trans_9 | Excuse me...did you say dangerous contagion?

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Excuse me...did you say dangerous contagion?

So there were big brains in the science lab who had let lose all that hell on the ship... Why was she not surprised? In fact had they included in the report that there had been a lil red and white symbol near the areas he would have just felt the day was perfect.

But no, Umbrella and Wesker and all that was done, over with, taken down. Wasn't it? Chris said she herself had taken out the madman at some point in her future. One possible future which obviously she was not going to see because she'd been taken by the ark.

Her brain felt like someone was running it through a meat grinder when she tried to think about the multiple universe theory that they all seemed to be living in. Only one thing seemed constant: Doctors will always think they can control something that they cannot. That was what had her in motion, off to see Dr Lius Serra about his recent announcement. If there were still viable samples she was going to make her case for having them destroyed ASAP. Keeping them around was only going to beg for this to happen again, and they might not be so lucky next time.

She'd spent enough time in MedBay to find her way back, arm in a sling, tight bandages holding her ribs still and the now fading covering of faint bruises across her skin. She looked like she'd been through hell and the last ditch bomb plan was pretty close to it. Tired and irritable she tried to keep her voice level as she inquired of the staff, "I'm looking for Doctor Sera."

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Luis was like a kid in a candy store in this big, shiny new laboratory. He'd spent the last six hours poring over all the data and reports to be found, toying with all the equipment, moving all his things over from medical bay and generally making himself at home. One station in the corner was already picketed out as his space.

"Over here, amiga," he called to Jill. Ow ow. Jill Valentine. There was a woman Luis could stare at all day long, or at least until she noticed and broke his neck. "Can I help you?"

"Doctor Sera," Was he checking her out? No, no she had to be imagining that. She shook off the idea and looked around at the lab.

"I don't mean to disturb you, but I am more than a little bit concerned over the contagions you said were still aboard. If these things are viable, there's every reason to believe the recent attacks could happen all over again. That's not soemthing I think many on this ship would be willing to risk. For all of our sakes I think we need to destroy the samples."

Oh yeah. Absolutely imagining it, Jill.

"About that," Luis sighed, standing up and pushing his hair back out of his face. He looked up at Jill a little sheepishly. "Normally I'd agree with you 100%, but there's... complications. Anyway, I need to keep them viable until I can be sure we have all the information we need."

"I'm not seeing the complication here, these are dangerous animals, Stacy has declared the ship is clean. Keeping theses things around has no possible good ending. Umbrella used to do this, the people before did this and both thought they could control things."

Jill, smacked her hand down on the counter. "You cant control things like this, they are dangerous life forms that want to survive and will look for and take every opportunity to do so."

"I'm not insisting that I can control them, and I'm definitely not in the same boat as Umbrella, amiga," Luis replied, perhaps a little too sharply. He wanted to make the designation between himself and people like Umbrella very clear. "The problem comes up when specimens aren't..."

He let out a short little breath and glanced away.

"It's complicated, all right? You have my assurance I'm going to get rid of these things as soon as is reasonably possible."

"Sorry, not that I don't trust you," What? The guy had Used Care Salesman vibe rolling off him in waves. "I have no idea what your intentions are, But these things need to be destroyed."

"A decision like this can not be made by just one person, who else is in charge of these specimens?" She could not think of any reason that the samples be kept around.

"Dr. Jean Grey in medical, for one." Luis listed on his fingers. "Scarlet Levy. Leon Kennedy has had his share of say. I'm not the one man with my hand on the button, señorita. You can doubt my intentions all you like. I frankly don't blame you. But don't spin it the way where I'm the mad scientist, please. I've had enough of that for quite a while."

"Thank you, I think all of these people need to be made aware, if they aren't already, of the danger involved here." She was trying, she really was but there was no way she could allow these to specimens to be left around the ship just waiting for something to go wrong....again.

"I don't know you well enough to doubt your intentions, I'm sure you have every concern on getting whatever scientific information is available, but it is just not worth the risk. As for the mad scientist bit, you have too much personality for that."

"You'd think, wouldn't you," Luis mumbled under his breath, turning around and back to whatever it was he had been working on before.

"Look, amiga, I'll deal with the specimens as soon as I can and as best I can. That's all I can promise you."

"Well maybe I can hurry that up a bit." Jill nodded to his back and headed for the door.

"Oh, and a word of advice, if a big red headed guy shows up saying everything I did but in a deeper angrier voice, just tell him you already talked to me. Hopefully it'll buy you some slack. Thank you for your time, Doctor."

"If a big red headed guy shows up to say everything you did, I'm going to hide under this bench," Luis muttered. "You're welcome."

He paused. "For the record... I do appreciate your concern."

From the hall just beyond the dorrway a muffled laugh drifted back to him. "If he shows up, just page me through the comms, you might need the back up."

See Luis? Women can be kind and helpful when you are not oggling them....that they know of.

Edited 2009-11-23 19:56 (UTC)

Chris winked at Jill as she left, still leaning on his crutch. "I'll stop by after I have a word with Luis. I won't be long."

He stood in the doorway for a bit, grinning like an idiot after Jill, before bringing his gaze over to where Luis stood.

"Ah. Right on cue," Luis said between gritted teeth. He was gritting his teeth to avoid screaming for Jill to please come back and call off her Great Dane. "What can I do for you, Mr. Redfield?"

"You mentioned that you needed to brief me on something before I got to work on destroying the remaining specimens?"

Chris was curt, perhaps, but at least he kept his tone professional.

"Yeeees. About that," Luis murmured, standing up from his place at the table.

He was normally pretty good at putting on a show and lying his way out of a situation, but today it seemed he was off his game. He was clearly nervous, his lips drawn tight and his arms crossed over his chest.

"You know I said earlier I'd love to let you destroy all these things, and it's true, I would. You know where I come from, Mr. Redfield, so please don't take it the wrong way when I have to put my foot down here. This isn't from any attempt by me to go back to my old ways, but I... can't let it go this time."

Luis finally stopped walking around and decided to try putting his foot down. "I need them. They simply can't be destroyed."

Chris wasn't buying it. As far as he was concerned, his job wasn't done until each and every microbe manufactured by Umbrella was broken down into its constituent chemicals. But, considering Luis' background, he decided some diplomacy was called for.

After all, if he was still standing after Jill was done with him, he must've had some merit in what he said.

"Then you'd best start explaining. I'm not one to beat around the bush, Doctor Sera. Either explain to me why they can't be destroyed, or I will destroy them. It is not my aim to simply tread on your work, however, remember, I'm a survivor of Raccoon City too. It's a part of why I joined the BSAA in the first place. I only have the well being of the crew in mind."

"It would be nice if this was simply about my work, amigo, but it's not," Luis said hastily. He wanted to make that part very clear. "If it was that simple I would have done it already. I've got the well being of the crew in mind too. But I can't ethically..."

Shit. Leon would have to understand why he had to do this.

"This is confidential, between you and me. Okay?" he said.

"I'm an employee under the direct supervision of the United Nations. I have experience with confidentiality and top secret materials. What's said in here doesn't leave these walls."

Despite this, Chris shifted with the crutch, looking none too pleased to have Luis still dodging the question. He would decide on just what would stay in here and what wouldn't once he knew what that something was.

"When I said I had the well being of the crew in mind, I wasn't lying," Luis said, and he seemed a little more willing to talk now that Chris had sworn to secrecy. "It's also the reason I can't let you destroy all of the specimens. Because most of them are little squirming things in jars or test tubes, but some of them..."

He glanced off to the side and let out a long breath. "Comprende? There's what we might call... an overlap, here."

Chris was starting to get the idea, but, he was trained not to make assumptions. "I'm afraid you'll need to be a bit more specific."

"Some of the so-called specimens are now, or are going to be when they podpop, crew members," Luis said. That was about as specific as he was planning to get. "People."

Chris sighed. He was afraid of this. If that was the case, then there's no telling just who was infected and who wasn't unless they did some invasive testing on everyone. Something that was both impractical, and unethical, considering the origins of some, especially the younger ones.

"Do you know who among the crew is infected at the moment?"

"Yes. In one or two cases," Luis answered stiffly. His tone of voice suggested he hoped Chris was not going to be questioning further. "Unfortunately, our predecessors here didn't bother to take note of where in the pod caverns they put these people. All I have is a spreadsheet with numbers and experimental data, and in a few cases, photographs."

He sighed and crossed his arms. "We can't possibly locate them before they come out. And even if we could, what would we do about it?"

"I'm going to need names, infections, and any other pertinent data. And we'll do the only things we can do. We monitor them for any kind of developments in the infections... and work with the vaccines and attempt to modify them into cures."

Chris wasn't going to let this drop, though he was getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like what Luis had to say, simply by all the stalling.

Luis scoffed a bit. "I'm way ahead of you there. I've already been working on our most drastic case and it's currently under control. But I've been told to keep the matter confidential, so I can't tell you any more than that."

He decided to keep talking quickly so maybe Chris wouldn't freak out on him about that. "That's also why I need to keep some of these non-moving, thinking, talking specimens alive. It's not going to do me much good to formulate a vaccine for something I don't have any samples of."

"If you want any help from me, you're going to need to tell me everything."

Chris was getting quickly frustrated with the dancing, and decided to punctuate his sentence by cracking the knuckles by simply flexing his fist. He knew he would find a use for Claire's most hated of his habits someday... just never imagined this.

"What are you going to do if I do tell you?" Luis snapped back, but the hurried tone in his voice said something about just how terrified he was of Chris "Melon Arms" Redfield. "I told you, I've already got it under control. There's nothing that your expertise is going to do that hasn't already been done. There isn't a cure for this infection, but myself and half of medical are all working on it."

"I'm going to monitor those subjects. I'm not going to risk them having a sudden resurgence of symptoms that would risk their safety and the safety of the rest of the crew. I'm not leaving this room without names."

Chris noticed the reaction and took several steps forward to exploit that. He didn't like being the bad guy like this, but it was necessary, for the safety of everyone.

Luis had always been a pretty scrawny guy. Tall, sure, but thin and lacking in muscle from hours upon hours spent at a desk or a lab bench. There were no high schools in Pueblo and therefore he had never had the experience of being locker slammed or stuffed headfirst into a trash can, or any of the other quarterback vs. nerd cliches that plagued television and movies.

He had the sudden feeling that he knew where all those cliches came from.

"You can't do any more monitoring than we already are," he argued, though it was clear his will to hold out was fading the closer Chris got to him. The old Sera flight-reaction was kicking in. "And honestly, the worst thing you could do for the situation is freak these people out..."

Chris' patience was wearing thin. Not that he had that much to begin with, but, the question dodging was getting on his nerves. And while he had never locker slammed, trashcan stuffed, or given anyone a swirly.

...But he was begining to make an exception. He took another couple steps in strained silence before grabbing at the collar of Luis' plantsuit.

"I want names."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luis reached up and wrapped a hand around the massive one currently grabbing onto his collar. "No me toques! Take it easy! Listen! I'm under orders to keep this confidential, all right? If you want to be in the know, talk to Leon Kennedy. He says you're clear, hell, I'll give you the full tour and you can be my assistant if you want. Okay?"

Chris didn't have time for this. He had seen first hand how fast the T-Virus works, as well as the Plagas Type 2. While they debated ethics, someone may be having a surge of symptoms that they could be preventing. He didn't have time for Leon's approval. As such, Chris was using the leverage on Luis to slam him against a nearby wall.

"We don't have time for this. If there are ramifications later I'll deal with them then and take full responsibility for them at the time. Names. NOW."

She'd made it down the hall but thought better of it, Chris...alone with that doctor?

This would not end well.

Limping back toward the contagion lab, Jill heard raised voices. "Crap." She pushed her way into the room knowing what she would find and still shocked to see Luis feet barely touching the floor

"Chris! Stand down!"

"Ow," mostly muttered when Chris pushed him against the wall. "Okay, King Kong, get your hands off me-"

Then Jill stepped in. God bless her. Her and her gorgeous ~~ass~~ diplomacy.

"Jesus Christ, get over here and call off your gorilla!"

Chris kept a firm grip on Luis. He wasn't going to let this one wriggle out of giving him some answers.

"Jill, this guy has names of crew members that have been infected... but he's not being exactly forthcoming with info. We need to keep tabs on people, so we can help suppress symptoms when they show up. I'm not letting this guy go until I know just who needs protecting and who doesn't!"

Yea, Chris was dead set on it now. It would either take some serious answers, or some serious prying on Jill's part to extricate Luis for the moment.

She shot Luis a look that told him the smart money was on shutting up if he wanted his windpipe left intact.

"You don't think I feel the same way Redfield?" A hand laid gently his forearm. "I don't want us or anyone to go through what we have ever again. Hell the bomb was not exactly in my top ten fun moments. But this isn't the way."

She needed time to crack that thick skull of Chris' with logic, of course a sledge hammer would have been quicker.

Hell, if this was the way Chris reacted to news of viral infection, there was no way in the universe Luis was going to tell him who had one. He had a brief, somewhat amusing mental picture of this exact scene, but with the scrawny redheaded teenager here against the wall instead, followed by the image of a nine-foot mutant doing the same to Chris against the opposite wall.

And for once, Luis actually did shut up.

Chris took a long steadying breath as he attempted to calm himself down for Jill's sake. There was a long tense moment there before Chris jerked Luis away from the wall and all but threw him to the floor. When he spoke again, it was in a softer voice, aimed for Jill, though Luis may or may not overhear should he be listening closely.

"Jill... if it weren't for... there's a chance... Sherry's last name is Birkin for Christ's sake... I'm not going to just sit around if she is infected... poor girl's been through enough, and Claire sure as hell doesn't need that..."

"And what are you going to do Chris? Beat the infection out of her? We're not scientists. It's why Rebeca was on the team."

Ok, he was stepping it down, and she slowly eased herself between them, keeping eye contact with him all the while.

"The doctors are trained for this, and Luis isn't the only one in charge. There's more to this than just blowing up a facility and kicking someones ass."

"So what if Sherry is infected, what if it was you, or me. For all we know it could be anyone, we can't risk a ship wide panic over this and it wouldn't be doing any good for anyone who is infected if you go off like this."

Luis was collecting himself from the floor. He wished he could say it was the first time he'd been tossed to the floor or that it might be the last time, but he knew better than that.

"There's nothing wrong with Sherry," he said stiffly, having overheard what Chris was telling his ~~gorgeous~~ level-headed partner. "She's not infected with anything, so you can put those fears aside if that's what you're so worried about."

Chris just sighed, feeling so utterly powerless. "No... but I could help keep an eye on her... get any kind of medicine to her if she had any surge of symptoms... I just..." And then it registered with him what Luis said, and the only reason he didn't find himself pinned against the wall again was because Jill was between the two.

"How do you know? That sort of testing is rather intrusive..." For now, there's going to be a rather abnormally highly hiked eyebrow aimed at Luis.

"She has people looking after her, Claire and Leon are the best parents she could ask for. You know Claire, you know she would never let harm come to Sherry. But to see you care so much about her, that says a lot about her Uncle Chris too."

Luis spilled the beans to let them now Sherry was ok, and that would let them all sleep better. Speaking of sleeping... "When was the last time you had any rest outside of med bay?"

He crossed his arms and glared back at Chris. He was not taking the bullying thing too well at all. "They already thought of that and they already had her checked out. I've checked her out too, and she's fine," he went on. "So you can rest easy there."

Then Luis turned back to the desk where he had been working and for all intents and purposes seemed to be getting back to work.

Chris was going to let that subject die for the moment. He hadn't slept much in med bay even, and it really was getting to him. He'd bring the subject of Sherry up with Leon later. For now, the prospect of getting out of med bay, and somewhere closer to Jill was enough motivation for him to calm down.

"I haven't," he said, not exaggerating either. "Don't really think I got much before then either..."

"OK then big guy, the ship cleared out some quarters for us and I grabbed one when I was released from medical. If you want to crash there.."

Well she could look after him and ensure that there was no red head rampage going off in the medical section at least. A 'you owe me so big' look tossed over her shoulder to Luis as she draped Chris' arm over her shoulder and began to lead him out of the room.

If Luis had been about to let Chris in on the information, there was no way he was going to do it now. He was moodily filling out papers and trying to look busy.

"You two have a lovely afternoon," he called to them.

Chris sighed a bit, choosing to ignore Luis completely now and be led away by Jill.

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Excuse me...did you say dangerous contagion?

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