Take Two Of These

Posted on 30 Mar 2019 @ 10:02am by Commander Jayla Kij & Lieutenant Commander Landon Milo MD & Lieutenant Commander Arjin Djinx & Lieutenant Avery Stuart Ph.D. & Lieutenant Lucas Abrams M.D. & Lieutenant Jarith Roshe & Lieutenant Jennin Rhula & Petty Officer 2nd Class Mofrich Torg

2,878 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: The Kalisa Conundrum
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 1 || 1700 hours

The first influx of patients had arrived in Sick Bay to be treated against the mysterious bacteria as well as the radiation poisoning. There were so many people on the ship, it was going to take hours to get through them all. And who knew if a single treatment would take care of it or if the bacteria would return?

Already exhausted from the mere thought of the entire crew showing up in Sick Bay, Jayla heaved a sigh and rubbed her temples. "All right," she said, motioning the nearest crewman over. "Let's get started."

"Started with what?" asked the Deltan crewman who seemed to be selected as a guinea pig. "This isn't going to make me grow hair, is it? I keep dreaming about being suffocated by hair."

"If it does, we have a bigger problem than I thought," Jayla replied, loading her hypospray with a different antibiotic that was more compatible with Deltan physiology. "No, it's just antibiotics and hyronalin. Typical stuff."

The Deltan backed away, seeing the sharp edge at the end of what the doctor held. "That looks far less than typical."

Jayla blinked and glanced at the tool in her hands. "It's just a hypospray," she replied.

As the Deltan stepped back, he bumped into Arjin who had been posted in sickbay to help with the inoculations. "It is all right.", he said to the crewman. "I also had to take it. And it really does help you to focus on you job."

The Deltan, surprised by the new voice, spun around to see another spotted individual. "What... what is wrong with the both of you?" she stammered, seeing the spots on their foreheads multiply to fill their face. It was certainly clear to the trained and medicated staff that this Deltan was under the influence of the bacteria, but what the Deltan saw seemed to be very real.

"Excellent question," Rhula said to the Deltan as he entered the room. "Trill are rather frustrating." He moved towards the Deltan casually. "Maybe we can vent about them sometime." In one quick motion, the Bajoran pathologist had swiped the hypospray from Kij and pressed it to the Deltan's neck. The small device hissed as it injected it's mixture. "But maybe we should save the chit-chat for later, when we're trying to save lives. Yours included," he said.

Jennin turned to face Kij. "Catch," he said, tossing the hypo to her.

Caught off guard, Jayla fumbled the hypo and finally caught it on the third grab.

The Deltan slapped her neck in surprise, backing away from the new arrival. Unlike the others, this one was not covered in spot, but the wrinkled nose was enough to startle her enough to keep her from not moving when he arrived and when he'd taken matters into his own hands. "What the hell!?"

"You're welcome," Jennin called over his shoulder. "Run along now."

"That was brilliant," Jayla snickered under her breath. To the Deltan, she said, "everything will start making sense in a few minutes. You're free to go."

Rhula looked at the Trill Chief Medical Officer. "Of course it was. I'm good at my job," he replied, his voice anything but complementary.

Tempted to be snarky back, Jayla found herself grinning. Her brain wasn't clear enough for snark, so she merely said, "I can't argue with that. All right, who's next?" she asked the group of crewmen still awaiting treatment.

"Good and briljant are two different things.", Arjin muttered.

Doctor Landon Milo came limping into the Sickbay, months of physical therapy and cellular and muscular regeneration treatments had helped heal his body greatly. However, the damage to his brain still caused noticeable limitations to his mobility. He did not move as fluidly as a man his youthfulness should. The worn tiredness on his face and the pain in his eyes said more than enough.

Fate operated among the stars in the most mysterious of ways, but finding himself back aboard the USS Black Hawk was perhaps leaps and bounds better for his soul than any other posting in the fleet could be. He rolled up his sleeves and pushed them up as he approached his colleague and superior, Doctor Kij. "Busy night, Doc?" he asked in jest. "I thought I'd come in early and give you and extra set of hands."

"You could say that," replied Jayla. "We discovered a bacterial infection that causes delusions and hallucinations as well as confusion, exhaustion, and difficulty concentrating. The whole ship is getting broad-spectrum antibiotics as well as hyronalin- we've discovered some low level radiation poisoning as well. Which reminds me," she added, taking out her hypospray. "You need them, too."

Landon scrunched his nose at the words 'bacterial infection' and shook his head. "Bacteria, viruses, you name it and I have encountered it, especially out here. Almost everything is new to us in the Gamma quadrant as we are new to these organisms. Our immune systems are vulnerable out here...it's the risk of deep space exploration" he said honestly. "Whatever cocktail you've cooked up, shaken, stirred, hypo to the arm or neck...I'll take it. If this ship's compliment is going to be fighting this bacterial infection, then we will need medical and science personnel as protected as can be."

With a grin, Jayla pressed the hypo to his neck and produced a second. "And they hyronalin," she said, pressing that one to his neck as well. "And that should do it. Everyone gets one dose of each. And I mean everyone. We've had to trick a few people into taking it. It's making my brain hurt. I'm liable to just start having security hold people while we inject them before the day is done."

"121 Section A" replied Landon with a small smirk and gleam in his eyes. "The Chief Medical Officer's last resort. If tricking them into taking it doesn't pan out, we may have to flex our muscles, Doctor. Either they come willingly and get their hypospray cocktail or we threaten relief of duty. I know we are kind of on a all hands direly needed situation, but if it comes to it...hopefully they won't see through the bluff" offered Landon.

Avery entered, offering a sigh of her own. "The primary treatment for these sorts of psychiatric symptoms is medication and then therapy. I'm just glad we have something to combat the psychosis. No amount of talking is going to convince an actively psychotic person what they believe isn't true." It wasn't difficult to see the counselor was personally frustrated. She wanted to do more to help the crew, but it was clear her work was going to come in the aftermath of people came to terms with what they had experienced. "In the meantime, I'll get some more hypo sprays." Stuart smiled at Landon. "Welcome to the chaos that is the Black Hawk."

Landon smiled at the woman. "More of a welcome back that a welcome. Though I have not yet had the honor of serving aboard this incarnation of the namesake of Black Hawk" replied Landon simply.

Rubbing her neck, the Deltan shook her head at the company of doctors and scientists. "You aliens are weird," she muttered before withdrawing entirely from sickbay.

After having listened to the conversation, The Deltan's comment made Arjin laugh. "Here is to weirdnes.", he said. Cheering with a hypospray in his hand before administring it to a Bolian woman who seemed to be plucking imaginary things from the air.

Avery smiled and shook her head. She knew better than anyone there were some circumstances where it was better to laugh than cry. This was certainly one of them. She wondered if the people listening to their personal logs would think they were all nuts. Referring to the flair with which Arjin administer the medication, she cheered, "10 stars!"

***

Since not everyone could find their way to sickbay thanks to hallucinations, Lucas was one of medical staff that volunteered to make rounds throughout the ship. He'd already treated a few patients, one of which thought he was a Nausicaan that wished to eat his head, and now he was looking for more. Maybe his size had its disadvantages, but it helped, too, in the event he was required to restrain someone. He'd definitely done his share of that already and hoped not to have to do it again.

"Hello?" he called out. "Anyone down here?" Now he had to wonder why he'd chosen the bowels of the ship. It certainly was creepy in these parts. However, there were crew all over the place, and they all deserved the same care.

"Just us smurfs!" came a giddy sounding male voice from around the corner. "You're not Gargamel, are you?"

Lucas blinked. Things just seemed to get weirder and weirder, but what did he expect? "Uh... no, but he's coming. Tell me where you are so I can help you get away from him," he called toward the giddy voice.

A head appeared around a corner not far from where Lucas stood and then disappeared again. "Definitely not Gargamel," said the voice. "But it might be Pete, the Purple Pieman."

This was going to be interesting. Lucas began to make his way toward him. "Are you hurt?"

“No,” called the voice. “But I can’t move my arm. Mind you, I haven’t tried in a couple of minutes, so- oh! There it goes!”,

"So, you can actually move your arm?" the large man asked as he grew closer to the other man.

"I guess so," answered the voice. "I wonder if I can move my- I can! I can move my toes! Oh, man, bodies are so cool."I

Lucas nodded his head and produced a hypospray. "That's a good sign. I have something here that's going to help you, and it's not even going to hurt."

"It's not pie, is it?" asked the man warily as the doctor came into view. "I won't stand for pie!"

"I can promise you it isn't pie," the big guy said, stopping just in front of the confused man. Lucas lifted the hypo and brought it up to his neck, then injected the other man with the medication. "We just need to do that one more time, then you'll start to feel like yourself again. Are you ready?"

"That looks like pie," the young crewman said warily, eyeing the hypospray in the other man's hand. "Are you sure it's not pie?"

Lucas nodded his head and raised it for him to see. "Definitely not pie. See?"

The young crewman inched forward warily. He leaned in and sniffed the hypo, then backed away suddenly. "Is that..." he blinked, then seemed to have a moment of clarity. "Okay, I think," he said.I

The fact the guy leaned in to smell the hypo didn't go unnoticed by Luc, but if that's what it took to earn a bit of trust, then that was okay with him. "You'll start feeling even better in just a moment," he said, pressing the second one to his neck and injecting the medication.

"As long as it isn't..." the crewman's eyes glazed over again and he gazed at the doctor with a dreamy expression in his eyes. "Kermit!" he breathed. "Kermit the frog! Wow! You're taller in real life...."

"Kermit the Fr... How are you feeling?" the big green frog, or so the crewman though he was, asked.

The crewman- who suddenly remembered he was called Ensign Aaron Jacobson- blinked and scratched his head. "I... foggy," he answered. "Wait... you're not... you're not a frog...."

Lucas shook his head. "No, I'm definitely not a frog. Now are you able to tell me if you're hurt anywhere?"

“I don’t think so,” answered Jacobson. “Just... just shaken. And feeling a bit like an idiot.”

"Did someone say pie? I loooooooove pie.", a tiny little voice came from not so far away.

There was another one? Of course, there was. The entire crew was suffering from the effects. "What's your location?" the big guy called out to the pie loving voice.

"Where am I? Where am I? I don't know. Do you? Not in a pastry shop that much is for sure.", the voice answered.

“Go help him,” said Jacobson. “I’m fine.”

The big man pinched the bridge of his nose. This was among one of the longest days of his life, and he couldn't wait for it to be over. "Are you hurt?"

"Need any assistance, Dr. Abrams?" inquired Lieutenant Jarith Roshe. "It seems like everybody on the Black Hawk is on a rampage except for the medical staff."

"Hurt? Hurt?. Strange question for a baker.", the voice replied. Then reacting to the new voice:"Are you bringing sweets also? Or are you a sweet?" Came from the hiding place with a gigle.

Lucas looked toward Roshe and nodded his head. "As a matter of fact, yes. We need to find crew that have been affected and inoculate them. Medical is faring better because we've all been treated already," he explained, gesturing in the direction of the pastry loving voice. "We'll start here and work through the rest of the ship like the others."

The big guy looked back toward the area the voice was coming from. "I have something that will help you. Come out so we can look you over."

Two blue antenna appeared around the corner. The voice behind it saying: "Remember. No sweets, no treat."

"Well, I don't exactly go around carrying sweets around," Lucas stated. "Come on out here."

A blue face followed the two antennas. "You don't look like a baker to me.", the woman said. "Look at your belly. It isn't big enough to be a proper baker. You are lying to me aren't you."

Lucas didn't have time for this. He slowly made his way toward the Andorian. "I'm not a baker. I'm a doctor, and you need help."

Lieutenant Roshe thought of the chocolate bars in his office. Too bad they were there and not here with him. Offering the Andorian a warm smile, he said, "I am not a baker or a sweet myself, but the doctor does have something that will clear up the confusion and help you along."

Nearby, a loud clatter could be heard as another figure joined the group in the corridor. The hair that covered his Tellarite body stood on end, as if the individual had encountered something it should not have. "Doc... tor...." was all Torg managed to utter before falling on the ground in front of everyone.

Lucas jumped when he heard the clatter and turned his attention that way just in time to witness the Tellarite appear, then hit the ground. Logically, he needed to be the big guy's primary focus at the moment. With his medkit in hand, he moved over to Torg and knelt down to check for a pulse. When he found it, he breathed a momentary sigh of relief and began to check him over for any visible injuries, but it was more routine than anything considering he could smell burnt hair and flesh. Something happened to get him to this state, but what?

"Lieutenant Roshe, can you treat our pastry loving friend while I work on this gentleman?" the large man asked. However, given the state Torg was in, Luc couldn't wait for an answer. In fact, he couldn't waste a single second when it came to burns, and that's when he wished he was back in sickbay in a more sterile environment, but this wasn't the first time he'd treated someone in a corridor, and it likely wouldn't be the last.

He reached into his medkit and pulled out a tricorder, then began to scan him. Lucas moved the probe everywhere, but paid close attention to Torg's head, looking for any kind of head trauma. Much to his dismay, one was detected, which would make this just a bit trickier given their location. "Scratch that, Lieutenant, I need your help over here. We can help our pastry loving friend out shortly."

After hearing the thud, the blue skinned woman came out of hiding. Curiously walking closer to the scene. Pushing her way through, hindring the rest. "Is this the Doctor? And what does he have to give? A popsicle prehaps? And why is he so hairy?"

Torg simply laid on the ground and groaned. His eyelids were unable to open, and all he could hear were muffled sounds. His head slowly moved from side to side as his mind struggled to maintain consciousness.

Lucas fought back a curse, wishing they were closer to sickbay. At least then, he'd have everything he needed to properly care for the Tellarite. Right now, he could work on stabilizing him and transport him to sickbay. "You're going to be okay," he said, hoping Torg could hear him as he got to work on getting him stable.

It didn't take the large man long to stabilize Torg to the point he felt comfortable moving him, and while he was more than comfortable getting Torg to sickbay on his own, he enlisted the help of the others to get him there safely.

 

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