Gel-Packs Part Two

Posted on Thu May 21st, 2009 @ 4:09am by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Cress Maven

2,007 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
Location: Science Lab, Deck 6
Timeline: Current

ON:

- Deck 4, Sickbay -

After Mabren had finished his discussion with the Counselor, he got up and out of his office into the main part of sickbay. Carla was at the main biobed with a patient. Being curios, the Doctor walked over and asked, "What happened here?"

Looking back over her left shoulder, Carla answered, "Just a minor accident on the holodeck. Sprained ankle." With the final flick of her wrist, she shut of the tissue regenerator and said, "It'll be a little sore for a bit, so take it easy."

"Thank you," the young male petty officer said, before sliding off the biobed and heading out of sickbay.

As Carla walked over to the instrument tray to replace the regenerator, she asked, "What did Lieutenant Larkin want?"

"Problem with the gel packs," Mabren answered, typing away at the central console, looking at the medical file of the petty officer that was just in.

"Is it bad?" Carla asked, walking over to stand on the other side of the console.

"Yes," Mabren answered before he asked, "That Petty Officer, Stevenson; he comes in here a lot, doesn't he?"

"Does he?" she asked, standing on her tip toes and looking at the screen.

"Yeah," he said, scrolling through the list, "At least once every couple of weeks. But nothing major. Just sprains and pulled muscles."

"Maybe he's doing it to get attention," she teased, with a smile.

Looking up at her, Mabren rolled his eyes before saying, "Well, the next time he comes in, be sure to talk to him about it." Closing the file, Mabren started for the door, "I'll be back in the lab."

"Understood, Doctor," Carla said behind a smile.

- Deck 6, Science Lab -

Mabren walked into the lab and ran his left hand through his hair, this was not going to be fun.

'First things first,' Mabren thought to himself. Turning left, Mabren walked up to the replicator and called out, "Computer, large cafe au lait with white chocolate." After the whiz of the replicator, the drink appeared in the bay. Reaching in, Mabren grabbed the cup and brought it up just under his nose. After taking a deep breath of the rich aroma, he smiled and whispered, "Yum."

As he took a sip, he turned and walked over to the main console that had the gel back sitting on top. Sitting at one of the stations at the console, Mabren began to bring up various readings and analysis' of the gel pack.

Brendan Dernah walked into the lab just looking around. "Oh, I didn't know anyone was in here. Sorry for the intrusion, Lieutenant...?"

"Mabren," he said, standing and nodding at the new comer. "I'm the Chief Medical Officer."

"I'm Lieutenant Brendan Dernah, Strategic Operations Officer. A pleasure to meet you, Doctor" Brendan said with his ever present smile.

"Nice to meet you," Mabren said, "What can I do for you?"

"I was just looking for Lieutenant Larkin. Have you seen him?"

"Not for some time," Mabren answered, "I'm sure that he will show up shortly."

"Excellent."

Kevin Larkin turned into the lab at a fairly brisk pace. He had something on his mind, and he was intent on running his exam. His thought train was broken when he discovered Dernah and Mabren already in the room. He nodded to them both, "Lieutenant, Doctor. How are things going on your end of the investigation?"

Mabren was taking a sip of his coffee and waiting for the result from the computer's attempt to extrapolate how long the system had been affected. Hearing the doors open, he turned to see the CSO walk in. "Hello, Lieutenant," he greeted, "Slowly. I'm trying to have the computer figure out how long the system has been infected. And also trying to figure out if there is any type of radiation that we could use to slow it."

"I am here to lend a hand anywhere you might need one, Lieutenant. I am an engineer by training and have some insight that might shed some light on the subject," Brendan said.

"Well," Mabren started, moving over to the main central console that had the contaminated pack on the central dais, "There is a possible candidate. Baryon radiation. It works well against the Temecklian virus from Bajor. But I don't want to flood the ship with it. The possible side effects on the crew, well I don't want to deal with that."

"Meson radiation?" Larkin suggested. "It has similar properties to baryon radiation. I don't know much about its effects on organics, but I think I read somewhere that it was being considered as a possible alternative treatment for Temecklian virus."

"Meson?" Mabren said looking up at Larkin, "I''m not that familiar with that. But I still don't feel comfortable with flooding the ship with any form a radiation. I think the best thing to do would to be use one of these in a pulse through the computer network in low dosage. At least until we can figure this all out."

From behind the group, a computer beep came from the console; turning Mabren looked at the result. "Six days," Mabren said aloud before turning around and leaning back against the console, "Initial infection was six days ago roughly. And there is the possibility that the infection could increase in speed for the rest of the network due to so many being infected. We need to start the pulses soon to slow this as much as possible. "

Larkin was about to suggest possible methods of delivery, but something wouldn't allow him to let go of his nagging suspicions. "Doctor, may I borrow the pack for a few minutes. I have a scan that I want to run. Perhaps, in the mean time, the two of you could start working out a way of delivering the radiation?"

"Yes, of course," Mabren answered as he turned to look at Dernah, and asked; "Lieutenant, is it possible to create a radiation pulse that could pass throughout the entire bionueral gel pack system? Would these pulses create any secondary problems for the rest of the ship? Like these power fluctuations and such?"

"Of course. A meson pulse could be sent through the gel-pack network without any secondary problems for the ship, I believe. It's a tad low-tech but it should work," Brendan said.

"Understood," Mabren said, "We should contact Engineering to have them start making the arrangements to start the Meson pulse. And lets not go over fifteen millirads every two hours. It should slow the spread even more to give us more time to find a permanent solution to this problem."

"I concur."

The CSO snatched the gel-pack from atop its console, and carried it over to an imaging scanner in the corner of the lab. He carefully placed the pack into the scanning chamber, and, after the press of a few buttons, a laser field began to sweep across it. The scan would only take a few seconds for an object of this size. Larkin wasn't sure where the idea to run this scan had come from, but somehow he was sure this was the right thing to be doing.

A few beeps later, the scan report appeared on the imager's display. A small section of the three dimensional representation of the pack was highlighted, and the Archimedes' science officer's fears were confirmed. "Oh no," he clutched his hand to his forehead, as if it ached. "There's a small circular discontinuity in the structural integrity of the pack, as if it was punctured and resealed." He paused and continued with a sigh. "Someone injected something into this pack with a hypospray."

Mabren looked back at Larkin as he talked, his face going slack in surprise before he joined Larkin at the console and looked at the result. "So, it wasn't just stress induced paranoia." Mabren said aloud before he turned around and said, "But it is a good thing. If the saboteur still has a sample of the original virus. It'll cut down the time it'll take to create a cure."

Without thinking, Mabren tapped his comm badge, "Mabren to Commander Lane, can you please join us in the science lab?"

Sat up in his ready room, the Trill had decided to throw himself back into work considering the more personal events that had transpired over the last couple of days. The padd in his hand contained the latest exciting sensor sweep of the sector given to him by Lieutenant Shran moments before. He sighed as he perused the non-information that it contained. Everything seems to be where it should, he thought as his initial gumption for his enthusiasm seemed to wear thin as quickly as it had happened upon him. As his combadge chirped, he placed the padd on his desk and light flicked its cool casing.

"Lane here, Lieutenant. Go ahead."

"Yes, Captain," Mabren started, "We've got some new developments in the investigation and was wondering if you could join us?"

"Of course," he said as stood from his chair. "I'll be right down."

The short walk was neither rushed nor lax, and as he arrived, the three officers turned to greet him.

"Lieutenants," he nodded as he entered.

"Hello, Captain," Mabren greeted, getting off the console, he walked into the middle area before turning to face the Captain. "Well, at least you're not paranoid," he deadpanned with a confused look in response, "Lieutenant Larkin discovered something with the gel packs." He looked over at Larkin, to allow him to explain.

Lane narrowed his eyes onto the Doctor and then curiously flicked them over to Larkin. "Mr. Larkin?" he asked.

Larkin sighed again. "Commander, I'm afraid I've confirmed the fears we discussed in the turbolift earlier." He turned, and pointed at the display in front of him. "There are indications that structural integrity of this pack has been compromised. Something was injected into the gel-pack where all of this trouble originated."

"Injected?" Lane barked, uncontrollably. "I presume you mean purposefully." He stammered aback a little as the fear and realisation washed over him, making his sense of clarity muddied. "I've had a fear that something was awry from the very off."

The captain then turned to Lieutenant Dernah and nodded. "Brendan, I want you to go with Lieutenant Shran and search the junction this gel-pack was found in. And lock this ship down. We may still have an intruder onboard.

"Aye, Sir," Brendan said and exited the lab with all due haste.

Swiftly tapping his combadge, he uttered, "Lane to Sheedy, I want you to join up with Dernah and Shran. They'll inform you of my orders."

Purely out of habit Skanda reached up and pressed two fingers against her own badge. "Yessir. On m' way, sir." For once she said not a word about being pulled away from her work. Instead she quickly exited main engineering and went to find the two officers in question. The Commander's tone had her curious.

Turning to the two remaining crewmembers, he sighed. "We need to find out how, and more importantly who did this. Gustav and Kevin, I want you to continue your efforts in counteracting this… disease. I want it out of the Archimedes' systems as soon as you can. I'm heading up to the bridge."

"Captain," Mabren called out, "Before you leave I would like to clear something with you. Working with Dernah and Larkin, we agree that a Meson radiation pulse through the computer network will slow the growth and spread of this infection until we can cure the virus."

"Do it," he merely muttered as the doors closed behind him.

"Of course, Captain," Mabren said to the doors after they closed.

OFF:

A POST BY:

CDR Coltan Lane
Commanding Officer, USS Archimedes

LT Brendan Dernah
Chief Strategic Operations Officer, USS Archimedes

LTJG Kevin Larkin
Chief Science Officer, USS Archimedes

LTJG Skanda Sheedy
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Archimedes

and

LTJG Gustav Mabren
Chief Medical Officer, USS Archimedes

 

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