Shields and Contagions

Posted on Sun Nov 28th, 2021 @ 11:27am by Lieutenant Xavier Leiko & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: With Gleaming Eyes
Location: Mining Site
Timeline: MD02
1967 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Finn guzzled a sip of water as they walked across the desert landscape towards the mine entrance. "You'd think Starfleet would've come up with like a portable hover air conditioner or something at this point, for missions like these. Hell, a portable rain cloud might even be nice," Finn chuckled at the thought. "Maybe it's a good thing they haven't. I'd bet five bars of latinum that I'd find Fenn programming a sad little rain cloud to follow some poor unsuspecting engineer around."

Xavier chuckled, "no bet Keating, he absolutely would do that. In fact he did something similar whilst we were at the Academy together, pretty ingenious actually," he added as he wiped some water that was currently trickling down his chin. He was starting to feel the effects of the medication and was now feeling more like himself. The wonders of medical science. He turned to look at his friend as they walked to their destination. "You feeling okay?" He asked, the question peppered with sincere concern, obviously referring more to the infected survivors, not the radiation poisoning.

"Yea, of cour..." Finn started her reply with her standard gloss over 'everythings fine' statement before pausing. "Why do you ask? Don't you already know?" She cocked a curious brow at Xavier, having remembered that it was useless trying to hide anything from her telepathic friend. In truth, she had felt of mix of emotions ranging from empathy to fear and was just glad that she'd found an excuse to get away and distract herself from the situation by the shuttle.

Xavier rolled his eyes, "mostly out of politeness," he answered honestly. "And as I have said before, I don't read minds constantly, only if I need to, or if someone is screaming at me, and you were... well let's just say, you were pretty intense back at the triage site."

Finn sighed, "I can't help it if my emotions are screaming when I'm in an uncomfortable situation any more than you can help reading them. Ironic isn't it? I've worked so hard over the years to learn to hide my emotions from outside sources, it figures I'd get paired up with a half Betazoid," she laughed, lightening up the mood. "I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. If I'm being honest, I just don't like talking about it except maybe to those I'm closest to. Though mostly I prefer to just bottle everything up until the next time I can get in a boxing ring," she shrugged as they arrived at the shield generator.

Kneeling over the device, Finn began plugging in connectors as dust kicked up from the ground. "What about you? Are you okay? I'm a bit at a disadvantage here so I don't actually know," she chuckled.

Xavier couldn't help but feeling a bit hurt at Finn's comment, he thought the two of them were becoming close, but apparently not. Either way he didn't let it show, one of the advantages of being paired with a human. "I'm actually three-quarters Betazoid," he replied with a smile, continuing her lighter mood. She clearly didn't want to open up and he wasn't a counsellor. He pulled out his tricorder and started to scan the area. "The underground radiation levels have risen 7% since we left. We are going to have to do something about that once we return to the ship," he reported.

"In answer to your question I'm doing okay," Xavier said after a moment or two of scanning. "Apart from the fact I'm on a strange away mission, with multiple infected, have zero luck with men, and partnered with a emotion-suppressing Vulcan masquerading as a human, I'm actually pretty great," he said with a smile.

Finn clutched her chest and gasped in mock offense. "I am not an emotion-suppressing Vulcan, thank you very much. I keep plenty of emotions unsuppressed, like humor for example. I happen to think I have a pretty good sense of humor. And you can join the club when it comes to zero luck with men." She thought back to her most recent experience with Mason. "I don't know if negative luck is possible, but if it is, I definitely have it."

A blip suddenly showed up on the panel in front of them. A life sign moving in their direction from inside the mines. "Are you seeing this? Do you think it's some sort of fluke from the radiation?" She squinted her eyes and looked down the tunnel.

"No I've got something too," Xavier said as his black eyes flickered from the tricorder screen to the mouth of the tunnel. "There's a lot of interference due to the radiation." He moved closer to the opening as he tried to increase the range of the portable scanning device, whilst trying to block out all the background noise. "There's definitely something approaching ... or someone," he added. He switched the tricorder to his left hand, his right hand hovered precariously on the handle of his holstered phaser.

"Hello!" The Betazoid shouted into the black void where they had only recently escaped with their lives. He turned back to look at Finn. It was in this split second that he caught a figure running towards him in his peripheral vision. He reacted a split second too late, the figure crashed into him, Xavier lost his footing and they both crashed to the floor with a thud. Xavier made out a few words before the person fell unconscious on top of him; "help me!"

Having witnessed the scene, Finn ran over and pushed the unconscious mystery man to the side. "Are you okay?" She asked Xavier as she extended a hand to help him up before moving to inspect the other man. "He looks like he's infected," she said as the grim realization hit that she had touched him and now they had all been exposed. Shit, she thought as she prayed that humans were truly immune to this disease. "We'd better have him beamed over to the rest of the group before we finish this shield."

"Agreed," Xavier said as he wiped flecks of spit from his face. He looked down at the poor guy who was now crumpled on the floor, this planet really was a mess. He tapped his combadge, "Leiko to Athena, lock on to the humanoid ten feet in front of me and transport him to the emergency triage site." Within second the half-Cardassian, half-Metis was vanishing in a wash of blue light.

"Right, let's get this shield set up," Xavier said to Finn. "Then get me in a sonic shower."

Finn nodded and turned back to the shield console. Moments later, the remaining cables had been hooked up and she checked the sensors once more for any additional life signs. "I don't see anything else on here. Are you picking anything up on the tricorder?" She asked Xavier without looking up from the panel. Remaining ready to bring the shield to life once he too confirmed that there were no additional wandering miners.

Xavier looked at the bright display of the flashing device, it looked all clear but for some reason he couldn't focus on the image. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand, he expected it to feel sweaty, clammy, it was certainly warm enough. However, his head felt cold, colder than it should in this temperature. He turned the tricorder to face him and scanned himself. Though it wasn't a medical one, it would still give him some basic base readings. He turned it back and squinted at the screen, trying to focus his eyes. From what he could make out his temperature was a lot lower than usual, his blood pressure was down, and his heartbeat was erratic. He knew there and then he had caught the virus that was plaguing this planet, the virus that was killing people.

"Finn..." he said, his voice sounding shallow. "I don't feel so good."

Finn looked back towards Xavier and noticed that he looked pale and clammy. "No, no, no, no," she muttered as she ran towards him. Her hand grasped the tricorder he was holding and it was all she could do to quell her panic as she witnessed readings that indicated Xavier wasn't his normal healthy self. Don't panic. Get the shield up and then get Xavier to the triage site. This is fine, everything's fine, Finn talked herself through the situation.

"Okay, let's go," she quickly holstered the tricorder and threw the ops officer's arm over her shoulder, helping him to walk towards the shielding device. "Stay with me for just another minute Xav," Finn nudged him to make sure he was still kicking.

"No, no, no," Xavier said as he tried to pull away. "Don't come near me, you might get infected too."

"Shut it and stop resisting. It's too late. I touched that infected miner too and I've already touched you. Now help me with this shield so we can get you some help," Finn barked back. She didn't want to be infected, but she wasn't about to leave one of her best friends unattended and sick. "Can you get the warning panel going while I start up the shield itself?"

"Of course I can, I'm a better engineer than you," Xavier said with a croaky laugh that quickly turned into a coughing fit. What the hell was this virus? It was clearly spreading quickly. "I'm okay," he said, holding up a hand to stop Finn rushing over. It took all the concentration that he could muster but he managed to complete the task without fainting, though he could feel himself trembling from cold. "I'm done here, work your magic," he said trying to lighten the mood as he finished the last of his canteen of water.

Finn kicked off the start-up sequence and watched the shield flicker to life before tapping her combadge. "Keating to Athena, transport myself and Lt.Leiko to the edge of the triage area, NOW."

They both emerged on the outskirts of the infected area and Finn sat Xavier down. "Stay here. I'll get a tent, supplies, and help," she grimaced as she looked towards the cesspool of zombie like metis that were infected. Xavier was infected too, but somehow that didn't bother her as much as being close to diseased strangers. Carefully and quickly, she made her way to the center, maintaining at least a three meter distance from anyone else and grabbed the needed supplies.

One of the metis coughed on her as she sprinted back towards Xavier. Finn buried her face inside her uniform in response and prayed to every diety her mind could conjure that she might stay immune. Medical personnel was notified as to Xavier's situation before Finn arrived back at his side. Handing him a canteen, she looked at him with concern. "Are you doing okay?"

"Right as rain," Xavier managed to say, knowing he felt the complete opposite of that. He was sitting on the ground, his head between his legs, not because he felt sick, but because he didn't have the strength to lift it. Whatever was coursing through his body was now taking full effect and he had never been so grateful to be surrounded by Starfleet's finest in blue. He wished that he could go back to the ship, but he knew that was impossible now, the Captain had to protect the crew, he just hoped that Finn was going to be okay. If he was going to die here on this lonely planet, he hoped that she would make it home okay. "Finn," he muttered. "Thank y-" but that was all he managed to get out, before the world faded to black and his body slumped on the cold ground.