continuation of Starhopper ’s messroom table. Similar care had been taken with the image Nila received. If one didn’t closely examine his surroundings, it was easy to feel as though she were joining them.
Her evident presence jolted Ro-Lecton. “Nila!.. uh, Doctor Kor-Nashta!” He hesitated. “Uh, Good morning, Doctor. You’re looking a bit better.”
Nila’s pale, drawn features relaxed into a weary half-smile. “And you’re looking much better, sir. I’d heard the Commodore had been bullying you again. By the way it’s evening, ship time.”
“Err, yes.” Ro-Lecton struggled to regain his equilibrium. “Well, I’ll be right down. I’ve had some thoughts, and we have a lot of work to do.”
“Yes, he’ll be right down,” Kas interrupted. “As soon as he’s eaten.”
Ro-Lecton started to protest, then relaxed as Nila hurriedly replied, “Of course, Commodore. Is there anything we can do to get things rolling until you get here, Doctor?”
Ro-Lecton swung his head from Kas to Nila’s image. “Don’t think I don’t know that you two are conspiring,” he began. Then his scowl lightened and he sighed. “However I suppose I must tolerate it. Very well, Nil… uh, Doctor. Please have the staff assemble all my lab notes from the last ninety-six hours. There was something in there.. and there was something you said a few days ago about the old records.” Nila looked surprised. “Me? What did I say?”
Ro-Lecton’s frown was back. “I don’t know. I can’t remember. But when I woke up just now, I realized that something I was working on fit with something you said about the old records.”
“Enough!” Kas put in. “Rom, get the doctor a tray. Doctor, I’m going to stay right here and watch until you consume at least five hundred calories. And Doctor Kor-Nashta, please refrain from any more shop talk until the Doctor has eaten.”
Ro-Lecton dropped into a chair with a wounded expression but without another word. Rom slid a tray in front of him, and after a moment, the little man began wolfing down the food.
Nila smiled fondly at Ro-Lecton, who didn’t notice. “I’ll have everything ready for you when you get here, Doctor,” she said. She struggled weakly to her feet, and tottered out of the camera’s range to begin the preparations.
Ro-Lecton looked up from his empty tray and glared at Kas. “I assume I may finally get to the lab, Commodore,” he said in an angry tone.
Kas smiled innocently. “Of course, Doctor. And I hope your thoughts lead to a solution.”
Ro-Lecton grunted wordlessly and stamped out of the messroom. Over the next few days Nila reported what she called “real progress”. But time was rapidly running out. She could barely drag herself into the lab anymore. And more and more often she was turning off the viewscreen, no longer joining the crew for meals. She obviously had only days left.
So, Kas was surprised when Ro-Lecton appeared at his cabin door. “I’m here to give you a progress report, Commodore,” he began.
Kas ushered him in immediately. “Please tell me you’ve made some. Progress, I mean.”
Ro-Lecton nodded. “I think so. That is, I hope so. That’s why I’m here. I was right, you know. I did see something; and combined with something Nila… uh, Doctor Kor-Nashta noticed in the old records, we had a lead. I’m ready to synthesize a serum. But I have a problem. I need a sterile environment to make it. Normally, I’d simply depressurize the lab for a few hours, then repressurize it and proceed. But Nila’s… Doctor Kor-Nashta’s presence makes that impossible, of course.”
Kas frowned. “Does creating this serum require the presence of the active plague, or whatever it is?”
The doctor nodded. “I’m afraid so. That means that I can’t make it aboard this ship. The big ship has the facilities, of course, but is in vacuum at absolute zero. You see my problem. And I’m running out of time, if I’m to have any hope of saving Nila’s… Doctor Kor-Nashta’s life.” Kas called Rom and Toj to his cabin, and they worked on a solution. It would take too long to insulate the lab on the Rekesh so that its temperature could be raised from the absolute cold of space to a temperature suitable for cultivating a serum, even if Kas agreed to permit that compartment to be pressurized. And even Ro-Lecton didn’t suggest bringing live plague aboard Starhopper.
Finally Rom said, “Well, we’ve already stripped a food synthesizer from the Rekesh ’s cutter. Doctor, how much room would you need?”
The man shrugged. “Not a lot. Two meters by two, perhaps. Just enough for a microviewer, a centrifuge and a small incubation unit.”
Rom nodded and turned to Kas. “Sir, suppose we just put the stuff into that cutter. Then we can power up life support, and the doctor, here, can make his bug, or serum or whatever he needs.”
Kas frowned. “But we’d be contaminating the cutter.”
Rom shrugged. “So we have to power it up and vector it into the sun afterward. The doctor will have his sterile environment.”
“Yes!” Ro-Lecton added, “And we wouldn’t be contaminating this.. cutter. I’m certain now that the plague is airborne. This ‘cutter’ is a small ship, yes?”
Kas nodded. “It’d be cramped. And I’m not certain that the Emperor would approve of us throwing his property into the sun. But…”
Toj snickered. “Unless the doctor comes up with something, we’re going to have to push a whole battle cruiser into the sun. I suspect the Emperor would consider it a good investment, if it leads to a serum.”
Kas chuckled. “You’re right, of course. All right. Toj, Rom, use the biggest shuttle aboard the Rekesh. Gather all the equipment Doctor Ro-Lecton needs and get it over there. Let’s get moving. Doctor Kor-Nashta’s life is at stake.”
Everyone aboard wanted to help; it was heartbreaking watching Nila slowly die. The shuttle was flown from Rekesh ’s hangar bay to Starhopper ’s hold. Even with the lasers partly withdrawn it didn’t fit within the hold, but they tethered it with its hatch slightly inside the cargo bay. Since life support was started as soon as the shuttle was powered up, it was ready in less than two hours.
Less than four hours after that, Ro-Lecton emerged from the shuttle with a small vial. He hurried straight to the bio lab with it, cursing every moment of the delay as he skinned out of the space suit and into an isolation suit.
Pride had made Nila struggle from her bunk to meet Ro-Lecton at the door of her stateroom. Everyone aboard Starhopper watched tensely as Nila was injected with the serum.
Then there was nothing to do but wait. The tension was palpable. The crew and medical staff were quiet, subdued. Conversation was limited to monosyllables as everyone was preoccupied, waiting to learn Nila’s fate.
After an hour, they learned that Nila was unconscious. The crew was worried, but the medical staff assured them that was an expected result, as her body marshaled its defenses to fight off the plague. No one was much reassured.
No one slept well, but it was next morning before the news came. Nila’s fever had broken. Ro-Lecton himself made the announcement.
“This doesn’t signal that she’ll recover,” he said, “but it’s a very hopeful sign. By tomorrow we should know more.” Groans of disappointment resounded throughout Starhopper.
But the improvement continued. By the third day Nila was demanding food. By the fifth, she was able to stand, weakly, and on the sixth, she once again joined the crew for dinner by viewscreen. Everyone examined her image worriedly. They were reassured. The dark hollows around her eyes were beginning to fill, as were her sallow cheeks. Her pallor was beginning to fade. Her meal consisted of a thin gruel, and she had to disconnect after only fifteen minutes, but it was enough. They had all seen that Nila was definitely recovering. The relief was as palpable as the earlier tension had been. Bowing to the inevitable, Kas declared the next day a holiday, and the messroom became the site of an impromptu celebration. A supply of medical alcohol appeared from somewhere — Kas didn’t dare ask — and the party grew raucous, especially after Nila appeared by viewscreen and joined the festivities for a few minutes.
Despite fighting a monumental hangover Kas waylaid Ro-Lecton on his way to the bio lab the next morning.
“Well, Doctor,” he began, “Your serum appears to work. Is it a treatment or a preventative?”
Ro-Lecton shrugged. “I don’t know yet. It may be both. Please don’t expect a magic bullet within a day or two.”
Kas shook his head. “That’s just what I have to expect, Doctor. I need a vaccine so we can begin thawing
