Sickbay's Collective

[Vilanne 0]

((Joint log between a patient (Vilanne), her skilled doctor (Eva Jaz), and any medical assistants hanging about))

 

Nurse Smith cared for her first patient, having been given her first “watch” from Acting Chief of Medicine Jaz. She wasn’t going to let Vilanne die, though only a nurse, while every fluctuation on the full body scan alarmed Nancy. She kept approaching Dr Jaz every time something bleeped. “Dr Jaz, the green bar that reads ’blood pressure’ is getting smaller and keeps beeping at each segment. Is it supposed to drop that quickly?”

 

Eva turned around starting to answer for the 20th time “Yes, nurse...” but she stopped. “No, it definitely isn’t!” The Trill doctor hurried to the bio-bed, eyes on the monitors. “Her pressure is dropping and some of her organs are showing signs of shutting down.” Eva swore under her breath. “Her nanites acted as antibodies against the other ones, but now they seem to be running out of juice, which is probably causing this system wide shut down.”

 

The plumped up orange and purple body looked like something you’d drag out of a lake or a horror video; it was definitely not a pleasant site. The nanites had overworked what resources they had during the war, so the troops were working on minimal power. They were draining nutrients from her blood, and filling up her blood and kidneys with the remains of their enemy. All of her glands were drying up, especially sweat and oil, while the nanites were trying to repair themselves.

 

Nancy’s eyes were frozen to the monitors, because with every moment, something else was bleeping, blinking, beeping or generally moving around. She had rather good skills when it came to the equipment, but with everything moving so actively, she was taken back.

 

Walking around the biobed, tricorder in hand, Eva said, “We need to bypass her kidneys. Start her on dialysis right away; that will take the strain out of the kidneys while we work on getting her organs back to full potential.” Eva walked to the replicator as Nancy prepped for the kidneys bypass. Walking back with an hypospray, she injected Vilanne’s neck. “That’ll take care of the blood pressure issue.”

 

“Setting up Standard controls now, Chief.” Nancy said with a little smile, because with Vilanne in this state, Eva would now be the CMO; no one except the Admiral knew of Vilanne’s resignation. She tapped on the console beside the bio-bed a couple of times, and the renal system panel illuminated as the body shield came up out of the bio-bed and covered her mid-drift. As the controls started to light in various patterns, she alerted Eva, “Dr Jaz, and its ready for your authorization codes.”

 

Keeping an eye on the vitals monitor, waiting for the blood pressure to rise, Eva keyed in her authorization code. “The ‘dead’ nanites seem to be discarded into the blood stream and will be filtered out.” Watching the machine come to life, Eva turned to the nurse. “Now we play the waiting game.” She started walking away towards the coffee machine. “Oh and keep a blood sample on hand in case Science wishes to examine Dr Chalice’s nanites since they seem to have gotten rid of the other ones.”

 

“I see, doctor, then samples of the recycled material, complete with discarded nanites, will be stored. My goodness, with all of these geeks around here, do they really need more toys to play with?” Nancy was trying to make light of the situation, now that no one was going to die and the ship was relieved from its scare. It certainly seemed funny before it came out of her mouth.

 

A rainbow of shades were hovering over her translucent skin layers now, while fluids were being exchanged through her body, into the filtration system and back. Though Vilanne Chalice had not been 100% assimilated as a working drone, the nanoprobes had developed most of the implants and definitely all of the nanites necessary to communicate with the Collective.

 

Upon assimilation, nanoprobes are injected though assimilation tubules from a drone into the victim’s neck, which immediately begin working on assimilating its prey’s blood cells. The nanites are then sent into extreme regeneration until they are dense enough, and able to manufacture direct communications with the Hive. Once the drone is connected to the Collective’s perfection, the nanites receive instructions, some to start building structured implants, some to replace individual organic glands with bio-synthetic ones, also to reinforce communication with the hive, repair any damage created prior to assimilation, and so on.

 

It was that repair state that Vilanne’s body was now in - again. Communication with the collective had not been reenacted, so the nanites were working in overdrive on the communication and repair aspects.

 

There were, however, some sporadic memories being triggered while in this state of coma. ~’Existence, as you know it, is over.’~If anyone had looked under the bio-bed’s silver sheet, the tenseness of her hands would provide a clue to her mental state, as they clenched against her uniform. ~’We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.’~Her fingernails were dug through the material back into her own flesh, causing holes in the palms of her hands. ~’We are Borg.’~

 

Her lips parted just enough to let out a piercing shriek. “NNOOOOOOO!” She was still unconscious.