Star Reach: Corebound

[The Hive Mind]

Open to anyone. All NPCs free to use.

Station: Zelta Corebound, Galtech Trading Outpost and Entertainment Complex | 3 Large Space Stations
Location: Ryloth System | Or Tuma Orbit
Approximate Population: 450,000, across three stations. 20 Levels to Each.
Status: Flu Outbreak?
Unknown Terminus Flux Infection - Passive Infection, Outbreak level 1, Minor.

Shuttles Arriving: Ryloth, XX7 Enterprises. | Lao-mon, System Security | Others Planned.
Shuttles Departing: Glee Anselm, Luxury Passenger Liner (Next) | Dac, Quarren Star-Sea Tours. (Queued) | AfEL, Group of Merchants (Planned)

Day 2.

The large Zelta Corebound stations were filled to the brim with three tiers of accommodation, named luxury, normal and practical. Practical being a nice way of saying a box with a bathroom, and somewhere to store your gear. Luxury being a 5-star hotel. There was gambling, plenty of food, general revelry, holosuites and people having a good time. Much of the facilities central core was for trading and brokering deals. There was a very loud central marketplace with a LOT of shouting going on, a few arguments and a few good deals to find from the stalls and shops. It was a busy place to walk or to stay, whereas the upper floors provided the luxury and the lower floors more practical spacer bars, hangers and engineers to find for the right price.

The facilities would often ferry people from one station to the other so they could have meetings, or generally engage in the different entertainment that each offered. It was a home away from home, hosted by twi-leks and loved by many. Many. Including a particular wildgrowth pathogen that had gotten aboard a shuttle from Byss, when a couple of transports had arrived to see what the fuss was about in the core. It always started slow.

The bacteria was obviously small, it had hitched aboard an emergency transport, which delivered a few wounded people to a nearby medical facility in the core before the facility was overrun. The injured were long taken care of, right before it had dropped off some engineering tools to assist another planet. Tools which had been picked up by a farmer. A farmer delivering dry grains for this station, to be made into soup and other foodstuffs, good meals to keep people warm on an empty stomach. While the injured were dropped off far from here, the bacteria they carried wasn't, and right now nobody was paying much attention to the kitchens dry storage. Things spread slowly, passed around and moved elsewhere.

Meanwhile aboard the Zelta Corebound One, Cryoside Bar. Food was served as normal. A few cases of minor colds had developed across the station, nothing serious, people were asking for something to give them a bit of a lift in mood. For now, the bartender looked up with a toothy grin at the next customer. He recommended some soup.

Cryoside Bar​

 

[Tera Lynx]

Tera Arrived at the station via commercial transportation. The People she was working with got the call about some flu symptoms floating around this station and figured it was a good solo job for her since she had been doing so well and wanted to stretch her wings a bit, so they sent her to go and investigate the report.

She came out of the space port and immediately had to ask for directions because the station was massive. she needed to find the security room and inform them of who she is and why she was there, that way she wouldn't have to do everything by herself and potentially step on someone's toes.

While she was looking for the office she got a good look around the entertainment sections of the station, seeing all the bright tempting lights and advertisements of hundreds of different things. She kept a trained eye out for environments where flu bugs would flourish.

It took her a good hour to find the main security office even with directions, but she finally found it and went in, introducing herself.
"Hello, I'm Tera Lynx. I'm a doctor and my firm received a call about the flu virus spreading in the station. I'm here to investigate and see if we can't find a cure for that."

[member="The Hive Mind"]

 

[The Hive Mind]

No, It’s never that simple.​

As well as the very busy marketplace and hangar that was too small for the traffic it had to handle. Tera would see air vents, heating devices, some dirty corridors on the lower decks, especially near the hanger. There were some poorer areas in the station where people were closer together, and a hydroponics bay where plants and animals were kept in close proximity.

The security office was high tech enough, not huge but at least a couple of dozen people around coordinating. There were holding cells in the back, and people going about their job. This was for a station of some 150,000, with the same on the other two stations, so there were enough people involved, you could guess several hundred all told across all decks, walking patrols or other checkpoints. The first person she talked to seemed way too busy, walking by with a polite smile, and a holo-clipboard, pointing further inward.

“Long trip?” [member="Tera Lynx"] One of the guys behind the desk was ready to break into a conversation. Young looking human. He seemed to be checking people in, taking reports, happy for a new face. Someone interrupted them before she could answer and passed a few technical schematics over which he had to file into a terminal. “I know that look. Flew halfway across the galaxy and still wanting to get started, but tired enough to drop.” He smiled. But that was short-lived, interrupted again by someone with the charm of a jawa. “ID.” One grey uniformed security guard asked to see hers bluntly, and whether she offered it or not, he nodded, carrying on his rounds. Seemingly considering ID’ing anyone here coming to treat flu a waste of time @All. Which was lax but sadly all too common in big corporate stations.

The desk clerk gave the guard a disapproving look, then resumed his welcome. “Sorry about that. Protocol.” He wrapped his fingers across the top of the desk, “So…. Tera is it? Well, they are very interested to meet you in the medical bay, it's through that door two doors down on your left.” He smiled again, “oh… and don’t mind the nurse, they ah, mean well.” What that cryptic advice was, was anyone’s guess. He'd give her another look before she left.

Assuming she came. The medical bay door was a bit stiff to open, taking a few presses of the button. Inside it was high tech enough, only maybe two dozen proper medical beds though, which was the problem, as each one of them was full at present. Several others sitting waiting. All the doctors had masks on, and before she could even get in, she was locked in a small pressure door. Sprayed with air before she could blink with a big hissing sound. Might have blown her hair about, who knows! There was a mask waiting on the wall for her, sterile gloves, hairnet and clothing covering if she needed them. Also.... a Jawa doctor? No a male jawa nurse waiting on the other side of the glass, who said nothing intelligible just made a series of noises. Ready to press the door control. He seemed excitable though, waving his hands in the air.

Thankfully the jawa wasn’t in charge, that was a mon calamari in a mask, his face obscured. Sitting by a bed, “What’s your specialty Miss,” he asked, very busy in his work on a man who looked pale. One of the first infected.

[member="Tera Lynx"]​

​

 

[Tera Lynx]

[member="The Hive Mind"]

Tera nodded politely to the busy people in the security office until she was finally addressed by the man behind the desk. She liked him instantly as he seemed to be the nicest guy there and wanted to help in spite of the interruptions.

She smiled and was about to respond when another security personnel stepped in and asked for her ID.
"Oh, yes sir! right here."
She quickly showed him the ID badge around her neck Identifying her as a doctor, even though she may have been one of the youngest doctors anyone had ever seen.
The guard moved on and she turned back to the handsome desk worker as he proceeded to apologize and direct her to the medical bay, taking the warning about the nurse in stride being no stranger to eccentric doctors and scientists.
"Thanks so much for the help!"

She took her leave of him and went directly to the medical bay. She had to admit to herself though that he was right about his assessment of her, she was really tired and needed to lay down but she didn't want to rest until she had a good idea of the situation so that her unconscious mind can work on solutions while she sleeps.

She waited through the airlock process and put on the protective equipment. Adjusting the mask over her face, putting on the gloves, stuffing her long hair into the hairnet, and the doctors smock. She saw the Jawa nurse one the other side of the airlock door saying something she couldn't understand, wishing she put her translator in her carry-on instead of with her luggage which was being taken to her room. She gave the nurse a thumbs up to open the door and after a moment of looking around was able to figure out who was in charge, approaching the Mon-Calamari.

When he asked her what her specialty was she realized that she must have really been expected, someone from the firm must have called ahead.
"I specialize in biology, but I'm also a medical Pathologist."

 

[The Hive Mind]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npH7-4cKLh4​

The Mon Calamari took his time, trying to keep the older farmer he was working with as comfortable as he could while running the tests. Tera would have to wait a short time for an answer, with only the Jawa excitably waving his arms and moving about. He was working too, just in a more haphazard way, even so, he ended up putting everything where it needed to be, somehow. All the patients got what they needed, probably more than they needed if Jawa tendencies were anything to go by. He was a good nurse, very switched on to all the technology around them and exactly what every indicator was going to say before it did.

Eventually, the Doctor looked up, and in a Mon Calamari way gave her a small bow. Biologist? That might be even more helpful. “Microbiologist or molecular by any chance?” Molecular being the molecules of the cell and Microbiologist being specialized in things like bacteria, which is what this happened to be. Putting down his instruments and taking a vial to a sample container, he asked her to follow.

First washing his hands thoroughly, there was a sterilizing smell about as he did so. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” The flux bacteria was under the microscope, if Tera zoomed down she might see the various viruses that called it home. The computer was not able to identify any of them. One of the many was most certainly the Terminus microbe itself, but nobody had passed on any data anywhere for that yet, save a few isolated files. “Don’t worry it's perfectly safe.” He’d come across nothing like it in his time. Only beginning to understand its nature. The bacteriophage a carrier for other viruses.

“I’m no viral expert. What do you make of it... Tera is it?” He realised he’d forgotten introductions himself, caught up in his work. “Doctor Vundark” he’d answer if she asked his name. Meanwhile, in the hangar, a shuttle launched and it wouldn’t be the last. The hours they worked might take them into the night… no coughs from the patients yet, definitely an immune reaction. It was a strange type of flu, presenting differently in each species that was infected here. There were Humans mostly, Rodians, a few Nautolan, a Quarren, a Defel, and a Twi'lek were all among those infected, as well as a few less well-known species. It did present as flu.

When Tera next looked up at the time, she might realise just how long they'd be working...

Day 3.

"Soup. Get your soup here while it's hot!"

Shuttles Arriving: Ryloth, XX7 Enterprises (Arriving). | Lao-mon, System Security (Day 4) | Rattak, Vigil Arena Spectators (Day 6)
Shuttles Departing: Dac, Quarren Star-Sea Tours. (Next) | AfEL, Group of Merchants (Planned)
Departed: Glee Anselm, Luxury Passenger Liner

[member="Tera Lynx"]​

 

[Tera Lynx]

[member="The Hive Mind"]

Tera was aware he was busy, so she helped out a little as he worked, handing him what he needed without him having to ask and helping him tend to the patients until they had a chance to talk.

She answered his first question. "Yes, I'm a Microbiologist." She followed him to the sample container and followed suit, washing her hands as he did and then looking where he indicated under the microscope. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” He asked her. Considering her experience she reasoned that she probably hadn't but that it might be similar to something she had seen. She removed her glasses to look in the microscope and zoomed in and out, analyzing the sample. She was able to identify some of the various aspects of the bacteria, but without a thorough study of each and every part of it, it looked like the common flu bacteria for the species it was taken from.

She removed her mask for a moment to speak. "I've seen things like it before, though unless there are more mature samples it looks just like a common flu case. There are carriers like it's a virus, and these viruses don't seem out of the ordinary. However, how is regular medication effecting it?" She replaced her mask and looked through the microscope again to study the bacteria some more. "It may be a good idea to attempt to treat the viruses before they mature."

She spent a good amount of time analyzing the viruses and applying different substances to see how they react, but so far the floating bacteria has escaped her notice. Before she knew it she had worked almost through the night with no rest and a whole shuttle ride to adjust to. She reasoned that it was time to force herself to stop and get some much needed sleep, perhaps she will find answers as her mind continued to unravel this mystery.

 

[The Hive Mind]

"Microbiologist, thank the force someone knows who to hire!" Corporate didn't always send the right people, today they had. “We haven’t had time to do secondary tests yet,” the older farmer was the earliest case and furthest along, so they had the best control group right here they were going to get, which might help them. “I expect some results tomorrow, maybe the next day.” The doctor seemed concerned but not panicked as he talked. The Jawa nurse was flapping his arms, trying to get the doctor to take a break, “yes ushkandi, I know.” Their small assistant shooing Tera to rest, meaning well but having this excitable energy about him, “thank you Tera, and don’t mind Ushkandi, he’s… well.” The Mon calamari turned back to his work without finishing that sentence.

When Tera’s fatigue caught up to her. There would be the hssssssing of air from decontamination. She’d find a pale older Kage with a limp waiting outside the medical bay, probably working the night shift or just too many shifts. Near human, pale skin naturally and not ill. “Don’t let them work you too long dearie.” She said with a smile, “oooh and here’s a credit stick for the day, and…. hmmmm” she looked through a small stack of datacards, “they erm… hold on there,” she hummed a tune. “Oh yes. That’s it!” Clearing her throat, “they gave me that for you.” Tera was given a room key card, payment for her day and some quarters on deck 6. Which were not luxury but were not the cheap box rooms either.

Not many people were about in the corridors on the way, assuming she went somewhere. Either for food or rest. There was an old man coughing in a particular corridor, but it was just a minor tickle in his throat and a runny nose. Most people looked completely fine. A few couples walking arm in arm, a few traders arguing was quite common. Most people headed for bed, children sleeping, families and generally people going about their lives. Either way, whether it was to a certain Cryoside bar serving soup, some more upmarket entertainment at a casino or luxury restaurant she had some credits in her hand, and a place she could sleep. There were even some nice holosuites with ambient music going, and people resting back to watch the stars, a few had even fallen asleep there comfortably amidst the ambiance.

Either that night if she stayed up or the next morning, a certain young desk clerk would have a message waiting for her to read over the holonet. Accessible on any communicator she carried or terminal provided back at her now quarters on Deck 6, overlooking the hydroponics bay and all the green plant life. “Hey. Tera! Been converting one of the hangars into a makeshift hospital site. It’s helped us isolate the flu. Doc was happy that the station admin went for it.” The picture of the desk clerk looked like he was wanting to say more, just to have an excuse to talk to her. “Captain says we can’t detain people here when they want to leave they do.” A sad reality of it. “So um, see you later or tomorrow, whenever you get this.” Obviously just using the excuse to call her up.

[member="Tera Lynx"]​

 

[Tera Lynx]

[member="The Hive Mind"]

When she left the medbay she gratefully accepted the credit chip and room card from the woman with a nod. She said a quick thank you and walked away, she desperately needed sleep and she had to keep her immune system up if she wanted to remain healthy enough to be of use here. She took the shortest way she could find to her room, not paying too much attention to the people about at that hour. All she could think of was crashing in her bed.

She made it to deck 6 and found her room, inserting the keycard the door opened and she saw her luggage was already there. Even so, without even changing she just walked to the bed and flopped down. She counted two seconds before she was asleep.

When she woke up it was already late in the day, she had slept in on purpose, deciding to let her body have a natural adjustment and recuperation. She saw she had a message waiting for her on her comlink so she got up and took a look at it. She smiled as he awkwardly stumbled through his message to her, but then she realized what might have been his reasons for why, and a pit opened in her stomach as the concept of casual socializing was brought to her mind. This guy likes her... and that means he's going to want to talk about... other stuff... Stuff that she has historically failed miserably at talking or carrying on a conversation about.

She shook herself. It was only a message, she could respond later. for now, she was really hungry, so after a quick shower she got dressed and went to one of the various eating places, buying some of their famous soup.
She felt that now was a good time to go over her mental notes on what she knew of the situation. It's a virus going around, probably airborne as well as salvific if flu symptoms are anything to go by. she hoped there would be more to go on when she finished her soup and went to the new med bay to see if those results came in. She had her own theories that she obviously kept to herself, as she often did around her colleagues when it came to her wild imagination.

She finished her soup and went down to the new medical bay, going through the decontamination airlock and putting on her sanitary equipment. She went in and greeted the doctor and the nurse. "Sorry I'm late. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on. Did we learn anything new?"

 

[The Hive Mind]

After the hissing finished from the decontamination. Stimcaf was certainly waiting outside just a button press away, couldn’t bring it in though. The Jawa had finished a good mug full before following her in, which was probably not going to help with his excitable jawa arm flappery.

The doctor had his head focused on a microscope as expected. Then he realised she was talking to him! Lost in his work as ever. “Oh, Hello there. Please do Sit down Sit down.” He seemed engaged like he’d made a minor breakthrough, “A great deal Tera,” the Mon Calamari cleared his throat, swirling his chair around to face her. “The bacteria seem to be resisting antibotics, as if they were caused by other micro-organisms.” Which unknown to him was commonly the case with fungal based bacteria. The jawa made a mewling noise, like he was unhappy. The Mon Calamari sighed, “but our captain in his wisdom, wants them treated with the strongest antibotic we have.”

He seemed at a loss for the sense of it, doing so for a bacteria such as this would probably only increase the resistance to the antibacterial, “they say even a temporary cure is better than none.” Supposedly getting people home was more important than actually fully eradicating the bacteria itself. Typical corporate attitude.

The jawa moved to attend to the most ill patient, the farmer who was a few days further along than most here, his immune system response was considerably more pronounced, so his bed was not only fully sealed but also shielded now, and he was on oxygen, sedated. “Patient zero’s condition rapidly deteriorated last night, it seemed one of the secondary viruses as you feared had taken hold. Explosive growth after a certain point. I’ve been focusing on it the best I am able.” Internally by now the man was showing strange adaptations, but without deeper scans today it would be hard to spot what they were. How many of his crew were the same?

The Jawa with them had turned on a large 3d model, Virus #ID 4421 “I will not lie to you Tera, this is beyond what i've seen before.” He didn’t have the first idea about the virus carried by the bacteria. How to begin to treat that was a mystery. It was a lot of work for just three of them and a night nurse to do by themselves, there were other medical staff, but no other viral specialists. "In your professional opinion how would you proceed now?" More staff? Tighter controls? The number of cases were now at 30 documented. Still a minor outbreak over a population of 450,000.

[member="Tera Lynx"]​

 

[Tera Lynx]

[member="The Hive Mind"]

"Let me have a look". She goes to investigate what he said to see if she could notice anything extra. In the recent sample she could see that the viruses themselves have not significantly progressed, but something else had spread out. As she looked at the sample under the microscope she watched one of the bacteria microbes separate into two separate microbes. She didn't entirely know what this meant, but she was getting ideas.

The bacteria was spreading while the viruses were doing very little but causing symptoms, from this she deduced that this was indeed an infection with a very rapid incubation and reproduction rate.

"I agree that the admins need to accept the idea that this has the potential to get serious, and they need to get serious first. More staff is always a must, but we can make do for now. Tighter controls is an absolute, if security would get on board with it."

She had an idea and suddenly ran over to the initial patient, running a scan on his vitals, specifically looking for that bacteria and how it operated inside a living victim. She saw the bacteria was spreading, but it was not even close to a threat. Heavier anti-biotics could slow the infection, or even remove it if it was anything like a normal infection. "I think using heavy anti-biotics is actually our best course of action right now. This bacteria that is spreading is foreign, so it must have come from somewhere. Probably on station."

She adjusted her glasses and picked up a med scanner, using the equipment she targeted that specific type of bacteria/infection and coded it into the scanner, then she looked at Doctor Vundark. "I will need you to watch this patient for a while and try to determine how rapidly the infection reproduces. If this turns into a pandemic, we need to know how much time we have to put a stop to it before it fully matures. Also look for this bacteria in the other patients as well and try to measure any differences in reaction to it among the other races. I'm going to take this scanner up to security and see if they can't perform a search for the source of the bacteria." After confirming this plan with the doctor she quickly cycled through the decontamination lock with the scanner and rushed to the security offices.

She arrived at the desk and saw the cute security guard from yesterday, realizing she never called him back. She quickly fought down the surge of awkwardness and quickly got to business. "The medical staff has made a breakthrough that urgently needs to be reported. We believe we found out at least part of the nature of the flu symptoms going around. It's a quickly breeding infection that's coming from somewhere on this station." She showed him the scanner. "This scanner is programmed to track that bacteria. I may be overreacting, but I think we need to get this solved quickly to keep it from spreading. Can you report this in? We need the help of station security to find out where this is coming from. Investigate the patients and figure out where each of them had been or what they were doing before they came down with the symptoms."

 

[The Hive Mind]

Vundark hmm’d about antibiotics. “You and the captain concur,” The doctor was taken aback when she suggested a pandemic. “Do you really think it the multiplicity of infection that serious?” Meaning how infectious it was compared to its life cycle. He was pondering that question when Tera left the room. To him, it wasn’t that infective. At least it didn’t present that way, otherwise surely there would be more cases?

Their Jawa nurse was flapping his arms about something as she left, and the doctor went over to investigate. Maybe they could trace her proposed thoughts, if this turned about to be a local bacteria, they would have to deal with it locally not just send people on their way. “Thank you Tera,” he waved as she left.

In the office, the desk clerk was still smiling regardless, if only to raise the awkwardness level. There were thankfully several people about which kept the talk entirely professional, else a supervisor might quirk an eyebrow, in this case it was a Chiss supervisor on duty nearby. Grey security patrolled sedately, nobody yet aware of the seriousness developing below. As contagion was still a few days away, at least in anyone that had been infected aboard the station.

The desk clerk took her request to heart, he wanted to help if only to impress her. He also had to think of the captain’s glare if he were to try, but his bravery won out. “I’ll try but, thirty cases I don’t know if the captain is going to..” his cheeks pressed tight, “if he’s going to take it seriously or not.” He hated saying that last part as he’d wanted to give her good news. Actually, there were a lot more than 30 people infected, but nobody would know that for a few more days. Those infected while aboard would only become contagious after that point.

As if on cue a first officer appeared, a Chiss with a head for business. Blue-skinned, very logical and very official. He’d seemed to be watching the pair talk, “if you wish to make the case to the captain, we’ll need more than maybes miss Lynx but…. I sympathize, truly I do.” His polished boots had walked many similar lackluster messages back and forth between these halls, “to that end,” he cleared his throat, “I have set up a temporary holding area for any new cases, we’ve converted a hangar bay three to hold them.”

“But when it is their time to leave. Leave they must.” He scratched his cheek, “Unless you were to help locate the source, then I’m sure I could persuade our stubborn captain to take stricter measures.” He emphasized the word strict as if he’d enjoy locking some of the more stubborn or headstrong guests up. “Though you understand whatever you find, we are not financially liable for.” He cleared his throat again.

Where would she start? The markets, maybe a trail there for the tools. The hydroponics bay. The poorer areas. The nightclubs. Restaurants. Lots of potential options. "Hey if you need a hand, erm, yeah." The clerk offered. Time to make a hasty exit maybe?

[member="Tera Lynx"]
​

 

[Tera Lynx]

[member="The Hive Mind"]

Tera was grateful that he didn't try to talk personal stuff and kept it professional, even so she felt like a complete coward as even his handsome smile was perfect. She internally felt guilty for not being a sociable person, if only to have a chance at someone like this guy.

She mentally snapped back to the task at hand and listened to what the two security men had to say and reflexively rubbed her eyes underneath her glasses, something she did whenever she had to deal with high officials or legal red tape. She addressed the Chiss officer.

"In the medical field, or in any field of science, theories are always based on substantial evidence. I am the lead microbiologist in the med bay, and believe me I do know it is early to call this a pandemic right now. But the fact is that there are people getting sick, and it's not acting like normal bacteriophages."

She knew that what she was saying was probably way over the officers head, and that was what she wanted. She didn't want to go into great detail about something like this that she didn't really understand, so she did what she normally did and just overwhelmed them with medical jargon that they couldn't understand.

"I think if you could at least convince the captain to declare this a stage one crisis, that would be a big help in preventing more spreading symptoms. And as for locating the source of the infection, I was hoping that security would be able to perform a more thorough investigation than I could, since you have the manpower and the means to investigate the people infected and all the locations they may have been. Even if this proves to not be dangerous, then at least we have dealt with the problem and no more people will get infected."

She sighed and removed her glasses for a moment, looking at the two security officers. She had no idea how to perform an investigation or a search. So she really hoped they wouldn't make her go out and find the source by herself, taking her away from the work in the med bay. She showed them the scanner again. "The signature for the bacteriophages you are looking for is already in this scanner, you can copy that signature over to more scanners if you like to spread out the search more, but searching and finding things is your expertise, not mine."

She replaced her glasses and waited for a negative or affirmative. Being honest with herself, she didn't even know if the bacteria was bad or not, all she knew is that it's not regular bacteria or viruses that people or aliens normally had. It was new and alien and she had no idea what it could do, but she wanted to be on the safe side and get this under control quickly so that they could study it at their leisure in a controlled environment.