We Need an Intervention (Part 2)

Posted on Fri Apr 26, 2019 @ 7:33am by Commander Caleb Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D.

1,519 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Amia's quarters
Timeline: MD05 1815

"You're very kind to bring this," Amia said as she took the food to the kitchenette and spread it onto plates, dishes, and serviettes as appropriate to the way each might be eaten. She set it all out for them to help themselves to whatever selection they wanted to make and then put out Liana's bouncer, which she went in very happily and swung about, pushing as best she could with her toes extended and exploring the floor beneath her at each bounce’s lowest point, squeaking with thrills as each gentle plummet resolved itself with a soft ping back upwards, much to her delight and her admirers' enjoyment in watching her antics.

Zoe cooed fondly at the baby before settling at the table with Amia. “A mother has to eat,” she said. “And I was about to get my own dinner, so it made sense.” She claimed one of the egg rolls and poured a bit of the sweet and sour sauce on a plate. She deftly manipulated it all with her chopsticks.

“So what can I help you with, Amia?” Zoe asked.

"I'm sorry to have called you in on this because it's a very sensitive issue," Amia began, leaving her own recently acquired food in order to tell the tale from the start. "I understand you know Commander Ryan and his daughter Aleczandra and I need to ask for your help with something that is happening that I'm very worried about and wish to do some medical interventions, but I need more information and more background before I can even plan what to start with. I wanted to ask you what you think, knowing them both, and to run past you what I'm worried about so you can hopefully give me a view of their side of things as well as you know it," she explained.

Only once she had set the scene did the CMO of DS5 take a bite of her food as she listened to Zoe's reply and prepared to go on, according to whatever she was to say next as input.

Zoe’s expression immediately grew guarded. “Yes, I know Caleb and Zandra,” she said. “They were under my care when Caleb served with us on the Nemesis. And after the shuttle accident that killed his wife and seriously injured them both, I was their primary. I am not sure how much I can say without their permission, but what you need should be in their medical file.” The false medical file she had made for them, of course, to hide Aleczandra’s true condition. Her true medical file was classified beyond Amia’s level. Only Caleb, herself, and Artemis had access to that, or anyone Caleb gave permission to.

"Yes," Amia said gently but levelly, keeping eye contact with the beautiful Dr. Desatu. "You should know I want to help them, Zandy in particular,.but by that, both of them in the long run. We're both doctors, bound by the Hippocratic Oath and Confidentiality Rules and Laws, so I feel I can be open with you. Between us both, I feel that Zandy's symbiont isn't as distinctly joined as it ought to be, and she's young, so there's a conflict of personalities going on inside her, at least that's what I've concluded from what I can observe. Do you think I'm a long way off track? You can be honest, I can take being wrong. I might even prefer to be." Amia steadily and calmly laid out a summary of her theories to give Zoe an understanding of how much she already knew, or thought she did.

Zoe sipped her wine and considered. “There is a lot we still don’t know about Joining,” Zoe said, leaning back in her chair. “The Trill are very close about it all. I was able to talk to some trusted Trill colleagues after the incident, ones I know are less than sympathetic to the Symbiosis Council. As far as I could tell the physical joining is as good as can be in someone who is really only half Trill. That in itself can cause a lot of complications.”

Zoe set her wine glass down and leaned on the table, looking at Amia. “The larger issue, I think, is that, as you said, Aleczandra is very young to be joined. Physically Trill can be joined at her age, but the practice as laid out by the Symbiosis Commission requires them to be in their mid-twenties. This allows for their full psychological development, a fully developed sense of self. Aleczandra was still a very young teenager when this happened. She was still developing who she was. And then she was suddenly exposed to multiple much stronger and developed personalities. She was at a disadvantage. And then there was the further disadvantage of her hybrid nature. Her body doesn’t produce enough of the hormone that keeps the symbiont’s personalities in check, so they are much stronger in her than they would be in a normal, fully Trill joining. I thought I had gotten her stabilized, but then she and Caleb left the Nemesis and so I don’t know what kind of care she has been getting.”

"It has taken me a long time to just get them to admit that she even has a symbiont, let alone the care that she and it should have," Amia admitted. "They're understandably anxious to avoid discovery in case the symbiont were to be taken away. Do you know what effect that would have on one so young as Zandy? I've tried to look it up, but I can't find much on hybrids with symbionts, as they're forbidden, so the data on them is sparse, to say the least," Amia explained.

“It is sparse, but we could extrapolate from those Trills recorded to have lost theirs. Most are lucky to be alive. Those who survive are often emotionally...dead. The highest functioning go through life in a haze of ennui. They don’t care. They don’t take care of themselves. Life has no joy or meaning. Many end up institutionalized or suicides. The worst cases are simply catatonic. Now for Aleczandra as a hybrid, it could be worse, or her Human physiology would prove more resilient. Either way the prospects aren’t good. It is literally losing a part of you.” Zoe sipped her wine. “It is literally something like a lobotomy. They lose a part of themselves. There is pronounced personality shift in the survivors. She could possibly even become violent.”

"Basically, it'd be a complete catastrophe then,” Amia concluded and screwed up her face in a frown. Just at that moment Liana seemed to have lost interest in her bouncing, and more likely lost the attention of her admirers, which was the more terrible of the events. She let out a howl, and Amia was too distracted in going to her, taking her out of the bouncer, and wrinkling her nose further when she got a whiff of another of the reasons that the baby has lost interest in her exercise, excused them both, and took her to the bedroom to clean her up and change her.

She brought her back nice and clean and fresh and prepared her a bottle. "She's probably made room for more food now," she sighed and cradled the infant in the crook of her elbow, offering the teat of the prepared and tested bottle of milk to Liana's eager lips. The instant latch on and guzzling noises were satisfying and allowed the two women to resume their chat, although it did somewhat end Amia's lunch. Such was motherhood, and the CMO was used to it by now. She would snack again later if she was still hungry. "She'll go down for a nap once she's full up again," she told Zoe with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, what were we saying? It would be disaster if Zandy and Mika's symbiont were separated, so what can we do? I'm certain the two Ryans have been hiding the situation from the Trill Symbiosis Commission, but I don't know how much longer that can continue with any success. I doubt that those on the Commission would be likely to be reasoned with. I suspect they may feel a bit threatened and be defensive, although I hope I'm wrong about that, but how can we risk approaching them? Well, of course we can't, but how can we try to persuade the Ryans to approach them? And indeed, should we? Perhaps it would be all wrong? I'm so lost over this. There are a lot of pitfalls in every path I can see. That's why I needed to talk to someone I -- and they -- could trust and with whom I could talk it out and get a bigger picture," she explained as the feeding continued within her arms and the peace that brought allowed them to talk uninterrupted.

TBC

Lt. Commander Zoe Desatu
Chief Medical Officer
USS Nemesis

Commander Amia Telamon
Chief Medical Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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