If good news travels fast then bad news must travel at light speed. Before Zoë was even able to fully comprehend the depth of the problem, the entire ship knew. Granted there were only six of them but she thought Mal could keep his mouth shut tighter then that.

She had set out relaying messages to various outposts and ships asking for doctors and any relevant information regarding ‘Dredge’s’. So far, nothing. Or at least, no one was willing to help.

The biggest mystery seemed to be exactly where he could have picked up the nasty little bug. They’d only been to two planets in the last week and both of them had never had outbreaks. If they were on the ship then the odds of only one of them getting infected were staggering. These things lived in colonies. Everything she read about them indicated they would burrow through steel if they even thought a host might be waiting on the other side.

“Can I help?” Kaylee asked, sneaking up behind her.

“I’m not sure what you’d do,” Zoë sighed, “I’m not sure what I’m suppose to do.”

“Well, can I help you look things up, about the, what were they called?”

“Dredges. They’re called Dredges, but that’s not the scientific term. Biggest problem I’m having is that no one knows the scientific term and without that I can’t access anything past folk lore.”

Kaylee could here the tension in Zoë’s voice. That in itself was unnerving, not to mention this whole infection business.

“Is he going to die?”

“Tell you what,” Zoë said, avoiding the question, “why don’t you go to his bunk. I need the transmission code for that woman Lee. She may know something. Be careful Kaylee. We don’t know if he picked this up here or on planet. If it was here, then the nest is somewhere nearby Wash’s room, that would be the only explanation as to why he’s the only one sick. Just go in, get the code and get out. Quickly.”

Kaylee nodded and headed towards the room in a hurry. In a way she didn’t think she should leave the woman alone like this, but in another she was glad to be gone. Zoë nervous made her nervous, and she hadn’t answered her question. It must be true was all she could figure. Wash probably didn’t have long.

Zoë heard Wash stirring on the table and quickly went over to him.

“Did I pass out?” he asked still not fully awake.

“Yeah, I think you did,” Zoë said, trying to make her voice light. She didn’t want to scare him. She was scared enough as it was. If only they knew more about that damn bug.

“So what, I’ve got the newest flu or something?” he asked again, his voice sounding skeptical.

“Something like that.”

“Uh huh,” he said, starting to sit up.

“You really shouldn’t,” Zoë said placing a hand on his shoulder and as gently as she could leaned him back to the table, “it’d be better if you lie still.”

“Because of the flu,” he came back with dryly.

She could hear it in his voice, he wasn’t buying it, not that she blamed him. She wouldn’t have either.

“It’s not the flu is it?”

“Hey, you’re awake,” Mal’s voice echoed through the small room, “If you wanted another day off you could have just asked.”

Zoë turned to him, but Wash didn’t. He just kept looking up at her.

“What’s going on? Why are you avoiding my questions,” he said indicating Zoë, and then turning to Mal, “and why are you so chipper? I know you Mal; you’re not a chipper person.”

“You didn’t tell him.”

“He just woke up.”

“I am right here.”

“Zoë, how long does it take?”

“I was getting to it.”

“Hey, remember me. The one you’re discussing. I’m not dead folks.”

Mal and Zoë stopped cold but neither looked Wash’s way.

“What… what the hell do I have?” he asked louder and more seriously.

“It’s called Dredge’s Disease,” Zoë said quietly, turning to him. Her face and eyes grew softer as she spoke, “It’s caused by a parasite that emits a poison and eventually kills the host. I’ve been checking around and we’re trying to find a doc that’s dealt with this before but we haven’t had much luck.”

“From what Zoë’s read we’ve found it early enough to treat,” Mal added stretching the truth a bit, “we’re just not sure how to do that yet.”

Silence filled the room.

“See,” Wash said flatly, “that wasn’t so hard.”

**** Kaylee retrieved the code in no time and was heading back to the infirmary when she heard the three of them in there talking. She didn’t want to interrupt, but knew it was important to contact Lee and see if an outbreak had occurred on Medea. Since the only real-time interface on the ship was housed in Inara’s cabin, that’s where she headed.

Inara instantly agreed and keyed up the access code. The connection wasn’t great, but was viewable.

“This is the crew of Serenity,” Inara said using her best diplomatic voice, “we’re trying to reach Adrienne Lee.”

A man in his late fifties answered the transmission.

“Hello Serenity. This is Eden Station Three, what can we do for you?”

“We’re trying to reach one of your engineers, Adrienne Lee. Is she available?”

The man shook his head slowly.

“That’s not possible ma’am. Adrienne’s laid up in our care unit. Dreadful thing.”

Inara and Kaylee exchanged looks.

“Do you mind if we ask why she’s there? A crew member of ours is sick too. We’re trying to find out where he picked it up, and if the two are related any information you had would help us greatly.”

“Oh, that’s not likely, not at all. Adrienne’s been infected by a parasite. One she’d been working on in her genetics program. Little bugger’s are mean and deadly, but there aren’t any outside of our lab. No, your man is safe from that.”

“That’s not true. Serenity is transporting material for her. We were on Medea several days ago and he was in the lab with her.”

“You’re transporting cargo for her? She never mentioned it. You didn’t open it, did you?”

“No, of course not but I really don’t see…”

“Don’t,” the man said sternly, “whatever you do, don’t open that cargo. Gorram woman, what’s she done…”

The transmission was beginning to break.

“Sir… Sir…” Inara called a few times, “can you send us everything you have on the parasite, on her research.”

“It won’t do no good,” he said, the transmission getting weaker and weaker. “If he’s got that bug in him, he’s as good as dead.”

The line broke.

****

Jayne sat up in the bridge monitoring the comm links like Mal had said.

“Phsst,” he let out as he sat in the pilot’s chair and looked down at the counsel, “I could fly this thing. Can’t be that hard.”

“Jayne,” Mal’s voice said startling the man a bit, “don’t touch anything. I said monitor not manipulate.”

“I didn’t touch anything, don’t worry. Not that I couldn’t.”

“What, you want to pilot now?”

“No. I just said I could.”

“Too bad, pays more.”

Jayne gave him a look as if seriously contemplating it.

“I’m not offering Jayne. Serenity has a pilot.”

“Had,” Jayne answered coldly, “’Cause I’ll tell you now, if you two are right and it’s Dredge’s, you might be wanting to take me up on that piloting offer. Probably won’t have a choice”

“What do you know about it?” Mal asked seriously. He knew Jayne had gotten around the ‘verse. Who knows, he might have some useful information to give.

“I know that it took out a colony of settlers on Chronos few years back. I’ve seen it up close too, on Persephone. A guy I knew ran the best bar in that sector, him and half the town caught it. Not a one of them died the same death. Couple of them even killed themselves. Drove ‘em stark raving mad and wasted ‘em away.”

“So you’ve never heard of anyone surviving?”

“Sure, Alliance folk. But Alliance folk live through anything, they got the best docs around. But someone this far out, naw. Not going to happen.”

Mal just nodded his head and took it in. He believed Jayne was telling him the truth, had no reason to believe otherwise, but Jayne has his own version of the truth. Like most men in his line of business, Jayne likes to exaggerate things, especially details. A lot of times Jayne’s version of the truth was far different then everyone else’s.

“Mal,” Inara interrupted his thoughts and called his attention to the door. Kaylee and she were standing there and they didn’t look happy.

“What’s wrong?”

“We contacted Medea. It’s not good.”

Mal looked at her for a minute, waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t he finally asked her what it was. He liked the woman but sometimes she purposely did things, like forced pauses, strictly for dramatic effect. He didn’t think she did it on purpose. Must be because of her line of work. To build suspense and all.

“Lee’s sick, real sick. Same symptoms as Wash.”

“So Medea had an outbreak?”

“No, that’s just it. She’s the only one. She does more then work on plant life; she was heading a genetics project on parasites.”

“Dredges?” Mal asked unbelievingly, “Why would anyone do anything with them, except kill ‘em.”

“That I don’t know.”

“So what did they say we should do for him? What’s the treatment?”

“Make him comfortable and wait it out.”

****

“So are you back to ignoring me or is the fact that I’m dying making you self conscious and reserved?”

Despite herself, Zoë had to smile. Fortunately, she had her back turned so he couldn’t tell.

“I’m trying to find a way to help you and it’s hard to do with you staring at me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Try,” she said, but her voice had no seriousness to it.

Zoë continued her research, but not for long. She was glad to hear he was sounding more like himself, but he was continuously distracting her. If she was ever going to find anything out at this point it would be by sheer luck.

“Should I make out a will? Isn’t that generally what one does in situations like this?”

“Wash,” Zoë said relenting and leaving her chair to walk over beside him, “you’re not going to die. We’ll find a way to help you, so no, you do not need to make a will. Besides, I’ve seen your things. No one wants them.”

He tried to look as if that last comment had hurt, but relented.

“That’s true. I haven’t really acquired much.”

“Well, you have a stunning collection of bad shirts,” Zoë said smiling.

She was surprised to find he had somehow gotten a hold of her hand. She didn’t mind. It was nice. Besides, she justified to herself, he needed someone right now and that was it.

“They’re not bad,” Wash replied, “they’re unique. That’s why I buy them. If I don’t, no one will. And then they’d just go to waste.”

“Whatever you say,” she laughed, “but I do need to get finished over there.”

“Wait,” he said as serious as she’d ever seen, holding tighter to her hand.

“Are you in pain?” Zoë said with concern.

“No. I just… if you go back over there and keep reading then I have to stay here and think about this. And I can’t think about this anymore, not right now. I just… I just want you to stay here and I want to hear you laugh and… one of those symptoms wouldn’t happen to be rambling incoherent thoughts, would it? I’m not making any sense.”

“No,” she said as she smiled and touched his face with her free hand, “you’re making perfect sense.”