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The glow of the earth was bright though the viewing galley floor. Things were quiet on Five, and down below,or so John had to guess from the lack of emergency beacons. Then again, the earth always looked quiet from up there, a swirling, silent blue orb.
The exercise he picked to do while waiting for calls was something he called flipping jacks. It was really just bouncing between the floor and ceiling on his hands and feet respectively. Allan had seen him do them once before and had dubbed them "John-Jacks". Eos counted them out loud as he did them. It's important to keep fit in zero gravity.
He was somewhere around 106 when eos's counting was interrupted by a thud on the outer hull, making him jump, or rather, miss a jump and bump his head on the ceiling instead. "Ow" he said, rubbing it tentatively.
"Eos what was that?"
"I'm detecting someone on the outside of the ship"
"someone??" John said, concern in his voice.
There hadn't been any emergency reports all morning, on earth or otherwise. A low creaking sound reverberated through the control room. As the gravity belt slowly turned he caught the glimpse of a pale spacesuit gleaming against the black sky and immediately stepped out to get his flight suit on.
"I'm going out to get them. Eos, make a report to Tracy Island."
"right away John."
The air rushed over him as the airlock opened. His eyes scanned the outside of the gravity belt frantically, heart thumping. He had been through plenty of stressful situations but this one was making him uneasy. He locked onto the sun glinting off the green space suit. Taking heavy metallic steps in a b-line toward the slumped figure. It didn't move. He turned them over to see a young man with dark hair. He was pale and flushed but John could see the condensation that formed ever so briefly on the glass and he breathed out.
"you're alive." he breathed. He wasted no time slinging him, weightless over his shoulder.
When he reentered thunderbird 5, Scott's hologram was already hovering over the comms unit.
"what's the situation John?"
"Not sure yet" he said as he lowered the man to the ground, yanking off the astronauts helmet. "guy came out of nowhere." he mumbled to himself. "Eos run diagnostics. I didn't get any distress signals. There's no one around for a hundred thousand miles. How did he get here?" Eos's whirring processor's stopped.
"John don't take off your helmet. Her voice was laced with urgency.
He froze." why?" he and Scott said at the same time.
"Life signs are low from lack of oxygen, but he has a 102.3 degree fever and his blood is slightly irradiated." John gasped under his breath, the corner of his mouth twitched down, he knew what was coming. "His symptoms are consistent with Kelburn's disease." Eos concluded.
"John, you're doing your poker tell, you know what that is?" John's eyes were glued on the astronaut. On the beads of sweat forming on his temples, on the browns that were slowly coming together in a frown as his breathing stabilised.
"yes."
He put the astronauts helmet gently back on and picked him back up. Striding down the corridor with the unconscious astronaut in his arms. Finally reaching the medibay, he gently laid the man down on the infirmary bed. "Eos, take me through life support setup, then we'll seal him off in here." hesitantly, he took off the man's helmet again. Scott's hologram reappeared.
"John what's going on? What's Kelburn's disease?"
John talked as he worked. "it's a disease that comes up in pockets every few years, often on high maintenance cruisers and deep space mining rigs." he said. Speaking about it so mechanically was making him feel better about it, but he knew telling Scott what he had to tell him wasn't going to be easy.
"It's picked up from exposure to intense solar radiation. it comes up in pockets because most people are immune to the mutation that forms in the blood after becoming irradiated. But after one person has it it's highly contagious." he gently hooked up an iv line and clipped a pulse reader to his finger. Rushing to get out of the door. The glass slid shut and sealed with a hiss.
"That's how he ended up here," John said sadly. "old captains used to send them out alone when they couldn't afford to quarantine them." the blinking of the lights glinted off his cheek.
"they sent him out to die." Scott said.
John nodded solemnly. "John," he said in a commanding tone, pulling him away from the wayward starman.
"Did you make physical contact at all? You should get him out of there ASAP, send him down in the space elevator."
"that's a negative Scott. I can't risk him coming into contact with anyone else. He'll have to quarantine here on thunderbird five." He didn't like the way it sounded coming out of his mouth, it set a sinking in his stomach that made him want to take it back immediately.
For once liking the feeling of simulated gravity, he went for a walk around the belt, before he knew it he had looped around and almost walked into the clear glass of the medibay door. He took the chance to examine his guest from the other side. He was still fast asleep and the machines beeped rhythmically. He noticed the suit he was wearing was a service uniform. He noted the name label, that read "PARK, A." his rank badge indicated he was a mechanic for the venus mining corporation.
"Are you alright John?" he jumped at Eos's close voice pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah." He burst out sounding unconvincing. Eos blinked.
"Don't think too hard you might hurt yourself"
"Hey." he said, laughing, shaking off the feeling to go back to his post at the controls. He set up a full decontamination of the interior and put on a different space suit. For the next few hours John forced himself to keep his eyes on the map and his mind off the unconscious man in the station with him.
-
"Welcome back online" John said gently. "John Tracy, International rescue. Don't sit up too fast, you got bashed around a bit when you hit thunderbird Five."
"Adrian." the man said, rubbing the back of his head tentatively.
"I'm going to ask you some questions, Adrian, just answer what you can remember. Do you know what day it is?"
"Tuesday?"
"okay. Do you remember how you got here?"
Adrian struggled to prop himself up onto his forearms. He frowned and looked worried, and then resolved. "I fell out of the ship's ring while performing some routine maintenance. A solar flare took us by surprise."
he was lying, John was sure, but it could wait. He didn't want to cause him more stress, so he just smiled.
"you're in the medibay of thunderbird five. I found you on the outside of the station, I must congratulate you on your aim Mr Park, there are no other crafts around for 4 quadrants. My ship computer has found you have symptoms consistent with Kelburn’s. We have the equipment to treat you, but you'll have to quarantine here for-"
"14 days. Yeah. Shoot, I'm sorry--I mean thank you but, you know what I mean."
"It's ok, really, it's kinda my job. Kinda"
He looked up to find Adrian was looking straight at him, frozen, dazed.
"Adrian? Are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?"
"did you say international rescue?"
"uh, yes" he said, suddenly feeling flustered by the other man's piercing brown eyes.
"well it's very fine to meet you, Mr Tracy." Adrian's face relaxed into a fond smile, far to reassuring and kind for someone who had just been diagnosed with a potentially lethal disease. For a moment John forgot where he was.
"oh John is fine i-" he started, shaking himself from his stupor
"nonsense you're my superior officer" he said, easing himself down onto his back with a wince.
"very well, Mr Park. Are you alright?"
"Well I do have the 'burns. Other than that never better." he said. He winked. John absolutely froze.
"yes, u-uh good!- I'll be at the helm, you can get me over the com to your left there or call Eos, our ship's computer, if you need anything." he turned around hastily to hide the very obvious blush that was spreading over his usually placid face.
He walked quickly back to control, grasping his clipboard to his chest. Why did he suddenly feel like he was back in highschool? He tried to shake it off, but a grin spread over his face that remained there for most of the day.
-
He didn't hear anything for a few hours, and there wasn't much going on on the radio, he caught up with lady penelope, and guided Alan through some geography homework since it was his best subject in academy.
"Shhjjk. Medibay to Five, come in Five. Ssjjjk."
John automatically responded, not recognising the mimicked static sounds straight away. "this is thunderbird five what is your- huh, Adrian? Everything ok?"
"Yeah golden, thunderbird five." John rolled his eyes at the mimicked radio speak that wasn't at all necessary on the ship-wide channel. "Just bored. Pretty nice view though eh?" John focused his eyes past the glass hull.
"Sure is Medibay." he said.
"Hey look down for a second." he looked down through the glass floor to see the Medibay section of the gravity ring drift past. Adrian was hung over the side of the bed waving,then suddenly he was pulled back by something, his hands scrambling for the side of the bed. John gasped as the Medibay rotated passed his line of sight.
"Adrian!" then, a chuckle from the other end of the com.
"only joking you Five. It's gonna be a boring 2 weeks otherwise." John sighed out a small laugh. Then he suddenly had a thought, figuring that Adrian was probably tired of being isolated.
"How do you like your gravity, Medibay?"
"I don't." he replied. John got a warm feeling in his chest and flipped a switch on his control panel.
Adrian sat waiting for a moment, starting to think John wasn’t going to respond, then, the gravity ring shuddered, and stopped all together, lifting him off the bed to free float for a moment before tuning in the other direction. It went all the way back to the comms room and stopped there, a glass again all that separated them.
John smiled as he became weightless once again. "me either."