11/16/14
Tamoka landed her circuit fighter at the base and taxied to the service area. After giving the aircraft to the maintenance crew she went for debriefing. She had just completed a grueling month of duty in the patrol zones. It would be great to finally get a week of rest.
The commander had dismissed her and she was in the locker room changing out of her service gear when a courier came with orders to report to communications. What now? All she knew was a priority message had been received regarding her husband Warrek.
Warrek was an engineer with the colony establishment division. He helped new settlements locate the resources they needed to become self-sufficient. He’d already been away for three of Tamoka’s down cycles, so she was eager for news of his return.
At the comm center she learned he was on his way back, but not because he’d completed his mission. He’d sustained an injury and was returning on medical emergency. He was now only two hours out, so Tamoka chose to wait. Once the transport arrived she went to see how bad it was.
Her first sight of him almost caused her to collapse. The technicians with him wore full-body protective gear. He was being wheeled on a stretcher and was completely encased in an isolation suit. The parts of him she could see through the plastic were an unnatural color. He turned his head and saw her. It was only his smile and thumbs-up that kept her from panic.
The technicians couldn’t let her ride in the ambulance unprotected, so she took a taxi. Once at the hospital, though, they outfitted her with a protective suit and let her into the isolation unit to speak with Warrek.
His understanding of the incident was incomplete because he had blacked out, but it seems he had been exposed to a biological contaminant. He was examining a cavern near the settlement when he was attacked by a swarm of small, flying insect-like creatures. He thought they were gnats, but they stung or bit, and caused him to pass out. When his co-workers found him unconscious they took him to the clinic. The peculiar readings of his vital signs led the doctors to believe he was infected with an unknown organism of unknown virulence. This was beyond the capability of a field clinic so they ordered him evacuated to an advanced care facility.
The clinic’s doctors had observed, however, that once in an isolation suit his vital signs could be improved by adjusting the oxygen level inside the suit. Lowering the level until generalized hypoxia was induced seemed to arrest the progress of what they believed were microscopic parasites.
Tamoka couldn’t hide her fear at hearing all this, but Warrek reassured her he would soon be back to normal. The doctors then advised Tamoka that she had to exit so they could perform their tests. She was directed to a waiting room with a video link to the isolation area. At some point during the extensive procedures she dozed off, because it was nearly morning when a doctor shook her awake.
The situation was grave. Yes, it was a parasite. Eggs had been laid inside him, circulated throughout his body via the bloodstream, and after hatching into larvae had begun feeding on organs. More alarming was that biopsies revealed specimens already in the pupal stage and almost ready to hatch as adults. The organism apparently had a very rapid life cycle, and it had only been the inducing of hypoxia and cyanosis which had arrested its progress and put it in stasis.
This organism had not been encountered before, so they didn’t know what to expect once it completed its metamorphosis. If the infection came from the gnat-like creatures he’d encountered, then the adult stage would be airborne organisms which could easily spread from host to host. And given their rapid life cycle they could overwhelm susceptible species. It was already seen they thrive in humans, so they would likely do well in other mammals as well.
Tamoka asked about treatment options, but that news was also grim. The eggs and larvae were too small to be filtered from the blood. And although the pupae were larger, by that stage they were attached to organs. Every type of antibiotic and chemical had been tried, but nothing yet killed or even inhibited it. Anything stronger would be lethal to the patient. All they could do now was watch and wait. Maybe Warrek’s natural defenses could produce something to fight off the infection.
Tamoka then asked if Warrek had to remain hospitalized or if he might go home. The doctor said Warrek absolutely had to remain in a containment suit, but he’d ask his superiors if the patient’s remaining time might be spent in a more comfortable environment.
Tamoka went to her commanding officer and requested a leave of absence to tend to her husband until his condition was cured or stabilized. She then ordered a supply of protective suits and arranged for their home to be fitted with the equipment that would facilitate Warrek’s care.
Two days later Warrek was transferred to his home with orders to be monitored from there. A doctor or technician would come twice a day to take his readings and report any changes. Also, a quarantine observation van would be stationed across the street. It wasn’t feared that Warrek would try to leave; rather it was there to placate the neighbors.
With Warrek home, Tamoka was glad to finally talk with a degree of privacy. She pointed out this was their first alone time in three months. He told her he was glad to be together even if there was a bubble separating them. Tamoka started to cry and Warrek stroked her face with his encased hand. They reacted simultaneously to the unpleasant feeling of the plastic.
Warrek grasped her hand and held it tight. He didn’t want her to pull away. “Honey,” he said. “I have a favor to ask of you. A big favor.”
She inhaled sharply and held her breath. She anticipated what he was thinking, but didn’t want to hear him actually say it.
“I can’t go on like this,” he said. “We all know there’s no hope.”
He paused as she exhaled with a sob.
“The doctors can’t help me; but they also can’t do anything to end my misery. I need you.”
“No,” she said. “Don’t ask this of me.”
“You’re a fighter. I know you can do it. Think of it as helping me. There’s no cure, no treatment. They’re just waiting until I die so they can do more tests to see what these things really are.”
“No,” she said again.
“All we have to do is open the suit a little so I can breath normal air, and the bugs will do the rest. You can do that much, can’t you? Just give me a little air? That’s not like pulling a trigger.”
He saw her thinking about it. He had known she wouldn’t agree to causing death directly, so he had come up with this way to let it take its course naturally. And judging by her expression this was within her limits of acceptable involvement.
“Just open the suit a little near my face. With these gloves I can’t undo the fasteners myself. Please? Because you love me.”
Tamoka hesitated a moment, then slowly reached for the clips holding the headpiece to the body suit. She knew he was right about the hopelessness. If there were any chance of a cure, it’d be different. But to prolong suffering for nothing was cruel.
They mouthed the words ‘I love you’ to each other, then he closed his eyes as she reached forward so it would be easier for her. She unsnapped the clips, then pulled the edges of the suit apart a few inches. He inhaled deeply and smiled. In just a few moments his skin color began improving.
He tilted his head back a bit to breathe more deeply. She saw his jaw moving as if he wanted to speak, but his lips didn’t part. It was more like he was humming instead of talking. His chest raised up a bit and he inhaled sharply.
She leaned in closer and asked what he wanted to say. She pulled the edges of the suit wider apart and called to him. His mouth opened, but it wasn’t words that came.
A large swarm of what looked like gnats came rushing from his lungs and out of his mouth. They went straight for Tamoka’s face. She screamed. She brushed at them with her hands, but with no effect. She felt burning in her skin as they stung her. She screamed again, then grew dizzy and fell to the floor.
A loud pounding on the front door made her look toward it. A moment later it opened as the quarantine guards forced their way in. Tamoka couldn’t speak. She watched in horror as the swarm of gnats attacked the two men. They, too, screamed and fell to the floor.
She turned her head so she could look at Warrek, but instantly wished she hadn’t. It was obvious he was dead, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Even from the floor she could see his body had virtually melted into a mass of writhing goo, and wave after wave of tiny bugs were flying out of it and towards the open front door.
“What have I done,” she whispered. A moment later she lost consciousness.
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