Elysium - The Rose and Thorn

Letho nodded easily to her ship's doctor and seemingly without much care followed after her back to teh rooms. When they neared her room, she used her tablet to send a ping and check a few things in passing, confirming everything was alright she entered the room with Val, closing the door behind. She gestured to the woman to hold speaking for a while more before the captain pulled what appeared to be a speaker of some kind, put it on the table next to them and turned it on. There was a very brief high pitched noise that made the captain's ears hurt, but after that it didn't hurt anymore." sorry about that, precautions. This will scramble possible listening devices. Go ahead." She smiled at Vala and took a seat on the bed.

She listened then with intent and focus of Val's reasons for wanting to speak, not interrupting. Well that... wasn't the worst she had heard in her career. She took a deep breath." Well... I won't say I'm not surprised. The Forces usually don't let things like that slip... not without external factors contributing, but it's not the worst I've heard." she stated, making a thinking expression." You have it contianed, correct? It's not going to infest everybody via airbone pathogents spreading through the ship's lifesupport systems?" She asked additionally just to confirm." Then we are good. You are part of my crew and as long as you aren't active danger to it and want to stay, you will be part of the crew." She reassured with a smile.

"Now that said, that's an issue. If you've got a contageon, I can assume it's for a reason adn the Forces and whomever was running that specific project will want it back if for nothing else, but to ensure operational security." The captain mused." We going to the Almiri Front will be even better then. The Imperium doesn't have direct authority in most of those systems seeing as they are at the borders of the Imperium and mostly independent frontier worlds. Tracking you there will be an exercise of futility for the most part, but I will run it with my friend in the Scouts to arrange for some... false leads. Will make it appear like somebody with your general appearance was last seen heading towards... say the Khaghate Consulates to the galactic east. Even if they try to investigate there, the Khaghate will deny ANY aid and hinder them out of spite, so that will keep them off your trail." The black haired woman stated, making a note on her tablet." That said, I will require of you a regular scheduled report on the contagion's condition and possible dangers or conditions you think might be relevant. Nothing written systemwise even o nthe Siren's terminals. Only written or verbal once a week or as you believe is relevant. Should a need for quarantine is required, I want to be able to execute it as soon as possible."

Val breathed a sigh of relief even before Letho began speaking, sensing at least the other woman's acceptance of what the doctor had said. It was so much easier with this new ability than waiting for the words themselves sometimes. She felt a brief surge of panic well up when Letho asked if she was sure about containment. How could she be? Well, the truth or as close to it as she dared yet come was better than nothing. "It's as contained as it can be, Captain. I've seen no signs of it leaving its.. containment nor any signs at all of this sample being airborne." she confirmed. She gave a determined nod in reply. "I do want to stay." she assured, still feeling guilty though at not revealing the whole truth, especially now.

As Letho continued, Val nodded slowly, not looking the other woman in the eyes. "It was for a good reason: to save a life." she said hesitantly, not elaborating on whose life it was. She did realize though that leaving it like that was a rather loose end. If she had already saved said life, Letho, being a very astute person, must be wondering why Val still needed to keep the contagion then. Still, Val held her tongue, feeling torn over speaking up or not. It was good to hear that where they were headed next would make it next to impossible for the Forces to track them down, but it was what Letho requested after that finally decided it. That and the need to act if the contagion became a threat, even if that meant Val's life. She was still a soldier at the end of the day, she understood sacrifice for your unit.

She clenched her teeth, finally biting the metaphorical bullet. This still might mean that Letho would turn on her. Dump her somewhere, kick her out an airlock... But she felt she owed it to this woman at least now. "I'll give you my first report right now then, Captain. I feel I owe you the whole truth." she said with a reluctant tone. Slowly, she held up her right arm, pushing her jacket sleeve back up, revealing first the discoloured tendrils of flesh on her wrist then into the more oddly-specific shaped and coloured tissues that her arm had become, which continued up under the rest of the jacket arm. "It is contained... within me. There has been no indication that it is contagious... I ran many tests on that before I even left the Forces and I keep testing it almost daily to make sure that hasn't changed." she tried to assure. She took a deep breath, closing off her mind, not wanting to pick up anything right now. She just wanted it to sink it for the captain, it was a lot to take in, and just to hear the verdict all at once.

"This wasn't accidental. I did it to save a life: my life. I took it with me when I left the Forces because I had no choice, it IS part of me now, one way or another." she continued. "I.. became sick. With a lung disease, a rare type of aggressive cancer. Terminal. There was nothing to cure it, but when my unit came across this contagion... when I first saw it in the lab... it gave me hope." she explained. "I experimented with it, edited its genetics that it would be.. beneficial without any negatives. Without the ability to spread beyond the injected body." She ran her hand across the afflicted arm, feeling the hardened flesh, the alien ridges and topology of what was now her arm. "There seem to have been a few side-effects, things I did not anticipate but... the changes I made to it are holding: it is contained." she concluded. "If this... changes things...." she trailed off.

She looked up at Letho, right in the eyes. "The Forces might be after it for more than just wanting it back..." she continued. "They may want me because I made myself into a test subject, not just because it cured my illness but because... well, my arm at least is stronger than it was before as well... and.. well, you know of the telepathy... They may disapprove of such things publicly but... if they can use it to augment soldiers to give them a decided advantage... you know they would not hesitate." she added. "They would capture me by any means necessary if they realize for sure what I've done, interrogate me and dissect me to try to figure out all the changes I made to the pathogen.... It is only fair that you know the extent of this..."

"Good then continue with those tests just in case. Unknown pathogents tend to... evolve." She mentioned, studying Val's appearance and frowning. Not in disgust or anything like that. No this was just a frown of somebody who thought very hard and had a lot of things to consider and who had people depending on them." No, it doesn't change anything, Val." Letho reassured the doctor with a pleasant and kind voice, she wasn't even faking it. She was generally kind and caring. Her crew was like a family and Val was parto f her crew period." The Crew of this ship are my family, you are my family and family will always have a place aboard." She confirmed with sure voice, making a thinking face, tilting her head slightly, right hand around and supporting her chin, index finger tapping the side of her cheek, legs crossed in an elegant fashion.

"This depends on them having realized you've tested it on yourself... normally I would say if you've covered your traces well enough and destroyed any clues remain that wouldn't be an issue, but I'm more than well aware hte miltiary is using psychics and have access to those who posses the gifts of psychometry to gleam information of the history of objects and locations..." The captain began, frowning slightly, finger still tapping against her cheek." We'd best proceed with the worst case possibility indeed... A diversion using the khaganate is imperative in this case, anything else will not be enough. The original background and false trail I arranged for you when you joined wouldn't hold to that kind of scrutiny, not for too long anyhow." letho mused, making calculating expression as her finger finally stopped tapping the side of her face. Finally her posture shifted and she pulled her pad again. A few quick gestures across the surface of the device and a notification could be heard from the doctor's own." I just send you new security codes you will get access to. Also early apologies for the cover story and trail that leads to the khaganate might raise some rumors if somebody knows you. The Scout Services guys's sense of humor is weird..."

"Alright, no worries. It's sitll not the worst I've heard and had as crew aboard." Letho again reassured." We've had psyonic assassin, imperial saboteur using us for a job, rebels, an actual unrecognized alien species that kinda just hanged around for half a year and then vanished into literal thin air in front of the views of the rest of the crew and the security detachment that tried to apprehend them... and let's not even get into the unshackled AI..." The captain chuckled." To be a Traveller means you get frequent encounters with the weirdest and the most dangerous the Imperium has to offer... and well Imperium and beyond. IN any case we should then head to rest for the night then. We will be launching early tomorrow and by the time we do the new false trail will be in place."