Pandemia Rise of the Paramecia

Sector 2: Travesty Echo

In the distant future, when the earth has perfected space travel, we are now able to colonize other planets and terraform them to allow people to live on them safely. We can live on Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus at this current point in time. Yet for some unknown reason, we still are not able to live on Neptune. When we attempted to terraform the surface of this planet, making it so that its habitable, not only did the reactor fail but it became even more unlivable.

Neptune was considered a water planet because of all the frozen gas on the surface from our recent inspections. Although every time we sent down a probe or something of the like to examine the surface it would disappear. At any rate we, 'The Earth Medical Task Force' are assigned to six planets aiding and helping disease research and medical ailment.

Right now, we are sitting on a separate space station on the outer rings of Uranus helping the crew aboard another station nearby after a failed attempt in altering Neptune's atmosphere.

"I understand that we have to help other people on the other different planets here in our solar system, but do we have to live inside the space station alone? I mean don't get me wrong. I enjoy our journeys and helping other people and relieving them of any ailments and such but seriously though." said a female physician onboard the spacecraft.

"We are medical professionals, our job is to aid anyone anywhere at any time if they need our help. You know this better than anyone." Said a lady dressed in a nurse's uniform walking into the bridge. "Don't forget the reason we are in this station alone."

"Right, right." Said the physician as she turned to look at her notes. "Doctor Issiac Ross, what is the meaning of this? Aren't we supposed to be saving lives? Then why? Why are we taking a request to die?" she said distressed. "I know I am an excellent if not polished Internist. Specializing in all sorts of medicines and mixes, but I in good conscience can't kill someone!"

The doctor then turns to the nurse, but before he could answer her or say anything, the other lady in the nurse-like outfit spoke up. Her name was Lady Audrey Vice, the biophysicist.

"Oh, quit your bellyaching, Sharp-Tongued Matilda! If you were half as good as you say you are. You would have already understood the situation by now. At any rate, this being is clearly not human or that of the like so clear your conscious. Aside from that, he is clearly in pain. It's no wonder he wants to be put out of his misery." Lady Vice said sharply.

Then I spoke up, "Well, obviously. Its cancer-like in nature but its changing way too quickly. His body is starting to mutate if not very slowly."

"What! What are you yammering about Rosen? What's like cancer are you saying he is infected and only I can fix this or cure him?" said Matilda filled with pride and a glee filled smile.

"Well, according to my autopsy. I just conducted; it would seem to be the case. It's some kind of mutating infection. It's essentially warping the creatures' body," said Doctor Issiac. "Did you finish the blood test and manage to isolate the mutagen from the sample I gave you, Audrey Vice?"

"I have in fact doctor but simply saving him maybe out of the question. However, we can still come up with an anti-serum for the mutagen to slow its spread. With that being said, STD Matilda did you prep the sleeping fluids I requested? It would be nice to put him out of his misery. We can't keep him sedated forever at this rate, the mutagen is still growing and getting stronger," said Lady Audrey annoyed.

Then I spoke up again, "Lady Audrey is right, you know. The mutagen is eating away at him and mutating his cells at an alarming rate. I don't like seeing him suffer any more than I have before."

"Alright already and yeah, I completed the bloody thing; here is your euthanasia fluid. By the way, stop calling me names Vice! One drink of this and he will never wake again. However, I am still against using this." Matilda said with a smile. Then she started crying. "Despite my name and title, Serpent-Tongued Matilda Mas-Acre, I still don't like killing innocent creatures or living beings. No matter who they are."

I spoke again, "At the very least he won't have to suffer for much longer anymore, and we won't have to watch it happen."

Issiac spoke up once more, "So what did he say he was called again? I don't think I recorded here, or did he even mention what race or creature he was?"

Then a big kinda burly looking man walked into the room. "He claimed that he was an 'Eon Ruffian.' However, that can't be. First off, we haven't seen a Ruffian in ages. Especially on earth, let alone any other planet in this solar system. Secondly, I have never heard of Eon Ruffians before. I have categorized just about all creatures and species, especially plants in the known galaxies and I have never once seen one or heard of them before," said the burly man in a deep raspy voice.

It was at this moment the Ruffian had awakened and heard the commotion outside and what was said. He walked into the room with a whimper and huffing as he staggered, holding onto the walls. Then he said, "It's ok that you have never met our kind before. This is only normal. We are not from this timeline or dimension. So, I understand the mistrust on that information. All of our physicians are either dead or corrupted by the viral mutagen back on my homeworld. My group and I have committed the greatest of taboos, we entered into the Forbidden Sky. We warped to a timeline unaffected by the mutagen. I'm sure our Overseer is not too pleased with us right now, but if we could get help, I'm sure we would be forgiven."

At this moment he started coughing up blood after which he fell to a knee nearly collapsing onto the ground. We immediately went to his aid. We didn't hesitate to help him for we heard the despair in his voice. He sounded so brokenhearted. However, we knew why.

The Ruffians name was Travesty Echo. The Ruffians are a dog like race; and as he said earlier, he is from another world in a different time period perhaps an alternate timeline altogether. He and his crew of six others made the trip here to our time. However, their trip wasn't without its casualties. In their search for help, four of the crew who were thought to be fine one night mutated due to the mutagen from some tainted supplies.

To his dismay, he was forced to kill off his friends as they were completely corrupted. Then burn their things and corpses to prevent the spread along with sanitizing the entire ship. The remaining three continued their search. Eventually, they came across information about us, because we were well known in the galaxy for our skills in healing mostly all races and diseases.

At first, we were hesitant to help them, because, to us, they were no different from a regular Ruffian. The only clear difference was their red fur coats, but that soon changed when one day they were at our office once more requesting our help. One of the three collapsed and then started changing right before us. He had become corrupted. It was unknown at the time, but he had been infected for a while.

Echo and the other Ruffian did what they could to stop the corrupted and contain him. However, nothing we did worked. Eventually, he had broken free and in a last-ditch effort the other Ruffian trapped the corrupted in Echo's ship with her in it, despite how much Echo was against the idea; to keep the corrupted from infecting anyone else, she set fire to the ship and launched it into space.

After a few minutes, a video call came up on the monitor in our office. It was the female Ruffian named Camille Vermilion. I will never forget the scene as we watched Echo cry profusely at the message, she relayed to him. Out of respect, I won't repeat it; however, her last words were, "Survive Travesty Echo, save our people as I know you can. Help these people so no more can suffer as we have. I must say good-bye now. I love you always. May we meet again on the other side."

After which the message cut. We all ran to a window to see a bright explosion in the abyss of space. This truth was irrefutable as he knew it had to be done. It was only later that we found out that the girl was his fiancé. He cried many days after that. After a month from the incident, we had started researching that mutagen. We spent the next three years on it.

However, our peace was short-lived. In late October, disaster struck us again. Echo collapsed, we quickly got him in for examination. As we feared he was infected as well, but why now of all times? Apparently, the mutagen is designed to attack only certain genetic code. It can stay in the host's body dormant for years until the right conditions are met to activate it. However, we have yet to figure out what those conditions are, but we did manage to slow down its progression. At this point in time, Echo has been holding on for about a year and a half.

He wasn't corrupted just yet or changing; however, the mutagen started eating away at his cells, killing him slowly from within. Our theory is that the properties of the mutagen have changed due to his unique environment. Which is why his friends' changes were so drastic and violent, even if delayed. Still, we can't have it spread. I am one of the medical personnel that's researching this. My name is Mikhail Rosen, and I am a haematologist, essentially a blood doctor.

Since the incident, I have been monitoring the mutagen in his blood and noting its activity and changes. As we continue to try to resolve the issue. We don't know why someone would want the Eon Ruffians dead, however, according to Echo, it's not only the Ruffians that are affected but every living creature on the planet surface. If this is true, we can't let it spread any further or manifest in our timeline.

For this reason, we are doing all this research and development in a medical space station separate from everyone else. Hopefully, even if we can't save Echo, we can find a cure and keep it contained in the process.