Chapter 8

Tahksas was careful in exploring the hulk, naturally. But slowly relaxed his guard as there were no life signs at all, either seen or detectable. His explorations had led him to what he considered were the mass conversion generators that drove the ship, though not, as yet, how to actually safely turn them on without blowing up the entire vessel. His explorations had also discovered the drive which was, as his onboard computer told him, an archaic jump drive. It was all he could do not to howl out his glee as he realised he had made his fortune as and when he got back to Rigelli and registered his find. The only anomaly so far was not finding any bodies of any kind, but he put that down to the original crew simply having abandoned the fleet for some reason or other.

Other areas he had discovered were the bridge and what appeared to be the ship’s brain, a densely compact computing system, also dead and inoperable. This day though he was heading back to the presumed generator room to hopefully power up the hulk, even if only for a short while, to try and engage the probable computer matrix as well as get the ship’s onboard lights to work.

My Ground Force training was coming to an end, though as yet I’d not received any news of a posting. Apparently though this was normal for Healers as we were very much in demand and there was a lot of background infighting as to who got one and for how long. The healing part of my training would naturally be ongoing as I simply didn’t and wouldn’t gain the experience for up to a year (if then), even if I had the knowledge implanted. This meant that I’d also move around quite a bit as well, at least initially.

It would also be somewhat sad to lose touch in a sense with all the friends I’d made at Gevase, though we all promised to keep in touch or at least say ‘hi’ if we ran into another again. I still sent and received the occasional message to those friends I’d made at basic and knew they were doing well, though the gaps between messages were increasing as we gradually drifted apart and concentrated on our careers. Naturally I kept in touch with my family and friends on Vreekoos, mostly via my Mum, though others, like my Dad, Grandad and bro, called regularly too, and with my bro he often had the rest of the gang, or some of them, with him.

The last binary cycle had been crammed with taking, and passing, various exams and exercises so that I had a lot of merit patches on my armour and fatigues, none of which were special, just indicators that I’d done the course and was competent in it. The only one I was proud of was the Healer emblem, even if it was in the ‘still in training’ colours. The one advantage I would have though was a bump in rank for passing out of training, hence would be a Prefect which to me just gave me a better class of quarters whenever I got to my new post as Healers generally didn’t order people about or plan missions. The rank simply gave us protection from idiots who felt they had the right to interfere in our treatment of patients (aka ordering us about).

“Ah, Kiria. Just received your marching orders,” Telli informed me when I was called into her office before heading down to the planetary hospital.

“Anywhere interesting?”

“The Hammerhead on the Vraik border.”

“Really? Thought that was a Fleet base.”

“They have a regiment of Ground Force and are struggling with an outbreak of Talassu infiltrative syndrome.”

“Should teach them to keep their pants on,” I chuckled.

“Yep, though they’ve yet to isolate the source,” Telli grinned at my comment on a pervasive sexual disease.

“Probably a carrier with no symptoms, though the AIs are normally quick to catch them on base,” I mused out loud.

“Plus the number of cases makes it unlikely it’s just one,” Telli remarked.

“Anything from Fleet?”

“They’ve isolated the GF contingent. So, other than loaning their Healers, no.”

“When am I off?”

“You’re on the Corvette Merignus leaving tomorrow morning. Get packing, your goods will be shipped separately, other than essential kit,” she replied. “Good luck, your promotion will follow as soon as the AIs process it, get it signed and catch up to you.”

“Sir!” I saluted with a grin, despite the informality Telli normally maintained.

“Have fun,” she replied with a salute and a grin of her own.

The Hammerhead is a huge asteroid in interstellar space, between what remains of the Vraik Realm and the Empire. Initially the Vraik were defeated by the Empire when they attempted to gain planetary resources via an invasion of Imperial territory, leaving them with limited orbital infrastructure. The Vraik were then trashed by the returning Raffagee to the point where they could no longer even build the ships necessary to maintain their various navies. Currently they were just a planetary based conglomerate, able to talk to one another, but not visit and heading even further downward as their technology broke and left the planets even further isolated.

The journey itself did not take too long and I was able to help the onboard Meditech to deal with a host of minor issues picked up by the crew from their shore leave. Other than that, for the journey I stuck to my cabin, the mess or the exercise area of the Merignus so as not to get in the way of the crew, who appeared to be quite busy at times. There was a small contingent of Ground Force aboard to assist in case of a boarding action, though other than the exercise area, I didn’t see too much of them as they appeared to be working on the single landing craft the Merignus contained.

Hammerhead base itself was home to Eighth Fleet and reputedly quite different to any other base in the Empire in that it had been ‘liberated’ by the Empire after being abandoned by the Vraik when they had retreated from the frontier to go and fight the Raffagee. Hence the décor was distinctly different to the Imperial norm in both style and size according to the AIs (Vraik are much taller than an average man or woman). This combined with rooms and corridors having been cut through the asteroid itself rather than ‘grown’ as usually happened when the Empire built a starbase and was supposed to make it worth a look if you passed through, not that many people did.

Despite being a full Fleet installation, including a new repair yard and Ground Force low-G training area, it was huge in that only a fraction of the asteroid had anything other than sensors and detection units built upon it. All this I took in as the Merignus approached to dock and I left to report to the Base’s Senior Healer and then the GF Healer, as protocol dictated.

It was obvious to my trained eye that there was something off in the mix of people moving about. There were few civilians and absolutely no Ground Force personnel moving about, hence my armoured form got a few startled looks. Still, I soon reached the base healing centre and had the AI announce my presence to the Senior Healer.

“Greetings, Healer Kiria,” a man my com channel identified as Senior Healer Trach announced as a wall opened and he came through.

“Greetings, Senior Healer Trach,” I replied, with a salute as well.

“That’s the formalities out of the way,” he grinned. “Call me Trach. I’m glad you’re here and I’ll bet Healer Burron will be delighted as soon as you turn up in the GF base proper as well.”

“Thank you, Trach. How bad is it?” I replied.

“Bad enough for a level six lockdown,” he grimaced.

“So once I get in there, I won’t be coming out?” I frowned.

“Not until it’s under control. We still, as yet, have no idea what’s spreading it.”

“So, not sexual transmission then?”

“No, unusually so for this type of viroid.”

“Odd,” I frowned.

“It is. So remain in your armour unless you’re in the iso security quarters.”

“Will do, Trach,” I nodded.

“Good. Now go and drop any unwanted gear in your assigned room then report to Healer Burron who wants you to hit the ground running,” he grinned.

“Sir!” I saluted and left.

Tahksas leaned back in satisfaction, a little work via his ship’s computer and some technical ‘savvy’ from him had finally located a bypass junction which, when activated by a small cell powered switch, caused the main power generator on the hulk to go into a start-up sequence. The hulk, which had been in darkness and pretty much at absolute zero, was suddenly alight, though still in vacuum. As far as he could tell, there was still plenty of fuel, which just added to the mystery of why the hulks had been abandoned. That however, he decided, was a mystery for someone else to sort as he made his way to the bridge to see just what else may have been activated.

Deep within the cargo bay, several cryogenic storage units had begun activating and going through a ‘wake up’ sequence, though would remain dormant until whatever it was that had brought about the awakening restored the air, something that would have to wait until the temperature of the ship reached a norm to permit biological life.

Healer Burron looked tired, verging on exhaustion, but was very welcoming of me when I finally got through all the various protocols a level six lockdown involved.

“Glad you’re here. It means we can allow one healer a good rest as well as investigate just whatever is spreading this viroid,” he said after the initial formal greetings.

“Yes, Trach said it was not the sexually transmitted version,” I nodded.

“We suspect a mutation, though analysis isn’t so far showing one.”

“Take it the initial isolation methods didn’t work then?”

“They didn’t and it’s spread through the base, though not affected everyone and seemingly randomly too.”

“Sounds like you need a Cure.”

“Have to wait another binary cycle before I’m permitted that. I was just lucky to get you, fresh out of training,” he chuckled.

“I’ll do my best. Take it the uninfected are suited up?”

“Yes, which is eighty percent of the GF personnel, but we can’t even get them past the screening zone until we have the others cured, the source found and the method of transmission located.”

“I’ll get right on it,” I nodded.

“Good. I’ll tell Healer Patro to take a double break. She’s practically dead on her feet.”

Talassu infiltrative syndrome is a nasty little viroid that crops up occasionally throughout the Empire and is normally sexually transmitted. It’s usually carried by Ordentian males and females. To them it is about as harmless as a common cold, as their biology, for all they are humanoid, is radically different to the humanity norm as found in the Empire. Ordentia is one of those planets which are physically within the Empire, but not practically a part of it. They value their independence but trade with the Empire, mostly in a form of silken products that a certain bug on their planet produces that are both hard wearing and durable. They are also highly libidinous (both sexes) and generally are tracked by Medical Resource when they pass through and occasionally do work within the Empire. Not all are carriers of Talassu, naturally, but occasionally one gets out and causes problems.

Tahksas was pleased, the hulk had now warmed up to the stage where somewhere in the system, the air processing plants had started up and were filling up the ship with a pretty standard nitro-oxy atmosphere. The testing equipment also told him that it was safe to breathe as well, which enabled him to take his helmet off and begin to fully explore the hulk in the slightly red-tinged lighting.