Mind Over Matter

Posted on 31 Jan 2019 @ 1:08pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Commander Terry Walsh & Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant JG Myles Toral & Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin & Lieutenant Lucas Abrams M.D. & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Ensign Kelly Khan

4,651 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: The Kalisa Conundrum
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 1 || 1630 hours

The turbolift doors opened, depositing Captain Geisler on the bridge. He'd just left sickbay behind, along with several sedated crewmembers including his wife and Chief Intelligence Officer. With Commander Teixeira and Lieutenants Di Pasquale and Parks absent, that meant he was down four members of his senior staff. Doctor Kij's presence was required in Sickbay, so that suddenly made it five. His top officers were being stretched thin, but thankfully they had solid deputies in the form of Lieutenant Cooper and Ensign Kahn.

Hopefully... just hopefully, they could sort this out before the Away Team returned home. "Report!" he ordered as he moved towards the center chair. The ship was still maintaining yellow alert especially with this proximity to the minefield.

Kelly sat on her console on the bridge sipping a Raktajino when the Captain came onto the bridge. "Sorry. Gizmo ate my homework, Professor," she said.

Things on the Flight Deck had been pretty quiet since the return to the ship. And even though he'd just woken up from an usual nap in his office, Terry was still a little tired. So a trip somewhere was needed; which is why he was in the turbolift heading for the bridge, PADD in hand. It wasn't often that he had a reason or opportunity to visit the bridge outside of a staff meeting. So he took this time to hand deliver his report from their interactions with the weapons platform. Outside of that, maybe it would be busy and he could be of some use.

When the doors slid open, Terry noticed a web in the top left corner. "What in the...?" he said as he tried to clean it out. "A cobweb?" Some of it stuck to his hand, but most of it stayed attached to the corner. He tried to wipe what little bit was on his hand onto his uniform, but it wasn't easily coming off. Terry let out an exasperated sigh and stepped forward so the doors could close.

"Coffee supposedly helps with those mental cobwebs," Harvey suggested to his Squadron Commander. Though, Harvey couldn't personally vouch for how effective it could be in this particular moment. Perhaps he should suggest that they all get one of Doctor Kij's cocktails, but that would have to wait.

"I've had a few cups of coffee that have helped with that," said Terry. "But this was an actual cobweb in the corner of the turbolift door. Anyway, here's my report on our excursion with the weapons platform. Thought I'd deliver it in person." He walked over to the Captain and offered the PADD.

The Captain nodded, accepting the padd and started to skim through it. "Go ahead and give me the highlights, Commander," he requested, finding that he could only recognize only a few words on the page. Perhaps he needed some extra coffee of his own.

Kelly raised her mug towards the bald guy who she couldn't remember. "I got mine," she said from her perch on her console.

Harvey looked up to see the Ensign sitting not at the helm, but on the helm. "Forget what a chair looks like, Ensign?" he asked.

"What chair?" Kelly asked as if she truly didn't see one at her station.

The Captain ever-so-casually pointed at the black-cushioned fixture affixed to the floor behind the controls. "That chair. I don't need you passing gas and warping us right into certain doom."

The young woman nearly fell off the console backwards as if he made the chair magically appear, then cocked an eyebrow at him. "Does it have vacuums which sucks gas out into space?" she asked, not thinking about the console she was sitting on being for Flight.

The turbolift doors opened and Griffin walked onto the bridge, his body language was hostile, all edges and clenched fists. The chief paused at the threshold, glaring at the scene before him, then stomped silently to the engineering console, or at least the console he hoped he remembered correctly as being the engineering console, and sat.

Terry watched and listened to whole exchange with a smile on his face. And then he chuckled. Twice. He couldn't remember who the brunette Ensign was or what she did up here, but she appeared to be enjoying herself. When the large man entered the Bridge and stomped by, Terry wondered who'd peed in his breakfast cereal. Wait, where in the world did that come from? he thought to himself. The bald man shook it off and looked around the Bridge. "Is this what goes on up here?"

"Not usually, no," Harvey muttered, his gaze upon Chief Griffin. "Everything okay, Chief?" he asked aloud, not letting his gaze leave the Chief Engineer.

"Fine." Griffin growled without looking up at the captain, his plan was to keep playing along with whatever conspiracy he found himself at the center of. He knew only that he couldn't trust anybody, as far as he knew they were all in on it - whatever it was, he was oddly fuzzy on that point, but it didn't matter.

When the doors of the turbolift to the bridge opened, Myles rushed out of the turbolift and stopped as soon as he was on the bridge and safe. He looked back to the lift as if he had met some kind of Klingon targ in there. When the doors had closed he tugged his uniform shirt down and went to his station.

Timor (Djinx) stood before the automatic door when it suddenly opened with a hiss. He stepped through it and walked onto what seemed to be an office. If it were not for a chair that stood in the center with a strange man sitting in it. He didn't remember why the heck he walked in here or what he was supposed to do here. Then he realised every one he saw was wearing the same kind of uniform. If not for there being three colour shades. Maybe this a military facility. Did the fleet come to their rescue? After all this time. And why would they have to? There seemed to be some kind of fuzz inside his head instead of brains. Maybe he was drugged and he escaped. But who would he have escaped from? And why was he wearing the same kind of uniform? Maybe they had not captured him, but rescued him and given him some clothes to wear. And all they had were uniforms.

standing there, he cleared his throat, "Ehr. Hum. Hello. Can anyone tell me who I need to speek here? I am gratefull for the rescue. But I really don't have much time. My people do rely om me to keep the ...... " who the hell where these assailors again?, he thought. " .... Ehr enemy at bay."

Harvey looked to both his left and right to see new crewmembers arrive on the bridge, one being his Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant Commander Djinx, and another he thought he recognized as one of the security officers. Judging by everyone's reactions, he could tell that whatever had happened to him, his wife, Doctor Kij and Ensign Mitchell was now spreading to all of the crew. The situation was deteriorating quickly.

The Captain rose from the chair and tossed Walsh's report onto the cushion. He'd finish reviewing it later as he was now in crisis mode. "Bridge to sickbay. Doctors Kij and Abrams to the bridge, stat."

"On the way," came Jayla's reply.

Lucas grabbed a medkit that was prepared ahead of time in the event they'd need to make their way out of medical and into the thick of it. "Right behind you, Doctor."

"Computer," he called out, approaching Thiago's vacant station and placing his hand on a large rectangle on the terminal. "Recognize, Geisler, Harvey E."

The familiar whirrs and beeps sounded as Harvey's handprint was verified. "Geisler, Harvey E. is recognized."

"Computer, enter into the following into the ship's log," he said, looking up at his squadron commander. "Effective Stardate 66176.8, Lieutenant Commander Walsh is appointed as ship's Second Officer in an Acting Capacity. Please transfer to him all appropriate command codes."

Again, the whirrs and beeps sounded, along with a confirming set of tones. Harvey looked up to Commander Walsh. "I apologize for the lack of warning, Mister Walsh, but we've got a situation developing and with no first officer aboard, I need a solid chain of command."

"Well. That was unexpected," replied Terry. "And, uh, no problem, Captain." He shook his head to shake out some of the mental cobwebs. "You asked for a quick rundown on the PADD, which can obviously wait till later. Glad to help out where I can."

After grabbing extra antibiotics and hyronalin, Jayla hurried to the bridge with Abrams. "Who's first?" she asked as they entered the bridge. She didn't even bother to ask what was happening; it was bound to be more of the same.

The big guy was right behind Jayla, taking in the sights on the bridge. There looked to be a bit of confusion, but given the circumstances, Lucas wasn't surprised.

"Captain Geisler," piped up Terry. "He needs to be inoculated, or whatever, first. Make sure he's set."

Harvey, having already forgotten that he'd been inoculated, nodded to the Doctor to allow her to proceed. "Ensign Khan, Chief Griffin, Commander Djinx after that. Then however you feel best."

As Jayla readied the hypospray, she was overcome with a sudden sense of deja vu. "Did... did I already give you this?" she asked vaguely. "Yes! Yes, I did! But, I hadn't got to the hyronalin yet." She quickly swapped the phials and pressed the hypo to the Captain's neck. "Not that an overdose of antibiotics does any lasting damage. Still, it's uncomfortable for a bit. To say the least." She then turned to Griffin. "Griff, how ya feeling?" she asked, double checking the phials and inserting the antibiotic into her hypo.

"Get the hell away from me," Griffin snarled, watching the doctor's hand with the hypospray as he dropped into a defensive posture, arms raised and legs slightly bent. It all became clear, somehow the medical staff were behind this, pretending to give people 'innoculations' that were some kind of mind-destroying drug. "You'll not poison me any more than you already have, what the hell did you do to me?"

“I didn’t poison you,” Jayla informed him. “It was the others. But we defeated them and now we’ve got to take the antidote. Otherwise, we’ll die!” A bit of a bluff, to be sure, but this bacteria probably WPULD kill them in a round about way.

"You're going to be fine," the mountain of a man said, keeping his eye on Griffin. He'd already seen some of his fellow crewmen get violent, and hoped things wouldn't go that way now. "We're here to help you and the others."

Timor had been listening and watching the whole time. Being poisoned or druged to keep them dosile. That could be correct. They were here to brong them back to their prison cell. "Dont listen to them.", he called out to the man wearing yellow. "It is possibly a ruse to imprisone us again. They might be in tow with the Tholians."

For a brief moment, clarity came back to the chief and he blinked stupidly at Timor. He had time to wonder what the hell the man was talking about before reason slipped away. They were all lying to him, there were no Tholians in this part of space. There was only one course of action left to him, he squared his shoulders to the biggest threat in the room, Abrams. The Chief had a good four or five inches on the surgeon, and if he guessed, maybe a hundred pounds, but Abrahms looked strong enough and Griffin, despite once the Starfleet interstellar wrestling champion, hadn't seriously trained in years.

"No how no way you're puttin' that hypospray anywhere near me." He snarled, "try it and I'll break you."

Jayla sighed. There was nothing for it. She would just have to put up with a few hours of discomfort. She held up the hypospray and then slowly pressed it to her own neck. “See?” she said. “Why would I poison myself? It’s medicine. Will you let me help?"

The 6'7", 265 pound mountain of a man stepped between Jayla and the other moving mountain. It wasn't often the surgeon came across anyone larger than him, but that wasn't going to make him back down. Lucas looked at the other man, his face a neutral mask. "Touch her, and you're going to have a serious problem on your hands," he promised. "Now, everyone who is present that hasn't been inoculated yet take your medicine like big boys and girls, then maybe, just maybe, you'll all get a sticker afterwards."

If the intent was to intimidate Griffin, it had the opposite effect. The threat lent credence to the wild idea that they were all out to get him and he snarled. "You keep her the hell away from me, you won't have a bigger problem than you can handle." He growled, looking down slightly at the surgeon, "now unless you want my size sixteen boot up your ass, you best get outta my damn face."

Lucas was being pushed to his breaking point, but he tried to keep a level head. "Look, we're not here to hurt you, or anyone else for that matter. We're here to help you," he said, keeping his tone from showing his exasperation. "Whatever is going on could have serious consequences the longer it goes untreated. I've been treated, Doctor Kij has been treated. We're both okay."

Jayla frowned angrily. Now she was probably going to have some digestive issues later and for nothing. "Never mind, Abrams," she said, glaring at Griffin. "Let's take care of everyone else and maybe when he sees that nobody has died, he'll want to get better." And she turned to see who else was ready for medicine.

Lies! Griffin's addled mind warned him, but then he had watched the woman inject herself with... a decoy, a placebo, they'll switch it back for you!. Fear! It welled up like a wave and for a moment he wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't move and before he could act on the impulse he found the rage to beat the fear down back into the hole it had come from.

You scared, boy? You hurting? Then get angry, anger beats fear and hurt, every time. The words came from some deep buried memory, something someone had told him once, but he couldn't remember who it had been. The chief engineer let himself bathe in the burning glow of his own rage, willing it higher and higher, forcing it to bend to his will. It had been too long since he'd let it out, not since...

Harvey. Not since Harvey had appointed him as chief engineer and given him an impossible task, he'd taken himself off to the holodeck to beat some virtual bad guys into pulp. His eyes swiveled to the captain, now standing by the command chair and in an almost audible whoosh, it all came rushing back. His whole career spiraled before his mind's eye, leading up to where he found himself now. The engineer grabbed at it desperately with his anger, squeezing his eyes shut and willing his mind to stay focused, letting his fury fuel his willpower.

"Do it, fast." The big man ground out at Kijj and Abrams, his voice all fury and focus.

Turning, Jayla saw the look of determination and sheer willpower on Griffin’s face. Realizing that he may be having a moment of clarity, she quickly- perhaps even a little too quickly- dialed in the dosage for someone of his substantial size and pressed the hypo to his neck. She switched quickly to the hyronalin and injected him with that before he could object and then stood back quickly, just to be safe. “You should feel a bit clearer shortly,” she told him. “And by the great bird, I hope it lasts.”

Slowly, the tension eased - it was an odd sensation, feeling his mind slip back into something approaching normality. It was almost as if the past few hours had been a terrible dream, starting with the incident with Lieutenant Kemm down near the secondary hull, leaving the Kelpian to go to sickbay and somehow ending up on the bridge, culminating with the almost-battle with Abrams and ending with the injections.

"Lieutenant Abrams," he said, biting back some embarrassment and ignoring an odd jolt of discomfort in his stomach, "sorry for being an ass and thanks... for stepping up. We should spar, one day."

Lucas couldn't remember the last time he'd been able to spar with someone his size. In fact, he didn't think there was ever a time. Now that things seemed to calm down a bit, he nodded his head. "I'll take you up on that," he said, then moved over to some of the other crew to help them.

Timor had witnessed the verbal fighting. He still wasn't convinced it was all clear. He thought the big man had given in to quick. Maybe this was how they kept all of them docile. With halucinogin drugs.

Harvey straightened up and pulled down the edge of his uniform jacket. "Computer," he called out. "Initiate command override. Disable all non-essential operations and access for non-critical personnel. Restrict to Beta Two and higher unless otherwise authorized. Authorization... Geisler..." he paused, having trouble remembering his security codes. "...Gamma Two Three Tango Epsilon."

The computer chirped in reply. "Additional command codes are required," its cold, feminine voice droned.

Harvey looked to Commander Walsh, who was now the de facto Executive Officer. He knew he hadn't yet explained the situation to his staff, but that would come in just a moment.

Talk about being thrown into the deep end. Acting Second Officer and now command codes for restricted operations? But if he had learned anything over the years, it was to trust his CO in public and ask questions in private. Terry nodded his head and spoke, "Computer, recognize Lieutenant Commander Walsh, Terry H. Authorization, Whiskey Tango One Niner Foxtrot."

The security officer suspiciously watched the Trill commander whose name he was not able to recall at the moment as she injected the Captain. Who knew what she was really doing there? Who could really tell what she injected the crew? And if she was able to do that to all of the bridge crew? They could take over the ship. They were probably planning to do that and that was why they had observed him and probably others as well. Myles clenched his fist behind his console as he thought about how he should react if she wanted to administer the hypospray to him.

Meanwhile, Kelly slid off her console and into the chair, leaned back as far as it would go and took a long drink of her Raktajino. She eyed the new man on the bridge in the gold uniform and knew that she didn't know him, but didn't know how she knew.

The computer provided a confirming series of tones. Almost instantly, the bridge lights brightened and all of the consoles went dark save for a handprint recognition box and an override control keypad on each primary keyboard.

Folding his arms in front of him, he announced to the group. "I'm sorry to have had to do this," he told them. "Some sort of virus has infiltrated the Black Hawk, causing fatigue, memory loss, and even hallunications. We are all either at risk, or currently suffering. Effective immediately, this ship is on lockdown. We can't have someone disabling critical systems on purpose or accident. As such, access to ship's systems are now limited to a skeleton crew of essential personnel. All non-essential personnel need to be directed to triage centers where they can be monitored. Commander Djinx, any scientists you have who deal with the biology or life sciences need to be loaned to medical. Miss Cooper and Mister Myles, you'll lead the efforts to round everyone up, and do it quietly. The bridge and engineering will need to remain fully staffed and secured, as well as the flight deck and shuttlebay. No one leaves. Questions?"

Timor jumped as the lights brightened. The man in charge seemed to know him. He probably had their file and was trying to contain the prison revolt. He wanted the scientists back in their cells first. That figured. The Triage Centers were a dead giveaway. But why did he seem to think Timor would obey him in betraying his fellow prisoners. "What are you going to do with those that do not pass the triage?", he asked the man. "Kill them?"

Cooper looked up at the Captain when he spoke to her. She'd been staring at her console, oddly fascinated by the beeps and readouts, as it quietly went about its' business while she attempted to monitor. She felt a bit like when she would stay up all night studying at the Academy while consuming too much caffeine. It was becoming difficult to focus but at least she could still sort of focus, how long was anyone's guess. She rubbed her eyes as the other person the Captain spoke to replied, "I don't think triage means that..." she said glancing at timor, whom she didn't know, then to the Captain.

“You’re right,” said Jayla wearily. “It means medicine. And if you don’t pass, you’ll remain ill, that’s all.”

"No one's going to be hurt, killed, murdered or otherwise maimed," Harvey cautioned, surprised that he was having to explain it to these people on the bridge, a group of people he barely recognized. "Everyone will be treated, and once we know that... whatever this is has been curbed, everyone can get back to what we do best."

"Right," said Terry, "whatever we do best." He'd had another random lapse in memory and couldn't call up the names of the people he was with, let alone what they did best. He walked towards to the two giants and held up his hands. Terry may have been a hand's length shorter than the two of them, but he could still take care of himself. "Everyone just calm down. Mountain Man, let Doc Spots and her Mountain help clear your mind." He turned to the man in blue. "And Jailhouse Spots, no one is trying throw anyone in prison."

"Who's next for treatment?" Lucas asked, preparing a hypospray.

Cooper was becoming bemused by the nicknames the other man was throwing around. She felt she knew him but for the life of her his name was like a slippery eel in her mind. Which was annoying because she'd just heard it a few minutes ago. It seemed memory was getting worse and quickly. She thought of him and a few out of context memories floated out of the bog only to be pulled back in but that was about it. She had no idea what was in the hypo but figured what the hell? If she died she died, this brain trying to function in foam was crap. Never timid she stepped forward, "If this kills me I'm haunting you..." she said to Lucas whom she'd now labeled 'Mountain'.

"It's not going to kill you," Lucas said in a reassuring tone before pressing a hypospray to Cooper's neck, then following it up with the second one. "You should start feeling a bit more like yourself shortly."

Griffin had moved back to his post at Engineering and was working with the knowledge that there was something as-yet unidentified on the hull. His clearance and position allowed him to bypass Harvey's locks, but most of his engineering team had been locked out and he was essentially working alone. He grimaced at another sharp stab of pain in his gut and then without warning, it happened.

The chief engineer froze, still as a statue with eyes wide as an owl's as the heat ran down his legs and the smell, oh gods, the smell wafted up and around him. He gripped the edge of the console with white knuckles, threatening to crack the display. "Oh... shit."

Kelly looked up from her console when a foul odor tickled her nostrils and she wrinkled her nose. "Captain, the vacuums aren't working on the seats, Sir...and I didn't do it. We're not at warp, though."

Myles was watching the scenes on the bridge as if he had seen one of those old earth movies. He did not really feel as if he had a part in it. The Captain - and he really knew that this was the commanding officer, not just someone pretending - had ordered him and a Miss Cooper to lead the efforts to round everyone up. If was only able to remember who that Miss Cooper was?

The Bajoran took a deep breath then waved at the Doctor to show her he would take the next injection. He had made up his mind to trust her as the Captain had also done. It was his duty as... as... someone who wore the same uniform of that same organisation or military obviously.

Well, good. It appeared that people were starting to get the idea that Jayla wasn't up to something shifty. She crossed the bridge to where Toral stood, checked her hypospray, adjusted the dosage and pressed it to his neck. "Let medical know if you have any adverse reactions," she told him, switching to the hyronalin. "But, you should be feeling a bit better shortly."

Timor was getting a headache. Maybe he should take the drugs and be done with it. It seemed it had not harmed the others. He stepped forward. "Hey, you Doctor. Got some of the good stuff left for me?"

Myles nodded as soon as he had gotten the injection to signal that he had understood the Trill doc and that he was okay - for now. Then he looked around trying to remember who on the bridge was Cooper.

After finishing up with Toral, Jayla stepped over to Timor and gave him both injections as well. "Same goes for you," she said. "Alert medical if you have any adverse reactions." She gave him a small grin; she appreciated the ease with which both he and Toral had accepted the injections.

Harvey had detected the foul odor as well. He'd seen--and smelt--it all when he practiced medicine, and thankfully this was not the worst on his list. The team seemed to be distracted with inoculations and smells, but at least they were focused on something. "As soon as you feel able, let's get to it. Mister Walsh, I'll need you to make sure the Flight Deck is secure, then come back up here. I'll need you close."

"Understood, Captain," replied Terry. "I'll go check on them and be right back." Terry headed out and down to the Flight Deck.

"Computer," Griffin growled under his breath, "emergency site-to-site transport from the bridge to my quarters, authorization..." Hell, what was it? "Griffin Bravo Two Seven Delta Five Two."

The computer beeped and a moment later, Griffin dematerialized, vanishing from the bridge, leaving a small, unfortunate puddle on the deck in his wake.

The Captain returned to his seat as the crew set to it. He frowned as the unfortunate smell lingered on the bridge, but he turned his focus, what remained of it, to Commander Walsh's report. Hopefully, this would all be over soon.

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