"Tentaclees Fallout"

Posted on 08 Jan 2026 @ 6:05pm by Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant JG Nusien & Ensign Amanda Turell & Chief Petty Officer Katja Becker & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin

1,649 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: Medical Bay
Timeline: MD 07, 0830 hrs

The five forms of Carlisle, Nusien, Turell, Becker, materialized in Galileo's medical center, the tell tale shimmer of the transporter in their wake, the awaiting medical staff already swarming them to initiate a prompt and efficient triage protocol.

Delainey allowed herself a nano-second to exhale in relief but was already turning to make sure Amanda Turell was behind her and still able to travel to the decontamination area under her own steam. Carlisle trusted that Nusien and Becker could attend to the more obviously injured T'Lin while she attended to Turell.

If they were lucky, the most difficult aspect of Amanda's care would be making sure all of Tentaclees' fluids were removed from every inch of the security officer's skin, but Delainey knew better than to assume all that was required was a simple shower. Hovar's condition had rapidly gone down hill after contact with Tentaclees and she wasn't going to take any chances.

Leading Amanda into the decon area, Delainey pointed to the shower. "Head there and I'll erect the privacy field. If you need help with your clothes, just let me know, but I'd like to save them for testing just in case it proves useful. I'll replicate you some fresh clothes too."

Amanda all but ran into the large shower area eager to be rid of her green overcoat, even though it had only been a few minutes since she'd been covered in the blood it was already quickly drying and congealing on her body and uniform. Her boots and socks came off quickly enough, they'd mostly escaped the fountain of green blood, gravity and a quick wiggle of her hips let her uniform pants drop to the ground only a few seconds later. The top was going to be much harder, she tried to manipulate the zip but struggled to grip the small nub that was slick with blood with her equally bloody hands and when she did get a grip it barely moved. "The zip is all gummed up." She called out.

“On my way,” Carlisle called out. She had quickly changed out of her own uniform and donned a protective suit. She had already been exposed to Tentaclees’ bodily fluids, but she saw no reason to take additional chances if she could avoid it.

With gloved hands, she approached Amanda, and carefully helped her unzip her jacket and remove it. Delainey was focused on her task and every bit the professional, but the scarring on Amanda‘s right shoulder was hard to miss. Unsure what to say, Carlisle remained quiet, knowing any comment she would make about the other woman‘s body under these circumstances wouldn’t be appropriate.

Free of the jacket Amanda was able to remove her shirt, as more of her pale skin emerged more of the myriad of scars that adorned her body came into view.

Carlisle reminded herself to stay focused on her task, but she couldn’t ignore what was right in front of her. The counselor didn’t pity Amanda for her scars, as she understood they were reminders of what the security officer had survived and no matter how intense the battle, they were a reminder she had prevailed. Even so, they were also a reminder of pain she had suffered, and for that, Carlisle felt compassion. “Still feeling just grossed out?“

"Everything feels alright, I definitely need to wash my mouth out though." Amanda replied. Stepping completely into the decon shower she swiftly began to remove her underwear and bra.

In the meantime, Carlisle retrieved another specimen cup so that she could save additional samples from Amanda‘s mouth. It might’ve been overkill, but she would rather have way too many samples than not enough. They still had no idea what information would be relevant.

Out of respect for Amanda‘s privacy, she handed her the cup with her back turned away. She was a medical professional and was not embarrassed, but that didn’t mean she could assume Amanda had entirely given up any sense of privacy.

Amanda scooped up a sizeable sample of the green blood and quickly handed the container back to Delainy before activating the decon shower and stepping between the emitter arrays.


***

Once the transporter effect finished Nusien took a tricorder and scanned himself first, one could never be too careful he thought. He then signalled for T'Lin to be placed on a bio bed and he engaged the surgical shield to begin scanning. "Chief Becker assist please. We need to find out what if anything is affecting the Petty Officer."

Katja Becker tugged on a fresh set of gloves as she moved to Nusien’s side, her expression focused but tight with concern. She too had been graced with various pieces of 'guts' and ichor from the splash zone when 'tentaclees' bit it spectacularly - but she hadn't been munched on like a Vulcan hors d'oeuvre. Her mind flicked uneasily back to Hovar’s decline.

“Aye, doctor,” she said crisply, slipping into position opposite him at the biobed. She activated the auxiliary panel, syncing her tricorder to the bed’s integrated sensors. “Vitals are elevated—respiration shallow, heart rate erratic but within Vulcan compensatory range. Blood pressure’s trending down.”

Her eyes narrowed as the scan painted its story. “I’m picking up metabolic irregularities. Elevated histamine and mast cell activation—almost like an allergic cascade, but far too rapid for ordinary anaphylaxis.” She flicked her gaze toward Nusien. “There’s a compound here I can’t fully identify—structurally similar to hemocyanin, but denser, like it’s binding aggressively to her blood proteins.”

She adjusted the biobed’s filters and set an emergency IV line. “We’ll need to stabilize her oxygen transport before it compromises cerebral function. I can start a broad-spectrum antihistamine regimen and a hemoprotective compound.” Her tone dropped, grim but controlled. “If this is the same pathology that brought Hovar down, we may not have much of a window before systemic collapse begins.”

Nusien nodded in agreement with Katja. "Do it. I will begin to evaluate the blood chemistry and see what is causing the histamine like response. If we can stave it off long enough we can take care of the problem." Nusien looked at the scans and could see there was something almost venom like making its way through the blood stream.

Becker’s hands moved in quick, practiced motions as she initiated the infusion line, her eyes scanning the biobed’s readouts as Nusien adjusted the parameters. “Infusion line stable—antihistamine delivery begun. Hemoprotective compound piggybacked in the secondary port.”

She glanced at him, lowering her voice. “Tissue oxygenation’s still dipping—eighty-eight percent and falling. Vulcanoid anatomy is allowing for some compensatory response, but the compound’s outpacing her system’s ability to compensate. If it keeps binding like this, we’ll be chasing our tails.”

Nusien watched the readouts as his mind raced. He had to come up with a way to raise the oxygenation. Suddenly an idea came to him. However, he needed help in order to learn if he was right. "The being that attacked lives underwater. It must process oxygen from water as all aquatic life does. Check to see if there is a part of it, a cell, a something within the bloodstream that is trying to process the oxygen in the blood in order to live." He began to input commands into the bio bed a lightning speed.

Katja’s fingers flew over the holo-controls as she routed the biobed’s cellular imaging through the ship’s main diagnostic matrix. The holo-display over the patient’s body shimmered and re-rendered, magnifying the bloodstream into a glowing lattice of crimson and pale blue. “There—” she pointed, isolating a cluster of anomalous cells. “Micro-structures embedded in the erythrocyte membrane. They’re… parasitic, but organized. Each one’s generating a microcurrent across the cellular wall—like they’re pulling oxygen ions out of solution rather than releasing them.”

Katja added, more talking to herself in the moment, "Scheisse, are they using her hemoglobin as an oxygen sink--mimicking aquatic respiration?"

Nusien looked at the screen over her shoulder. "That is precisely what they are doing. We should try to transport these parasites out and into a solution that would keep them alive for study. It is possible that these micro structures could lead to a cure for Hovar. Once they are removed T'Lin should be well on her way to health. I will prepare the bio filters. If you would prepare a containment location for them."

"What about the vacuum of space? That would be a schön place for the little bastards." Katja thought silently.

"Aye sir." She replied instead, and set to work bringing up a suitable biocontainment field within one of programmable specimen containers. Her eyes darted to the readouts over T'Lin "Nusien, her oxygen is continuing to drop, I'm ready on my end. This should hold them in stasis - the science-y types are likely gonna want to study them."

"Agreed. Energize." Nusien gave the order while he watched the readouts. Once the transport was complete he engaged a field around T'Lin and filled it with high concentrate oxygen. He would flood her system with oxygen to get it back into the bloodstream. "Initiating high flow oxygen protocol." Within minutes he watched as T'Lin's levels levelled off and began to increase excruciatingly slowly. "That seemed to have done the trick. She is not out of the woods yet. But she is on the right track."

?Final Tags




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Chief Petty Officer Katja Becker
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC - Sera]

Ensign Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[Pnpc Mimi]

Lieutenant Junior Grade Nusien
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Junior Grade Delainey Carlisle
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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