Mastery of Isolation

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Xe smiled even in the face of the good Doctor's rebuke. If Landis left thinking the Zeltron just another slaver it wouldn't be anything new. If she were an intelligence officer this would be about as deep cover as you got -- an accomplice, complicit in numerous crimes, silent in reporting obvious criminal activity, and so on. Thankfully, circumstances were unlikely to force Xe to punish a slave before Landis -- an act that would probably set the other woman off. But Xe had even done that to blend in. A sordid affair.

"What makes you think they aren't?" she replied calmly to Aggie's comment about her luck.

And Landis didn't seem taken with Léon and Xe's banter either. In fact, a Zeltron might start getting ideas about these two. Like perhaps they were partners in more than one way? Or at least one of them wishes they were? The gentle side the Doctor refused to display before the filth crawling throughout the station.

"I'm confident you will," Xe replied with a slight bow. "I won't be long. And Doctor," she paused with one hand on the door frame, "I know you have the authority to go wherever you will; but please, exercise discretion." If Landis pissed off the wrong people, Xe would only be able to do so much to fish them out of trouble.

With a parting smile the Zeltron drifted from the chamber. Along the way she made a mental note to have a droid accompany her. If this was the result of the absent guest -- perhaps dead from being undiagnosed and untreated -- then the chances of infection seemed greater to Xe entering their room.
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie shrugged to herself while Lady Sheu-fuh exited, presumably to go find out a possible cause for this outbreak. As she looked down to the patients who were now hopefully going to start recovering within the week, or perhaps days to come, Landis sighed and shut off the medical readouts, tucking them away and putting them back into her partner's pack. Now they had to find a way to treat whatever number of slaves were here with the medical equipment they had...which was going to involve a whole wealth of anti-parasitic medicine.

"How are we going to treat all these people? We're a hazmat team, not a damned clinic."

"Thought you said 'not a word'."

Doctor Landis sometimes wanted to punch her second in command in the face. But she couldn't. At least, not without getting into trouble. Maybe she could get away with it while they were on mission. Oh wait, that wasn't going to happen. Helmet cameras and recording devices. Speaking of which...

Aggie pulled her helmet off her belt and looked at it, checking how much battery life the camera had left. Not much. She powered it off for now and nodded to Léon, who did the same to his own. Best save that in case they were here for a while. Documenting this was going to be important, especially something so old and not exactly a common disease nowadays. She sat down on the ground and shut her eyes, thinking about what to do.

"Léon, go check on the other infected people, check their conditions and help the worst off that you can save. The rest...I'll think about it."

He was about to leave, but she added an afterthought.
"And wear your gear. If this is something I'm wrong about...we could all get quarantined. I'll stay with these two, wait for the Zeltron to come back."

He nodded and set off for the rest of the slaves that were sick.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Xe crossed her arms. Then lifted an eyebrow. Then sighed and narrowed her eyes at the sealed door. "What in a Sith's wet dream is keeping that damn droid?" the Zeltron hissed to no one in particular. Had it stopped to ask the man's life story? Damn protocol droids always trying to appear more sentient than they had right. Guess it wasn't their fault, they were programmed that way, but it was hard to be angry at some faceless, corporate programmer.

As she stood there another sensation began to come over the pink woman standing in the small courtyard. One she'd felt many times before. Her hands smoothed out the front of her dress before she began to push it aside.

It was the sense of the hunter becoming the hunted.

Her fingers slid over the tops of the knives tucked against the outside of her right leg. On the opposite side of the slit in her dress, none ever saw and few found the hidden weapons. They slid free with barely a sound. The Zeltron ducked forward, her leg whipped out from under her to sweep at the face of whoever was approaching unannounced. Blue eyes flashed when she caught glimpse of the man's face; this was no case of mistaken intention with that leer so firmly attached to his features.

"Ah," the man that looked otherwise ordinary laughed as he narrowly avoided the blow across the face. "Not as helpless as you appear."

The knives were cradled between her fingers, as Xe took up a defensive stance. "And you aren't as dead as I thought you would be."

The man shrugged with a smile. "Death no longer holds sway over me, Zeltron. You, on the other hand... it will be such a terrible waste, but I can't wait for you to die slowly like the rest, can I?" His hand shot out toward her face, not interested in prolonging their conversation.

One knife was flicked forward, her left hand snatched it out of the air. The blade slashed vertically along the exposed palm. "I'm not that kind of girl."

A sharp and loud hiss of pain followed as he retracted his bleeding appendage. "After what I found, you're nothing but a meal to me, girl." He reached for the blaster at his side.

Several minutes passed, though to those treating the sick they were not any more important than the rest that'd passed since Xe left. The terminal in the chamber where the doctors had been soon flickered to life, and Xe's voice came in over the intercom, "Republic, the carrier is humanoid. Watch your backs."

A bloody corpse lay motionless on the floor ten feet away. So much for immortality, delusional wretch. There was the problem of another like him, however, and that concerned Xe. Not because it might be with the slavers necessarily, but because of how the good Doctor might react. The Zeltron turned to hurry back hoping she wouldn't find them doing anything rash.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Léon walked down the halls, without much to do except look for wherever the hell he was supposed to go. Which he didn't even know where that was. 'Go check on the other infected people'. Damn that lady sometimes. She gets so focused on one damn thing and doesn't think about anything else. But he wouldn't trade her for anyone else, in the end; the best person in her field by far--as limited and specialized as it may be.

He turned a corner and found a body as the Zeltron's voice flooded over the intercom, ducking into a side room and clearing it as he tapped into comms with Aggie. Watch your backs? Did she mean this 'carrier' was looking to kill people? He exhaled in his mask as he spoke, the headset crackling to life in Landis' ear.

"Did you get that?"

"Yeah. I'm putting on my gear now."

Aggie looked at the two and then sealed her mask, pulling her blaster to her shoulder and zipping up the medical pack with one hand, slinging it over a shoulder. She clicked on her light and her helmet cam, steadying her breathing and shutting the door to the two behind her as she looked around and began searching the station for a familiar face.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Down a blade, Xe darted through the station with a blade in each hand. Normally she would have plucked the weapon from the corpse, but whatever was inside of him she wanted no where near herself. The blood on the knife tainted the blade with no quick way to cleanse it. Hopefully there was just one more 'carrier' of this disease prowling about; at least then two blades should be enough to put it down.

Her blue eyes slid side to side occasionally as she flew by intersections. Assassins didn't get killed because they were sloppy; not ones that had survived a few contracts, anyway.

Despite the precautions, Xe managed to avoid encountering... whatever the hell it was. A partner? A victim? Just another host it'd spread to? The Zeltron didn't even know what it was. Talkative as the other man had been, the specifics had escaped his tongue. Guess whatever it was knew enough to shut up about the important bits -- so the Republic didn't wipe the rest of its kind from the galaxy. Sounded 'old' though. Maybe something found in some ruin? Perhaps sealed away, and unwittingly freed?

All thoughts that didn't matter. Xe slowed as the Doctor swept into view. When she closed the distance, the pink woman tried to keep the story short, "One of the clients became infected with something. This disease might be the side effect of it... feeding. And I think there's another one on this station." The last bit she'd already confessed with her warning, but explaining it further still had Xe on edge. Hopefully Landis wouldn't jump to conclusions like the slavers had earlier on -- there was no need to 'kill them all' just yet.

"What do we need to find it?" When it came to medicine and disease, Xe was hardly anyone of an expert than any other person would be. Doctor Landis knew her field; there was no shame in deferring to someone obviously more experienced than yourself on a matter.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie trusted Léon to handle himself and do what he had to do--he wasn't happy about being on a creepy ass space station alone looking for a bunch of sick people. But he had a better mental resilience--he'd seen more screwed up stuff than she had in her lifetime, that was for sure. Her helmet light, though not entirely necessary, gave her some kind of reassurance that if something bad did happen to the power, she wasn't going to be completely 'in the dark'.

The Zeltron came down the hall, rambling about a client getting infected and...feeding? Interesting. That wasn't their disease at all. It was something else. She stopped and took a full breath from her mask to think. How could they catch something like this? How could they? There had to be at least a hundred people on this station. Bad news.

Aggie sighed and pulled out a spare radio, handing it to the Zeltron.
"Don't lose this..."

"The best we can do to find...'it' is to literally search the station. If it's looking to infect other people...or feed, then it's going to heading for people that aren't sick already. Show me."

She tapped into her comms to Léon.
"How's the search for the sick people?"

"Found them, Doc..I'll, uh, start working on them now."

"Anything else I need to worry about?"

"No ma'am."
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Spare radio in hand, the Zeltron regarded the Doctor in the moment it took for Landis to state the obvious. Pretending to be a mere slaver could really grate on a woman's nerves sometimes. What separated a professional from the rest was the ability to suffer such indignities, however. At least that's what Xe told herself frequently.

There was a drawn out silence after Landis proposed how they should move forward. 'Show me?' Up until this point the carriers had fed on the slaves; possibly whenever they served food or were caught alone somewhere. That was what Xe had reasoned at least. Whatever the contact was they may not have even realized what had happened. It would explain how no one had come forward or just happened to been discussing the same set of circumstances leading to their condition. Would they know they were now in danger? That one of them was dead? Or had this all been orchestrated to gain access to someone or something more important?

"Follow me," Xe replied as she turned to lead the way.

The first place they would have to check was unavoidable regardless of its merits. Xe was still acting on behalf of the slavers, and they would demand attention given the circumstances. So that was where the Zeltron led Landis as she'd instructed -- straight to the collection of suites where the wealthy or powerful on the station had congregated.

At the threshold, Landis' guide turned to look back at her once more. "These are the employers. Please be cautious, Doctor. If anything should happen the men and women on the Republic vessel could not arrive soon enough to be of any assistance." The candid-camera version of warning Landis not to push her authority too far. She'd be dead and cold by the time backup arrived.

With the code punched into the terminal, the doors shot open. "Welcome, Doctor, to paradise." The Zeltron's eyes squeezed shut with how hard she smiled. No, nothing at all sarcastic about calling this an idyllic haven. Surely the sentients inside were absolute angels of society.

When the ladies stepped inside, however, a male Rodian stormed up to them. A finger jabbed in Xe's direction as he spoke, "You? What have you been doing? It has spread here! The Zygerrian, he has sealed himself away from us. How long before we all grow sick and die of this disease?"

"Calm yourself, sir. We have identified the disease and the Doctor can treat it." Xe's eyes slid to the side toward the other woman. "Isn't that right, Doctor?"

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Yes, that was all that Agrafena could professionally devise in a short span of time. There was no give-all get-all surefire method, no 'bio-scanner' that could just pinpoint the exact location of a carrier--that is, not in her possession, though something like that would make missions like this eons easier than they really were. It didn't take a mastermind to realize that Lady Sheu-fuh was not satisfied with her response, but what else could she possibly say? Yell loudly and search for the bodies? That wouldn't go well at all, not with anyone here.

Especially since they were entering 'paradise'. What looked like luxury suites flooded her vision as she took a breath from her mask and noted how she wouldn't be able to get help fast enough for her to avoid getting atomized. She was more of the peaceful type, though--do no evil, more or less. Léon was the medic without morals, lost to the battles he had won and lost, as with the friends. Aggie would be nice, at least till someone tried to slap a slave collar over her neck and call her a Pantoran.

A Rodian approached, very clearly pissed off. He yelled at the Zeltron, and even through the mask filters Landis could smell the rotten egg stench of Rodian skin. She tried not to say anything that would get her into more trouble and just stayed silent until she was referred to by the Zeltron Diplomat herself.

"Yes, but it would be of great help for some supplies to be spared. We tend to have trouble carrying the stock of an entire medical frigate on our backs--plus there were a lot more people to deal with than what was expected."

Aggie understood Rodese to know what was probably going to come a few sentences down the road. Greedy scalefaces.

As for Léon, he seemed to have made himself busy, judging by the helmet cam that was focused on someone's neck while he injected a syringe. Good man. She'd check in with him in a bit.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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"Supplies?" The Rodian's large eyes fixed on the Doctor as the woman spoke. "We need those here too," his voice a bit guarded and wary of the idea. "There isn't much anyway. The Zygerrian controls everything around here. Where we can go. Who we see. What we get. Normally none of us complain because in the end we get what we want." Today was a special day, unfortunately. What they wanted was to leave. Get as far away from this mess as possible.

He turned to look back at the larger area behind him for a moment. "I could convince the others to part with what we have," he added after a moment's thought. "If you can get us out of here." His hands spread out to either side as he turned back to Landis. "Whatever you need. Fair trade, yes?" Normally credits would be foremost on his mind, but escaping isolation was worth its weight in the rarest of phrik now.

Xe remained silent as her attention shifted from the Rodian to the Doctor. It was her emergency to command. If the slavers were willing to play along with her, the Zeltron infiltrator among them wasn't going to rock that boat. Far as everyone was concerned it was a communicable disease that would kill them all. It'd be interesting to see how Landis responded to the opportunity.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie couldn't quite understand why the Rodian was saving the supplies for this spot...especially since technically the slaves were still 'here too'--and these ridiculously wealthy and privileged idiots couldn't spare even a syringe? That was outrageous. 'The Zygerrian' controlled everything, did it? Well, in that case, Landis was really keen on paying him a visit. As for this Rodian, who somehow grew some sense of reason despite living in an authoritarian slaver regime, eventually gave in, though. In return for safe passage off. Sure, that could be arranged, though she wouldn't guarantee he wouldn't be apprehended later.

"That's fair. Deal. I'll get you out of here once this disease is contained."

She looked toward the Zeltron and then back to the Rodian.
"Mind if I talk to Lady Sheu-fuh for a moment? It has to do with some of the patients we saw."

Once he left, or they moved out of earshot, she lowered her voice, still heavily filtered by the mask.
"I think I'd like to pay this Zygerrian a visit. Willing to lose his entire business instead of distributing a couple of medical supplies seems a bit off...even for Zygerrians."

Landis put a hand up to her headset and keyed the push to talk.
"Specialist, how are your patients? Supplies? We're arranging for some more stuff to help those in the other decks."

"The worst off are treated, but I can't say anything good about the others. It's bad."

"Do what you can. Medical supplies should be on their way...else I'll take the equipment down myself."

"Copy."
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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The Rodian's lips pressed together for a moment at Landis saying they could leave once the disease was contained. A slight discoloration of the skin passed quickly, but surfaced all the same. Wait? So they could get infected? They wanted out of there now and were willing to set aside everything else to secure that passage... and Landis wanted them to wait!

Without responding, the man turned and strode back toward the rest of the group before he came to a stop three steps later. As the women talked, he turned and averted course. One of them could be infected. Anyone could be infected. It wasn't taking him. He'd get the doctor her supplies, but he would be caught operating a charity.

Xe waited for the Rodian to leave before she turned to face the Republic Doctor. "If you expected the Rodian to demand a fortune, you won't be disappointed with the Zygerrian overlord," the Zeltron replied evenly. Landis was right though, the man was being unusually guarded about the medical supplies. Didn't he want this contained; then why was he fighting them?

After the Doctor checked in with Xe's favorite field worker -- he was a source of amusement -- she extended her hand off to the left. "This way. Just far enough away for him to make an entrance when gracing guests with his presence." Money and power made people do stupid things.

A short walk down a hallway and the two women stood outside sealed double doors. Xe reached forward and pressed the control, and a soft tone sounded. A moment passed and her pink finger touched it again. Her dark lips curved downward slightly at the lack of reaction. "He should at least demand to know who's out here."

Following a quick visual check of the area for someone watching, Xe stepped closer to the panel. "Just a moment." A sharp clunk of the faceplate being forced from the wall followed the statement. "I hope you're ready for this." One of the blades she'd held earlier had returned to sever a few wires; the Zeltron's fingers carefully making new connections inside the exposed panel. "Might want to stand to one side," she cautioned.

After several seconds the two doors slide apart with a swish. The second they did a bolt of energy was hurled across the threshold. "Stay out. Stay out! I'll kill every last one of you," a male Zygerrian's voice hollered from within.

Any peering through the doorway would find a number of medical boxes and crates on either side of the room, and a Zygerrian that'd seen better hair days. His eyes were wide, knuckles pale from the grip on his blaster, and his chest heaved with every breath as adrenaline coursed through him.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie watched as the Rodian, presumably to help out or do something useful for once, set off on his own tangent. She didn't care what he did, as long as Léon nor her nor their mission was endangered. Once she was done sending her transmission to her partner, she followed Sheu-fuh down a grand hall, bringing up an obvious point about why so much of the station space here was wasted. So this guy eas an egotistical piece of bantha waste? That made a lot of sense, all things considered. The Zeltron made a point to slice into the door controls, simple rewiring that made Landis jealous she couldn't do the same or think of something that ingenious. The trooper took two steps to the left of the door, out of its path while Lady Sheu-fuh did her magic.

The door slid open, and Aggs avoided a heat wave of a blaster boly flying through while she turned away and covered her faceplate out of instinct. The Zygerrian yelled something while she raised her blaster in a low ready, waving her hand out in front of the doorway while mustering an authoritative and relatively pissed off voice.

"Do not open fire! There are unarmed civilians in the vicinity--any harm done to them or Republic troopers acting on behalf of an aid mission will result in loss of your property and up to a lifetime in a prison."

Half a bluff, half a truth. It was the best she could do, citing multiple codes within the Republic handbook that nobody ever read. Except for an academic nerd like herself. She grit her teeth and waited for a reply. If she were Léon, she would have already shot him to bits.

But he wasn't here right now, was he?
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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With the blaster bolt flying out of the office, Xe pressed her back against the wall beside the door frame. That was about what the Zeltron expected. That or more ranting about being immortal. In the Zygerrian's case, however, that wasn't far off the mark -- easy as it would be to send a knife sailing into his chest, the man's death by her hand needlessly wasn't in the cards.

"Unarmed? They don't need weapons," came the sharp retort. "And how do I know you aren't one of them? Come back to make me join you?" A rattle of bitter laughter followed the question. "I have enough medicine in here to treat any disease. Enough to last a lifetime. You won't take me."

From what Xe could see from her side of the door, it didn't look like a lifetime's worth of supplies. Landis would know better, but that part was most likely a bluff. It did draw out an idea, however. "Doctor, the carrier I met was infecting people with the disease, which you're treating. Would the carrier have the same disease as the rest? Ask him to find a syringe of the treatment and inject us with it to prove we're not a threat." She could be way off base about the carrier-disease relationship since Xe was no Doctor. Hopefully the Zygerrian had been paranoid enough to be watching or recording as much as she'd feared up to this point. The man had to know Landis hadn't been infected; but with that death grip on his blaster he probably wasn't thinking about that in the heat of the moment.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie looked at the Zeltron, wiping mist free of her mask while she spoke. It was a good plan, as much as she would have just preferred to shoot him. The injection could have negative side effects, though--specifically the antiparasitic medicine designed to seek out parasites in the body. When there were no parasites to be found, bad things happened. That was just how medicine worked. Her brain ticked as she accessed the database in her mind. Dizziness, sickness in general, probably bad bowel patterns for a bit. Nothing too serious. But she still wasn't a complete fan of the idea.

If it was better than shooting a Zygerrian, so be it. Her head cocked toward Sheu-fuh.
"Go first. Maybe he'll hesitate on shooting the pretty one."

She paused for a moment.
"What if we prove to you we're not infected? Give us the right injection, and when it doesn't do anything useful you'll have your answer."

Like someone like her needed to prove anything to a Zygerrian. With her luck, he'd grab a sedative and put her to sleep, land her in some kind of slave circuit. She made a note to check the injector before she got poked.

As for Sheu-fuh, she could go inside or not; there was a pretty high risk of getting shot.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Xe stared at the Doctor for a moment. Playing the slaver had severe drawbacks. Even you friends could be scarcely told apart from enemies at times. And if that was Landis' idea of a joke -- because she was such a comedian -- it failed to land. "We need to work on your negotiation skills, Doctor," the Zeltron responded with a short, deflating sigh.

"The carrier -- them -- is spreading the disease on those they touch. They are the disease. Inject me, and you'll know I'm not a threat," she called out to clarify the plan to the Zygerrian. 'Does not do anything useful' was a touch... vague. "You already know Landis isn't infected. You've been watching her since she came on board."

While they spoke, the man's free hand shook over the controls on the desk in front of him. A curse hissed between his clenched teeth as the door failed to respond. With it open even if the two women weren't infected something that was could still get in! Damn them.

A growl was followed by the sound of a fist slamming down atop the desk. "Get in here. Both of you. Now," the Zygerrian snapped. "And tell me which of these I get to stab you with."

The Zeltron's eyelids fell shut. So much to look forward to. The knife was casually slipped under her dress into the holster, not bothering to conceal the amount of leg shown -- not that she could. When they opened again, Xe nodded to the Doctor before she slowly pivoted around the door frame into the man's view. Both hands up and fingers spread, and a smile on her lips, the oh-so-trusted assistant (being not at all, which was why Xe didn't like the Doctor's suggestion) did what she could to not get shot under the circumstances.

@Herrith
 

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The gloomy and oftentimes morbid humor of Aggie and Léon was reflected all throughout the Republic Judiciaries, at least what was left of them from the ass kicking they were getting by the Sith. Though she could have delivered it with a smile, as hard as it was to show that through a mask. At any rate, Sheu-fuh hadn't taken too kindly to her vocal protest of not getting shot. She also elaborated on a few details that the trooper had failed to be informed on. Watched this whole time? Brilliant. That meant..Léon didn't know either. Her hand reached for her comms instinctively and she paused. He could handle himself.

The Zygerrian found a place where he could agree to their terms. Landis watched while the Zeltron entered first, then slowly lowered her own rifle on its sling after setting the safety, raising her hands to file in behind, ever so slowly. The rifle hung behind her back, and she tried to look as un-threatening as possible, difficult in Republic armor. Aggie pointed to a box labeled with the proper injection and said its name, watching to see if he would grab it. She calculated whether her blast vest could take a hit at this distance. It was a pistol, they were maybe a meter away...she could get away with one shot, maybe more if he hit her where there was gear.

Her pistol sat on her leg. Probably close enough to reach in time. She decided to speak up.
"I would recommend you let the person who handles needles and sticks for a living to inject our lovely lady here, I'd hate for an accident to happen. If you miss a vein or artery, that's dangerous."

That and Aggie would rather have something to use in her hands at the ready in case things went bad.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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By the art of seduction, the Doctor seemed to not be as sadistic as she'd led on. Not that Xe really believed the woman to be perverse in such a way; but the threat of an untrained man stabbing her haphazardly with a syringe was not comforting.

Narrowed eyes watched the armored woman stroll into view. The Zeltron said she wasn't infected. Couldn't trust the pink whore; she might be infected. Then again, the argument the cameras would have seen... it happen made sense. Too much sense? Maybe it was a trick. The male Zygerrian struggled to weigh an impossible situation in his mind. Who could truly be trusted?

"Both of you stay away from me. You," the blaster pointed at the Doctor, "treat her," and then Xe. "And tell me what you treat her with. No saline solutions," he hissed. Medically trained? No. Aware of more common terms? He might have overheard them or knew they existed. Might not understand their context though. Didn't matter. They just had to think he knew something to keep from trying to deceive him.

With her best effort to smile under the circumstances, Xe's blue eyes fixed on the man with the gun. "And when that's done--"

"No. No talking. Not until I know you aren't them. I won't have you distract me so you can-- I won't," the Zygerrian growled. Things were out of control, and the blaster was a thin blanket in the dark. Preciously thin. Couldn't stop to think about how vulnerable he was in that moment. No way to escape without risk of exposure. And that damn Republic ship out there!

@Herrith
 

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Aggie looked at the Zygerrian as he rose his blaster, keeping her hands visible while she stepped forward, pulling the injection from the small medical pouch that he had brought off the shelves. She lifted up the needle, checking the contents before nodding to Sheu-fuh and telling her to take a seat in the best doctor voice she could muster. It took effort to not crack up at the Zygerrian's terrible efforts at sounding professional. Clearly he had no idea how well-versed of a person he was dealing with. The injection she was going to give their Zeltron friend wasn't lethal if there was no illness to be found--but no guarantees she'd feel very good.

An IV with some other chemicals or similar medicinal supplements would bring her back to decent health afterward.
"I do have to warn you that you will be feeling rather nauseous after an hour or so from injection, that is, if you're not infected. If you are, well, the medicine will serve its use. It's a simple anti-parasite vaccine, really--primaquine, normally started one to two days before possible exposure to this...disease."

Landis tried not to smile as the Zygerrian shut up Sheu-fuh. It was hard to do that to a Zeltron. As for the vaccine, despite medical advancements allowing for the treatment of malaria upon its discovery, it was still a vaccine and side effects were possible if the patient was infected. Which was doubtful considering how lucky they'd been. She pulled up a sleeve if Sheu-fuh had it and found a fairly obvious vein, hoping the woman was fine with needles as she inserted the injector and watched as its contents emptied and the needle popped back into place and out of use.

"All done," her voice took on a slightly mocking tone, "However, take it easy for the next few days and call in if there are any...unexpected side effects."

Could this Zeltron use her pheromones and get them out of this mess already? She was getting tired of acting. Would a band-aid have made the act more amusing? Maybe, even though there was no blood to be seen.
 

Xe Z Sheu-fuh

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Blue eyes shifted to the side and up at Landis as the doctor seemed to take some humor from the situation. Xe failed to smile, nor did a twinkle dance about her eyes in shared mirth. Yeah, this was probably at her expense, Xe thought. Wouldn't be the first time she suffered in order to survive. Certainly wouldn't be the last.

When her attention turned back to their Hostage-taker in Chief, the Zeltron's lips curled upward in a smile once more. "Now--"

"I said no talking," the Zygerrian snapped. "Republic said it'd take an hour. Not until then."

The smile faded. Xe's chin lowered and the light cast shadows over her blue eyes. "Be silent, Zahlan," the Zeltron snapped. "We don't have an hour. We might not have a minute. Your doors are wide open--"

"Thanks to you," the man hollered.

"--and there is one of those things out there with us. So stop waving your blaster in our faces, and listen. If I were one of them do you think I would have allowed the injection?" The pink woman rose to her feet, hands clenched at her sides.

Zahlan's jaw worked and his fingers uncurled and curled about the pistol grip for a moment. "It could be a deception. Get treated, and reinfected."

Xe's hair fanned out behind her as she gave her head a toss. "I was forced to kill Darvoul because he wanted to devour me. I'm trying to help you before the Republic gets the idea to destroy this station to keep this parasite from spreading throughout the galaxy."

The tension in her shoulders vanished with a soft sigh passing between her dark lips. "Please, Zahlan." Xe extended a hand out toward him. Her voice softened as it grew warmer, "You're the only one that can save us."

It was so much to process. So many possibilities. So many unknowns. The Zygerrian's breath was labored as he stood affixed to one spot in his office. Adrenaline was his sole source of fuel; it kept the exhaustion at bay, but took its toll. This Sheu-fuh's pleading and need for his protection appealed to his former self; if it was pheromones, such as his mind and body was at that moment, Zahlan wasn't aware of their influence. "Just... How do we fight it?" Some of the tension in the arm that held the blaster aloft eased, and the barrel drooped just a bit.

@Herrith
 

Agrafena Landis

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Aggie did say she'd experience symptoms after an hour--not that she wouldn't know if she was infected anytime before then. But, alas, these two were set on getting this done as quickly as possible. She looked between the two and packed up the now used injector, sliding it to the Zygerrian while the two got into an almost heated argument. Her breath quickened slightly while she tried not to show herself getting anxious from the yelling. She took a couple steps backs, still looking at the blaster in front of her and still estimating how long it could take her to get her own out of its holster.

It seemed that Sheu-fuh had resorted to her more persuasive elements, and miraculously the Zygerrian was at least partly willing to listen. His grip on his blaster loosened slightly while Landis tried to lock eyes with the Zeltron, seeing if it was possible to apprehend the guy while he was distracted. Unless Sheu-fuh wanted to keep talking for an hour, Landis really preferred getting this over with. After all, their Zygerrian slave owner had a lot on his plate the Republic wouldn't appreciate--slave trading, holding a Republic trooper at gunpoint, and threatening injury to what appeared to be an innocent Zeltron.

Right now Aggie had full intent in pulling her blaster, just had to find the right reasons and right moment to. Her eyes glanced back toward the doorway she had come from.

Léon, meanwhile, seemed to have gotten his supplies and was treating as many people as he could. She put her hands on her hips and danced a finger over her pistol holster, then returned her hands to where they were.

"I think the Lady here has a good explanation for your question. You don't need a professional for everything."

Her voice had the slightest hint of amusement as she waited for a distraction.
 
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