A Collection of Julian Bashir One-Shots

The Akkarian Flu

Summary: You're sick with an alien flu, and you've been put in quarantine so that you don't transmit it to anyone else on DS9. The only people allowed to enter your quarters are medical personnel—and that includes Doctor Bashir.

***

The Akkarian Flu. Of all the things Meexah's research team had to bring back from the protospecies, it had to be their autumnal malady. And worst of all, they'd managed to transmit it to me. If they had come back through the transporter beam, the filters probably would have wiped out the contagion, but no, of course that couldn't happen. First, they had came in contact with the virus by sourcing their water from the same river the Akkarians washed their clothes in. Their filter somehow didn't catch the virus, and they proceeded to contract an asymptomatic version of the flu. Then, of course, they wanted to take back "plant samples" from the planet's surface, but were afraid the transporter filters might eliminate the bacterial ecosystems in their soil samples. So, they decided to shuttle back to Deep Space Nine. Then, I guess, Meexah must have sneezed on me or something, because a few days later I woke up glassy-eyed and shivering.

So here I was in my quarters, quarantined and swathed in blankets on the couch. I couldn't get up without feeling dizzy, and the only people permitted to see me were medical personnel. I couldn't even ask Meexah to come over so that I could yell at her. Not that it would do much good, anyway. I didn't even have enough strength to be upset with her. All I could do was lay on the couch, write reports, sleep, and rot my brain with novels of sophomoric reading levels and old movies Meexah had introduced me to. Back during her "twentieth-century earth" phase, she'd managed to rig up an old television in the living area, without my permission. I was a bit miffed at first, but... I supposed it was coming in handy now.

I was halfway through a horror film called "Dracula" when I heard the sound of the door chime and I sighed before tilting back my head. I opened my mouth, and called out in the direction of the entrance to my quarters.

"No visitors," I crooned feebly over the suspenseful music. "I'm in quarantine."

"Quarantine I imposed, I think," responded a distinctly British sounding voice. "If anyone's allowed to come in and see you, I'd think it would be me." I blushed a little, not because of the fever, and I quickly reached for the remote. I had to press the pause button a couple times before the television responded. Old technology. I wasn't sure how we'd ever gotten by with such janky controls. It was probably more due to age than effectiveness, though.

"Fine, enter," I called, as the TV paused on a still of the actor Christopher Lee's face. The doors slid open and over the messy rig of old wires and modern power conduits, I could see Julian Bashir's silhouette in the door.

"What's this, now?" he asked, walking into my quarters as though it were nothing and carefully putting a hand on the rig. It rattled under his palm and he withdrew his touch. I stared at him quizzically.

"I thought you recommended I stay six feet away from anyone without a medical forcefield in place," I said quickly, covering my face with my blanket and coughing into it. Julian looked up at me.

"Oh, well yes, I still recommend you do that. But I managed to make a vaccine from the antibodies you provided me. You could say that I'm making a house call to test it," he said with a grin. He knelt down next to me on the couch and rested his medical bag on the rug. "Of course, I also wanted to see my favorite patient.

"That doesn't seem like a safe way to test a vaccine," I said with an eyebrow raised before coughing got the best of me and I covered my face with the blanket. It had to be plague ridden by now.

"Don't worry yourself," Julian insisted. "So far, it doesn't seem too contagious. We did a good job containing it, but it seems like other than the research team you're the only one it's spread to so far. Contagion wise, it's hardly tuberculosis, or the coronavirus."