[snip]

As the group would get cleaned up the observing NE doctor off to the side room running medical scans came up through the open channel. “..Mr Sharp, Mr Wolf you all are cleared of any contaminants or foreign agents. You’re free to return to duty once you get finished in there. Mr Milligan, I need you to remain behind. I’m picking up a bacterial infection of an unknown type in your inner left ear..” He said. “..Once you finish cleaning up there, if you could step into the isolation booth to our left I can run a deeper scan and probe for more details..” he said.

Cara was sure she had placed her phaser back into the box. Given the order to dismiss she was keen to get back to her office and write up a report on the visit to the planet. She wanted to use the Library computer to cross-reference a few details too. The child was interesting too, but seemed dangerous and her tail still hurt from the experience, so she’d let Sickbay deal with it before she saw it again.

Anyhow, the first thing she needed to do was to shampoo with a quality product, and to massage her coat with a brush and get rid of these tangles and knots. Cara’s hair was dull and without any gloss, and her skin was dry. The decontamination had made it lose all of it’s shine and softness, and she couldn’t believe that they’d no Argon oil hair conditioning products available in the chamber, or even a good quality brush.

Joe was on the verge of, well doing something. Finally, he closed his eyes and took a deep slow breath. “Great gaggles of Googlybirds.” he said beneath his breath. Bring this day of slapstick and showtunes to an abrupt ending.

Joe waited patiently as he wondered idly how it was that phasers and scanners seemed to be growing legs and going walkabout. It was about this time that everyone but him had left the chamber. Climbing slowly to his feet he slowly moved to the isolation booth as instructed by the voice in the ceiling. Looking up at the ceiling he called out. “So, what will you be doing to me now drilling for operational brain cells?”

Lance went to the armory as soon as he got out of the Decon area. Any place was better then that hid plans was to get the gear checked over and stored then food and maybe bed early.

Once the XO was settled in the decomm isolation room the NE doctor would speak again off to his left now through a viewing port using a pair of isolation operator arms to lift a physical probe and have it slowly inserted into the XO’s ear. =/\= Thankfully so far the bacterial infection is not much deeper then your inner ear. No signs are present yet that its moved into your blood stream or the like. =/\= He said as the tiny q-tip like medical probe scrapped bits of inner ear wax, skin and such into itself.

After it withdrew the NE placed the probe into a bio-hazard sample container and took passions of it from a pass through drawer. =/\= There we go, one second I’m going to run another deeper scan now, you may feel a bit of a tingling as it runs its course..=/\= He said as a red glowing/humming scan passed through the room and over and presumably through the XO. After three full passes the NE doctor was heard to ‘hum’ =/\= Interesting, so it seems on initial scans this bacterial infection has some beneficial properties of sorts to those it infects. In this way it is a strange sort of bacterial/symbiotic parasite of sorts. In this case, it seems the infection while external in your ear from the rest of your body is providing your left ear drum and in turn capacity to hear a 2% increase to intake of audio sources. Nothing really to write home about but it could be interesting case to study going forward…=/\= He said seeming a bit excited by this idea really, then realized he was getting off track.

=/\= Uh ahem, anyhow sir we’ll get this sample processed in more detail. For now,=/\= he said pausing to pass through the isolation drawer a sealable flexiable ear plug of sorts to the XO, =/\= scans confirm the bacteria only transmits when it falls from one source to the next, so putting this ear plug around your left ear and sealing it in place by the facial cream also provided will let you for now return safely to duty. Just don’t let the plug or hardened cream get wet, and reapply the cream around the seal edges every two or so hours. Any questions? =/\= he asked.

Joe ground his teeth as more than one question went through his mind. Things like the NE’s parentage, his test scores in medical school and did he also like to tug the wings from insects. Instead, he could only gaze at the rig they wanted him to wear on his head. Joe actually had to close his eyes and take several long deep breaths to calm himself. Finally, he reached out and took the odd assortment of things and started to put them in place. ” Yeah, I got two questions. ” He said, “Number one how long do I have to keep this thing on my head and number two can I name the infection Willy and charge star-fleet an Ensign’s salary for it do you think?”

After her shower in her Quarters (aka Den), Cara found that the Landing Party had been returned to the Sickbay Decontamination Room for further tests. She stood and waited her turn while Joe was seen. It wasn’t very private, so she could overhear about his ear infection and how the infection may have improved his hearing capacity. She hadn’t noticed any improvement in her own hearing, but then her hearing was already about three times better in frequency range than a human, especially at the higher pitches.

-Cara