Chapter 49 - Teaser! (Patreon)

Hello, my friends! Chapter 49's teaser is here! :-) Unfortunately, I had an elderly relative suffer a bad fall, go into hospice, and then pass soon after this month, so my normal timeline is a bit askew given everything that suddenly needed to happen, including days off work, relatives traveling from out of town to attend the funeral, letting people stay at my house, etc. I'm working on the final scene of the chapter right now, but honestly I had a few more that I had intended to include before I just ran out of time. I think it comes together well enough, but we'll be spending just a touch more time than I had intended in the Walking Dead universe. The new chapter will be up in the next few days, promise! :-)

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B’Elanna and I stood outside my sickbay’s isolation ward, looking through the transparent aluminum windows, watching as my three EMH doctors worked on the biobeds, modifying and finetuning the diagnostic equipment before the real show began in earnest. The large isolation room was currently segregated into two areas by a humming blue forcefield. On the left were three biobeds, on the right were another three biobeds.

“How confident are you that the forcefields will prevent the anaphasic energy field from leaving the isolation ward?” I asked, not bothering to turn to B’Elanna or taking my eyes off my doctors diligently working.

“Confident enough to stand outside the ward and risk exposing myself,” B’Elanna replied.  

“Great answer,” I replied quietly.

“Every simulation says it’ll work, but we’re dealing with what is likely an elder civilization’s technology,” she continued with a shrug. “You were inundated with the anaphasic energy field for days on end, giving your armor time to accumulate a great deal of data. That allowed us to come up with a counter that we’re very confident will confine the field. If we’re wrong, though, I’ll be able to adjust the field harmonics and only I will be exposed, rather than the whole ship, since you’re apparently immune now.”

“Did you and Neela flip a coin?” I joked.

“No, I volunteered,” she admitted, not looking at me. “It was the least I could do considering—"

“Captain, we’re ready to begin when you are,” Doctor Gadot interrupted.

I glanced to my right at B’Elanna, but she said no more.

“Gothic to Neela, energize,” I ordered, our omnitools acting as comm badges.

Moments later the three biobeds on the right were filled and loud snarls drowned out everything else.