Everyone stood outside of the surgical bay and peered in through the glass to see what was going on. Dr. Min had already rushed in to treat the patient. Her skin had peeled back as the pressure inside the lesions had grown. She was convulsing, and crying in pain.
“Vital signs are fluctuating. Blood pressure is one-eighty over one-twenty. She’s going into shock.” Dr. Min scanned her and the medical tricorder immediately sounded off a deafening alarm.
“Oh my God,” Dr. Min cried. “The pressure under her skin has reached critical levels. The aliens are tearing her apart. I need to relieve the pressure,” Dr. Min said. The woman was screaming and screaming. “Give her an anesthetic while I operate!” He took a laser scalpel and tried to operate. But as he did it, millions of tiny Annecta “spider-lings” began pouring out of her wounds. They crawled all over her body and surgical table. Everyone immediately backed away in terror. “Everyone, out! NOW!”
In a panic, the medical staff ran out of the room. “Computer, activate a containment field around the surgical bay!” In an instant, an invisible barrier was erected and the spider-lings scratched it to try and get out. The patient lied on the table, bloodied from the injury, and lifeless.
“Please, HELP HER!” Jordan pleaded.
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. She was in too late a stage in her infection.”
“Have you had no luck with a vaccine, Doctor?” Seth asked him.
“No, sir. The results of my late vaccines have been poor. It may not even be possible to synthesize a vaccine with this virus.”
Jordan immediately glared at Jerad, who had only stood there, quiet as a mouse. “You allowed us to go on a wild goose chase, devoting precious resources to look for a vaccine that didn’t exist! All the while THIS happened to my wife!” Jerad took a cautious step back. “When I tell everyone what you have done, I’m going to make sure that…”
Captain Seth shot a look at Thorn, in case a dangerous situation arose. “I sympathize with your situation, Jordan, but let’s try to keep everything under control…” Seth then shot a look at Jerad. “I consider you responsible for this,” he said, referring to the victim in the surgical bay. “I know that you’ve been provoking the aliens on Draloos V, transporting them away against their will. You have been killing them by disrupting their network, piece by piece. You didn’t expect retaliation?”
“They were holding us back, captain…I needed to feed everybody…I…”
“The Federation could give essentially everything you needed for you and your family. There was no reason to resort to this.”
“Just having my needs taken care of is not enough.”
“How is that not enough?”
Jerad thought for a moment. He did not know the exact answer to his question, he only knew it instinctively. He just had to do it. It was an instinct for control. There was no explaining it.
“Jerad, as the captain of this vessel and on behalf of the Federation, I am placing you under arrest on charges of falsifying information to the Federation while receiving benefit aid, and assault on an intelligent species with the intent of genocide,” Seth said. He looked at Jordan. “Do you have enough evidence to support your claims, Jordan? Evidence that will hold up in a Federation Court of Law?”
“Yes, captain, we all do.”
“Lieutenant Thorn, get him out of here. Throw him in the brig until we get back to Federation space. When we head back to Draloos IV we will arrest any other leaders involved.”
“Understood.” Thorn was more than happy to oblige.
Seth just stared through the window of the surgical bay, with the little spider-lings scrambling all over. “Doctor, we have a real problem here.”
“I’m working on several other anti-viral strategies at the same time, captain. I’m confident I can get one to work, but it will take me more time.”
“Then you’d better hurry. If every person on Draloos IV suffers this fate…” he started. Seth couldn’t even come up with the words to finish his sentence.
“I know, captain.”
Captain Santiago, on the other hand, looked more confident rather than concerned. “I think I’ve seen all I needed to see.”
