Face The Music

Posted on Sun Jan 3rd, 2021 @ 8:50am by Commodore Jacob Kane & Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Commander Taeler Santu M.D. & Lieutenant Noah Reed M.D. & Lieutenant Ausra Danton

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD-05 (concurrent with 'Losing it')
1122 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

A strange silence fell over the sickbay as the Captain's eyes met his First Officer's. Nobody seemed to want to move.

"Doctor Reed. Will you make sure Commander Taeler is fit for duty?" Kane asked, as though passing over an inspection.

Reed watched the Bajoran first officer enter sickbay without a word, but his eyes locked onto Kane's when he heard his name called. His eyes slid back to the blonde woman, then back to the captain. "Aye, sir," he replied dutifully with a curt nod. He motioned for Commander Taeler to have a seat on a nearby biobed while he went to grab his tricorder.

Santu quietly walked over to the indicated bio-bed and sat down on the edge of it. She focused on the here and now, somehow it was as if her memories of sickbays past where fighting to surface. She pushed it down. It wasn't really. She needed to get a grip on reality.

“Keating to Lieutenant Savin,” a clipped voice said through the ether.

Alerted by the vibration on his combadge, Savin pulled out his old PADD and reviewed the message that was relayed to it. "Savin here, go ahead lieutenant."

"I have your upgraded PADD ready in engineering if you'd like to pick it up," Finnley responded.

"On my way." Savin put his PADD away.

"Take care of it, lieutenant," Kane noted, waving the counsellor off. He moved to stand, his legs still feeling mildly unsteady from the effects of the stun but not serious enough to cripple him. "Lieutenant Danton... we seem to have exchanged a frying pan for a fire, wouldn't you say? Seems like near all of my crew are experiencing hallucinations."

"Yes sir, something like that. I myself am not immune. But it's good to see you on your feet. Finding you unconscious gave us all another little scare." She sucked in a breath, just waiting for him to blame her for what had happened to his crew.

"Yes. A scare." Kane locked eyes with Taeler for a moment. On the one hand he was furious that she had actually shot him. But on the other he was concerned - about her state of mind, the wellbeing of the crew, and the situation they were all in. She could have killed him. And that might have been the consequences other members of the crew might face. "We'll talk about exactly how we got into this situation later. Right now we need to focus on protecting the crew and getting us back home. What do you need to achieve that?"

Ausra blinked. "Well . . . a lot of people. The minds of the science and engineering department and time. Plus . . . . . a giant chocolate bar wouldn't hurt. The sugar helps me think." She answered honestly with a little apologetic shrug.

"Done, done... time isn't something we have much luxury for..." Kane reeled off. "And if you're aware of the prospect of a chocolate bar suddenly mutating and devouring you instead, then I'm sure you'll get through it." He shook his head. "Whatever resources you need. Get it done."

"Yes sir," Ausra said biting her tongue afterwards. She hoped she could actually come through this time without another disaster happening.

Kane's eyes returned to his First Officer. "Commander Taeler. Once we're out of this situation I think we need to discuss you spending some time with Lieutenant Savin on a more frequent basis. But for now I need my XO. I need the XO that led those people out of danger on Paratus. Can you do that?"

Santu took in a deep breath through her nose and held it for a moment before letting it escape slowly and evenly. She slowly nodded, "Yes sir." She didn't want to look up and face him fully, partially afraid of what she might start seeing again, on the other part she was too ashamed.

Doctor Reed returned to Taeler's side and began running the standard bio-reading analysis over her with the handheld scanner while he tried his hardest not to be noticed during such an awkward moment.

The bleeps of the tricorder drew her attention, she wanted to know what was going on with her as much as anyone else in the room, she wanted it to be a parasite, or something external, something she could fight and get rid of. She didn't want to go back into therapy, she didn't want to have to talk through her past and emotions. It was never going to fix things, it was never going to get better, "as soon as the doctor clears me for duty I will be back by your side." She then looked up at Kane, "better keep me away from phaser pistols." A crooked smile, hoping he had recovered enough to appreciate a little bit of gallow's humour.

"At least it was on stun," Ausra added, trying to be cheerful.

Finishing the scan, Reed folded up the tricorder and placed the scanner back in the front compartment. "Physically, you're fine, commander. I'm not sure if this is something that Lieutenant Savin should examine with you in more detail or if it was a matter of the chaos from this space." His face told her the confusion going on within him. He turned to the captain. "Sir, any of us has the potential of becoming violent under the wrong conditions. We must get out of here before we end up killing each other." He looked at the others. "This isn't something that medical science can prevent from happening. All I can do is treat the aftermath."

Santu deflated a bit, if there was nothing physically wrong it had to be something psychological. That meant new sessions with the counsellor. Raking up old traumas, trying new ways to get rid of them, preferably ones that didn't involve phasering the Commanding Officer of the ship she was serving on, "maybe there's something affecting our brainwaves or something." She didn't know what scared her more, the idea that some outside force was making her regress to that mental state, or the idea that it might all be coming from inside herself.

"Perhaps you can work with the Doctor to see if you can isolate the reasons for the-" Kane was cut-off by the blaring of an alert and a shudder beneath their feet. The lights dimmed momentarily. "What...?"

*ALERT: Emergency Warp Core ejection sequence in progress*

The computer answered his question for him. "Damn. Commander Taeler, keep on that train of thought - coordinate with Doctor Reed to come up with a way of dampening the effects of whatever this thing is. I'll be in Engineering, trying to work out what new problems this nightmare space has come up with."