A Matter of Time

[Isabeau Delevan 0]

*This takes place after the Belar/Lepage log entitled "Colorless".

 

Nick turned a corner and finally stood in front of the doors he'd been looking for but they didn't open. At first he thought there was a malfunction but then it dawned on him that this must be a secure lab. For some reason this surprised him but considering the toxic plants it would eventually contain he should have expected it. He entered his command code into the small panel beside the doors and walked through them as they swished open. It only took him a fraction of a second to spot Isabeau working on...something he didn't recognize. He'd never been much of a gardener. Looking around the lab, he walked up to her, hoping to get the explanation he wanted.

 

She heard the doors open, but wasn't able to look up right away for fear of slicing off her fingers. A laser scalpel was not the recommended tool of choice for cutting tubing but she enjoyed its efficiency. She raised her eyes, her hand stilled as her visitor drew close. Only command staff had access to this lab because of the safety protocols so she wasn't surprised to see Nick standing to her side. She raised an eyebrow in greeting, and looked back to her irrigation system. "What do you think about Lilly Belar's condition?"

 

"Wow, you stole her ability to read minds, did you? That's exactly what I've come here to talk to you about," Nick answered as he stood next to her and watched Isabeau work. He never knew scalpels were used for growing plants but as curious as he was, that wasn't one of his concerns right now. In fact, he was mildly irritated at her question. "How come you didn't tell me about it?" he asked, his tone a little harsher than he had meant it to be.

 

Now both eyebrows were elevated but her voice stayed mild as she responded, "Yes, Nicolas-that's exactly what happened. I cast a magic spell and I can now read minds and have given Lillian my somewhat unfortunate ability to purchase items right before they go on sale." She deactivated the scalpel and set it aside, shifting her stance so that she now faced him, her expression serious. "Lilly had some sort of...episode on the Midway today when we were just starting our sweep. She told me she'd lost her ability to sense others and it was patently clear that she was on the ragged edge-she was terrified. I asked her if she'd spoken with you about it and she said no, whereupon I escorted her back to Sickbay so that she could do so and get started on the neuroscans. I then went back to the Midway to finish what we started."

 

Nick ignored her first comment; he was used to Isabeau's sarcasm and knew it didn't mean that she didn't recognize how serious the situation was. He sighed before answering. It wasn't Isabeau's fault Lillian hadn't come to see him earlier but that didn't change how he felt about it. "I just don't know why she didn't come any sooner. Did she say anything about that?"

 

"She was impatient, almost angry with my questions-and told me she could no longer hear, and then after I asked what that meant, clarified that she couldn't sense those around her. I told her she needed to speak with you and she said none of us would be able to understand what it was like. I told her that even though we couldn't experience that kind of sensory deprivation we were still capable of medically treating her." Isabeau turned from Nick and looked unseeingly down the length of the lab, murmuring almost to herself, "I don't think I could stand to 'hear' what everyone around me was thinking or feeling, but Nicolas..." She turned back to him, continuing, "I don't think she said anything to you or anyone else for fear that there might not be a solution. If you'd seen her expression, and maybe you already have since you've talked with her, then you know how desolated she is-and not just mentally. This is also taking a physical toll on her."

 

Nick rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache coming on. "I can understand why she's afraid but she's a doctor for heaven's sake! I mean she must have known this is not just something that's going to go away if you ignore it long enough. And it's not only that. It was irresponsible. What would have happened if there had been some kind of emergency, if she'd had to make a difficult decision? How can I trust her to take care of others when she refuses to take care of herself?"

 

She understood he was talking to her as a trusted friend and not as one of Lillian's fellow medical officers. "If the sort of situation you're describing had come up, I think it would have forced her hand and she would have acknowledged her current inability to function adequately as a physician." Isabeau met his frustrated gaze calmly and with understanding. "I think that you have to take into account the level of terror she's currently experiencing. It's been three days she said since it began and it came on gradually. I think it was just this morning that she woke up and her telepathy was completely gone. I know you'll take into account how she must be feeling-you're nothing if not fair."

 

He took a deep breath and made a grunting noise in reply. Isabeau was right; she usually was and she was being reasonable. But he didn't want to be reasonable just now. Nick was frustrated and angry...more at himself than at Lillian or Isabeau. Somehow he blamed himself for Lillian's reluctance to confide in him. "The last thing that'd help right now is if I blamed her for not telling anyone sooner. We need to figure out how to help her and telling patients they are unreasonable would get us nowhere. I've done some scans and the preliminary results don't look very good."

 

She tapped her work screen and found herself looking at the most recent soil analyses she'd requested and resolutely filed them away-the seriousness of Lilly's condition took precedence over the research project. She brought up Lilly's medical file and took a quick glance at the scans and then a slower, more thoughtful one. The hyper-encephalogram she was looking at was of Lilly's para cortex located in her telepathic lobe, something unique to Betazoids. It showed no activity. None whatsoever. She raised her eyes to meet Nick's, her expression now as grim as his. "The para cortex-if it's not used, it will atrophy."

 

The headache started to throb just behind his right eye. "I know, I also found some antibodies in her blood. It looks like she has some viral infection. Whether those things are related, I don't know yet."

 

Another tap to the screen brought Lilly's neurotoxicity panel results to the fore and she turned her screen so Nick could look at it with her. "She has no activity in her para cortex but her psilosynine levels are elevated-not dramatically but higher than they should be if they're not being actively used by the para cortex." Psilosynine was a neurotransmitter unique to Betazoid telepaths and it was generally understood to be the 'juice' that powered the synapses triggered by telepathic activity.

 

"I noticed that but it doesn't make any sense. If her psilosynine levels are elevated there should be activity in the para cortex. My best guess right now is that something's blocking the post-synaptic receptors and therefore the brain produces more of the neurotransmitter. So far, none of my scans have confirmed that, however. I'll need to run some more scans tomorrow. Got any other ideas?" Nick looked at her almost pleadingly. He would welcome any possible explanation for the symptoms.

 

She turned away from the screen and looked blankly at the soil trays that would soon hold seeds that might one day help restore motion to limbs rendered useless by catastrophic injury. There was nothing here to help with Lilly's situation. She looked over her shoulder, and returned to his previous comment. "What about this viral infection? How long has she had it? Onset of noticeable loss of telepathic senses was 72 hours ago. We've been on Aegis for just over that-did she pick it up on the Mercury or is this something that was waiting for her on Aegis? And Nicolas...what about the other Betazoids?"

 

All those were good questions and Nick had been asking them himself over and over again. "I have no idea. Like I said, I'll do some further scans tomorrow and we need to test all other Betazoids on the station. I don't like this one bit, Isabeau."

 

"No," she answered him quietly, "I don't either. This is something different; something altogether new and is devastating to its victim. We don't know anything other than the para cortex will atrophy from disuse and once begun the process cannot be reversed. We have a time constraint."