"How did you get here?" Don finally found his voice. "I mean ... thank the stars you're here, but how did you get here?"

Xander shouldered his rifle. "I followed the passage that guy took. When I saw him attacking you, I kind of just ... reacted."

"Well, thank goodness that you did," Don said, clapping him on the shoulder. "I was about to get unwanted brain surgery." He looked at Flint warily. "Did you ... did you kill him?"

"Nah," Xander said, kneeling beside Flint and feeling for a pulse. "It wasn't a fatal hit, at least, not immediately. I was rushed. I guess we should take him back to Melody and get him patched up?"

Don shrugged. "I ... I dunno," he mumbled. "He's kind of evil."

Xander gave an amused snort. "I gathered that," he said. "But we are members of the Federation, so I guess we'd better be nice." He scooped Flint up into his arms and over his shoulders. "Oof. He needs to eat less, methinks."

"Xan," Don said, kneeling beside Veerna and shaking her shoulder. "You saw Chris, right?"

Xander frowned. "No. I didn't. I just saw Suzan and Melody. Why ...?"

"He said ... he said she'd be sleeping, for a hundred years," Don said, trying to control the anxiety in his voice. "I don't know what he meant, but it made Veerna go berserk. I mean ... more berserk than usual."

Xander shrugged. "Who knows? The girls said Chris was checking the perimeter. They didn't seem overly concerned. C'mon, let's head back."

Both Veerna and Yulia regained consciousness a minute later. Veerna was of the mind to leave Flint to die from his wound, but Don and Xander decided to drag him along with them. The five of them delved into the tunnel, Xander grunting somewhat with Flint across his shoulders as he descended the ladder.

They walked in relative silence through the pitch-black tunnel. It was a little creepy to Don's overworked brain, but he forced it aside. Yulia was clinging to Veerna's hand, walking alongside her. Don struggled to convince himself that they would find Chris unharmed, though doubt ate away at him. Even Veerna was restrained, silent. She kept casting glares at Flint but was otherwise surprisingly quiet.

When Flint regained consciousness, he didn't say anything. He gave a small grunt of pain, eyeing Veerna over Xander's shoulder. When Don snapped, "Where's Chris?" at him, he chose to sneer and made no response.

Frustrated, Don kept walking. It took them about twenty minutes to reach the entrance to the hospital, and when they emerged from the door that, from the inside, would've looked like it would go to a regular basement, they were met with Melody's hysterical voice. "Xander! Xander! Where's my sister?"

Xander shrugged as best he could with Flint draped over his shoulders. "I dunno," he said, and Don could tell he was purposely keeping his voice vague. His previous casualness was now abandoned. "Don?"

Oh sure, leave it to me to answer, Don thought irritably. Before he could say anything, Veerna interrupted them. "I think I know where she is." Her voice was odd, muted. "Flint, you didn't ... did you?"

Flint met her eyes rebelliously. "Did I?" he retorted.

"I despise you," she spat, grabbing Melody's arm. "Come with me, everyone." She pulled the doctor along behind her as she hurried through the halls. The others did their best to keep up, Don trying to ignore the corpses that looked to just have been dropped in random places. Pain seemed etched into their faces. What could have killed all of them?

But in his mind's eye, he remembered the man in the security booth, and Flint's desire to make money off the plague that had destroyed Yulia's home and claimed the lives of everyone she knew. Was it possible that the plague was spreading? If so, had they all been exposed?

Veerna stopped abruptly, and Don ran into her back. When before that would have won him a sarcastic retort, she didn't say anything this time. Judging from her stiff back and silence, she was not happy. She silently opened the door to the side room, pulling Melody inside with her. The rest followed after a moment's hesitation.

It was the cryogenic chamber. Don closed his eyes briefly, Flint's words making sense without him even seeing Chris. "She's taking a nice, long nap." With his eyes closed, he heard Melody scream a little, utter grief tearing at her voice. He looked up to see Melody lean her forehead against one of the chambers, sobbing.

Slowly, Don approached them, laying a hand on the doctor's shoulder while looking inside. Sure enough, Chris lay within, her eyes closed, frost flaking on her cheeks, barely visible through the frozen window. With her red hair spread around her and a peaceful expression on her face, she could have been Sleeping Beauty had it not been for the tear frozen on her cheek.

Bang. Suzan screamed and Don swung around. Flint dropped from Xander's shoulders, dead before he hit the ground. Veerna was pointing her gun at him, the barrel still smoking. "Veerna!" Xander cried disapprovingly.

"Don't tell me you felt pity for that monster!" Veerna yelled. "He deserved everything he got!" Don saw something in her eyes that he had never seen before.

Tears.

"We have to—can't we—isn't there any way to get her out?" Don asked, hoping against hope.

"Of course there's not," Veerna snarled. "He set the time for one hundred years. If it could be opened before then, it would be completely useless. She's stuck in there."

Melody sobbed. Don squeezed her shoulder, trying to offer some form of support to her in a situation that was impossible to be eased. Finally, Suzan broke the silence. "We can take the container with us," she said. "We need to go."

"Why?" Xander asked, scratching his head. He didn't look comfortable with the fact that a man had been killed while over his shoulders. "I mean, I know this place is creepy, but—"

"We've got less than an hour until this whole planet blows," Suzan said, her face white. "I've done the calculations while you were off shooting people. Every inhabitant of this planet has been killed, either by the plague or by the space pirates. Because of that, I'm pretty sure it's going to combust."

"Combust?" Xander's eyebrows shot up. "Why?"

"If I knew, I might be able to prevent it!" Suzan snapped irritably. It was obvious that she was struggling to maintain some form of self-control. "If you want to get out, we need to go within the next ten minutes. And that means we've got to get Chris's container out in that period of time."

Melody, however, took a worse stance. "Why bother?" she asked tearfully. "It's not like we can get her out of there. She's going to be in there for a hundred years, and by then we'll all be dead. Why take her with us when she's already going to wake up alone?"

That made Suzan's pale face set in a stern line. "Because, I'm a genius. I'm going to get Chris out of that thing if it takes me years, Doctor Chase," she snapped. "We came here for my brother. I feel responsible for this, and I will fix it."

Melody stared at her for several seconds before she threw her arms around Suzan's neck in gratitude. "Oh, thank you!" she cried, sobbing into the scientist's shoulder.

"That's all well and good, but we've still got to get her case to the ship," Veerna pointed out.

Suzan bent near the hinges holding the container to the wall. Xander watched with a frown, toeing Flint's corpse out of the way with both disgust and disdain. "Sue?" he said after a minute passed in silence.

The girl made no response. She simply reached forward, tugging at the hinge on one side of the chamber, and it gave way. Xander quickly caught it before it could swing out and hit her. "Watch yourself!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry," Suzan said absently. She went over and did the same thing to the other side. Don was forced to also step forward and catch the other side to keep it from squishing Xander. "We need a gurney," she added. "To wheel it through and get it back onto the streets. The space pirates seem to know that the planet's doomed—the shooting is over."

Melody and Veerna went out swiftly and came back only a minute or two later with the requested gurney. With some effort, Xander, Don, and Veerna managed to maneuver the extremely-heavy chamber onto the cart and strapped it on. "Six minutes," Melody said, sounding a little stronger now. "We need to go, now."

"Righto," Veerna replied. "We've gotta be on the streets in that time. Let's put some pedal to the metal, people."

They started sprinting through the hospital, Xander and Don switching turns with the gurney. It was heavier than it appeared, particularly with the chamber on it, and by the time they reemerged onto the streets, both Don and Xander were breathing hard and covered in sweat. "That was some workout," Xander panted.

"Well, it's not over yet," Veerna observed. Although the space pirates had apparently left the planet, their destruction remained behind. "We've got forty minutes now. And without Chris, it's going to be harder to get that ship to work."

"Don't you know how to fly?" Don asked as they set off through the streets.

"Fly? Yes. Fly as well as Chris? I don't think anybody can. Losing her is going to cost us," Veerna admitted.

"On top of that, where can we go?" Suzan asked, struggling to keep up.

Veerna curled her lip. "Don't worry about that. I know a good place we can go," she said, but the bitterness in her voice did make Don wonder.

The rest of the sprint through the streets in their efforts to get back to the landing bay was accomplished in silence. The normally-fifteen minute walk took twice as long, due to the debris and corpses on the streets making it difficult to move the gurney through. It was even making it more difficult for those not pushing the cart, and Yulia, Suzan, and Melody tripped numerous times. In the end, Veerna ignored Yulia's protests and had her ride piggy-back with her.

When they finally reached the landing bay with only ten minutes before the planet was due to explode, Don had to give himself a moment to consider Veerna. For a pitiless killer, she was showing a completely different side than he'd known her to have in their time together as doctor and patient. And, even stranger, she seemed to be extremely fond of Yulia, and also the two Chases.

She found their borrowed ship with ease and directed them aboard. While the others helped Melody get Chris's chamber settled where it wouldn't slide around, Veerna took Suzan as her copilot into the cockpit.

Once Don and Xander got Melody settled, the two young men sat down together on the opposite side of Melody. "I'm glad you're alright, Xander," Don said after a moment of silence.

"Thanks, Doc," Xander answered with a small smile. However, his smile seemed forced, and he looked away. "I can't stop thinking about what Suzan said back there. She's right. It's my fault that Chris is in the freeze. If I hadn't gotten shot—"

"Don't," Don said swiftly. "If it's anyone's fault, it's Sareen's. She's the one who shot you. Why would you expect to be stabbed in the back by your superior officer? Or rather, shot in the back. She wasn't demonstrating any behavior like she'd do that. It had to have been when she and Chris were taken off by Rulon. He must've offered her something in exchange for that."

"I know," Xander said with a sigh.

"Look!" Melody cried, looking out the window of the ship. The two young men joined her, while Yulia took the other window, looking out. The planet of Predo was cracking, heat seeping through the exposed areas. Red light was everywhere, lighting up their section of space.

It took only seconds. The planet just seemed to crumble before their eyes. The explosion seemed brighter than the sun, chunks of the planet flying everywhere. One smacked against the ship, rocking it, but didn't seem to cause any permanent damage. The next second, it was all over. Predo was gone.

Yulia gave an anguished cry and dropped from the window, covering her face with her hands. Don went beside her, and to his surprise, she grabbed his hand with her gloved fingers, still crying. He looked up at Xander, but the security officer's eyes were glued to the window.

Thus, Don's silent promise was his alone, as he held the last Atonian's hand. The only being in the entire universe to survive the plague, and it seemed that both sides—those who wanted to stop the plague, and those who wanted to let it keep going—wanted her. Don promised himself in that moment that he would never let them have her to experiment on a child.

He would not let the last Atonian die in such a way.