Getting Answers

Posted on 14 Sep 2014 @ 3:52am by Lieutenant Elas Vonti & Commander Karen Myles

1,284 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M12: For Duty or Honor
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: ?

-On-

Elas walked into Sickbay, feeling better after finally getting a nights sleep. Two days ago Elas had left Sickbay discharged after an awful night where he had unwittingly assaulted two crew-members. He had spent most of the time since then moping in house arrest, crying, fervently researching and requesting medical records. He knew this was out of his nature. He was highly sexual in his habits, and had many partners and an open feeling about sexuality as a whole but this was not him. This was rape, and Elas couldn't rest until he could explain how he could have come to such a horrible end.

He didnt see Dr. Wallace who had been on duty yesterday, but rather the CMO herself. He wondered if she had been brought up to speed, he wondered how she had been told.

"Doctor Myles?" Elas stood a few feet from her office door, calling after her while giving her room to reject him if she wanted to.

Looking up from the padd she was reading intently she took a deep breath and said. "I prefer to be addressed as Commander." She was getting slightly annoyed at repeating that phrase but she knew it would be a while before it no longer became necessary. She waved him over and said. "Come in Lieutenant, take a seat I have been expecting you." She reached opened one of the draws in her desk and pulled out another padd.

Elas accepted the correction without pause, "Commander, thank you." He took his seat and settled back ready for the awkward nature the conversation would likely take. He screwed up his professional detached side and approached this like he would any other case.

"I wish to have a chance to prove that my actions were as a result of impulses created from telepathic external stimulus. I know Ayren and Alana Tambor are still in their comas, and I wish to assist with that as well. I have been in contact with Mordin Ker on Ullia, our foremost therapist and healer in Ullian regression. He has sent his research to date on the topic, as well as therapies to possibly have them emerge sooner and with fewer effects. I want to help Commander, in any way I can."

She slowly nodded as she took a deep breath, while she had a good deal of medical knowledge on Betazoid and Vulcan telepathic abilities her knowledge of Ullians was moderate at best. She had only treated on member of the species before and it had nothing to do with telepathy. She ran a hand through her hair as she leaned back slightly.

"Lieutenant I can empathise with the situation you find yourself in." She paused for a moment before adding. "Right now my priorities are to find a treatment for my patients, and I appreciate your gathering research." She leaned forward again and very slightly shook her head. "Since you are not in the brig nor have you been formally charged with a crime I am afraid proving your guilt or innocence in this matter isn't a priority."

She frowned slightly. "I also would point out that you can hardly be objective in your assessment of the research you have gathered your reputation is on the line, someone with an agenda is more likely to ignore facts that prove their theory wrong and more likely to to assign undue faith in evidence that is unproven if they believe it proves them right." She took another deep breath. "Your taking part in any investigation will only lead to skepticism of the result if in fact you are proved innocent."

Elas had expected as much, she was right after all and he knew it was up to her to take the lead on it. He just needed her to understand, so he made sure to reply carefully, with measured words and tones.

"Commander, My career and my personal oaths are sacred to me. If I have done something due to a medical mishap, or heretofore unseen species based interactions then my career and oaths are untarnished. However, if this is symptomatic of a larger problem within me, if this was a subconscious desire to attack those women then my career is over, and my oaths broken. I understand I am of little use with my clear bias and conflicts of interest but please know I that I must have have answers for the sake of my fellow crew as to whether or not I am a threat to them!"

Elas showed a schematic of his own brain on a padd, then correlated it to a scan of two similar brains albeit two thousand years older. Three more from a scan done almost four thousand years ago, this one was primitive, it was probably among the oldest records to survive to this age. In each one, Elas highlighted the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala. and the corpus callosum. A pattern could be seen where in the oldest one, the telepathic activity was minimal and it showed similar architecture to the current scan.

"Sometime nearly four thousand years ago, Ullians became very aggressive telepathically. Mating, working, raising families all became something dangerous due to the psychopathy that accompanied our species all too sudden ascent into mental telepathy. Those times got worse, our population fell under four hundred million from billions due to the warfare and infighting. As a species we chose a different path and exercised restraint and self-control, over time... almost eight hundred years, our abilities began to decline but the structures remained. I know its these ancient parts of my physiology that are key, I feel the Imzadi connection between Ayren Kelan and Admiral Da'nal has awoken these ancient portions of my brain and my regression would at that point be medical. Can you understand now why I must "prove" myself?

She took the padd and studied the scans for a few minutes, her eyes occasionally narrowing as she focused on a specific area. Eventually she looked up and placed the padd back down on the desk. Spinning her chair around she said. "Coffee black, extra strong." Reaching into the replicator she spun back around with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Counsellor." She put the coffee down and took a deep breath. "Once I have finished treating my patients, for better or worse." She paused for a moment. "I will look into this matter but I will be honest, I am not doing it for you, I will do it to find the truth and to ensure it doesn't happen again." She cleared her throat and reached into her drawer, she pulled out a cortical monitor and held it out to him. "Put this on behind her right ear, I would like to take continues scans of your brain functions for the next few hours."

"It would also be best if you cease any and all communications with physicians and healers on your homeworld until after I have spoken with them myself." She stood up and gave a nod. "I will find the answers Counselor."

Her motivations did not concern him, it was clearing his conscience and reputation that drove him to investigate this. She said she would do it and that was enough. He nodded in understanding, stood up to signal the end of their meeting. "Thank you Commander. I will do as you ask, please keep me informed of any progress you make, and I am available to help in any way you wish."

She gave a nod. "Thank you Counsellor, if I require anything I will be in contact." She gave a slight smile. "Good day."

Off:
Commander Karen Myles
Chief Medical Officer

Elas Vonti
CCO

 

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