Say What?

Posted on Thu Mar 6th, 2025 @ 9:12pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis MD

Mission: Training Cruise
Location: Sickbay

The medical staff reeled with their two much trusted doctors now quarantined and undergoing tests, leaving the two young cadets more or less in charge. The nurses shrugged and followed the orders given, testing the rest of the patients and beaming those not infected to the secondary sickbay, usually only used in emergencies as an overflow. Three of the nurses then tested themselves and beamed out to care for said patients. Leaving only two nurses, two cadets, and the two infected doctors.

"How do you want to proceed?" The head nurse asked.

"Run positron emission topography on both of us, then a single-Photon emission overlaying the scans. Look for any abnormality and concentrate.... concentrate on...I forget.... yes, concentrate on small discrepancies in oxygen uptake. The virus appears to evolve in these..." Shon went quiet.

Viviana walked over with her tricorder and scanned Shon and Sam. "Interesting, this virus seems to affect each of you differently. While it is impairing both of you mentally, where it seems to be attacking is different. I think we can use this though as a solid baseline."

"Here is your culprit" the engineer said pulling out a small device from the replicator. "Interesting design. Definitely not Federation technology. Honestly, never seen this technology before, though it does seem to work on the same principles as a Bajoran device they used during the Cardassian occupation."

T'Pau took hold of the device and began scanning it with her medical tricorder. "Fascinating."

Shon knew she was acting strangely. "What is fascinating Cadet?" she said laughing.

"This device creates the bio agent, but it doesn't have any life virus inside it directly. The virus is entirely replicated and integrated into whatever material it is set to create. I believe it was designed with the purpose of putting the bio agent in certain creations, specifically the coffee, which would indicate a targeted approach. And while this device is not a Federation design, unless I am mistaken, I believe it was created with StarFleet replication technology itself" T'Pau replied.

Viviana furrowed her brow. "That is troubling. That indicates that somebody aboard the ship placed it there specifically to target Dr. Howard. Dr. T'ghann-Travis is then infected by eating of the same poisonous fruit, so to speak. Rather ingenious, and devious. Almost seems like a Romulan plot, or Cardassian." She looked to the engineer, "Can you determine when the device was placed, or when it was replicated?"

"I can tell you the device was placed within the last 24 hours. As for when it was replicated, I would guess about the same time period, but I can't give you anything more than that without determining where it was replicated" the engineer replied.

"So, someone wanted Dr Howard and most likely Dr T'ghann-Travis out of the picture. To what end? What are we missing?" The nurse asked. She looked around the nearly empty sickbay. "We have redundant facilities and staff to undertake treatment of any kind should sickbay become quarantined. There are failsafes in place for every contingency. Unless they plan to enact something that only Sam or Shon specializes in."

Viviana shook her head. "Actually, while what you say is correct, I think you'll find this to be a test for myself and T'Pau, to see how we handle ourselves in extreme medical emergencies. We have addressed the injured engineers, we caught and have properly treated both senior medical officers thus far, and now we simply have to treat them with a cure that most certainly exists. That is our focus now."

"Well, that's very...egotistical of you" the nurse scoffed, not revealing anything one way or another. "You really think we would plant an ancient virus in our own officers just to test your metal?" There was a hint of incredulous tone edging in. "Poor Dr Howard nearly had an aneurysm from her blood pressure."

"Her analysis is actually quite logical" T'Pau noted. "And to answer the posed question, while I do not believe the medical staff responsible for this situation, I do believe a senior officer is responsible. I believe the Chief Tactical Officer, Lt S'Niohun is an Ojnas, and their technology is advanced and loosely based on Iconian technology."

Viviana smiled. "Pull up the medical information regarding Ojnas and Iconian medicine. I'll begin working on doing a full mapping of the virus so we can cure this."

T'Pau nodded and made her way over to the computer terminal in Dr. Howard's office to gather the needed information while Viviana began working in the lab.

An hour passed when the two cadets emerged from the lab with a hypo spray. They walked over to the two senior medical officers and Viviana spoke up, "Apologies for this taking so long." She approached Sam, "This may sting just a bit" she warned before injecting her. As she injected Sam, T'Pau did the same with Shon. Both patients winced ever so slightly but then seemed to relax as the medicine did its job, eliminating the virus and correcting the damage. They both scanned their patient with their tricorders to keep track of the healing process. After a few minutes it was obvious that they had successfully cured the viral infection, and their patients were on the mend with no side effects.