Patient Zero

The mission continued for five more days. The team collected countless samples of dirt, water, 

and small plants they found along the surface of the Red Planet. There were no more discoveries of humanoid beings to the crew's disappointment. The mission pretty much went without a hitch until it was time for cryo freeze again. 

As the crew stripped down to their underwear and entered their pods, the on board AI began preliminary vitals signs assessment. One after another, red exclamation points showed up on the in-pod screen with a message banner, “vitals signs abnormality detected. Please remain still while vitals are reassessed.” After the third round of this error message, Redding asked for a diagnostic assessment. 

The onboard AI replied, “All systems are online and functioning normally. Would you like to view anomaly data?”

Redding looked at his fellow crew members who all shook their heads in agreement. They were all scientists after all so the desire to see data and evidence was strong in all of them. 

“Yes, display data of all personnel,” replied Redding. 

Graphs of the vitals of all crew members were displayed on a color coated line graph with baseline values of each crew member listed with dotted horizontal lines. The pattern was the same for everyone. Heart rates were 20% lower than baseline, while temperatures had increased 1 to 1.5 C. The consistency in the changes led the crew to believe the anomalies were due to a calibration error. 

Redding decided that a system reboot and recalibration was necessary so he input the passcodes and recalibrated the system. When results remained the same, Redding and the crew decided that it would be best to manually override the system and start cryo sleep since it would be 12-15 months before they would arrive at Earth and any more delay would cause them to become off schedule.  None of the vitals were outside normal limits so none of them were all too concerned about it. Plus everyone felt fine anyways, so they were convinced it was just a minor equipment malfunction. 

14 months and 27 days later, the crew had arrived in Earth's orbit. Again Redding woke first and made contact with the Houston Space station. He explained the issue with the vitals system and was reassured it would be investigated by their technicians upon landing. After one final check confirmed landing gear was functioning properly, he woke the rest of the crew. 45 minutes later at 0348, they landed back on their home planet. 

After the landing crew had begun unloading the cargo, the flight crew was rushed into a conference room, for what they thought was an immediate debriefing. Instead, the first visitors to Mars were greeted with noise makers, applause, and tall glasses of champaign. After a brief celebration the team discussed their findings and presented the Martian corpse. The American piece was immediately brought down to the lab for analysis and the crew was sent for medical evaluation which was standard after a mission. 

They all appeared physically healthy and intact., but the vitals abnormality remained the same. Perhaps it was a side effect of being on Mars? The team was assured that it would be investigated thoroughly. The rest of the day was a blur of press conferences where the astronauts were celebrated and treated like celebrities. Between the five of them they probably  shook 1000 people's hands. At the end of the night,  all the crew were on flights home with their pieces of the Martian enroute for their nation's most advanced labs.

Everything appeared to be business as normal for Redding and the other astronauts until 5 days after their arrival, July 4th. It started with an early morning migraine. Redding could literally feel his head throbbing the moment he opened his pale blue eyes on the morning of independence day. He had gone out drinking the night before with some friends, so Redding was sure it must have been nothing more than the world's worst hangover. He slowly dragged himself out of his bed and quickly realized that he couldn't feel his legs. He took a few small steps before his body collapsed. 

“Wtf is going on?” Redding thought to himself before realizing that he could no longer speak either. He happened to have a thermometer sitting on his coffee table so he scooted himself to it and scanned his forehead. “106.1F,” read the small led screen. Redding began having difficulties keeping himself awake and despite his best efforts, was unable to reach the cellphone on his bedside table to call for help. 

Meanwhile, all five of the other astronauts were experiencing the exact same symptoms. Luckily, most of them were found down relatively quickly and taken to nearby hospitals. Redding was not so lucky, and it was only the next afternoon that his boss came searching for him after hearing about the other crew member’s hospitalizations. Redding was immediately transferred to the nearest VA hospital which happened to be in Loma Linda. 

The discovery of the Martian was top secret and only a select few knew about it, but as all the astronauts were sick in the exact same way, the assumption was that they had gotten ill from something that they were all exposed to on Mars. All of the samples that were brought back from the Red Planet were analyzed and showed no evidence of being pathogenic, so the last thing to be analyzed was the mummy.  After sequencing the genome, researchers did notice a surprisingly high concentration of viral DNA in the specimens, and under the microscope, a new and never before seen virus was uncovered. To everyone's surprise, it appeared active. Nasa tools the necessarY precautions and quarantined anyone who had contact with the Martian body, but were probably too late considering the thousands of people the flight crew had encounter since their arrival.

At the VA in Loma Linda, Misa Stanley, a 26 year-old former Navy enlisted nurse, stood outside the emergency department ambulance bay and took a swig out of her energy drink. She was pulling a double and was starting to hit a wall. She was usually busy as a nurse in the adult intensive care unit, but there had been a number of patients that had recently d/c'd to JC (died) and now there were several empty beds. It was these slow times that were always the worst. Without the constant adrenaline, staying awake for these long shifts was nearly impossible. Misa looked out at the sunny and cloudless sky and started daydreaming about her bed.

Just then, an ambulance pulled up, followed by an escort of black, unmarked SUVs with sirens blaring and lights flashing. The emt rolled out an unconscious man that looked oddly familiar to Misa. The man was surrounded by 4 men in black suits with dark sunglasses. Her pager hadn’t gone off about an admit coming so Misa was wondering if the guy was some sort of celebrity. She slammed the rest of her drink and ran back inside since she was first up for admit she had to prepare herself.  

She got the call about 5 minutes after she saw the patient arrive. Enhanced respiratory precautions, ewe! She would have to wear those stupid N95’s and those hot ass isolation gowns during this hot July morning. Great! If Misa wasn't already tired, the thought of having to gown-up each time she entered the room made her feel exhausted.  Misa tied up her shoulder length, light brown hair, put on her goggles, grabbed an unopened mask and an iso cart and wrote her name on a brown paper bag. After she performed Some basic safety checks she was ready for her new ICU admit. After report, she figured the guy had just overdosed on something that was making him temporarily obtunded, which was common for folks in the late 30's nowadays. 

When the patient rolled up though, he appeared as if he was in a deep sleep, and was non-reactive to any stimuli. Other than a high fever and low heart rate, he did not appear to be that ill. The clinical picture was starting to make less and less sense to her. High fever but low heart rate and with a normal blood pressure made zero sense to her. Misa studied the patient's face and realized why she thought she recognized him earlier. “That's the guy from the Mars mission,” she thought.

That would partially explain the security detail that was currently waiting outside the room, but she'd taken care of other famous people before and never experienced that. After drawing enough labs to exsanguinate the poor guy the lab bags were confiscated and sent with one of the guys in the lobby who was holding an airtight briefcase.  Something wasn't right about this whole situation but it was too soon to do info gathering, she'd have to wait till she was off shift to do that.