<snip>

“It’s not exactly a picnic for us either,” Brad replied with a sulky tone. “That said, you’ve certainly proved your qualifications.”

”From what I hear, I think it may have been for some of us.” Willow said while she read a report from NE Update.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Jenyfer laughed with a nod of her head. “Thank you. So I have the job?” She joked because as an official duty station, she knew she was staying. “So what else can I help with? Also, we all checked ourselves when we got here, so my latest scans are on file. No need to do them again. Unless you want to just to be sure you remember how.” She was glad he was feeling better. Coming into the madness had been a bit disconcerting. She was certainly going to need a stiff drink when time permitted.

Jenyfer
Virologist

“God forbid,” Brad said. “I’ve done enough of those for a lifetime. Can you go over the plan you and Dr. Bonner have come up with to distribute the cure?”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Jenyfer laughed at the Doctor. “Let’s get you something to drink. Perhaps some tea or juice? You been without anything for several hours and I need to make sure I don’t lose my Department Head to dehydration or worse while in my presence.” She moved towards the replicator. “Come on, Doc. Come sit down before you fall down.” She laughed glancing back at him. “What do you want to drink. I’ll give you the rundown while you replenish.”

“Iced coffee,” Brad said. It was the only way he could consume the beverage.

Jen laughed. “Thought I was the only one who drank it that way. Picked it up on leave after the Academy. Everyone I’ve met thinks I’m weird.”

Brad shrugged. “I’m just not a fan of hot drinks. It smells better hot, but I’d rather not scald my self on purpose.”

She waited for his order and they headed for a nearby pair of chairs. “We have used local hypos to set antifungals in place directly to those affected that we had access to. And I believe, right about now, Engineering should be flooding the ship with a similar version of the remedy. We are starting where we believe it originated. One of the crewmen had been reading a book about a wonderland when it occurred. Science will be studying how it spread to the ship as an infection once we are sure it’s safe to work on the samples we collected. Air, blood, and several other types were taken all over the ships at various times as folks became affected.”

“So it’s a fungus, programmed by some sort of psychic impulse?” Brad asked. “That’s… new.” It explained the shared delusions of everyone affected, but it was also something he’d never seen before, and somewhat worrying.

She laughed lightly. “I actually arrived and had come to see you, using the computer’s locator. And came upon you in your altered state. Was quite fascinating, to be honest. I don’t think I’ve ever been invited to tea less than five minutes after my arrival anywhere before.” She smiled to let him know it had not bothered her.

“Clearly, you’ve never been to Britain then,” Brad joked.

Shaking her head she laughed. “No, actually I haven’t.”

Jenyfer
Virologist
(feel free to post responses in between)

=/\=Myqian to the Infirmary and to Captain Taylor. We have a family of three who need further medical attention. They are symptomatic and the child, a telepath, has been feverish and her dreams match the mass hallucination people are experiencing. We believe them to be our patient zeros. We’re going to arrange for them to be beamed into the Infirmary, but as a precaution I want a quarantined space to beam them into ready asap. Additionally, one of the engineers is working on getting the ventilation system ready for mass distribution of the aerosol treatment. But he also found a fungus that seems to have some sort of sentience. I’ve agreed that a containment field is a good precaution but we’ll have to proceed carefully going forward. I suspect that that is the base cause of the illness itself, but someone will probably have to cross-check the readings to see if it’s the same.=/\=

Commander Myqian, XO (cross posted from Crew Quarters)

=^= Understood Commander. Keep me informed. Stand by.=^=

“What the Hells,” Brad muttered. “This has ‘Science Department’ written all over it,” he said. “Some biologist was probably studying the effect of LSD on mushrooms, got transferred, forgot to both log his work or take it with him, and somehow it got in the vents and it blew its acid-laced spores all over the station.”

She laughed shaking her head. “We should be so lucky. I’m worried someone bought a trinket off world and we’ve got a Pandora’s Box affect happening.” She like the way the man’s mind worked.

He sighed, tapping his combadge. =/\=Acknowledged, Commander. We’ll clear a quarantined space over here and signal when we’re ready to receive the patients.=/\=

Casting his gaze over to the part of the Infirmary he’d most recently occupied, he commanded the computer to create a sterile field around three biobeds, only permeable by his order.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Jenyfer’s smile had fallen and the drink was forgotten as she rose to get the hypos ready. “If this is something sentient, then the spray we are making will kill it. Is that something we are prepared to do?” She was at her console with several prepared hypos at the ready. “We’ll have to think of something else if we don’t want to just outright kill it.” She bit her lip, her hands rising to pull her hair once more into a neater ponytail from the one that had slipped loose while in the suit.

Murmuring under her breath, she was suddenly all scientist once more. “Maybe some kind of sleeping agent, instead. But do fungus sleep?” She turned to the Commander. “Do we have a Vulcan, or even a full Betazoid, on board?” Her eyes lit up with an idea. “If this fungus is in contact with the little girl in the dream, perhaps the mind meld could create a bridge and make the spores, or whatever they are, realize they are hurting people. Then we could find out what they need and perhaps create an environment for them to go to instead of being purged.” She wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it was all she had to go on.

Jenyfer
Virologist

Willow ran her hands through her newly cleaned hair and considered. ”Thats an idea…” she said considering. Her head still felt slightly fuzzy as she tried to work out who she had onboard and if the starbase had anyone.

Willow Taylor
CO

“Isn’t Commander Zeanar a Betazoid?” Brad asked. “She’s on the scene already with Commander Myquian, unless I missed out on who was going where?”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff