As Commander Kris Eriksson walked the promenade, it was the silence that surprised him the most. For a station that never slept, the stillness was haunting, made more real by the isolation of his hazard suit. With the mask down, it almost felt like an away mission to a derelict station. Except, of course, Archanis Station was no derelict, and this was no away mission. It was his station, a trade and commercial hub of twenty thousand, its denizens sequestered in their quarters in an effort to slow the spread of the contagion.

Whether it was obedience or fear that kept everyone home, he wasn’t sure. Captain Anna Vale’s public health addresses were enough to chill anyone to their bones, but people weren’t rational. They weren’t logical. As quickly as they might shelter-in-place, they might also try to make a break for it.  Still, for now at least, the lockdown was holding, and for that, he was thankful, for it meant he didn’t have to put his men at undue risk to enforce it.

“Commander Eriksson, report to visitor quarters, junction alpha six, room forty two.”

“I’ll be right there.”

In order to limit communicability of the highly virulent contagion, the turbolift system had been modified for point-to-point operations only. That meant each rider was dropped off before the next was picked up, slowing transit across the station even with so many tucked away in their quarters. After a wait of nearly five minutes, a lift eventually arrived, ferrying him through the station’s superstructure down twenty one decks to his destination. 

As Commander Eriksson approached, he saw a pair of officers flanking the door. Each was adorned in a hazard suit not unlike his own, adding to the spookiness of the affair with their faces obscured behind their masks. Still, he could see the fear in their eyes. They were doing their duty, but it didn’t mean they didn’t recognize the risks. There was a silent killer stalking the corridors, and so far, there was no cure. If it got you, you were dead.

“What’ve we got?” Commander Eriksson asked.

“The doctor’s inside,” one of his men replied.

Stepping into room forty two along visitor quarters junction alpha six, Commander Eriksson saw Captain Anna Vale, the station’s director of medical services. She wore a medical-grade biohazard suit, essential given her prolonged proximity to the infirmed, and she was standing over the motionless body of a human female, lying supine on the cold floor. 

It didn’t take a close inspection to determine that the middle aged woman lying motionless on the floor was dead. “The virus get her?” Commander Eriksson asked rhetorically.

Captain Vale nodded. “The fourth one we’ve found who never made it to sickbay.”

“What makes this one special?” Commander Eriksson asked, not out of a lack of heart, but just from a simple observation. “You haven’t called me for any of the others.”

“This woman is Dr. Elizabeth Kynes, a propulsion researcher with the Advanced Starship Design Bureau,” Captain Vale explained. “And unfortunately, contact tracing is going to be critical here.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because, according to her arrival paperwork, she was here for a symposium on the Vaadwaur Underspace,” Captain Vale said as she passed a PADD to the security chief. “One that occurred three days ago and was attended by over five hundred astrophysical researchers from across the quadrant.”

“Ah hell,” Commander Eriksson sighed as he scrolled through the logs. The who’s who of scientific minds from agencies, bureaus, institutes, and universities across the Federation had been in attendance. There’d even been a couple foreigners present from the Romulan Republic and the Klingon Empire. “Do you think this might’ve been the real target?” Ever since they’d determined that the contagion was a bioweapon from the Dominion War, he’d been searching for both a motive and a patient zero.

“That’s more your department than mine,” Captain Vale shrugged. Whether the symposium was the target of the bioweapon’s release or it just occurred by happenstance, she had no idea. “All I can say is that the symposium was well attended, including by our own staff.”

Commander Eriksson frowned. That was a real problem. They’d had a few of their staff come down with the virus, but thankfully, there hadn’t been any significant community spread events determined thus far within their ranks. As he scrolled the list though, he saw name after name from the station. “You think it’s gotten to our staff in substantive numbers?”

“It was bound to happen eventually, but I’d hoped not so quickly,” Captain Vale nodded grimly. “This event occurred a full day before our lockdown protocols went into effect, so I don’t see how not.” Commander Owens’ work pods would limit future community spread, but in this case, anyone Dr. Kynes had infected would have had plenty of time to spread it before those measures went into effect. And that meant, instead of one pod, many might’ve been compromised.

“I’ll tell Commander Owens to start pulling staff out of rotation,” Commander Eriksson said as he continued to scroll through the data from the symposium. “We have proximity data from all Starfleet combadges that’ll allow us to sequester anyone that’s…” But then he stopped mid-sentence, a look of worry washing across his face. 

Captain Vale looked over at him. She could see the concern through his mask. “What is it?”

“Do you know if Polaris has reported any cases yet?” Commander Eriksson asked.

“Thankfully not,” Captain Vale confirmed. “Doctor Henderson’s been able to continue his research unimpeded.” That research was their best hope. “Why?”

“Because they may no longer be contagion-free,” Commander Eriksson said as he raised the PADD up in the air. “One of the speakers was Commander Luke Lockwood, Astrophysical Lead for the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity, and combadge prox data puts Dr. Kynes and Commander Lockwood within two meters of each other for an extended period.”