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Main Sim [Sickbay]: The Balancing Edge

Posted Dec. 12, 2021, 7:29 a.m. by Ensign Mike Jones (Doctor) (Bob Spicer)

Posted by Kvasir (Story Teller) in Main Sim [Sickbay]: The Balancing Edge

Posted by Ensign Mike Jones (Doctor) in Main Sim [Sickbay]: A Flicker of Understanding

Posted by Captain Rende Asam (Captain) in Main Sim [Sickbay]: A Flicker of Understanding
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

—[SNIP]—

Just then a rather put-out voice came across the comm system. =^=Cosgrove to Sickbay.=^= Was that… whimpering in the background? =^=We’ve had a delay in delivering Ensign Sacco to you for scanning per the captain’s orders. He’s almost catatonic, but we’ll get him to you as soon as we clear the checkpoint. Captain said to get him into a secure room, so hopefully you folks aren’t too busy. Cosgrove out.=^=

Kalika sat on the bed and let herself be scanned. She kept trying to crane a peek at the XO but wasn’t able to see him from where she was. It frustrated her that she was no longer Security Chief. But it also made her glad because whatever happened happened when her head wasn’t full of current passwords and protocols. “I don’t remember much, to be honest. One moment I was doing.... something.” She frowned. “I remember the XO being upset at me about something I was supposed to do. Next thing I know, I’m soaking wet with my clothes on over myself and at the mercy of security in the corridors. I know when I opened the holodeck door to use the replicator for a towel, a beach scene at an ocean was still playing. It shut down as I took the towel.” She turned her head to the woman. “I don’t like swimming. And I am petrified of the ocean. So I have no idea what was happening.”

She hated, even more now, that she was clueless to what happened. With everything in her past, this was just another thing. But it still was bothersome.

Kalika
Security

Watkins handed over a PaDD, that was disconnected from the ship’s computer. “I’d like you to write down everything you remember. Start with the last clear continuous memory you have before you came to in the holodeck. It will help us determine when and where you were when things went strange.” Watkins finished her scan, “I would offer you food but your scans show you had a rather large meal recently. Do you remember that?”

Semenza returned to Sickbay with the patient he’d collected, one Hab’rabi, who’d been shot in the head with a phaser. With the patient moved and situated in Sickbay, Semenza ordered numerous scans of his head and brain, looking for the extent of the damage Semenza expected to find judging by the findings of his preliminary examination.

He found his Sickbay to suddenly be full of patients who must’ve arrived while he was dealing with the emergency. The ship’s XO, Kalika from Security, Ensign Fairweather. And Sacco, the one responsible for his newest patient, was yet on the way. And Sharah, whom he remembered had also been affected however he noticed she was still working. And so, the first thing he did, was head over to her. “Lieutenant Fayth, I believe you have a biobed and a set of scans awaiting you.” It was his more casual way of saying she was to be a patient right now, not a doctor.

~ Lt Semenza, CMO

Sharah, looked up at the taller man, most people were taller than her, and blinked. It was taking supreme effort to keep her composure, but she would no matter what. “Of course Dr Semenza, but…” she waved at the large display screen. “I…” she rubbed her temple as she spoke, “I think I know how to tell who is and is not affected. It’s not just the PFC activity, it’s the electrostatic energy pervasive in the synaptic cleft. We all have that. Increases in hormone levels too, but that isn’t all consistent in type and amounts, though the effects are all similar. A..”

Semenza was giving her a look, it was the look of ‘you’re not listening.’ She needed rest, just as much as the others did, and he could read the scans for himself. “Biobed. Rest. Go.”

Nurse V’tor came over, placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to steer her toward a biobed. It wasn’t that Sharah was unwilling to go, she just really needed to tell Semenza what she was seeing in the scans. She shrugged the hand off, the physical contact and V’tor’s Vulcan mind made the noise around her worse. “We only know the point of entry and exit on my scans, but look…everything goes back to normal when they leave. A mobile monitor..” V’tor glanced at Semenza and then the security detail that had come in with Kalika and Hab’rabi. Sharah picked up the thought, she didn’t want to go to the brig. She sighed, went quiet, and went to the furthest bio bed, where V’tor erected a quarantine field and started more detailed scans of her. Sharah climbed onto the bed and laid down. She didn’t think the things were trying to harm them....‘mother’ the echoing thought, the deep regret and sadness threatened to bring tears to her eyes, again.

Fayth, med

Semenza glanced back at V’tor with a subtle shake of the head, also catching what she meant as he followed where else she was looking. But the threat worked, and Sharah went to one of the biobeds, which to him was a relief. Following them to the biobed, partially to be sure Sharah actually went, he gave her the mobile monitors to calibrate while he was reading the scans. It was only after that he began to see what she was trying to tell him, looking over the information the scans had revealed. The same increases caused in all cases. Some differences in hormone levels could possibly be explained by different brain chemistry, especially across different species; kohr compared to sharah, and then a human like Fairweather. But Semenza was no neurologist, he wasn’t certain.

~ Lt Semenza, CMO

It was then like the poor happy Hamster being lowered into the cage of a hungry Python that the new Medical Ensign, who was as fate would have it a Neurologist walked into the midst of sickbay. He got halfway across the floor and then stood looking around with a frown on his face at all the people on the bio beds. He then looked at some of the readings that were showing up on the wall monitors. He then smiled seeing his DH he called out. “I’m sorry Lieutenant did I show up late for some kind of simulation?”

En Mike Jones, Med

Nurse Watkins walked over knowing when Semenza was thinking hard at something he might not hear the new doctor. “Oh thank goodness! You’re Dr Jones, right? Dr Fayth was looking at Cmdr Kohr, but she’s, well she’s a patient now. Come on.” Cmdr Kohr, ship’s XO, Klingon extraordinaire was on a biobed showing some very strange readings. (OOC read back up and down for more info). “You’re a neurologist right? Because their brains are all kinds of strange now.”

Nurse Watkins

Mike was a bit taken aback when the frazzled nurse came up to him.” Yes Ma’am.” he responded. I’m Ensign Jones and I am a neurologist. “He was led to where the XO lay on his bio bed. Mike initially looked at all his bio signs, temperature, heart rate, and respiration. He looked at the readings from Kohr. And then backed up the computer to read those from earlier. Bringing the readings back into real time he stood for a moment looking at the Commander and then back up to the readouts. While Mike knew he had a lot of knowledge he was still not too sure of himself when it came to diagnosis. This he knew was something only years of experience could get him.

Mike dug deep and sifted through the storehouse of knowledge he did have. He came up with a solution and then threw it away. He went through everything once again though and came to the same conclusion, however. Mike then turned around to locate Nurse Watkins. This was Mike’s first time in space as a Doctor for Star Fleet. He had expected for the first portions of his career to be littered with minor physicals along with strains, pains and abrasions. But no fortune had chosen to give him a big kick in the pants. His first diagnosis and treatment might be his last.

Mike heard Nurse Watkins come from behind him and he started to explain what he needed from her. “Right now, the Commander’s mind is fighting to get back to its former operating levels. ‘’ He began. ‘’ As it’s going right now though, he might get well but getting there might kill him. The more there is going on in there the more heat it’s causing. “Mike took a long breath. He knew what he was about to say sounded odd but. He looked at the Nurse and said,” I know it sounds odd considering that he’s not awake, but I need you to sedate him. We have to slow down that activity. Make it a light dose to begin with. About what it calls for to make a Klingon his size drowsy. Check on him and keep me up to date.”

Ensign Mike Jones Doctor

The sedative, while somewhat effective on reducing Commander Kohr’s blood pressure and higher brain functions, it had almost the inverse effect on his autonomic systems. His respiration dipped, becoming shallow and shaky, the muscles of his arms and legs twitching just beneath the surface of his skin. It appeared that attempting to slow down the storm of activity only served to send the more primitive parts of the Klingon’s mind into a frenzy! Could this be due to the electrostatic conduction racing rampant along his synapses? Or was some other phenomenon at work here? Either way, Kohr’s mental scans were awash with surges of haphazard signal, a complex network of circuitry that had been shorted out by his encounter with the strange energy motes. If only there were a way to stimulate his neural pathways, remind them of their normal and natural processes…

Mike had come back at the request of the nurse and now stood looking at Kohr’s data being displayed. He looked at Kohr’s body and it was plain to see that he was seizing. While he had managed to get part of his mind back to working order the result was causing Kohr to have a seizure.

Mike rubbed his chin thinking about this for a minute. Did the Commander have a history of seizures? Mike’s first thought was to leave well enough alone. If the Commander had a history of seizures, then this would pass soon, and he would be awake, tired and grumpy in no time.

This of course would be great if the seizure hadn’t seemed to have happened in conjunction with his previous treatment. The problem was the sedative should have simply shut down the extra electrical activity in the largest part of his brain to some extent, since most activity is chemical. And even the electrical activity relies on chemicals to some extent. Mike gnawed on his bottom lip nervously for a moment as he wondered whether or not to try a Benzodiazepine.
These were good medicines for seizures as well as a muscle relaxer, along with several other problems of the brain.

Mike tapped his fingers on the edge of the bilobed as he weighed his options. The wild idea of using a transporter came to mind. They had bio-filters which would filter out any known biohazard or anything it didn’t recognize. At least that’s what Mike was thinking. He’d need an engineer for that and preferably a patient in better condition to go through first before he tried it on Kohr. His only other two options were to stop and restart his heart. Not the first thing to do in any circumstance. Or pull something out of the stone age and give the commander electroshock. This would of course cause limited brain damage that he wouldn’t get over for a minimum of two weeks depending upon the nimbleness of his mind.

In the end Mike went to get the appropriate Benzodiazepine drug and the appropriate dosage for his patient. After doing so he decided to now wait for a few more seconds to see if the storm in his patient’s mind would dissipate. If not, he would go to the next option. Quite possibly stone age medicine!

Ensign Mike Jones Doctor.

Sharah laid on the bio bed while V’tor completed her scans. Without something to focus on the telepathic and empathic input she was getting was overwhelming. The crew as speculating and worried and there was a deep undercurrent of paranoia. Not to mention the intense grief and … how did one describe the feeling of dying? It wasn’t the first time Sharah had been caught in that moment with another being, but it was never easy. In fact it was terryfing. She had no idea who that mote had been, but she was convinced, with the dream like memories she had retained, it had been a person at a point in time.

V’tor, being Vulcan would not understand her grief or the tears the threatened to fall, and so she did her best to keep it to herself. Finally V’tor was finished with her scans. (ooc: copying from above) Sharah does not have the electrostatic energy anywhere but the area of her brain associated with telepathy. Her hippocampus shows signs of stress and high activity, which is not surprising given her experience. Perhaps the oddest result of her scan is the increase in synaptic paths deep within the hippocampus, suggesting that the interaction with the energy mote was beginning to form new pathways. This would go far to explain why she was able to recall the images from her experience, and why she feels like there was more just beyond the grasp of her understanding.

From her biobed she had the ability to access what was going on around her since Semenza didn’t lock her out of sickbay systems. Plus he gave her the mobile monitors, so she had to assume he wanted her to do something with them. With something to do, her focus returned, slowly, and she was able to surf above the noise, but the grief stayed with her.

The computer’s chime with Hab’rabi’s results only added to the confusion and activity brimming in Sickbay. The computer didn’t care; it had work to do, after all, and couldn’t be bothered with trivialities like anxiety and confusion. A display winked to life near the alien’s biobed with his vital signs—not to mention a healthy dose of error margin when it came to certain functions, the chief of which was his brain—showing concerning markers that hovered just between yellow and green. His hearts rate seemed a little elevated, but all other functions appeared to be at a resting rate similar to other, unconscious species.

It was obvious to even the untrained that Hab’rabi’s brain scan was a thing of diagnostic nightmares. Nearly every neuron was active and working at a frenzied pace, painting the inside of his skull in a nebulous lightning storm of sensory input. The portions of his brain closest to the site of phaser impact was noticeably darker, the signals coursing through them a bit scattered and sluggish. It was eerily similar to the erratic patterns found in Kohr’s cranial scans, though the Klingon was suffering far worse. While a phaser set to stun normally disrupted the body’s sensory receptivity, it should not have been responsible for this kind of physical damage even at the highest settings. Hab’rabi’s body seemed genetically disposed to resist injury, and yet there it was.

A clear fact would leap out to the trained eye, however: every area of Hab’rabi’s brain was pervaded by the presence of the same electrostatic charge found in the other affected patience. The different was that his levels were significantly higher and were not dissipating. In fact there was a portion of his brain that seemed specifically designed to accommodate and support this type of charge. It was a sort of loci between the two hemispheres of his brain—frontal and posterior—that could serve to facilitate communication between the two halves at the very least, and one that showed actual and rapid fluctuations of activity. Something was definitely going on in there. Whatever it was, it was definitely going to take time and study before results could be gleaned.
—Jas—

Through the next hour Sharah studied the results of everyone’s scans, including Hab’rabi’s. After her own experience she was certain the cause of the strange behavior was an interaction with the motes. Although her scans showed the creation of new memory engrams the side effects were the same. What was consistent was the electrostatic discharge. Even she had it, in her paracortex instead of the synaptic cleft. But the electrostatic energy pattern was the same. It wasn’t there before contact, but was after. And looking at Hab’rabi’s scans, and the greater strength of the electrostatic charge it was like he was in constant contact with them. Lots of them. That was a hypothesis though, and would need to be confirmed. But that was it. “V’tor, I need to talk to Semenza. I know he’s busy, but I think I know how to clear everyone through the check points.” While she waited for Semenza to arrive she started programming the mobile monitors to detect the electrostatic pattern and alarm when it occurred.

Once Semenza walked over Sharah didn’t waist time. “It’s the electrostatic energy in the synaptic cleft. The hormones and even the PFC activity isn’t in every one. It’s not there before contact with the motes, and afterwards it is but it dissipates quickly. So it must build and maintain starting at the point of contact. We can set the mobile monitors up to read for that energy pattern and alarm and notify the people nearby that someone is in contact with one of the motes. The quarantine check point teams can do the same thing with their tricorders. Allowing us to have enough mobile monitors for the security and engineering teams.”

Fayth, med

The door to Sickbay hushed open once again and two security officers tromped in nearly dragging a third across their shoulders. A red-faced ensign looked around with a rather put-out expression before pushing up against his burden and setting his legs beneath him.

“Well, we made it… finally,” he grumbled to his partner. Then, louder, “Cosgrove with a package for the medical folks. Where do you want Sacco? The fool wound himself up so tight on the walk here that he passed out.”

Blinking, Cosgrove shook his head at the sight of so many people. “Assuming there’s room, yeah?”
—Jas—


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