Chapter 126

The Outbreak

In an effort to apply myself, I soon found that I had taken on more ways to improve myself. Not just with working out, but also with practicing my music, and trying to learn new things. In fact, I got to the point that the only time I would look forward to relaxing was when I was doing a temple run, either by myself or with the staff.

It was odd, how applying myself made the days go by so much faster. I even had it blocked off that for an hour or so a day I would meet with Día to go over our notes or different understandings of certs.

The idea was that we, and by we I of course mean Día would publish her findings by the time we had our third temple run down. As it was, she was already leaking a few of her findings in scientific journals, a few of which had a few dozen readers.

What did this have to do with me? Not much, other than the fact that I was on the same ship with her. Honestly, she was a wrecking ball of momentum. All I could do was make sure she charged forwards and I stayed relatively close to watch her barrel through obstacle after obstacle.

Our newest temple run was supposed to be on Grantila, a former Beastkin only planet that is now under the joint protection of the Dwenvarians and Endarians. Why the two factions? Well apparently, when you declare war against the universe and lose miserably, you get your toys confiscated. In this case, the toy would be the second or third temple that were owned by the Beastkin.

I had to hand it to the Beastkin, they had the ultimate idea. Go in, conquer planets with temples, get their elite forces to run through the various temples, then come out as virtual gods.

The only reason Día managed to get us through our different screenings was due to her massive political acumen, and bribes. Yes, apparently our bribe to the Dwenvarian queen made it so this temple was now an option. Of course, this meant the Dwenvarian queen would get first right of refusal for any extra potions we found on our runs. Meaning, if we found a potion on our run, we could take it, but if we took it out of the temple we would have to offer it to the Dwenvarian queen.

That seemed like a fair trade, we get rubberstamped in, and any and all exploits we find go to the person who ultimately greenlighted our travels.

Oddly I was one of the few people who were okay with this, as many of the people of our staff didn’t like this arrangement at all. Still, we were all professionals, which meant we had binding contracts that said we had to do what the boss demanded. In this case the boss was Día Monde, meaning regardless of our stance we had to follow her orders, or go home. Since we were now well into the outskirts of Dwenvarian space, the odds of anyone actually quitting now was next to nothing. Especially, when we were all waiting to disembark on our next temple run.

All we had to do now was wait until we were cleared from our quarantine. Which was simple, I was a certified healer, and my Healing Aura all but guaranteed that we would be streamlined through our integration practices. In fact, that was my official title for these trips, Healer.

While we waited by the exit many stood in a line with their travel bags ready to leave the ship first. As for me, I just decided to sit at the bar. No I couldn’t drink, old enough to save the universe, but not old enough to drink even in alien space. I also think Día did this as a power play. By this point everyone on the ship realized not only who I was, but also my importance to the mission.

Before this run Día was up in front of everyone giving her new speech that she had practiced with me last night. Since I was already close to Día, I was ready for how this mandatory safety briefing would go.

“Look, if you don’t like the idea of being forced to sell items from the run to the Dwenvarian queen then take it. No one will get mad that you took an opportunity to make yourself stronger.” Día would argue with her staff.

That was fair advise, take the potion if you felt you would be offered less than what it was worth. Of course, this also came with the fact that everyone who took the potion would be marked in some way. Something that she made sure to work into her speech.

“Just know that with the power comes a price.” Día added, before gesturing to me.

That was my cue to act. My electric hair was one thing, but during this speech I would let my Shapeshifting drop and reveal my glowing eyes.

That was enough for the safety brief. Día ended her speech with the fact that, “I am now going to check with customs to see what is going on exactly, but know that we will all be given tonight off to get acclimated to our surroundings. Then we will begin our runs bright and early tomorrow morning.”

Clap.

Día clapped her hands, her cue that she was now done with her mandatory safety briefing. With that many people got in line to be one of the first people to leave the ship. I couldn’t quite blame them, after nearly a month of space travel, I too was feeling confined. Still I decided to continue to wait out rush to leave the ship.

Of course I wasn’t the only one to have this thought, at least that was what I thought at first, until I was approached by an exceptionally pretty brunette.

“So is that what happens, you gain markings when you drink the potions?” Molly, one of the shy girls that were part of our trip asked, as her eyes flicked up to stare at my electric silver hair.

“Yeah, pretty much you can assume that anytime a part of you is improved, it will be made to glow.”

“Oh, sort of like a natural warning to would be predators. Watch out, for these highlights mean you are dangerous.” Molly asked.

“Yeah, I have to say, the one I am the most proud of is the vial I got for natural male enhancement. Now the entire thing is twice as long, even if it does glow. At first, I thought I would be annoyed by the glow, but it does help making finding where I put it that much easier. Also, now I don’t have to turn on the lights when I go to the bathroom at night, super helpful.” I admit.

Molly pauses for a moment as she looks at me for a moment. “Wait, what?”

I smile, “just kidding.” I pause, then can’t help but add, “it is only a third longer.”

She just has a perplexed look on her face, as she looks at me.

“Can I see it?”

“Wow, that was not where I thought this would go.” I say, realizing my joke might have gone a bit too far. Still, I do a bit of Shapeshifting to give a slight glow to the region and pull up my shirt. Then I stop as a tease, “ah, I can’t.” I say, as I drop my shirt and make it so my body goes back to its normal colorings. Well as normal as possible, I still have the crazy hair.

“So why don’t you change your hair?”

I just sigh. “I would if I could. I would if I could. Unfortunately Shapeshifting only lets me cover up one of these enhancements. I managed to get a hold of not one, but two different vials for improving my psychic abilities. Thus, the permanent grandpa hair.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say it is grandpa hair.” Kendra said, as she too joined our conversation. “More like refined gentlemanly hair.”

“Not helping.” I say.

Ohh.

There is a bit of commotion from the front of the ship. Then just like that, so many dozens of eyes all stare at the source of the noise to see Día, coming forward. She comes back into the ship, looks around, making sure that she has most of everyone’s attention, then she moves into boss mode.

Clap.

Día our fearless leader of this money-making venture claps her hands loudly. “Okay, so there is a bit of a delay. Apparently, there is an outbreak of some type of flesh-eating disease. It is spreading through the universe, apparently being able to adapt to multiple different species.”

“So, what does this mean?” Molly askes loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Good question. So far, we are one of the few ships that have had zero sightings of this disease. In fact, we are listed as a group to be of interest as there was apparently a similar infection going around the Dwenvarian Queen’s chambers but was stopped at around the same time as our arrival there.”

“What does that mean?” Decker, one of the flight staff asked.

“Well, it means that we are not going to be dismissed, which is good. It also means that I was used as a test case.” Día said, as she held up her wrist communicator.

Everyone looked like a giant red light glowed on the watch.

“This is a sign that I was infected with the flesh-eating strain by just leaving the ship.” Día said, gesturing to her watch. “It runs once a minute, and…”

Happy beep.

At that, the app chimed happily. The color of the watch turned from red to green, and Día nodded to herself.

“So, as you can see, we are safe so long as we are on this ship. Well not this ship, but near our class five healer.” Día said, nodding to me.

“Class five?” I ask.

“No clue, it is a ranking the Dwenvarians have given you. Well, us, as in this whole ship so far, now we must prove that this cleansing effect is being caused by you.” Día said staring at me.

At this everyone else was also staring at me as well.

“Can’t we just say it is the ship and go about our day?” I ask.

Día just shook her head. “It’s not that simple. The entire planet is now on quarantine. If we want to leave the planet or do our run, we have to let you loose on the planet for a bit to heal everyone with your aura. Or we can just wait here indefinitely while all the people on the planet slowly rot.”

I really don’t like the way this is going. Either it means I have to go out and do things, like dealing with sick people. Or I have to stay here and be accused of forcing everyone to remain a prisoner on this ship.

“To be clear the slow rot is not an actual option?” I ask.

Día just glowers at me.

“Fine. Fine.” I say, as I start to get up from the bar.

“So far just the two of us are going to leave. Do not leave, do not open the doors for anything. Apparently, this is a potent airborne disease. We should be safe, so log as we continue to stay on the ship.”

“Are you going to be okay?” A random person asked.

“I will be with Kyle. So, I’ll be just fine. It is the rest of you that I am worried about at the moment. In the meantime, you are all to download the app that checks for this disease specifically and let us know if anyone here comes down with it.” Día said, her words setting off only a mild form of panic in the ship.

“Smooth move.” I say, once we are both past the decontamination chamber that exists in all ships to separate the main hull from the outside world.

“Better that they stay on the ship with a little bit of healthy fear, than they get anxious and come out to get infected.” Día said.

“I take it with that type of thinking you think this will be longer than a day?” I ask, realizing that this sounds like it will take more than a few hours to clear up. The amount of time we were supposed to be using to rest before we were to begin our runs tomorrow morning.

Día shrugged in that annoying way she had, when she didn’t want to answer and instead let you infer what you wanted from the statement.

“You know, that shoulder shrug is only cute so many times.”

“You think I’m cute?”

“Stop that.”

Día just smiled brightly, taking most of the sting out of her actions. Looking at her, I could tell she was a little frightened. Which was why I didn’t fight when she reached her elegantly gloved hand forward to grab my hand. “Thank you for coming. I don’t think I would have wanted to face this with anyone else.”

I blink.

“So, I’m your first choice as cannon fodder for protection against an alien flesh eating super disease, good to know. I like you too.” I say, giving her hand a gentle squeeze to relieve some of her tension.

“That’s not what I…”

“Stop right there.” A Beastkin guard in a full space suit said, as he held up a blaster rifle.

“Well, here is the welcome committee.” I say, as I hold up my hands and realize this is going to be a really long day.