The Morning After the Night Before

Posted on 20 Oct 2018 @ 3:27pm by Cadet Senior Grade Jody Scott

955 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Empty Creche
Location: Sickbay, USS Redemption
Timeline: ED1 1200

Jody felt the tug of consciousness slowly drawing him out of his sleep. At first he was unaware of where he was, but the gentle hum of the instruments in sickbay reminded him that he was back on board the Redemption. A heart rate monitor nearby was chirping along at a healthy rate. A few voices could be overheard in the distance, talking about someone who was gravely ill. It took another few moments for the cadet’s memories of the preceding twenty-four hours to reassert themselves in his mind; but assert themselves they did.

“Daniel!”

Sitting bolt upright in his chair, Jody immediately swung round to inspect his friend in the bed beside him. Of course, the two humans had stopped being friends some time ago; what they had become, instead, was still up for debate. Jody’s heart raced as he inspected the medical readouts and was reassured to see that Dan had remained stable overnight, although still showed no signs of consciousness.

“Is everything alright, cadet?” Hank Grey, the most senior nurse on board the Redemption, approached Jody with a look of mild concern on his face.

“Yes,” he said meekly, embarrassed by his disorientated outburst. The nurse and cadet continued to stare each other down until Jody chose to ask the obvious question. “How is he doing?”

Hank sighed, his features softening slightly as he went to speak. As a counselor Jody could tell when someone was about to deliver bad news. “There has been minimal change overnight. Dr Afton thinks that the phaser discharge has done more damage to the ambassador than we initially thought.”

Panic began to rise within Jody. “What do you mean by that?”

“It means that we have to cross our fingers and give him the time he needs to heal,” Hank responded. The nurse stepped towards Daniel’s biobed and tapped a few instructions into the control interface. Jody watched intently as Hank carried out a check of the biobed systems, recording some of the data into the padd he was carrying.

Jody slumped back down into the chair by Dan’s bed. His brain started to work overtime as he dissected the events that led them to this situation; feelings of guilt swelling up within the cadet as he tried to come to terms with what Marshall had done to Dan. ‘If only I hadn’t insisted on Dan spending the night,” Jody thought, blaming himself for the ambassador’s current situation.

Hank finished typing something into his padd and then addressed the cadet again. “The new organ grafts have taken well. Physically, Mr Sutherland is recovering well.”

“What about,” Jody said initially, choosing not to finish the sentence but instead pointed an index finger at his own head.

The nurse gave the cadet a half-hearted smile. “Why don’t we wait for Dr Kolmak to return and perform some more investigations?” On completing the sentence Hank started walking away from Jody and Dan, leaving them alone once again.

Jody sat there in silence for a moment enjoying the calm atmosphere of sickbay and the lack of an alien telepath invading his mind. He did consider one thought in that moment, however; he wished to speak with Doctor Afton about his latent telepathic abilities that the Ee Hybrid seemed to exploit at every possible opportunity. Ever since their mission to Romulus Jody had found other people’s thoughts and emotions getting jumbled up with his own. It was almost unheard of for a human to have, never mind develop during their adult years, telepathic abilities.

What had the hybrid done to him?

He slumped lower in his chair, closing his eyes and clearing his mind of all negative thoughts. His heart rate slowed down and he felt much calmer than when he first woke up. That’s when the smell hit him. Jody opened his eyes and looked down at his bare feet, grey sweatpants stained with what looked like human and Vulcan blood, and then his t-shirt that he knew was covered in Rhyan’s blood. He took a brief sniff of his armpit and knew that he was the source of the unpleasant odour.

‘No wonder Nurse Grey couldn’t get away fast enough,” he thought to himself.

The events in Rhyan’s lab were a bit of a blur in Jody’s mind, but enough of the encounter remained with him that he could piece it all together. Marshall had activated his telepathic device on Jody’s head and then the Ee Hybrid had taken over his mind. All he could do was watch as he attacked Rhyan and murdered Marshall; unsure whether the feeling of satisfaction at Marshall’s death was the hybrid’s or his own. He didn’t want to ruminate much longer on that particular thought.

Jody pushed himself off the chair and leant forward to kiss Daniel briefly on the forehead. The ache in his right wrist reminded him of where Marshall had broken his forearm. “I’ll be back shortly. Don’t be going anywhere while I am gone,” he whispered, certain that Dan could hear him.

He did not like the idea of leaving sickbay but he had to freshen up and throw on a fresh uniform before the captain made an unexpected visit to sickbay. At some point he would be expected to return to duty; the crew of the Redemption certainly could do with a counselor to help them deal with all their problems. He waved to Hank to let him know he was leaving and only looked back at Daniel once, as he finally stepped out of sickbay and into the corridor.

OOC: I seem to be on a roll today.

 

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