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His own groan was what woke him. He felt the back of his head and winced. The pain reminded him of the fight and he sat up, pulling a knife from his belt.

He was in the medical bay. The only other person there was working at the fabricator. He got off the bed and had to hold on to it. His arms were bare, as was his chest. Where had his shirt gone to? His jacket? His wounds had been seen to.

He smiled. It had been a good fight. Except the end. It was fuzzy, but he had a feeling of apprehension from it. He touched the back of his head again. Head injury, possible concussion, it would explain his problem remembering.

He found the shirt and jacket on the other bed and put them on. His pants were still on, but they had been sliced open, and his wounds there had also been seen to.

He forced himself to walk toward the other person. She wasn't aware of him yet. He walked slowly both to be quiet and because he needed to give his head time to catch up to him.

She pulled a vial out of the fabricator and put it in an injector as Alex came within reach. He grabbed it out of her hand as she was about to inject herself.

She jumped with a scream.

"What are you doing out of bed?" she asked once she'd settled down.

"What is this?"

"It's mine."

"It's the cure, isn't it?"

"What if it is?"

"Then it isn't yours." Alex pocketed the injector. "Make yourself another one if you want to."

"Give it back. I have no intention of turning into goo."

"Make another one."

"No. I'm not taking the risk." She grabbed a casing and tested the weight. "If you don't give it to me, I'm going to take it out of your unconscious fingers."

"If you touch him, I will kill you slowly."

Tristan was in the doorway, holding someone by a leg. All Alex could see from where he was, was that the person was covered with blood.

"I need that cure."

"I don't care."

Alex took the injector out. "She made a second vial, it's for you."

"No, it's for me." She took a step forward. Tristan growled and she stopped.

Alex joined him, having to step over the cut up bodies on the ground. He offered the injector to Tristan.

The Samalian pulled the body at Alex's feet. "Use it on him."

"No, This is--"

"I will hurt you Alex."

The response is almost right, but Alex heard the shaking in it.

"You need to take the cure."

"I have time." His fists were shaking. "Give it to him before he heals too much." Tristan looked at Mary. "Make another one. No, two more."

Alex hadn't move and Tristan growled at him. "Use it on him, now."

Alex thought about defying him. He was fast enough to inject it before the beating came. At least that way he'd know Tristan was safe. But Mary was already working the fabricator's controls. More was coming.

He knelt and pushed the man to his back. "What happened to him?" Baran's face was broken and bleeding, although the cuts didn't look as bad as they should from the amount of blood he was seeing. An arm was bent in a direction it shouldn't be able to. One leg was broken. The man's breathing was raspy.

"He deserved it."

The man tried to jerk away from the injector. Even unconscious he was afraid of being hurt again. He mumbled pleas for the pain to stop. The best thing to do would be to let the virus heal him before curing him.

Alex injected him. He wasn't taking a beating for this man.

"Take him to our cell. I don't want him to cause any trouble. After that take control of the ship. I want the bridge operational."

"What about the dead? If they've been infected, they won't stay that way."

"Kill them again."

Alex pulled Baran over his shoulder. "That isn't going to fix the problem. We should give them the cure to be sure they stay dead."

"Get out!"

Alex took a step back. Tristan was shaking. Whatever was wrong with him wasn't over. Could it be the virus? Was it affecting his mind? He looked at Mary, who was pale. She mouthed the words 'don't go' to him. But Tristan had given him an order.

The bodies he came across didn't move, but he could tell they weren't as damaged as they had been. Tristan had been vicious with them. Hadn't they already been dead before the virus was released? If it could infect even the dead, that thing was even more dangerous than he thought.

The door to their cell was still open due to the body sprawled across the threshold. This one looked to be as in bad shape as when they'd left, so maybe there was a time frame as to how long after death the virus could infect someone. That or the others hadn't been dead. He and Tristan had been in a hurry. They hadn't double checked.

Carefully he deposited Baran on the floor and the man gasped. His eyes flew open and he crawled away. "Don't hurt me. It isn't my fault." He curled up and blubbered words Alex couldn't make out.

Tristan had done that to him. He'd beaten him over an over for...how long had Alex been unconscious? He wasn't infected so he'd healed normally, or with Heals, although he didn't feel all that hungry.

"He doesn't have a choice!" Baran straightened, then curled back up. "He has to hurt me, why can't he stop?" he was sobbing now.

How long did it take to hurt someone so much they turned into this? It couldn't be fast.

If Tristan was in this kind of state, Alex had to be careful. He would take any beating he deserved, but he had the impression Tristan might not wait for a reason.

He sighed. He wished he knew what was wrong with his Samalian. He wanted to help him.

Right now, the only way to do that was to do what he was told. He locked the door behind him, not that he expected Baran to be able to crawl to it in his state, and headed for engineering to have a talk with the ship's core.