Day 9, Hour 23:1 have confined all crew members except essential bridge personnel to their quarters and ordered the passengers to stay in their cabins. The first officer is attempting to wrest command from me. I made the mistake of confiding my contingency plan for the passengers should any of them carry out their threat to escape quarantine. To prevent any from carrying the plague with them, I have changed the course of the Blanca to an uninhabited section of space outside of their shuttles' ranges.
Day 10: I am not a monster. It was a medical necessity for the entire universe that I did what I did.
I was forced to execute the first officer and navigator for mutiny. They attempted to stop me from detaining the passengers who panicked and ran for their personal vessels. I could not permit that, of course, and at first I thought I succeeded in hiding it from my senior officers. I did, long enough to achieve my goal. I tried to make it as quick and painless as possible. I simply turned off the scrubbers in the ventilation system on the passenger decks and docking bay and back-flushed the vents, reversing the air flow. Though two of the passengers reached their private vessels, as I see on the surveillance cam, none succeeded in leaving the ship. Everyone suffocated. It was not pretty, but it was relatively fast. Once the first officer, Francisco Martinez, looked at the screen and saw the bodies in the corridor, he ordered the second mate and the communications officer to assist the passengers. Of course, I could not allow them to open the door and pollute our air-not that it would have ultimately mattered, but I still had to try to save some of us. I ordered them to stop and when they didn't, I shot them. Martinez looked at me as I resheathed my sidearm. His expression could not have been more amazed if I'd suddenly turned into an alien right before his eyes. He asked, "What have you done?" So I tried to explain. He directly countermanded my orders, immediately resetting the controls. He succeeded in turning the scrubbers back on and reestablishing normal ventilation, but by then it was too late. Realizing that anyone still alive would not long survive and if they did, would be in no condition to oppose my orders, I allowed him to do so. When he saw that his countermeasures were of no use, he became deranged and attacked me. While he attempted to restrain me in a bear hug, I was able to free my arm and my weapon. I shot him through the chest, then, once I was free again, I shot him at the base of the skull. It was a relatively painless death, though not, as I had hoped, instantaneous. I made him as comfortable as possible at his duty station, and it won't be long until he's gone. It is my turn now. I cannot operate this ship alone, I cannot allow others to enter it in an attempt to detain me, and I cannot leave the ship for fear of carrying the disease to the outside world. God forgive me and have mercy on us all.
Captain Maria Grimwold, M.D.
"So I was right," Khorii said, looking up as she finished reading. "It was the plague."
"No. It was the captain, as you can see, who was responsible for the total annihilation of the crew and passengers, as I mentioned before," Elviiz, who had been standing beside her reading over her shoulder, said. "The plague did kill many of the passengers, but the captain killed the rest."
"Only to stop the plague from spreading," Khorii said. "But this makes me wonder. Why didn't all of the passengers get it? From reading this, it sounds as if isolation really was impossible to enforce. And why didn't the captain herself get sick?"
"She sounds as if she may have been insane at the end," Elviiz said.
"She knew what she had to do. But she does not mention being sick with the plague. She was a medical doctor herself. What a terrible decision to make!"
"Yes, terrible. It was ka-Linyaari," Elviiz said, in a severe tone.
"Had she been Linyaari or had anyone aboard been Linyaari, no one would have died and none of that would have been necessary," Khorii replied.
Danger! Warning! Quarantine alert! This entire sector is under quarantine by order of Federation directive number 000472985-2-FDR. All ships are ordered back to their homeports. Any vessel not complying will be destroyed. Reverse course at once. In precisely fifteen minutes this ship will target your vessel with a diterium warhead."
The announcement continued over the loudspeakers of the Linyaari ship. "Firing will begin in fourteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds. Fourteen minutes and fifty-seven seconds. Fourteen minutes and fifty-six seconds . . ."
"What a lovely voice she has!" Maarni said to her husband.
"Yes, isn't it? Especially considering the message," he replied.
"Federation vessel, this is the Linyaari vessel Mahiiri. We are plague-free from another quadrant and are here to help. Do not fire. Have you any plague victims aboard who need our assistance? We have the means to cure them."
"Firing will begin in thirteen minutes and forty seconds."
"Well, dear, extrude the boarding apparatus. They are not responding, but it does not look like a drone to me."
"Nor me. Boarding apparatus extruded. Fasten your helmet, Yiitir."
"Already done, my love. Shall we?"
"Firing will begin in thirteen minutes and fifteen seconds."
Once aboard the Federation vessel, they disarmed the warhead as they had been taught and examined each crew member to see if, contrary to appearances, any of them still lived.
"Oh, how sad. All gone. And so very young, too. This makes how many of these ships we've encountered, dear?"
"Six."
"And how many survivors we have been able to assist."
"None."
"I do hope the Balakiire will have better luck at Maganos Moonbase, while the rest of us tidy up space out here and maintain communication lines while patching up the Federation's. Surely the youngsters on the Moonbase will be fine. Aari and Acorna are well able to protect a small moon and still prevent the plague from spreading elsewhere."
"One would think. It does seem to be a very widespread plague, judging from all of the threats and warnings we've been receiving. But then, I have no idea what is usual in this sort of situation. There's certainly nothing in our history to inform one, is there?"
"No, dear. Certainly not."
After conducting a thorough decontamination of the ship so it could be retrieved later by the Federation without risk of infection, they returned to their own craft. Like all Linyaari vessels, the Mahi-iri was egg-shaped. It distinguished itself from others in the Linyaari fleet by the appearance of its hull, which was decorated with swags of gilt and tasteful patterns in lavender, mint green, and purple.
"Oh, good, the com signal is on. Perhaps there's word from the vanguard even now!"
"Mahiiri, this is Naarye aboard the Haatniiri. Transmission from the Balakiire says that Aari and Acorna did not land on Maganos Moonbase. Acorna's fathers and their wives are all safe at a health facility on Kezdet. The baby boy was born at two o'clock in the morning Kezdet Standard time. He was fifteen inches long and weighed seven and one-half pounds. He is being named Harry, in honor of Uncle Hafiz Harakamian, according to the father. That is the good news."