Chapter 35 - One Gray

Danny's fingers trembled as he checked the wall-mounted Geiger counter for the fifth time in as many minutes. Luca pressed his shoulder against the cool metal bulkhead and tried to look like he had his shit together. His stomach clenched with each tick of the counter. Captain cool under pressure. Right. If only they could hear the screaming in my head.

"Still high," Danny confirmed, his voice cracking slightly. "No sign of decreasing."

Luca nodded. Thank God we'd all made it inside. Those last few seconds had been too close with Ryan and Chris sprinting down the corridor, the warning system counting down, the shelter door sealing with barely a moment to spare. If they'd been caught outside... He killed the thought there. No use torturing himself with what-ifs.

"How's Chris?" he asked, turning his attention to Joey, who knelt beside him.

Joey's fingers pressed against Chris's neck, counting silently before he answered. "Pulse is steadying. Breathing's normal." He lifted one of Chris's eyelids, shining a penlight into it. "Pupillary response improving."

"I used [Adrenal Auto-Regulation Boost] to keep him from spiraling," Joey added, adjusting the IV line. "That brought his heart rate down. It didn't fix whatever the radiation already did, so we still watch him."

"So it's not radiation sickness?" Emily asked, the gauze still pressed to her bleeding nose.

"Doesn't seem like radiation poisoning," Joey confirmed, though his frown hadn't eased. "At least not classic acute radiation syndrome."

Those were definitely words Luca understood, and none of them made him feel any better.

"He was in the gym," Ryan said, running a hand through his hair. "Sprinted to engineering to help me with the secondaries. Seemed fine, just winded."

Joey checked Chris over. "Pulse is fast, he's dehydrated. The sprint probably did him in." He prepped an IV. "He needs fluids and rest."

The emergency lights flickered again, and for half a second the shelter went black. The space seemed to squeeze in around them, and the recycled air tasted like the inside of a can. Emily sat rigid beside him, hands clenched around the gauze, and when the lights stuttered back he caught the fear in her eyes. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Nothing he could say would fix this.

For a moment, the only sounds were Chris's breathing and the soft hum of the life support systems. Then a high-pitched beeping cut through the quiet, making him jump.

Every wrist in the shelter lit up at once, red and orange warnings flashing across their bodysuits. Luca looked down at his own. The number sat there like a verdict: 0.95 Gy.

"What the hell?" Ryan hissed, staring at his own display. "How are we registering radiation if we're inside the shelter?"

"We're not," Danny replied. "The suits are showing our exposure levels from before we reached the shelter. The wave caught us while we were running."

Luca swallowed against a throat gone dry. A gray level of almost 1 was treatable, but only if they moved now. He looked at each of them. They'd all been exposed.

"Joey." He had to force the name out. "What does this mean for us?"

Joey was already moving, going through the shelf above them. "It means we start anti-radiation protocols now. Potassium iodide for everyone, along with Prussian blue and DTPA." He pulled out blister packs of pills that looked way too much like anti-radiation Skittles, which was just fantastic. "And we monitor for symptoms. Nausea, vomiting, fever, skin redness."

"Like nosebleeds?" Emily asked quietly, the gauze at her nose now soaked through.

Joey didn't answer immediately. "Could be coincidental," he said. "But yes, bleeding can be a symptom."

The shelter fell silent except for the soft beeping of their monitors and the hum of the emergency systems. They were supposedly safe in here, sure, except for the part where the radiation had already gotten to all of them.

Joey turned his attention to Emily, who sat slumped against the wall, fresh blood seeping around the edges of the gauze pressed to her nose. Luca leaned in, jaw clenched so tight he could feel the ache spreading into his temples. He watched her struggle upright, her movements like she was fighting through water, and something in his chest went solid. She was his XO, his friend, and whatever else she had become to him over the last few weeks. She was bleeding, and he couldn't make it stop.

"Let me see," Joey said, kneeling beside her. He carefully pulled the soaked gauze away from her face, replacing it with a fresh one.

Emily snapped upright. "What the fuck?" she said, swiping at the blood with the back of her hand, leaving a red streak across her cheek. "Why am I the only one bleeding? We all got the same dose, right?"

Her voice wavered on the last word, a tiny crack in her composure that hit him harder than the radiation alarm. He crouched beside her, close enough to matter but out of Joey's way.

"You're not necessarily the only one," Joey replied, speaking each word carefully. "Everyone reacts differently to radiation exposure. Some symptoms present immediately, others take hours or days." He shined his penlight into her eyes, checking pupillary response. "Any dizziness? Nausea?"

"No," Emily muttered, wincing at the bright light. "Just the nosebleed and a headache." She glanced at Luca, her green eyes wide in a way he'd never seen before. "This isn't normal, right? For it to hit me harder?"

He stayed still, letting Joey work. Every part of him hated it.

"Several factors could make you more susceptible," Joey said, checking Emily's pulse. "Low white blood cell count, pre-existing conditions, recent immune stress..." He gently pressed at the lymph nodes along her neck, frowning slightly.

"Hormone fluctuations can affect radiation sensitivity," he added, scanning her vitals again.

"But it's just a nosebleed," Ryan interjected from across the shelter, trying for optimism. "That could be from anything, right? The pressure changes, dry air in here?"

"Epistaxis, or nosebleeds, can certainly have multiple causes," Joey agreed, though his expression remained serious. "But combined with the radiation exposure, we need to monitor it closely."

Epistaxis. Joey was pulling out the SAT words now. Never a good sign.

Danny didn’t look up from the Geiger counter. “Ionizing radiation targets rapidly dividing cells. Bone marrow, gastrointestinal lining, reproductive tissue… anything with high mitotic activity. If her hormone profile is elevated, it could increase vascular fragility, especially in mucosal membranes.”

Everyone stared at him.

His eyes widened. "Oh god. Pregnant?" he blurted, then immediately clamped his mouth shut, mortified.

For one awful second, nobody in the shelter seemed to breathe. The Geiger counter ticked on, indifferent to what Danny had just said.

Luca froze. Every head in the shelter turned, and he could feel the exact moment they all did the math after Danny blurted out pregnant. Emily looked at Luca. Everyone looked at Luca. He hadn’t even asked her out yet. They hadn’t even had the conversation, and Danny had just skipped about twelve steps in front of the entire crew.

“I’m not pregnant!” she snapped. “I haven’t even—“ She cut herself off, cheeks flaming. “I haven’t even slept with anyone. Ever.”

Luca’s brain was doing something between a shutdown and a fire alarm. He needed everyone in this shelter to stop talking. Immediately. Five minutes ago.

Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Oh, good. Me neither,” she said flatly. She held up a hand toward Emily, a high five? Emily ignored it completely.

Danny made a small, confused sound in his throat. Luca leaned over and smacked him across the back of the head. Ryan lunged forward and slapped a hand over Danny’s mouth for good measure.

“Em, we’re sorry,” Ryan said quietly. “He’s an idiot, but he’s just scared, like the rest of us.”

“That’s enough,” Luca said. “Everyone shut up. I mean it. Not another word.”

Emily's hands trembled as she held the gauze to her nose. "Great," she muttered. "I'm bleeding all over the place, and now my personal life is part of the emergency checklist. This day just keeps getting better."

"Could be worse," Ryan mumbled. "Could be discussing your bowel movements."

"Don't give them ideas," Emily shot back.

“Hey… no one’s judging you, Em,” Luca said softly. “And it's nobody's business anyway.”

"Except apparently it is," she shot back, her eyes glassing over. "Since my personal life is suddenly relevant to my nosebleed!"

"I apologize for the insensitive suggestion," Joey said, his professional calm returning. "Danny's right that there are many potential contributing factors, and we'll monitor everyone closely."

Emily gave a stiff nod, eyes fixed on the floor. Her chin quivered, and she gripped the bloodied gauze so hard her fingers shook.

Chris stirred on the floor, and everyone looked at him while Joey checked his IV. Luca looked back at Emily, hoping she'd used the moment to pull herself together. She hadn't managed it.

Tears cut clean lines through the dried blood on her face, and then her shoulders were shaking. She turned her face away, trying to hide behind her hair, but in here, there was nowhere to go.

"Hey." Luca shifted closer. "It's okay. We're safe in here."

"I'm sorry," she said, so soft he barely heard it. "I don't know why I'm—" A hiccupping sob cut off her words. "God, I'm the XO. I should be helping, not falling apart."

Luca slid his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. "Hey. You're allowed." He kept his voice low. "You're bleeding and stuck in a metal box. That's not a great combo."

She turned into him then, burying her face against his shoulder as her body shook with quiet sobs. His uniform quickly grew damp with tears and blood, but he couldn't have cared less. He put one hand on the back of her head and the other on her back, rubbing circles because that's what people did, right? He had no idea if he was doing it right. He kept doing it anyway.

Across the room, he caught Joey's eye. Joey gave him a small nod and turned to check on the others.

"I'm getting blood on your shirt," she mumbled against his chest.

"Good thing we've got laundry facilities," he replied. That got a weak laugh out of her, more breath than sound.

She pulled back just enough to look at him, her face a mess of blood and tears. "You're ridiculous."

"Yeah." He wiped blood off her cheek with his thumb, which mostly just smeared it around. Smooth. "We're gonna be fine, Em."

She nodded, taking a shuddering breath. "I know. I'm sorry for—"

"Em. Stop."

She leaned into him again, the crying winding down to the occasional sniffle. Luca kept his arms around her and his chin on her head. He was still terrified. But she needed him to not be, so he wasn't.

God, how fast everything changes. Hours ago, they were laughing in the hangar, and he'd almost told her... something. He didn't even know what. Now she was bleeding in his arms, and he still hadn't said any of it. The thought landed hard. He didn't have anything else. So he held on.

"Alright," Joey said finally, reaching for his med kit. "I'm starting everyone on anti-radiation protocol." He began sorting through pill bottles. "We've all been exposed to around 1 Gray, which is treatable if we act quickly."

Joey moved methodically around the shelter, handing out pills. "Potassium iodide first, then Prussian blue, then DTPA. Seven-day regimen."

---

Luca lifted his head from the bulkhead. His neck screamed at him. How long had they been in here? Four hours? Five? He'd stopped counting.

Danny's exhale was audible across the shelter as he stared at the Geiger counter. "It's dropping," he announced. "Radiation levels are finally decreasing."

"How much longer?" Ryan asked.

Danny squinted at the numbers. "Maybe another hour or two before we reach safe levels."

Luca nodded, trying to ignore the numbness in his legs where Emily's weight pressed against him. She'd passed out against his shoulder. Not sleeping — her breathing was too rough for that. He hadn't moved for over an hour, unwilling to disturb her.

Luca shook Emily awake for her medication. She blinked awake, unfocused for several seconds before finding his face. She didn't recognize him right away, and that scared him more than the Geiger counter had.

"Pills," he said softly.

She nodded slowly, her movements sluggish as she took them. When he held the water pouch to her lips, her hands trembled too much to grip it herself.

"Em?" he said softly, studying her face. Her skin was gray beneath the dried blood.

"Tired," she mumbled, but her voice was slurred at the edges.

Time stopped mattering after a while. Emily drifted in and out, and each time she woke up less. Her breathing went shallow. She stopped answering when the others talked. Luca kept his hand on her arm like that would help.

"Level zero-point-two-five," Danny announced. "We're back in the safe range."

Luca tried to stand and his legs screamed at him. His knees had locked up hours ago, and something in his lower back popped when he straightened. The others were moving too, slow and stiff, shaking out dead limbs. Joey checked Chris, who was sitting up on his own now, color much improved.

"We're good to go," Joey confirmed. "But everyone moves slowly."

Luca shifted Emily upright. "Come on, Em. Time to get out of here."

She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out and she collapsed back against him. "I can't..." she stared at her hands as if they belonged to a stranger. "Why can't I move?"

Luca's stomach dropped. "Joey!"

He moved quickly beside them, his fingers on Emily's pulse, checking her pupils with his penlight. Luca saw something cross Joey's face before it went neutral again.

"Orthostatic hypotension," Joey said quietly. "Blood pressure drop. Common after radiation exposure."

But Luca caught the way Joey's eyes lingered on Emily's face, the tightness around his mouth. This wasn't low blood pressure.

"The mission continues," Emily said, and for a second her voice had some steel in it. "We didn't come all this way to turn back."

That was his XO talking. The girl who couldn't sit up on her own was giving him mission briefs. He loved her for it. He wanted to shake her for it.

"We'll assess everyone once we're out," Luca said.

He turned the wheel lock. Each revolution clanked through the room like a gunshot. The door swung open and the corridor beyond was pitch black, which was exactly what he needed.

Without hesitation, Luca slipped his arms under Emily's knees and shoulders, lifting her against his chest. She was way too light in his arms, and when she went limp against him something sour rose in his throat.

"I should walk. I need to walk," she protested weakly.

"No, you can't," he said. "And that's okay."

Behind them, Ryan helped Chris to his feet. Chris was wobbly but mobile. Emily hadn't even been able to sit up on her own.

Luca stepped into the dark with Emily against his chest, hating how little she seemed to weigh and how wrong that felt. All of them were depending on him, and Emily couldn't stand.

"We need to get both Emily and Chris to the infirmary immediately," Joey said. He'd gone full medic, voice clipped, already moving.

"Zoe, get to the bridge," Luca said as he adjusted Emily on his arms. "Check our position and course immediately. We've been drifting for hours." He turned to the others. "Danny, get down to Engineering and wait for Ryan. Get life support and navigation back online, whatever it takes."

Emily's fingers barely curled around his shoulder. She tried to say something, but nothing came out. Her head dropped against his chest, and her breathing went ragged. He walked faster.