If only the dead could speak

Posted on 23 Jun 2019 @ 2:52am by Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant JG Naiya Hope Dr

Mission: Mission 1 - In the pale moonlight ...
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD1 1000
1636 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Amelia entered sickbay and approached Dr Hope with purpose. "I've spoken to Starbase command and they are standing by to beam the Son'a body aboard. All you have to do is give the word. Ready?"

Naiya was all "scrubbed" up. She a had suitable theatre gown and sterile shoes. Her hands and arms up to the elbow had been sprayed into a form of flexible spray on foam that set thinly but imperviously and formed a bright blue 'second skin' that moved with her but kept everything sealed out of her natural skin underneath. Her hair was retained behind a moisture repellant, protective, retaining cap that ran all the way down to her hairline and a few mm down her neck flared and pleated at the edges in a flexible, softly shaped cover that hugged to her head from the forehead backwards.

She had a miniature medical lightweight force-field - if the electromagnetic net could be called something that sounded so cumbersome but was in fact the complete opposite. It arched across her face, nose and mouth, reaching her neck at the edge of her gown. It hugged to her facial profile like gossamer and felt like the lightest, softest transparent mesh to the wearer. It was standard operating protective wear for surgeons in this half of the current Century and it was nothing new to the eye of anyone who had observed any medical surgery lately.

"Couldn't be more ready Ma'am!" Naiya said. "The standard quarantine protocols have been initiated so if you have any clothing you want to stash to make sure they don't smell of disinfectant when you leave, the prep room is to the left for you to change - alternatively, you could choose to take up position in the Observers' balcony" she indicated to the opposite side of the changing/scrubs room and up towards the perspi-glaze that stretched the whole length of that side of the Theatre. There were already some observers and students up there, looking down intently or gazing at the screens on the wall to one side which showed a magnified projection of the Two large Surgical/Operating Tables across the main Theatres Suite.

"That's a good idea. One moment please." Amelia said as she quickly popped into the prep room and change into the correct bio-hazard suit. Once properly attired, she re-emerged. "Right then Doctor." Amelia tapped her comm badge "Fox to Starbase, Ensign Brookes. You have the co-ordinates. Energise!"

On the table in front of them the body of the female Son'a materialized. The first thing that hit them was the overpowering smell of rotting flesh. Amelia had to fight the urge to gag. "My God! Didn't they have this in the correct storage? I'm going to be smelling this all day now." She looked up at Naiya. "It's your show Doc."

Naiya flickered nimble fingers over the LCARS controls and a welcome air filter cut in. "It doesn't seem that this Starbase can do much right, does it?" she rolled her eyes and began to run her medcorder over the corpse. She detected and recorded some physiology and DNA and began to bring up the Med-arch to do deeper scans.

As the Doctor was working most efficiently, Amelia was studying the medical scan intently. There was a lot of cell degradation and damage to the DNA itself. She said quietly "Even if she hadn't taken her own life, it seems it would have ended pretty soon afterwards anyway. If they are all like this....... They're dying. And that makes them dangerous. A dying animal has nothing to loose...." Her voice trailed off as she watched the readout.

A lot of the internal organs had started to liquefy which made no sense to Amelia. "This organic liquid forming.. It's got some very unusual properties. Every organ seems to be excreting it."

"Well you're right that this woman was already dying. It might not have had to be suicide if the right organ was degrading at the time - that in itself could have ended her days. I don't know what would give her so much morbidity while she was still apparently walking around normally. I wonder if it's a form of radiation damage. That's the most obvious place to start with the Son'a.... then if that's not it, we can start looking at some less obvious possibilities." Naiya said as she kept working with her scans. Then she changed tack and began to prepare to start the surgical examination part of the autopsy protocol. She raised a razor sharp, gleaming scalpel, ready to make the first incision.

Amelia was still studying the readout on the fluid. She started to run a more detailed scan. 'What is this stuff?' she thought to herself. "Use caution Doctor. Something about this doesn't smell right. And I'm not talking about the charming aroma."

Naiya stopped mid-flow and looked up. "Doesn't smell right? In what way?" she asked, scalpel stopped mid movement and attention drawn away by the XO's comment.

"I'm going to try cross referencing with the Federation tactical database, see if it bring up anything." Amelia said as she worked the control. Suddenly with a beep the computer brought up some information marked classified. Amelia was reading aloud to herself. "Substance resembles part of experimental binary explosive..... Doctor STOP!"

"I have have stopped but with respect Ma'am, I have no idea why.... what have you found?" she asked, beginning to have a very bad feeling judging by the intensity and alarm in the XO's manner.

Amelia grabbed a tricorder and began scanning. "This liquid on its own is harmless but, when it is mixed with its reagent it becomes something quite deadly.... Now it's not quite the same as an explosive compound but......" Her voice trailed off as she centered on the chest cavity "There! There is a solid mass filled with a similar liquid. It's almost undetectable and it looks like its starting to breakdown! We really don't want these liquids to mix."

Naiya didn't ask any questions at this point, that could wait, she reacted immediately and raised a medical sub-dividing forcefield on the biobed and sectioned the newly discovered mass in the chest of the corpse away. She sealed it in a bubble of protection and took a scan to check if it was uncontaminated. The reading confirmed that the little encompassing field had isolated the mass and she was then able to transport it into the quarantine rooms next door. As it reappeared in blue fractions of light, the mass exploded within the medical forcefield and the reverb took out the furniture even despite the containment field of the forcefield.

"BY THE GODDESS!" Naiya exclaimed. "Thank Her you were here, Ma'am. I'd have been poking around in that chest wall and those fluids would have found one another before I knew why it wouldn't be good. That was a trap. It was intended to harm us."

She was shocked and clearly had just been on the edge of a very dangerous moment. "Thank you" she breathed to Amelia.

Amelia let out the breath she had been holding. "Don't mention it. I think it was meant to do a lot more than harm us. At least we've learnt something from this. We now know these people are fanatics. They are not only willing to die but continue killing after they're dead. Somehow, I think diplomacy is going to fall on deaf ears."

"I have to agree with that conclusion" Naiya said, nodding but peering closer into the remains of the exploded corpse back in the main Theatre area within the forcefield that had saved their lives. She could see through the field but wasn't altogether sure she should take it down just yet. Once bitten twice shy.

"I think that was this woman's last trick but we can't be too sure" she said, her fingers trying the LCARS controls for the bio-arch that had been the source of the field she'd erected just in time. "This is probably blown to the next Century but I'll try to see if it can do any readings. She explained what she was doing to the XO.

Amelia looked at the readout. Most of the displays had gone blank or were filled with static. "It looks like a lot of the equipment was damaged, I'm not sure how much more information we're going to get. Can we store the body in a stasis chamber while repairs are made? We could erect an extra forcefield for added protection. Maybe we should extract that liquid and store that separately.

"Agreed Ma'am, I'll get right on it." Hope nodded and began the clean up. It didn't take too long, the pieces already in almost liquid state and very little else. With it all stored, put in stasis or stashed, she came back to the XO.

"That should keep it all until we can get repairs done and then we can look into it further." Naiya said, peeling off the sprayed on protective blue antiseptic layer from her hands and arms and dropping it into the bin before cleansing her skin thoroughly and disposing of the protective suit into the medical steriliser.

"Coffee?" she asked Amelia as she went towards the door to leave, checking before she did, that the XO was right behind her and also observing the clean up procedures. As CMO, it was down to Naiya to see all staff left a quarantined or contaminated area safely, no matter how senior they might be.

Amelia nodded as she followed the Doctors lead. "I think I need some."

OFF:


●○ Lieutenant JG Naiya Hope
Chief Medical Officer
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda