Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

The Catch

"What do we know."

The operations control room was staring to look more like a lecture hall than it did operations control. It was very likely that this was the first time in recorded history that this many medical professionals had been In the same room at one time, or perhaps not medical professionals in general, but medical professionals of such high status and repute.

One for almost every species excluding Drev, who didn't tend to have doctors.

And at the front of it all Dr. krill stood with his arms crossed, looking out at the crowd through his level A HAZMAT suit.

All around him other doctors were comparing notes.

There was the shared file, of course, the conglomerate document that was not being projected into the shared network for all to view, but almost all of the doctors had their own set of notes to go along with it, often on a personal Holo-tablet or, in rare cases, penned messily inside a spiral bound notebook.

"Would you like us to begin from.... The beginning?"

This was Dr. Willson, a member of the ships' crew. He wasn't a doctor but he was a xenobiologist, and had proven his use in isolating the alien virus from known tissue. To his right Dr. Yebb, who WAS actually a microbiologist who specialized in disease transmission., sat nervously jotting notes down by hand.

"That would be preferred." Krill said, "I want us to lay it all out."

There was a muttering around the room, and Yebb ran a hand through her spiked green fur. She had been tested for the strange disease and come up negative, as had Dr. Wilson despite being members of the crew.

To his right Dr. Katie sat in a chair just off the stage. Through the face mask of her HAZMAT suit he could see her blink blearily through her glasses. Spidering orange veins outlined the delicate skin around her eyes, and she shifted her legs uncomfortably. It wasn't visible right now but her feet were an absolute mass of spidering orange veins, as to his chagrin, he had learned that Dr. katie had done ballet in the past.

Upon seeing her mangled toes he had been more than willing to nominate her for the world's ugliest feet award.

He wasn't entirely sure if she had enjoyed telling him out of a sense of amusement, but she had broken both of her feet on multiple occasions and hadn't allowed them to heal properly as was common among dancers.

"Where did this all begin."

A Rundi doctor stood, wearing a HAZMAT suit though it wasn't because he was infected, but because he was sensitive to water, "We know that this all begin with Admiral Vir. It was likely he contracted the disease on the red mist planet by touching the specimen, and it has been incubating inside his body for months."

Krill turned to the holographic board and began writing.

He had to shake his head to clear double vision.

Krill was infected, but he wasn't showing any real symptoms as of yet, just a sort of bleariness, and something similar to fatigue though Vrul didn't need to sleep.

"The next time the specimen infected anyone was at the research facility, and at that time it directly interacted with the bodies physically by attacking and growing into them, which is a completely different presentation from what we have seen." Krill was saying creating another diagram line.

"Then there was the rash of outbreaks in psychiatric wards only recently." One of the other doctors said.

"A very strange incident." Krill agreed, "And all affecting patients who where experiencing some form of cosmic hysteria, forgive my use of the improper medical term as I am having trouble remembering right now."