Not all Secrets Make it to the Grave (by Chris, Soora & Ethan)

[Ethan Neufeld 0]

Soora stood at Ethan’s bed, her eyes on the monitors. Her eyes followed the small changes, which seemed to be an improvement, but she didn’t think that the changes were enough to warrant calling for anybody else. It was just her in the Sick Bay for now, and that was how she liked it. It was quiet, she could do her work, and afterwards, catch up on her reading.

 

She looked down at him then, a thousand thoughts pushing through her mind. Thoughts about that meeting. She had put too much of herself into keeping him alive to want him used, or killed. No, she couldn’t have that. It wasn’t right, and she hoped the others thought so as well. She brushed the hair back from his forehead softly. There was no real point in it, now, but she did it anyway. His fever had broken a while ago, and his wounds genuinely seemed better. That manual suture had worked. She didn’t know the last time she had manually done stitches. What, back in Academy? She shook her head softly to herself, appalled by her thoughts, and brushed his hair back again before returning to her desk. She still had that report to finish.

 

 

 

“Chief?”

 

Ethan turned to address the twenty-something young woman and couldn’t help the hint of a surprised smile. Pleasingly statuesque in her evening dress, she studied him with intense, mesmerizing blue eyes as she brushed a length of raven hair from her fair cheek.

 

“Ma’am...?”

 

 

 

Ethan stirred gradually, a muted, unintelligible groan rising from him as he languidly turned his head toward a presence in the room.

 

Soora, sitting at her desk, looked up, her PADD going crazy. She stood quickly, coming over to Ethan's cot. She looked up at the monitors, then brushed his hair back from his forehead, saying his name quietly. Was he waking up? She looked up as Chris walked in, saying nothing, sure to keep her face straight.

 

Chris stepped into sickbay after his talk and the request from Joe for him to go back to Medical. He stepped in the doors and looked around to see who was on duty. Chris saw Soora standing over by Ethan and slowly made his way over to them. He looked up at the monitors and down to Ethan and then back to Soora. He said in a soft whisper, "He looks as if he’s improving somewhat?"

 

'It would seem so,' she said, also in a whisper. She kept her eyes on Ethan, looking for other signs.

 

Ethan didn’t disappoint. The sound of voices and his situational awareness progressively clearer with each second, he opened his eyes, blinking and squinting against a burning sensation as he blankly focused on Soora. He then drew his gaze through his surroundings, pausing briefly on Chris before returning to the Vulcan doctor, and a hint of confusion showed on his face.

 

Chris looked back up to her. "How long has he been in this state? Semi-consciousness..."

 

'Just a minute.' She pointed to where her PADD sat on the desk vaguely. 'Ethan?' She said then, again, seeing his eyes on her.

 

"What's going on?" Ethan rasped at a whisper, his throat dry. "Where...?"

 

'Don't strain yourself,' she said then. 'You're on Qob.'

 

Chris looked down seeing Ethan’s eyes open and looking at Soora. "Well, look who decided to wake up. Take it easy, Ethan."

 

Uncertain of his situation, of their intentions or what had occurred since the Capricorn, Ethan warily glanced between Chris and Soora. His gaze always betrayed a sense of steady contemplation, but it briefly grew more profound and rapid; the precise thought-pattern of which remained unclear and open to varied interpretations, lost in the resignation that soon overcame his expression. "Water?" he civilly requested.

 

"I’ll get it," Chris said, moving away.

 

Soora looked over at Chris then back down to Ethan. 'How you feeling?'

 

“Like hell,” he answered, smiling subtly.

 

Her face softened. 'I bet. You were in pretty bad shape there. Was an exercise, patching you up.'

 

Chris moved off allowing Soora to speak to her patient. It was best not to interrupt the bond a doctor had with their patient and it mostly occurred when the patient awakened after being unconscious. Chris went and filled a glass with water and then took it back to the two, handing it to Soora for her to give to her patient. "Here you go, Doctor."

 

Soora took the glass. 'Feel ready to sit up a little?' she asked Ethan, tapping the glass with a finger.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Chris helped Ethan slide a bit to sit up. "Just don't go doing anything too fast Ethan."

 

'Good,' she said, nodding to Chris before handing the glass to Ethan.

 

Grimacing from the strain to his injured core as he sat up, Ethan gratefully took the glass. It was a practice in patience, calmly sipping rather than guzzling the drink. "Thanks," he said, still vocally hoarse as he handed the cup back, unfinished. "What happened? Last thing I remember was the Capricorn.”

 

Chris didn’t speak. But watched Soora's interaction with her patient.

 

Soora retrieved another pillow to set up behind him, to relieve some of the pressure. 'We transferred you over here while you were still comatose,' she said, softly. 'What all do you remember?'

 

Ethan facially expressed his gratitude as he relaxed against the pillow and reflected. "Just about all of it up until the Capricorn," he soberly answered after a moment.

 

Soora made a small noise in the back of her throat. 'Well, then, you remember your infected wounds, and how you got them,' she said quietly. 'We did the best we could, considering, and they're looking considerably improved.' She paused. 'An interesting substance, that.'

 

His brow furrowing, Ethan regarded Soora before he replied simply: "Motoroils."

 

She stared at him. 'I think my translator just glitched. Did you say motor oil?'

 

Chris looked up at the monitors again double checking his vitals. "I thought I heard the same thing."

 

She glanced at Chris briefly before looking back at Ethan.

 

Ethan faintly smiled at their confusion. "It’s what some call the 'substance': Motoroils."

 

'Quite misleading,' she said. 'Anything else you can tell me about it?'

 

Chris listened while watching the monitors. With Ethan just awaking, he wanted to make sure the man didn't over do it and would try to intercede before he did so.

 

Ethan pensively exhaled and shifted his gaze. "I know they're capable of possessing humanoid hosts and they've got an agenda, but beyond that -- I donno. That's why I came here: to take a sample back."

 

"Oh we have a sample alright but the way you acquired it I wouldn’t recommend again.”

 

Ethan faintly smirked at Chris’s remark, appearing to agree with the assessment, but making no effort to reply.

 

Soora sent a look to Chris before clearing her throat a little. 'It wasn't worth the risk. But Science is looking into it. Why would you put yourself in harm's way for it?' She had a thousand questions, but she didn't want to push him too far, not in his condition.

 

Ethan fixedly stared at her, ostensibly resolved in the decision he’d made. "If I didn't, who would?"

 

'We had our team there. I think one of them was working on it right before we left.'

 

"Wasn’t going to ask you to do my job,” Ethan firmly replied. “Didn’t want you involved for practical reasons. I don't know you--"

 

Chris quickly turned to Ethan. "Ethan? Do you remember me?" He glanced between Ethan and Soora.

 

Cut off, the question perplexed Ethan at first. "Not what I meant," he said. "I never worked with you before. I couldn’t--can't,” he corrected; “trust you and couldn’t trust this with just anyone."

 

Soora took in a deep breath, looking at Chris. 'His mistrust is logical.'

 

“I don’t understand, unless he suffering from memory loss also?"

 

Soora shook her head. 'I don't know.'

 

"How do you feel his mistrust is logical?" Chris said as he stepped away from Ethan and towards the drug cabinet.

 

'He finds himself in a strange place, unsure how he got here.' She turned to see what he was doing. 'Its also logical to suggest his memory isn't fully returned yet. We shall see what the next few you're, or days, bring.'

 

"I know how I got here," Ethan remarked evenly and plainly; unperturbed but taking in the conversation with an apparent, mild disbelief. "My memory’s fine, I just don’t trust you. Never did. That we’re on same payroll wasn't going to change that."

 

Soora raised her eyebrows, turning back to him. 'Alright, just don't strain yourself,' she said calmly.

 

Chris hearing Ethan turned back to face the patient, now altering his plan of action. He walked back over to the man sitting up on the biobed. "I'm the First Mate and you do not trust me?”

 

"Look," Ethan answered calmly. "No offense, but I'm not a member of your crew and didn't know you before this expedition.” He paused before adding: “Still don't know you.”

 

'I just need to know for your infection. That's why I was asking,' Soora said, her eyes on the monitors. The remark drew only a passing glance from Ethan.

 

Chris looked at Ethan and shook his head. "If you cant trust the first mate and or your doctor whom can you trust?"

 

"No one here," Ethan answered honestly. "But, at the moment, it looks like I don't have a choice."

 

'Not really,' she said, bemused.

 

"Well that's a start. You have to start trusting someone, why not let that be your doctor here." Chris says nodding towards Soora.

 

'If I had wanted to harm you, I could have, or just not treated you,' she said, nodding. 'And for right now, all I want is for you to recover.'

 

Ethan gave Soora a grim smile and then turned his attention to Chris. "What are you planning to do with me?"

 

"At the moment getting you well is our main priority, but that can only be done with your help. We need your cooperation for that."

 

"You've got it," Ethan replied.

 

"Thank you." Chris said in a odd tone. "Now can you please answer the Doctors question?"

 

With that same look of profound and rapid contemplation as before, Ethan stared at Chris for nearly a full minute. "You're familiar with the Rainmakers?"

 

Chris nodded slightly. "I am." He then looked to Soora hoping she had the rest of her questions ready for him and then looked back to Ethan.

 

"Then you know what they're capable of,” Ethan concluded.

 

Soora looked at Chris, raising an eyebrow. She then looked back to Ethan. 'What do they have to do with Motoroils?' Chris just nodded allowing Soora’s questions to take over.

 

Ethan inhaled, steeling himself to do what he had intended never to do and wondering if he had much time left. It wasn’t out of trust that he confided in them -- they hadn’t received his full explanation, didn’t fully understand why he was reluctant to share his burden, and his dissatisfaction with the situation was apparent. But, now that they were involved, he couldn't leave them blindly stumbling around in the dark, waiting for his failure to turn into an unmitigated disaster. "A cult surfaced within the Rainmakers around the time they began terrorist operations. That cult was created by the Motoroils."

 

'Interesting,' she said quietly. 'What did they do?'

 

Chris listened hoping that the doctors questioning got the answers he needed as well.

 

Ethan’s brow rose and he tipped his head. "Other than possessing new cultists against their will and causing the occasional plague on a backwater colony? They carry out a majority of the Rainmaker’s terrorists attacks."

 

'So... They use this motor oil to infect those they want in their group?' She shook her head in slight disbelief. 'What were you doing down there?'

 

Ethan sighed at the repeated question, but not out of irritation with Soora or Chris. "Taking samples. We were going to use it to make an anti-serum."

 

'We?'

 

"The client that hired my team to infiltrate the Rainmakers and the lab that's going to formulate the anti-serum," he answered with finality, clearly unwilling to break client confidentiality or reveal much more.

 

Soora shook her head. 'Right.' She glanced at Chris.

 

"Continue," Chris said in a softer and not so challenging tone.

 

'Did you find anything out before...' she trailed off and Ethan waited patiently for her to finish.

 

She raised her eyebrows. 'Before you were captured?'

 

Ethan furrowed his brow at the broad question. "Like what?"

 

"For the anti-serum?"

 

'Anything that could help us in helping you recover, or anything we need to relay to ... Whomever,” Soora added.

 

Ethan shook his head, answering: “No.” Fielding questions after a week-long sleep and feeling vocally exhausted, he coughed and his brow furrowed at the pain it caused. "Look, you mind if we pause the interrogation?" he asked, sitting up from the pillow.

 

Soora nodded. 'Something we can get for you?'

 

"Pants might be a start,” he said, pulling medical equipment from his body.

 

Soora bit back a smile, glancing at Chris. 'Sure thing.' She bent down to under his cot, where his things were stored, pulling his clothes back up. 'Had them washed and sanitized.'

 

Chris placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Look, Ethan, we are here to help you. This is not an interrogation. We are only trying to find out more about this substance to be able to help you." Chris looked to Soora. "I'm sorry but I think Doctor Soora and I are going to have to ask you not to try leaving just yet. You can get dressed if you like but please do not leave."

 

Ethan mildly grimaced at the weight of Chris's hand as his core fought to stay upright. "Understood," he answered and then nodded to Soora; "Thanks." He took what remained of his clothing from her: essentials, socks and utilities. Apparently, his shirt hadn't made it. Setting the rest aside, he rotated his feet over the edge of the cot and began to pull on his trousers. “Think I just need to stretch,” he added.

 

"Are you sure you’re up to it?" Chris said in a nice bedside manor, his doctrine showing through.

 

Soora nodded, stepping back, picking back up her PADD, sending a note to Pher, as promised. She kept on glancing up at Ethan, afraid he was still too unstable for such a task.

 

'If he thinks he is, leave him be, Chris.'

 

"Guess we'll find out," Ethan answered and deftly slipped on his trousers as he guardedly stood from the bed and secured them. He tentatively stepped forward, but the transition from laying to standing took its toll, blood pressure plummeting as he watched a black haze overcome his vision. He leaned back into the bed for support, waiting for it to pass.

 

Chris watched as he stood having a feeling he wasn't ready. As Ethan leaned against the bed Chris took a hold of his arm to help steady him. "I'm betting the world is spinning for you. Maybe you should just sit a spell and try again later?"

 

'Chris,' Soora said, setting down her PADD, the note sent. 'He'll be fine. Let him go. Two doctors are more than enough to keep him in one piece.'

 

"I'm okay," Ethan insisted and straightened. "Just a dizzy spell."

 

Soora made a small noise of approval, hand on Chris's shoulder. 'If we want his trust, we also have to put our trust in him.'

 

Chris let go of the man’s arm. "I'm just trying to keep him from falling over. He stood too quickly throwing off his equilibrium. I knew it was coming, and I didn't want him to fall face first on the floor. Ethan sit down for a moment. We will get something to help with your balance. Soora I need to speak to you for a moment, please follow me." Chris motioned for her to follow him to the drug cabinet. Soora took in a deep breath and followed him.

 

Smirking at the fuss, Ethan obediently sat on the bed and watched the doctors move away.

 

Chris moved to the drug cabinet and pulled out the vial that Ethan would need to help him retain his balance. "Two things." He then started drawing up the medication into a hypo.

 

Soora narrowed her eyes but said nothing. Behind them Ethan coughed again and cast his eyes about looking for his unfinished cup of water.

 

"Soora it has nothing to do with your medical skills nor your treatment of Ethan and Alex. Your doing fine." Chris handed her the hypo, replacing that vial and reaching for another. "Soora, I’ve been moved back to medical from First mate. I'm not sure how long this will last but..." Chris heared Ethan… "The other can wait a few, lets go tend to Ethan."

 

Soora took the hypo, her stomach doing that uneasy flip again. She didn't like it. She walked back over to Ethan, not waiting for Chris. Chris pulled another vial out of the cabinet and placed it in his pocket then followed Soora over to her patient.

 

Ethan couldn’t bite back another cough as Soora and Chris returned and instinctively held his abdomen through the short bout. A simple cough was hardly an exigent circumstance, but with his head and shoulders still bowed from the painful effort, he quietly hissed in protest at what he saw coating left hand -- blood from a wound that had been sutured a week ago. How...?

 

Soora almost dropped the hypo as she saw his blood on his fingers. 'Lay down,' she said in a quiet voice.

 

Clearly bewildered, Ethan looked up at the sound of her voice and stared for a moment; then nodded and laid down.

 

She looked back at him. 'Bend your knees. It will take the pressure off.'

 

Ethan pulled his knees up without considering it. "What's going on?" His voice was surprisingly calm, but he couldn’t hide his unease.

 

As Chris approached he saw Ethan laying down and blood on his hand. "Dear lord, Soora, what happened?" Chris grabbed a tricorder and handed it to Soora.

 

She touched his wound with light fingers. 'Wound opened back up. Best to keep pressure off of it.' She took the tricorder and scanned quickly, but it was nothing she didn't already expect. She set it back down, and reached for some gauze to stem the bleeding.

 

Light touch or not, Ethan had to close his eyes and grunted faintly while reflexively drawing his abdomen away from her hand. That provoked another cough and he swallowed, shocked by the sudden tightness in his chest. "Soora,” he struggled, wheezing; “can't breathe..."

 

'O2,' she said to Chris, grimacing as she rolled Ethan over to his side. He left a sizable, bloody mark on the bed.

 

"DAMN," Chris said grabbing for the O2 unit. "This isn't what I was expecting. We are going to need to reset IV Units if hes bleeding this badly."

 

The wheezing progressed, interspersed with ineffective coughing, Ethan’s intercostal muscles and diaphragm visibly straining just to breathe. He knew this wasn’t Soora’s or Chris’s fault; the Motoroils had been toying with him, giving him a final conscious moment so they could terrorize him by tearing it away. If only he could assure the doctors, but he fell limp and unresponsive within seconds.

 

'Stop wasting oxygen and put the damn mask on him,' Soora said, stemming the blood flow as best she could.

 

Chris placed the O2 mask over Ethan’s mouth and nose as he went limp. He then placed his hands over hers and the gauze. “Go scrub up, you’re going to have to go back in to find that bleeder. I’ll hold it off until you return."

 

'Check his airway, make sure--'

 

The shaking hit before Soora could leave: Ethan was seizing. Soora frowned, looking at Chris, just trying to keep Ethan on the bed.

 

Chris placed his arms across the seizing man to keep him from jumping off the bed. "Get the Drazimine! I’ll hold him down!"

 

Soora pulled her hands from his, rushing to the drug cabinet, eyes searching, before taking the vial and the hypo, returning to Chris and Ethan, and injecting it in to him. She then took in a deep breath, going to the sink.

 

Chris held Ethan until his body stopped jumping. He then took the IV units and began hooking them up to Ethan once more. He took the vial than she had brought over and drew some of it and placed it into the IV unit to keep him from seizing during the surgery. He then checked the vitals which were not good at all.

 

Soora scrubbed the blood from her hands, then strapped on a set of gloves, coming back over to Chris. 'At least he stopped seizing.' She went to the other side of the cot, applying pressure to the open wound.

 

Chris continued to watch the man’s vitals. "I placed some of the Drazimine in the IV to keep him sedated and to keep him from seizing again while you worked on him. I'm keeping his vitals up. Do what you need to to get that bleeding to stop. An autosuture isn't going to do it.

 

"Also you and I will need to talk once this crisis is over with. Patient to Doctor." Chris looked over to Soora face to see what kind of expression she would have.

 

'Didn't before and won't now,' she said, her face back to its smooth self. 'Have to do a manual stitch,' she muttered, doing a quick check under the gauze. She glanced up at him, surprised at his words, genuinely thinking he had forgotten about her, but fought to keep her face calm. 'Alright.' She left the cot for a minute to retrieve the needle and thread.

 

Chris replaced his hands on the gauze reapplying the pressure. He called out to her as she walked away. "Is the black goo attacking his organs? Is that why the sutures from before are not holding?"

 

'Maybe,' she said, shrugging, returning and setting up to stitch him up again. 'Sooner we hear from Troy, the better.'

 

"Agreed." He continued to monitor Ethan’s vitals while Soora worked.