Infection

Standing just outside of Room 52, Angela finished the third memo about bringing all infected through the way station to the isolation complex. She had just straightened out the fourth factor about the new procedure. She also had to limit the intakes to examples of new forms of infection. Individuals that suffered from already sampled infections were placed in stasis.

Angela headed to her office. Foot traffic in the hallways was heavy. She thought about teleporting to her office but it felt so lazy. So she walked slowly through the slow-moving pedestrians. The traffic was good for slowing the express train that was her thought process. She had a number of minor arguments to solve for several Intergalactic Councils. She hated that so many councils had declared her a disinterested third party. She also had to organize the field response to various wars, minor plagues, and planetary disasters. What she needed was a breath of air free from responsibility. Traffic was as close as she could come.

Eventually, Angela made it to her office. Her break was over. There were two dozen people waiting outside of her door. Angela did a sort of quick triage on who to see first based on who was most likely to have a solution to one of her current problems. Dennis made the cut.
“Hey, Dennis, where’s Ralph?” Angela gestured for him to follow her into her office.

Dennis smiled and followed her in. He took a seat across the desk from her chair and pulled out a tablet, “He is overseeing reprogramming the construction bots to put in additional isolation rooms in the new complex. He sent me for two reasons. One, he wanted your approval on the construction plans.” Dennis handed her the tablet. “Two, he wanted me to update you on the environmental isolation gear. We have a prototype of a suit that would place the wearer in an environmentally isolated pocket universe. They can’t catch a cold or anything in there.”

“Okay so when do you go into production,” Angela asked. That they had a prototype was incredibly encouraging.

Dennis frowned, “It may be a while. The difficult part is in synchronizing the operator’s movements with the movements of the construct in the outer universe so that they can manipulate things and respond to stimuli. The sensory analogs are an issue as well. Visually and auditorily linking the wearer and the universe they are interacting with is easy. We’re having trouble with touch, taste, and smell. Ralph wants to use chemical synthesizers. I think an interface like they use in the sim hall would work.”

“Maybe the answer is somewhere in between,” Angela stated. She began looking over the construction plans. The renovation would be more than double the size of the isolation complex. Sadly Angela knew it wasn’t even taking a nibble at the problem. “These look good for now.” She thumbed her approval and handed the tablet back.

“Great,” Dennis took the tablet and pocketed it, “Angela, I have thought about asking Ralph to make our relationship more, formal, but he is a private man. I know he doesn’t want to make it a big public spectacle. Is there any way you could officiate something small for us?”
Angela blinked. This wasn’t the first time someone had asked her to officiate at a wedding. This was the first time she considered doing it though, “I am not sure I am qualified. How many people would be involved?”

“Probably just you, me, and Ralph.”

“So I would be your witness too?” Angela asked.

“Yes, would you do it?” Dennis looked more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. She had no doubt that his courage to ask Ralph rested entirely on her answer.

“Only for you two. I don’t want it to get out that I will do this kind of thing though...” Angela replied.

Dennis leaped to his feet beaming from ear to ear, “I have some sunflowers to procure.” He practically danced to the door and then disappeared before he triggered it open.

Angela wished she could just ignore the other people outside of her door. But that was not the kind of isolation Sanctuary needed from her. She sighed and got up to call in the next emergency meeting.