It was early December, or so the humans said. Krill had never really understood the human's need to split up time like that. The Vrul did, of course, keep track of their planet's revolution around their star but that was simply numerically based rather than starting the count over every month like the humans did.

It had been a bit busier than usual which was rather odd. You would think, on a spaceship, that illnesses would be relatively common due to the closed in area with a bunch of people side by side, and that it would not be affected by the time of year like it was on earth. However, he supposed that allowing the humans leave planetside so close to their sickest season was probably the reason.

Still blew his mind to consider that humans had a time of year where epidemics and pandemics were more common. So common, in fact, that the humans just accepted getting sick as a fact of life, and often continued to go to work and be around other people during that time. Of course, this behavior used to be worse, but even with the widespread use of surgical masks during sickness, things still continued to spread.

He found himself, pleased, once again that he was incapable of catching human illnesses, though he did his best to stay away from plant life on other planets seeing as you never knew what he could catch from other species of plant, to which he was more similar than he was to animals like the humans or the Drev.

He reached upwards and plucked a clipboard from one of the nurses before turning towards the door and scuttling out.. He needed to go speak with the commander about the increased rate of infectivity aboard the ship. He was under the impression it would be best to begin a quarantine on some of the more sick patients. Yes it was true that the average human would not be taken out by the flu, but by his calculations it greatly decreased productivity.

Better to keep humans healthy and lose a few people than it was to allow everyone to only work at half capacity.

He greeted members of the crew as he floated the stairs and onto the bridge stepping through the door and approaching the captain's chair... a chair which was empty.... That was strange? This was around the time the commander went over ship diagnostics. He did this every morning and despite being a very impulsive man who wasn't prone to keeping schedule, this was a part of his day he didn't tend to change.

Krill spun in a wide circle looking around trying to find the man as if he expected to see him hanging from the ceiling, though, now that he thought about it. He totally expected to see something like that.

There was a clatter on the stairs behind him, and he turned to find Sunny stepping into the room.

She looked around in equal confusion to him.

"Good morning." She said in the traditional human greeting, "Have you seen Adam?"

Krill shook his head, another human gesture, "I was just about to ask you the same thing." He held up the clipboard he was holding , "I came to speak to him about medical protocol aboard the ship.

Sunny hummed, "Well, I came to him about, this." SHe turned and pointed downwards just in time for Krill to see three of the spiderlings clambering their way up the steps mewling and growling angrily on their way after Sunny. Krill inflated his helium sack and hovered out of reach of the spiderlings, who honestly scared the hell out of him, especially Glados.

Sunny stuck out a foot trying to hold the aforementioned monster at bay, but all three of them continued to squeal and chirp.

"That's strange." Krill began, they never left Adam's side if they could help it, and Glados didn't particularly like sunny all that much, so none of this made particular sense. Hal, the smallest of the spiderlings chirped the little vocal folds at the back of it's throat oscillating and vibrating. It was an ALMOST human sound but as if heard from a distorted speaker.

It was actually kind of freaky.

"Where is Conn, maybe he'd know what's going on."

"Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear." The electronic voice responded from behind them. From the other end of the room, Conn floated forward, his solar ribbons billowing out behind him in long undulating tendrils. Lights on the signing gloves lit up as he made the human language gestures which were then converted into words by way of a speaker, "They are very unhappy.... Worried even."

Sunny shifted nervously, "What do you mean."

"I'm not entirely sure. Their language is very rudimentary you see. Their language centers are not completely developed enough for me to read their minds. I can only sense feelings only to a certain degree." He paused, "It is a smell, a bad smell a dangerous smell." He tilted his head to the side.

Sunny glanced towards Krill, "Gas leak?"

Conn shook his head, "No..... it seems..... Biological if that makes any sense to you, not that I entirely understand what that means."

"Latrine backup." Sunny commented wryly unable to help herself.

Krill glared at her, "very helpful of you, Sunny. Glad to see you humor has evolved to be so refined."

"Glad to see you even knew that was intended as a joke."

The Spiderlings squealed again just as the sound of shuffling footsteps, and something dragging across the ground reached their ears.

Thud, thud, thud onto the metal catwalk.

Together, the two of them turned just in time to see the commander haul himself onto the bridge. Or at least, it looked like something that should have been the commander. His face was flushed bright red especially around the cheeks and neck. His eyes were red and puffy with dark circles under them. His hair was matted with sweat. He was wrapped in a large blanket like a cape which dragged on the ground behind him.

He hadn't changed from his sweatpants.

And he was shivering violently despite both a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, and the blanket.

He looked like a zombie.

Krill and Sunny watched as he oozed past like some sort of zombie hybrid slug and slumped into the captain's chair. His sniffled a bit before erupting into a violent coughing fit. The sound was wet and rattling, a clear sign of chest congestion.

Waffles, the dog, followed at his feet with clear concern in her large brown eyes.

The human snuffled again.

He turned to look at them from the depths of his hoodie and blanket cloak, "I think I'm dying." he said sounding rather resigned to that fact.

Sunny looked nervous and went to step forward, but Kril held her off, "Wait there, and keep the spiderlings away." he moved forward floating to the human's head height. Even without his thermal vision he could feel the heat radiating from the human's body, but still he switched receptors for a proper look.

One hundred and four degrees by the human's reckoning.

"Sick for sure commander. Sunny head down to the medical bay and order that quarantine protocol. I was going to ask the commander about it, but he hardly seems capable of giving orders at the moment. Have his second take over and then get someone to babysit the spiderlings. Take them to Ramirez and Maverick, they get along well enough.

"Quarantine." The commander muttered.

"Yes commander, we have alien lifeforms aboard the ship, and no way to know how the illness will affect them. Furthermore we want to make sure no one else catches it."

"I think I am dying." The man repeated absently groaning quietly as his shivering grew worse.

"Don't say that commander, you're making me nervous. Save the announcements of death till after our tests."

"Such a Diva." Sunny commented trying to be funny though she sounded more concerned.

"Go on." Krill ordered, and she did as told, scooping up the mewling spiderlings and walking from the room. Krill got the commander back to his feet and heard the sniffling coughing humans down the hallway. He was hunched over like some sort of invalid and moved more slowly than Krill, who was arguably the slowest being on the ship.

"Come on, Commander."

"I don't think I can make it." The human sniffled piteously.

"Well you better because no one is going to carry you, now come on." contrary to the human's earlier statement, they made it to the medical bay in one peace. By Krill's orders the rest of the medical team was ready with the protocol all wearing masks, gloves and surgical glasses. Perhaps they saw the entire thing as overkill, but he didn't want anyone else getting sick.

They sat the human down on one of the medical beds, and Krill proceeded to learn that their Commander was quite pathetic when he was sick. This coming from a human who would run into dangerous situations skipping and singing show tunes now whimpered complaints and begged for medicine.

Halfway through their examination, another human came walking onto the bridge.

Narobi from down in engineering. She stood straight and tall but Krill immediately noticed her elevated body temperature. Her dark skin made the ravaging heat less obvious, but her reddened eyes and the beads of sweat collecting on her forehead was enough. Though comparatively he wouldn't have been able to tell something was wrong otherwise. She was dressed in her engineering jumpsuit, and was rather well put together.

Krill glanced between her and the commander who lay mewling on the bed like an overly vocal puddle.

She smiled wryly, "I see I am not the only one then?" her voice was scratchy and somewhat congested. She was forced to clear her throat at least once the deep rattling in her chest also present.

"Krill walked over to her."

"Symptoms."

She took a polite seat on the edge of one of the beds, "Fever, chills, aches, cough, nausea, dizziness.."

Krill glanced over at the commander again, who had his single eye trained on them and had suddenly stopped complaining.

He smiled inwardly,. Narobi was looking at him too with a raised eyebrow, "Good morning commander."

He sat up slowly stifling a cough, "Good morning, Narobi." he tried to stifle a shiver.

A wry smile, "Don't let me interrupt commander. It was a stirring performance, I am close to tears." Krill wasn't exactly the best with detecting sarcasm made worse by the fact that her face did not change once while she said that sentence, so he couldn't be entirely sure if she was being facetious or not.

He began to cough again, "I Wasn't acting." he grumbled defensively looking at her with a serious expression. That didn't last long however as he was overcome with a violent bout of shivering and a cough eventually leaning back eyes watering form violent outburst one hand on his chest, "Never mind, this is bullshit. Go on just sit there and be a badass, I'll just be over here dying and looking pathetic."

"Man flu?" She wondered wryly

"You know what,-" Cough, "I will have you know that that is totally a real thing, and I will not be shamed for it."

Krill turned from his work, "Actually, according to our tests. Both of you have the flu. The same strain probably got it at the same time. We will have to monitor the rest of the crew to make sure it does not spread further than the two of you before determining how dangerous it will be to other species especially the Drev. IN the interest of keeping the rest of the crew healthy for the time being, both of you will be isolated and monitored here."

"Don't you think that is going a bit overboard?" Narobi wondered

The commander moaned.

"Actually, I think you humans don't take illness seriously enough. Just because something is normal, doesn't mean it's acceptable, and letting people suffer by themselves or allowing them to contaminate other people isn't acceptable in my hospital."

There was no arguing with the little doctor as he ordered the humans moved into the clear plastic contamination chamber and ordered to change. Both now wearing light blue scrubs they were ordered into bed, which of course the commander whined that he was still cold and had to be brought a stack of blankets with the great inner eye rolling of Krill, who, had learned from dr Katie, that they were not likely to die from such an illness, so he didn't have to be THAT worried. Though he was still a little worried, and quickly moved to disguise his concern with a businesslike manner.

When Sunny came to visit that night she was distrubed by what she saw. She had never actually seen a sick human before, which was a wonder considering how long she had been on the ship. The powerful creatures she had come to know as indomitable were curled up in the darkness in isolation. Both of them were shivering between painful coughing fits. Their skin was pale and both were drenched in sweat.

The commander had, over the course of the last few hours slid down from the bed with all the pillows and blankets he had acquired and made some sort of delirious makeshift nest for himself on the floor the pillows being the base and the blankets wrapped around him like a human filled burrito only his mouth and nose being entirely visible. The other human was curled up on her side head resting on one arm.

She sighed quietly.

At her feet the dog whimpered as she looked through the clear plastic drape.

Sunny looked towards Krill with worry, "Are ... are they ok?"

Krill walked to stand next to Sunny, "It looks ugly, but Dr. Katie tells me that thousands of humans get it every year and survive without medical intervention, so they should be ok."

Sunny glanced towards the containment opening.

"IS it contagious."

He glanced over at her and then sighed realizing what she planned on doing, "With this strain, only for humans." With their unspoken agreement made, she stepped forward and unzipped the outer layer whistling for the dog who jumped in after her. She close it off and then opened the door into the other room closing it behind her.

The interior was hot and muggy, and there was a strange smell on the air.

IF sunny knew one thing about humans, it was how social they were. If that was the case, it just seemed wrong to her to leave them suffering alone in the dark. She was about to head towards the commander when the other human curled up and shivering caught her eye. With a call she motioned the dog over patting the bed next to the human. The dog, seeming happy enough to help jumped up next to the human and lay down immediately.

Sunny was pleased at the smile smile she received from, closed-eyes human who reached out a hand and began stroking the dog's velvety ears. The dog scooted closer curled up against the human's stomach. The human wrapped an arm around the dog, and maybe it was just Sunny's imagination, but thought the human's shivering died somewhat.

Pleased that one of the humans was taken care of, she walked over to where Adam was curled up on the floor shivering and coughing. He sighed in an agonistic sort of way. She grabbed a cup from the side table and filled it with water returning to the human.

She knelt next to him and prodded him through the blankets, "Adam."

The human shifted sitting up from inside his cocoon.

She had noticed that habit some humans had, especially him. Upset, in pain, sick, they liked to make nests for themselves out of anything comfortable and fluffy in the immediate area. He looked at her with bleary eyes shivering, "Sunny..?" His skin was cold and clammy, and she could see the wet patches from sweat on his chest and stomach. He would be losing water quickly like that.

She handed him the water, "Drink, or Krill is going to get an IV on you instead." The human grumbled but complied.

He finished the water but was hit with another racking cough that had him doubled over. Sunny sat back in worried confusion. The human sat up snuffling and groaned, "my back." He muttered, "hurts so bad, but it's so cold."

Sunny held out a hand to feel the heat radiating from the human's skin.

She wasn't entirely convinced about the cold thing, but took him at his word piling his blankets back on top of him.

She stood and returned to the other human urging a cup of water into her hand before returning to Adam, who had burrowed himself away like some kind of slimy lizard. She took a seat next to him learning against the wall and nodded to Krill who watched her from the outside. He would have been able to come in too, but he was dealing with other patients at the moment.

She leaned back against the wall dozing a bit woken at some point in the darkness as something moved close to her crawling up to rest itself on her legs. She looked down to find the pile of blankets and pillows shifted next to her human pressed up against her. She pulled the blankets back curiously only to find the human looking worse than ever.

His eye had a strange glassy quality, he had stopped shivering but for a subdued tremor. The eye closed and he slumped against the ground half asleep or nearly dead she wouldn't have been able to tell accept for the back and forth movement of his head as he began to dream.

He moaned in pain or fear she still wasn't sure..

She grabbed the human with her lower arms and adjusted his blankets with the others letting him rest in her lap hoping whatever he was dreaming about would subside before it woke him up. It scared her to watch as the virus ravaged through the human's body. He thrashed in his sleep disquieted waking up only to fall asleep again in the same cycle. His breathing was raspy and labored. HIs body quaked with the cold one moment, and then he was pushing the blankets away for the extreme heat in the next moment. The coughing was the worst, beginning with full body spasms and ending with the human hunched over in agony at the end the shivering causing the already aching muscles even greater pain worsened by coughing. Sunny tried to help tried to get the two humans as much water as she could.

On the other side of the room, the dog licked the human's arm in sympathy as she shivered. She had to leave in the morning to get her duties finished decontaminated before leaving, and came back later that evening when the dog was getting up from Adam to move back to the other human.

Sunny looked at Krill for an update.

He shook his head, "They woke up, but they didn't eat. Been resting pretty uneasily, Commander says he keeps having nightmares. Narobi reports her dreams aren't exactly pleasant either. Dog seems to help, she's been keeping them good company."

Sunny nodded, "It looks so.... Painful."

"You have anything like it on your planet?" He wondered.

"Rot lung I guess, but its slower, sort of a lifelong thing.... I suppose you can also get infections caused by wounds, and there are a few others, but nothing like this."

He nodded, "We can get skin rot pretty easily, but we have dealt with it. The blight is pretty bad and can leave you deformed.... I just can't believe they find something like this normal."

"I'm gonna head back in, seems kind of wrong to keep the humans isolated."

Krill didn't argue letting her return to check on the far human first. Setting up some more water, stroking the dog's ears and then returning to Adam. He was asleep as of just then half in and half out of his blankets like he couldn't decide whether he was warm or cold. She wrapped him back up, and he absently curled up against her in his sleep. His hand rested against the floor leaving a humid mark behind it once she tucked it back in his blankets.

The worst of the symptoms lasted for three days with the humans only getting up to drink some water and go to the bathroom.

By the fourth morning Sunny was sitting in her usual spot as the human shifted and sat up.

He touched a hand to his forehead, and turning to look at him she found the redness gone from his face from the fever that had been raging past two days.

He glanced over at her looking a bit surprised, "Shit.... I thought I dreamed you being here the whole time."

"No, I determined it was improper to leave humans isolated."

He coughed lightly and winced, "Sure you did...." He either winked at her or just blinked, with only one eye she had trouble telling, "keeping acting like this and people are going to start thinking you like me."

She snorted and pushed him over with one hand, "Go back to sleep you big idiot."

He didn't sit back up,"Mmmm probably a good idea. I feel like I got hit by a truck."

"You look like you got hit by a truck."

He rolled over trying to make himself comfortable, "Rude."

She leaned her head back against the wall, "What.... Did that feel like? I have never seen anything like it before.... It scared me."

The human snorted then coughed again, "Depends on what you're asking about. Your throat hurts like your esophagus is lined in sandpaper, your face hurts because of the pressure in your nose from the swelling and all the gunk in your sinuses. Your entire body just aches made worse by the shivering which makes those muscles hurt more. Then the coughing comes in, and that just adds to the issue and it hurts your throat. Your chest is congested so it's hard to breathe, and it hurts. Generally your head hurts too, and your fever is so high it's just hard to think. When you sleep it isnt well and the dreams are weird as shit. At the worst of it, you're not even sure if you are awake or not..... Short answer is it sucks."

"I'm sorry..... You humans really got dealt a shit hand.... I never thought it would be so...."

"Easy to take out a human?"

"Yeah..."

"Id say a lot of the stuff we evolved to survive also made our lives shit..... The fever comes to kill off the virus or bacteria or whatever, but it can also cause brain damage if it goes to high, which is kind of a bummer, plus it feels terrible."

She patted his shoulder in sympathy.

He curled up and sighed, no longer shivering and promptly fell back asleep.

By the fifth day, the humans were sitting up and eating and even walking around a little. Day six they were declared no longer contagious but ordered to wear surgical masks. Still they were left weak achy and commander vir spent much of the time sleeping curled up in another makeshift nest, this time in his own rooms.

The other human approached sunny upon leaving grabbing her by the arm to stop her before, "Thank you, Sunny.... I know you were really there for the commander, but I appreciate you thinking of me."

Sunny tilted her head in surprise confused that the human would thank her for something so minor, by the time sunny had thought of anything to say, the other human was already gone.

She thought she now understood why ril was always so worried about his humans.

Humans getting sick was actually kind of scary.

She didn't like it