JS had a gut-wrenching feeling. His worst nightmare seemed to materialize. The fear that the SW3 pathogen could infect Vickie was one of the reasons that had prompted him to land. If things got worse at least his people had their feet planted on the ground and would breath air. "What do you mean that you are sick?" he asked in a quiet, caring tone. "Eve was very bad, and I wasn't feeling well too, because of the mind-touch. Maybe you too..." "No, it isn't an impression." Vickie was trying not to panic, but she was serious, tragically serious. "Some parts of my skin, some hull cavities, begin to show wounds, buboes, I don't know." "Can you show it to me, Vickie?" "Yes, of course! I cannot see myself. Either you or Eve should do it for me. I see my entrails through your eyes." Vickie paused, "I'm afraid, Jay!" Arrived in the inner part of the ship, JS was speechless. The great-looking metal plates were falling apart. The thick metal seemed to mutate into raw flesh, throbbing and dripping a sap-looking solution and other fluids. There was an acrid, disgusting smell that immediately reminded JS of gangrene. "Don't worry, Vickie, we'll vaccinate you and you'll get well." JS stated quietly, exhibiting a confidence he did not have. "You can't deceive me, Jay! I feel you're concerned. When we die, we jump into the Nowhere, but the humans die out there!" "Quiet, Vickie. We have the vaccine and will cure you. As for the jump, once you said that you can release the city and one of the hangars, right?" "Yes, as did my mother on New Mars. She left the city and the hangar where you made me dock. Do you want me to uncouple it all?" "It's better, so you and I, we have one less worry. Start that. I'm going to talk to Doc." JS's voice was calm and reassuring, and Vickie subsided. "Doc, the plague has hit the ship." JS uttered entering the hospital. Lee stared at him as if he was mad, but JS continued: "The ship is organic. She is a living being. Don't ask me any explanation, please, but she is such. And she is sick. We must vaccinate her right now!" "Impossible! Where to inject her? what's the right dose? we don't even know if it will work!" Lee replied too upset by JS's request for processing the information. "I don't know if the vaccine will work, but I know that if we don't try, the ship is lost. Vickie, where we can inject you?" "Maybe in the nucleus." the loudspeaker boomed. "She talks?" Lee goggled astonished. JS nodded. "See, Vickie, all right. OK, Doc, let's do it." "Now that everybody has been vaccinated, we have almost no vaccine left. A few doses, but they are certainly not sufficient for... for a cruiser! To produce it will take one day." Vicky moaned and JS clearly felt her despair. "Quiet, Vickie, panic is a luxury we cannot afford," he thought, then asked Lee: "Doc, I have a lot of antibodies, and if we did something like a transfusion, I could cover her with my antibodies, such as breast milk with infants, something like that, right?" "Are you crazy? We don't even know if you're compatible. You don't know it for sure, she's an alien ship! And then," Lee looked around and gestured, "where can I find the 'veins' of the ship?" "This ship converts stellar gas into hull, air, water and food for us, recycles our waste, changes god-knows-what into blasting energy rays and fuel. I'm sure she can connect to me without damage. The ship can select that part of my blood she needs, that you will tell her to take from me." "A biochemistry lesson in a wink?" Lee gasped. "I trust Vickie." JS enunciated. "Vickie, can we do it? Is there a suitable place?" "The chronicles say that it had already been done by some captains, to physically connect to their ship, I mean. The place is deep in my true heart. No one ever went there. But I don't want you to do that, Jay." "Why?" Lee asked. "The Chronicles say that no captain has come back," Vickie whispered. --- Thanks. Zoom in OR...