Posted by Gamemaster Wombat (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - Sickbay

Posted by Cadet Javal (Doctor) in Main Sim - Sickbay

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Ven Miya (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim - Sickbay
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<snip>

OOC: I don’t want to rush any replies, but also didn’t want to hold up the sim for anyone. Feel free to wait to respond to this and/or move it down as necessary :)

IC:
A couple of minutes passed before Henry arrived back in Sickbay, his NE partner in toe. One hand was wrapped in what appeared to be some sort of towel or bandage, and it clutched a small flask of brownish liquid. Walking very slowly into the room, he said, “Anyone order some poison?” His reddish cheeks indicated a certain level of satisfaction, but no smile entered his face. A small joke in a serious situation could be good, but the declined vitals on the monitors in the back of the room made clear to the Chief that the situation itself was no joke.

He could only hope he’d been quick enough this time.

~ Lt. jr. gr. Rodier - CoS

(OOC: That’s not a problem! When Javal replies, we’ll just head back up to Miya’s previous comm message and keep the RP going there. The joys of fuzzy time! Again, with a view to keeping the sim going, I hope you don’t mind if I gloss over the actual transfer of the grapok sauce?)

Wrapped in full personal protective equipment, her heart thudding at the seriousness of the situation, Miya held out a metal bowl for Rodier to place the innocuous-looking container. “Thank you - both of you,” she said, deep sincerity in her voice. “Hopefully this’ll help us work out what’s happening to them.” She spared a second to glance at the two ensigns, sedated and restrained on the biobeds, before returning her attention to the waiting Nurse Cadell.

“Please examine the Lieutenant and the Ensign to make sure they haven’t been contaminated in any way.” And, as the nurse raised her medical tricorder to begin the examination, Miya gave the ghost of a wink to Rodier, then turned to make her way to the neutron microscope.

The quarantine field fizzled into place behind her as she started to prepare a sample of grapok sauce for testing. Though she’d done this hundreds of times during her medical training, she had to take a deep breath and will her hands to stop shaking. Prophets, help me be calm! There are lives at risk! she prayed silently as she fed the sample into the neutron microscope, then sealed the remaining sauce into a secure container to keep it safe. Decontaminating her gloved hands, she returned to the scope to wait for the results to appear.

[Lieutenant JG Ven Miya, CMO]

• Jacobs, CO (crosspost)

Sure enough the same viral parts that were found in MacGuffin and Chekhov were found in the sauce. Whether or not that was the source of the illness wasn’t clear, but what was is that the spicy Kilingon condiment had served as an infection vector, making the jump from the bottle to the cadets, and then from the cadets to the rest of the crew.

GM Wombat

Again, Miya cursed silently to herself as she straightened from looking into the neutron microscope. She issued a few brief orders to the sickbay personnel before initiating a comm message.

=^= Ven to Captain Jacobs. We can confirm that grapok sauce found in an ensign’s quarters was one vector of infection, but the fact that the illness has spread from person to person probably means there’s another process involved. Unfortunately, we don’t know what that is yet, though my team is working on it. Until we find that out, we won’t know how the virus spreads, so anyone could become infected. I’d recommend tightening the shipboard quarantine until we have a clearer idea of what we’re dealing with, Captain. =^=

As she waited for the Captain’s response, she looked around the sickbay, proud of the way her team was working together to try to trace how people were becoming infected. If it was airborne, we’d all be coming down with it by now. If it was passed on through touch, I’d be showing symptoms as I helped Chekhov across to the biobed. Her cheek throbbed as she remembered the inadvertent punch which had sent her flying. So what’s going on here?

[Lieutenant JG Ven Miya, CMO]

=^= “Javal to Dr. Ven. I have conducted a diagnostic scan of the cargo bay response team, and it appears that as of right now, I have detected no evidence of an immune response or any viral antigens that are similar in character to the ones I have sampled from the infected individuals here. Considering that the response team has been in near constant exposure to the infected individuals since our arrival in Main Engineering, I am inclined to rule out airborne transmission as a route of infection, however I will be continually monitoring the state our team for any new changes.” =^=

There was a brief pause in the message from the Vulcan, likely one of his characteristic pauses as he pondered something.

=^= “Has there been any notable updates as to our understanding of the virus’s origin, or as to the condition of the infected crew currently in Sickbay?” =^=

[Cadet Javal - doctor]

=^= Stand by, Cadet - I’m getting some results through now. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve received them all and reported to the Captain. Ven out. =^=

This was a novel foodborn pathogen but there were several sisters that were quite close in relationship. One was transmitted through exchange of bodily fluids, one through sneezing, and one other, that was spread through ingestion of the toxin alone. The computer’s best guess given the information provided was that it was by cross contamination of food, shared water bottles and other things.

The sauce was homemade after all, so how ever it got infected was how the crew was infected.

GM Wombat

Miya thanked the NEs and NCs as the results came through. Everyone had worked as a team to analyse the grapok sauce and feed the information to her LCARS terminal. She asked a few questions, sought some clarifications, but ultimately it was her task to report back to the ship’s commanding officer. Miya marshalled her thoughts and touched her comm badge.

=^= Ven to Captain Jacobs. I don’t have a definitive answer about the source of transmission, but I can confirm that the grapok sauce which is the original source of the infection is home-made, so that at least rules out the replicators as a potential source. This is a novel foodborne pathogen, but the test results and computer analysis indicate that it’s probably spread through cross-contamination - sharing food, drinking from people’s water bottles and the like. That has to stop, right away. If the crew consumes replicator-made food and drink - perhaps from the mess hall replicators only, so we can minimise the infection risk from other sources - that should help to stop the illness spreading. We’ll continue tests on the samples from sick crewmen, sir, and hopefully identify a treatment as quickly as possible. =^= She waited for the Captain’s reply.

[Lieutenant JG Ven Miya, CMO]