The cause of the effect

Posted on Wed Jun 27, 2018 @ 9:36pm by Lieutenant Benj Amoran & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,453 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: MD07 0030

Lt Amoran Benj returned to the quarantine units of the two irradiated patients. He had instructions to find out where they had come from and who they were employed by. He intended just to ask them straight out. No point beating around the bush over this.

He approached the first unit and spoke to the man on the bed. He was looking slightly less grey and according to his medical notes, he had stopped vomiting. So far so good.

"Right. Remember me? I've just been all around this station attempting to limit the damage you two have been causing, spreading radiation everywhere, endangering everyone, women and children as well as innocent citizens and staff. What I need to know now is who set you up to do this and what was your original target? Random terrorism?" he folded his arms across his chest and put on his best angry expression.

He knew that was probably not the case at all. He suspected, as he believed the CO did as well, that these were workers who were caught up in something like a leak or a malfunction but he needed answers quickly and he felt that accusing them of doing this as part of a plot was the sneakiest way of scaring them into blabbing all the information he needed in the least possible time for questioning.

The two men exhanged frightened glances. "Sir, We have no idea what youre talking about." Cole Renard protested weakly.

"We only came here to get some Hesperat. You can't get it on Svikiri" Japinder Patel agreed.

"A likely story. You've had long enough to come up with a better cover than that!!" Benj scoffed angrily and pushed up against the door panel. "I want to know WHO sent you here? And what cause are you trying to represent with this suicide mission? You realise you've been made into sacrificial lambs, don't you?" he said, asking as if he thought they were stupid and had been used, tricked and left to die.

In fact, they were getting better as a result of the excellent treatment they were getting but he needed answers and in light of how serious and dangerous this situation was, he was prepared to bend the rules of questioning conduct.

So far he'd got the Svikiri's name out of them. That was a good start.

He punched that name into the data PaDD he was working from and it came up with lots of information that made his eyebrows rise.

"War Games? GAMES? Well this is no bloody game..... " he said in disgust looking back up at each man in turn. "You signed on to a suicide mission as a game?" he asked incredulously.

The two men looked even more alarmed at the performance, fearing the doctor was slightly unhinged. "Its not just an exercise. Testing the systems! It's not a mission!" Patel stammered.

"We're just Engineers mates, crewmen" Renard chimed in. "We just monitor all the different shield parameters, make sure all the warp cores can handle it. Thats all. We're not officially out of dock yet!"

"Well your monitoring systems don't seem to be working, do they?" Benj raised his voice, beginning to get into this now.
"You didn't even manage to monitor the amount of radiation you were exposing yourselves to, if I'm to believe this was an accident?"

"What radiation?" Renard asked. He was starting to look a little less green around the gills as the anti-rad medication took hold. "we've had innoculations against all the usual stuff."

Patel looked a little wide eyed. "Yes. Gravimetric, omicron, polaeron. Even a new one for Hyperonic radiation."

"Innoculations that weren't issued to or checked by this Sickbay!" Benj growled. "Do you numbwits have ANY idea how many safety regulations have been broken here!??" He shook his head in disbelief.

".....and then..... you start walking around our station looking for a repromat! No quarantine, no decontamination.... just strolling around! That's tantamount to attempted mass bloody murder!" He stood staring at the two of them. "According to our readings, your symptoms and the radiation you're giving off is consistent with Geodesic radiation. Do you know what that does?" he asked accusingly.

The look of alarm on their faces told Benj that they absolutely knew what it could do. "Are you sure?" Patel asked, voice a trifle shaky.

"That shouldn't be possible." Renard mumbled, now looking greener than her previously had. "How bad?"

"If you are not treated and if you go back and get more exposure, very bad." Benj explained. "And what about those you have affected just wandering around aimlessly?"

"It's the kind of radiation that would eventually liquify your internal organs!" he pointed out. "How did you get exposed to this? I need to know and I need to know right now what is going on aboard that ship and you don't have any choice but to tell me every detail, especially if you want me to get the right proportions of treatment working for you."

The two looked at each other. "It could have been the," Patel's gaze slid sideways. "The thing. We were stress testing the new configuration."

Renard started drumming his fingers against his lips. "We cant say." he urged his friend. "Its classified."

"yeah but Dr Cardinale...." Patel replied. "He said we were fine. After the thing. With the thing."

"Just because he's incpompetent doesn't make it less classified." Renard pointed out.

Patel sighed, and turned back to Benj. "It's classified."

Benj stood glaring at them. "Fine!" he retorted and moved to the panels on their quarantine units. "You won't mind if I just have you transported straight back there for some more classified doses. I'm not wasting the Station's medical supplies on 'classified' radiation patients from a classified ship when we might need the classified treatment for our own classified people when you lot have quite finished your classified suicide." He made as if to click on a communication panel. "This is the ACMO" he said into the speaker grill. "I have two 'classified' patients to transport directly back into the main Engineering on the Sv...." he didn't finish the 'instruction' before there was a frightened squeak from within the Quarantine unit behind him.

"We were working on the Point Singularity Canon!" blurted Patel.

Renard face palmed, "Well done. They'll beam us streaight out of here and into the brig. For a month."

"not if we die first because Dr Cardinale won't treat what isn't supposed to be there."

Benj let them argue for a little while, soaking up the little bits of information they were dropping.

"Okay, you can stay for a bit and have another course of treatment before I send you back. I need to consult my CO before I do it, or I'll be covered all over in PaDDs full of admin...." he walked away from the console which was a bit of a giveaway as he had been pretending to be connect to someone in Transporters but they were too distracted to notice, hopefully.

Benj left the Head Nurse in charge of giving the two miscreants their second antidote dose and went back to speak to Soran.

He rang the chime on her quarters. She appeared a moment later in a silk wrap and nightgown. "What's the news, Doctor?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you so late." Benj replied, realising he hadn't even thought to check the time. "I just wanted to quickly update you on the irradiated patients. I won't keep you, it's just that they say they're from the Svikiri and they were pretty tight lipped about what they've been up to but I applied pressure... not physically of course..... and they were working on what they call a 'Point Singularity Canon'. They have a 'Doctor Cardinale' who they say told them to keep it to themselves and it seems that he denies there's any danger and won't treat anything he doesn't accept is there, Maam."

Maritza pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know it. At least, I've been breifed. Though it looks like a lot has been left out that I really needed to know." She considered her options. Not many at just gone midnight. "Do what you can for them, And get plenty of evidence. I think I'll broach this with the admiral in the morning. Good Work, Doctor."

"Thank you Maam" Benj said and went off back to Sickbay to see how the two patients were doing and to try to find anything else that might help.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Amoran, Benj
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
(NPC Jools)

Commander Maritza Soran
Commanding Officer
Deep Space Five

 

RSS Feed