Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Sun, 02 May 2004 16:06:24 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Heather Smyth" Title: Alone Inside Author: Heather Smyth Series: TNG Part: 6/? Rating: R Code: P/C Disclaimer: Paramount owns all Startrek and I derive no financial gain from this story...just a little fun. Summary: See part one. Beverly and Deanna were seated in a large semi-circular auditorium listening avidly to a lecture about new regeneration techniques when Beverly's combadge beeped. She tapped it and quietly gave her acknowledgement before nudging Deanna and nodding to the exit. When the two women were out in the foyer, Beverly tapped her combadge again and waited. "Doctor Crusher I have a message for you from the Enterprise." "Go ahead." "One moment please." Deanna giggled and poked Beverly in the ribs. "They probably can't find something." "Doctor Crusher? I have it now. Commander Riker reports the Enterprise will enter orbit in seven hours. Please be ready to beam aboard immediately upon their arrival." "Is that all? Did he give a reason?" "No Doctor." "Ok thank you, Crusher out." Deanna's face creased in a frown. "Weren't they supposed to be mapping.?" "Something's wrong. Why didn't Jean-Luc send the message?" The two officers looked at each other and the tension went up another notch. "Come on Deanna we have to pack." Jean-Luc lay limply on the biobed, his lean body connected to several monitors. Two nurses and Doctor Selar hovered about him, alternatively watching the terminals and casting their eyes over his inert frame. Will watched from the door, his broad shoulders sagging. Having finished connecting the Captain to a bio waste unit, Selar joined Will at the door. "Any change?" "No Commander he is completely unresponsive." Will ran his hand through his hair. "What is it? How.what has caused this?" "I have insufficient data to formulate a diagnosis, but if I were to postulate.I would say his psyche has reached a point where he can no longer cope. I would hazard he has.closed down." "Ok, I can understand that, but what did it to him. What was so great that it overwhelmed his mind for God's sake?" Selar cast a lingering look at the stricken man. "I do not know Commander." "Is there any brain activity?" "Yes. There is a surfeit of activity from the parietal lobe. He is processing information at a phenomenal rate. My opinion is that he is experiencing a form of dreaming." Will stepped up to his Captain and looked down at him. "Well I hope they're pleasant dreams.the alternative is too deplorable to contemplate." "I agree Commander. To be trapped, unable to waken and to be at the vagaries of an unending nightmare.it would be.unfortunate." Will eyed the Vulcan physician and swallowed. His eyes lowered as he contemplated the horror Selar had just outlined. The Doctor, keeping her vision locked on the Captain, said softly, "When do we retrieve Doctor Crusher and the Counsellor?" "About five hours more. Is there anything you can give him? Something to stop the dreaming?" "Neural inducers would suppress dreams but until I know more about his condition." "Do it! For God's sake.don't allow him to suffer." Selar hesitated only a moment then she went and got the inducers. Placing them on Jean-Luc's temples, she activated them and watched the monitors as the activity of his brain quietened. "It is done Commander." "Thank you Doctor, I'll be on the Bridge. Call me if there's any change." "Aye Sir." Will left and Selar took up a tricorder. Scanning the prosthesis on Jean-Luc 's right arm, she noted the rate of healing and, after taking some measurements, bent the elbow joint until it was at a right angle. She then bent each finger and tightened the wires adjoining them. She called the duty nurse over and scheduled surgery for the Captain for the following morning. His arm was doing well; it was time to close some of the wounds within the unit. Beverly and Deanna were in their room when the call came through from the Enterprise. They beamed aboard and met with Will in the Transporter Room. "Beverly, Deanna.am I glad." Beverly stepped from the platform and stood before the tall man. "What is it Will?" "It's the Captain.he's.well he's." "He's what!" "Selar says he's catatonic. He's in Sick Bay and he's not responding to anything." Deanna gripped Beverly's arm and spoke. "What happened?" "We're not sure. He was involved in an accident a few days ago and he's been going downhill ever since. Apart from other things, his right arm was crushed. When he awoke from surgery he was very upset with the prosthesis that Selar put on his arm. I think he thought he'd been. ".re-assimilated! Oh God." Deanna looked at her friends and shook her head. "But surely he would have known.didn't you tell him?" Will nodded. "Of course we did. Selar even sedated him but he just got angry. In fact anger was all he was capable of." Beverly pinched the bridge of her nose and made for the door. "Come on, we can talk on the way to Sick Bay." The three officers walked briskly, each gesturing with their hands. "So let me get this straight. He's in an accident and is injured. He has surgery and wakes up with prosthesis on his arm and mistakes it for a Borg unit. He reacts badly and becomes angry. How am I doing?" Will nodded. "That's about it. Every time we tried to approach him, he just got angrier. We tried a psychologist, but he." Deanna gasped and shook her head. "Oh bad move Will. He wouldn't like that under any circumstances." Beverly asked, "Who did you use?" "Ah.A Lieutenant Emerauld from Anthropology." "Male or female?" "Male." "Hmm. Did he make it out alive?" "Actually the Captain was very.controlled. Uncooperative, but not belligerent." "Lucky Lieutenant!" They arrived at Sick Bay and entered. Selar saw them and ushered them into the Captain's room. Beverly scrutinised the readouts as her friends stood back and watched. "How long has he been like this?" "He has been in Sick Bay approximately ten hours. I estimate he was in this state for a further fourteen hours in his quarters." "What? Why so long?" "We did not know Doctor. He had been discharged to his quarters and when he did not arrive for his scheduled check up the next day, I went to see him. I found him on the floor in his bedroom and estimated the amount of time by the quantity of urine on the floor." "Was there any warning? Did he show any signs.anything at all that might have signalled this?" "No Doctor. Apart from his belligerence and his healing injuries, he was in good condition." Beverly touched the back of her hand to Jean-Luc's cheek and sighed. Before she could ask any more questions, Selar interrupted her. "Doctor why are some of Captain Picard's records coded? It made treating him very difficult." Beverly's head snapped up and, what started as a glare of defiance, settled into a grimace of contrition. "Come into the office.Will, you and Deanna better come too." Data had immeasurable patience. His emotion chip allowed him the luxury of being able to immerse himself in the surrounding eddies and swirls as the feelings of his crewmates flowed around him. His golden eyes never moved as they watched Ensign Fullarton try to calibrate the aft sensor grid. A sheen of sweat glistened on her face as she frowned and shook her head. "It's no use Commander.I just can't do it!" He stepped closer and put what he hoped was an encouraging look on his face. "This is a simulation Ensign. There is no pressure on you. I am aware that you have been under some duress, but I think this is a simple test you should be able to complete. Please try again." Amy gritted her teeth and glared at the console, trying by force of will to bring to mind the elusive sequence. She stabbed her finger at the console and groaned as the lights flashed red.again. In frustration, she slammed her fists down on the glossy surface and kicked the pedestal. "Dammit!" Data was fascinated by her display, but kept that to himself. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and spoke quietly. "Ensign." "NO! It's no use.I'm hopeless! You might as well write me off." She shrugged out of his contact and fled the area leaving Data perplexed and worried. He thought about following her, but then decided to find Geordie to discuss the matter. He found his friend in Engineering. "Hiya Data.what's cooking?" Data frowned and looked about him. "Cooking Geordie? I do not think." "Come on Data, what's cooking? What are you doing?" "Ah. I have just come from a very unproductive session with Ensign Fullarton." "It didn't go well?" "No. She displayed a level of ineptitude I have not witnessed in an Enterprise crewmember before. Had I not seen it, I would not have believed it." "That bad eh?" "Yes." "What task did you set?" "A simple re-calibration of the aft sensor array." "During battle?" "No Geordie, in the Space Dock." "And she failed?" "Yes.miserably." Geordie spun his chair around and checked some instruments while thinking. "How much more time can we give her?" "She has a rotation coming up on the Bridge, then Astrophysics. If her performance is as bad in those she will have failed across the board." "We can't let that happen Data, she's too good for that." "I agree with you Geordie, but I do not know how to help her." "Hmm. Leave it with me, I'll think on it and see what I can come up with." Beverly, Will, Deanna and Selar made themselves comfortable in the office as Beverly brought up the Captain's medical file. Entering a sequence of symbols, the coded files unlocked and presented themselves on the screen. Beverly turned the monitor so the others could see. "During Captain Picard's recovery from his assimilation he had great trouble coming to terms with several things. The assimilation itself was excruciatingly painful and protracted. He could do nothing but endure what they did to him.he didn't even have the luxury of screaming. Then they raped him, body and mind. They took all his knowledge and used it to destroy the fleet at Wolf 359 with the accompanying loss of eleven thousand lives. He had to learn to live with that if he was ever going to recover. Being the man he is, he recognised it, studied it then put it away in his mind. At first he was plagued with debilitating nightmares.so bad that I had to sedate him several times. Sometimes these nightmares would occur when he was conscious. He would see Borg in the shadows of his room.re-visit the carnage of Wolf 359.see comrades he'd known for years killed, or worse.assimilated. He re-lived his own assimilation.I'll never forget his screams.they chilled me to the bone, but gradually, over time, he came out of it and regained himself. With Deanna's help he was able to understand he was not to blame and, bit-by-bit, we got him back. I coded those areas of his record that dealt with that recovery because if Starfleet Command ever found out they may have taken his Captaincy and declared him as unfit to Command. I believe that those memories have re-surfaced and, without Deanna or me to help him, have run amok in his mind until he couldn't cope any more and suffered an overload. He shut down." Will stroked his beard and muttered, "We found that he was dreaming so I asked Selar to stop it. Was that right?" Beverly perched on the desk and nodded. "Yes. He would've been trapped in an unending nightmare. You did the right thing." Will looked Beverly in the eye. "What do we do now? How do we bring him out of it?" "He has experienced short episodes of catatonia before as a result of particularly bad nightmares. I administered a psychotropic drug and, with Deanna's help, reached him on a subconscious level, but for that to work he has to be rid of that prosthesis on his arm. That was the trigger and as long as it's there he will regress into his memories. Selar?" "I would envisage a further ten days before it can be removed. He is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, but I do not foresee any complications." Beverly nodded and tucked some hair behind her ear. Will had one more question. "Beverly why was he so angry?" She sighed and stood to pace around the room. "As you know, the Captain prides himself on his control. His ability to remain cool in any crisis is one of the cornerstones of his Command. Most probably he was dismayed at his lapse when he first discovered the prosthesis and that made him angry and that anger represented a loss of control. Every time he displayed anger, he lost control and it fed upon itself, getting worse with each episode. He was gradually losing himself and could do nothing about it." Will gave her a frank look. "He drank a bottle of vintage scotch." "Will he was suffering. What would you have done?" Will nodded and sighed. "Fair enough. I just wish he'd have come to us. Maybe." "No Will. This is something only Deanna and I can deal with. We know him and we know what to do, but we must wait. Now is not the time." "Will it do him any harm to wait?" "No I don't think so. As long as the neural inducers prevent dreaming, he should be fine. We'll feed him intravenously and take care of all his needs. He'll be fine." "And in the long term?" "He'll recover Will.with time and a lot of TLC, but I have to ask you all to keep what you've heard here today confidential. His Captaincy will be unaffected once he's recovered.I believe he deserves that, don't you?" The officers looked at themselves and came to a mutual decision. Nodding in unison, Beverly brought the meeting to a close. "What time is the surgery tomorrow?" Selar answered. "0800." "I'll be there." Beverly awoke the next morning with a pounding headache and a queasy stomach. She showered, dressed then administered a dose of the anti-emetic Adam had given her. She sat a moment, waiting for the medicine to work and was surprised when the headache remained. Not bothering with breakfast, she left her quarters and headed for Sick Bay. She arrived just as the nurses were preparing Jean-Luc for surgery. "Selar have you got a minute?" "Yes Doctor." "What are you going to do today?" "I intend to close the open wounds, fuse the breaks in the long bones and make sure the nerve pathways to the digits are unimpeded." "Ok, good. Will you use the same prosthesis?" "Yes. It will be at least another four days before I can use a smaller one. The wrist and hand have been extensively damaged. Did you read the report last night?" "Yes I did. He was lucky with those spikes.has he shown any sign of lung impairment?" "None Doctor." "Good. Well I'll see you in the surgery suite, I've got one or two things to do here first." "Very well Doctor. After this surgery, I take it you will take over the case?" "If you don't mind." "Not at all." Selar went to prepare and Beverly went to the drug station and selected a vial of analgesic. Loading a hypospray, she injected herself in the privacy of her office, and was irritated when the headache only abated slightly. She had no more time to ponder this, as she had to get ready for the surgery. In all it took three hours to do the work Selar had outlined. As the two Doctors watched the nursing staff settle the Captain in the recovery room, Beverly found herself rubbing her temples. Selar noticed and gestured for them to leave the room. "Doctor Crusher are you in pain? I noticed several times during the surgery, you touched your head." "Oh it's just a stubborn headache, nothing to worry about." "Have you had anything for it?" "Yes, before the surgery." "And it's still there?" Beverly nodded then winced as her head pounded. "Doctor Crusher." "I know! Look Selar." Beverly looked around and found herself within earshot of several people. "Come into the office will you?" When the two women were seated, Beverly took a large breath. "What I'm about to tell you must be kept in the strictest confidence." "I understand." "I'm pregnant." "I see. How far.?" "Eight weeks." "Have you had a scan?" Beverly sighed and shook her head. "Not officially. I had the pregnancy confirmed and an anti-emetic prescribed for nausea." "Then I propose you have a full scan done and the headache investigated." Beverly sighed again, bending to the inevitable. "Agreed." "I will do a preliminary scan now, here in the office, but you must return at a later time to do a full workup." Beverly nodded and waited patiently while Selar retrieved a tricorder and scanned her. "You have elevated blood pressure. It is dangerously high. I will administer a counter measure." Beverly shook her head and huffed. "It must be stress." Selar looked up and tilted her head. "We will see." Beverly pulled her hair out of the way and waited as Selar loaded the hypospray. The characteristic hiss made Beverly sigh. "This analgesic should relieve you of pain." The hypospray was used again and Beverly was delighted to feel the throbbing ebb away. "The foetus is healthy.do you want to know the sex?" "No thank you." "When you come back for the workup, I will create a database of both you and the father. May I ask.? Beverly stared frankly at her fellow medic, debating whether or not to be forthcoming with the information she sought. Eventually she erred on the side of safety, correctly choosing the right thing for her unborn child. "Captain Picard." "I see. The database will be complete within the time it takes for your complete check up. When can we do it?" "Well I'd appreciate some privacy.how about 1000 tonight? I can order the night staff out for a while, it shouldn't be a problem." "Very well Doctor I will have everything ready. Will you stay on duty?" "Yes I think so, as long as I'm fit and able." "As you wish Doctor, but I do want to check you blood pressure frequently." "Just as long as we keep it quiet, ok?" "Yes Doctor. And Doctor Crusher? Congratulations." Beverly smiled, her hand drifting down to gently rub her abdomen. -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Awards Tech Support http://www.trekiverse.us/ASCAwards/commenting/ No Tribbles were harmed in the running of these Awards ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. Comments and feedback should be directed to alt.startrek.creative or directly to the author. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From ???@??? Tue May 04 22:55:56 2004 X-Persona: Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n3.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.86]) by tanager (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1blczY7eQ3NZFmQ0 for ; Tue, 4 May 2004 19:56:14 -0700 (PDT) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-13533-1083725774-stephenbratliffasc=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com