From: Nick Subject: NEW: 'Stranger With This Face' Part Eight Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 10:22:29 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been a while but I've had writer's block and had a Voyager piece to finish and that *particular* newsgroup could *nag* for England! Anyway, if you can't remember what's happening in this one (and don't worry cos I can't either) I'm going to upload th whole thing to fanfiction.net when it's finished. Don't forget that feedback makes me type faster... * * 'STRANGER WITH THIS FACE' * PART EIGHT * "Now that it is finally in sight, I find that the thought of meeting my end is not so terrifying as I had always imagined." Pallor's condition had worsened beyond belief to render her virtually unrecognisable. * Lennier had rushed to her side the moment he heard the news from Grare and now he sat in his usual place at her bedside. "I do not think that there is anything to fear from death: the gods will protect me from harm. What frightens the living most is probably what leads to that: the pain and suffering that are a part of the actual act of dying." Pallor seemed oddly lucid, Lennier considered and not for the first time he found that he envied her composure. "All that I have not yet done- the things I have never seen, heard or known- All I can do now is regret that.." * "Pallor, you should have nothing to regret: you have spent your life *giving*. You volunteered to come to a world ravaged by a plague that we could not know we would be safe from..." * "Lennier, my life *prior* to that was hardly a *selfless* one- I have things to be ashamed of too..." * "As do we all-" * "Lennier, I cannot pretend to know what it is that has been troubling you so, but I am sure that you are inherently a *good* person and that whatever mistakes you might have made in the past, that they are more than outweighed by your good deeds here if none other! I sense in you a great decision that you are having difficulty making- I am certain that whatever you decide that it will be made in the interest of preserving the *rightness* of the universe- no matter how painful that might be. And now, you may leave me to rest. You've other patients to care for and other fears to counsel..." The Drazi female's eyes slid shut as she fell into a fitful sleep and in so doing, signalled the end of their conversation. Lennier was left to watch her mutely for long moments before rising slowly from his seat and turning to leave. **************** "That all of it?" Marianne shoved a couple of pill-jars into her rucksack and pulled the drawstring tight. Tiredly her assistant nodded and handed her the heavy doctor's bag he had just filled. "Right, let's go. Lillian, we're off- journey should take us about ten minutes- we'll stay in contact. From her station, the doctor waved one distracted hand, * "Take care won't you? I'll send Stephen to join you when he gets back." * "Fine. Grare, we're off!" Marianne called out to the small Brakiri male who, realising that he was included in the party, hurried over to join them, taking the doctor's bag from her hand and clutching it to his chest. * "You've a bag already." He explained as if to a child when she opened her mouth to argue. * "Are you sure? It's heavy..." Grare made no verbal reply, merely ushering her on with a shooing motion of his hands. "Alright... Come on..." * Lillian watched the two medics lurch toward the door, straining under the weight of their bags with something akin to a smile on her lips. * "Should they not wait until Dr Franklin finished his rounds?" Lennier appeared beside her, unnoticed until he spoke, a clipboard held out awaiting her perusal. * "No time- We need to know the extent of the infection in the monastery- He can join them when he's finished- if there's any point..." Lillian tried to hide her hopeless expression and failed. * "I know... We still have no cure. Marianne is probably wise to suggest that people remain in their homes in cases where the whole family is infected. We've no room here..." * "I know but it still seems... I don't know... 'Callous'- Expecting them to cope themselves with only out-patient care.." * "Doctor, we are doing all that we can. So how can our actions be 'callous'? This disease has proven itself to be one hundred percent infectious and one hundred percent terminal to the Lumati population. For now all that we can do is make people comfortable and find a way to vaccinate the uninfected. Have you had any more leads...?" * "No. It's only a matter of time before the plague adjusts itself to *our* bodies as well-" * "Well- Then there is no more time to be wasted, I will continue with my work and you will continue with yours." The minbari gave a sharp nod and backed away, turning and moving off through the ward. Not allowing herself the opportunity to brood any longer on their plight, Lillian returned to the office. ***************** Stepping out into the street, Marianne tugged a scarf from a pocket in the front of her bag and proceeded to wrap it about her head. Silently, Grare followed suit with the scarf already draped over his shoulders. Over their several excursions to the poorest and worst infected districts of the city, the medics had found the Lumati to be increasingly desperate for a cure and had become almost violent toward the still healthy medical staff. Disguising themselves as Lumati had become the safest option. * "How about we stick together this time around? I don't want a repeat of yesterday's antics!" * "Indeed-" Grare concentrated on his boots, grateful that Brakiri do not 'blush'. "I am truly sorry for yesterdays-" * "Grare, will you *please* stop apologising! I've told you that it could have happened to any of us... That Lumati was *mad*! If you'd not handed over your bag who knows what he might have done! The medication is replaceable, *you* are not. We need more commlinks; it's as simple as that. It's ridiculous us having to share each between two!" * "How long will it be before the next shipment of supplies comes in?" * "I don't know- We'll just have to muddle through until then, I guess. But in the meantime, no risk taking and we stick together like glue.... Here we are.... Sooner we get started the sooner we'll finish." *************** "Not too healthy." Lillian pored over the numerous tables presented on her computer screen, Adam, one of the medical technicians hovering at her shoulder. "A few more days and the well will be truly dry..." * "Can we afford more supplies without asking for more funding?" Adam was dubiously eyeing the almost empty shelves around them. * "I doubt it- Looks like as our official go-between, you'll have to stellar-com EarthGov with a begging bowl..." * "Great... They're not as sympathetic as they were... Our being here is little more than a PR exercise on the government's behalf and now it's getting more expensive... " * "I know-" * "And what do we tell them about the possibility of the disease spreading to other non-Lumati species? They might try to pull us all back-" * "I know *that* too. Can we hold off telling them until our research is completed? No sense in causing panic before we have all the answers..." * "Perhaps... Alright, but I'm not going to *lie* about this." Nodding distractedly, Lillian sat back in her chair, her gaze still fixed on the table that showed the extent of their financial worries. Only hours ago, Marianne had returned from the monastery, her expression tight with repressed emotion. They had been too late; none of the infected in the large building had been living when she and Grare arrived. It seemed obvious to her and the rest of the medics that by now their chances of finding a cure or even a vaccine for this plague was little more than a pipe dream. In reality the Lumati homeworld had become little more than a giant hospice, a dying room. And Lillian and the rest of the medics could do little more helpful than empty bedpans and watch as an entire species was wiped out. * But still, there was no point in admitting *that* to EarthGov. As Adam had so gently pointed out, the government would see no glory, nor added votes in such a helpless situation. It was best that all outsiders were indulged, at least for the time being- No use in telling the whole truth until there was absolutely no other alternative... ****************** The second monastery, visited by Marianne and Grare the following day, was hardly more than a filthy building filled to bursting point with the pitifully ill. Fighting back her nausea at the stench of the place, Marianne led him through the winding corridors until they reached a relatively free space wherein they could set up their equipment. As they lugged their heavy bags through the maze-like passageways, they were followed by an ever-growing queue of Lumati who limped behind the medics like street-dwelling dogs chasing a meal. * "This'll have to do." Marianne dropped her bag to the floor and took a deep breath of the foul air. Grare followed suit. "You hand out the painkillers and I'll clean and bandage any external sores- By then the others should be here with food. Agreed?" At her companion's brief nod, she pulled her bag up onto a nearby table and beckoned their first patient forward. * Four hours later they were less than a quarter of the way through the queue, which appeared to be growing all the while. Swiping at the beads of perspiration that now decorated her brow with the sleeve of her shirt, Marianne paused for a quick breather. A few feet away, Grare was still wielding a syringe, untiringly injecting each new patient before moving them on. * Letting herself slump against the table behind her, Marianne forced her attention back to the task in hand. They had long since run out of proper dressings and now resorted to cloth torn into strips like old fashioned bandages. Before her, a Lumati female waited patiently, one partially bandaged hand held out awaiting completion and with only half a mind, Marianne fumbled behind her for something sharp with which to cut yet another sheet into pieces. The lasers usually used for such a task were back at the hospice and for the past few hours she had relied on a pair of scissors quite unused to such a purpose. They had become blunt and then fallen apart half an hour ago. Tutting with annoyance, she turned to her table. * The small room they worked in had only one source of light the skylight above them and sunlight poured through in sharp, piercing streaks that blinded with it's intensity and served little real other use. Now that light focused all it's efforts on the scalpel a few inches across the table from where Marianne stood, forcing out a beam so bright that for a moment she had to squint before becoming oddly fascinated by the sight of it. * Grare turned from his patient to see his companion staring into her reflection in the blade of a scalpel, the light reflecting from it to mark a slightly wavering stripe across her face. * "Marianne? Are you alright?" He received no answer and pushing gently past the man he had been treating he moved to touch her arm. "Marianne?" With a sudden shriek she recoiled, backing away from him, one hand covering the spot on her arm where he had touched her as if nursing a wound. In a flash, the scalpel was in her other hand and held up in a threatening stance, * "Get away from me!" Her voice raised from it's usual tone with her growing hysteria as she continued to back away into the crowd of sick Lumati that formed four thick walls about the two medics. Somewhere in his shocked brain, Grare registered that Marianne's eyes held a wild, glazed quality, like the eyes of sleepwalkers or someone still not quite awake. Filing this observation for later, he lowered his voice and held his palms out flat, placatingly as he slowly advanced toward his hysterical friend, * "Marianne, it's okay, you're alright- no one's going to hurt you... Give me the knife..." He almost managed it, he could see her grip loosening and her face slacken from it's previous tightness of expression. She still continued to back away until her back came into sudden contact with the body of one of the crowd. Her hand tightened around her weapon and she spun around to strike out at the body. Seeing his window of opportunity, Grare stepped quickly forward to grab at her scalpel- wielding hand, his arms coming around hers to restrain them, he pulled her still resisting body down to the ground. * Around them the swarming Lumati jostled for a view of the screaming, struggling woman. "Please move back... It is over now... Move back!" Grare's pleading for a little space went unheard and he found the floor around himself and Marianne recede under the feet of the advancing crowd- they were in danger of being trampled. Marianne was still wailing and trying to push him away but Grare managed to hold onto her with a strength that belied his frail form. * When Franklin and the rest of his team arrived with more supplies they found Grare knelt on the ground, holding a now unconscious Marianne loosely in his lap. He'd managed to sedate her but was still surrounded by confused and sick Lumati. * "Alright, I need everyone to move back-" With a little more force than he would normally use on those so ill, Stephen reached his colleagues, * "Stanton, get that food handed out- away from here, that should help convince these people to move... Grare, what happened?" Now kneeling himself, Stephen checked Marianne's pulse and satisfied that she was still alive, let himself relax momentarily. * "I cannot tell you- One moment she was fine and the next she became hysterical- threatened me with a knife! I think that she is not herself." Smiling grimly at the Brakiri's understatement, Franklin moved to pull the unconscious woman into his arms. * "Let's get her out of here and deal with the wheres and whys later-" *************************** End of part eight. Part nine should follow shortly. -- Nick