Remi Bishop
Everyone on board the Valiant was exhausted. The trip to the planet they were doing a survey on was incredibly long, two months out and two months back, not to mention the two months that they’d be surveying. There was longer trips out there but most of the crew and the scientists on board were short range only, this was the length of how far they could and would go. Unless ordered. They had set into the gravity field about the planet, tugged along with it like a little row boat in the wake of a bigger ship. This planet had oxygen. Hell. It had carbon based life. It was a veritable garden paradise.
Well. It was for others. Not for Remi Bishop. Remi Bishop was currently holed up in his room, his shared room, sicker than a dog. Apparently he was allergic to everything on the planet and his body had decided to deal with this by giving him a terrible fever. His lips were cracked and bloody. His eyes were glazed. His cheeks splotchy in the utter paleness of his face. ‘This is normal’ he had told them before the fever robbed him of a coherent mind. He ‘Just hadn’t expected so many flowers and so much mold’. One of the ship doctor’s attended Remi, soothing the fever with medicine and several shots of an antihistamine. Remi’s roommate was staying out of their quarters.
It was no secret that the two men did not get along. Not at all. In fact, they had nearly came to blows multiple times. However, sometimes they almost seemed like friends. Almost. They could get along if they tried but neither of them seemed to try all that hard. The reason they had been roomed together was because according to the research they had been friends. In high school which was at least fifteen years before and the person in charge of room assignments just assumed. Assumed very very badly.
On the fourth day, the fever broke. The botanist Remi found himself alone in his room, the air stale and bitter. He rolled out of bed, legs unsteady and he walked to the door, hitting the panel and letting himself out into the hallway. He stared owlishly around the quiet hall, the air was less stale and he could hear the ship thrumming pleasantly under his bare feet. That was when he saw him. His roommate. The two stared at each for a long moment, the silence stretching between. “You didn’t come back to our quarters.”
“I was going to go back to our quarters but then I remembered that you lived in them too.”
“Classy as always. But no comment about the botanist who is allergic to everything in the solar system? Are you losing your touch?” Remi said, a triumphant little smile on lips that immediately cracked, splitting open and revealing a line of red and he hissed and cursed, hand moving to the lip and wiping the blood away. He took a step backwards into the room, legs suddenly trembling as exhaustion tried to push him over. “I am not contagious, you know. It’s an allergic reaction.” He muttered, making his way back to his bed and settling down again. “But whatever. This is all your fault anyway. Your … fault.” He yawned, more cracks in his lips and he was sliding under his covers, he didn’t even close the door. He was so tired his body was shaking, his teeth ached. “Ass…”