Decontamination

Posted on Mon Sep 5, 2016 @ 10:17pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Amia Telamon M.D.

1,509 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Sick bay
Timeline: Md14

::ON::

Maritza woke slowly, a perfect moment of warmth and fuzziness and peace, and then the last thing she remebered came flooding back. There was some thing in her office. It had attacked the lieutenant. Where was he? was he alright? She was in sick bay. Where was he, had he beamed here? She shoved the biobed back and rolled down onto the floor, where the sudden change in position made her head spin and she grabbed for the nearest support.

Amia spotted the movement and came over quickly, reaching down to support the prone Commander and help her back up onto the bed gently. "Woah, not so fast. Take it easy" she soothed.

"There's something in my office!" She looked around. She'd been given a private room. "Where's Reynolds. He was right with me. Did he get here? Is he hurt?"

"Not too badly, he's okay. The whole party came back for check ups but you're the worst hurt apart from Commander Ryan's shrapnel, the rest went back to their quarters after treatment." Amia reassured her, checking her readouts as she stood by the bed.

Whole party? Commander Ryan? What the hell had happened. Soran took a breath. "I think you better tell me exactly what happened. The last thing I recall is sending Reynolds to sick bay."

Amia gave a soft chuckle. "Did you? Interestingly - but not surprisingly - he didn't come back!" she smiled affectionately, knowing Liam only too well and having a full report of how he decided to defy that order already playing out inside her head already. "The way I understand it, the only one who actually left the group at that point was Commander Aldrex." she went on, talking about her husband formally since this was a narrative.

Maritza held up a hand. "Stop. What did Commander aldrex have to do with this. Can you go back to the beginning. What happened when Reynolds got here?"

"Where exactly IS the beginning for you? The beginning for me was when I was asked to provide Medics for injured staff who all then rushed back into some kind of unexplained fray which apparently involved you. I was told afterwards that Cade had gone off elsewhere and that the others came after you. Later, as is always the way, I got an after the fun report when the bits and pieces needed stitching back onto the damaged people who wandered in looking like they'd been in a war." Amia might have been laying that on a little thick but when you got your information 3rd hand from more than one person, the tale escalated with every time it was told to you.

How long had she'd been out? "Reynolds came to me straight from returning from taking all the diplomats to Pangaea. Something attacked him, the last thing I remember is ordering a beam to sickbay. How long have i been unconscious?"

"Well, it's hard to say because it seems like you've been 'out of it' for some time but still walking about under the control of something or someone else" Mai'ya knew this was quite a shocking revelation and a bit of a risk but she wasn't here to lie to the Commander and sooner or later someone else was going to comment and then Matitza would find out in the wrong way, possibly on the end of an accusation or worse a retaliation.

The trill couldn't have looked more shocked if she'd actually been shot. Her whole body froze with horror for a moment, before she managed to stutter out, "What?"

"It would seem that some entity had entered your consciousness and was using you to try to gain some kind of leverage over those it came in contact with. Do you have no memory at all of it?" Amia explained gently, going over to Maritza and gently putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"It's gone now. There was quite a battle to get you out of its control but the telepaths seem to have done an amazing job. Liam would be the best one to discuss it with if you want better details. Telekinesis isn't my strongest point." she went on softly.

Something had been using her? Maritza's thoughts instantly turned to the hallucinations. She'd assumed it was just her cracking up after the rescue from the kzinti laboratory ship. Had assumed and medicated it as such, which had worked. But it was not a mental breakdown. It was much much worse.

"Its out," she repeated. but it was no comfort. "How long was it in?"

"As far as we know we're sure it was inside you for the week that you were on leave...... or at least some of it, probably most. Then ever since that." Amia explained their assumptions and calculations, or actually more like guesses, calculations sounded more accurate and organised than the facts could promise to guarantee.

the mention of the missing week made the skin of Maritza's tattoo itch, but she felt more relief than she showed. That made their best guess two weeks, She suspected the reality was closer to two years, given how long she'd been seeing Anna's mutilated corpse. But she could work with it, could save this situation if that was their best guess. But... "I didn't know. How can you be sure? Station sensors didn't pick it up. How can you be sure its gone? and where is it now?"

"I wasn't there. I have no access to the reports and I'm not part of the investigation. I'm just your doctor." Amia held up her hands in a surrender-type gesture.

"And how am i now? physically?" Maritza focused on the here and now. She could think about the full horror of the situation later. "Am i fit for duty?"

"Physically yes, but not psychologically. You've endured an immense trauma and one that will take a VERY long time to unravel and heal from" Amia was very honest. She felt a bit helpless with this because although she had done all the necessary qualifications in the PsySciences, she didn't feel expert enough for something this deeply rooted and her Telekenisis experience was only as an observer which she felt was never quite the same as the real thing. You had to walk a mile in a person's shoes to be an expert in things they might be going through and if you could never feel what they did, how could you do that?

Martiza took a breath to reply, then let it out in a long sigh. "Unfortunately, a long time I do not have. There is too much going on on this station for one of its senior staff to be lying around beating her breast and tearing her hair out wallowing in self pity. I need to be back at work."

"Healing from a physical injury would involve you taking it easy until you were mended so healing from what you've been through is equally valid." Amia replied firmly but fairly. "If you don't heal properly this station will have one of it's Senior Staff off seriously sick for an unpredictably long time. This is not about self-pity, it's about self-care and self-repair. If you can't heal, you'll get weaker and perhaps even break and what use would you be to the Station then? I can't sign you back to work until the Counsellor can reassure us all that you're not sacrificing your health and welfare for the sake of a job.... a job that, with all due respect.... others could do, at least temporarily, for you. No-one is irreplaceable. None of us want to hear or accept that because it's a part of who we are that makes us try to be - we do our very best and get rewarded from our results but your results are going to be severely down all the time you're running on two cylinders out of four and empty of fuel."

Amia stopped lecturing and shrugged. "No certificate of fitness until I see you taking sessions with the Counsellor and resting..... visibly taking things at half throttle for a while!" she finished and made notes on a PaDD.

Maritza managed not to grind her teeth. "I already have regular sessions with the counsellor. And If I agree to limit my hours to just my duty shift? Will that be enough?"

"Work up to it and you have a deal Commander. Half your duty shifts the first week, three quarters of them next week and then full duty the week after and you should be firing on all cylinders by then." Amia put forward. "Either that or stay off sick for two weeks and then come back full on..... which I really don't recommend...."

Maritza nodded, visibly relieved. "I can do that. Thank you doctor. "

Amia smiled "Deal" she nodded and put in some details on the data-rod which she then handed to Maritza.

A JP Between

Cmdr Amia Telamon
CMO- DS5

and

Cmdr Maritza Soran
2XO/Head of Strategic Operations
DS5

 

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