Beyond - Legends The God of Second Chances (DDC 2015) 12/23/15 (OCs, Solos) Complete (Cover posted 4/24/17)

[19]

Blue has a side of him that rarely emerges. Usually he’s the very image of calm professionalism, but every now and then his rage appears and it is like dealing with a rabid rancor. Today was one of those days.

While Blue was in the cargo area working with the refugees (three more fevers today for a total of ten, and now there are two in the infirmary), Thom decided to leave the quarantine of his quarters and come down to the engine room, which is where he usually works. I was working down there with another crew member, Pim, and in came Thom. He looked horrible. You could actually feel the heat of his fever roiling off him. He could barely stand up, and at one point he stumbled and grabbed my arm for balance, nearly knocking me over.

I have to admit I was scared. Thom seemed delirious. I contacted the bridge, and Captain Sia sent Marcus down to retrieve him. When Blue found out that Thom had come into the engine room, Blue was furious. Blue doesn’t get angry easily, but when he does, it’s scary, and this was the angriest I have ever seen him. He rushed into the engine room, and I had to stand between the two men, one hand on Blue and one on Thom to keep them separated, reminding Blue that Thom was sick and that he probably wasn’t thinking straight. I swear Blue was going to do some damage to Thom if I hadn’t intervened.

Once he finally calmed down, Blue ordered Marcus, Pim, and me into confinement for a full day to make sure we didn’t contract the fever, and he ordered the entire engine room to be sealed until a droid could decontaminate it. Then, he sat heavily on the chair by the controller’s station and put his head in his hands. He said that everything that was in the engine room has now been exposed to the outbreak. He went from yelling at Thom and nearly hitting him to looking completely devastated.

I’m worried about him. He is under so much stress right now. He splits his time between the cargo area and the infirmary, and when he eventually gets home he just collapses. He said he contacted the transfer station on Tanis where we picked up the group, but they have no record of any outbreak. It’s as if this fever started on the Alisander. But that makes no sense. Outbreaks don’t just spontaneously appear out of nowhere. It had to start somewhere, with someone. And it can't just be coincidence that the first sign of it appeared when Blue was off-ship at the resupply station - if he saw it, he would have isolated that person so the fever wouldn't have spread like it did. I keep wondering how the first refugee got infected. Marsh Tor was one of the first people I interviewed, and tomorrow, I am going to review my file on him. He has got to be the key to all this.

I think that part of Blue’s anger comes from anxiety, maybe even fear. Blue says if we get three more cases, then we would be officially considered a plague ship.

 

Superb! I can so understand Blue's concerns and reactitons to Thom's being down there. looks like somehow this was totally not an accident, and Tor is implicated for sure. Hope Bree and the rest that were exposed are allright and that there are no more cases!

 

Double post.

 

A plague ship?!?!? And Thom caught Bree's arm... And that sneaky sneaker Marsh Tor is still sneaking... I think it's time to say the inevitable "I have a baaaad feeling about this."

 

Yes I hope Bree's detective work discovers something for Blue to work with and get a lid over the virus.

 

I agree with those who feel like something is rotten in space-Denmark here. And Thom's behavior is very worrying. Seems like I remember reading that there are some illnesses where those affected become more sociable and touchy-feely while contagious. Creepy as that is. And this can't help either Blue's or Bree's worrywart tendencies.

 

I too suspect sabotage, and wonder if Thom was sent out of quarantine on purpose. A pregnant woman on a plague ship is not a good mix!

 

Thank you to everyone who stopped in to read, and to Nyota’s Heart, Chyntuck, Gemma, Kahara, and Jade_Lotus for your thoughtful replies!

There is definitely trouble going on, and Thom is caught in the cross fire. His accidental, delirious wanderings have caused a huge problem.

Yes, there has been contact between highly contagious Thom and Bree. And that sneaky Marsh Tor has something to do with it.

Bree’s a good detective but time is not on her side – or on Blue’s. This thing is spreading like wildfire.

Something is very rotten. Thom is not acting rationally but his actions are not intentional. That doesn’t mean that someone else’s actions are accidental, though. Blue and Bree have reason to worry this time.( "Something rotten in space Denmark" - love me a Hamlet reference! Thanks!)

No, that isn’t a good mix at all, which is why Blue was struggling to keep her away from the fever. He never expected the fever to come to her. There is definitely something or someone working counter to Blue’s best efforts here.

 

[20]

We now have five in the infirmary and thirteen refugees sick in the cargo area. There’s no more room in the infirmary; all the beds are taken now. In addition, Thom is nearly unconscious, and Pim has gotten sick, too.

I dug a bit into Marsh Tor’s background – he is the refugee who was the first to fall sick. It turns out that Mr. Tor was not originally part of the group that boarded our ship; he came on last minute. I still feel he has more to do with this outbreak than we see.

Blue isn’t sleeping and he barely eats anything. He stays up all hours trying to keep on top of the cases. There isn’t much we can do for the sick – Blue says we need to get them to a fully equipped hospital because we just don’t have the facilities here. He’s overwhelmed; it’s just a matter of time before his exhaustion catches up to him. We’ve sent out a distress signal, but it could be days before a qualified hospital ship arrives.

Blue came back our quarters late. I was in bed already, so I rolled over and sat up. He looked haggard. He kicked off his boots, collapsed next to me, and took my hand in his. He said he was so sorry we argued the other day, and that he loved me very much. I told him I loved him too. Then he put his arms around me and held me, put his head on my shoulder, and moments later, still in his clothing and sitting up against the back of the bed, he was asleep.

</supplemental>

I’m so worried about him and I wish I could help him. But I woke up today with a fever.

</recorder on – audio only>

I’m sick. My fever has gotten worse. I ache all over. I can’t get out of bed – it’s too hard to catch my breath. It’s like this fever hit me faster and harder than anyone else.

I’m no help to anyone. My head hurts so much. It’s so cold. I can’t get warm. I just want to </error - unintelligible> Zara was here earlier, but Blue needed her so Blue sent Entoo-ell to watch over me.

I don’t want Entoo-ell to care for me. I want Blue. I want him to take care of me.

I need Blue to take care of me.

I need Blue

I need </error - unintelligible>




</timed-out error – recorder auto shut-off>

 

and

Glad Bree and Blue had a talk clearing things up, and I'm not surprised about what she found about Tor.

That last supplemental thing there, totally the opposite of when Kahara did that in her diary. I.e., the error codes there were from baby Lydia playing with the touch screen. But oh, after our Ayesha lost her youngling in such a horrific! unspeakable way, I really, truly truly prayed nothing even smacking of similar would happen to Bree!

 

Oh no!

Here's hoping the hospital ship gets there before the worst happens.

 

Noooooooooooooo!

You come back here and bring that hospital ship right now!

Although, of course,

Spoiler

there was a kiddo at the end of True Blue, so I guess I don't need to panic just yet?

Also:

I sense foul play. Marsh Tor, you're going to be in so much trouble, you have no idea.

 

I hope the hospital ship arrives soon --- we don't want her to lose the baby and the spread of the virus has to be contained.

 

Well, I certainly showed back up at a crazy time.... Oh Bree.... The end with Bree saying that she needed Blue. My heart...!!!

 

Hi – I am going to try to be coherent in these replies. DRL has been really hammering me lately so please be patient with me! Thank you to Nyota’s Heart, JadeLotus, Chyntuck, Gemma and Ginchy for your kind responses. Thank you to everyone who has dropped in to read.

I remember reading that in Kahara’s story and thinking how cute that was. I had to figure out a way to say “Bree is really, really crashing” without her saying it herself, so there is my solution. Ayesha’s story and Bree’s do have certain parallels but I think there’s a significant divergence between them.

It’s a race against time! The ship is on its way but the virus is wreaking havoc.

It’s five years before the end of True Blue…so there is a lot of time for things to go wrong. Yep, Marsh Tor is in for it, that’s for sure. And yeah, it seems that Bree was affected most, doesn’t it?

Things are quickly getting out of hand on the ship, and they don’t have the means to bring them back under control. But help is on its way!

Welcome back, lady!! You’ve been missed around these here parts. Yup, you came just as everything was crashing apart. Nice timing! So glad you caught that little bit at the end. Thanks!

 

[21]

Woke up two days ago. Hospital ship. Dad here, look worried. Sensors attached to my body, some kind of medicine.
Dad says I’ve been out for over a week. I remember images -- Blue reading some device on my arm, Entoo-ell saying something, being moved on a gurney.

Too tired to continue.

Where is Blue?

</recorder on – no entry>

</recorder on – no entry>

I’m finally feeling enough strength to sit up. Blue is somewhere in the hospital ship. They tell me he’s very sick.

I can’t begin to talk about this right now.

</recorder on>

Dad is here with me today. I woke up and saw him sitting in a chair next to me, his feet resting on the end of my bed. He had the chair tilted back and he was napping, but as soon as I started to move about he snapped awake.

After I had a chance to rest a little more, Dad filled me in on what happened. He told me that Kyp was with the first group that got to the Alisander. By that time, over thirty people were sick, one of the refugees had died, and three people (including myself) were in critical care. To save the rest of the crew, Blue had pulled an emergency fire lock-out, sealing the area so that no one could get into or out of the quarantined part of the ship. Kyp had to cut the fire door open with his lightsaber.

Blue felt he had no choice but to stay awake – new cases were developing by the hour, and I was so sick myself. He was overwhelmed and he didn’t know what else to do. There were just too many sick people that needed his attention. That’s why he started to take the stimulants, even though they triggered his addiction again: to keep awake and hold everything together until the responders arrived. But you can’t survive on stimulants. When they found him, he was burning up with fever and so exhausted and drugged that he didn’t even recognize Kyp. When Kyp tried to move me, Blue got agitated and began to fight him. He kept fighting so much that the healers had to sedate him. Apparently, according to Dad, Blue has a good left hook.

Blue was somewhere in this ship, and he needed me, and I needed him. I asked Dad to get me my clothes but he said no way kid. He told me that Blue was being treated well, and he wasn’t conscious yet, so there was no point in me going anywhere. Besides, if I was going to be any help to Blue later I had to take care of myself first.

I asked Dad where the other crew and refugees were. Dad told me that the healthy refugees had already been picked up and brought to Iryllia, and the healthy crew had gone ahead to Ossus to regroup. Those who were sick are, like us, still recovering on the hospital ship and would be arriving at Ossus in a few days. We’ll be transported to a planet-side hospital then.

Blue had left specific instructions not to send Zara on her own. This broke protocol, but Dad told the ship’s officer that any friend of his daughter’s was on Dad’s personal list of people who, as he put it, “don’t do your asinine rules and if you don’t like it I got a droid who can argue out the fine points with you in six million languages.” So Zara stayed on the hospital ship. He said that she has been sitting with me and with the other sick people, just talking to us and trying to bring us back.

There’s more but I can’t write about it just yet.

</recorder on>

The baby’s gone.

Hearing it said aloud to me was like a terrible dream. Writing the words makes it real. The stylus feels like a shard of splinterglass in my hand just putting the words down.

I still put my hand on my abdomen and think about the little one that used to be there. It breaks my heart to know I’ll never feel the baby quicken and move. I’ll never hold him or her in my arms. Our baby ended before he or she started.

I’m too tired to go anywhere just yet and honestly I don’t feel brave enough to even try. It’s all still sinking in: I’m on a hospital ship, Blue is in the psychiatric unit, and I lost the baby. I felt so overwhelmed that I started to cry. Dad got out of his seat and sat on the bed next to me and hugged me, and I had almost forgotten how much comfort you can get from a father’s arms.

 

The baby's gone... Oh, my tummy did a nose dive when I read that! Five years...? Thanks for that time marker reminder to the end of True Blue.

Yay for Kyp and the rescue team and bless a million zillion times, Han Solo with his awesome self! A true friend and an off the chain dad. Back in his scoundrel days, he probably never would expect to hear that compliment!

Bless Bree and Blue. I think this will crystallize a great many priorities and choices for each of them.

 

Oh. Poor Bree and Blue. As in True Blue, Han is there for Bree and it's a good thing because she needs him (and Blue) more than ever. The quiet devastation in her words and the longing to have Blue there with her are palpable. Glad to see that Zara is there, since I wondered if she was going to be alright. And I can only wonder how the plague thing will resolve. The cost has already been much too high.

 

Oh no! This is terrible, I feel so much for both of them, and I gather that Blue doesn't yet know. So Bree has to go through this without him for now, and then again when he gets well, which seems like it's going to be a hard road.

Loved the appearance from Han - a father's love (and arms) is exactly what she needs!

 

Oh, Bree. Sometimes you don't know what you had until it's gone, and other times you know exactly what you've lost. Poor lost Bree. I'm so glad Han is there to hold her, but she, and Blue, are going to have a long road ahead. Lady, your way with words always astounds me, and how you wrote that the stylus was like a shard of splinterglass in her hand as she wrote the words (making them real, and permanent).... just wow.

 

Thank you again to the readers! Thank you especially to Nyota’s Heart, Kahara, JadeLotus, and Ginchy for your thoughtful and kind replies. I really appreciate the time you took to comment.

The baby’s gone. But there is five years before the epilogue to True Blue; at that point Blue is 33 and Bree is 27. Right now he is 28 and she is 22, so there is a lot of time there.
Yes, Han is amazing. I usually don’t write him, but he comes easily in this story. He and Bree are tight. It makes sense that he would be the one to wait for her to wake up.
Bree and Blue are going to have to adjust to a very different life as a result of this disaster. How will it change them and their relationship?

Han is a great dad and he has Bree’s back (and Blue’s too, although he won’t admit it). Zara is there, too – in fact, your comment inspired me to revise the next chapter to make her a bit more prominent. She is growing on me.
The virus has been devastating, and Bree is reeling from the consequences of it. She will need to recover both physically and emotionally from this, but Blue is going to have a much harder time. Their relationship will be tested, for sure.

At this point, it isn’t clear what Blue knows or doesn’t know, and he is incapable of telling anyone just yet. This makes it difficult for Bree because she has to deal with his illness on top of her own and her grief. Her family, especially her dad, is there for her, though. Nothing like having Han in your corner.

Bree had allowed herself to hope and dream, and it was all taken away. Imagine waking up to that. Han has been on her side all along, and he is there when she needs him most. Thank you for the compliment! It’s true, though – there is something about seeing it in writing or writing it out yourself that makes the unthinkable real.

 

[22]

I finally visited Blue earlier today. The med droid told me that when he came in he was delusional and combative, and he had to be sedated for his own safety and the healers’. He’s a little better, still very sick from the fever that just broke and from his withdrawal from the stimulants he had been taking. He’s still unconscious, although his seizures seem to have pretty much stopped, thank the Maker. I sat beside him, held his hand, and told him I loved him and wanted him to be back with me. He couldn’t answer, obviously, but I just needed to be near him.

I’ve been trying to get up a little bit and move around. The healer said I should start stretching my muscles a little, so at night, when I’m alone, I wobble my way to the ‘fresher or try to go through my things and put them away. That was a disaster the first time. All our clothes and possessions were removed from the ship and decontaminated, with the objects put in storage and the clothing sent to me. I opened the sealed package of clothing and the emotions hit me like I had been thrown against the wall. There was the sweater I wore on Tanis, my work pants, the blue and gold scarf that I wear sometimes. Here was Blue’s healer’s smock, which he wore when he had to do surgical procedures. I took his favourite black shirt and brought it up to my face – a silly thing, I know, but I wanted to smell it, inhale his scent on it, but I guess the decontamination process removed any traces. Then, toward the bottom of the pile, I found a little blanket with images of playful orange pittens on it. I took it out, hugged it close, and cried and cried.

It was late last night and I couldn’t sleep. I have a very nice healer named Jos who comes in and checks on me at night. (He’s maybe ten years older than I am; a human man with light skin and light brown hair. He’s very firm but still gentle, like Blue. Maybe all good healers are like that.) Jos knows I don’t always sleep well, so he sometimes visits a little bit with me after he checks my health status. So last night, when he announced himself on the door comm, he asked if I was up to having a visitor.

I was so happy to see Zara. She came over and sat on the bed next to me while Jos checked me over, then he smiled and said he was going to leave us to chat, but if I needed him I knew how to contact him.

Zara looked like her natural old self. Her longish pink hair was in the plaits she usually wears on either side of her head, and she had on comfortable pants and a cropped shirt, the kind Twi’lek women often wear. She lay down on the bed next to me and it had a feeling of us being like long-time girl friends at a sleep-over party.

I asked her what had happened on board. She told me that after Thom became critically ill, she had to step up and become Blue’s assistant. The refugees were getting increasingly panicked as more and more got ill, and both she and Blue noticed pretty quickly that it was the humans who were sickest. (The Bothan family never even got a cough from this.) Marsh Tor was really the worst case. Blue struggled to keep them stable, but eventually despite Blue’s best attempts to save him the fever won out and Tor died. Blue had his body put in stasis and then he moved me from our quarters and into the infirmary so I was under his closer care.

Eventually it was me, Thom, and a refugee named Ellias who were critically ill. (Ellias had been the human nearest to Tor’s area of the refugee space, so I understand why he was sick; he was exposed first after Tor. And Thom had been in direct contact with the sickest people, since he was helping Blue. But me? I had deliberately been isolated from the sickness. So why me?)

I sighed when Zara told me that she knew Blue had started taking something. For one thing, he stopped sleeping and seemed to be running on adrenaline. He was not himself. He became aggressive and brusque, and then he would have these episodes where he just stared into blankness. She said she had seen people like that before and she knew the signs. But what could she do? He controlled the access to the pharmaceuticals.

It was hard for her. The more Blue slipped into his addiction, the more responsibility she felt for taking care of the sick patients. She decided it would be best if he just took care of me, Thom, and Ellias, so she convinced him to let her handle the rest and he would take on responsibility for the worst three cases.

Zara looked up at me. “It was awful, Bree,” she said, twisting her plaited hair as she spoke. “I don’t know anything about health care. I was a hair dresser. But I couldn’t just leave them to suffer.”

She smiled faintly. “I’m so glad that someone is taking good care of you and Blue now,” she said. “Not just because you’re my friends and I want to see you get better, but because it takes the burden off me.” She turned and lay on her back, looking at the ceiling. “You know that Zeltrons can feel the emotions of others, right? Well, we feel their emotions physically, not just emotionally. People think we just follow pleasure because it’s fun or it feels good. It’s more than that. When I’m with someone who is happy or excited, or when someone is enjoying sex with me, it feels good to me. Their happiness makes me healthy. So being on that ship, working with all those sick people, that was really painful to me. I did it, they needed me, but it literally hurt me to absorb all their fear and pain.”

I hadn’t considered how this might have affected her. Then I thought about her situation, how before she had escaped onto the Alisander, she had been tricked into a trap that had intended to sell her as a pleasure slave. I understood the physical pain that she went through, but what horrible emotions had she had to endure, when those sadistic men abused her? No wonder she was terrified when we found her. Sympathetically, I reached over and held her hand, trying to send her my feelings of caring and friendship.

Zara turned to me and smiled, then she kissed my cheek. “You and Blue are my friends and I love you both,” she said. “I know you are so sad about losing the baby. I remember how excited you both were about becoming parents.” She snuggled closer. “It’s okay that you’re sad. I can handle that emotion, since you’re sad because of love.”

She looked up at me. “Would you mind if I slept here tonight? I don’t mean anything sexual; I know you and Blue obviously love each other very much and are committed to each other, and I understand. But I just like feeling your compassion and your kindness. It helps the pain of the last few weeks go away.”

I told her that was fine. We snuggled a little and eventually we fell asleep. A few hours later, I heard the door re-open and quiet footsteps came over to the bed. I woke up suddenly, alerted, unsure of what was happening, and saw Jos. He smiled and I relaxed. He turned his attention to Zara, who was curled up cozily beside me. “Zara?” he said softly, nudging her arm to wake her. “Zara, I’m going off duty soon. You have to get up.”

Zara stretched and turned toward him, and her face lit up. “You’re going off duty?”

“Yeah. You have to get up now. You can’t be here when the next healer comes on duty. Time to go to your own bed.”

She reached her hand out to him and he took it, helping her up. “That’s such a good idea! Since you’re off duty we should definitely go to my own bed,” she said. “Your bed isn’t very comfortable.”

He blushed, a crimson shade that nearly matched her own skin color. “Don’t be embarrassed,” I said, smiling. “If you make my friend happy, then I’m happy too.”

Zara stood up and, still holding Jos’s hand, pulled him in toward her and surprised him with a deep, languid kiss. He was stunned at first, then curled his arms around her in a warm embrace. I could almost see her draw strength from his affection for her; her breathing calmed and her posture became stronger. There was light in her eyes when she finally broke away and looked at him.

Jos smiled nervously, a shy little grin that seemed to complement him, but Zara was positively beaming. They left hand in hand, and Zara waved goodbye. I laughed, and it surprised me how good it felt to laugh again at last.

 

As always, I look so, so forward to each update. So packed with a variety of great, poignant feels!

Blue's "relapse" was I would say a literal consequence of the demands of the medical crisis and needing to take care of all the critically ill. But the physical and emotional consequences of coming back from that rough place are still there, despite the why, and he probably feels like he's back at square one.

Bless Zara's own compassion and caring, for the sick first and Bree and Blue. Just like having a best friend or big sister there, and just exactly what Bree needed, now.

Bravo on giving us some depth and detailed insights into the emotive world of Zeltrons. I would imagine being empathic would have its down-&upsides.

Thanks for the SQUEE over Jos/Zara.

 

Oh, dear, Blue does not sound good. Relapses happen, and considering the circumstances...well you can hardly blame him for cracking under the pressure.

But lovely scene with Zara, a little sliver of happiness and hope which Bree can latch onto.

 

What we've heard about Blue's condition is very worrying; he was having troubles even before this and it is going to be even more difficult for him to get back on track now. It's going to be difficult all around, and it seems like he and Bree really need to talk soon -- or as soon as they're able.

The plague situation sounds even more suspicious now, and I'm very curious about just who Marsh Tor was and what he was doing. That he's the victim of the disease makes it seem almost accidental, and yet it was possibly human-targeted and that can't help but seem like it might have been directed at Bree or someone else there.

Liked the scenes with Zara and that she and Bree have become closer now through the tragedy. There was always a bit of uncertainty there before because of her working with Blue (and may still be, for all I know), but now they also have formed a friendship. As Nyota's Heart mentioned, the detail on Zeltron empathy is intriguing -- it's a topic that I've wondered about as well and it's great to see it explored a little bit here with Zara's character.