Sanity for a Sedative

[Vilanne 0]

It had taken startlingly little time for Vilanne's vital signs to reach a point that could be called stable. Jaiysa had watched her pulse, breath rate, blood pressure, temperature, and neural activity skyrocketing over the course of about ten minutes, but it had then abruptly leveled off, leaving Vilanne about as well as she had been feeling an hour beforehand. A dip to nearly comatose levels had followed, which had in turn stabilized before the spikes repeated themselves, and a worrisome cycle had quickly established itself. Jaiysa had never seen anything like it before; Vilanne's biochemistry was being toyed with by something besides the usual forces, and Jaiysa didn't like it one bit.

 

The rest of sickbay staff was showing the strain as well. Though Nurse Nancy was used to Dr. Chalice and her happy-go-lucky personality, Vil was going over the edge and taking Nancy with her as her moods kept cycling. Nancy kept checking vitals and reviewing them on the biobed overhead monitor through the fluxes of happiness and exhaustion. She monitored the information on the biobed over Vilanne's head to see if any attending had prescribed a sedative, but they were refusing until they knew and understood what was going on. She hinted questions at Dr. t'Tamarak each time she came by, but wasn't getting a response. It wasn't normal for the nurses to enter opinions into the charts, but Nancy couldn't stand it anymore.

 

Nancy took Vilanne's chart off the wall, tapped it so it woke up, then went to add her opinion. But the chart was blank, except for Vilanne's name, SF ID number, rank and position aboard the ship. It also listed her status, "Location: Sickbay / Status: under diagnosis." Nancy squinted and tried to get the rest of the information to come up again. She'd never seen a chart with such little information, and certainly couldn't understand why such secrecy on Dr Chalice.

 

Dr t'Tamarak was approaching, so Nurse Nancy handed the PADD over to her, mentioning, "I was about to verify that the vitals were being recorded and check for any ordered meds, but I can't get the rest of the information to come up. I think it's broken. Do you want me to call an engineer?"

 

Jaiysa took the PADD and looked at it, tapping the buttons a few times and receiving the same blank slate. The lloann'na have placed her condition under security. Elements...what is this? She glanced towards Nancy and then shook her head once slightly. "I will see to it. Thank you."

 

Getting a bit antsy was an understatement as Vilanne woke from the groggy rest the nanites had forced upon her again. With each cycle, her happy-go-lightly attitude was becoming increasingly more intense. She heard Nancy and Jaiysa discussing the defective PADD and offered advice: "Just bang it on the counter, then recycle the power. It will come back up. Here, give it to me, I will do it. Jai, come release these clamps, I don't need this biobed arm over me."

 

There are more than one billion neurons in the cerebral cortex. Nanite instructions were clear, and all of them were trying to access these neurons and help build what was missing in the spine. Specifically, they were trying to locate the missing clamp. They gathered inside the cavity, multiplied and got stuck in this continual loop of multiplying and attempting to heal. Everything in Vilanne's body had been healed to the extent that Typhoid-Mary(1) could come and kiss Vilanne and she wouldn't catch it.

 

Jaiysa's head angled around as Vilanne spoke. The woman was back to her energetic phase again and not for the first time Jaiysa wished a sedative was an appropriate option. "You do, in fact, and I will take care of it. Lie still and rest yourself." Inwardly she braced herself for the barrage of protests this instruction would no doubt raise. Vilanne was not what one might call the type to suffer in silence.

 

Jaiysa was not disappointed. "I NEED to get OUT of this thing!" Vilanne shook the biobed arm back and forth while pushing herself with her heels. "I can't just lie here and let you keep poking me. I'm just fine, Jaiysa...Nurse Nancy...Someone! Chief Mele! Someone come and release me from this dreadful thing. I'm getting claustrophobic and can't take it anymore! I want to go back to my quarters, not here. Lemme out...Lemme out!"

 

Jaiysa listened silently as the stream of words continued, their tone growing more and more frustrated and strident as Vilanne became further upset with everyone within earshot. She is panicking... Jaiysa thought with an odd feeling of detachment. Of course she is panicking -- she is trapped like a rat in a cage and no one can or will tell her why. It must be...torture...

 

Turning away abruptly, she moved towards one of the consoles and settled herself in a seat, calling up more detailed scans of the small nanites moving in Vilanne's blood as the younger woman's voice carried on behind her. I assure you, rokhinu, you're not the only one who wishes to know what is going on. These little pests are starting to make my life extremely difficult.

 

Finally the cycle moved into the quiet phase and everyone in sickbay was relieved. Dr Chalice finally came down off the endorphine push, her vitals returned slowly to below normal parameters and her eyes were forced closed during the sleep mode.

 

Jaiysa leaned her head on her hands and turned back towards Vilanne now that the flow of desperate words had stopped. She glanced towards Nancy. The portly nurse had a troubled expression on her face that was nowhere near as guarded as Jaiysa's; the other woman was showing the concern that both of them felt.

 

"Well," Jaiysa said, after a long silence had passed. "This cannot be allowed to continue."

 

Nancy nodded. "She's getting worse..."

 

"Fvadt! I know!" Jaiysa snapped tiredly, her fist slamming down suddenly on the console in an explosion of frustration.

 

Nancy looked nervous at the sudden display of temper but persisted, "Well...what are we going to do about it?"

 

Jaiysa's head snapped up and she looked again at the scans of the nanites, pulsing red in the display, multiplying and moving in streams around their blood sample. They needed to be shut down or their reproduction would make them impossible to remove from Vilanne's system; Jaiysa simply did not know how. She pushed herself to her feet abruptly, scooping up one of the PADDs of data, and turned, moving for the door of sickbay, glancing sidelong at Vilanne's still body on the biobed before she exited. "We're going to get more information."

 

*Rokhinu -- "troublesome (one)"

(1)"Typhoid Mary" is a generic term for a carrier of a dangerous disease who is a danger to the public because of refusal to take appropriate precautions.