Survivors

Posted on 18 Aug 2026 @ 5:24pm by Lieutenant JG Daniella Blake & Commander Camila Di Pasquale & Lieutenant Commander Kennedy Monroe M.D. & Lieutenant T’Mari Rael & Story Teller

3,639 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Acceleration
Location: USS Black Hawk, Sickbay

In the middle of sickbay, an alarm sounded, a high pitched alert that sounded three times in a second. There was a pause, and that alert sounded again. To anyone else, it was just an annoying noise. To the medical staff, that meant that an emergency transport was on the way.

In the middle of the room, two columns of light appeared. They quickly faded, leaving behind a human female and a Bolian male. The Bolian did not seem to be troubled, at least not by anything other than the human female, who was gasping for air. The transport had startled the woman, and she began clawing at her neck in panic.

T’Mari was in sickbay waiting for the arrivals, she had no doubt they’d be in need of Counselling. Seeing the woman clawing at herself as she quickly moved to offer help in calming her down. “It’s alright, you’re okay.” She gently took hold of the woman’s hands. “You’re safe now…”

The Bolian, who said his name was Lieutenant Cobb, looked at T'Mari with the same odd expression that he had looked at the away team and the human woman, Ensign Kalifa, with. He cocked his bald blue head as he looked at the Counselor as if she were a new form of life and he was trying to determine if she were dangerous or not.

Kennedy moved quickly, one eye on T'Mari and the other on her newly arrived patients, Monroe appreciated the counselor's desire to offer reassurance, but without knowing more about either patient’s’ condition, Kennedy was concerned about the potential risks, particularly given the human woman’s agitation. Whether her respiratory distress was the result of some sort of physical or psychological trauma, she didn’t want any member of her team to be knocked off balance, especially a mother to be.

Positioning herself slightly between the bio bed and the counselor, medical scanners whirring, Monroe offered, “my name is Kennedy. I’m a doctor and we’re going to take care of you.” There didn’t appear to be any obvious external reasons for the woman’s respiratory distress, so Kennedy immediately began looking for potential causes. Was this caused by anaphylaxis? Was there’s something tangible obstructing her airway? Was this terror induced panic?

She listened as her team began calling out details as they conducted a trauma survey of both patients, looking for signs of obvious injury, and signs of not so obvious injury or illness. It wasn’t clear to anyone how coherent Lieutenant Cobb actually was at the moment, but he had proven to be more coherent than the human woman because at least he had been able to give his name. “ Lieutenant Cobb can you tell me what happened?“

Ensign Kalifa's fingers continued digging into the soft flesh just beneath her jawline. Her nails scraped hard, frantic, as if she could tear the obstruction out of her own throat. Her breath hitched in short, wet bursts — not quite choking, not quite hyperventilating — something in between, something wrong.

Her eyes were wide, unfocused, pupils blown so large they nearly swallowed the irises. She didn’t seem to see T’Mari at all. Or Kennedy. Or the room. Just the panic.

A strangled whine escaped her as she clawed harder.

She fought against the hands assessing her, weakly at first, then with a sudden burst of terrified strength she caught the edge of her uniform collar — and the fabric pulled down, just for a heartbeat.

Just long enough for anyone watching closely to see something beneath the collar.

Something not human.

Something that belonged to a creature of the seas.

Gills.

A member of her team called out to Kennedy alerting her to the alarming finding, which was thankfully spotted after a moment or two because they were naturally assessing the patient's airway. Monroe knew just by the nurse's tone she was alarmed but trying to keep calm.

Looking where she was directed and spotting the strange undulation, Kennedy's brain was still processing what she was seeing. Gills? Everything else pointed to the woman being human or at least humanoid and if that was true, how had she acquired gills? Even more importantly, what was Kennedy to do now? Pour water on her? If so, how much? Was the assumption she should apply water even accurate?

Turning to Lieutenant Cobb, she prayed he would have answers and be able to convey them, as that would be faster than tracking down who had initiated the emergency transport and why, but she would do that if she had to as well. "Was she in water before you came here?"

The Bolian looked at Kennedy and seemed to shrink back a little, but hesitated. "She was coming out of a turbolift and fell," he said after a minute, his eyes going from person to person in the room and the doors leading out of Sickbay.

That didn't make any sense to Kennedy but observing Cobb's seemingly paranoid demeanor, she wondered if he was under the influence of something. It didn't explain why her patient had gills, of course, but she had to take it one step at a time. "Do you know what she needs to help her breathe?"

"How do I know?" Cobb said as he looked at the woman with distrust in his eyes now.

"It's okay, Lieutenant, we'll figure it out and take care of you both," Kennedy replied. "Will you go with Nurse Daniels to a biobed close by?" She nodded toward Daniels and as the nurse came forward, Monroe offered quietly, “Lieutenant Cobb goes to bed two. Observation only unless he escalates. I want neuro and tox on him as well.”

The Bolian took a moment, then gave a hesitant nod. "Something is wrong with us..."

In the meantime, Monroe turned to T'Mari, "Are you picking up any clues from either of them?"

“Our friend here…” she motioned to the Bolian. “is obviously suspicious, overly so for the circumstances we’re in. The woman is, as you can see, terrified! She feels more…off to me than he does.”

Kennedy knew she had to do what she could to help both of them based on what she did know which admittedly wasn't much. Her eyes stayed on the scanner display even as she listened for T’Mari’s answer. “All right. Then we treat both possibilities. Panic and respiratory compromise.”

She looked to the nearest nurse. “Humidified oxygen. Sterile saline mist over the lateral neck structures, low flow. Do not flood them. Protect her hands — soft restraint only if she keeps tearing at herself.”

The scanner chirped again, and Kennedy leaned closer, watching the vascular activity around the impossible gills pulse in time with Kalifa’s ragged attempts to breathe.

“I want blood gases, tox screen, transporter pattern comparison, and a full scan of those gill beds. Are they functional, damaged, newly formed, or grafted?”

Then, without looking away from Kalifa, Kennedy added, “Someone please find out who initiated that emergency transport. I want to know exactly where they were, what the environmental readings were, and what happened in that turbolift before she hit the deck.”

Her voice softened, but only slightly, as she bent closer to Kalifa.

“Ensign Kalifa, I’m Kennedy Monroe. You are in Sickbay. You are not alone. We are going to help you breathe.”

Kalifa’s head jerked up at the sound of Kennedy’s voice — not because she understood the words, but because something in the doctor’s tone cut through the fog of terror just enough for her to look. Her eyes locked onto Kennedy’s, wide and glassy. She tried to inhale, but the breath caught halfway, breaking into a sharp, wet cough that made her whole body flinch.

The staff moved around her exactly as instructed — humidified oxygen brought in, the saline mist prepared, a nurse gently guiding her hands down and away from her throat. Even with the soft restraint, her fingers twitched, still trying to claw upward, still convinced that something was strangling her from the inside.

T’Mari was focussing her attention on Kalifa, something felt odd about her but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what besides the gills.

Kennedy wasn't much closer to any specific answers, but at least T'Mari was able to confirm one of her patients was as he presented. "Thanks, Counselor. Keep trying to get any insights you can for me, please."

“Of course” T’Mari nodded.

Kennedy stood between the biobeds of both patients. "How's everyone looking?" It was an invitation for her staff to report on the status of both patients and allow Kennedy to come up with a broader plan if need be.

Kalifa’s breath hitched as the humidified oxygen reached her face — a tiny, fragile improvement, but nowhere near enough. Her eyes were locked onto Kennedy.

Her fingers twitched against the soft restraints, still trying to reach her throat even though she no longer had the strength to claw.

Dani, the head nurse, leaned in, voice steady despite the tension in her jaw. “Humidified oxygen is in place. Saline mist applied. Her sats are climbing… slowly. Still unstable.” She was used to high stress situations, but this was unlike anything she'd ever encountered before. “Blood gases pending. Tox screen running. Transporter pattern comparison is processing. The… gill beds are showing increased vascular activity. Not enough to sustain respiration. Internal organ displacement detected. Not catastrophic yet, but… structures are shifting. Actively.”

T’Mari stood at the end of the biobed keeping a close eye on Kalifa, she had few answers much like Kennedy. “Don’t worry you’re in good hands, we’ll take care of you.”

Lieutenant Cobb, in the meantime, had crawled under the biobed where he had been assigned and was fearfully watching everything going on with his coworker.

A nurse approached Kennedy. "They were found in Engineering at the turbolift by the Engineering team. Samples have been requested."

"Thank you," Kennedy replied to Dani and the young nurse who had informed her of what little they knew of the circumstances that brought her patients to Sickbay. "I'll take slow improvement over no improvement, but we can do better. Thoughts?" she asked, looking to Dani in particular, but also welcoming any thoughts her team had. They were experienced and been through hell and back with her. She trusted them.

“Her sats are rising, but only because we’re forcing the lungs to do all the work. The gills are trying to activate, but they’re not getting the right medium," Dani said as she stepped closer, adjusting the scanner angle to get a clearer view of the vascular flow around the gill beds.

She swallowed, glancing at Kennedy. “I think… I think she’s trying to breathe both ways. Her lungs are fighting for air, but her body is also trying to pull oxygen through the gills. They’re perfusing, but there’s no moisture gradient. They can’t extract anything.”

Kalifa’s breath hitched again — a sharp, painful gasp — and her fingers curled reflexively as if she were still trying to claw at her throat.

Dani leaned in, voice steady but urgent. “If we give her a controlled vapor environment — not mist, not liquid, just a high‑humidity microfield around the neck — it might let the gills participate. Even partially. It could take some of the load off her lungs.”

She adjusted the biobed’s environmental controls, fingers flying. “We can set a localized moisture field at ten to fifteen microns. Enough to hydrate the gill membranes without drowning her or overwhelming the airway.”

The petite woman looked toward the doctor again. “It would be experimental, but her stats suggest she’s transitioning faster than her lungs can compensate. If we don’t support the gills, she’s going to keep fighting herself," she said as she took another glance at the monitor. “Her organ displacement is accelerating. If we don’t stabilize her respiration, she’s going to crash.”

Kennedy listened to Dani's reasoning carefully. It was sound and based on what little evidence they had. The fact the proposed solution was experimental and risky couldn't be denied, but neither could the fact if they didn't do something else soon, Ensign Kalifa was going to die. "Do it," Kennedy offered simply.

Dani's fingers moved deliberately across the console, initiating the sequence she'd just walked Kennedy through moments before — power routed, calibration confirmed, containment field primed. "Here goes," she murmured, activating the moisture field.

The soft hum of the emitters rose, and a faint shimmer settled around Ensign Kalifa's neck. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then Kalifa's brow furrowed. Her chest hitched, a ragged breath catching somewhere it shouldn't, causing the once steady green line of Kalifa's respiration to gk jagged, spiking erratic peaks across the display. Her oxygen saturation ticked downward, the numbers blinking amber in warning.

Dani didn't look up. Her hands were already moving, sweeping over the console's field controls, easing the output down in small, exacting increments.

Kalifa's fingers twitched against the bed. A thin sound escaped her throat.

"Come on," the nurse breathed, adjusting a slider, watching the corresponding curve on the display. The jagged spikes began to soften, the interval between breaths lengthening toward something steadier. "That's it. Level out for me."

The amber warning on the monitor flickered, hesitated — then dropped back to a calm blue. Kalifa's respiration settled into a slow, even rhythm, her furrowed brow easing into stillness as she seemed to relax.

Placing a hand on Dani’s shoulder, Kennedy exhaled in relief. “Great job.“ They weren’t out of the woods yet, and Monroe still had more questions than answers, but they had been given time, and that was all she could ask for.
“Keep an eye on her and let me know if anything changes,” the CMO added before turning back to Lieutenant Cobb.

“Lieutenant, would you please come out from under there so we can examine you?“. Kennedy‘s town was patient and sympathetic. She understood he was scared, or at least that’s what it appeared, but she had to do what she could to get answers and to ensure he remained medically stable.

T’Mari took her focus off Kalifa and moved alongside Kennedy, it seemed odd for a Bolian to withdraw when they were normally so outgoing and very often outspoken. “Lieutenant, it’s okay, you’re safe here, you can come out. Doctor Monroe just wants to check you over that’s all.”

Cobb looked up at the Doctor and shook his head. "I don't...don't..." He began to cough before he started convulsing on the floor.

T’Mari quickly moved out of the way, letting Kennedy and her staff do their jobs to help Cobb.

Stifling a curse, Kennedy pulled out her tricorder even as she watched the nurses spring into action to keep Cobb from further injuring himself in the midst of what appeared to be a seizure of some sort. None of this makes sense and once again, the CMO was left wondering what they were dealing with. Was the a virus of abs sort? A bacterial infection? A toxin? Kennedy knew she needed to act quickly, but she also knew if she acted rashly without any information, she could kill him just as easily. “Talk to me, Daniels,“ Kennedy offered, referring to the nurse she had first directed to attend to Cobb. “Was there anything in his scans that offers clues as to what we’re dealing with?“

Cobb continued to cough and started to writhe on the floor now, his hands reaching for his throat.

Nurse Daniels dropped to one knee beside Cobb the moment the Lieutenant’s body seized, tricorder already in hand. His eyes flicked once toward Kalifa — toward the gills fluttering weakly at her neck — then back to Cobb as he swept the scanner along the Bolian’s throat.

For a heartbeat, he looked hard, searching for any sign this mirrored her symptoms. “He was the more stable of the two. Now he’s crashing,” he said as his jaw clenched.

Monroe simply nodded, Daniel’s’ comment reflecting what seemed readily apparent while also being utterly frustrating because they had even fewer clues to explain Cobb’s decompensation. “We need to get him to a biobed. Prepare soft streets, just in case. Initiate a full neurological scan. These convulsions are the first and only clue we have to what precipitated this for him.“

The CMO , in the meantime, was racking her brain to make sense of the puzzle before her. Was this some sort of toxic? A virus? A bacterial infection? Why did the Ensign present with gills? Was Cobb about to sprout the same, or was his a totally different but related affliction?

Cobb suddenly sucked in a deep breath, his eyes wild and terrified, then he began to scream. It was eerily inhuman and matched no known creature, but it began to get louder and louder with each passing second.

T’Mari winced at the sheer volume and pitch of the scream, it was ear piercing to say the least.

Kennedy felt her heart beat faster as the sudden screams intensified. She had a decision to make. Should she try to get his attention and calm him or should she sedate him immediately? While unpleasant, his screams suggested terror rather than acute and excruciating pain, which fit with his initial presentation and was at least supported for now by his relatively stable vitals. Despite the suggestion that he'd had trouble breathing just a moment ago, the intense screams currently supported the notion his breathing wasn't in trouble.

Knowing she always had the option to sedate him if she needed to and recognizing he was the only one who could offer any clue as to what was happening, she decided to try to calm him, if only because if he remembered any of this, she didn't want him to think she simply sedated him for being terrified.

"Lieutenant Cobb," Kennedy shouted, trying to be heard over his screams, "You are safe here, and we will help you. Can you tell us what's wrong or what you're afraid of?"

She readily accepted her staff might think her nuts for trying to reason with him, and she reached for a hypo loaded with ambizine just in case she had to go to Plan B.

Daniels didn’t waste time.

He didn’t interrupt Kennedy, didn’t contradict her, didn’t try to take over — he simply followed the pattern already established with Kalifa.

While another nurse helped lift Cobb toward the biobed, Daniels swept his tricorder down the Lieutenant’s arms. At first, nothing — normal Bolian dermal texture, normal pigmentation, normal vascular response.

Then he saw it.

A tiny raised structure beneath the skin of Cobb’s forearm — pale, tapered, and unmistakably feather‑like at its base. Not a gill. Not a ridge. Something else entirely.

A calamus.

The hollow root of a feather.

His face went pale.

“Doctor—” Daniels’ voice cracked, and he immediately cleared his throat, forcing it steady. “Monroe—look.”

He angled Cobb’s arm toward her, pointing with two fingers so she could see the faint, tubular protrusion forming beneath the skin. It pulsed once, as if trying to grow.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening to them,” Daniels said, voice low but urgent. “Two different transformations, two different systems, same onset. Until we figure out what’s causing this... quarantine might not be a bad idea.”

Cobb was struggling, but his screaming had turned into a fluting trill sound that he repeated over and over again.

“That sounds almost like a bird of some sort, don’t you think?” T’Mari added from where she stood observing. “As for quarantine what about all of us? If this is something that’s a risk we’re all contaminated.”

It was a lot to take all at once, but whatever was happening, she knew it was just a matter of minutes between when Cobb was brought in, scared and confused, but talking, to now this. Until they knew what was causing these transformations, the CMO couldn’t argue with the suggested of quarantine. “Agreed. Until we know more about what’s causing this, I don’t think we can afford to take any chances.”

This was going to be one hell of a conversation with her team and the Captain.

Dani didn’t flinch at T’Mari’s question. “Counselor… under quarantine protocol, no one comes in,” she said quietly, eyes flicking from T’Mari to Kennedy. “And no one goes out. Not until we know what we’re dealing with.”

She didn’t sugarcoat it. She didn’t dramatize it. She just stated the reality.

Then she turned back to Kalifa’s monitor.

The readings had been a chaotic mess minutes ago — jagged spikes, erratic oxygen saturation, organ displacement warnings flashing red — but now… she was showing signs of stabilizing.

Dani opened her mouth to report the stats, but the sickbay lights strobed.

Four transporter beams materialized in the center of the room.

Four bodies.

Four more patients.

The beams dissolved, leaving behind a human male, an Andorian woman, a Trill, and a Vulcan — all pale, clammy, trembling, each showing different abnormalities. One had mottled skin. One had ridged swelling along the ribs. One had hair falling out in clumps. One had a tremor so violent it shook the entire biobed.

All four of the newcomers had one thing in common. They were in bad shape. The medical staff were going to have their hands full, and they would need to think outside of the box if they were going to help these people.

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