Homefire #67"
By: James McIntyre , Medical Officer , [NPC]
Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58209.22 0600

"Morning doctor." Teilani said as she walked into sickbay all fresh and clean. "How are things here?"

McIntyre smiled, "Well, its been pretty quiet actually."

"No broken bones or bloody noses?"

He chuckled, "Nothing major. At the moment our only patient is the little stowaway. She's still in quarantine."

"Good good. Can you please give me the once over. I just want to make sure I'm not carrying any marsian bugs with me"."

Sure said McIntyre nodding toward the exam bed.

As Teilani laid down he began the scans. "So how did your mission go?" he asked, "or do you have to kill me if you say?"

She grinned. "I guess it went okay, we got what we want.. met some interesting people, that's about it. "

"Did we win the war?"

"I tell you honestly, I have no idea if we made a difference. There were too many parties involved." Teilani said as she sat up. "They lack everything, even the basic medical supplies.

McIntyre clicked off the scanner. "Shucks, that means no shoreleave to Earth then," he said looking at the read out on the screen, "but for you, you are a little dehydrated. Would you like a hydrolyzer boost?"

She shook her head. "Nah.. nothing a good meal and a large coffee can't fix." she said as Teilani slid of the bio bed.

"Its too bad things are such a mess there."

"I'm sure the Maqui will send in some extra help. I mean they have too." Teilani said a little naively. She doubted that the higher uppers for the Maqui would care about a little group of people on Mars. Maybe she could arrange something when they were back at QT.

"I think if they meant for the fleet to back us up, they'd be here already."

"I guess so. So tell me what has been happening here?" Teilani asked as she called up the latest medical reports. "I see Whitmore has been around several times?"

"Yes, he suffered a bout with clumsiness. Nothing serious."

Teilani shook her head. "If I didn't know better I would say he is jinxed."

"You might find this interesting though," he pulled up a chart, "several crewmen reported symptoms consistent with Cardassian flu, but they checked out okay."

Browsing through the chart, she frowned. " That's odd, you did all the regular tests?"

He nodded, "Of course."

"Did you try to sample it, make a culture out of it. Who was the first one to get it?"

First person was McMillian, an operations officer. The second works in cargo."

"So if the incubation time is around 10 days... very strange indeed."

McIntyre nodded. "Cardassian flu shouldn't even effect humans. Here are the results from bio," he said handing her another padd. "You can see that the results are normal. McMillian no longer has any symptoms while crewman Randell reports he occasionally feels nauseous.

"Did you check if they worked together on something.?

McIntyre stepped over to the LCARs console on the wall and inputted some data. "I missed that somehow," he said regrettably," They both worked a shift in Cargo bay 1 on stardate 58208.20, just over a month ago..."

He shook his head, "seems to long of a time."

Teilani fround.. "Maybe not... It isn't airborne yet.. otherwise more people should have been exposed.

"Perhaps I wasn't prudent enough, they should both be in quarantine?"

"Just to be on the safe side. Set up a level 4 containment field around them. Where is the little girl?"

"Right away," he said nodding, "and Clarice is in quarantine," he said nodding in her direction.

"She was found in the cargo bay right?"

"Indeed," he replied with a look of consternation.

"Did you check her vitals, and tests?"

"twice a day, Nothing."

"I don't know but I have a hunch.. what if.. "Teilani said and paused. She walked to the replicator and got herself some coffee, then continued. "What if she is the cause of it.?"

"It seems pretty plausible," he said tapping his combadge, "Nurse Bartlow, please have Crewman Randell and McMillian come to sickbay right away."

"Yes Sir," came the reply.

"I doubt we'll find anything," he said with sceptically, "I've run a dozen tests."

Teilani smiled. “It’s alright, little things like that are easy to miss.� She put down her mug on the table. “We now have something to compare it with. Let see if we can find a similarity between her blood work and that of McMillan and Randall.

"But the crewman are human and the girl is...."

“It doesn’t matter, if it’s different but the genetic makeup is correct then we know its mutating.

"Excellent Doctor, instead of looking for differences, we'll narrow our search to similar markers."

“Precisely.� She answered. “Lets get to it.

“I'll get started right away.�

Teilani nodded and finished her coffee. Then she looked at the stack of reports. Time to get back into swing off it all.