This was a nightmare. An honest to God nightmare. Any moment now the ground team was going to arrive at the airlock of the shuttle with their severely sick science officer in tow. Brooke was now forced to make an impossible decision for the sake of the crew. And to make matters worse, those still aboard were not taking it well.
"What do you mean we can't let them on the shuttle?" Owen asked in a mixture of anger and disbelief as they had a standoff near the airlock.
Brooke shook her head. "Not with Jacob, we can't. Whatever he was just exposed to, it could infect the whole crew. I can't take that risk."
"But you're not the Captain," Rebecca, who was standing next to Owen, argued with her. "Who says you can make that call?"
"Protocol does," she explained, doing her best to keep her voice even despite the emotions she was fighting through. "In the instance of matters pertaining to ship safety involving possibly infectious diseases or pathogens, the acting medical officer has final say. Not the Captain."
"I can confirm," Mira spoke up. "Nurse Holloway is also the acting executive officer of the ship. She has command of the deck."
"So you're really gonna leave him out there to die?" Rebecca asked in appalled disbelief.
She shook her head. "Not necessarily. I just have to run a few tests on him first. Shouldn't take longer than an hour."
Owen laughed incredulously at that. "An hour?! Brooke, he has maybe five minutes of oxygen left."
"And we don't have the capacity to replace his tank outside the shuttle either," Rebecca added. "A decision needs to be made. I say we take it to a vote."
"Look, there is no decision to be made here!" she insisted, her eyes starting to well up and her lip quivering. "We have no earthly idea what he was just exposed to. I cannot risk the safety of the entire crew by bringing an unknown pathogen aboard."
Rebecca folded her arms and glared at her. "If it had been the Captain instead of Jacob, would you still think that?"
She didn't respond. Owen sighed at her in disappointment.
"If you can't give her an answer, then you have no right to make this call."
"Look, you think I want to do this?" Brooke asked while tears streamed down her face. "You think I like having to make this decision? He's my best friend! If I could..."
"It shouldn't be your decision to make," Owen interrupted. "And I'll have you know he's my friend too."
"And mine," Rebecca chimed in. "We've both known the doctor for years."
"If it had been any one of us out there, you know the Doc would have our backs," the engineer insisted. "You leave him out there, you're signing his death warrant."
Pain racked her being. Why? Why did it have to be this way? Why did she have to make this call?
At that moment, her radio kicked on.
"Brooke, we're right outside the shuttle! Let us in!"
Both Rebecca and Owen glared at her expectantly. With a trembling hand, she queued up her mic.
"Captain...you need to put Jacob down first."
"What do you mean? Look, we don't have time for this! He doesn't have much O2 left. We need to..."
"Captain..." she repeated with severe emphasis. Every word was a strain, every breath painful at that moment. "...you need to put him down. I can't let you in until you do."
There was a long silence on the other end.
"Brooke...don't do this."
The despair in his voice at that moment broke her heart all over again. "Chris, you know I don't have a choice. Protocol is clear on this matter. If we bring whatever he was exposed to onboard, it could..."
"Look, fuck protocol!" Samantha shouted, interrupting her. "Brooke, he just saved the Captain's life!"
She gasped sharply, her eyes bulging.
"It's true," he insisted desperately. "It would have been me had Jacob not intervened. Brooke, I am begging you. Please! I cannot leave this man to die out here after what he just did."
Her mind was being split in about a hundred different directions at that moment. How the hell was she supposed to do this? Make this choice knowing what she did? Jacob still had feelings for her, but he sacrificed himself just to protect the man she loved. Why did it have to be this way? Why her? Why him?
A decision needed to be made. She opened her mouth to speak.
"Manual override detected. Airlock security function disengaged."
Before she could say a word, the ship AI did it for her. Whatever pain she felt before was now replaced with a hideous knot as it slowly dawned on her what just happened. Brooke, Owen, and Rebecca all spun toward the direction of the airlock at the exact same time. They'd been so busy arguing with each other...
...no one was paying attention to what Jess was doing.
At that very moment, the youngest member of the crew was punching keys into the nearby pad on the wall. Forcing a manual override of the door. How it was this little fool learned to do that, or when, was not something she had time to ponder on.
"Stop!" Brooke shouted at the top of her lungs before pushing Rebecca aside and running over to her.
Jess turned the nearby handle moments before she could jerk her away. Brooke quickly checked to see if she could undo the override, but of course it was too late.
"Airlocks open, Captain. You can come in," Jess informed over the radio.
"Thanks, Jess. We're coming in."
A surge of white-hot rage flashed across Brooke's features, whereupon she spun around and glared at Jess, who stared back at her defiantly, a hateful scowl on her face.
"Do you have any earthly idea what you've just done?"
"I saved the doctor's life," she retorted, a noticeable edge to her voice that wasn't there before. "Since you were too much of a coward to do it yourself."
Livid was nowhere near strong enough of a word. Moments before Brooke could go off on her, however, the inner door to the airlock opened.
"Everyone make room!" Chris shouted.
They all scrambled to clear a space as Jacob was brought into the shuttle and placed down on the floor. Putting aside her personal feelings on the matter for now, Brooke went to go check on her friend.
"What've you got?" she asked the Captain, choosing not to look at him.
"He's been out since whatever that thing was attacked him," Chris explained. "Vitals are all stable, but he won't wake up."
Brooke did a quick first impression of the patient. Aside from the fact he was noticeably diaphoretic he seemed to be in otherwise okay condition. But she knew better than to base her judgment on first impressions alone.
"Someone get me my field kit!" she instructed sharply.
"Here." Samantha grabbed the pack containing her medical supplies and handed it over to her. Brooke wasted no time pulling out her portable medical scanner and syncing it up to his suit.
"No signs of any extensive trauma," she reported, a hint of relief in her voice. "No fractures, no bleeds, and he doesn't appear to be concussed either."
"Are you sure?" Kevin sounded slightly surprised. "That was a pretty nasty fall he took down those stairs."
"What about signs of infection?" Chris asked worriedly.
She shook her head. "Nothing I can see on this thing, but that's honestly not much. I'll need to do a full body scan back on the Cordoba before we know the true extent of what he's been exposed to."
He nodded in understanding before addressing the crew. "Alright, let's refill his oxygen and get him onto the gurney. We'll leave the suit on for now to contain the infection."
"You understand that probably won't be enough, right?" Brooke insisted, a sharp edge to her voice. "We could all be exposed right now, Captain. By bringing him aboard, you've violated..."
"...just about every major safety protocol we have," he finished, cutting her off in the process. "You can cite me for negligence later, Nurse Holloway. Right now, I just want to get as far away from this God-forsaken planet as humanly possible."
She glared at him for a moment before sighing in weary resignation.
"Get him on the stretcher. I'll warm up the engines."
--
As soon as the crew was back on the ship, they carted Jacob to the medical bay, where he was placed in the quarantine unit. Chris and Brooke both suited up in full hazmat gear before removing his helmet and meticulously cutting away at his suit and the clothing underneath with a micro-laser, exposing the skin. While they worked, the rest of the crew watched on nervously from the outside.
"No signs of any mottling or jaundice," she noted as they peeled the space suit away. "He's breathing at a stable rate, clear lung sounds bilaterally. Vitals are...improving, actually."
"Maybe he just needed to get out of the cold," the Captain offered in an attempt to liven the mood.
"You understand we're not done talking about this, right?"
"It can wait until after the scan," Chris insisted.
"There are only two people on this ship who are supposed to know the manual override code for the shuttle airlock. Me and you."
He decided not to comment.
"That blonde airhead didn't get the code from me, is all I'm saying, Captain."
He sighed in frustration, finally looking up from his work. "Would you be nice to her? She's been through a lot today. We all have."
"We have these protocols in place for a reason. What she did back there was not only hideously irresponsible but highly unethical as well. By breaking quarantine, all our lives are in danger. To say nothing of what we may be bringing back to the station."
"If that's the case, I'll take full responsibility," he assured. "This is exactly why I gave the crew access to the override command in the first place. I didn't want to put you in that position, Brooke."
Hearing that caused her to start seeing red again. Completely fed up, Brooke slammed her gloved hands down onto the table and shouted.
