The hypospray hissed. It was the sound of another vaccine delivered, another life protected. Somehow, they’d found a way. Soon, there would be no one left for the contagion to take, neither here on the Polaris, nor over on Archanis. With each hiss, they came a step closer to ending this sorry saga.

Still, the damage had been done. This wretched monster, a bioweapon from a war three decades prior, it would end up taking a thousand lives by the end. The vaccine would protect those not yet infected, but for those already sick, there was no cure. He still had a small team still working on one, but they’d made little progress, and everyone else’s attention had been turned towards the vaccine.

As bad as this had been, it could have been so much worse. If Frank Negrescu had not shown up with a vaccine already in his veins, they’d probably still be trying to reverse engineer the primordial strain. Negrescu had jump started their work, and then Dr. Lockwood had helped bring them home. The mad scientist, leveraging not a background in biology, but rather his knowledge in mathematics, had figured out how to map the vaccine across the variability of the virus’ evolutionary range. Those two, the aged spook and the wacky astrophysicist, had been instrumental in saving thousands, but he’d likely never get to thank either of them properly.

As Doctor Henderson stepped back into sickbay, he saw a man sitting alone in the darkness, staring through the glass at the patient in their isolation bay.

“Does he feel any pain?” Captain Devreux asked, his expression forlorn.

“No, thankfully not,” Doctor Henderson assured him. “The palliative care he is receiving ensures that he will go peacefully into the long night.”

“Well, I guess there’s that at least,” Captain Devreux sighed, but it was hardly a comfort. Dr. Lockwood, a complicated but ultimately good man, would soon breathe his last breaths, alone and barely conscious within their isolation bay. “There’s really nothing we could have done to save him?”

“The Vulcans have a saying: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Doctor Henderson offered. “It was either continue on a helpless hunt for a cure with no promise we’d find one, or turn every last doctor and nurse we had towards the manufacture and administration of the vaccine for those we knew we could protect.”

The logic was sound, Captain Devreux knew. But it didn’t make it any easier. “Dr. Lockwood could drive me as crazy as anyone with his antics, but I’m going to miss him.” There’d been something endearing about him, even if he was equally irritating, and he had saved them all more than once.

“If it makes it any easier, he agreed with our choice,” Doctor Henderson offered. “As long as he could still stand, he gave it his all to make sure we were successful with the vaccine.”

“Did he understand what it would mean for him that this is where we were focused?”

“He was a certified genius, Gérard,” Doctor Henderson reminded the captain. “I assure you that he knew exactly what it meant when he told us to put every last resource behind the vaccine.”

“Wait… He said that?” Captain Devreux asked. “He actually said that? I always thought him a bit self-obsessed. It was always about his work and nothing else. Even when the ship was thrashed above Nasera, all he wanted to know was when his lab would be available again.”

“It wasn’t an obsession with himself, Gérard. It was an obsession with his work. Work he viewed as crucially important for all of humanity. That’s what made him so good at what he did,” Doctor Henderson offered. He had seen firsthand what Dr. Lockwood could do. The had, together with Dr. Hall and Commander Lee, led the four branches of the Advanced Science, Technology, and Research Activity, but now, Dr. Hall had gone off to parts unknown, Commander Lee had been lost to the Underspace, and soon, Dr. Lockwood would pass beyond the veil. There was no one left but him. How had it come to this?

“What about Ensign Vok?”

“Do I even need to say it?” Doctor Henderson frowned. The young ensign, a theoretician just looking to leave his mark, had been with Dr. Lockwood when they came into contact with the woman from the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. “The prognosis is the same for everyone who has contracted the virus. Snarr Vok and Luke Lockwood are just two of the nearly five hundred lying helpless on life support, just waiting for death to take them.”

“It’s almost harder, isn’t it, knowing that we have a vaccine, yet that, for all of them, we were just a few days too late?”

“You have no idea,” Doctor Henderson let out a deep sigh of regret. “I got into this business to save lives. There’s no deeper pain than sitting here, watching as those we couldn’t save slowly drift away. But there really is nothing we can do. The virus is just too advanced in them now. It has broken their organs down beyond repair.”

Before either could say any more, the doors hissed open, and a new figured stepped into the room. 

It was Rear Admiral Alex Grayson, the commander of Archanis Sector operations who had presided over the quarantine. What was he doing over here? Couldn’t he have just called? Also, it was 0400. Why had he come over now, of all times?

Captain Devreux and Doctor Henderson dutifully rose to greet him.

“Good evening to the both of you,” Rear Admiral Grayson opened. “I just wanted to stop by and extend my gratitude for the hero’s work that you and your crew have done. Captain Vale reports we’re up to almost eighty five percent administration of your vaccine, and I understand that soon we will be able to reopen the station. All thanks to you.”

“I appreciate that sir,” Doctor Henderson nodded, but his face told a different tale, one of deep regret. “I just wish we could have saved them all.” 

“It is a sorrow that we will live with for the remainder of our days,” Rear Admiral Grayson acknowledged. It was one he knew all too well, not just from this crisis, but from the past as well. “But don’t let the what-ifs and the could-haves diminish the fact that there are twenty thousand people who will live to see tomorrow as a result of what you did here today.”

“It wasn’t just me, sir,” Doctor Henderson offered, giving credit to those who’d spent sleepless nights to get them to where they were. “There was a whole team behind me. And two unlikely heroes, as well.” He glanced over at the isolation bay when Dr. Lockwood lay. “Commander Luke Lockwood, over there on palliative now, played an essential role in mapping the variability of the virus’ mutation range.”

“Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t know, but I really am,” Rear Admiral Grayson offered. His heart ached for them. He knew what they were feeling all too well. He remembered, after they reached Utopia Planitia following the massacre, standing there beside one of his best friends, watching as he breathed his last labored breaths. There was nothing more painful. Nothing in the entire universe.

“And there was mister Negrescu too,” Doctor Henderson added. “None of this would have been possible without him.”

Now, the admiral’s demeanor changed. “No, doctor. There was no mister Negrescu. There was only you, your team, and Commander Lockwood.” That was the real reason why he had come in person. He could have offered his gratitude over a call, but not this. “And your final report, it shall reflect as much.” The intimation was clear. Any reference to the shadowy old man should be omitted.

Doctor Henderson furled his brow. That man, Frank Negrescu, had come forward and offered them the key they needed to stop the contagion. Why the secrecy now? “I don’t understand.”

“Neither, really, do I,” Rear Admiral Grayson admitted. “But that was the condition of his help.”

“And you’re going to respect it?” Captain Devreux asked skeptically.

“Something is brewing out there, captain. Something we don’t understand. But mister Negrescu, he did us a good one. He didn’t have to, but he did, and I get the sense he risked a lot to do so. So for now, yes, I’m going to honor his request,” Rear Admiral Grayson confirmed. “At least until Admiral Reyes gets back. He said I can speak with her about it. I guess he’d hoped she’d be here, but he said he can’t wait around for her return.”

“Curious…” Captain Devreux said as his voice trailed off. What was going on here? Who was Frank Negrescu, really, and what did he have to do with Allison Reyes?

“Well, it’s late, and I’m afraid I must be going,” Rear Admiral Grayson said as he turned for the door. But then he paused for a moment, and turned back to them. “But again, thank you, both of you, from the bottom of my heart.” He meant it too.

After the admiral had departed, silence returned to sickbay. Doctor Henderson and Captain Devreux were out of words, and their thoughts centered wholly on the man who lay dying in their isolation bay. Everything else was well at hand, and nothing else seemed to matter much. Not at this point.

Suddenly, alarms began to blare, alerting a change in the biometrics of their patient.

And then, a moment later, the alarms subsided. It was all over.

Dr. Lockwood was dead.