Breath of life

Posted on Sun Jul 6th, 2025 @ 5:18am by Captain Rovak & Petty Officer 1st Class Ayol & Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant Rune Thul & Lieutenant S'Lace & Lieutenant JG Eris sh'Rhavar & Ipae Lepsain
Edited on on Sun Jul 6th, 2025 @ 5:24am

2,135 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: Main Sickbay
Timeline: 2030 - MD08 (After 'Take this King to the Sky')

Ayol had presented several priorities that needed the Captain’s attention when he stopped by his office just before 2030 hours, but he had refused all of them. The Captain was going to sickbay to see for himself how things were. He took a turbolift and was there within a few minutes.

As Rovak arrived, he looked around for the nearest medical officer, he wanted to speak with S’Lace, but knew there was a chance she would be involved with something sensitive.

"Doctor," A nurse murmured. S'Lace glanced up and took note of the direction of where he nodded his head. She turned and spotted the captain. She strode towards her superior, who no doubt was here for an update regarding the state of her patients.

"Captain," she stated with a slight nod towards her office, "Perhaps we should speak privately?"

"Of course." Rovak said, turning in that direction.

As they approached the threshold of the office, the voice of a young woman rang out.

"Excuse me Doctor, sir." She said with a deferential nod the Captain. It was the Romulan girl Ipae from the embassy, she'd volunteered herself as an orderly after joining the medical evacuees by virtue of the fact that she was supporting one who'd been trampled when the firing began. Her job so far consisted mostly of relaying messages, communicators still being offline. "Doctor Pfeiffer wanted me to tell you that we've been able to get the last of the scanning equipment back online. Lieutenant Alph predicts another hour for full restoration of non-diagnostic systems, but no time yet on medical holographics."

"I see," S'Lace replied. The engineering staff had been quite efficient...so far, "Very well, thank you," she nodded to the young woman in acknowledgement and dismissal.

Rovak waited to the left of the office entry, allowing S'Lace to go first and following her in. He took a seat on the opposite side of her desk to her own. "Situation?" Rovak asked simply.

"You heard the orderly's report regarding our technical issues," S'Lace replied, "Matters which have been beyond our control. We have been getting by with medical tricorders and our shared memories regarding past medical cases as well as..." she paused and added distastefully, "...what some call 'educated guesses'. So far we have lost no patients and those patients we do have are stable for now."

"That is agreeable." Rovak said with a nod. "I ask as much from selfish interest as concern for those still recovering, but do we yet understand the health impacts of these 'zat' weapons?" Rovak asked.

"Short term effects we have been able to understand," S'Lace replied after a moment, "And we have developed treatments. But my concern are unforseen long term impacts on the physiology of our patients. That will take observation and tests. It is possible these Goa'uld have developed weapons that intentionally produce detrimental long term effects on their victims as a means of sowing terror in the survivors of their attacks; it is for us to see if this is true. Once I have determined our...concerns," she had almost said 'fears', "are unjustified then I will inform you."

"I do not wish to take you away from your work Doctor, but if you have the time might I ask you to accompany me to visit with each of the senior staff members and the Goa'uld under guard?" Rovak asked, knowing he would need to make decisions about who was to step into each of their positions soon.

S'Lace was about to ask why she was needed for such a task but she had quickly assessed the captain did not make requests lightly; he was a logical person, after all. She nodded once and replied, "I shall accompany you, Captain. My staff will be able to function without me, for a time."

"Thank you Doctor. I would prefer if we could speak with Commander Flynn first. What is her condition?" Rovak asked, knowing only her reaction to the surprise attack had been acute.

"As a matter of fact Commander Flynn was one of my next appointments, Captain," S'Lace replied, "We can check in on her together."

When she heard the door swish open, Alex fumbled what she'd been doing and dropped her brandless replicated packet of cigarettes on the biobed, it bounced onto the floor. She had evidently been trying to navigate it without opening her eyes. "I wasn't trying to smoke." Was the first thing she said, and not very convincing.

"Yes, of course," S'Lace noted with the barest wry tone in her voice as she picked up the pack of cigarettes and examined the contents, "You were obviously going to eat them."

The Doctor turned to the Captain, "I believe the human term for the Commander's condition is 'on the mend', Captain. I can have her released by this time tomorrow. If you like, I could attempt to flush the nicotine from her system..."

"Hey, whoa." Alex said, gesturing in the direction the voices came from. "Let's not rush. Doctor, I should apologise for not having made the time to come see you. But, uh... this is more than a bad habit. Captain, you want to fill her in?" Alex asked, aware that she was slightly exploiting their longstanding personal relationship, an uncharacteristic choice for her. She was under the weather, after all.

"Some years ago the Commander was exposed to a Breen viral weapon, ostensibly harmless at first. It was soon discovered that without sufficient stimulation of the addiction centres of the brain, the virus would begin to ossify her organs. The Commander was fortunate enough to learn that a nicotine addiction served a similar enough function to stave off the deleterious effects of the virus. As I understand it, other treatments have been attempted, but proven ineffective." Rovak explained to S'Lace, it was a somewhat unusual experience to speak of Flynn as though she was not present, but he indulged her due to her condition.

To anyone other than a Vulcan, or one that had spent years living amongst them, the tiniest of facial tremors would have gone unnoticed. For Captain Rovak he saw acute embarrassment upon S'Lace's face.

"I see," she said after the tiniest of hesitations, "It seems I must do a better job familiarizing myself on personnel medical records," she turned to the XO and inquired, "So caffeine is not a strong enough element to aid you in this prevention of this medical condition?"

Rovak let the expression from S'Lace pass unnoticed. He looked to Flynn, even if she couldn't receive the cue with her eyes closed, he hoped his silence would do the trick in letting her know he didn't have any more answers to give on her behalf.

"Not quite. If not for my nine cups a day though I might not be here to talk about it. Of the eight of us that were exposed, only two survived. Apparently caffeine slowed the effects, but when they realised the other person who was exposed wasn't showing any symptoms and smoked a pack a day, that's when they discovered the trick. It's gotta be a pretty strong hook apparently. But I've been fine since, relatively speaking." Alex realised that time once was she would have named Lieutenant Olson as the other survivor, but her obligations to respect his privacy somehow shone through even while she was laid up and describing the time they both almost died.

"I see," S'Lace noted. This was a stop-gap measure, a temporary fix. She did not like "temporary fixes" as it did not cure the patient. But that was for another time, "In that case I will refrain from criticizing your condition and your...treatment."

She would follow up with the Commander at a later date when things slowed down.

If they ever slowed down...

“We will leave you to your rest, Commander. May you recover swiftly.” Rovak said. “If he is in a condition to be seen, I would like to next visit Lieutenant Thul, Doctor.”

"Of course, Captain," S'Lace murmured. She nodded politely to the Commander and led the Captain to their next patient...

Through a pair of doors, they came to the sight of Lieutenant Thul in specialist care. His bed was in the centre of the room. Standing at the head of his bed was the telepathic surgeon Lieutenant Xa, who held his hands with extended thumbs together a few inches above Rune's forehead. His concentration was broken by their entry, and he looked up.

"Captain, Doctor. Lieutenant Thul's treatment is progressing , but he still has some way to go. His latest readings are on file." He tapped at the inputs on the edge of the biobed, bringing the files up for S'Lace and Rovak's perusal. Xa's manner was uncomfortable and businesslike, as any who knew him expected. He worked best alone and uninterrupted.

S'Lace, to put it lightly, found Xa to be a fascinating specimen and it took all her Vulcan discipline to treat them like any other member of the crew. Such a unique being in their presence brought up so many scientific queries to her mind, as well as those of her other discipline: Archeology. What was Talosian society like? Had Xa brought any mementos of home with them? S'Lace turned and examined the readouts and gave a single nod of acknowledgement. She would not violate Xa's privacy or compromise their dignity with useless questions.

So matter how much she wanted to.

"Thank you Lieutenant, we will be brief." Rovak said. "Can you speak Mr Thul?" Rovak asked, watching with some concern.

His body a constant wave of shakes, Rune smiled up at Rovak. He was glad to see that the Captain was back on his feet and clearly they had managed to fight back. In a slightly fragile voice, he replied. "Yes sir," Rune himself relaxed his control and let the shakes just carry on.

It had been interesting to telepathically interact with a Talosian, of course Doctor Xa didn't reveal any of himself but the precision and care Xa gave was a great comfort to Rune. The Betazoid followed all the instructions Xa gave him, while a few did take some time and others a few attempts.

"I wished to relay to you Lieutenant that your efforts in delaying Hera were not in vain. She is in our custody, and among the other Atenist leaders she will be tried for allegations of war crimes made by new arrivals from their universe. We look forward to your swift recovery, but a feed of the proceedings will be available if you are unable to observe in person." Rovak told Thul.

"Thank you sir," Rune replied shakily, "I do hope to attend but I suppose time will tell." He wondered about all that happened after his encounter with Hera. Of course thoughts of how he may have done things differently did pop up in his mind as he looked at S'Lace. "Thank you Doctor for any aid you gave me prior to Doctor Xa's treatment."

Rovak nodded to S'Lace and they departed, leaving Thul to Xa's specialised care.

Once they were out of the room, Rovak spoke again. "Forgive me Doctor, I will not take much more of your time. I hope that we might -" He realised as he spoke that the individual he hoped next to visit was visible through the window into the ICU. He moved over to the window, watching wordlessly.

"How is she?" He asked of S'Lace, knowing from sight that she did not seem to be in good health. He was reminded of when his wife had experienced the same condition, though she had pulled through.

"She is...not well," S'Lace conceded, then added, "But I believe I saw signs of improvement. Whether that is fact or her doctor experiencing that all too human trait of 'hope' is difficult to say," the barest shadow of a smile crossed her lips, "My first husband always insisted I maintain a 'positive attitude'. It is a habit that has been difficult to break even after all these decades..."

Rovak was silent even as he absorbed what the doctor had said. He found it difficult to remove the image of his wife from his mind's eye laying in a similar biobed, shortly before she was lost, simply drifting into interphase and fading away before his eyes. The Lieutenant wasn't substantially older than T'Shan. He stifled the sentimentality and sympathy of the associations.

"It may not be logical in the strictest sense, but that does not mean it is unwise. Thank you for your time, Doctor." Rovak said, moving to the secure ward to speak with the saboteur and double-agent Polyphron who had apparently been injured in the attempt to implant a symbiote in their Space Marine guest, Volsunga.

RSS Feed