"Incurable"

written by

Michael Gray

Kadan Loftus' mood matched the fiery red of her hair as she made her way down the corridor on Deck Thirteen. I don't have time for this!

She stepped into Sickbay and exhaled. Seated behind his desk, Doctor Taylor Preston's face blossomed into a wide smile, breaking his usual stoic demeanor.

"What did you want to see me about, Doctor," the Bajoran woman said, folding her arms across her chest.

Preston stood. "I need to give you a new treatment."

She rolled her eyes. "Couldn't this have waited until my usual appointment? I'm taking my fighter wing to Utopia Planitia in thirty minutes."

"If we do this now, you won't have to come for your usual appointment from now on."

She was about to protest further until her brain finally caught up with her fury. "You found something?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head as he walked her toward the exam table.

Her momentary elation gave way to an irritated look. "Then what?"

Preston grabbed a hypo from a nearby table. "This was delivered to me this morning. It's a cure for the disease."

Her happiness returned, but not without a few reins of caution. "You're sure? This isn't some experimental thing I'm going to be a test subject for is it?"

He motioned her to get up on the exam table. "From what I was told, it's been used for nearly a century with complete success."

She let herself fall back onto the cushioned table. The scanners above her head came to life, displaying her vital signs on a nearby monitor. "Then let's get on with it." She stopped as a thought came to mind. "Exactly who told you about this cure?"

Bracing himself for the likely response, he answered, "Hank Evans."

She bolted up. "Oh, no! It's bad enough he gave me this damn disease because he couldn't keep himself from screwing some prostitute. I am not going to be first to try this so-called cure. Once I see it doesn't kill Evans, then maybe I'll consider it."

Preston stepped back, a frown on his face. "I've run very thorough tests. It will work."

"And the reason Hank hasn't tried it is?"

The doctor held the hypo in his hand, weighing considerations of confidentiality with the needs of the patient before him. Finally, he looked at Loftus. "Because he doesn't need it."

Her eyes narrowed. "He just got over it on his own?"

"Not exactly."

"After all that bastard has put me through, I think I am entitled to an explanation." Loftus took a deep breath. "As willing as he was to drop his pants for a strange woman, I doubt he'd be too concerned about doctor-patient confidentiality."

"It's not Evans who's keeping me from saying anything."

She looked away a moment, her mind running through various possibilities. "Temporal Investigations?"

Preston only nodded.

"But how..."

"I'm not sure," he answered. "No one's gone out of their way to give me a full explanation of what happened. However, based on Mei-Wan coming back with a sister who, as far as I can tell, never existed, whatever they experienced was certainly extraordinary."

"An alternate timeline," Loftus whispered as she laid back onto the exam table. "But how could that cure Hank?"

The doctor pressed the hypo against her arm and watched her vital signs on the nearby monitor. "I'm a doctor, not a temporal physicist."

"What about Mei-Wan and the captain? Did they show any signs of..."

"You know I can't go into that, Commander." He gave her a quick glance. "Let's just say they went through a number of things that were never mentioned in the temporal mechanics course I took."

Loftus tried her best to relax as Preston's attention focused again on the vital signs monitor. Her thoughts led her to memories of her own temporal mechanics class at the Academy. The instructor, Isaac Peabody, had bored her so much, she'd only attended class enough to pull out a passing grade. Now she wished she'd paid far more attention for no reason other than to satisfy her current curiosity.

"Yes," Preston stated with a smile. He made a minor adjustment to the nearby display as it gave him a new scan of the Bajoran. "That's much better."

She turned her head to get a look what was pleasing Preston. "Is it going away?"

"No," he said, switching the display off. "It's already gone."

Kadan Loftus closed her eyes, finally letting herself feel the relief she'd been praying so long for. Only a whisper of doubt remained, but it was enough to make her ask, "Are you certain?"

"Absolutely." Preston looked at her with a grin on his face. "Though if it would make you feel better, I can give you a full physical exam after you return from Utopia Planitia just to make sure."

She sat up with a smile. "Thank you, doctor."

"I'm just the one who administered it. Evans is the man you should thank."

***

Standing outside Hank Evans's quarters, Loftus stared at the door. She'd been there for five minutes, arguing the merits of what had seemed like a good idea during the short trip from Sickbay. But now that the moment had come, she couldn't bring herself to touch the control at the side of the door which would announce her presence to the one man she had spent the last several months avoiding whenever she could.

Let's get this over with.

Her arm swung out and her thumb punched the control.

She did her best to firm up her resolve against the mix of feelings she knew would assault her the moment she saw his face.

The double doors slid open and instead of the self-made, too sure of himself, man her heart had too easily fallen for, the figure staring at her seemed a poor copy of the Hank Evans she'd learned to first love, then later despise.

My god, she thought, trying not to let it show on her face. He looks so old.

"Loftus?" he murmured, as if waking from a long, fitful sleep. Finally, a smile spread across his worn features. "Come on in."

"No," she stated. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

His smile evaporated along with his hope. But he wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Can't we..."

"Hank," she interrupted. "I came here to thank you."

"For what?"

"Preston gave me the medicine you brought to him."

Hank looked down at the carpeted floor at his feet for a moment. When he glanced back up at her, his smile began to return. "It wasn't easy to get, but I figured I owed you at least that much."

"Yes, you did," she said, immediately regretting her blunt response. "I'm sorry. I didn't come her to argue."

"That's good. From what I remember, you tended to win most of our arguments."

She shook her head and did her best not to grin at the thought of happier times between them. "The fact is you didn't have to get the medicine for me and I felt I should at least thank you for it."

"So you're okay now? I mean, uh, as far as the... your medical..."

"Yes," she told him, surprised at the way he seemed to fumble about for the right words. "Completely cured."

"Great. I'm glad to hear it."

Loftus fought off the feelings welling up inside her. The bright-eyed Hank Evans she'd been so attracted to began to return on the good news she'd just given him. She could tell the love he'd had for her hadn't diminished in the least. With that realization Loftus felt her feet leading her to the one place she'd sworn to never go again: into his arms.

No! If he really loved me, I wouldn't have needed the damn medicine in the first place!

Instead of going forward, she took a step back. Hank's smile instantly faded.

"I need to get going," she said. "Thanks for helping me out."

She turned and hurried down the corridor, pleased she'd resisted the temptation to forget all that had caused them to no longer be a couple, but also mad with herself that the temptation had even existed.

Loftus stepped into the first turbolift she found and quickly hit the "close door" button, not daring to look out the closing doors, afraid Hank might have followed her.

"Main bay," she ordered the lift computer.

As she waited the nearly two minutes it took to arrive at her destination, Kadan Loftus realized it wasn't Hank she was the most angry with, but herself. Her instincts had told her Hank Evans was the wrong kind of man to leave her heart unprotected against, but she'd ignored them because at the time, it had all felt so right... and so good. The year and a half between then and now had taught her what a mistake she had made.

And now her heart was paying the price for that error in judgment.

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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2005 Michael Gray

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