Inside the code.

Posted on Thu Mar 10th, 2022 @ 12:16am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Commander Sthilg

Mission: Season 5: Interlude: Darkness Abounds
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Before mission
881 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

After dropping off his coffee beans into his roaster the gorn lead the way into sickbay. Giving a reassuring nod to Rin he stepped into his office. " Take a ssseat on the biobed and I'll get the ssscanner ssstarted." he said as he ran his hands under the steraliser.

Rin hopped up onto the bed as instructed, wondering if she was wasting the doctor's time, as well as considering whether she wanted him to find anything. She wasn't a huge fan of Sickbay, although she supposed no one really was other than the people who worked there.

Still, her experience was different from that of a lot of other people. When she had a medical problem, it tended to involve disassembling bits of herself. A drone wasn't meant to operate without upgrades for 17 years. And while most of her implants were long gone, the ones that remained were fairly vital, and they were operating in a body that was no longer optimized for them.

" Okay, let'sss take a look. I'll call Visssse down here asss well ssshe knowsss more about cyberneticsss than me." The gorn explained as he started up the scanner.

It didn't take long before the trill cyberneticist joined the pair her hair still smelling of the ship's pools coleraine. She gave Rin a smile. " Hello there Rin. Can you describe any recent changes or pains you may have felt. " She asked as she took a seat next to Sthilg

Rin considered. "Besides the odd dream that started this...I don't know, things have been a bit emotionally chaotic, but this is a new posting for me. The Elysium has a particularly colorful crew and I'm still sorting out how to deal with it all. No pain, though."

" Well let's take a look and see what we can find. " Vise said as she began looking over the results. With her eyes that could read code just as easily as blood flow her eyes noticed something. " May have something reading are off for the implant in your limbic system." she stated calmly as she began looking over the data.

"Which is part of the diagnostic systems which is why it hasn't reported a problem," Rin said with a slight harrumph. "Memory and emotional regulators. Makes sense. How big of a problem are we looking at?"

" Depends if it keeps breaking down. You could be overwhelmed with emotions if it all comes out in a flood." Vise said calmly.

That possibility was terrifying for Rin. And a little euphoric, but mostly terrifying.

"What are the chances of repair?" She asked evenly. Best to be practical, after all.

Vise gave her a concerned look. " We could try and repair it, but it would be a long operation. It's buried deep into your brain. You'd be unable to work for a very long time and there's the possibility of a loss of functions."

"Those...are not great options," Rin acknowledged with a nod of her head. "We leave it, and maybe I go insane, or we fix it, and maybe I'm crippled. I guess I'll go with the former, for now. What would happen to me if I had some sort of psychological break? I've seen drones go mad. It's not pretty. Putting them down were mercy killings."

Sthilg stepped over to her and kneeling down looked her straight in the eyes as he offered his hand. " That'sss not going to happen Rin. Well find a way to help you get through thisss."

You can't promise that, Rin thought but chose not to say. Negative thinking wasn't going to help her. She could either strive to make things better, or she could wallow in self pity and just wait for the worst to happen. There really was no choice there.

But she was so tired. Things were going well. She had made connections here. True emotional connections. And now it seems to be the product of something breaking in her brain.

She tried reminding herself that she was supposed to be able to feel these things, and that the thing in her head was stopping them, but that didn't make it any less scary. She saw what could happen to people when they got overly emotional. And if all that came back at once? That was a terrifying thought.

She didn't realize she was crying until a tear splashed against her lap. She hurriedly wiped her eyes, but Sthilg was right there. There was no way he wouldn't have seen.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Sthilg said nothing as he reached for a tissue from his belt and handed it to her. " We're going to get through thisss Ren. We'll find a way to help you through thisss."

" I'll contact Voyager's EMH and the federations borg experts. Ask them for anything that could help." Vise said from behind the desk where she was already typing.

Rin nodded in acknowledgement as she cleaned herself up.

" Now I'm going to assssssigned you a ssscedual. I want you in here every week ssso we can monitor the implant." The gorn replied reassuringly.

Rin nodded again. "I can do that. Thank you."

The gorn carefully placed his hand on her shoulder. " We're going to beat thisss Rin." He said with all the confidence his soul could muster.