Of Space and Time

[Amanda Davis PhD 0]

Of Space and Time
Amanda Davis, Mimi Pavilion, & Dacia Sandero

Amanda’s office chrono chimed 8:00 Aegis local, and she had been working since 5:00.  She leaned back in her chair for a long stretch before closing her eyes to relax.  She had been calculating a “thought switch” or a “brain share”, or whatever you might call it.  Simple?  No.  Would it work?  She certainly hoped so.  

Commander Nijil tr’Korjata and an alien who called herself Prani, had switched brain thoughts.  Nijil’s body was on Aegis, but his thoughts were in Prani’s brain on a planet that existed long ago and far-far away.  

Prani’s thoughts had shot through time and space in an artificial wormhole.  As soon as Prani’s thoughts found Nijil on Aegis, she sent his thoughts through the same wormhole into her body.  Amanda’s job, along with Mimi’s and Dacia’s, was to figure out how they could shoot thoughts through space and time in a wormhole without damaging Nijil’s brain cells.

Her eyes still closed, she took a long inhale followed by a slow exhale to clear her own thoughts. 

"It can be done," she whispered in thought. "It has been done. If Nijil and Prani were in close proximity, maybe even attached directly through magnetic signals, it might work. But through space and time? Through a wormhole that was controlled by someone called parr Muuhi who manipulated the wormhole from  the other side of the wormhole?  And… to top it all off, Prani had told her (and several others) that parr Muuhi could have died hundreds of years ago."

"You okay, ma'am?" jerked her thoughts back to the present and set her chair upright. 

"Oh…  James," she said to the corpsman who peeked in the door. "I'm fine. Just very tired."

"How about a cup, then," he encouraged, smiling, as he jerked his thumb toward the physicians' lounge. "It's fresh."

After a long, drawn-out sigh, she returned his smile and accepted the offer.   Shift change had begun, so she would have privacy, a fresh cup of coffee, and an explanation in case anyone who was working on the project asked.  She definitely needed coffee.  And Mimi. And Dacia.

Sipping a cup of tea, Dacia was wrapping up making her routine checks on the patients in the sick bay, which wasn’t too much in numbers with the end of the virus that afflicted the station.  She watched Mimi walk into Dr. Davis’ office out of the corner of her eye.   People still seemed tense after everything that transpired, and some in particular felt off, she didn’t need to be a Betezoid to know that.  Dacia looked up from her work.  “I don’t know if anything’s wrong, but I do have a feeling something’s… off,” she said, lacking a better word.  Dacia continued on with what she was doing.  

Mimi entered medical and went to her office to see what had happened during the night. She noticed that Amanda had been in medical for the last couple hours and Mimi decided to go pay her a visit.

“Hey. Dacia noticed you’ve been here since 5 am. Is there something wrong?  Maybe I can help,” Mimi asked.  

“Oh, Mimi!” Amanda perked up at the sound of Mimi’s voice.  “We need to talk. And yes, you can help. Is Dacia around at the moment?”  

“Ok. Yes she is. I passed her on the way over,” she replied.

“Well, the coffee’s fresh.  Why don’t you grab a cup and we can talk in your office?”

“Alright, I’ll grab a cup and meet you in my office. Let Dacia know you need to visit with her as well.”

“Wonderful,” Amanda replied, literally pushing herself to a stand.  “I saw Dacia a bit ago, checking patients.  I’ll see if I can find her and bring her in.”

Mimi nodded and went to grab her cup of coffee.  After grabbing her cup, Mimi went back to her office and sat down.

Coffee in hand, Amanda searched the medical complex for Dacia.  The circular medical center was quite large, and a little difficult to navigate unless you enjoyed going around in circles.  But eventually, “Dr Sandero?”  Amanda called, catching her attention. “When you get a chance, Dr Pavilion would like to have us in her office.  Oh.. and the tea is as fresh as the coffee.” 

Dacia looked at her lukewarm tea.  “Well, that sweetens the pot.   Sure thing, I’ll head over.”  Dumping her tea along the way, she made her way over the Dr. Pavillion’s office and pressed the chime on her door.  

Mimi looked at the door, to see Dacia there. “Come on in,” she answered.

Amanda had already literally plunked into a chair to wait.

Dacia smiled and nodded as she greeted both Mimi and Amanda before settling into an empty chair.  

Putting her coffee aside, Amanda began, “Well, here’s the situation, and it’s complicated. 

“I’m sure you have noticed that Commander Korjata has been acting strangely lately. Well….” A slight sigh relaxed her a little more.  “The reason that he’s been acting like that is because the body that has been roaming through engineering is Nijil, but the brain inside the body belongs to another person.  Now…” she paused, holding up her hand to think.  “Bare with me.

“Four teams are working on the problem: medical, science, engineering, and security.  All four teams are collaborating to send the thoughts that are in Nijil’s brain through a wormhole to the brain’s owner, and the thoughts that are in Nijil’s brain— she calls herself Prani— have to be sent back to Nijil.  Oh, that does not make sense.  Should I try again, or do you understand what I just said?”

“So Nijil isn’t Nijil, but an alien who basically traded places with him mentally and now we have to send her back, in order to get Nijil back,” Mimi said.  “Makes total sense, considering it’s Aegis.”

Dacia pondered this. “Well, I did notice Nijil wasn’t acting like himself.  I also sensed a different presence about him, so I suppose it does make sense.  I didn’t think it possible for someone to just take over someone’s mind like that.  It does explain a lot about him.”

“So, Dacia, as a Betazoid, are you able to tap into Nijil’s brain?  The reason I ask is that it can be a delicate procedure to merely send thoughts from one brain to another.”

“Yes, I certainly could if I knew where Nijil’s thoughts were, I can detect and communicate telepathically only to a certain range.  If I can relay my thoughts through this wormhole to whomever is hosting Nijil’s mind, then it is possible I can connect with him,” replied Dacia. 

“Does ‘If you knew where his thoughts were’ mean that you have to connect to a certain area of his brain?”

Dacia nodded. “Yes, I’d need to connect with the logical and emotional part of the brain to engage in effective conversation with him.” 

After a moment of thought, Amanda nodded.  “Prani definitely wants to get home, so that is no problem.  As a neurosurgeon, I’ll be monitoring Prani’s thoughts and anything that might happen to Nijil’s brain.  If you’re able to connect to that portion of Prani’s thoughts, the rest of it should be fairly simple. At least I hope it will be.  Mimi, do you have any ideas for the preliminary tests?” 

Mimi sat there thinking what seemed like an eternity,  “Just going through a few simulations as a precaution, but other than that, not off the top of my head. Pardon the pun.”

Amanda smiled.  “At this point, we can use a little levity, Mimi.  Simulations in the neurosurgery operating room works very well, so let’s do that. Dacia, you’ll work on tapping into Prani’s thoughts.  Mimi, you’ll lead the simulations and see what we can come up with.  That’s a good beginning.

“One other thing.  What we are doing is classified, for several reasons.  Commander Coleridge leads the engineering team.  Lt Commander Tarisa leads the science team.  Lieutenant Garand commands security, and I will be in charge of medical.  Any questions?”  Amanda just realized that she’s starting to sound like the captain.

Mimi just shook her head ‘no.’   Dacia also shook her head.  “No, but I’ll do what I can to assist”. 

“Of course, Dacia.  We need both you and Mimi, and it might be more than assisting.  We have no idea what might happen, but we’ll take it one step at a time.”