Time: Between Shax's War and Beside A Black Tarn
Place: New Bangkok spaceport, planet Barbary "Well." Shax sat back, drumming his fingers on the boards in the pilot's pod. "This is potentially disastrous." "What is, sawdust for brains?" Verin muttered from the pilot's chair as he worked through their launch forms. "Did you visit any demon bars in port, Ver? And if so, which ones?" "None of your fucking business." Steam curled from Verin's nostrils at an accelerated rate. "Hmm, yes. Normally I'd agree with you." Shax waved a hand at his view screen. "But we just had a health bulletin come in from city L&I. They've tracked an outbreak of volcanitis back to Tartarus, and I know you go there sometimes." "Are you shitting me?" Verin surged up from his chair to lean over Shax and read the bulletin. "Aw, fuck. The bastards couldn't have sent this out before we were all boarded?" "Apparently not. Are we screwed, Ver?" "We are screwed to the wall with giant screws." Verin sank back into his chair. "Fuckity fuck fuck." Shax hit the all ship comm. "My dear crew, we have a bit of an issue with takeoff. No panicking, please. Meet me in the cargo bay immediately." "Really? You went there?" Verin snarled. "Now everyone's gonna fucking panic." "Then we'll unpanic them." Shax flapped a hand at him. "Go, go. I just need to peruse details and I'll be right there." By the time Shax reached the cargo bay, there were indeed signs of panic, raised voices chief among them. Mac strode to the foot of the steps before Shax had a chance to descend and demanded, "What's this about an epidemic, Captain?" That escalated quickly. "Nothing quite so dire." He decided to address his crew from the landing and set his hands on the railing. "We received a health bulletin regarding an outbreak of volcanitis this week. They've traced it back to Club Tartarus. How many of you have been there in the past five days?" Nearly every ship denizen in the bay raised a hand, with the exceptions of Leopold and Rosa. Shax pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "Wonderful." "What does this mean, love?" Ness took a step toward him, the trembling in his wings barely discernible. "It means we're docked and confined to the ship until we've passed the incubation period. Corny, you're exempt. Humans can neither catch not carry this." "What about Mac?" Heckle's voice shook worse than Ness's wings. "I'm…not sure." Shax turned to address his engineer. "Mac? Any idea if nephilim are susceptible?" Mac shook his head. "Don't know, Cap. Never came across an outbreak before." "All right. So everyone except Corny is confined to the ship. Leopold my dear, that means you too. We have no idea if you'll be affected." Shax heaved a put upon sigh. "This mean three more days in port. Not a terrible hardship, but I was hoping to leave this afternoon. Anyone who comes down with symptoms needs to bunk here in the hold. We can't have—" Verin made a distressed choking sound, turned away from his shipmates and spewed flame at the metal deck plates. "Cabin fires," Shax concluded wearily. "Well, damn it, Ver." "Not my fault." Verin sat hard on the deck, clutching his head. "Oh, fuck." Everyone backed up as Verin let loose with another gout of fire. Corny held a hand out toward him, clearly uncertain whether it was safe to approach. "Can we do anything, Cap?" Corny asked from his relatively safe distance. "I don't suppose anyone has ideas about fire-retardant bedding?" By the time Mac had found some insulation material that wouldn't burn and had set up a few makeshift pallets in the hold as far away from Rosa as possible, Heckle had collapsed to his hands and knees spewing small spurts of flame and Shax wasn't feeling terribly well himself. "I'll, ah, sleep in the hold tonight, cupcake." He leaned his aching head against Ness's chest. Ness stroked his hair and kissed the base of one horn. "I should stay with you, don't you think?" "Only if you're starting to feel poorly, too." Shax glanced up at him. "You're not, are you?" "Not at all. Maybe the virus doesn't infect the fallen?" "I don't—" A sudden wave of heat and nausea warned Shax. He whispered excuse me, and managed to turn before flame erupted up his esophagus and onto the corridor's deck plates. "Pits. I'll just, ah, crawl to the hold. Ms. Ivana could you—" Another column of flame escaped. Fire suppression alarms sounded. The system doused Shax in foam fire retardant. "—hold the fire suppression," Shax gasped out, spitting foam from his mouth. "I'm sorry, Captain Hot Stuff. Didn't catch it in time." Ivana did sound sorry. She also sounded like she was trying not to snicker. "Didn't realize you'd gone literally hot stuff already." "Do you need help?" Ness called after Shax as he crawled down the now slippery corridor. "Stay there," Shax got out in a desperate plea as he tried to suppress the next fountain of flame. It didn't work. "Don't want to hurt you." "All right." Ness agreed, then followed him at a safe distance anyway. Damn Verin and his clubbing. Though they all went. Damn them all. And no one invited me. What the deuces am I saying? Shax made it to the hold without setting his ship alight. He curled up on one of the empty pallets by the wall, fevered, miserable, and from time to time vomiting flame, which, frankly, wasn't much fun at all. Verin shivered and moaned through his own fever. Heckle's didn't seem quite as bad as he only hiccupped a few candle's worth of fire here and there. While demon innards were relatively fireproof, it was still a miserable two days before symptoms and fever dreams subsided. Mac never caught it and neither did Leopold. On the afternoon of the second day, Ness joined them, though. "You too, hon?" Shax whispered from the pallet that he had partially shredded to make himself a nest. "I just don't feel terribly well." Ness let out an un-angelic belch. "Thought I should come down as a precaution." "Sorry, sweetheart. I hope it's not too bad for you." "I—" Ness hiccupped and belched again. Instead of the expected geyser of flame, pearlescent bubbles escaped his mouth and drifted peacefully toward the ceiling where they popped with little musical pings. "Are you fucking kidding me?" Verin grumbled from his pallet. Heckle watched the bubbles with fascinated longing. "That's just not fair." "It's not as if I'm trying to do it," Ness said with an exasperated sigh. Shax watched another round of bubbles pop against the ceiling girders. Maybe it was leftover fever hallucinations, but he thought he saw sparks. "Cupcake, if you don't mind aiming those at the floor, please?" Ness shrugged but repositioned so his bubbles would hit the floor directly in front of him. Sure enough, the next ones hit the decking in showers of miniature lightning storms. "Oh…oh, dear," Ness whispered as he lay down with his head hanging off the insulation. "There's two days of this?" The tiny lightning strikes had become miniature thunderstorms with the next bout of bubbles, complete with about three seconds of rain. Shax rolled father into his nest, pulling the insulation up around him to protect against tiny lightning strikes. Living with a newly fallen was mostly wonderful, incredibly instructive, and never, ever boring.
3 Comments
An
11/14/2017 04:20:21 am
You have me torn between "Aw, poor boys" and "That's hilarious"! I don't enjoy watching them suffer, but it is kind of funny to see angels and demons get ill just like us. Well, mostly like us. Thanks for the story!
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Angel Martinez
11/14/2017 05:47:39 am
LOL! At least it's a short-term illness and that'll teach Verin to wash his hands when he's done at the clubs. ;)
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11/14/2017 07:28:01 pm
Aww, the poor crew...I'm torn between emphasizing with Shax and watching the varied effects of this illness in awe....:)
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About The Brimstone Journals
Extra treats for our Brimstone readers, Brimstone Journals will post every Tuesday. Short scenes from characters' lives before, after or during the stories. About the Author
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