<USS Avalon> "Visiting"

Visiting
By Jameson, MacEntire, Kabuki, 
Chase, and Archer



After a full night's sleep and his usual morning meditation, Ming was ready to 
go. Certainly, the technology of the ship and the situation his wife was in 
were quite daunting to him, but that didn't mean he couldn't do his job and 
therefore, hopefully, get some answers in the process. He took a good look at 
himself in the mirror. The jacket and collar were as neat as usual and his long 
black hair hung in a braid down his back. Perfect, he thought. It is time for 
me to pay some sick visits.

He stopped short when he entered Sick Bay. He definitely didn't expect to see 
five beds filled.

Anna's head felt as though it had been hit by several mallets wielded by 
rampaging Nausicans. Everything was blurry, blackness wavered at the edge of 
her vision. She'd seen Mac get up and a helpful nurse guide him back to his 
bed. None of the others were moving. Damn, they should be moving by now. 
Hallucinations crept in and around and through her, which is why, when she saw 
Ming in the doorway, she glared at him.

"We're not dead yet. Come back when we aren't moving about, Reaper," she 
croaked.

Ming smiled but then sobered almost immediately. He approached Anna's bed and 
took her hand. "I'm not the Reaper," he said quietly. "It's Ming Kabuki, 
Vilya's husband. How are you, Anna?" 

It was his professional voice and his usual touch but he was worried. These 
people didn't look too good.

"Hello priest, I'm not ready for my last rites either." Anna shifted 
uncomfortably on the bed. "Why are you here?"


"To visit all of you," he said simply. "You are my wife's friends...her 
coworkers. Anybody in a hospital needs visitors so here I am. I was hoping to 
get some answers, too, as to why Vilya is still down on that deck with the 
others and not up here." He looked into her dazed eyes and, in a softer tone 
added, "I don't think any of you are in need of those rites just yet, either."

His face swam in front of her eyes. "Is it getting darker in here?" Anna said. 
The shadows of the objects around her were deepening as if dusk was falling 
upon them. With a crooked smile, she shook her head. "I have no idea why 
they're still down there. Vilya and the Romulan have to be kept, um, that is, 
um, yes they have to be..." Anna lifted her hand to her head, fearing it would 
fall off and she wouldn't be able to catch it. "There are special rooms for 
quarantine patients, they should have been moved. I'm sorry, I don't know what 
to do. There's something...but I just can't think..." 

Ming gentle restrained Anna with one hand. It wasn't, he noticed, that hard to 
do. She was too weak to truly resist. Part of him wanted to get out of there 
and see to his wife but he knew, despite her 'captivity,' that she was 
relatively better off than any of the people here. 

"O Salutaris Hostia Quae coeli pandis ostium.Bella premunt hostilia;Da robur, 
fer auxilium," he whispered softly. 

A blood-freezing scream seized everyone in the room. "I can't see! I can't 
see!" she shrieked over and over again. "Oh, god, help me! I can't see." 
Nikkole was crying, sobbing, as the medical technicians rushed over to her, 
attempting to sedate and run scans. 

Mac was up again the minute the screaming started, quickly but carefully 
navigating through the dark toward the sound of the screaming. "Nikki, relax," 
he called out to her. "It's okay. It's going to be okay..." 

The doctor had managed to sedate her, though she was pushing against everyone 
who managed to touch her. Nikkole was in a complete panic, crying and fighting, 
until the drugs kicked in seconds later. She curled up on the bed, whimpering 
slightly. "Patrick? Please, help me, please. I can't see anything." 

Ming looked over at Mac. He supposed the man shouldn't be up and walking about, 
but what could a person do? He patted Anna's shoulder slightly. "Stay here. I 
know you'll think of something," he said softly. He approached Mac and slipped 
an arm around his waist to guide him. "Mac, it's me--Ming. One Patrick should 
always help another. She's over here." 

"Thanks, man," Mac murmured quietly, thankful for the support and guidance, 
trying not to let his own distress over the situation become too obvious. 
Reaching out for Nikki's hand, he took it gently in his own and kneeled beside 
her. "It's okay, hun, I'm right here. Don't be afraid, it's not going to stay 
like this. Roan's already on it. It'll be fine. Just relax. " He continued in 
that manner until he felt her hand go completely limp in his own. Careful not 
to disturb her then as her breathing evened out to the point it was most likely 
she was asleep, he asked Ming as quietly as he could. "What about Vilya, is she 
in here? And the kid? He was bad off last I remember. He made it too, right?" 

Ming carefully guided Mac back to his bed. After giving Anna's hand a 
reassuring squeeze, he pulled a chair up between the two. He was starting to 
get just a tad bit more than frustrated with all of this. 

"She's still down on that quarantined deck. I just spoke to her before I came 
down here. I think she's bored out of her mind and I think she's fixing to 
catch a cold," he said as evenly as possible. He didn't care if she sounded 
fine. He wanted to touch her, to know for himself. "I haven't heard anything 
else. Nothing at all." 

Mac allowed himself to be guided back, unable to believe how very tired he 
really was. He was worried, now. Very worried. "She was sneezing a lot when we 
were down there. Probably more than a cold going on there." He was afraid to 
push any further about Josh. If Ming didn't see him there, the odds were good 
that the news wasn't good, and he wasn't sure he was ready to hear that. 

"Quiet, Mac." Annabelle said in a hoarse whimper from her bed. Her head was 
pounding and she couldn't see and she was scared out of her mind. "Let her tell 
him she was sneezing." 

Ming rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. They 
obviously knew something more than he did. He stood up slowly and patted Mac's 
shoulder. "Excuse me, my fellow Patrick, but I have to say hello to Josh, even 
if he won't talk to me." 

Mac grabbed his hand, his eyes wide. "He's here? He made it?" The relief in his 
_expression was clear as he visibly relaxed. "Thank God..." Releasing his arm, 
he nodded, clearing his throat. "Do that...say hi...make sure he's 
okay...alright?" 

It looked to Ming like Josh was sleeping. He knew about the thin man's aversion 
to touch so he simply leaned close enough to whisper in the sleeper's ear. "I'm 
glad you're still with us, Joshua. Mac is asking after you, too." 

Ming could discern only the slightest change of _expression, but it was enough. 
He stood up and glanced over at Annabelle, wondering exactly what she had 
meant. "This is pure fei hua. Where the hell are the people who know what's 
going on?" he grumbled, finally letting his frustration show. 

"Sir," one of the nurses moved over to Ming. "We?re going to have to ask you to 
be quieter or leave...not stir up trouble. We have trouble in heaps already..." 
She was trying to be sympathetic and moved quickly away, not expecting any sort 
of answer.

Annabelle sat up in her bed and shrugged. "Don't ask me I don't know anything 
unless it's about shuttles, warp drives, and certain accessories." Annabelle 
smiled weakly and wished she could see Mac's face. She also wished she could 
see Josh's face more. 

Mac almost laughed at Annabelle's comment. Only the sound of frustration in 
Ming's voice prevented it. "I'm not too sure, Ming. When we got there to the 
deck our orders were drop its shields so we could check it out. Josh had us 
keep our own up around it and dropped it, which took some doing. It looked like 
some kind of smart shield, adapting to whatever changes he made with his own, 
so he had to really work to take it down. When it fell, the stuff it 
housed...the virus...went all active. He saw our shields weren't going to hold 
it and put its own back up. Him and Vilya got whacked for it, knocked across 
the bay when it spiked, surged and hit them both. He tried to break her impact, 
but she still got a pretty hard knock to the head, he dislocated his knee...and 
both got exposed to the virus then, too. It got past the shielding during the 
power spike. It was transmitted by touch to the others from there because we 
didn't any of us have the good sense to keep our hands to ourse
 lves.
 'Specially not when our friends are hurt. Last I heard, Vilya hadn't shown any 
symptoms, but there were...other concerns..." he let his voice trail off then, 
not sure how far to go into the 'sneezing' thing. "That's all I know." 

"Thank you, Mac. That's a quite a bit more than Malika knew. I...why don't you 
all rest for a while? I'll be here awhile if you need somebody to talk to," 
Ming said simply. 

He pulled the chair he had been sitting in closer to Josh, then sat down to 
read. He was going to wait until his wife came in there or until one of these 
folks could leave.


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