trans_9 | Melting Clock: Quarantine

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Melting Clock: Quarantine

After Sam Henderson's announcement, the Contagion Containment and Treatment lab was going to get busy. Anyone suspected of being affected by the mysterious affliction would be brought here, and put into one of the large bubbles that would keep any potential contagious diseases in - and the patients themselves. Once in inside, they wouldn't be able to get out again until the Medical staff had cleared them.

And before they could do that, they needed to find out what was causing this - and why.

They had a lot of hard work ahead of them.

[[ooc: Just start your own sub threads under the main threads, guys! And if you're happy to have anyone tag in, put "Open" in the subject line. If you've already got plans for who you're threading with, put "Closed" instead.]]

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"Because they think Tom agreed," Marco said. "Never mind that he only did that because some little girl asked him to do it. She was his friend, you know? But she didn't know what she was asking him to do. And I don't think he was able to say no to her."

He still couldn't understand, why. The thought of being infested - being completely unable to control even your own body - terrified Marco more than anything else. Why would anyone ever ask someone to go through that?

"Dude, you don't understand," Marco said. "The Yeerks could be anyone. There's no way to know who is and isn't a Controller. And back home, if they'd ever found out who we were...that would be it, man. They'd kill us. Or worse, stick Yeerks in our heads. And then they'd do the same to everyone we knew."

"He did it because a little girl asked him to? That... doesn't sound like a very good reason. Was there more involved? Because even the Council should understand what Stockholm syndrome is. Or the effect being imprisoned for so long might have had on him, his sense of self-worth."

Zouichi didn't exactly have a spectacular opinion of the Council at this point, but... really?

"So keeping your powers secret was a matter of life and death." He paused, considering. "Where I came from, everyone more or less knew what a Synthetic Human was, and what we were capable of."

Of course, knowing that Zouichi could blow up your research laboratory and preventing him from doing so were two different things. ~~HOW'S THAT TASTE, DRF~~

"From my point of view, Kang was remiss as a Councilor in not letting at least the other members of the Council know about your powers once he found out about them. Presumably, that's why we elected them -- so they could share information and decision-making with each other, to cooperate in the event that something like this might cause one crew member to become likely to attack another. I'd honestly prefer he'd have told Security about it as well; it's just that much more difficult to protect the crew when the only heads up we get happens after the fact.

However, the more I hear about the Council's decisions, the less I'm convinced they have everyone's best interests at heart. And I understand you don't trust Security, either."

"Cause the Council thinks it's more important to protect the Yeerk, apparently," Marco grumbled. "They kept saying they were going to make bodies for them, but they never seemed to actually do anything about it. And even if they had, why the hell couldn't they just put him in stasis until they finished it? Or a fish tank. It's not like the Yeerks need hosts to stay alive."

Marco blinked, and narrowed his eyes at Zouchi suspiciously. "Wait, why the hell does the Council need to know about morphing? Or Security? What the hell is this, the Mutant Registration Act?!"

"I don't know. Something to ask the Council, maybe." Although there was always the chance he wouldn't get a straight answer.

"They already know, actually. Everyone knows, now that Kang let that particular cat out of the bag. What is the Mutant Registration Act?"

"Yeah, I noticed," Marco said bitterly. "And the Mutant Registration Act is like, this plotline in the X-men comics. There's all these mutants that have these really cool powers, but everyone else hates mutants cause they're different. So they make this law right, that'll make it so that everyone who's a mutant has to register their powers. They say it's so that they can keep track of people with dangerous powers, but really it just lets other people discriminate against them."

Marco shifted on the bed. "But man...if we ever manage to get out own worlds, we're screwed. Maybe we could have dealt with just Iniss knowing, but now that everyone knows...we aren't gonna be able to hide it from any other Yeerks that might show up. And how do we even know that they're aren't more on board that we don't know about anyway?"

"X-Men... comics?" He frowned. "They are superhero comics? Like Wolverine?" Howard told him a little about Wolverine, for what that was worth.

"So you believe it's possible for us to return to our original worlds." Zouichi himself finds the idea a little hard to believe -- what's destroyed is destroyed. "However, if you're planning to go back, why do you have to go alone? Why not ask for help? I'm sure there are quite a few crew members here who would be happy to lend a hand."

Honestly, since they're meddling with the fate of world after world anyway, what'd be wrong with asking, say, a couple of Gundam pilots to come take out the invasion force?

"Yeah, like Wolverine," Marco said. "And I wouldn't say I believe it. But we gotta account for the possibility, right? And who says that anyone else would be able to come too, anyway? For all we know, we'll just get sucked back to our own worlds and not have any choice about where we go. Most likely we'll end up with whatever is the worst possible scenario, which in our case is getting sent back home with Yeerks that know who we are, and no chance of getting help."

"Well, while we're talking about the worst-case scenario, how about this? We don't win the war, and everyone is destroyed. Or the war goes on for so long that people live and die fighting it. The crew gives up. The war goes on long enough that when you do go back, you're noticeably aged out of the age people expect you to be anyway, immediately drawing suspicion to yourself with or without the Yeerks.

"Our worlds are unrecoverable. Our worlds are recoverable, but we can't return to them after spending so much time in the Bleed. The Daligig are lying to us, and they're the ones really destroying the multiverse. We're not in a spaceship at all, and this is part of a vast simulation. We're not in a spaceship, you're mortally wounded, and having your last, long hallucination before you die."

"What, so you think I should have just told everyone that I can morph because this might all be some whacked out hallucination?" Marco snorted. "No thanks. And even if this all isn't real, or we can never go back, or that everything's all going to go to hell in a giant ball of fire, that doesn't change the fact that telling everyone still had a greater risk than not telling everyone."

"'Everyone'? No. But if the right people had known, things could have happened differently, without having your secret revealed to the entire crew. As it was, I think Kang handled the situation poorly; he overlooked several ways in which he could have gotten you and your friend brought into Medical without compromising your identities.

For example, let's assume Kang wanted to keep your identity secret for the reasons you described, but also felt a need to warn the crew about your powers. In that case, he could have issued a warning to everyone stating that 'there are crew members capable of transforming into animals or people', then instructed the crew to report any sightings.

Any Yeerk who was not already aware of your identity and connection to Kang would have assumed he was talking about "the Andalite bandits" -- not the human crew members Marco and Rachel. Further, it would have reinforced the notion that Kang himself didn't know the identity of the crew members who could morph. And if questioned, he could easily explain himself by saying he found out through someone else reporting a sighting.

He could then have issued two different directives to Security:
(a) Find 'the crew members who can morph'.
(b) Find Marco and Rachel.

These two directives would have allowed Security to apprehend you in morphed form, using the sighting information given to them by the crew, or in human form, under some pretext about your safety. Either way, your identity would not have been revealed unless you or Rachel personally demonstrated your powers in view of an officer -- which you would not have done, because you considered your secret vital."

"That's not what you said said earlier," he said, suspicious. "You said that Kang should have 'immediately' told the Council - and Security - about our morphing as soon as he found out about it. That sure doesn't fit with your nice little scenario there."

Marco sure was suspicious. Maybe he needed more calcium.

"My point is that what happened -- allowing Kang to decide for himself what to do with your secret -- didn't work. He could have come up with a plan like the one I just mentioned... but he didn't. Why? Maybe he was under pressure. Maybe he could only see the problem in terms of 'tell no one' or 'tell everyone'. Maybe he simply never anticipated this kind of situation would arise, and was caught unprepared.

Whatever the reason, if the goal was to avoid letting everyone on this ship know about your powers, Kang ended up being the wrong person to rely on.

On the other hand, what if Kang had told the Council and Security about you, then limited that information to those individuals? If he had, he could have simply asked Security to pick up the two of you, no special plan required. And your secret would have continued to be limited to this individuals. Again, the key was in letting the right people know."

"No, he should have told no one," Marco said shortly. "Cause guess what? They're not his abilities, they're mine. And if I'd had my way, he'd never have even known about them in the first place. If he really gave a damn about keeping it hidden, he'd have come looking for me himself. And why are you so insistent on trying to convince me that other people have the right to go sharing information about me around, huh? Are you just ticked off cause you didn't get to be in the loop, is that it?"

Zouichi's expression was one of confused disbelief. "If he hadn't known about you at all, yes, that would have been the optimal situation for you. But that's not how things turned out. He did know. And he ended up telling everyone. Do you... really not see that this could have been handled differently?"

Plus, the ship was the size of a moon. Did Marco really expect Kang to tear-ass around looking for Marco and Rachel himself? Kang had better be a lot faster than he looked, because even the Flash might be hard-pressed to track them down. Especially if they were in Hydroponics or the City.

Maybe it was pointless arguing this with a thirteen-year-old. Marco seemed to think of everything in black and white, even when presented with evidence that the way they'd handled things this time just hadn't worked.

"I'm explaining this because I'd like it if you could understand where I was coming from, and because I don't want things to be handled this way in the future. I think it's just asking for trouble. But I am annoyed that no one bothered telling Security until the last minute. It makes our job harder. And it means that the Council and Security doesn't trust each other. In addition, it means there may be more information that one Councilor or another is keeping secret, which they'll only release to us when they deem it necessary. Maybe there's another KAIN locked up somewhere that no one's bothering to tell us about, for instance. And one of these days, they may decide too late to prevent someone from getting seriously hurt."

Or killed.

"You know, not that I like Kang, but isn't them releasing information when they think it's necessary part of the job description?" Marco drawled. "Yeah, Kang could have done things differently. But I sure as hell don't like your proposed alternative. You're a police force, not the CIA."

"Yes. When the Council thinks its necessary, not when Kang does." And there was a world of difference between the two.

He stood. "It doesn't sound like we can agree. But I hope I was at least able to convey to you my line of reasoning. I have to do what I think is right. I hope you can at least believe me when I say this."

Zouichi gave Marco a polite nod, then turned, weaving his way through the Quarantine bubbles towards the exist.

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Melting Clock: Quarantine

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