“That’s not realistic, sir,” Megah said.
“So instead, you believe that a passing helpful alien showed up two hundred miles under the surface of a gas giant, made first contact, diagnosed and cured a human illness, and then wandered off?” The crew looked at each other. Put that way it did sound unlikely.
“And the cure, sir?”
“Psych suggests your subconscious minds must have been screaming at you, and that manifested in this…person…you claim to have met. It’s notable they appeared when the delerium was at its worst and vanished when you began to recover.” The officer looked at them.
“But Susan worked the pressure release?” Jayan protested quietly, but there was doubt in her voice. The last few days were a distorted blur, and the medical assessment had told them to expect memory loss. The officer looked at her sympathetically.
“It appears Yemec realised what was going on and lowered the pressure successfully, but the tissue damage he had sustained was not survivable. I will be putting him in for a commendation. He saved the mission. It may not be much consolation, but as the discoverer of hyper-pressure injuries he will be remembered.”
#
A galaxy and a thousand years away, he was.
