As the Officer of the Deck, Wayne knew the team assembled on the bridge were all counting on him to make sense of the confusing situation. Unfortunately, he was honestly at a loss to understand what was happening to the ship at the moment. As far as anyone could tell, all communication to the Hangar Deck had been cut off sometime around the start of middle watch, but damage control and flight operations were still showing green and shuttlecraft were still streaming into and out of the vessel. He was hopeful that the problem was just a communication failure, but until he could get confirmation, it was prudent to assume...

Wayne's train of thought was derailed by the sudden re-appearance of Hector, who he had sent to investigate the situation and report back. Hector was accompanied by another junior officer he'd never met before and several marines. Hector was smiling and carrying a bulky rucksack and made a beeline for Wayne before coming to attention and saluting him. "Junior Officer of the Deck Flores reporting back on the situation on the Hanger Deck, sir!"

"At ease, Hector," Wayne replied. "What did you see when you got there? What's going on?"

Hector smiled and said, "Well, sir, I ran into Jake on the way down and he is actually the one who observed the situation firsthand when he was heading to his rack after first watch ended. Jake?" Hector said, turning to the young ensign. Jake nodded, and said, "Hector told me you had assembled the command staff and brought in the CIC head because of the concerns. I'm guessing it would probably be fastest and make sense for me to just brief everyone in the Situation Room right now?"

Wayne was surprised, and seemed perplexed that the young ensign was being so assertive. His first impression was that he seemed competent and sincere, so after a pause, shrugged and nodded. "Well, I'm eager to get to the bottom of this, so I guess it makes sense to bring everyone up to speed at once. Let's get in there," he said.

Hector and Jake both nodded and picked up their rucksacks and headed through the hatch. Wayne noticed that two of the marines were also heading toward room and objected, asking, "Wait, this isn't a frat party! Why are you all cramming into this briefing? Hector and Jake: You head in, but those marines will have to wait outside until we're done." The marines nodded and took up position on either side of the hatch as Wayne stepped into the room and closed the hatch. Turning to Jake, Hector, and the assembled command staff, he said impatiently, "All right, tell us what the Hell is going on down on the Hangar Deck. Why aren't they communicating with us? Should we be worried?"

As Jake and Hector put their rucksacks down on the table, Jake started briefing the assembled officers. "Well, working backward from the last question, yes, there is good reason for concern as the situation is quite serious, but hopefully your concerns will be alleviated once you fully understand what's going on."

Wayne gave an irritated snort, and barked, "Dammit, stop beating around the bush and tell us what's going on and why we can't reach anyone down there on the comms!"

Jake smiled patiently as Hector began fiddling with the straps of his rucksack, then said, "Well, the comms issue is temporary and should be cleared up by the time we finish this meeting." Wayne seemed somewhat mollified by that, but nodded and made a yes-but-please-get-to-the-point gesture to Jake. Jake undid the straps on his rucksack and continued his narrative: "Right, well the vital thing to know is that there was concern about possible contamination earlier this evening, so the hangar went into lockdown until that was resolved satisfactorily."

Wayne nodded, but questioned, "Ok, I can see how it would be prudent to evacuate in that case, but why isn't the deck chief or anyone else from the Hangar Deck checking in with us now? How are we supposed to run this ship if we don't know what's going on?"

Jake and Hector smiled knowingly, and Hector flipped open the cover of his rucksack and said, "Ah, well that's really the most important issue now. When we realized the source of the contamination, we also understood the underlying mistaken assumption we were making that caused all of the problems."

Wayne looked sharply at his assistant, frowned, and asked, "Hector, what the Hell are you talking about? What was the mistaken assumption we made?"

Jake smiled calmly as he reached into his rucksack, nodded to Hector as he did the same. Turning to Wayne, he said, "The mistaken assumption is that you are supposed to be running this ship," and then he and Hector began flinging the contents of their rucksacks at Wayne and the other surprised staffers.

Wayne and the other officers yelled and flailed as the squishy parasites scampered and squirmed all over them. They struggled to pick the glowing blue parasites off of themselves and each other, but Hector and Jake continued their assault and the parasites would immediately spring back onto a human if they were dislodged. As more of the parasites accumulated on the officers, their movements became more sluggish and uncoordinated. In less than a minute, most of the officers were covered in parasites, standing motionless and staring blankly.

A couple of the officers pushed past Jake and Hector and tried to flee through the hatch, but found that it had been locked and secured from the outside. After banging on the thick metal door for several seconds with no apparent response, the only remaining two officers in command of their own minds turned around slowly. They were horrified when their parasite-covered colleagues began rousing themselves, picked up parasites from the floor or rucksacks, and then began shuffling slowly toward them. "Jesus, Wayne, you've got to fight this! You can't let them take control of the ship!" the young lieutenant closest to the door implored.

As Wayne's eyes flashed a bright blue, his body gave a shudder and he suddenly broke out into a wide smile. "Cheer up, Casey! Remember that teamwork is what makes the dream work! You just need to get on the right team!" And a few seconds later, the remaining holdouts were persuaded that Wayne was completely correct: Everyone agreed that the parasites would now be in command of the ship.