Previous Episode: The Agent and the Cat

Relena and her crew found themselves on Noresus, the de facto capital of a loose confederation of frontier worlds known as the Barons, where the most commonly traded commodity was cattle. Relena was adamant that there would be absolutely no livestock on her ship, so she, Kelda and Lance started a bar fight.

While they were enjoying themselves, Unity continued studying the strange goo that had been removed from the engine room. It continued to change colours, but appeared otherwise inert. In a fit of rash (and unauthorised) experimentation, Unity put a sample of Noumalia's dustbunny into a sealed test tube with a sample of the goo. Nothing happened, so he put it aside while he continued his experiments with the pure goo.

After finishing off their antagonists in the bar fight, Relena was approached by someone with a job for them. They were to transport three Anthropos passengers to Ethnor, another planet in the Barons. After establishing that they were not Men In Immaculately Tailored Suits, Relena agreed to the contract, which would pay a suitable commission. The contract signed, Relena was advised that her passengers would be at her ship first thing in the morning. Relena and Lance proceeded to get raging drunk and eventually staggered back to the ship, while Kelda found herself some company and a warm bed for the night.

In the morning, Kelda returned to the ship to find the passengers waiting to board. The well-dressed lady of about age 35 introduced herself as Lorraine Wheeler, while the other two passengers were her children, Lorraine, aged 10, and Jerome, aged 8.

Relena had a hangover (not as bad as Lance's!) but she saw the passengers to their quarters, with instructions that they were not to leave. They readily agreed, and Lance rather shakily took off.

Two days into the four-day trip, Unity was continuing his investigation of the goo. He found that the dust in the goo was moving, as though under convection. This was curious, but not at this time in any way hazardous, so he set up a video monitor and returned to the goo.

At some point he decided that he needed to examine Noumalia's pet kurr'ssa. Noumalia assisted with the process, but unfortunately after the examination was complete, the animal resentfully turned its eye-beams on the hapless doctor. Unity was severely injured, but Noumalia telepathically called for Relena just as Relena received a message from Lorraine Wheeler saying that her son Jerome had collapsed. Relena attended to Jerome while Kelda rushed to Unity.

Fortunately, Kelda was able to stablilse Unity, because Relena wasn't able to determine what was wrong with the boy. It appeared to be similar to an epileptic fit, but the boy had no history of epilepsy or allergies or anything else which may have explained the seizure. Jerome was taken to Medlab, where Unity could at least instruct Relena on caring for him. Unfortunately, Unity had accidentally given himself somewhat more morphine than was strictly necessary.

Seeing that (apart from the coma) there were no physical symptoms that might have explained Jerome's seizure and coma, Noumalia attempted to contact his mind. She found his thoughts fragmented and chaotic, as though something had broken his mind into little pieces and was shaking the box they were contained in. Incidentally, during this process, she noticed the test tube that Unity had placed under video surveillance. Instead of containing goo and dust, the vial now contained a number of mite-like bugs.

Lance searched the stateroom that had been given over to the family, but was not able to find anything that might have caused the collapse. Significantly, the room was completely free of the goo. Noumalia, however, did find a new colony of the goo in a place that had been clean previously. Seeing that there was little more that could be done, Relena decided that they should continue towards Ethnor.

The following day, Noumalia was found in a coma, and so was her pet kurr'ssa. They were both immediately rushed to Medlab. Unity, stable and un-stoned by now, examined them and found symptoms similar to the boy Jerome. It was immediately concluded that whatever was affecting them affected only those with psionic abilities. Lorraine noted that a Zin-shee trader had come through town the day before they boarded, and the children had spent some time talking with her. Jerome had not previously exhibited any psionic ability, although Lorraine did admit that he sometimes seemed a little fey.

Unity consulted the databanks, and found a rare condition among the Zin-shee called Mindvirus. An anomalous mental construct could transmit itself telepathically from one mind to another. The mindvirus inevitably killed the host - usually within two weeks. It was rare among the Zin-shee, and there were no records of it ever having been transmitted to another species. Fortunately there was a cure, but it had to be applied telepathically - mind to mind. Before the boy could be cured, Noumalia would have to be revived, and she was deteriorating fast - much faster than the records suggested. Unity devised a plan.

He would inflict brain death. He would shut down Noumalia's higher brain functions while keeping her autonomic systems alive. This would essentially reboot her mind and hopefully eliminate the mindvirus from her mental structure. He was sure it would work. Relena insisted that he test the process on the kurr'ssa first. The animal was bound and blindfolded, and Unity administered the procedure. It was successful. The kurr'ssa's EEG returned to normal.

Unfortunately, a fully sentient Zin-shee mind proved to be somewhat more complex than that of an animal - even one as intelligent as a kurr'ssa. Noumalia crashed - her heart stopped, and she could not be revived by normal means. Desparately Unity tried everything he could.

Relena was the only witness to what happened. The lights suddenly extinguished, and the only thing she could see was a golden light, arrowing out to touch Noumalia's forehead. At that moment she heaved a deep breath and revived, just as the lights came on again. Lance (on the bridge) did not notice anything unusual or untoward, but Noumalia was alive.

She insisted that the kurr'ssa be released and returned to her quarters. Relena refused, so Noumalia - apparently in good health - sulked. Unity had revived Noumalia, but Lorraine was not willing to allow her son to undergo the same risky procedure, especially since the hospital faciliies on Ethnor were less than twelve hours away. Eventually Relena relented and allowed the kurr'ssa to be returned to Noumalia's quarters, while insisting that Noumalia herself be confined to Medlab for observation. She complained bitterly, and Unity and Relena were forced to consider sedating her. Unity was able to examine her, and found that she was in better health than ever. Her slight iron deficiency - gone. Her joint pain due to working in cramped spaces - gone. Noumalia was literally in perfect health.

Lance took food to the kurr'ssa, and narrowly avoided getting blasted.

Ultimately they arrived on Ethnor, and Jerome Wheeler was admitted to the hospital. Unity immediately sent a query through the hyperspace channels for the mental patterns that would form a cure for the mindvirus. Relena, Kelda and Lance went out drinking while waiting for a response, while Noumalia confined herself to quarters. The doctors at the hospital expressed utter disbelief that Unity could have carried out the procedure he described. It was medically impossible to "reboot" a sentient mind like that. They absolutely refused to even consider carrying out the same procedure on Jerome.

Fortunately, mere hours after Unity's query was sent through the hyperspace relay, an unmarked ship landed very near the pub where Relena, Kelda and Lance were drinking. Two Zin-shee debarked and immediately noticed Lance. They introduced themselves as Doweoo (male) and Linrissit (female), and offered their services. They had obviously intercepted Unity's transmission. Lance escorted them to the hospital as Linrissit made telepathic contact with Noumalia, offering to teach her the psionic cure for the mindvirus. They too disbelieved that a mind could be "rebooted" to cure this malady.

Jerome was cured by the Zin-shee telepath, who advised that since the development of this cure, the mindvirus had been all but eliminated in most civilised regions of the galaxy. Noumalia learned the construct that would eliminate the mindvirus, and Relena was paid an extra bonus by Lorraine.

Kelda realised that the ship the Zin-shee pair had arrived in was definitely military, but unmarked. It appeared that the House of Dha was closely shadowing them...

Unity reviewed the video footage of the goo/dust experiment, and saw that the bugs appeared to spontaneously germinate from within the goo, and then proceeded to consume both goo and dust. He placed the tube into Medbay's third stasis field (the other two containing goo and dust containers).

Relena, Kelda and Lance continued to get drunk, and by pure coincidence became involved in another bar fight.

Next Episode: Gravity Well

Quotes of the week:
It's like social lubrication by cow.
- (GM)

Relena: Unity, do you have anything that might sedate Noumalia?
Unity: A regular paycheck?