Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Something to Tell You

All Omen personnel please remain calm and stay within your designated quarantine zone. If you are experiencing a medical emergency please contact command by pressing the intercom button in your quarantine area, all other questions, concerns and request may be forwarded through the onboard messaging system.

We thank you for your cooperation.

The omen hovered in isolation just off of Irus. The artificial satellite station acting as a docking port for most large ships was monitoring them from a distance and occasionally sending DECOM shuttles back and forth with all due precaution. Virologists from all over the universe had come to study the new strain of disease, which seemed to be the first incident of viral transmission between aliens and humans.

Scores of epidemiologists had come to the ship to investigate the source of the disease and how it first spread to humans. Patient zero would have to have been a Tesraki somewhere, though it was impossible to determine if it was one of the crew Tesraki or someone else they had met in recent days. The first human vector appeared to have been Maverick as she showed symptoms before anyone else. She had also been the first person to seek help for her symptoms. There was, of course, overlap between the times her symptoms started and the time that Ramirez's symptoms began as well leading the researches to conclude that it was either one or both of them who had first caught the human transmissible strain.

The humans had been watched closely as the medical bay was turned into a sick ward and the infected Tesraki had been brought down from their quarters.

Epidermalecchymosis exoedema was the original virus variant which had mutated to transmit to humans. In Tesraki it was characterized as a disease that began with an uncomfortable rash often concurrent with hair loss which quickly turned to swelling and bruising on the skin. During this stage itching and discomfort were the most noticeable symptoms, but as water retention increased, certain variants were known to target the lungs of Tesraki filling them up with fluid and could work fast enough to simulate drowning even though the Tesraki may be nowhere close to the water. The disease already had a few variants by the time it was transmitted to humans. Doctors were hoping that this specific variant was not characterized by pulmonary edema as well, and at first it seemed that that might be the case.

The humans reported no shortness of breath caused by fluid in the lungs or swelling. Despite its grotesque appearance on humans, the rash and the discoloration and swelling of the skin being the most prominent, the humans reported no other symptoms. There were a few complains of headaches and a lot of itching cream passed between them, but otherwise the humans demonstrated no other sings of discomfort.

The Tesraki's symptoms came with a slower onset than the human symptoms had taking almost a full day to show spots on the skin under their fur and another full day before swelling and skin discoloration was noted. Ointments and other skin treatments were applied to try and avoid hair-loss (a symptom also not present on humans) and it seemed as if they were dealing with only a minor strain.

The humans recovered quickly and testing on blood antibodies gave tentative reassurance that humans could only catch the virus once, sort of a form of space chicken pox.

Their swelling was already receding though the discoloration was lingering on.

Admiral Vir expressed no surprise that he and his crew were the first ones to be infected by an alien disease.

A part of him couldn't help but think that it was kind of cool, though he would never have said that in front of the media. It definitely didn't disappoint as an alien disease, it had turned him purple with orange spots, which totally seemed like soemthing he expected an alien disease to do.