Medical Research

Posted on 01 May 2016 @ 5:29am by Commander Jayla Kij & Commodore Harvey Geisler

2,365 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Medical Lab
Timeline: MD 7 : 2230 hours

Jayla sighed and rolled her shoulders. It was getting difficult hunched over these microscopes and scanners and... whatever else was here. Her back was starting to ache, but at least she thought they had the culprit. "This looks like it," she said. "It's the only thing not being kept in check by the immune system. Why would everyone's immune systems not even realize it's a threat? I just don't understand."

Harvey, with some long-dormant instinct, moved to stand behind Jayla and massage her shoulders. He looked at the screen she'd been studying. "There's got to be something about this pathogen that gives the impression it's an antibody."

"Yes, and if I could find out what it is, we'd have a hope of combating it," she replied, leaning into the massage. "But I've never really done medical research. What do you think?"

He yawned as he pondered what this pathogen was, not at all expecting to have a profound revelation. His mind was foggy to say the least, and he'd felt like he'd been awake for days. Well, it had certainly been more than thirty hours, but to Harvey it had felt like at least sixty. "Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains may be the truth," he proposed. "We should figure out what it is absolutely not."

"Well, it is definitely impossible that it's NOT a threat," she said, brain fuzzy. "But, I just can't think of what else to eliminate."

"Not a threat," Harvey murmured, withdrawing his hands from her shoulders and sitting on the stool next to her. "It's not part of the immune system, but the immune system isn't recognizing it. We should compare this cellular structure against the common features white blood cells between species."

"That's a great idea," said Jayla. "See, this is why you were in medical research and I was not. I don't think of these things."

"I'm lucky to think at all," Harvey remarked, yawning. "I need coffee before I can look at another computer terminal."

"I've got real stuff in my office," she said. "We'd have to replicate cream or sugar, though."

Harvey shook his head. "You taint your coffee with that?" he said, almost shocked. "Mine's been black for decades. Since the Dominion War I think."

"Only if there's real cream and real sugar," she replied, leading the way out of the lab and towards her office. "Replicated is just... bleh. I usually make mine strong. I can adjust it if you prefer, though."

"As strong as you can," Harvey said. "Hopefully it'll help clear my head. Or wake me up." He yawned.

She smiled, but there was strain around her eyes that spoke to the amount of stress she was currently under as well as how worried she was about this situation. "Caffeine usually does," she said as they entered her office. She went immediately to the coffee pot and her secret stash of dark roast grounds. "Any word from Yolvanda, yet?" she asked. "Have they found anything useful?"

Harvey shook his head. "We've been in the lab for the last few hours," Harvey said. "And come to think of it, I haven't seen Chief Rasputin for a while. Or heard from the bridge."

Jayla's heart sank a tiny bit. "I hope they haven't gone crazy up there," she said, pressing the button to start the coffee.

"One can only hope," Harvey said, choosing to check his messages instead. "Death toll's passed one hundred," Harvey reported. "And that's just from the news feeds." He started scanning his list to see if there was something from Rasputin or Falow.

Jayla closed her eyes for a moment. "One hundred," she said. "Maybe I should get some of their researchers up here to use our equipment. If they have researchers."

He grunted. "They at least are helping us narrow things down," Harvey said as he scanned a message. "Starts with sore throats," he said, his throat tightening just a bit. "Followed by exhaustion. Restless sleep..." Harvey bowed his head, unwilling to read the rest. If it were any other situation, it would be fine, but he was describing his last few days.

Jayla sucked in a breath. Seeing him there, reading the symptoms somehow made it more real to her and she knew she would do whatever it took to save him. "We'll figure it out," she promised for the millionth time, but this time, there was a steely resolution to her voice that had not been there before.

"Has..." Harvey paused. "Has any of the crew, uh, reported hallucinations?" He'd experienced them himself on board this ship several months ago. He wasn't keen on going down that road again.

Jayla shook her head. "Not- not yet," she said. "I've got the worst off ones here in Sick Bay where I can keep an eye on them, but I'm running out of room fast."

He sighed, sinking in the chair and closing his eyes. "We can start converting cargo bays and holodecks. Rec Rooms and Mess Halls should be the last resort, as those would significantly hit morale. Not that it hasn't already."

Jayla nodded with a sigh. This whole situation had everyone stressed and worried beyond anything she could remember since the war. "Yeah," she said, picking up the pot of coffee and pouring two mugs. She handed one to the Captain. "And that's the last thing people need. As soon as we have any good news, I'm going to make a ship wide announcement. That should improve everyone's mood."

The Captain grunted, not opening his eyes, even though he could smell the pleasant aroma penetrating his nostrils. "That news better come quick." Sighing, he opened his eyes and lifted his mug. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a wave of auburn hair, but when he blinked again, it was gone, leaving the Trill doctor behind. Very quickly...

Jayla sipped at the hot liquid. "I sure hope so," she said. "I could use it, too." She paused. "I found traces of the virus in my own blood stream. I think I can figure out how fast it grows if I keep an eye on myself. That might help."

Harvey blinked in response, his cup of coffee just a hair away from his lips. "You have a sickbay full of patients and you'll be using yourself as a control case?"

"Well, if I can establish how long from infection to the onset of symptoms, I need someone who's newly infected," she replied. "And seeing as how I had only a few of the virus in my system, I'm assuming I've only just contracted it. I can't think of a better control case than that."

He raised an eyebrow at her response. "That then begs the question how it's contracted. Based on what I know of a timeline, meaning how long I've been dealing with this, I assume I was immediately infected when we arrived." What he didn't ask was why or how she managed to avoid it.

"I would have assumed, too, but does it grow slower in some species? What causes someone to contract it? How does it reproduce itself? I might be able to find out by studying how it grows in my system." She sighed and sipped her coffee again. "Hopefully, it'll give me some answers," she said.

Sighing, Harvey took a sip of the coffee. "So many questions..." He said slowly. Yawning, he stood up. "We should get back to the lab."

Jayla nodded and picked up the pot of coffee. "Taking this with us," she said. "Let's see what we can learn."

"We know what it isn't," the exhausted Captain said, leading the way. "And we know that it mimics the immune system. There has to be something else."

"We'll find it," said Jayla without conviction. "Eventually."

Entering the lab, Harvey set a mug next to a microscope. "What if there's something wrong with the immune system. Like this virus just disabled it. Do you have any bloodwork from your patients from before we arrived here?"

"Only a few," she answered. "Still, it might help. I think I've got my own, too, oddly enough. I thought one of the scanners was faulty, so I checked it with my own samples. Turned out it just needed to be calibrated, but it means I've got my own records."

"What about some of those who are further along?" Harvey asked, picking up the culture that was marked with Jayla's name. "Especially those that aren't Trill."

"I'd have to check," she replied. "I might have yours. I can't remember if I did blood tests when I first came on board. I don't think I did. I haven't done many because everyone seemed to be in such good health. Usually, if scans don't turn anything up, I don't bother."

"At this point, anything helps." Harvey placed the culture under the microscope and then used a nearby console to call up her last bloodwork. "Computer, isolate the white blood cells in each sample and run a detailed microcellular scan."

Meanwhile, Jayla took another blood sample from herself. "It's been several hours since I took that," she said, nodding to the dish. "Oh, about seventeen, I think. I'm interested to see much it's grown."

Harvey prepared the sample before placing it underneath the microscope. He tried taking a look through the eyepiece, only to have a stinging pain reverberate through his brain. Harvey closed his eyes and asked the computer for a detailed scan and to direct the results to the large display screen in front of them.

"You okay?" she asked, noticing something amiss. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was off with him. She hoped he wasn't already hallucinating.

"Just... hurts, that's all." Harvey sighed and looked up at the screen, his face almost instantly becoming an ashen white.

"What's wrong?" she asked as soon as he blanched. "Are you okay?" She instinctively glanced at the screen and did a double take. "What-?" she said. "What does it mean? No. No. I had- it was in the previous- is this the new sample I just took? How can it be?" The questions were a jumbled mess of nonsense, but Jayla had no idea how to put into words what was in her head. The sample from seventeen hours ago showed a few viruses in her system, but now, there was nothing. "How is there nothing?" she said. "How can there be?"

Harvey turned to her, color not returning to his face. A different emotion, however, immediately surfaced. "You!" he declared. "It all makes sense! Is that what I am to you? Get close enough to me and blind me to your plans?"

Jayla blinked, confused. "What?" she said, shaking her head as if to clear it. "What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about?" Harvey angrily jabbed at the screen beside them. "You infected us all, and then you cure yourself!" Harvey started to back away from Jayla.

Jayla gave him a pitying look. He had reached the delusional phase. Time to play it cool. "I can give you the cure, too," she said. "Kij to Hurley," she added, tapping her combadge. "Bring the cure to the lab. Captain Geisler has figured out our plan."

There was a pause, then, =/\=What plan?=/\= came Hurley's confused reply.

"To infect the crew," she replied. "And only cure ourselves."

There was another pause. =/\=Understood,=/\= came the grave reply.

"You see?" she said. "He's got it with him. I never intended for you to get sick, Harvey. I never meant for anyone to get sick. This virus was supposed to stay locked up, but it escaped. I'm still trying to figure out how to cure all these people with too little medicine." She prayed to all the gods she had ever heard of that he would believe her lame story; she was a terrible liar.

"Bullshit," Harvey hissed, backing away and not at all thinking about what he was moving towards. All of his innermost being and anger was focused on the woman who had betrayed him. A woman who had just joined the ranks of Emily Carter and Temerant Bast in his mind. "Security wouldn't even let you keep something so hazardous on this ship." Harvey's eyes lit up, realizing there was still something he had to do. Immediately, he reached for his combadge.

Hurley ran into the room and with only a moment's hesitation, rushed to Captain Geisler's side and pressed the Hypospray full of sedatives to his neck.

Harvey turned to see the sudden arrival, but not before the sedative began to take effect. "Et... tu..." His legs buckled beneath him. As he began to fall, Harvey managed to tap his badge. "Geisler... to..." Before he could finish, his eyes rolled back as the sedatives gained control, forcing Harvey into unconsciousness.

Hurley caught the Captain and lowered him gently to the floor. "So he thought we created this virus?" he asked Dr. Kij.

Jayla closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She didn't like to see Harvey like this. With a deep breath, though, she sprang into action, pulling out her tricorder and hurrying to his side. "Yeah," she said. "He's so far gone. How am I going to save him?"

"You care about him," said Hurley, almost as a question.

"Yeah," said Jayla, doing her quick scans. "Just like the others," she said. "Still awake, but unable to respond. Well, let's get him to a bio bed. Are there any spare ones?"

"They're all taken," Hurley replied. "I'll get him a cot and monitor." He stood to gather the items. "Oh, and doctor," he said almost as an afterthought. "My throat is sore, so... I'm rooting for you."

Jayla nodded her understanding and turned back to Harvey as Hurley left the lab. "Please get better," she said, laying one hand on the side of his face. "I know you don't believe me, but I want you to get better." She swallowed another lump in her throat and leaned to kiss his forehead.

She would do whatever it took to make sure he recovered.

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