Part 12 (2/2)

”Well, brother,” Rom said. ”You did the right thing. Now all we have to do is apply that cream to our ears-” ”No,” Quark said. 'I'll apply it to my ears, and I'll give you your own dab of it. I'm not touching anything you touch ever again. Is that clear?”

”Perfectly,” Rom said. ”Does this mean I get your earbrush?” Nog asked. Quark stared at him for a moment, and then he sighed, unwilling to fight them anymore. ”I guess it does,” he said.

Chapter Sixteen

NEARLY TWENTY-FOUR HOURS without sleep. Pulaski felt it in the grit of her eyes, the sluggishness in her arms and legs. She had pulled all-nighters hundreds of times from college on, and she'd hated each and every one of them. Of course, she had to admit that this one she didn't mind, because the work needed to be done.

She bent over the culture she had been working on. She took a dropper and placed a small sample of solution on it, then glanced at the screen. Narat stood beside her. They watched as the solution moved through the viral cells, destroying them. It left all the other cells alone.

”I think we've got it,” Narat said.

Part of it, anyway, Pulaski thought-but didn't add. She and Kellec hadn't told Narat about Virus B and Virus C and how that discovery had led them to this formula, which might actually be a cure. Kellec was testing a slightly different form of solution on Virus B, although what she and Kellec had told Narat was that Kellec was merely doing a double check.

Narat trusted them. He hadn't looked too closely at either experiment.

”The next step is to use test subjects,” Pulaski said. She wiped a hand over her forehead. ”But we don't have any.” ”Just the patients,” Narat said.

”I hate injecting an untried solution into someone,” Pulaski said.

”I have to agree with Narat on this one, Katherine,” Kellec said. ”They're going to die anyway. We have to see if we can stop it.”

She nodded. She knew. She had done the same several times in crisis situations, the last time on the Enterprise. But each time her scientist's brain warned that one day they would inject the wrong substance into the wrong patient, and that that patient would die too soon.

”Why don't you and Narat try the Carda.s.sians?” Kellec said. 'TII try the Bajorans.”

”It might not work on one group or the other,” Narat said.

”We'll deal with that when it happens,” Pulaski said. She took a deep breath. ”Let's at least try a couple of patients before we inject everyone.”

Narat nodded. ”That much caution I can accept. Let's take three: one who is nearly gone, one in the middle of the disease, and one at the beginning.”

”Get Edgar to help you find the patients,” Pulaski said. ”And Alyssa is among the Bajorans.”

She sat down. Something was bothering her about the cure, she wasn't sure what. But it would come to her. Eventually.

Kellec was working among the Bajorans, moving beds so that they were closer to the office, injecting hypospray on the three patients. In the cultures, the results had happened quickly. Pulaski wasn't sure what would happen in an actual body. Narat was doing the same with the Carda.s.sians. Ogawa looked excited. A strand of hair had fallen from her neat bun, and she was smiling for the first time since they had reached Terok Nor.

Governo seemed solemn. He probably wasn't certain this would work. The entire trip had been hard on him-first-time away missions often were for medical personnel, and this one was particularly difficult. Failure here would be worse than anything any of them had ever faced before, except Pulaski, and right now even she would be hard-pressed to remember an occasion worse than this.

Kellec finished with his few patients and sat down beside her. ”How long do you think this will take?”

”If we're lucky, twenty minutes,” she said.

They both knew what would happen if they were unlucky. They watched Narat work with the Carda.s.sians.

”If this works,” Kellec said, ”it's only going to work on the virus. People will still catch it.”

”I know.” He had put his finger on what had been bothering her. ”Maybe, though, it'll be like catching a cold-not anything to worry about.”

”Maybe,” he said. ”But it bothers me that we haven't found how this thing incubates. You know how pernicious viruses are.”

She did. Viruses mutated, often after medicine was introduced. She s.h.i.+vered. ”Don't even think it.”

”I have to,” he said. ”I'm worried.”

”Dr. Kellec?” Nurse Ogawa called from the Bajoran section. ”You need to come here.”

Kellec cursed. ”It backfired. We should have known better than to try this untested-”

Pulaski put her hand on his arm. ”Shhh. You're jumping to conclusions.”

They both went into the next room. The patient nearest the door, a young Bajoran girl, looked tired, her skin sallow. She sat up, with a hand on her head. ”I'm hungry,” she said with a bit of surprise.

Pulaski opened her tricorder and ran it over the girl. There wasn't a trace of the virus in her system. Kellec was confirming the information on the biobed readouts.

”She's cured,” Pulaski said. He examined the readings another time. ”Which one was she?” Pulaski asked Ogawa. ”The least sick,” Ogawa said. Her smile had grown bigger. ”And look, the next is losing some of that healthy color.”

How odd that they were celebrating the fact that their patients were looking less healthy, but it was part of the disease to look that way. And part of the cure to go back to the way they had looked before, when they were subjected to all the difficulties of Terok Nor.

”Katherine,” Kellec said softly. ”We did it.” And then he flung his arms around her, pulling her close. ”We did it!”

She hugged him back and let him dance her around the room. Finally, she put a hand on his arm. ”Kellec, we have a lot of people to inject with this cure.”

”Yes,” he said. ”You make up a large batch, and I'll get going on injections.”

”I'11 take some down to Crystal in the Bajoran section,” Ogawa mid.

”Help her down there,” Kellec said. ”She'll need it.”

Ogawa smiled and left. Pulaski went into the office. The Bajorans were cured, but she didn't know about the Carda.s.sians. Her heart stopped when she saw Narat.

He was standing over a bed, his hands covering his face, his body so hunched that he looked as if he were in pain.

”My G.o.d,” she whispered. What had saved the Bajorans had killed the Carda.s.sians. And she had been so careful to make sure they had the slightly different injection.

She went to the other room and put a hand on Narat's shoulder. He was shaking. ”Narat?” she asked.

He raised his head. ”I didn't think we'd-I didn't think-Look!” He pointed down. The Carda.s.sian on the bed, whom Pulaski recognized as one of the guards, was his usual gray. His scales still flaked, but they didn't look as irritated as they had. And his eyes were bright.

She ran her tricorder over him as well. The virus was gone.

”Narat,” she said. ”You gave me quite a scare. I thought it hadn't worked.”

”Oh, but it did, Dr. Pulaski. Thanks to you, we're all going to survive.”

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