Revivescere

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Must be a myth, Ryder thought to himself, stirring to the voice shouting his name through the intercom. He sat up from his laying position on the couch and rubbed his eyes. The image of a half-full bottle of whiskey beside an empty tumbler on the coffee table explained his splitting headache. He'd drunk too much again.

"Goddamit Ryder, get your ass to medical," the intercom chimed. Ryder could hear secondary voices in the backgorund, but they were muffled and indistinguishable. Or maybe he was just hearing things as his head was still a little fuzzy.

After Ryder judged his current attire to be satisfactory, he poured himself a small amount of liquor. Raising the glass, he made a silent salute to the infinant space that stared at him through the glass window of his cabin. A mirror to my soul, he thought, throwing the warm liquid back in one fluid motion. After replacing the tumbler to the table, he rose from the couch and started for the exit.

**

There was something eerie about walking the empty corridors and hallways of the frigate Revivescere, Ryder found. The calm quiet, compiled with the murky darkness that collected in the corners like a dense fog, caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. No doubt the scary sci-fo movies he'd watched as a kid toyed with his unconscious. He half expected at times for shadows to lurch forward from the corners of his eyes. Luckily, so far the experience did little more than rattle his nerves. Something he knew the alcohol didn't help with, but everyone had their own medicine for pain and, well, to each his own Ryder relfected.

Moving beyond the mess hall where most of the crew were gathered for breakfast, Ryder reached the closed door of the med bay. Holding his key card to the reader, he awaited for the hiss of the locking mechanism to release before he pushed the door open.

Moving into the interior of the room, Ryder was met with two senior offices of the crew: Eliana, the ships Executive Officer, and the ships Captain, Anders. As well as Tam, the medical nurse.

"Christ Ryder, nice of you to join us," Anders commented. "Sure hope our exigency didn't inconveninace your schedule."

"It's a little early for sarcasm, captain," Ryder replied. "So, what's got you wound tighter than an eight day clock?"

"We needed your expertise on something," Tam said, moving towards the opposite side of the room where a window was recessed into the wall separating the lab and treatment rooms. Currently the shade was drawn, obscuring vision. However once Tam pressed a button next to the screen, the shutter slid down, revealing a line of sight into the opposite room.

The treatment room shared similar contents to a wing at a hospital ward - instruments and life monitors, including a few gurneys. However Ryder instantly noticed the lone figure standing in the middle of the room, their back to the window.

"Who is that?" He asked.

"That's Trey," Anders said, stepping towards the small glass screen.

"I found him earlier this morning in the airlock junction, lying on the floor." Eliana said.

"OK. So what's wrong with him?"

"Well we're not really sure," Tam said. "He had no memory or reason for going to the airlock junction. And he seemed fine, his vitals were all normal and there was no sign of any injury. But, not long after Eliana brought him here, he....went wild."

"Wild?" Ryder asked.

"He started screaming incohherent words and tossing things. He tried to attack Eliana with a chair."

"Any history relating to mental wellbeing in his file?"

"Nothing." Tam replied. "It's clear."

Anders looked at Trey through the glass, then turned to Ryder. "We had to lock him in there, but we suspect he may have Seninoma."

"What?" Ryder replied incredulously. "You're kidding right?"

"He has all the same symptoms," Tam commented.

"Yeah, but I mean, how?" Ryder replied. "I mean, that's why we're here. Earth is a literal wasteland, overtaken by the virus. We were the only ones cleared. Us and the other thirty convoy ships."

"Virus' are living organism's too," Tam said. "Their fight for survival is just as real as ours. And they mutate to survive, just as our survival is dependent on evolution."

"You sound like you admire them."

"I don't admire them," she replied, clenching one first. "But I do respect them."

Ryder let out a sigh and moved toward the coffee machine. "I still don't think it's Seninoma."

Anders propped himself up on to the bench in the middle of the room. "So what's your prognosis then?"

"I don't know, I'd have to assess him," Ryder replied, placing a pod into the device and a mug beneath. "Maybe it's Asthenia, that would explain the collapse."

"And the violent psychosis?"

Ryder narrowed his eyebrows as he fixed his gaze on Eliana. "Don't be so quick to judge. We don't know what he's experiencing. And what constitutes any behaviour change as a mental illness?"

Eliana raised her hands in defence. "Gee, don't get so defensive, I was just trying to make a point."

"Yeah, well, comments like that only help to reinforce stigmatisation. You know, if we spent more time trying to understand a person's distress rather than judging them, I doubt there'd be a need for the DSM." Ryder waited for the coffee to fill his cup before he picked it up and gave it a stir.

Eliana rolled her eyebrows behind his back as he moved toward the door to the treatment room.

"You're going in there?" Tam asked.

"Someone has to, otherwise we'll never have any answers."

**

Ryder placed his mug on a food cart next to the closest gurney. When he heard the sound of the door close and lock behind him, he moved closer to Trey.

"Hey Trey, how are you doing?" He said to the mans back. "Heard you had yourself a little fall this morning?"

Ryder heard a slight rasping sound coming from Trey. Despite his disbelief that the killer virus (known as SE for short), which had turned people into rabid killers on Earth, had spread to the frigate explorer, the sound still sent chills down his spine.

"You want to tell me about it? Or about what happened with Eliana?"

"I didn't.....didn't mean...I don't know..." Trey began sobbing.

Moving to stand in front of Trey, Ryder placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's OK. You're safe now. Everything is OK."

Covering his head in his hands, Trey began to cry in uncontrollable sobs.

"Something...overcame me...I felt weak..."

"I think it might be Asthenia. Do you feel tired? Exhausted?" Ryder asked.

"So tired." Trey replied, composing himself and sniffing back tears. "And...thirtsy."

"OK, well let's get you rested and hydrated, shall we," Ryder said, steering the man to the nearest Gurney.

Trey allowed himself to be coaxed, and climbed up onto the bed. In doing so, Ryder observed that his fists were clenched, and in one, a long white object was partly concealed, tainted with a slight tinge of what appeared to be blood.

**

From the med bay, all six eyes of his colleagues were glued to the glass. That warm feeling of relief met them when they saw and heard Trey's response to Ryder's questions. However the thirst caused alarm bells to ring for Anders.

"Should we be wo-", his question was cut short by the sudden trilling of an alarm. Microseconds later, the room was awash with the glare of a single red light rotating around the walls. "What the....?"

A scream came over the speaker connected to the treatment room, shifting their immediate focus from the emergency alarm. Trey was no longer sitting on the gurney, but standing, hand outstrecthed, a shard of broken ceramic in his hand and pointing at Ryder.

"Ryder, get out of there..." Tam screamed, running for the door lock release.

Ryder took two giant steps back, trying to put distance between him and Trey. "Easy Trey," he pleaded. "It's me, Ryder." But his words were drowned out by the rasping and snaping of clenched teeth.

Evidently, Ryder refletced, it appeared SE had made it's way onto the ship. He still didn't want to believe it, but the aggression and muscle tension were strong indicators, not to mention the bloodshot eyes and excess salivation. SE was similar to rabies, only unlike rabies, humans were the only habitable hosts of SE. It wasn't a Zoonotic virus.

"Ryder, come on," Tam called from the now open doorway of the treatment room. Searching his surroundings for some kind of weapon, he fixed his eyes on the IV pole and side stepped towards it. As Trey advanced towards him, he swung out when he was within reach, connecting with his head. The blow pushed Trey into the wall, where he slipped and fell to his knees.

Taking advatage of the moment, Ryder dropped the pole and ran past his attacker. In the process, he caught movement from the corner of his eye and felt a stinging pain on his left shin, causing him to cry out as he collapsed to the floor.

As Trey rose from the ground, returning to the attack, Ryder felt hands clasp around his wrists and was dragged out of the treatment room. As his legs cleared the entrance, Eliana slammed a fist against the door lock, closing the gate and locking Trey inside.

"Thanks," Ryder said, looking up at Tam.

"Don't mention it," she winked. "Next time maybe you'll consider doing assessments over the intercom?"

"Yeah, maybe," Ryder said, getting to his feet. "But it just feels so inhumane. I've always been a people person myself."

"Oh?" Tam said playfully. "Guess that explains why you spend your nights alone on an alcholic fueled bender."

Ryder ignored the sarcasm and welcomed the alarm as a nice deflection and opportunity to change the subject.

"What set that off?"

"Don't know, Anders has gone to investigate," Eliana replied.

The three were about to exit the med bay when a loud banging drew their attention to the treatment room door.

"Don't worry," Eliana said in response to Tam's frightened expression. "He ain't getting through that."

"If this is Seninoma, I don't understand how it got aboard the ship," Ryder said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"What if someone did have it, but was asymptomatic?" Eliana said.

Ryder shook his head, "I doubt it. I mean, more than ninety percent of the population was infected with symptoms. There wasn't a single case of anyone seeming to live unaffected by the virus."

"Wait!" Tam suddenly sat bolt upright and gripped Ryder's elbow. "Eliana, didn't you say that you found Trey in the airlock junction?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Remember that meteor shower we encountered yesterday? What if something collided with our ship?"

"Are you seriously suggesting that an alien life form found it's way on board from a metoer shower?" Ryder asked with raised eyebrows. "Besides, even if that were true, wouldn't we have felt the collision somehow?"

"Not if it was some sort of bacteria or micro organism that fell from one of the rocks."

"It's worth checking it out." Eliana commented.

Ryder buried his head in his hands and shook his head from side to side.

"Argh fine," he submitted, running his hand through his hair. "Process of elimination I guess."

As they moved to the exit and opened the door to the corridor, the red warning light finally ceased to operate. However, almost simultaneously, so did all the lights and equipment - not just in the corridor but also in the medical bay. Which also seemingly disarmed the locking mechanisms on all the doors.

The three turned quickly and watched in dread as the treatment room door slid open...