Medical check

Leaving engineering behind, Dustin debated his options as he walked towards the nearest lift. Of the two, Bleu seemed like the most sensible choice to take first; the medic was usually busy handling one crisis or another by the nature of her role, so he rarely had a chance to visit without getting in her way. The other women would hopefully still be together by the time he was done in the medbay, and then he could end his tour by pampering Emely a little bit before everyone gathered for dinner.

With that in mind, he thumbed the control panel and waited as the lift hummed it’s way between the floors. As he travelled, he realized that there was another valid reason to check in with the Queri medic - he’d not a physical check up in quite some time. In fact, thinking about it, he wasn’t sure the slime woman had actually reviewed his general health since he’d returned from the frozen outpost and it’s weird monsters.

Any thoughts of getting a personal check-up were quashed however when he arrived at the medbay to find not the quiet environment he’d expected but a hive of activity. Bleu stood in the middle of the room, her tone clipped as she directed her subordinates with all the efficiency of an orchestral conductor. Noticing his arrival, she barely paused to form an additional hand that pointed to a seat before she returned to the chaos.

Dustin sat where he’d been directed and watched as multiple members of his crew from a range of teams moved through the room as if the medbay had turned into a conveyor belt of junior officers. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong - they all looked perfectly healthy, but Bleu had her staff sweeping each newcomer one at a time with a scanner, some being allowed to leave instantly while others were directed into a queue for the privacy-glass chambers.

As soon as she could, the medic handed over the orchestration of the entire mess to one of her subordinates and walked over to join Dustin. “I take it you hadn’t got the message I sent to the bridge given your expression,” she said, sinking tiredly into the chair next to him. “It’s more or less resolved now anyway, thankfully. Though we might want to make a change or two to the standing orders in future.”

Dustin frowned. “What exactly is happening here? What was there to be resolved?”

The slime woman sighed and gestured at the remaining line of people waiting to be processed. “It seems our lifestyle has had an influence on our crew. To put it bluntly, most of them are banging one another; it’s to be expected that there will be intimate relationships on a craft this size. The issue though is how they opted to avoid the same results of that intimacy that several of our lovers have been blessed with.”

Her words didn’t make much sense. Dustin scratched his head, raising an eyebrow as he asked “contraceptives? How could contraceptives be an issue?”

Bleu grimaced as she explained. “In order to avoid embarrassment leading to complications, we had two methods of getting a contraceptive spray set up on board - either visit my team, or request one from the automat. Technically, the automat doesn’t store any - to make it cross-species effective especially with you humans and your fun genetics it has to be custom mixed each time by the computer. Which is normally not an issue, but recently if you recall the computer had… problems.”

Dustin’s face paled. “The Fractal infestation? I thought we’d cleared all of that?”

His chief medical officer sighed and gestured vaguely to the queue. “We had. The issue is that during all that downtime when half the systems weren’t running, a whole lot of people had time on their hands, and some of them decided to use that time… well, I don’t have to spell it out. Thankfully - or possibly insidiously - none of the compounds the Fractal infested mixer produced were toxic as such. Actually, they even worked as originally intended, none of this lot have any unplanned pregnancies to worry about, thankfully. The issue is what else those compounds did. Some, and for whatever reason it is only some, of the people who took the compound or their sexual partners had some interesting changes to illnesses already in their bodies.”

“That sounds rather like a plague of STDs, love,” Dustin said gently, his eyes flickering along the line of people still awaiting treatment with concern. “Is there any risk to the rest of the ship?”

Bleu shrugged. “I’ve identified everyone that came into contact with the compound. No diseases show any signs of having developed anything other than body fluid based transfer, so it’s only a risk if they’re fucking other people before we give them treatment. Which at the moment shouldn’t be an issue either; once I’ve got this initial cluster under control I’ll have a word with whoever is on the bridge and sweep the sensors over the rest of the crew just in case anyone’s lying about their promiscuity.”

Dustin had only planned on spending a half hour in the medbay. Reassuring himself that there was no further risk to the crew from the Fractal contamination took longer - in the end, it was only Bleu’s insistence that he was getting in the way that had him leaving her to her work. Opting to try and clear his head, he took a lift up to the garden; even if the other women he wanted to check on weren’t present, the green space and flowers would hopefully act as a contrast to the sterility and shuffling queue of blushing crew that had occupied Bleu’s domain.

Late afternoon sun from the artificial lighting warmed his skin the instant he stepped into the garden. The gentle scent of distant flowers filled his nose, and he found his shoulders relaxing almost immediately. Pausing just inside the threshold to the green space, Dustin closed his eyes and let the peace and quiet roll over him before beginning to meander around in search of the trio Yaerwen had suggested would be there.

He found them sitting near to the sapling that he’d planted with Yaerwen what felt like an eternity ago. The butterfly woman was the most obvious of the three, her wings catching the light as she moved around the tree and the other two, tablet clicking as she took photo after photo.

Defia meanwhile had set up an easel and was painting - that much wasn’t surprising, really, although the subject matter was - Jaisyl was sitting cross legged next to the tree, fabric and needle in hand and a basket of sewing supplies nearby as she worked.

All three women looked up as Dustin approached, Aricia pausing in her constant picture-taking to smile in welcome before resuming her work. Since he didn’t appear to be breaking the flow of their art, Dustin took a moment to settle on a spot where he could talk without getting in Defia’s sightline to her subject. Then, he asked them softly how they were all doing.

Aricia paused again, her wings fluttering to help her hold an angle to get a picture that encompassed all three of the others before she replied. “I’m doing great, Dusty. I’ve actually got a job to do now - there was a request from EarthGov for images of what we do out here that Meli and Emely forwarded to me, so now I get to take pictures of the crew officially and then package them up with some of the ones we’ve taken of places we’ve been and send them to your homeworld for press releases. Isn’t that exciting?”

Dustin couldn’t help but smile at her joy. After everything the Lieviran had endured at the hands of the Fractals, for her to find a place she fit not just as a passenger but as a part of the crew was delightful to behold. Before he could reply however, Defia interjected. “Statement. I am currently concerned about our destination, given the loss of Fractal craft in transit. I have discussed it with Rye, and will spend the last jump in a shielded section of engineering just in case. Addendum. I wish to make the jump regardless, please do not ask me to stay behind.”

The others glanced at her as she spoke, before Dustin rose and crossed to his void-black lover. Wrapping an arm around her carefully so as to not knock her painting, he kissed her gently. “Of course. I’m sorry I didn’t think to talk to you about it sooner. Whatever protection Rye thinks is worthwhile, get it sorted. Any resources you need. And we don’t leave anyone behind, ever…”

At that point, Jaisyl gave a cough. Dustin glanced at her, worried she was about to chide him again for being overly close with his lover, but to his surprise she looked slightly unsure of herself, embarrassment plain on her face. “Dustin… as far as I am concerned, I feel I…” she began before trailing off. Then she started again, “I wish to ask if you might consider discussing…” again she halted, before slapping her cheeks and trying for a third time, the words coming out in a tumble. “I would like to spend some time with you. I’ve spoken with the others, and they told me about your ‘date nights’ - something like that, please.” Then she blushed as she realized what she’d said and shook both her hands and head rapidly. “Not a date though! I mean, I don’t…”

Dustin couldn’t help but chuckle at how flustered she was getting. “Alright, your highness. If you want a not-a-date meeting of some sort, I’ll speak with the ladies and find a time I can fit you in.”