The Probe, The Patient and the Prime

Posted on 25 May 2016 @ 11:49pm by Ensign Xavier Hernandez & Commander Jayla Kij

1,109 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Medical
Timeline: MD 10 1330 Hours

Ensign Xavier Hernandez led the Paradan known as Saduk down to Sickbay after retrieving him from the Captain's Ready Room. He had thought that the Security Chief would have wanted to bring him down herself, but he guessed she had more to talk to the Captain about. Once they entered Sickbay where the Paradan's original body and the class two probe had been sent, the former in a stasis unit and the latter in a force field containment unit already was.

He looked around until he spotted a nurse. "I'm supposed to deliver this man..."

"Saduk," the Paradan interjected.

"...Saduk to Doctor Kij for an examination to see if he's infected with the virus," Xavier finished.

Nurse Lane nodded and motioned for them to follow. She lead them to a spare bio bed- yes, they had some, now- and told Saduk to take a seat while she went to get the doctor.

Saduk fretted but sat on the biobed.

Jayla turned up only a few moments later, still looking tired, but more or less back to her normal cheerful self. "Good afternoon," she said with a grin. "Are you experiencing symptoms of the virus?" she guessed.

"Not exactly, Doctor Kij," Xavier said as he held at hand to stop the Paradan for a moment. "He did, but he's dead now. Did you get the corpse we sent up earlier? That was his original body. He died of it."

"That's one way of putting it," Saduk said. "I assure you that I am free of the virus now."

Jayla blinked. After a moment of disorientation, she realized that he must be a Paradan. "Oh, uh, no," she said. "I haven't had a chance to... but, Doctor Road would probably be the one to.. I mean... Okay, what am I doing here?" she finally finished with a shake of her head.

Ensign Shep Hollingsworth came out of one of the rooms in Medical and nodded to Xavier and the Doctor. "The force field is holding on the probe and the body was safely delivered."

"Thanks," Xavier said to the other Ensign who headed out.

"The Captain wanted to have me checked to make sure that I'm free of the virus," Saduk said. "I volunteered my original body since I was the first one infected after I came in contact with the probe. It's bad enough that he isn't going to let me bring my cargo up and is threatening to release the knowledge that I'm alive to the Administrator of Yolvanda II. Have you ever heard such a thing?"

"I see," said Jayla, a bit disconcerted. "Well, I'll need a blood sample. It only takes a few minutes to run the tests." She retrieved a syringe and a vacuum tube.

"Fine, fine," Saduk said with a grimace as he held his arm out. "What else are you going to want to do?"

"Just that so far," she said, quickly taking the sample. "That's usually enough to detect a virus."

Saduk grunted, then he looked at the doctor. "You're a Trill, aren't you? Are you joined as well?"

"Yes, I am," answered Jayla, plugging the blood sample into her tricorder. "For over half my life. I was joined young," she explained.

"You may not know, but my people are masters of creating genetically perfect replicants of individuals down to the last memory before the process is started," Saduk said. "It would make a perfect backup host for your symbiont in the event that you die without another host prepared for the symbiont."

"While that IS tempting, I'm afraid it just wouldn't be the same," she replied, watching the tricorder work. "But, thank you."

"I have no thought about it, but perhaps your symbiont could also be replicated," Saduk said. "Imagine having a colleague here on the ship as skilled as you are."

"I prefer there being only one of me," she replied, rather tartly. "I'm unique that way."

"You could put one in stasis like I did with this body," Saduk said. "I always make a replicant as a contingency plan in case something happens to me. All you would need to do is put a bio monitor on your person and the moment it registers you are dead, your other body would wake up."

"I said no thank you," she said pointedly as her tricorder beeped. "Negative," she said. "No virus present."

"Thank you, Doctor, thank you," Saduk said gratefully. "I doubted it, but after getting it the first time..." he shuddered. "I'd rather not have it a second time."

Jayla closed her tricorder and gave him a thoughtful look. "You could provide us with valuable insight as to what happens to the mind after the hallucinations start," she said.

"Unfortunately, this body was prepared in advance of my original getting sick and that is knowledge that I do not have. I checked my logs but there was nothing there other than the fact that I acknowledged that I was getting sick and what I had done with the probe," Saduk said.

At first, Jayla was disappointed. But, then he mentioned the probe. "Probe?" she said. "What did you do with the probe?"

"I was led to believe that it had been beamed up to here when they beamed my original body up," Saduk said. "Don't you people even talk to each other?"

"Yes, yes, I know," said Jayla, dismissively. "But you said you were getting sick because of what you had done with the probe. I meant what did you do with it then? Before you got sick."

"I found it and brought it back to the capital city where I was staying," Saduk said. "It wasn't until after I got sick that I put it in a forcefield containment unit."

Jayla nodded. "So this virus probably came from the probe," she surmised. "Where did Hollingworth say the probe is now?"

Xavier, who hadn't left, spoke up. "It's in exam room one, Doctor Kij," he said.

"Oh, thanks," muttered Jayla. "Okay... um..." She was a bit lost. She really should leave early tonight and get some sleep, but she knew she wouldn't. She knew she'd probably be sleeping on the cot in her office again. "Is that- is that all you needed, Mr. Saduk?"

"The Captain did not specify anything else," Saduk said.

"All right," said Jayla. "Then I think I'm going to get to examining the probe. Thank you for you time," she added to Saduk before heading towards exam room one.

Saduk nodded before Xavier led him out of sickbay before he found out where the Paradan was going to be quartered and led him there.

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