Transfer
Posted on Mon Dec 22nd, 2025 @ 9:18am by Commander Dean House & Commander Rosa Coy & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson
3,157 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
For Bajor!
Location: Sickbay
Dr Sarah Wilson paced, not her usual method of dealing with stressful situations but it was working for the moment. Baldric had returned, the poor woman sweating profusely and pale as her body worked to expel the creature within. There was only so much she could do to manage the rejection without harming the symbiote, and her options were now running out.
"Sunfire to shuttle, what's your ETA, our patient is deteriorating"
The Shuttle Equinox finally replied after a minute, "We're about 13 minutes out, Doctor. What are the patients vitals right now? We can push it to 10 but any more than that would be dangerous. Have you prepped her for the transfer."
Dean was there also, holding Jennifer's hand. Shaking his head. "I know why she did it.. we should have transferred it over to me. You're not dying on me Jennifer."
"We're prepping her now, vitals are unstable, BP 200 over 120, pulse 116. Her body is shutting down." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, "13 minutes I can give you though" she closed the channel and headed over to Baldric and Dean.
"We'll prep you now, I need to sedate you" she moved to Jennifer's side.
"Get this cow out of me" Baldric grumbled, gripping Dean's hand like a lifeline.
Approximately 11 minutes or so later:
The Trill delegation followed Rosa down the ramp of the runabout. Commander Rosa Coy walked ahead, distant and silent, performing the duty she was assigned: deliver Olaris, Toval, and the young trainee, Jexa, to the Sunfire’s medical bay so they could begin preparations for the transfer of the mirror-universe Coy into the symbiont extraction container. Rosa could feel her own symbionts restraint like a cold wind at her spine.
Medical accepted the delegation with crisp efficiency. Biobeds lit. Scanners hummed. Doctors greeted Olaris with professional deference. Toval immediately found something to critique on a console display.
Rosa finished the transfer-of-care report quickly, tapping in the final authorization code.
A few minutes later Sarah had completed her own assessment, and saw that everything was in order. She transferred both Jennifer and Olaris to the surgical bay and prepped herself for the surgery ahead. She had never transplanted a symbiote before, but had done the reading and understood the process. No doubt the Trill delegation would be there to assist, critique or judge - most likely all of the above.
Seeing the delegation waiting impatiently for her, she hurried into the surgical theatre, and paused to take a breath, standing before her patient.
"Alright, everyone ready?"
Baldric, who had been sedated was silent, and she waited for the rest to comment before starting.
Olaris nodded. She was the stout elder Trill who would oversee the operation from the Human Jennifer into the Trill containment canister. It was filled with waters from the sacred pools, and would sustain the symbiont until it's reintegration on Trill.
Toval watched, ever the aide to Olaris, he managed the paperwork while she maintained the expertise. Jexa was along for the ride, to learn. Rosa stayed on hand knowing she would oversee the transfer back to Trill. She stood, at ease, if you can call her rigid stance, hands behind her back, at ease.
"So, it's going into.....that?" Sarah pointed to the container with a raised eyebrow, stepping towards Jennifer and removing the surgical drapes covering Baldric's toned midsection.
Olaris grinned, "The waters of the sacred pools will sustain the symbiont until we return home. We felt it a safer choice considering the history this Host carries." She gestured to Jennifer.
"I've been there before, it's fascinating to see. Never seen an integration done in one. It was just in passing. What Olaris said from what I know. Given the toxicity of Coy, it's way better for everyone." Dean noted, just trying to help the understanding.
Sarah moved forward, laser scalpel at the ready. She looked at Dean. "You sure you want to see this? It will be a bit messy" she asked with a touch of concern.
Dean nodded his head, "I'm far from squeamish, it'll be fine. If I weren't me, though, I'd just grab it and throw it on the deck."
Sarah took a breath, rechecked the readings in the nearby monitor and began. She made the first incision in Baldric's lower abdomen, something similar to an old fashioned caesarean section, peeling back the layers until the symbiote was exposed.
"Alright, we're through, I'm finding the Symbioses' attachment point and preparing to separate" Sarah's hands were wrist deep in her patient's guts.
Sarah began to apply the scalpel that would separate Coy from its host when an alarm began to blare from the nearby monitor.
"Wilson, what is it? Is Coy trying to hold on to where she is and messing with Jennifer's body?" Dean asked.
"I'm not 100 percent sure, but that's what it looks like. There's a neurotoxin it's releasing...I don't know how or why...." she looked towards the Trill delegation. "Do I continue and risk losing them both? Or have you seen this before?"
Olaris stepped forward, moving Dean out of the way if she had to. Looking at the monitor again. "We've only heard of a few being able to do this. You've got to literally put the Symbiont to sleep to stop the conscious release of the toxin. Be very quick about it. Continue with the removal. I will have pretty boy over there synthesize the anti-toxin." Stepping back and telling what Dean needed to do.
"Put it to sleep? Right ok" Sarah accepted the trill hypo that was pushed towards her and pressed it into the slimy skin of the symbiote. She set the empty canister aside and picked up the scalpel again, severing the thick connection between Coy and Jennifer's spinal cord. Without hesitation she scooped out the limp assailant and shoved it towards the Trill.
Olaris didn’t flinch as the symbiont was transferred. Her voice stayed level, almost antiseptic. “Neural activity suppressed. Toxin emission has ceased. Transfer successful.” She watched the readings settle. “Seal the container. Full isolation protocol.”
Toval stepped in immediately, hands already moving, snapping the Trill containment unit closed with practiced precision. “Symbiont secured,” he confirmed, eyes on the monitor, not the room. “Mirror variant stable under sedation. We’ll maintain stasis until transport. No further interaction.”
The lid locked with a soft, final click. The crisis, at least on paper, was over.
Sarah wiped the slime from the symbiote off on a nearby sterile cloth. "Now, the antidote for the toxin?" She prompted as she looked at the mess that Baldric's innards had become. This was going to require some fancy reconstruction work. Damn Trill.
Olaris didn’t look away from the container as it sealed. Her tone stayed brisk, procedural. “The antidote profile is already in the Federation medical archive,” she said. “Symbiont-derived neurotoxins share a conserved peptide chain. Starfleet Medical catalogued it after the Tal incident. You should have replication clearance.”
She finally turned, eyes flicking to Baldric’s open abdomen with a healer’s blunt assessment. “Replicate compound T-17, adjust dosage for Human physiology, then flood the system. It will neutralize what’s left in the bloodstream. Reconstruction can begin once the tremors stop.”
Toval nodded once, already tapping at the console. “Pattern’s loading now. You’ll have it in thirty seconds.”
Olaris paused, just a fraction of a second longer than necessary. “For what it’s worth,” she added, clinically but not unkindly, “you acted correctly. Another ten seconds and neither host nor symbiont would have survived.”
The replicator chimed. The room smelled faintly of antiseptic and hot circuitry. The worst of it was contained, now came the work of putting someone back together.
Sarsh injected her patient and waited a few moments for the compound to work, watching the monitors like a hawk until the indicators begsn to move in a favourable direction. She released the breath she was holding snd began the methodicsl task of rearranging Baldric's insides back to the way they were supposed to be. It took another hour until she was satisfied and began closing. "There, that's the best I could do. She's going to be sore for a few days" the Doc mentioned to Dean who would no doubt be looking after Jennifer.
"I've got it right here," given Dean was asked, well more told by Olaris to go get that done and bring the anti-toxin back. Now just looking a little confused what to do with it. Just setting it aside for one of the nurses to deal with or dispose of. "I will be diligent."
"Keep that extra vial handy, there have only been a few documented cases of this neural toxin being used, and almost none against humans." Sarah explained, nodding towards the hypospray. The Trill fildd out of thr surgical bay and Wilson breathed a sigh of relief. They transferred Baldric to a nearby biobed and then headed for thr CMO's office.
"How was it? Being with someone who wasnt quite themselves?" Sarah asked curiously, bringing Baldric's vitals up on her monitor so she could keep an eye on them.
tag the revival of the Baldric
Dean grabbed the hypo again. "It was definitely different. I managed to be able to pick them out, who was who, but it was still different. Something akin to severe multiple personality disorder."
"So you could tell when it was taking control, and when Jennifer was speaking? That's so cool. What about how they acted? You could tell who was driving so to speak?" Sarah was intruiged.
"We may not have been together that long, but we've worked together long enough. Also it was the shift in personalities that gave it away." Blushing a little, not mentioning the other part but Sarah might be able to pick up the implication. "They were completely different. Coy is mean, vendictive, manipulative, selfish. Jennifer is not. She's kind, thoughtful, caring, intelligent, selfless."
"That must have been difficult, I mean for you to deal with in real time" Wilson mused, glancing at the monitor again "is there anything else I should be aware of...medically I mean"
"It wasn't pleasant," some of it was, when it was actually Jennifer. Dean shook his head, "Not that I can think of off the top of my head."
Sarah was about to ask another question but remembered the dignity of her patient. "Let's just say I noticed some minor injuries, I've healed them. I'm sure you'll talk to her about them of it comes up"
His head tilted to the side a little bit, and raised an eyebrow a moment. "Injuries? I don't recall seeing any when we were," Dean chose his wording carefully, "Intimate. I know it was her and not Coy, and we were not that rough. I'd never do that. Yes, I'll have to ask her about that."
Sarah nodded professionally and noticed something on the monitor. "I think she's waking up" she moved towards the door and motioned Dean to follow. "She may be disorientated or confused.."
Dean moved to follow Sarah, giving a little nod as he did. "That's going to be usual I would thing, not only the anesthesia but from no longer having as she put it a slug in her head." Once they were there, he took Jennifer's hand.
Baldric stirred, eyes blinking rapidly against thr bright lights of sickbay. "Ugh. What hit me? Is the slug gone....please tell me the slug is gone..."
"A shuttle at transwarp, and they wouldn't let me throw it on the deck.." Of course he was jesting. Mostly. "Yes, the Trill have it now."
"They can have it. It was horrible...did I really do all the things I sort of remember? It's all a bit muddled" Baldric admitted, allowing Sarah and Dean to ease her into a sitting position and raising the head of the biobed.
"I was with you the whole time," lifting her hand to kiss the back of it. "Well, except for the shower. I locked the room down, you didn't do anything. If you've got residual memories from the symbiot, you're thinking of what she did before it was in you."
"God i hope so. It was evil, some of the things it did was horrible" Jen replied, a little teary eyed. "I'm so sorry if I was horrible to you...I wasnt premiscuous was I?"
"You didn't do any of those things, I knew when it was her and when it was you. You did have some interesting conversations with yourself." Dean smiled a little bit, also leaned in to keep his voice down. "You were, but it was you and I, not her. I wouldn't let her. We enjoyed each other again like we should."
He wasn't going to lie to her, there was no need, she'd remember eventually anyway. "I do have a question, since you brought it up," thankfully she did open it up for him to ask.
"You have a question? I thought I was the only one with a messed up brain" Baldric retorted, a good sign that her wit was returning.
"I know your memory is going to take a little bit to sort out between whatever that thing was putting in there, but do you remember hurting yourself? Doctor Wilson said she had to heal some wounds. They weren't done when we were having sex or when I was in the room which was almost the whole time except for when you took a shower."
"I...I remember something, it's all a bit messy though." Jen shook her head as though the simple movement would order her mind. "There was something...it wanted to feel pleasure...and pain..all at the same time. I couldn't stop it" she looked down at the silver blanket covering her legs.
Dean sighed, "She wanted to feel both. She wanted to manipulate me into having sex with you when it was her in control. I wouldn't let her have that kind of control." He paused a moment, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I shouldn't have asked so soon until you clear the fog. Why don't we change the subject." Reaching to pull a stool over so he could sit down.
"It's ok, now that it's gone that is. I'm just glad you could tell the difference. I had no control on what came out of my mouth. And if I recall...it wasn't pretty." Jen took his hand "I'm sorry you had to bear the brunt of that."
"It didn't hurt me," squeezing her hand, "It hurt you. You know the hero complex I have. That's why I was trying to get Coy transferred over to me. That and my body could handle it more. Damn near killed you darling. I admire and respect you for what you did, regardless of the consequences. You don't have to apologize for anything. You got to be the hero and did it magnificently with honor and dignity. You should be proud of yourself, like I am of you."
"I..." she stammered, unable to think of what to say after such a confession. Sarah made a quiet exit, leaving the two of them along in privacy. "I'm not proud of what it made me say, or do. I'm just glad no one got hurt and that it's on its way back to slug central."
"We all know it wasn't you. You weren't trained to be able to control it or any symbiot. Hell, regardless of the physical, who knows how I would have been able to handle it. I'm not as invinsible as it seems. You're getting a medal, or that damn well better go through and approved. The Starfleet Medal of Honor." Dean hoped maybe that would help her smile, and understand just how much what she it did mean.
She reached over and hugged him, wincing as the movement pulled on the recent surgery. "You are too sweet, you know that?"
Dean returned the hug and kissed her softly, resting his forehead against hers for just a moment. "I do try."
"You do well." Then she paused for a moment. "Does this mean you have to write the report on this? Holy hell that'll be a doozy" she laughed.
"I can omit certain things, but," Dean did make a bit of a yesh expression. "You know we both have to. Particularly considering that most of them got away. I got injured pretty bad even for me, that has to be written up also." He paused again, "That was a rhetorical question."
"Always with the paperwork. The Captain's gonna have a field day." She continued, "Tell me, did everyone else make it?"
Dean glanced down for a moment, "We lost a few of my lower deckers, Far as I know that was it. Ensigns Vaskez, Stani, Killeran, Jakaric, and Stilli. I really liked them, they all had potential."
"Stilli was my junior delta shift officer. Damn" Jen fell silent for a few moments. "So....when can I get outta here?"
"I actually hadn't asked Sarah that question." Dean tossed over his shoulder, "Hey! When can I take her home?"
Sarah appeared from her office and looked at the monitor. "If you promise to come back tomorrow morning or if you feel off in any way, I can release you into Dean's care. Take that second hypo in case you need it"
"I've got it in my pocket." Looking from Sarah to Jennifer, "I think we can do that, don't you."
"I promise to behave myself this time" Baldric said with mock seriousness then swung her legs over the edge of the biobed. "Wait....who's clothes are these?"
"If you hadn't just gone through surgery, I certainly would say don't behave yourself." Dean gave her a wink, "Yours..well..hers? Maybe yours cause you secretly liked them." Standing up and holding both hands out to see if she could walk or if they needed a hover chair.
She stood, leaning a little weight on him to keep herself stable but managed to remain upright. "Shall we?"
"I kind of liked the corset that went with the garder and thigh highs actually. You knew, not she, that I like purple also." Keeping very close to her and an arm around her waist, but hovering to let her walk on her own. Just there in case. Headed for his quarters instead of hers.
"Did you just? She bought out a...lets just say more risque side that I wasn't aware of. Maybe some good came out of the whole situation" Jennifer blushed a little at the thought.
"Oh some good came out of it. It was all you and I, not her. Even if maybe she gave a little nudge with the attire you were to shy to indulge in." Dean kissed her cheek and turned with her as the turbolift doors closed.
TBC
RSS Feed