The Princess and the Human

No visible lethal wounds. Slight damage to the body seems to have occurred after death, Githaiy noted as she finished her first look at the dead Tystrie in front of her. Four of the corpses found, one from each of the repurposed mining sites, had been brought on board and were now kept in the medical bay. The other three showed equally as little as the first one, but since the Tystrie were an endoskeletal species, that alone didn't rule out death by force. In other words, it was time to look at the details.

The first course of action was to take blood samples from each of them. The state of decay varied between the bodies but not by much. The oldest of them might have died about thirty days ago, though that was only a rough estimate of hers. The tests would hopefully give her a better guess, but the conditions weren't exactly ideal. The Unifier was still a military vessel, and the medical bay was first and foremost equipped to treat wounded soldiers - in other words, Vanaery. Most of the available instruments there weren't tuned to be used on other species, if applicable at all. If only she had access to her own office back on Hohmiy, she'd have more options.

She took three samples per body, labeled them, and then put two of each in the freezer to properly analyze them when they got back. Of the rest, she put a bit into the blood analysis system, and the machine worked for a while before displaying an error message. Unfortunate, but Githaiy had already expected this would happen. Just like the rest, the analyzer on board was calibrated for Vanaery, so it automatically tried to isolate the contents of Vanaery blood, which it couldn't. She had hoped that it would still display the things it could find, but apparently not.

She walked over to the exit and knocked at the door leading into the hallway.

"Yes, Doctor?" the soldier outside called without opening.

"Just to confirm, I don't think it would be allowed for one of your engineers to come in and change the programming of one of the machines, right?"

"Correct, Doctor. No changes that go against protocol may be made to the equipment outside of emergency cases."

"I thought as such. Thank you."

While the situation was strange, it was no emergency. She went back to the first corpse and began to cut open the torso. It was a bit difficult to get through the cycloid scales, but still a lot easier than it would be on an exoskeletal species. Once done, she noticed that this individual had two bone fractures in his torso. They didn't seem to be the cause of death, but they still looked recent. They couldn't have happened all too long before death.

The next step was to take a look at the respiratory system. First, she opened the throat. The tissue itself showed slight damage but nothing big, though her overlooking something wasn't impossible. Githaiy knew more about alien species than most Vanaery physicians, but far from everything. What she did notice however were some dark, gooey concretions that definitely didn't belong there. Further examination showed that it seemed organic, so it wasn't dust breathed in inside the mine. Or at least not ONLY that.

She then removed some structural bones from the torso so she could get to the main respiratory organs. Then, her eyes widened in shock.

When Silgvani awoke, she was more groggy than normal and was tempted to just go back to sleep. It was unusual for her to wake up in such an... undignified manner. Maybe some vestiges of the medicine were still showing their effect?

Still, as much as she didn't want to admit it, the stronger pain medication had done wonders. She hadn't slept this well ever since she had broken her arms. Or, if she was completely honest, she hadn't slept all that well in the days leading up to the incident either. Good enough to function and fulfill her role, sure, but it had been a while since she had felt truly rested. She also felt pretty hungry.

Slowly waking up fully she sat up and pressed a button on the nightstand. It didn't take more than two tiggs for an attendant to open the door and enter with a bow.

"You called, Your Highness?"

"Yes. How long have I slept?"

"A bit over a full day, Your Highness."

A day?! The medicine was only supposed to make me sleep through the night! Was I THAT sleep-deprived?

"I see, thank you. Have something to eat brought and then help me get dressed so I can get back to the bridge."

The servant bowed and did as ordered. Soon after she was clothed the meal arrived.

"By the way, Your Highness, when should we begin to prepare our ship for the journey back?", he asked while she ate.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, Your Highness, we departed in a hurry and didn't expect to stay here over a prolonged period. Our supplies will soon run out."

"Yes, I know." She already had that conversation with her uncle, after all. "So? We can use the Unifier's supplies, it's not like the handful of people we brought will make a difference. According to the Admiral, we still have about ten days like this."

"We do, yes," the servant clarified. "But Lady Nadine doesn't. The same goes for the prisoner, though this is her homeworld so I guess we could get food for her from the planet if need be. Apologies, I thought you had already been informed."

She hadn't, but honestly, she should've realized it herself. Nadine needed specific things the fleet couldn't provide her with. Now that she thought about it, which of those was most important? Probably the nutrient powder for her water. Well, either she or the doctor should know.

"How much do we have left?"

"If we put aside what we need for the way back, enough for maybe two or three days. But only if we travel on our own, the fleet as a whole won't be able to move as fast."

That wasn't a lot. Nadine was arguably the person on board being here was most important to, yet she had to leave the earliest. Hopefully, they would soon find something. Maybe something that would demand an earlier return anyway.

"I see. Then see that the ship is fueled and ready to depart. I'll give you further information later on." Silgvani.

"Understood, Your Highness."

With another bow, he left. Silgvani finished her meal in silence. As her body got more and more awake, the dull pain in her two broken arms returned as well. She took a dose of the weaker pain medication and went back to the bridge.

Both her uncle and Nadine were there, focused on something on the console. The princess stepped closer and sure enough, the Human's sharp senses quickly noticed her approach.

"Good morning. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, notably so. Good morning to you as well. Although, is it morning? I was told I slept for quite a while."

Nadine paused for a moment.

"Well, we're in space, so if you ask like that, no, I guess. I myself woke up maybe two hours or so ago - sorry, I mean... how much was that? Five invas? - and Doc is currently taking a look at the corpses."

The last word immediately caught Silgvani's attention, and not in a good way. "Corpses?"

"Right, you were already asleep when that happened," Mirtan explained. "Your friend here managed to make the prisoner talk."

Her uncle gave her a quick run-down of how they discovered the former mining sites as well as their shocking contents.

"That was..." he looked at his console "...thirty-eight invas ago. Since then, the situation has gotten so much worse that one wouldn't be wrong to call it a disaster. If we combine the teams, the total number of corpses found in the mines so far is about to reach five digits. And we are still just scratching the surface from what we can tell, the tunnel system appears to be massive and our progress is slow. I've already increased the member count on each team as much as possible, but I doubt we'll be able to scout it all."

Well, pretty much the entire planet depended on their mines, so large cave systems like these were to be expected. But this many corpses... having so many dead bodies confirmed made the situation much more dire. Her uncle was right, this absolutely was a disaster.

"What... could've killed so many?"

"That's what I hope your doctor will tell us."

Silgvani thought for a moment before pulling Nadine aside.

"Are you okay? If hearing all of this is difficult for you..."

"Thank you, Sil," the small alien said earnestly, "but it's okay. This... it's an insane tragedy, but hearing it in the reports... I mean, I'm not down there seeing it. Hearing it in the reports is more like hearing it on the news, you know what I mean?"

"No."

"Well, anyway, I'm as fine as I can be right now, really."

Silgvani nodded, choosing to believe her, and the two went back to Mirtan. The princess then got to the console and opened a com channel to the medical bay.

"Doctor, can you hear me?"

"Yes, your Highness," the doctor answered through the speaker. "Did the stronger medication cause you any issues?"

"It didn't, and I thank you for it. But now I wish to know if you already found something out. I already was briefed about the general situation."

"So far, I could not determine from what they died, although I could rule some things out. My equipment back on Hohmiy might give us clearer results. But I do know how they died. Somehow, their respiratory organs are severely damaged, much more that could be explained with simple decay."

"The entrance was sealed, right?" Nadine chimed in. "The standing air and built-up heat could've accelerated the process."

"Yes, but not to this degree. I found comparable damage in each of them, I can say with relative certainty that this was the cause of death. But nothing I know could produce this result."

"Do you have at least an idea?" Silgvani inquired.

"If the same thing happened in four different places... maybe a disease? An Epidemic?" Nadine suggested.

"That is the most likely explanation, yes. It shouldn't be an issue for us, but the alliance still must be notified."

"I really hope this isn't another Black Death," the small alien murmured.

"What's that?"

"The most devastating Pandemic in our history. It happened in the Middle Ages so we don't have an exact death count, but it's estimated to be up to two hundred million."

The bridge got quiet.

"Well, THAT will definitely not happen here," Mirtan finally said, "because unless they multiplied massively since the last time we got data about them before their isolation, there aren't this many Tystrie, to begin with."

"Back on topic," the princess called out, "my group must return as soon as possible, I need to take care of this."

"I concur," the doctor added. "I need to examine the samples with equipment that isn't hardwired for Vanaery."

From the corner of her eye, Silgvani noticed Nadine clenching her fists. It was clear that the small alien didn't like the idea of leaving now, but she didn't say anything.

"Nadine, I know how you-" she began before interrupting herself. Know what? How she felt? No, she didn't know how Nadine felt, there was no way she could. The small alien looked at her quietly, expecting her to continue, but she didn't and was thankful when one of the operators called for their attention.

"Admiral! The crew of the Countess Jarkion found another destroyed warship!"

"Recieve the report, I'll look at it in a tigg," Mirtan ordered before noting something down. "That makes five Tystrie ships. Still no fleet, but enough to reasonably assume an attack. The other four are estimated at being destroyed at similar times, let's see if this one is as well."

"There is one more thing, Admiral! They were able to identify the ship's signature, and it is in our system! Hohmiy sold it to the Tystrie about fifty cycles ago!"

That made Nadine raise an eyebrow.

"Didn't the report of the first crash site also state that the ship was outdated?"

"It did."

The small alien thought for a moment before turning to the door.

"I'll go talk to her again. Maybe I can be at least a bit helpful before we go."

She left and this time, Silgvani decided to follow.

Reaching the room where the former ambassador was confined, the princess opened, receiving a quiet stare from Kykla. But her eyes shot wide open as soon as she spotted Nadine.

"And?" she hastily asked. "Did you find anything?"

"No one alive," Nadine answered in a somber tone. It took Kykla a moment before she understood the insinuation.

"How many?" she then inquired.

"Thousands and counting." She then paused, allowing the former ambassador to digest what she had just heard. "Was there any severe disease going around when you left?"

"No, nothing like that! Everything was normal when left!"

"But that doesn't add up," Silgvani pointed out. "Isn't that way too short of a time frame?" She was no doctor, but that seemed way too extreme for a disease that seemingly came out of nowhere.

"The ship I came in isn't very fast, you can easily double that period."

"Wouldn't they have notified you to warn you if you were still in the system?"

Kykla showed an expression that Silgvani had seen all too often during negotiations: the face of someone who had just slipped up.

"The relay station," Nadine concluded, not seeming very surprised. "It was already offline when you left, wasn't it?"

"And if it was, what would you do with that knowledge?"

The small alien sighed. "I already told you: I despise you, not your people. Your home seems to be experiencing a catastrophic tragedy, and I want to help! But for that, we need to piece together what happened here, and any piece of information can be useful."

"...fine. Yes, you are right. The station hasn't been online for quite some time."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Silgvani burst out.

"Why? After the isolation, the only ships arriving were scheduled and therefore expected. We simply deemed it to not be necessary to maintain."

"Or, to be precise," Nadine added, "maintenance became too expensive."

A long pause followed in which Kykla went through a myriad of expressions but in the end, she slumped in resignation and sat back against the wall.

"So you knew. What gave it away?"

"I had a hunch, but little things added up over time. Your mines are empty, aren't they?"

"Yes." Kykla's voice barely had any strength in it as she answered. "Ever since the isolation. Our predecessors saw no reason to take precautions for a time when they were no longer alive, and now we pay the price. A betrayal on our kind we can only stomach with the knowledge that they received the Goddess's judgment for it."

"And the reason you tried to kill us..."

"... I couldn't allow you to find out."

With this revelation, things suddenly clicked for Silgvani. In hindsight, there had been hints, but a lie on this scale simply had seemed too out there. Was it Nadine's outsider perspective that allowed her to see past it?

"Then, the missing fleet..."

The Tystrie shrugged.

"I mean, if you want to call five ships a fleet..."

Eroas got further and further away as the ship - Githaiy noted that she still didn't know its name - left the communications range of the fleet. They flew at full speed again so they could reach Hohmiy as fast as possible. Before they left, she had shared all of her findings with the fleet's doctors just in case. Additionally, Kykla had apparently also told the Lord Admiral some more things after Nadine had talked to her again. The former ambassador was currently held on one of their escort ships on Githaiy's suggestion since unlike them, she absolutely was at risk of infection. The doctor had of course disinfected herself and all samples she took with her were frozen, but there was always a risk.

After they departed, she also briefed the princess on everything she had found out after they talked through the speaker. There wasn't much, but she had found some microbes via manual testing, confirming the suspicion of an epidemic. Further tests back home would hopefully tell her more.

Nadine didn't leave her room much during the travel and the princess suggested that she probably needed some time alone. However, after Nadine didn't leave her cabin at all for two days in a row, they grew worried and Githaiy decided to check up on her.

Neither her knocks nor her calls were answered. Perturbed, she opened the door and found the alien girl in her bed, breathing heavily.

"Nadine!" She quickly rushed to her side.

"Hmm..?" the Human quietly grumbled. "Oh, hey Doc. Why didn't you knock?" She talked very slowly and quietly, and her voice sounded a bit different somehow. The doctor also noticed some mucus running out of her nose.

"I did! What is wrong?!"

"No biggie, I just caught a cold, I think. Or are we already in flu season?" The way she talked didn't sound like she was in a clear state of mind right now.

"Nadine, stay with me! What are you talking about?! Why are you so red?!"

"Just a fever. When I get sick, my body heats up because the illness can't survive that heat."

"And... you can?" Could the heat possibly be the reason why she seemed delirious?

"Um, well, the system's a bit buggy."

"What?!"

The small alien gave a weak chuckle similar to the time when she had her "hangover".

"I'm kidding. Kinda. As long as it stays under forty I'm fine." A cough shook her body. "I just need to drink a lot of water. And a wet towel for my forehead would be nice."

"I need a wet towel, quickly!" She shouted into the hallway and shortly after, a servant rushed in and gave it to her.

"Okay, what else do you need?"

"Err, no idea what they put in cold medicine. Sleep, I guess. And tissues. Oh, do we still have meat?"

"Maybe, I'd need to check."

"If we have, boil that in water for a while. Not exactly chicken broth but the closest we're gonna get. Maybe. No idea why that's good."

"I'll have it done at once!"

Nadine rolled her eyes.

"Doooc, relax, both common cold and flu are normal to catch occasionally. Though getting the flu can go south if you're unlucky."

"Normal?!"

"Yeah, flu has a high mutation rate and can't be eradicated, so we constantly get new variants."

"Nadine think! What by the First Ones is normal about catching a Human disease in an environment that never saw another Human besides you, ever?!"

The small alien went quiet and merely looked at the ceiling. She blinked. Then she blinked one more time. Finally, she opened her mouth again.

"Oh, crap."