Chapter 224

Chapter 224: Chapter 224

Bewildered.

That was the leading expression on everyone’s face.

It was strange being the one who knew something for once. Since she’d arrived on Ustea, Tempest had constantly been two steps behind everyone else. She didn’t understand their technology, their bodies, their customs , or half the things Gerax explained to her. Now all of them were looking at her for answers about something so ordinary to her that she’d barely thought about it since childhood.

Hen rushed up behind Tempest. She hadn’t taken her mask or other protective gear off.

"What’s going on?" Hen asked, out of breath.

"We can’t get it. Were you vaccinated as a child?" Tempest asked her.

Hen blinked a few times. "Yes," she answered, leading Tempest on.

"Then you can’t get sick. It’s the measles. Talk about reliving history." Tempest scoffed.

Gerax stepped forward. "Wait, wait. I don’t understand what you are talking about. What is this measles? Is it a food? I don’t get it."

"Food, no. What? Now, why would you think that?" Hen asked as she ripped her mask down. She stared at Gerax like he was stupid.

"How do you know it’s this measles thing you are talking about?" Aliq asked, focusing on Tempest.

"I’ve seen it before up close. I never had it because I was immunized as a child, but my aunt was a real anti-vaxxer to the core for no other reason besides she didn’t want to spend the money on the doctor’s visits for her kids. She had five kids. One came down with the measles, and the rest followed. My mother and I went over to help them recover." Tempest let out another breath before she continued. "It was a hellish few weeks, but I’d remember that rash anywhere."

"Jesus Christ, it makes sense," Hen said from behind her. She slammed her palm to her forehead.

"What?" Tempest asked her.

"Sara was complaining of feeling fluish. The fever, the cough, the fatigue. I just thought it was a bad cold or her body adjusting to Ustea. I never once thought about measles."

"Of course you didn’t." Tempest reached toward her and squeezed her shoulder. "We rarely ever get that anymore on Earth. No one thinks about it."

"I should’ve been more..." Hen started, but Tempest shook her a little harder.

"No, this isn’t on you. Don’t take this." Tempest nodded once, and Hen followed suit.

Sara hadn’t done anything wrong. That was the worst part. She hadn’t come here carrying a weapon or intending to hurt anyone. She’d been ripped away from Earth, abandoned in a strange world, and somehow managed to survive long enough to find other humans. All the while, something invisible had traveled with her. Something that barely frightened Tempest’s people anymore would manage to bring the entire ship of Usteans to their knees.

"Excuse me." Gerax knocked on the wood of the boat to get the attention back on him. Tempest turned.

"So, you’re saying that this is survivable."

"Yes, unless your immune system is already compromised, or you are without medical supplies." She groaned.

Tempest realized she wasn’t down the block from the nearest emergency room. She was in the middle of a huge ocean with a bunch of aliens crammed into ships.

This was probably the worst-case scenario.

Aliq tapped his chin. He was deep in thought.

Dron tried to take a step forward, the concern still clear on his face. "You’re sure that you won’t get sick from this?"

"I’m positive." She wanted to step forward and comfort him, but she didn’t want to infect him. She might be immune to it, but she was sure he wasn’t. In fact, the fact that he’d come across earlier meant that he was exposed.

That realization made her stomach tighten. Dron had already stepped onto the other ship. He’d walked through the same air and stood beside Rynax. There was no taking that back. Tempest didn’t even know how long it would take before they knew if he was sick. What if the worst happened?

"Why are you immune?" Aliq spoke up.

Tempest turned to look at him, pushing her worries to the back of her mind as best she could. She couldn’t start imagining Dron lying on one of those cots. Not now.

"Because when I was a child, I was given a shot that protected me from getting ill if I ever came in contact with the virus."

"Sort of like gene recoding?" Aliq questioned.

Tempest shrugged her shoulders. "I don’t know about all that. Basically, vaccines are very, very small, dull versions of a disease that are injected into our bodies so our immune system learns how to fight it off."

"So it’s not a cure?" Gerax peppered in his question.

"No, not a cure for it. Preventative." Tempest shrugged.

Aliq and Gerax looked at each other, both of them registering a thought as if they shared the same mind.

Gerax continued, "And you don’t need to get another shot every time you come in contact with the illness?"

"No, just two in childhood is good for the rest of my life," Tempest replied.

"Then, it’s not the shot. It’s what your body is doing with it," Aliq piped in.

Gerax nearly smiled as he turned to look at the man.

"Huh?" Tempest was the one lost now.

"Whatever medical tonic or device that was put in your body as a child has learned to recognize the illness and has trained your body to fight it the moment it encounters it."

"Yeah, antibodies," Hen chimed in.

"Yeah, we have antibodies," Tempest agreed. She was suddenly wishing she paid more attention in science class when they were explaining all of this.

"Then that’s what we need." Gerax nodded his head.

Tempest tried to dig through the years of forgotten science lessons. Antibodies. White blood cells. Immune system. There had been diagrams and worksheets and tests she’d crammed for before promptly forgetting everything the second the grade was posted. Never once had she imagined that one day she’d be standing on another planet, wishing she’d paid more attention because someone’s life might actually depend on what she remembered. If they’d told her this was what she was preparing for, she’d have taken better care to remember all of this information in those books.

There was one thing she did remember. Vaccines were never given if the person was sick. It would just make it worse.

Tempest shook her head. "No, like I said. The vaccine isn’t a cure. These people already have the virus. The vaccine isn’t going to do anything."

Gerax shook his head. "No, not the vaccine. We need these so-called... antibodies."

Hen and Tempest looked to each other.

"How are you going to get them?"

Gerax opened his mouth to talk, but then his eyes jerked over to Dron, who was still staring at Tempest as if she would drop dead at any minute. He was waiting to catch her if she were to fall.

Aliq was the one who had to speak up. "We need your blood, Tempest."

"What!?" Dron snapped his attention in Aliq’s direction. Gerax continued the line of conversation.

"Not a lot, just enough to analyze and try to pull the antibodies out. If we can get some of the antibodies out of her and into the people who are sick, maybe they will be better able to fight off the illness. They could all survive." Gerax took a step away from Dron.

They all knew that Dron didn’t play when it came to Tempest’s safety. Asking her for blood seemed dangerous even to her.

"You’re going to need plasma for that," Hen spoke up. "Not blood. Tempest can only donate half a liter of blood. That’s not going to give you much plasma. You’re not going to have enough for the whole ship. Maybe two or three people at the most," Hen continued.

Tempest turned to look at her. She knew way more about the scientific portion of this than Tempest. Tempest began wondering what Hen did back on Earth.

"What about the rest?" Mexyn spoke. She was toward the back of the crowd.

"What do you mean?" Gerax turned to look at her.

"Well, Tempest said she was vaccinated as a child, which means her blood has what you need for three people. Hen said she was vaccinated. Doesn’t that mean she would have the same antibodies? How many of the other humans have been vaccinated? The help we need is right here on these ships. It’s just a question of whether they will want to help us."

"And if these smart ones will know what to do after they’ve got all the blood." Gushex huffed.

Tempest began feeling the hope rise in her chest.

Mexyn was right. She wasn’t the only one that could help. All the humans, the ones that were thought to be a vulnerability, could be the ones who might be able to save these aliens’ lives. No one would force them. If the humans agreed to help, they would be choosing to save the very people many of them had spent years fearing.

Tempest lifted her chin and pulled her shoulders back.

It was time to set up a blood donation drive right here in the middle of the sea.