A puzzle wrapped inside an enigma housed inside a cranium

Posted on 27 Mar 2010 @ 3:39pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

822 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: M4: The Cartaris Strain
Location: Sick bay
Timeline: MD 1 1400 into MD 2 approx. 0300

Rico's frustration was begining to show. After first bringing Lawrence to sickbay he had conduct a complete physical examination. After going over the results with a fine tooth comb he had found nothing. The effects of the phaser he had been stunned would have worn off after an hour or so by itself so while he continued his work he was keeping Lawrence sedated.

Every test he could think of he had run, and so far the results had been the same. There was nothing that could explain his behavior...yet. Test results were still coming in, but it wasn't looking good.

Rico got up to stretch and replicated himself some coffee. He leand against the door frame looking out at the sedated officer. ~What the hell is wrong with you...~

His terminal beeped as another set of results came in. He turned the monitor towards him and began to review the result. Nothing. Slamming his hand on the desk in frustration he moved to the medical lab.

"Anything I can assist you with Doctor?" Ayren's amused voice piped from the door.

He had been so absorbed in the test results that he hadn't even heard her come in. He had been off too long, normally that didn't happen. His head whipped around at the surprised interuption, "That depends MisS Kelan how good are you with medical analysis?"

"I know my way around," she said standing closer, bracing herself for the pheromone assault. "I had to study neurology and psychiatry too."

"Excellent. If you could look over the remaining brain chemistry analysis. I'm going to look over his DNA."

Ayren nodded and transferred the data to another console. "I don't want to be too close.... you will distract me," she explained her move.

Rico began examining Lawrences DNA section by section. He could have had the computer look for any abnormalities, but in this case he wanted to do it himself. His consenttration was fixed on the task before him as he examined his patients DNA. Only the stiffness in his neck gave ihim a hint to the passage of time. He twisted his neck and got right back to work.

[Hours later]

He was still at it his neck and shoulders were beyond stiff but he didn't stop his examination. He dropped his head to stretch the muscles in his neck.

"This is strange...." Ayren said, looking up, noticing Ricco's strain. It took everything from her not to get up and relieve him from his stress. She braced herself inwardly and called him over. Damn, he was good looking. "Come have look here..."

Pausing his work he raked his fingers over the muscles in his neck he stood stretching, "be right there."

She turned the console, so he could see. "Do you see those areas.. there are elevated areas of Acetylcholine (ACh). But in isolted pockets..."

Leaning in towards the monitor to get a closer look. What he was seeing was astonishing. The amount of active neural processors being displayed was usually only seen in species with lifespans that covered centuries of time. "Most of the activity seem to be centered in the region associated with longterm memory." He tapped a control to rotate theview of Lawrences brain. "See here, the frontal and temporal cortexes, the amygdala, the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and even the motor cortex. But there is also activity in the hippocampus and in central processor of the prefrontal cortex. But that area deals with short term memory. The thing is, how can a man of 32 have the memory activity of almost three lifetimes? More importantly what was causing it?" Rico began to pace behind Ayren's seat as he rubbed his chin.

Ayren sensed that he was on to something, curious to see where this was leading.

"Computer, scan the DNA currently displayed for any abnormal areas of activity. Specifically those areas associated with brain development."

"Scanning."

"Display the results on the main display."

Ayren got up and walked to the main console.

Rico moved into the main area of sickbay to make use of that larger display. A the results came in he was even more confused. It just didn't make any sense. Then suddenly a thought occurred to his as he tied to think of what could be the link between a persons DNA and the memories. He turned to Ayren. "I think I know whats happened," noticing the hour, "would you mind getting the Captain? Wait there is a staff meeting in three hours. I wanna confirm some other information. I can present my findings then."

"Sure," Ayren said, with a smile. The man seemed on a mission. "If you need anything else, let me know, " she said. She was curious, but would wait for the staff meeting. In any case her head was swimming because of the pheromones.

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Lt. Cmdr "Rico" Montoya
NPC-CMO

Ayren Kelan
CDO and Counselor as needed.
(NPC by Sharon)

 

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