Star Trek: Oaths (Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers) Read online

  All in all, war and famine seemed like things of the past. Life was safe and comfortable. Nobody wanted for much, nobody needed too much. The biggest problem the planet’s administrators had was that more and more young people wanted to “transport off this boring rock” and see the galaxy—a problem endemic throughout most of the Federation’s worlds nowadays.

  Abe Auerbach had a similar problem—he wanted off this rock too, and he’d just gotten there.

  For the fifth time that day, he cursed his mother for deciding to resettle on Sherman’s Planet. Now he was stuck with coming out here from a civilized part of the galaxy to help her with what she called “his inheritance.” He called it a great big bunch of hilly land in the boondocks. His taste ran more to beaches—preferably on Risa, with a nice cool drink in hand. But she had decided to move back to Armstrong City, and she had insisted her dutiful son should be the one to settle her affairs on Sherman’s Planet, which included closing up and selling the house she’d lived in.

  Once he’d gotten out there, Abe discovered his mom had let the place go to seed in her old age, and it was in such a condition that nobody would take it off his hands without some major renovations. Which was what he’d been doing for the last two months.

  He’d done most of the home repair that he could in the winter, but now that spring was here, he was finally ready to put in that swimming pool. He’d rented an industrial phaser for the job and had already cleared the trees and brush, and now he was using it to disintegrate a hole in the earth. He’d decided on a deep pool, and had excavated about four and a half meters down. Unfortunately, before he could finish, it started to rain, and so he put it aside for another day. He figured it would be good for the rain to tamp down the newly exposed soil, anyway.

  The rain and the dirt brought to light (literally) something that hadn’t been seen on the surface of Sherman’s Planet for about three thousand years.

  Abe never knew about it. He was going to start lining the pool when the rain stopped, but by then he’d gotten a cold and hadn’t really felt up to doing it. He just holed himself up in the house and watched old comedy vids, but switched to dramas after the laughing started provoking severe coughing fits.

  Captain’s Personal Log, Stardate 53663.3.

  The da Vinci is oddly quiet. Most of the crew is off the ship, either engaged in various fixer-up projects on Sherman’s Planet or engaging in some much-needed shore leave. Left on the ship, there’s only myself, who just had shore leave a week ago; Wong at conn keeping us from falling out of orbit; Stevens, who begged off leave because “somebody had to run the ship here”; Hawkins, because Corsi insisted on leaving somebody on board, and Hawkins used up his leave time after the incident on the Debenture of Triple-Lined Latinum in any event.

  And Dr. Lense.

  I was actually of two minds as to keeping Lense up here. On the one hand, shore leave might be good for her. On the other hand, wandering around in a funk during a leave might draw even more attention to her, which I’m studiously trying to avoid. Besides, with the ship pretty much empty, it allows me to conduct a lengthier session with her, without drawing grief from the crew.

  I’m keeping a copy of our sessions here in my personal log, to help collect my own thoughts and observations and to have a record I can hand to Starfleet Medical, if necessary. I’m hoping it won’t come to that—but after today’s session, I think I begin to realize just how damaged she might be. These quotes should illustrate.

  TRANSCRIPT STARTS

  L: Hello, Captain.

  G: Hello, Doctor. Good to see you.

  L: If you say so.

  G: Have a seat. Water?

  L: Yes. You’ve almost gotten this down to a routine, haven’t you?

  G: I hope so. My grandmother told me good manners should always be routine.

  L: How sweet. What was her opinion on prying into someone’s personal life?

  G: She wholeheartedly practiced it.

  L: Of course she did.

  G: I nudzh. It’s what I do. If you prefer, I’m invoking captain’s privilege. You don’t like it, find another counselor. Shall we get started?

  L: Sure, why not.

  G: So.

  L: So.

  G: Where would you like to start?

  L: I wouldn’t.

  G: No, no, no. Not an option.

  L: Of course not. Pick a point, then. I have no idea.

  G: All right. Why do you call the EMH “Emmett”?

  L: [Laughs.] You don’t know? I thought it was obvious.

  G: I’m slow to understand sometimes. Why don’t you enlighten me?

  L: He’s an Emergency Medical Technician. An EMT. You know, E-M-T. “Emmett.” Get it?

  G: Oh, of course. I should have realized. Okay, new topic. When did you first decide you wanted to be a doctor?

  L: I don’t know … I was maybe thirteen or so. The competition for ballerinas was too intense.

  G: Surely competition didn’t bother you?

  L: No, it didn’t. I was kidding. Okay … it was something I was good at. I picked it up like that. It was easy to envision how a body was all put together, and how making a few changes here and there could affect so many things, make so many things happen.

  G: And from all accounts, you were excellent at it.

  L: Yes, a true idiot savant.

  G: Oh, now come on. Aren’t you being needlessly hard on yourself?

  L: Maybe. But I am a good doctor. I’m supposed to be able to make these brilliant diagnoses.

  G: And yet, we agree your performance has been off its peak recently. When do you think it started?

  L: A little surprise happened about three years ago, when I was on the Lexington. It turned out that the salutatorian of my class, Julian Bashir, was genetically enhanced.

  G: I’ve heard of him. He’s still the chief medical officer of Deep Space 9, correct?

  L: Yes. I understand his father pled guilty to the illegal genetic engineering charges and was sent to prison. Since it happened to Julian as a child and he was shown to be perfectly capable of functioning in normal society, he was allowed to keep his license and commission.

  G: That was my understanding as well. So what does all this have to do with you? Was he a friend?

  L: Julian? I didn’t even know he existed in med school. Until we met on DS9 a few years after we got out, I thought he was someone else entirely—an Andorian, in fact. And considering what he’s done since … well, he didn’t do it, directly.

  G: I’m not following.

  L: Captain, I outperformed a genetically enhanced human. That’s like beating a Gorn at arm wrestling. It’s unheard-of.

  G: And yet you kept up with him. That’s impressive work.

  L: Yes. Starfleet thought so too. That’s why I was investigated.

  G: Investigated? There’s none of this in your files.

  L: There damn well better not be. I made sure that it was all taken out. It was a baseless accusation. But it still made a mess out of my life. Here we were, in the middle of the war, and we get a request to dock at Starbase 314. Captain Eberling called me into his ready room, and there were two security officers there from the starbase. He said, “These are Lieutenants Cioffi and Shvak. They need to bring you onto the starbase and ask some questions.” And I was carried off to a lovely little suite inside the station where I had everything but a way to open the door. The starbase commander was a Phil Selden, and I stayed a month in the Selden Arms while they tried to prove that I was also genetically enhanced.

  I wasn’t even told about Julian for the first two weeks. I had no idea what they were digging for. My family history was investigated eight ways from Sunday; I found out later that my mother had been detained and investigated as well. They were convinced I was covering up. They talked about sending me away to the Institute where they keep all the other people who were genetically enhanced—they alternated that with threats of criminal proceedings. It took a month of combing over my back history b
efore they would let me go back to active duty. And of course, the Lexington was long gone.

  G: They left you behind.

  L: They were ordered to the front lines.

  G: They still left you behind.

  L: It was orders. There was a war on. Surely, Captain, you understand.

  G: Yes. But I can’t imagine you liked it.

  L: By the time I could catch up with the Lexington, two-thirds of the crew had been killed in battle or rotated off the ship, including Captain Eberling—he died in one of the first skirmishes of the war. So I never got a chance for an apology from him.

  G: What did he owe you an apology for?

  L: For not supporting one of his officers. For jumping to conclusions.

  G: I see. Sorry for interrupting.

  L: I never got to say good-bye to any of them. Gaines, Leff, Bowdren, Twistekey—gone. When I came back, I didn’t know who half the crew was on the ship. They didn’t know me, either; they thought I was some rookie freshly promoted. Commander—sorry, Captain Anderson was promoted to the center chair from XO, and she and I never got along well. She kept insisting I call her “Heather.”

  G: Did you feel like you let them down?

  L: What do you mean?

  G: I mean, do you feel that if you were still there on the ship, you would have been able to keep those crewmembers alive?

  L: I—Maybe. I don’t know.

  G: Your staff was, I assume, more than competent; I doubt you would have accepted less. You couldn’t have done more if you were there.

  L: You don’t know that. I don’t know that.

  G: Yes, you do, Elizabeth.

  L: Do you know what the hell of it is? He flubbed the question.

  G: I’m sorry, what question?

  L: A question during the oral section of the finals. If Bashir hadn’t mistaken a preganglionic fiber for a postganglionic nerve, he would’ve been valedictorian instead of me.

  G: You didn’t crack, and he—

  L: You’re missing the point. Preganglionic fibers and postganglionic nerves aren’t anything alike. Any first-year medical student can tell them apart. He purposely gave the wrong answer. He flubbed it.

  G: Oh.

  L: Now do you see?

  G: Why do you think he did it?

  L: Well, I can’t imagine it was the pressure of the exams. I think he was trying to hide that he was genetically enhanced. He was lying. And I was caught up in his lie. I’m sorry, I’d like to stop now. This isn’t doing me any good. May I be dismissed, sir?

  G: Yes. But I’d still like to hear about your experiences on the Lexington after you resumed your post there. May we try to continue this tomorrow?

  L: Make it the day after tomorrow.

  G: Two days then. Dismissed.

  TRANSCRIPT ENDS

  For what it’s worth, I think I see a trend—there’s a certain theme of guilt over unearned rewards. She feels she didn’t deserve to be valedictorian, and she feels she didn’t deserve to live when so many others on her ship didn’t.

  Of course, this doesn’t give me any idea what to do about it.

  I’m not sure how much more I can do here, other than just listen to her vent. She either has to make changes on her own, or with the help of people much more qualified than myself. And doing that may only make things worse.

  CHAPTER

  3

  “Jubilee, you are a bad influence.”

  “Coming from you, Doctor, that is a compliment. Don’t tell me you’ve never slipped a patient sweets before.”

  “Yes, but I keep it to one a patient. You spoil them. Just because ‘Candy Striper’ is a term for volunteers doesn’t mean you have to go overboard.”

  “Well, the kids look so cute when they sniffle. I can’t help myself.”

  “At this rate, we’re going to run out of candy.”

  “Dr. Tyler, that’s not because I’m handing out too much candy per child.”

  “I know. Have we gotten any of the lab results back?”

  “They should be done by now. Let me finish my tea and I’ll check.”

  “Never mind, Jube. I’ll get it. How’s your throat?”

  “Getting sorer. I don’t know what I caught from those kids, but it’s a dilly.”

  “You could take an extra hour off and get a nap, you know.”

  “No, you’re shorthanded enough as it is. This bug has already laid up half the medical staff, and you’re getting more people checking in. This is a bad one, whatever it is.”

  “I hear you. Well, we do what we—”

  “Attention. All available staff personnel please report to the operating amphitheater at once.”

  “Any ideas, Doctor?”

  “Not a one.”

  * * *

  Dr. Ambrose stood in the operating theater, looking up at the half-full gallery. He noted ruefully that the number of people in the room wasn’t going to get any larger—it’s only going to get smaller from here, he thought to himself.

  He addressed the room. “Thank you all for coming. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a dire emergency on our hands.”

  A picture flashed on the screen. “This was Abraham Auerbach. He came to Sherman’s about two months ago from Earth, according to Customs. He was brought into the hospital three days ago, complaining of severe chest pains, stomach cramping, coughing, and vomiting blood. He’d been suffering from what he thought was a very bad cold for the last three weeks. He died twenty-three hours ago of severe sepsis with multiorgan failure, primarily in the lungs. Our autopsy revealed many of the organs were necrotic.” Dr. Ambrose flicked to images of the organs. A quiet rumble could be heard from the upper decks.

  “There is no immediately apparent explanation for this. He had a clean bill of health when he came to the planet. There have been twenty-seven additional cases from all over the world admitted with similar symptoms two days ago. We have had an additional one hundred and fifty-seven cases admitted today. We—” and he started to cough a dry, hacking cough that exhausted him. The audience looked on, ashen-faced. “We have no idea precisely what this is. It doesn’t match anything on file. None of the patients are developing any antibodies.

  “Auerbach is currently being designated as the Index Case, our Patient Zero, although that may change as other reports come in. But the real problem is—it’s already spread. The new reported cases aren’t centered geographically around Auerbach. We have no hard data on how it’s spreading nor on its ability to spread—although, to be fair, there’s enough transporter traffic that if it got into a transporter and the biofilters don’t catch it, it could be all over Sherman’s.”

  Dr. Tyler called out from the gallery. “There’s another ‘but’ there, John. I can hear it in your voice.”

  Ambrose looked up at the gallery. “Yes. Look around you, all of you. How many of your colleagues called in sick today? How many of you know people outside the hospital who are under the weather? How many of you are feeling it, too?”

  A murmur went around the gallery.

  “Yes. It’s not just here. There’s a twenty percent absenteeism from schools today. I assume there are similar numbers in the workplace. Ladies and gentlemen, it is quite possible that we are all infected. Every last man, woman, and child on the planet.”

  Captain’s Log, Stardate 53663.8.

  I have invoked a planetary quarantine. No ship—nothing is getting on or off Sherman’s Planet.

  The planet’s population has been overcome by a malady that Dr. Lense has taken to calling “Sherman’s Plague.” It is wildly contagious, and right now it appears that at least seventy percent of the planet is showing early symptoms of exposure. Five hundred and thirty-two people have shown advanced signs. We have reason to believe that it’s quite possible that every human on the planet has been infected by it. It’s not impossible that it’s spread to every mammal. We honestly don’t know yet.

  What we do know is that things are chaotic on the planet surface. Many essential service
s were becoming short-staffed due to the illness, and now panic is setting in. Doctors and nurses are leaving hospitals. Local militias have been called up from reserves, a state of martial law has been declared by Planetary Administrator Orosz. All schools and businesses have been closed, transporter usage has been forbidden, people have been told to stay in their homes and rely on replicators. Most of our crew down on the planet has taken over running power stations, communications, computer systems, and security logistics, because so far they haven’t been afflicted with symptoms. They’re rising to the challenge, but I don’t know how long thirty-five people can keep a colony of three and a half million people running.

  Particularly hard hit has been the medical infrastructure of the planet. Due to the nature of the disease, the doctors and hospitals were at the front line treating the early cases, and so became very quickly infected themselves. People went to hospitals with the early symptoms, and the disease spread by proximity at an exponential rate. Nobody was expecting this, and according to Dr. Lense the incubation period must have been long enough so that by the time people noticed they were sick, everybody had it. There’s almost nobody on the planet who can do anything. The front line of defense has been knocked out. And in any event, nobody is ever prepared for the entire population getting sick at the same time.