Ghosts of the past

Posted on Wed Apr 26th, 2017 @ 12:31pm by Captain Allen Jones & Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant Sara'draphia T'eseri

Mission: The Trial of Cor Cordale
Location: Victory Medical

Bertrand left the briefing and went straight to Medical, arriving before even the Doctor got there. When she arrived he was sitting on the bio bed. He looked up at her with a grim face.

"All right," he grumbled, "let's fill the grumpy XO with pink flowers and rainbow unicorns. Just don't tell anyone if i start saying nice things about the crew, okay? Patient confidentiality and all that."

"Anything you say in here will be kept between us. Though I'm sorry to say I don't have any pink flowers and I don't know what rainbow unicorns are but I'm fairly sure we don't have any of those either" Sara said, grabbing a hypospray and one of the inoculations for a Betazoid. "Alright, the effects take a few minutes to show, so if you could lay down while I give you the injection, it will save us some time"

Bertrand lay back on the couch, and looked at the ceiling, "You will probably need to give me 1.8 standard doses. I still have Borg Nanites in my system, and while they do great to boost my immune system, they are also very active at cleaning out any new drugs."

Thinking over this new information, Sara altered the dose slightly before injecting it, "Very well commander, though I should warn you that the higher dose will cause the effects to be more pronounced."

There was a hiss and the slight tingle on his neck. Bertrand concentrated on breathing deeply. It was not so bad. If he kept his eyes closed he would not be able to see anything that...

It was hot in here though. He considered asking the doctor to adjust the controls but, well, he'd suffered worse, right? Maybe it was just his reaction to the drugs.

He tried not to think of the war going on in his body. He could almost feel the Nanites rushing through his blood to try and remove the non-standard mixture that his body was trying to assimilate. Ha! ironic.

His eyes snapped open. He could have sworn he heard....

No. He forced himself to close his eyes again. He was hearing things. There was no whir of machinery. No tick and hum of servos. No...

He sat up suddenly his heart racing. He HAD heard it.

He scanned the room and his eyes came to rest on the figure, half shrouded in the dark recess. A Borg drone. If you hadn't been looking for it, hadn't heard it's distinctive whine in your augmented hearing, you would have looked straight past it as part of the back ground of sick bay.

The Doctor looked over at his frightened expression.

Noticing his sudden movements, Sara gave a sigh and walked back over to him, "it's alright commander, please lay back down" she said, still holding the hypo she'd used for the injection.

Bertrand's eyes flashed back and forward between the Drone and the advancing doctor. He couldn't move fast enough to save her and he wasn't carrying more than his standard Type I phaser. He couldn't even call out.

And yet the Drone wasn't attacking. Why didn't it just reach out to... unless.

Bertrand's robotic right hand flashed out and caught Sara painfully by the wrist.

"Very clever," he snarled. "There is no infection on the surface, but it gives you a good excuse to dose everyone."

"Let go Commander, I'm not trying to deceive you" Sara said, trying to pull her arm away from his mechanical grip.

She said something, but Bertrand's ears were ringing and he couldn't make it out. It didn't matter, the Borg had nothing to say to him.

Bertrand gave a twist and Sara's arm broke. As the hypo was still falling from her fingers he swung his leg from a sitting position and caught the side of her head sending her reeling across the room.

He used the momentum to roll off the bed and head for the door from medical. He had to warn the ship!

Landing hard on the floor, Sara's mood quickly changed from Medical bed side manor to Nissari Commando. With her right arm broken, she knew that a close in fight wasn't a good idea, so she chose to use her other abilities. Focusing her thoughts on the door, Sara created a dark energy field around it that increased the doors weight, hoping that would prevent them from opening. "Commander! Stop!"

Bertrand hit the door release button, but the door whirred and groaned and then failed to open. So, he thought, they have locked me in here with them. Their mistake.

He punched the comms button, "Bertrand to Security. Intruder alert in Medical."

On his way back to his bio bed from his second talk with Ziyal, Kevin heard Commander Cuprum's voice come over the COMM calling Security to Medical for an intruder alert. Smacking his own COMM he replied "Kilbane here Commander, I'm already in Sickbay, enroute to you now. A quick check of the medical schematic on the wall showed where Bertrand was, and Kevin made a run for his position.

Now he just had to fight till they got here... if they hadn't already been partially assimilated as well. Bertrand remembered that Kevin had already been "treated" by the Doctor, but the Marine commander hadn't.

"Jones to medical, on the double. I need a combat team here!"

He grabbed up a laser scalpel from the tray of tools and began circling the room ready to fight the doctor. The signs of the Borg were here everywhere. How had he missed them before? The regeneration chamber, the relay conduits, the viniculum in the roof?

Standing up from the floor, Sara focused on getting Bertrand back on the biobed, "Commander! you need to stand down right now!" She said, cautiously approaching him.

Bertrand was hallucinating, but not cognitively impaired, He moved a trolley to be between himself and the afflicted Doctor. Each time she made to move he countered a fraction of a second before she could act.

"What's the rush, Doctor?" he goaded. "Worried what the Marines will find? You've tried assimilating me once, and it didn't go well for you. Resistance isn't futile!"

Giving a sigh, Sara would usually try to talk him down, but with her arm broken, she didn't have the patience left. "Very well, if you wish to be difficult, than I shall respond in kind" she said, shifting her focus. Taking a step back, Sara released her hold on the door, and focused completely on Bertrand. Raising her left hand out towards him, she caused the trolley to levitate. "If you don't get back on that biobed, I will injure you severely and than heal you so I can harm you again."

Bertrand's eyes narrowed. He may be hallucinating, but that didn't make him insane. There was something wrong with this picture. The Borg didn't make threats like that. It was simpler to just take what and who they wanted. Nor did they make use of an individuals latent cognitive power.

And he could still feel the Doctor's mind. Before... the last time... he had felt them switching off, one by one. But the Doctor's mind was vibrant and alive.

The door behind him slid open and Kevin arrived, weapon out. What he saw was the XO threatening the doctor with a laser scalpel, while the CMO was threatening to brain the XO with a flying trolley.

"What the hell's going on between you two?" Kevin shouted.

Bertrand's head snapped around at the arrival of a new mind. Again, this one was active, and aware.

"Quickly," Bertrand barked, "What is that in the corner?"

He pointed to an apparently empty part of the medical bay, which was slightly darker than the rest.

Kevin looked round at where Cuprum was pointing, but saw nothing but an empty corner. Looking back round at the XO he answered "There's nothing there but some dust" he answered.

"Lieutenant, I ask that you stun him quickly, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold this trolley up" Sara said, starting to loose her focus as the use of her abilities drained her stamina

"Nobody's getting stunned or anything of the like till I know what's got into you two!" Kevin replied "If you want that sort of thing done, then I'll stun both of you and then stick you in a holding cell!"

He moved to stand between the two. Glaring at Cuprum he said "Drop the laser scalpel before I drop you!" and he then turned to the doctor and said "Put down the trolley before I put you down!"

He then looked between the two of them a couple of times and added "Don't try me or my patience people, I'm not in the mood, and the last thing either of you want to do is anything stupid that'll land you in a cell!"

'Dust' Kilbane had said. It was an exaggeration of course. Medical facilities, like most rooms on a Starship, were pretty much self-cleaning, and this was certainly a sterile environment. Had Bertrand been clearer minded he would have just accepted the phrase without question,, but he was looking for discrepancies, something that would hint at reality. So when Kevin claimed dust where it could not exist he was convinced that Kevin, too, was under Borg influence.

Also the Doctor had admitted the strain she was under at the moment, keeping the trolley aloft. That gave him his way out.

He lashed out, not physically but mentally. It was not widely known that Betazoids could do so, and certainly they did not advertise the ability to races who were already cautious about Empaths. The blow would not even have ruffled Sara if she had not been so focused on the trolley. It was enough to tip the balance and the trolley. The moment of distraction as she cried out and the trolley crashed to the ground was all he needed to get out of the door before Kevin could fire his weapon.

Screaming out in pain as the telepathic wave hit her mind, Sara barely had enough self control to ensure the trolley didn't fall on the security chief before she collapsed to the floor, holding her head and curling up in pain as her neural implant that regulated her mental abilities shorted out and started sending electrical shocks along her nervous system.

Kevin was trained in basic triage work, and even though the XO had ran off like a lunatic, his first concern was for the well being of the doctor as she had what looked like a serious injury to her arm. Kneeling down, he gently checked over the arm as best he could and saw that it was broken. Grabbing a nearby medical kit, he took out a hypo and injected Sara with a pain suppressant. Gently, ever so gently, he helped up into a sitting position and, supporting her as best he could, he placed her arm in a sling and helped her lean back against the bio-bed where they were.

He yelled for a nurse, and in a few moments one came.

"The doctor here has a broken arm, get her out of this room and into the safety of her office and help her!" he said, the nurse nodded.

Bending down again to Sara he said "This nurse will help you get to your office and treat you there, I need to get after the XO, see what he's doing."

Sara simply nodded, showing that she'd heard him but didn't want to try to talk.

"Don't worry lieutenant, we'll take good care of her, though we may need an engineer who understands neural implants in here when one is available" the nurse said, gently helping Sara to stand and escorting her over to an upright clear tank that went all the way to the ceiling.

In the corridor, he nearly collided with Jones and his fire team who were responding to his earlier call.

"Lock down Medical!' he ordered without breaking his stride. "No one comes out under my orders. Jones, you're with me. We need to get to the Captain."

AJ was so confused by the call. The Commander had already sat down with bot him and Kilbane and said that this sort of thing was a security matter. As AJ and the Commander collided he saw that his pupils were extremely dilated. As AJ got up he looked in the open door and saw Kilbane and the Doc recovering. "What is going on Commander?" He asked cautiously.

Kevin exited the room where he'd been with Commander Cuprum, and out into the corridor. A short way off, he saw the XO talking with Captain Jones of the Marines. Not wanting to spook the XO, Kevin moved cautiously down the corridor till he was a few metres away from the two men.

"Captain Jones, Commander Cuprum is still under the influence of the drug that the doctor gave him, he's hallucinating and thinking he can see 'things' that aren't there. Hell, I know how he feels, I've been chatting with a six foot goblin who I saw as my father. The best thing we can do is try and coax Commander Cuprum back to his room and help him get through this rather 'unusual' circumstance. Can you lend me a hand please?"

Cuprum stared hard at Jones, "Have you or your men gone through the Doctor's 'inoculation'?"

AJ was taking in both sides. He didn't like the look that the XO's eyes were giving off. "We have not got tge shot yet." He turned to the security chief. He quickly made a hand motion to one of his team"

"There is no inoculation," Bertrum said urgently. "We all just accepted the Doctor's word on it. She is compromised, as is everyone who has been inoculated. That includes the CTO, myself, and possibly the CO. There are Borg in Medical. This is an Alien incursion and not just a security matter. You need to secure those who have been afflicted."

AJ turned back to the XO. "I agree. We need to get to bottom of this so we can limit those that are injured by the Scorpio" while AJ and XO had been conversating his marine had prepared a stun shot and on Scorpio it struck Bertrum.

Or that was the plan. Unfortunately for AJ, he was not aware of Bertrand's reputation in a fight. He had trained for years to read the surface thoughts of opponents, and those around him. When an attacker is coming at you they focus, just for a moment, on the attack they are about to perform; they picture it in their mind. A good telepath can see that image and respond to it a moment before the attack comes.

And Bertrand was a very good Telepath. Also, AJ had projected his intent to his soldier, and the whole time he was talking to distract Bertrand he was actually projecting the attack in the front of his mind. Bertrand new it was coming and the split second before the shot was fired he shifted. The shot went wide.

But now Bertrand was facing a team of trained soldiers who would not be fooled as easily a second time. He held his hand up.

"I am not fighting you, Captain," Bertrand said sternly. "But I gave you a direct order to secure Medical and not allow Kilbane or the Doctor out. As I am also compromised, I am willing to be restrained as well."

"And I am trusting you," he growled, "When the time comes to make sure you do the job right, and end me before the conversion is complete. I can't go through that again."

Damned empaths. AJ thought. AJ turned to his team and motioned for his to be secured. "I appreciate that trust Commander. You will be escorted to your quarters and secured until this can be sorted out. I will do as ordered and secure the Medical bay and we will get through this." AJ said in a very non threatening tone trying to keep the situation from blowing up more. "Any questions?" He asked both the Commander and Kilbane.

"Yes" Kevin replied "Are you insane Captain Jones?"

"You know that Commander Cuprum has been inoculated and is basically freaking out, there are no intruders on the ship!" Kevin continued "Dr T'eseri tried calm the Commander down, trying to show him there was no trouble and he broke her arm for goodness sake. The last thing that needs to be done now is to have the Commander 'away' from Sickbay, he needs to be 'in' Sickbay so that the medical staff can help him. I'm asking that you do just that Captain, return Commander Cuprum so he can get the help he needs."

AJ instructed his men to take the XO and he walked over to Kilbane so that he could explain things "LT., I am not happy with this situation and I know there are no intruders on the ship. He is in no medical threat. He needs to let the effects subside. There is nothing Medical can do for him right now other than piss him off more. By letting him ride this out in a safe place, like his quarters. If this works we can try and minimize the people injured from his hallucinations. While I would defer this stuff to your team you already heard him he doesn't trust your yellow shirts due to you guys already been inoculated. My guys will keep him safe and once he comes back to we can discuss things." AJ looked at the man he was trying to build a positive relationship with. "Kevin let me handle this." AJ said in a calm voice.

"I sincerely hope you're right Captain Jones, but if he has an episode whilst in his quarters, rather than in medical where he can get all the help he needs, and it goes belly up in any way shape or form like someone else getting injured or perhaps even killed, then this comes squarely down on your head" Kevin replied "Also, FYI, I'm the only one so far from Security who's been inoculated, the others are getting their inoculations very shortly."

He shook his head in dismay, turned and moved away from the Marine CO, walking back towards Sickbay so he could find out how Lt T'eseri was. As he drew level with Commander Cuprum, he didn't even look at him. It would be up to the Chief Medical Officer to decide if criminal proceedings would be brought against the Commander for breaking her arm, and if Kevin was honest, he wouldn't blame her if she did, but in his heart of hearts, he felt that it probably wouldn't happen due to 'extenuating circumstances', i.e, the inoculation and it's side effects.

He re-entered Sickbay and made his way to the Lt T'eseri's office, knocking on the door surround, he entered the officer and asked Sara "How's the arm?"

Sara sighed, "broken, but it will heal" she said, holding her wrist in place as the nurse ran a subdermal regenerator over it. "And in the event that you are curious, I will not be asking for charges to be lain against the Commander"