Spikey Spike

Posted on 20 Jun 2013 @ 7:32am by Commander Andreus Kohl & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Edited on on 20 Jun 2013 @ 9:08am

4,352 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Sickbay
Timeline: MD6 0600-0700

ON:

Liyar blinked up groggily toward the ceiling as he was beamed into sickbay and into the nearest available biobed. His arm was still hanging off of his shoulder like dead weight. It was an unhealthy, disturbingly green/yellow/brown color. Blood no longer welled up inside the festering wound, but his entire arm was covered in dried remnants, down to his palm and fingers which were bent awkwardly. He felt pain. People were touching him. People needed to not touch him. He needed to be alone. He needed to handle it himself. He immediately tried to sit up, but felt someone push him back down. No, no. Up.

"Where are you going?" asked Andreus Kohl, and he elongated every vowel as incredulously as he could. He had materialized a few paces away from Liyar's biobed and he hadn't even taken a moment to orientate himself to his surroundings. He wished he could be thankful and relieved to be back aboard Galileo, but Liyar remained at the forefront of his thoughts. Kohl moved towards the Vulcan, and his palm connected with the Vulcan's chest, probably too roughly. "We transported to Sickbay for a reason," he said.

"Cease touching me," Liyar demanded, squinting at the bright lights above him. His arm felt like someone had driven a stake through a plinth of wood. Only, the plinth was his bone. He could - maybe he could fix it. Possibly. "I can tend the wound myself." He tried to get up again. Down.

Maenad was moving at a brisk pace through the corridor. A heavy sense of dread and worry hung over her. When she jolted awake, it was like she had woken from the worst nightmare she'd ever had. She sat upright in her bed for nearly five minutes, eyes wide, face white, hair disheveled. Barely able to move. She had a sense that Liyar was dead, dying, or was suffering. She had asked the computer where he was, learned that he was on one of the moons, and sense of panic gripped her.

That was about half an hour ago. She learned that the away team had returned to the ship as she tried to figure out why what had to have been a dream was causing her so much distress. When she learned that Liyar was beaming to sickbay, she was terrified by two things. One, she was a scientist. She didn't believe in the supernatural; how could she have known that Liyar was in trouble, that he was hurt? Her entire outlook on the nature of the universe had shifted, and reconciling that was causing her significant distress. She didn't know if she could. Second, for Liyar to beam to sickbay meant that he was in real danger. She could never imagine him voluntarily going there for anything concerning himself.

She had barely the inclination to dress herself; only because it was a Starfleet vessel did she make herself barely presentable. She grabbed the teal under-tunic of uniform without putting on a bra or undershirt and zipped it far enough up her chest to hide her breasts. She put on the closest skirt she could find, which was a black one she found rumpled on a chair. She stuffed her feet into a pair of shoes without putting on her socks, and burst toward sickbay.

When she came in, her rush was both physical and in appearance. Her legs were bare in that she hadn't worn tights, her ankles showed above her shoeline. The tunic zipper wasn't all the way up, a little over half, and her hair looked almost like she'd been electrocuted. She saw Liyar laying on a bed, and she'd just heard Kohl raise his voice, and saw him pushing her Vulcan friend down onto his back. She then saw the green of his blood all over him. Maenad felt something tingle inside her, knowing all too well what the feeling was. Her vision blurred, but she ignored it. If Liyar were in trouble, she had to hold herself together.

"Liyar!" she said, hurrying to the bedside. She saw his shoulder, she saw that his arm from his elbow looked irreversibly damaged. Her eyes, because she was gripping to her own strength to keep from fainting, started streaming without her even realising it. "What happened to you?" she asked. She could see his resistance to the doctors' attempts to keep him down and treat him. "Stop struggling!" she snapped at him before he could reply. It was like nobody else was in the room but the two of them; all of Maenad's usual reservations disappeared, and she grabbed his hand and held it hard enough that her own knuckles started to hurt.

"I can care for it m-" he started to snap, but went lax as he realized who was standing over him. "Maenad," he said quietly. He sunk back into the biobed, eyebrows drawn. Maenad was there. Why was she there? His arm jumped as the muscles tightened further. The system of An-Prele that would have prevented him from feeling it decided to take a hike around the corner where he couldn't reach it. It slipped away from him like water through his fingers. Cold, dead water. Maenad's fear and panic were soupy, electric things, replacing his awareness instead. Kohl, Maenad, Kiri, Watt. Nurses. Patients. Kestra. Monsters. He turned his head away, trying to breathe through them. So many voices. "I am functional," he insisted blearily. "There was a cave-in, a piece of stone fell from the cave ceiling and drove into my arm. I will be fine," he insisted, jerking his head toward Kohl.

"You will be fine," Kohl said with some confidence. He didn't continue the thought right away, because he was watching the change in Liyar's manner. He glanced over at Maenad and he smiled approvingly at her state of undress, but then he studied Liyar again. Kohl was exerting twice as much effort as normal to concentrate on anything through throbbing pain in his head. He asked skeptically, "How.. do you intend to mend the arm yourself?"

"I am perfectly capable of entering a healing trance," Liyar replied haughtily.

Liyar's words caused aggravation to blossom inside Kohl's chest. He could feel that burn almost as intensely as the throbbing in his head. Had Kohl spent his morning in Sickbay, a patient's resistance would have rolled right off his skin. But rather, Kohl had spent his morning scrabbling through blasted caverns. "And what sort of duration are you expecting for a trance to knit bone fractures and regenerate muscle tissue?" Kohl asked condescendingly. His intention wasn't to denigrate the healing trance itself, but rather Liyar's apparent disdain for medical science.

It would be much longer, Liyar knew, than if Kohl treated him then and there. But he didn't want to be there. He didn't want to have people poking and prodding at him, he didn't want it thrown in his face that he was weakened. He wanted to be alone, in privacy. He despised hospitals and what they stood for. Having the emotions of panicked Terrans running around his head over the last few hours hadn't helped his composure any either. "I assure you, the amount of time would not be an issue."

"Alas," Kohl said, "Starfleet protocol does not allow me to ignore a wounded officer." It didn't come out as hotly, but without any insight into Liyar's motivation, Kohl certainly didn't say the words with kindness.

Maenad was on another world as the two of them talked to each other. She hadn't noticed her dress, Kohl's joking eyes, or that she was even in sickbay. She was wrestling with her own consciousness. Winning, but still fighting nonetheless. She heard that Liyar was still being difficult, and she heard and saw that Kohl had all the patience of a stalking predator. "Liyar," she whispered critically through clenched teeth, "let him do his job."

The fingers of Liyar's good hand dug into the mattress as the frame slid into place above him, and his eyes were wide, locked on the ceiling. It was white and continual, familiar in a bad way. "Then do it," he indicated his arm with his eyes, pronouncing each word impatiently, "before I tear the vyez thing off," he swore lowly under his breath.

Because Liyar was Vulcan, and because Maenad knew how determined he could be, and how averse he was to weakness, she thought that he might do exactly that - rip it off. Maenad gripped Kohl's elbow between her fingers. "Please," she pleaded with him, leaning into his ear.

Kohl had never really thought about Maenad as the frosty character of her reputation, but her reaction caught him well off guard. He squinted at her questioningly and then he cast his gaze around Sickbay. "Has anyone seen Doctor Ni Dhuinn?" he asked. There was a concerned catch in his voice, when he said, "Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram."

After a moment the holographic mesh lining the walls of sickway whirred into life, the collection of photons and forcefields becoming whole as the typically stone-like face of the holographic doctor appeared beside the group.

"Pleae state the nature of the medical emergency."

The Vulcan blinked, and stared at the hologram who now stood over him. A hologram. The hologram gave him an insufferably indignant look, as if it had been incomparably busy doing whatever it was that holograms did when they went to their blob of oblivion, their corner of irrelevant dimensional space. Liyar did not like that thing any better than Kohl. "Can you not simply-" he paused. He didn't know what exactly doctors did in situations like this. Replicate a new one sounded outright childish, even to his ears. "It cannot be that difficult to fix. Fix it."

For a moment the hologram had to let his visual subroutines gather data from it's surroundings before making an assessment. Thankfully however, a hologram capable of computing thousands if not millions of variables simultaneously did not need too long to gather it's thoughts in the way an organic would.

"That is exactly my function Mr. Liyar." The program replied, crossreferencing the visual datafeed with the ship's personnel records. It was not every day that the hologram met every single organic aboard the ship, and fast data access was essential. Already his program was calling up data on Vulcan physiology, medical treatment methods and indeed where necessary, psychological counselling techniques.

Moving to the equipment tray, the EMH collected a medical tricorder and flipped it open, extracting the probe and passing it over the obvious point of injury. Damage was extensive, however not beyond the hologram's database knowledge.

"Now if you would kindly give me some room to work, I would appreciate it. This is a sickbay, not a social event."

Brushing past the collection of organics that stood before his program, the EMH grabbed a hypospray from the nearest repository and loaded it up with a combination of anaesthesia and broad spectrum antibiotics designed specifically for Vulcan physiology before returning to his patient and injecting a large dose.

"Who is the ranking medical officer at this time?" The program queried, looking around at the group gathered around.

Kohl nodded at the EMH, still standing where he had been casually pushed aside by the same hologram. "I am the Assistant Chief Medical Officer," Kohl said. He started to back away from the biobed, as he considered the ragged cuffs of his uniform jacket. "I'm going to need thirty seconds in a high-intensity sonic shower with sterilizing fields, but then I can assist you."

"Very well. Our first action should be to replace the missing bone, and regenerate the muscle tissue once that is complete. Secondary infection is a risk however we can treat that should it occur at a later point."

The EMH nodded to the organic who had identified himself as the ACMO before turning and heading into the storage room, collecting a series of instruments together onto a tray before returning to the biobed and placing the tray beside him. Most organic doctors would have called upon an organic nurse to complete a task such as that, but the hologram saw no point in wasting efficiency in such a pointless way.

The osteo-regenerator was designed for small-scale regeneration of damaged bone, this however was going to be a much more complicated procedure, with larger sections of bone requiring repair.
Tapping a keypad on the side of the biobed, the hologram watched as the sensor and instrument arrays reached up from either side of the bed and met in the centre of their patient, forming a perfect semi-circle around the top of the biobed before whirring into life and displaying live data from the scans being taken.

With a deft touch the hologram activated the much larger regeneration device built into the biobed, and began targeting the specific areas within the damaged limb to rebuild.

"Bone density is increasing...Assistant Chief Medical Officer, if you would be so kind as to prepare a high dosage of calcium combined with an osteoclast serum? 100 cc's should be more than sufficient if delivered to the bloodstream directly."

Crossing the intensive care unit, Kohl quickly returned from his trip to the sonic shower in the head. He was close enough to hear the EMH's request and the way he made it. "I can be that kind," he said. "You can call me Kohl, by the way. It's easier to say than Assistant Chief Medical Officer."

"Very well. Kohl." The EMH replied absentmindedly, keeping it's visual processors locked onto the data developing on the screen in front of him. The organics had such a fascination with naming, if Emergency Medical Hologram was sufficient for the most advanced piece of medical engineering aboard this ship, then sure Assistant Chief Medical Officer would have been enough for this individual? The minds of organics, even with the psychological profiling of three million psychiatrists built into it's program, still confused the EMH.

While they worked, Liyar lay there utterly still, eyes closed. One might think he were dead, except for the odd twitch every now and then, his muscles shortening and contracting, yanking his fingers into bizarre angles. The one good thing about the hologram, in Liyar's opinion, was it had no mind to chatter endlessly in his head, reverberating loud and obnoxious like the rest of them.

Maenad got out of the way, knowing how frustrating people in her own workspace could be. When the EMH had appeared, her eyes went wide with amazement. Not because she'd never seen one, but because she found them fascinating. Holographic life, artificial intelligence that was sentient amazed her to no ends. Some people thought holograms were used too much or that they somehow demeaned the role of doctors. Maenad, by contrast, thought there should be more holograms. If she could, she thought, she would transfer her own mind into a holographic body.

As the doctors worked, Maenad fixed her attention between them and her placidly furious Vulcan friend. She was no longer at risk of fainting from all the blood mixed with white chips of bone, nor was she disturbed by the heavy odour of copper. Unconsciously, her right hand was at the crown of his head, massing his scalp with her fingertips. He wasn't enjoying any of this, she knew. She felt it. She remembered how he was at the hospital on Vega, and this was much worse than that. She only wished to comfort him in any way she could.

Padding back to Liyar's biobed, Kohl was clutching four hypospray cartridges between both hands. He took position opposite the EMH and he inserted the cartrdiges into slots on the biobed. Kohl tapped at the controls on the surgical support frame and then the biobed began to introduce the medicinals to Liyar intravenously.

"Bone density is approaching acceptable levels....Assistan.....Kohl - please set up a blood transfusion, three units should be sufficient."

The EMH had to catch it's vocal subroutines before they completed an unexpected error - the organic had asked to be called by it's first name, and therefore this should be actioned.

It's holographic fingers running across the panel, the EMH shut down the larger osteo-regenerator and instead swapped it for a series of instrumenst that would allow the hologram to rebuild the damaged muscle tissue around the newly-constructed bone. His patient's last medical report combined with the transporter records in the ship's computer was more than sufficient for the programs within the instruments to calculate the correct form to construct.
After a few more minutes of intense concentration, the EMH finally shut down the device, and peeled back the sensor and instrument panel back into the sides of the biobed.

"I have repaired the damage to your bone and musculature Mr Varek, although there will be some tenderness as the new flesh knits to your existing tissue there should be no permanent damage. Your Vulcan physiology should make the healing process generally simple."

Through the entire process, Liyar remained complacent, focusing on Maenad instead of the rage that simmered away beneath the surface. Soon the anger subsided and he was able to grasp the basic tenets of his control and meditation. As quickly as Liyar could, he propped himself upright when the restraint over him vanished. He didn't respond to the EMH when the hologram got his name wrong, as he considered the EMH nothing more than a computer terminal, which had made an error. In fact, he didn't respond to the EMH at all, as he couldn't fathom it as a living being. He couldn't feel it. It was a shadow, an image, a piece of art at most. One did not have a conversation with a computer terminal. Flexing his fingers experimentally, Liyar addressed Kohl with a tilt of his head. "Then I may leave."

Maenad blinked, expecting more from him - expecting him to snap back at the EMH for forgetting his name, or possibly not caring at all to ever know what it was. She stood where she was, not saying anything.

For a moment the hologram was unsure as to why he had been ignored - the medical care the program had administered was complete and thorough, and indeed there had been no remaining damage. With a moment of silence, the EMH accessed his historical database and reran through the memory engrams formed for those few moments. An error. Surely not? His holomatrix was amongst the most advanced in the Federation?

Frantically summoning internal diagnostic programs, the EMH began to work through each and every subroutine in his system, desperate to find where this error had occurred. Desperation. An organic thought for organics...not for holograms.

There it was. Memory engram failure between his holomatrix and the ship's databanks.

"Assistant Chief Medical Officer Kohl....I believe I will be requiring the attention of an engineer shortly. There appears to be damage to my program that I am unable to self repair."

Liyar placed his feet on the ground and pushed himself off of the biobed. His environment was very Spinny, he noted curiously, but he could take simple steps and soon he would be out of here. He could go back to his quarters away from the poking, the prodding, the holograms, the white-brightness of the walls around him, hyposprays, injections, there-there. "I see you are now busy," he declared confidently. "Goodbye-"

Kohl had fixed the EMH with a perplexed stare, but he didn't meet the hologram's eyes for very long. His first thought was concern for Liyar, and his gaze reluctantly drifted to the Vulcan. If the EMH's program was damaged, Kohl feared how that may have impacted the EMH's program of care. Kohl had been watching the biofunction monitor and the EMH's hands the whole time, but-- but then Liyar was on his feet. In his most authoritative tone, Kohl said, "Lieutenant, you haven't been discharged."

Liyar blinked down at his arm. He hadn't missed the look Kohl had given the hologram. "Did it make a mistake?"

"If you will return to your biobed and let me examine your arm," Kohl said, "I can make that determination."

"I presume by your use of the word 'it' you are referring to me?" The hologram interjected. Although programmed with some of the most developed artificial intelligence software in Starfleet, the program still found himself being referred to as an "it" when it had been designed specifically to meet the male human form.

"My abilities to perform medical care are unaffected. The error lies in the interface between my program and the ship's manifest - surgical and diagnostic protocols are controlled by a separate program."

Liyar's eyes went from the floor to the EMH, back to the floor, then to Kohl again. It was talking to him. Feeling a little ridiculous, he kept his eyes on Kohl as he started, "You-"

At the same time Liyar was speaking, Kohl was speaking over Liyar, to snap, "No," at the EMH. His body language managed to communicate muscle tension and fatigue, as he aimed a finger at the empty biobed beside them. Incensed at the EMH's suggestion, Kohl said, "Nonono, we don't know that yet. No one is allowed to diagnose himself. Consider yourself formally relieved from duty until you sit patiently through a level one diagnostic."

Liyar closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. He needed to get away from their thoughts. His mind was an enraged fog of anesthesia and pain. Hate and anger rushed through his veins. He thought he would get great satisfaction from plucking Kohl's eyes out of his head and crushing them between his newly healed fingers. The image made him relax. He didn't know or care if the feelings were his. He was nothing but a sieve for the universe to batter and twist. He stuck his arm out pointedly. He felt like part of a circus act, this needed to end. He didn't care if the medical hologram thing had replaced his bones with cotton candy. He wanted out.

Maenad sighed to herself. She was standing behind the headrest of the bio, right beside Liyar but where he couldn't see her. She stepped forward, to his side, and glanced down at him. She didn't smile, but her eyes told him that she wanted him to be calm and the let the doctors do their work. It was difficult enough for all of them; having a patient like Liyar was probably more frustrating than having an arm impaled with a giant rock spike, she thought. To her, though, the damage looked repaired. He was still in a lot of pain and he wouldn't be able to move the arm as much until parts had fully regrown, but he was fine. He wanted to leave; maybe she could offer a compromise. "Mister Kohl, I can look after him," she said. "I have basic medical training; if anything changes, he will report it right away, " Maenad looked down at her problematic Vulcan friend. "Won't you?"

Liyar's patience was nearing its utter limit. He didn't even reply, he just kept his arm held out and stared at Kohl emptily.

With a look of indignation, the EMH realised that he was going to have to comply with his organic superiors whether he wished to or not. The thought of having each and every one of his algorithms decompiled and examined in their entirety would have made his skin crawl, if indeed his skin was anything more than a simulation comprised of photons and forefields.

"Very well. I will be in the memory buffer should you require me further. Computer deactivate EMH and begin Level One diagnostic proceedings."

And after a moment's notice, the hologram disappeared back into nothingness, his program inactive until the diagnostic had been completed.

Stepping closer to Liyar, Kohl took the EMH's position beside the biobed. With his right hand, Kohl gently gripped Liyar's wrist and he studied the texture of the newly regenerated skin. With his left hand, Kohl applied palpation across Liyar's forearm using a the pads of his fingertips.

The Vulcan's arm twitched mildly as Kohl's thoughts buzzed and prickled uncomfortably through him, and he threatened to pull away, offering tension against Kohl's grip unconsciously. He allowed Kohl to finish his examination, mentally forcing himself to bear it. The only way out was through. His fingers curled instinctively, but he felt normal. He thought. He wasn't sure he could tell the difference between himself and Kohl while Kohl was touching him. "Is it functional?" Liyar asked thinly.

Kohl released Liyar's arm from his grip and turned his attention to the sensor readings on the biofunction monitor. He studied the data, offering no immediate reply nor reaction to the question posed by Liyar. Kohl turned his eyes to Maenad next and he said to her, "I'm going to take you up on your offer."

With that, Liyar stood and promptly walked out the door.

Starting after Liyar, Maenad suddenly looked furious - not with Kohl or with anyone else, but with Liyar. She stopped on a dime, and spun around to face Kohl. "He thanks you," she insisted, "and so do I." With a smile Maenad gave him an appreciative nod, then rushed after her insolent Vulcan friend. Hurt or not, he needed to learn some etiquette.

Kohl smiled back at Maenad and then he watched her hurry to the door.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

EMH Mk-X
Emergency Medical Hologram
USS Galileo
pNPC John Holliday

Lieutenant (JG) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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