“I’m in over my skies here. I haven’t studied neurology since medical school,” Aimee said to Harrison.

“Thank you, sir. Good luck out there,” he said, to the CO. As the man left, he turned to Dr. Macdonald. “Yes, we do need to isolate their brain activity.” They had a few choices on how to do that, and he’d go with whatever she said. 

Aimee turned to one of the nurses, “Set up a triage. Give Dr. Harrison and me a list of the worst cases. For the rest make them as comfortable as possible.” She glanced at Harrison considering, “Worst case scenario we could put them in a medically induced coma until the threat is over. I don’t want to do that unless we have to, but that should protect their minds right?” 

Roger nodded. “It should, yes. Do you want to start with Choi, or should I?” He was prepared but he could also start intakes-either way, he was going to regret not eating that breakfast he’d promised his wife about. Oh, well. Bigger fish to fry, he supposed.

Aimee sighed she was not a fan of the idea. Turning to Choi, “What do you want to do?  We can try the cortical inhibitor first.”

Egrel was sitting, clutching his head, nearly in tears despite the calming medication that was administered to him, “Just make it stop! Make it stop!” He sobbed, shaking his head, “There’s so much red, so much death! The blood…” Whatever was affecting him, was hitting him hard and making him see things.

Aimee turned to a nurse, “Get me 30ccs of Portoberal.”  Aimee returned her attention to Egrel, “Counselor can you hear me?”

Egrel flinched as he was spoken to and gave a trembling nod, ” I… I can hear you. Make it stop. Make it STOP!” His last word was shouted, a desperate plea to make whatever was happening him to stop.

The nurse returned with a hypospray and handed it to Aimee, and she pressed it against his neck and injected the drug.  “It’s going to be okay Counselor,” Aimee said as she guided him to his back, “Just relax”.”

Egrel winced as the hypo was injected. He allowed himself to be laid back, still sobbing nearly hysterically.

 Having decided after her “dream” she needed the comfort that only her Iron Lady’s Heart could give, Neva strode purposely in that direction.

She was halfway there when she was tapped on the shoulder. Startled, she swooped around by muscle memory and caught the holder of the tapping hand by the wrist. Neva’s eyes were full of wrath for being disturbed.

She was about to punch when she saw it was Lt. Sheila, another Betazoid. Dropping the woman’s wrist, Neva gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Lieutenant. Wasn’t paying attention.” 

The woman nodded with a shaky smile. “I know what you mean. I barely am either.” She gave Neva a questioning look. “Have you heard everyone with any telepathic ability needs to go to Sickbay? I’m sure going!”

“No, I didn’t. I was in my shower.” Neva answered. “Not that I want to go anyway. Those suppressor shots made things WORSE for me!” 

“I don’t want to either, but orders y’know?” Sheila shrugged. “I honestly hope that whatever they do, it’ll be better than the nightmare I had.”

Neva’s eyes went wide. “You TOO?” Neva had a full-body shiver. “Ok, let’s go together. NOW I’m scared.” That said, Neva looped her arm with Sheila’s and looked at her sheepishly. “You mind?” The other woman shook her head and patted Neva’s. “No. It makes me feel better.” They nodded at each other and walked to Sickbay.

A nurse was there to meet them.  She had a caring expression,  but they were all overworked at the moment.  “You two ladies appear to not be affected as badly as others.  Unfortunately, we have to follow triage protocols at the moment. Have a seat over there ladies,” she said pointing at a biobed.  The only empty one left.

As if to punctuate the situation a Vulcan screamed clutching his head in both hands,  “Get out! Get out of my head!”  As if he could no longer take it he punched another nearby Vulcan and the two fell into each other in a vicious all-out brawl.  The medical staff jumped in to subdue the fight and one got a broken nose for the effort. 

“Sickbay to security we need assistance on the double!” Aimee shouted over the din.

Neva and Sheila went where they were told, both getting up on the bed and holding hands. They murmured to each other words of comfort and watched the scene before them with worried eyes.

Aimee headed for her office and when she returned she was carrying a phaser.   The first Vulcan had his hand clamped around the neck of the Vulcan he attacked.  Adjusting the stun setting to maximum she fired knocking the first Vulcan to the deck.  Before the second Vulcan could react she stunned the second.

Holstering the weapon she noticed Neva and approached like she hadn’t just ended a deadly brawl, “How, are you feeling Lieutenant?”

Neva and Sheila exchanged confused looks for a moment, then the engineer answered, “Well, I didn’t have as violent a reaction as some.” She looked over Aimee’s shoulder at the Vulcan lumps on the floor, then continued. “I had a really bad dream that….turned into a REALLY bad nightmare.” She squeezed Sheila’s hand for comfort. “It felt like the…the Thing from the ship got into my head.” She did a body shake, closed her eyes, and grabbed her head as if in pain. “I thought it would go if I got control, it would go away…it…it..” 

Sheila gently took Neva’s hands away from her head and held them, turning to the Doctor and nodding. “I had one too, though I’m betting not as bad as Neva here.” 

Neva squeezed the other woman’s hands & let go. “If you want to give me that suppressor shot again…I’m sorry, but I’d rather run screaming through the ship naked!” She gave a slight smirk, though her dark eyes were still fearful.

Aimee sighed looking at the Vulcan combatants, to the sleeping form of Counselor Choi, and then finally at Neva. “Ideally I would like to keep you under observation,  but you seem to be handling it well enough, and we need our chief engineer,  and I think you need engineering.  I want to try a cortical inhibitor. I cannot promise it will work, but if it does it may help the milder cases, the alternative is a medically induced coma, which I am not thrilled with.”

Neva sighed hard and dropped her head to her chest for a long moment. She pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes shut. Suddenly,  she sat up ramrod straight, ebony eyes looking at nothing. Through gritted teeth, she pushed the words out. 

“I’ll do the inhibitor, Doctor.”She swallowed the lump in her throat. Do it before I change my mind.” 

Seeing Neva’s reaction, Sheila nodded as well. “Me too, Doctor. It’s better than nothing.” Sheila grabbed her new friend’s hand and waited.

Aimee programmed two inhibitors and pressed them against her patient’s necks.  She scanned them with a tricorder before snapping it shut.  “How are you feeling?”

Neva sighed long, feeling the shot take its ugly effect. With a sad smile, Neva looked at the Doctor. “The same as last time…nothing.” She would say no more.

Aimee turned to one of the orderlies, “I need you to shadow Lt. Cordon.  Make sure you have a medical kit with you.  You are there to ensure there’s someone there if she has an episode,  but not get in the way.”

“Yes doctor, ” he said nodding.  You could tell he wasn’t looking forward to the assignment, but Aimee’s didn’t care.

“You are free to return to duty Lieutenant. as for you,” she said to Sheila, “I’ll get someone to escort you to surgical recovery.   The EMH and nurses there will make you as comfortable as possible.”

Neva waved and smiled at Sheila. “Rest well, my friend.” The wave was returned with an answering smile.

Neva looked at her medical shadow and tried to give him an encouraging smile. “I know I’m not going to be the most exciting patient. If you want, you can watch from my office. You can see the whole of Engineering.”

That said, the Engineer hopped off the bed and left with her new “companion.”

Roger spoke to Lt. Choi. “Ok, Lieutenant. I’ll keep you awhile for observation.” He pushed some buttons on the bio-bed and then activated a forcefield, just in case the visions the man was having caused him to try to be ambulatory.

 “Try to rest. Do your best.” He let out a sigh, and wondered how many grey hairs today was going to earn him. He turned next to the Vulcan who had screamed out. “Let me help you.” He took his tricorder, and gently pressed it against the alien’s neck. “It’ll be ok!! Take a couple of deep breaths, and let it pass.” He pressed some buttons. “Dr. MacDonald, can I have one of the inhibitors, please?” The woman brought the machine to him, and he took it, quickly jamming the small stick into the Vulcan’s neck. With a cringe, he watched as the Vulcan slumped over. Oh, well, it’d save his life. He just wished they had some kind of better treatment. “We’re running out of beds,” he said, to no one in particular. They might have to wind up using a couple of field stretchers. He’d done it before. It wasn’t ideal but you did what you had to. How many damn telepaths were on this boat, anyway?! “Who’s next?” A nurse waved him over. He headed in her direction, realizing that the worst of it was probably over and from here on out, it was going to be helping the worse-afflicted to work through it safely.