Answers...at Last (part 9)

Posted on Thu Feb 4th, 2021 @ 1:15pm by Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn & Captain Ka'Tock & Lieutenant Azusa Nakano & Lieutenant Trei Jansum & Lieutenant Remy Boudreau & Lieutenant Zuub & Lieutenant JG Paris Deville
Edited on on Thu Feb 4th, 2021 @ 1:23pm

1,304 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind

[PREVIOUSLY]

[OLD]

=^= Commander Quinn is the direct Command of the away team. You are the Medical Chief and your diagnosis is the call that counts most in Medical Situations. The risk management is up to you and Doctor Nicoles to keep things safe while Boudreau is my Science chief and Quinn the Command Officer of the operation, so the decision should be hers for all away team. I will give my concent as you are Chief Medical Officer but all future command calls are under Commander Quinn's purview. =^=

[CONTINUED]

Permission having been granted, Zuub set about replicating the equipment that she needed. Electrodes were carefully placed on the patients' heads, hair being shaved where necessary to get a good signal. The electrical signal started to pulse into the patients' neural network. Zuub estimated that thirty minutes might go by before they saw their first results, so she chose not to wake the patients immediately.

However, when she began to see some positive results, higher brain functioning starting to return, Zuub decided it would be time to see how their mental state was progressing. She injected her patients with a hypospray and waited for something to happen.

Boudreau hovered in the background, monitoring the procedure and the patients. Like Zuub, he was waiting with baited breath to see what would happen to his comrades.

Trei started grimacing, groaning as his mind was stimulated. He rolled over onto his side, his legs slightly bent. He didn't get away from it in that direction, so he rolled in the other direction. Still, it was there. What the hell is going on? Why won't they let me sleep? he thought to himself, as he tried to go back to sleep. Then he realized how hard it was to put that thought together. And then thought about how hard that realization was. He sat up, looking around and saw giant suits. "What color is that?" he thought to himself. That was bad. He didn't know colors. Then again, what is a color? Now he remembered: colors are different hues in the world around him. Which meant that color was....was...."Red. That thing is red." he said.

Glancing sharply at the Security Chief as he writhed on the table, and finally spoke, Boudreau then threw a look in Zuub's direction to see how she was processing this reaction.

Zuub's antennae thrashed about wildly. Even she had not believed that someone could regress so far as to not remember basic colors. In her soft, wispy voice, Zuub answered, "Yes, that is red. Do you remember who you are?"

He thought hard, harder than he should have had to. "I had a...a name?" He stared at the floor as he tried to remember. "Tree. No. Trei. My name is Trei." He remembered sensations and feelings that had happened to him recently and he looked at the bed behind him where Azusa was just stirring. He felt, not just protective, but possessive of her. He didn't know why.

The thrashing of Zuub's antennae stopped and her antennae started to twitter excitedly. Despite her obvious antennae twittering excitedly, Zuub's voice remained soft, wispy, and non-emotional. "Good. Good. Now you just lay there for a bit, Lieutenant Jansum. Another five to ten minutes of this treatment and you should be good enough to get you back to the Starship. Can you tell me what you last remember?"

Amber walked in, looking to get an update on their progress.

Looking towards the XO, Boudreau gave a short nod, then indicated the conversation ongoing. He consulted his tricorder several times as the Security Chief's body attempted to roust him from his torpor. The scientist was beginning to worry it was taking too long.

Azusa remained pretty silent for a few minutes before she started to squirm. "Nakano... Azusa..." she said began to say as if in her sleep. "Chīfuenjinia" she said slipping into her native tongue. "Sutāshippuōrora"

Azusa'a eyes shot open and she seemed to sit bolt upright. "Koko wa doko?! (Where am I?)" she shouted loudly as if confused as to where she was. She couldn't seem to find English back in her mind.

Damn! Boudreau moved to her side, and flipped open his tricorder, and began accessing the Universal Translator's functions. Never expected to have to use it for an Earth language. 'Azusa,' he began in a measured tone, 'you're with friends - do you remember? We're planetside - do you remember?'

"Hai.... Hai.... H... Yes..." Azusa said, the universal translator finally coming back into play. She began to settle down slightly as she stared upwards. She shivered. "Cold..."

Trei lay back down as he was told. Having lain back down, he looked over at Azusa and heat rose to color his cheeks. He didn't know why. "I was...angry. Another guy was telling me to do something. And then...it's kinda muddled. I don't know. Azusa...something about Azusa. And fighting." He looked at his hands where his knuckles were a little cut up.

Zuub's antennae drooped. She wondered if her therapy was affecting the memory of her patients. If it was not, she simultaneously wondered if there would be permanent memory loss or if this effect was completely a result of the cavern phenomena."

Feeling disappointment and worry from very close to him, he told the newcomer, "Don't worry, Aqua Girl. I'm feeling better because of you."

"Aqua girl?" the Andorian's soft, wispy, voice returned, her antennae still droopy but starting to thrash in confusion. "It is Lieutenant or Doctor Zuub as you please."

Looking at the Commander, Boudreau and motioned in the direction of the main room, 'we got any blankets we can provide the Chief, ma'am?'

"Yes." Amber went to the storage room and grabbed three blankets. "Here you go," she said, handing them to him.

The Science Officer nodded his thanks to his superior and turned to Zuub, 'He doing OK Doc? He seems ... out of it.'

"I believe that this will be a necessary part of the recovery process," Zuub replied, her antennae betraying her uncertainty. "The higher orders of brain functions have been suppressed for some time."


"I'm going to compare the scans of Jansum and Nakano you just took with their scans from the Aurora and see if I can pin down exactly what caused the digression," Amber said. "I'll use the data from the probe as well. I'll let you know what I find."

She was more in the way than not here, and comparing the new data the doctor and Lieutenant Boudreau had could be beneficial.

Amber found a small lab with a computer and began to pull up data.

The doors to the lab opened as Paris walked in. After a few necessary fly-bys in the shuttle, and a few unnecessary ones, he finally got fed up and headed into the lab. Once he spotted Amber he smirked as he continued to approach. "Finally... signs of intelligent life. At least my favorite one anyway. I have officially reached peek boredom. Please tell me the rest are either dead, or lost, and we can go home now?"

Amber chuckled softly and smiled. "Not yet, but we're close. Jansum and Nakoma got infected by whatever this thing is. Jansum apparently carried Nakano back to the caves. They're both in sickbay getting treatment." She wasn't sure what the fallout would be when they both came back to themselves and remembered what happened--if they remembered.

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Ka'Tock
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Zuub
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Remy Boudreau
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Trei Jansum
Chief Security Officer

Lieutenant Commander Amber Quinn
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Paris Deville
Chief Flight Control Officer

RSS Feed