Part 1: The Breach

As the only physician on board, the Medical Wing had basically become his office and contained many of his personal items, including a few journals, leisure books, and a picture of him smiling with his parents at his college graduation. Normally, when the tech-heavy talk between the other crew members became a bit overwhelming, he would retreat back here for a quick nap or some easy reading. But right now, he was on a mission.

He began to check his own vital signs. He felt his wrist for his radial pulse: 120. A bit too fast. Anxiety, maybe? Stress? He slipped the automated blood pressure cuff around his bicep. After a few quick squeezes, the display read: 138/87. A bit elevated but nothing crazy...could also be stress. After a bit of searching, he found the digital thermometer and slipped it under his tongue. Thirty seconds later a beep signaled that it was finished: 39.1. That can't be right. He tried again, and after the beep read again: 39.2.

So he was tachycardic, hypertensive, and had a fever. Back on Earth this had all the implications of an infection. But here, on the Falcon Scott, that was impossible. The entire ship had been eradicated. The crew had gone through a painstaking amount of detail in becoming as sterile as possible. After submersion in numerous toxic substances, UV light baths, and broad spectrum antibiotics resulting in some rather unpleasant diarrhea, the entire crew was as close to sterile as could be. The ship itself and all the supplies onboard had gone through similar procedures ensuring its sterility. Unless....

Dr. Banks hurried over to the other half of the medical wing, the work bench. He prepared a glass slide and set it along the sterile surface. With one hand he tightened his shirt sleeve into a makeshift tourniquet and then held it in place using his teeth. He gave his antecubital vein on the inside of his elbow a few swift taps and watched it engorge with blood. Jesus, I look like a god-damn junky! he thought. With a steady hand, he threaded a 22 gauge needle into his vein and withdrew into his syringe the thick, dark red blood indicating that he had hit paydirt. He released his teeth and his shirt relaxed and his vein returned to normal. With great haste he placed a bandage over the area and got back to work.

He took the syringe and placed a drop of blood onto the sterile glass slide and dropped a thin slide cover on top. Carefully, he placed the slide underneath the viewing eye of his microscope.

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