that he was gone. There was no way  in hell she would see him any where. 
Toots my ass!!
 
Prater and Jericho reached Mac at  almost the same time, each reporting to 
the other on their progress, or seeming  lack of it. 
 
Jericho began first, frowning deeply.  "They got no clue what's causing the 
infection and both them and Linc in medical  agree that by the time we find it 
and even attempt a cure we'd be dead in the  water and likely no closer to it. 
Linc and Markowitz in bioscience are sending a  joint report to the captain 
now, but who knows if he'll get it the way the ships  communications are going 
right now."
 
"The captain knows," Prater chimed in.  "I told him, and that hottie with the 
holier than thou attitude on the  bridge. I GOTS to get me some of that! 
Anyway, I handed him a couple of the  packs to see for himself."
 
"Okay, well, the comm systems are  sporadic, but we are getting messages 
through on occasion, so let's hope Linc  and Marky can get the news through, 
just 
in case Prater didn't make his point  clear enough. Meantime, I want you guys 
to head for the shuttle bays. The  shuttles and escape pods are all gelpack 
free, so they'll be safer than this old  girl might be shortly."Mac answered 
them both at once, then remembered to  warn them, "And stay clear of the lifts. 
We've got them going down right and  left, stopping at odd points between decks 
and no way to open them  once they've sealed themselves shut. Tunston and I 
looked at lift three and  found that they're behaving as if they were 
containing the contaminants within  them, sealing the hatches as well as the 
doors. 
Only safe way out after  that is a beamout, and I'm not ready to trust our 
transporters right now. The  way our ships scanners are working, we can't even 
necessarily tell if anyone's  in them or not. The readouts are really crazy. 
Near 
as we can tell from what  we've got they're all empty now, and we've sealed 
those that didn't seal  themselves to prevent anyone else from getting stuck in 
them. Take the tubes,  and haul anyone you see along the way there with you if 
you can." He knew  he should be waiting for the Captain to issue the order, 
but he wasn't  willing to risk missing it due to com failure, and he wanted his 
family and  friends off the ship. It was dying, and he had no intention of 
letting any of  them die with it. Images of the Santa Ana's last moments 
exploded 
in his  memory as he took a last look around and shook his head, silently 
mourning the  loss of another home and praying that more of their shipmates 
made 
it out alive  this time.
 
Annabelle walked into sick bay and  looked around quickly. She knew that Anna 
wasn't about to leave without doing  whatever she needed to as CMO. Sighing 
she called out, "Hey Mummize where are  you?"
 
"She's in the restroom again," Linc  laughed, looking up from the patient he 
was seeing to, a young ensign with a  sprained wrist. "I'm sure she'll be 
along in a minute. Doesn't take long to  empty a thimble, or so she keeps 
saying. 
Is everything okay?"
 


"Nope."  Annabelle shook her head. "Ship's sick, dying actually. Her old man 
sent me to  fetch her and take her to a pod cause 'this bird's goin'  down'."

Waddling out,  her face white and shaking a little, Anna stared at Linc.  
"M-my water  broke," she stuttered, not even hearing about the loss of the 
ship.  
 "They're too early.  Oh God," she gasped as she grabbed hold of a biobed to  
keep her legs under her.

"Your water broke?" Annabelle asked before it  hit her what that meant.  "Oh 
fuuuccck."

"No kidding," Anna  muttered, swaying violently.  "Linc, help me, please.  
Belle, call  Mac."



Georgia  quickly walked into Sickbay looking for emergency med kits to place 
on the  various escape pods. She had gone through this once with the last 
Avalon and she  wasn't looking forward to going through it again. As she walked 
in 
she heard  someone yell something about water breaking. "Whos dat doin dat 
yellin? Someones  need hep wit somethin? I can hep, just tell me what be 
happenin?" Lordy don't  let it be Miss. Melanie.
 
Back on the  bridge Skyler was thinking, trying to think of anything. There 
had to be a way  to get a message out. Then it came to her Mir'a. Getting out 
of her seat she  mumbled something to the captain about heading to the shuttle 
bay. She crawled  through several jefferies tubes until she reached the 
shuttle bay. The door was  shut and wouldn't open. She pounded on it until her 
hand 
started to bleed. She  had to get someone's attention and fast.



Panic threatened  to take hold but Annabelle bit it back as best she could. 
"I.. I can't call..  Comms down.. Ships dying.. Gotta evac. I'll run back and 
tell him." She looked  at Linc. "Get her on an ecaspe pod!"

"Evac?!  What're you talking  about?!"  Anna stared at Belle.  "I can't have 
my children in an  escape pod!  I need Mac there, I need him."  She could feel 
her own  blood pressure rising and knew she must be red in the face.  "We 
can't  evacuate, we just... can't!"




Annabelle ran a hand through her hair and grinned sheepishly. "We  kind of 
have too, Anna. This ship is toast. Look, I'll go get Mac, bring him to  you, 
but you have to get in a pod or a shuttle your choice."
 
"Just  relax and breath," Linc said, swooping Anna up in his arms easily and 
setting  her on a gurney. "Emergency evac procedure drills, remember? We know 
what we're  doing here, and we can do this just as easily there as here. Maybe 
easier, since  the medical systems on the shuttles are working the way 
they're supposed  to. Since we're all assigned to specific shuttles, I'll see 
if I 
can  find out which one you're supposed to be on, get you there and see to the  
new arrivals." With a nod toward Annabelle, he added. "You let Mr. McEntire 
know  and see if you can find out what the word from the bridge  is."

Anna stared up  at the ceiling as she was wheeled away.  "This is so 
undignified," she  muttered.


Annabelle  nodded and pushed the older black woman out of the way as she 
pelted out of the  room. She crawled into a nearby tube and crawled faster then 
she'd ever crawled  inside one.

"Owowowow," Anna gasped as she clamped a vice-like hand over  Linc's.  "You 
know how it always looks like it hurts?  It fucking  HURTS!  Where's my 
husband?  I'm going to kill  him!"


Dropping out  of the tube yet again, Annabelle landed on Mac this time. 
"Come! Now! You have  too! Anna! Water! Babies!" She panted.
 
Georgia  couldn't believe she had just been pushed out of the way. Looking at 
the CMO she  asked again, "Yous want Is should hep yous or is yous okays wit 
this Linc  person? Ifn yous dun't need me, Is gonna go check on Miss. Melanie 
and takes DR.  Cazook wit me. Jest in case."
 
Cazook looked  at the madness going on around and wished everyone would just 
calm down. They  weren't helping the situation at all.

" 'This Linc person' is a bloody  doctor," Anna barked once the pain 
subsided.  As she was wheeled away, she  sat up and glared at the nurse.  "He 
may not 
be as high a rank as you, but  he spent more bloody years at the Academy to 
get here.  So...  pay him  more respect, Nurse."
 
Keith dropped the gel  packs on the deck... he hoped the Spider was away, as 
they were moving slowly  away from the planet.   "Phillipa, issue the 
evacuation order, use the  emergency frequency to alert them, it should be 
separate 
from the main infected  systems.  Advise all crew to get to their assigned 
shuttles or runabouts,  we have enough to handle the crew, I believe, no escape 
pods should be  used.  Lyta, all stop, lock down the computer so no one 
boarding 
can access  it."
 
Both of them replied,  "Aye, Sir", at the same time.
 
Keith walked down the  ramp to his office, he had only one thing to grab 
before heading to the  Aeroshuttle himself.
 
Skyler heard the  evacuation order and felt herself cringe inside. Not again 
she thought. She left  the shuttle that had held the spider's ship and made 
her way to her office. She  gathered what she needed and headed to her assigned 
shuttle. She hated leaving  this ship but hopefully the new one would be 
bigger and  better.

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