Medical Mystery PT3

Posted on Sun Feb 15th, 2026 @ 12:08pm by Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis ie-Jia'anKahr & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson

1,589 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Current

Olivia dipped the sponge stick back into the cup of broth, letting it soak up a small amount again. Once it had soaked up a little, Olivia slowly moved her hand closer towards Batel's lips once more. "Just a little more moisture to help out. I have a feeling that it has been a long while since you used your voice, and the liquid in small doses can help loosen up your throat. Plus, it will help get rid of that dry feeling in your mouth."

Batel nodded, glancing around Sickbay as her strength ever so slowly returned. This was way more advanced than the Cayuga or the Enterprise. Time had ceased to have meaning once she had become the Beholder. How much had passed? She accepted the broth, allowing it to moisten her mouth and throat, making speech a little easier.

"You're not telling me everything." It was another statement, not accusatory, just a fact.

"Only because I and the others don't want to overwhelm you all at once," Olivia replied. "I'm sure that in due time everything will become more clear for you."

"Why won't you tell me?" The words were softer as her energy began to wane again and her body began to reassert its need for recovery. "Where's Chris?"

Hearing Batel's question caused Rowan to react and step forward. Not abrupt, not authoritative, just present. Their eyes met for the first time since she had started speaking.

“Captain,” he said evenly, grounding the word. “You’ve experienced significant temporal displacement. Before we answer questions about individuals, I need to make sure your cardiovascular and neural markers remain stable under stress. We will tell you what you need to know. But not all at once.” His tone didn't soften; it steadied. "Right now, your body comes first."

Olivia nodded slightly as she looked over a few of the readings while Rowan spoke with Batel. "We will answer all your questions in due course, Captain," Olivia said. "Let us take care of you first, please."

Olivia looked up at Rowan as another thought came to her. "Just a possible crazy thought here," Olivia said, "we might want to see about possible extra security measures so we don't lose our patient. Couldn't hurt to ask about having transporter dampers activated around Sickbay temporarily."

Rowan didn't look up from the monitors immediately. He was watching the subtle fluctuations in Batel's neural readout.

“Security is a reasonable instinct,” he said at last, calm and even. Not dismissive.

He adjusted the biobed’s field parameters a fraction before continuing. “But we don’t escalate around a patient who just regained temporal orientation unless we have evidence of external interference.”

The CMO turned his attention towards Olivia. Not corrective, just steady. “If someone attempts to remove her, we’ll respond. Until then, Sickbay remains what it is supposed to be... a sanctuary.”

He allowed his voice to trail. “Transporter dampers send a message,” Rowan added quietly. “Right now the message she needs is stability, not containment.”

He shifted his attention back to Batel. “Good thinking ahead,” he finished, softer. “Log the contingency. We’ll revisit if the situation changes.”

"One has to think ahead every so often," Olivia replied. She made a quick note about the contingency option for a revisit at a later time, should the need arise.

"I'm still learning to distinguish some of the memories I get at times. One of my symbiont's previous hosts was a Security officer, and the memory about the transporter dampers is what flashed into my mind."

"That is something we may need to be cautious of, at least in the short term," Sarah started from where she was packing up the instruments she had used earlier. "Were Trill part of the Federation back then?" She kept her voice low, lest Batel could still hear them. "There's just so much she's gonna need to get her head around, it's hard to fathom."

Olivia nodded slightly. "Meeting and learning about my people and several others that are now part of the Federation will be a lot for the Captain to take in over time," Olivia replied.

While Olivia and Sarah chatted, Rowan shifted his attention. Not to the monitors this time, but to Batel herself. The questions were coming faster now. Not frantic yet, but definitely gathering weight.

He stepped slightly aside from the biobed and angled toward Aurora. "Counsellor," he said quietly so as not to intrude on Batel's fragile focus, "she's orienting rapidly. Faster than I had anticipated."

His eyes flicked briefly to the neural scan, then back to Aurora. "Physiologically, she can tolerate brief spikes in stress. But her cognitive load is increasing. The questions are becoming specific. She's about to move from confusion to grief."

He didn't soften his words. It was simply the next stage.

"I can regulate her heart rate and I can dampen neural overstimulation. I can't pace what it means for her to understand how much time has passed. I'd value your assessment on how much truth we introduce now and how much we delay."

Aurora nodded. “I would suggest we take it a stage at a time; to give too much information may very well cause more harm than good.”

Behind them, Batel’s breathing had steadied again, but her eyes were open.

“She’s not dissociating,” he added quietly. “She’s integrating. That makes this harder," he paused. "If we misjudge this, we won't destabilize her body. We'll fracture her trust."

Rowan stepped half a pace back toward the biobed, leaving room both physically and professionally for Aurora to approach if she chose.

Batel's mind was in overdrive, as much as someone who had just re-found their body after who knows how long as a statue/sentry for a bunch of overzealous aliens hell-bent on taking over the universe. She didn't remember much of that time, only that time had passed. Chris wasn't there when she had returned — only these people, who for all intents and purposes looked human enough, but everything was different. Uniforms, technology, whatever ship this was — if it even was a ship. She began to doubt her own sanity, wondering if this was a delusion of some sort — a dream created by her mind to protect itself.

"I need you to tell me where I am," she stated, voice as strong as it could be at this point in time. There was a bite of determination and frustration behind it.

Aurora approached, offering a warm, calming smile. “Please don’t be alarmed, you’re not in any danger. I’m Aurora Vali, I’m the ship's Counsellor.” She paused. “All I can say right now is that you’re aboard a Starfleet ship, the USS Sunfire. I know it all looks a lot different to what you’re used to, but right now you need time to rest and acclimate to your surroundings.”

"Sunfire... I'm not familiar with that name. Why does everyone keep talking about acclimating?" There was a flicker of recognition behind the blue-grey eyes. "How long was I down there?"

Savar had entered Sickbay to get an update on Batel's condition when he saw Aurora at her bedside engaged in conversation with her. He stayed back, not wishing to intrude on the conversation, so he quietly observed.

Rowan heard Batel's question but didn't respond immediately. He stepped back into Batel's direct line of sight — not blocking Aurora, but aligning himself with her rather than opposite her.

"Captain," he said evenly, "before we quantify time, I need to understand what you remember last. What is the final clear moment you can anchor to?"

He watched her eyes carefully as he spoke. Not searching for memory, but any sign of strain. "If we move too far ahead of your frame of reference, it will feel like we're withholding. We're not," he paused momentarily. "We're sequencing."

His gaze flicked briefly to Aurora, then back to Batel.

“You deserve the full truth. But we introduce it in a way your nervous system can absorb.”

Aurora nodded in agreement. “What do you remember, Captain?”

Batel closed her eyes for a moment, as though sifting through memories.

"Chris... Captain Pike and I had gone down to Skygowan. Enterprise and Farragut had opened the gateway to Vadia 9. We stepped through into the prison, but Vezda Gamble was waiting for us. He attacked us, then I felt this energy and somehow put them back down the well. Everything else is hazy; there are alien races, Vezda trying to escape, and so much silence. It was getting harder to keep them contained; they were getting stronger, bolder." Her voice drifted off as she let the memory fade. "Then you showed up."

Rowan didn't interrupt while Batel was speaking. He listened the same way he listened to telemetry. Not just to the content, but to what it cost her to say it.

"Your last clear anchor point places you in the mid-23rd century," he said evenly, not softening the numbers. "You have been in temporal suspension for significantly longer than a single lifetime."

Batel's pulse spiked. Not dangerously, but sharply.

"We are not going to quantify it yet," he continued before the question could form. "Because the number is not the part that matters right now. What matters is this: the Federation still exists. Starfleet still exists. The Vezda are still contained. You did not fail."

He paused for a moment, allowing the words to breathe.

"Captain Christopher Pike," Rowan continued carefully, "is not aboard this vessel."

 

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