A Cure for Tribbles

Posted on 08 Aug 2014 @ 8:55pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Pieter Van Zyl Ph.D. & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D.

1,871 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD8, 1330 hrs

[ON]

It all started with a small patch of hives erupting on Pieter's right forearm.

As a man who grew up with quite a collection of allergies, random breakouts were nothing out of the ordinary for him so he didn't question it at first. A random allergen floating around was nothing to worry about.

After hearing about a possible Tribble infestation, Pieter had all but barricaded himself in the botany lab. In the hopes of limiting his exposure, he'd also carefully planned his movements to mostly take place between the Botany lab and his quarters, where he ate all of his meals and prayed for the Tribbles demise. For a time, the strategy worked and Pieter didn't have to deal with the most embarrassing allergy in the universe.

But, alas, that morning, days after the first outbreak, Pieter saw his worst nightmare come to life. A Tribble was making a little home for itself right in the middle of his Antarion moon blossoms. At first he'd tried to grab it between two paDDs because someone had borrowed his gloves (again!) but, half way to the door, he was overcome with a sneezing fit and dropped the vile creature.

Kicking the Tribble aside with no thought for its wellbeing (it certainly didn't seem to care about Pieter's), he made his way down to Sickbay as slowly as possible at first. With each Tribble infested corridor he passed through, Pieter picked up his pace. The last thing he needed was to slip into anaphylaxis right then and there.

Death by Tribble was not the way he planned to finish this rat race they call a life. Unfortunately, he knew he was out of allergy medication, so a trip to Sickbay was inevitable.

Tuula waved a tricorder over her patient on the biobed. With burns over 60% of her body, the patient was agitated, unable to keep still and squirming all over the biobed.

"Okay, I'm going to give you something for the pain," said Tuula, looking at the tricorder readings. She'd never treated this species before, and only knew the anatomy from her scans. A little bit of Bicaridine couldn't hurt, she figured, not wanting to risk a reaction to Metorapan.

With a hypospray in one hand, she parted the patient's fur to find a good injection site. "Just relax, you'll be all better in no time." The patient cood and squirmed, before calming down as the drugs started to kick in. "Don't worry, little tribble, you're in good hands."

As she was busy shaving the singed fur of the badly burned tribble, Tuula heard the whoosh of the sickbay door opening.

Pieter almost stumbled into the room, making it two or three paces before another sneezing fit came over him. He took his glasses of, placing them into his pocket as his eyes began to water and even itch a little.

"Doctor." The device on his wrist said, as if stating a fact and asking for the professional in question.

Once his sneezing was under control, Pieter rubbed some of the tears from his eyes and looked around the room. Finally catching sight of the woman near the biobed, he began to walk towards her but hesitated when he saw her 'patient'.

"One moment," replied Tuula, placing the half-shaved tribble back onto the biobed. "Don't go too far, my little friend, I'll be right back," added Tuula, petting the tiny creature a couple times before turning her attention to her new patient. She much preferred animals to people, and gave serious consideration to becoming a veterinarian instead of a doctor in her late teens. "Now," she started, gripping her wheels to make her way towards the new entrant, "how may I help you?"

Glancing down through the teary fog, Pieter looked at the small screen on his wrist to see what she'd said. Looking back up, he replied, hoping he wouldn't sneeze again to cut himself off.

"Allergy attack," he told her before wiping the tears from his eyes again.

"I see," replied Tuula, her eyes wandering to his wrist. She recognized the device as one used to assist deaf persons with communicating with the outside world. "I can give you an anti-histamine to suppress the symptoms. Do you have any idea what is triggering this allergic reaction?" She spoke slower than normal, in an effort to ensure that the voice recognition software in his device wouldn't stumble over complex words spoken with a thick Finnish accent.

Instead of answering verbally, Pieter cast a hate-filled look to the furry 'patient' on the doctor's biobed. In case that wasn't enough, he nodded and pointed to it as well.

"I see," replied Tuula. "I'd tell you to avoid them, but that's kind of difficult as of late on this ship." Though she cared for every living thing -- except maybe people -- even she had to admit that they had a problem looking at the mass of tribbles she had quarantined behind a force field. "Let me just go get some medication for you, Mr..."

"Van Zyl," Pieter replied. "Petty officer Pieter Van Zyl, Lieutenant." Even breaking out in a fresh wave of hives was no reason to break proper protocol in addressing a senior officer.

"Dr. Tuula Voutilainen," replied Tuula, her head in a supply cabinet. Perhaps it was her lack of care for Starfleet ranks, or perhaps it was that 'Doctor' was a more prestigious title than 'Lieutenant (J.G.),' but she preferred the former designation in formal situations. "Damn, we're out," she said aloud before turning around. "Don't worry, I can make some more in the--" she paused, looking at what was left of the medical replicator that her patient was found in.

Pieter followed her line of sight and frowned, seeing the replicator. Glancing down at his wrist, he saw her sentence cut off. Letting out a small, pained noise, he proceeded to sit down on the floor in Sickbay, as if resigned to his fate.

From where he was sitting, the replicator didn't seem to have much wrong with it, but trying to fix it through sneezing fits, itchiness and teary eyes was going to be a whole new experience for him. He looked up at the doctor before pushing himself off the floor and into a standing position.

"I'll take a look at it," he told her, his movements quick and a little choppy from the urge to scratch at his skin. He made his way over to the replicator, but not before giving the Tribbles a dirty look.

"I took the cover off and found this poor little guy in there," she added, pointing back to the half-shaved tribble on the biobed. "I think he shorted something out; he was burnt pretty badly when I found him."

Pieter made a face that clearly showed he thought the Tribble got what was coming to it. Opening one of the emergency engineering kit panels, Pieter finally looked into the replicator. It was a mess, filled with bits of matter as the poor little guy had tried to nibble through the conversion matrix. Pieter couldn't help but be slightly satisfied with the fact that, along with those bits, there were tufts of fur inside the replicator as well as what appeared to be drops of blood. At the sight of them, Pieter also couldn't help but feel pity for the pathetic creature.

Realising he might be acting rudely to the good doctor, Pieter attempted some light conversation. "Personally, I don't think they should've allowed Tribbles on the ship at all," he said before digging through the engineering kit.

"Probably not," replied Tuula, returning to her other patient. "You know, I love animals, and there's nothing that makes me angrier than irresponsible pet owners." Well, maybe Zuwtt, she added mentally. "People shouldn't take animals as pets if they don't know how to care for them."

Pieter looked at her and nodded in agreement. "I never saw the point in keeping animals as pets," he admitted before taking out the circuit board from the replicator and activating his hyperspanner to work on it, occasionally checking his wrist for the doctor's reply.

"They do provide some things," replied Tuula as she finished shaving the tribble. "Companionship, for one."

Pieter just made a face, not wanting to say the wrong thing to a higher ranking officer, though he didn't agree. Sure, animals provided companionship but that was, from his point of view, because they were bred for it. If you lock some animal, like a Tribble, up in a little cage and feed it, of course it's going to provide you with companionship. That was the role you had imposed upon it.

"Well, I think we've gotten enough companionship from these Tribbles to last a lifetime," Pieter simply answered after he'd replaced the wiring of the matrix and finally took out a hyperspanner.

"Agreed," replied Tuula as she administered an anasthetic. "There are some animals that just don't belong on a starship, and it's kind of greedy for us to take them out of the wild." As the tribble dozed off under the influence of the anasthetic, Tuula got out her laser scalpel. It was a more delicate and precise tool than a bone saw, and performing reconstructive surgery on a tribble was a very delicate operation.

Pieter nodded, shooting Tuula glances between working on the replicator. She was an odd one, by the looks of her and Pieter figured she'd fit in well among the crew. In his experience, science vessels pulled in the oddest of the odd.

He didn't say anything and instead worked on putting the matrix back together before having another bout of sneezing. Once it stopped, he sniffed a few times while saying.

"I'm really starting to hate those things," he admitted.

"Now, that's not very nice," replied Tuula in a cutesy voice as she held the hairless tribble aloft. She had finished her reconstructive surgery "I can give you something to stimulate your hair follicles, and once your hair grows back, you'll be good as new." She furrowed her brow. "But you need a name though; perhaps I shall call you Gilbert, after my favourite librettist."

Coming too, the tribble let out a gentle coo, starting to shake and shiver on her hand.

"Gilbert it is," said Tuula, stifling a giggle. "Come on, that tickles."

Pieter watched Tuula with a slightly perplexed expression. 'Yes, definitely an odd one. ' Shaking his head, he activated the replicator and watching it light up.

"Doctor?" he said impatiently.

"Oh right, my apologies." Tuula made her way over to the replicator. "Computer, one dozen tables of Celarapan, 50 milligrams." She handed the pill bottle to Pieter. "Take two of these a day, and if you have any trouble, call me in the morning."

Taking the pill bottle, Pieter nodded to the doctor gratefully before popping two immediately. Bidding her a quick, respectful farewell, Pieter made his way out of Sickbay, leaving the doctor to her other, less evolved patient.


[OFF]

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Pieter Van Zyl
Botanist
USS Galileo

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