Beholder BeHeld

Posted on Sat Feb 28th, 2026 @ 12:49pm by Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson
Edited on on Sat Feb 28th, 2026 @ 1:27pm

2,717 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Sickbay

Captain Kaylen remembed the tingle of the transporter, a moment of blessed silence, then being deposited in sickbay.

Then the screaming started. It wasnt her own voice, but as her legs gave out she noted that Captain Batel was the origin. Not a good sign.

Meanwhile, Dr Sarah Wilson had been carrying out a slightly belated physicsl for the ship's new counsellor, Lt T'Lar. She looked up as the tranporter beam whined and deposited the away team in the centre of sickbay.

"'Scuse me" she hastily commented, grabbing her medkit and moving purposefully over. Dr Hale was tending to Batel, which left her with 3 patients. "A little help?"

Rowan did not look away from Batel’s cortical display.

“You have it,” he said to Sarah without hesitation. “Triage by instability. Flag internal bleeding or neural variance immediately.”

The harmonic band flickered again, then narrowed.

“Keep her stimulus low,” he added quietly. “No sudden light shifts.”

Batel’s hands clenched against the biobed as another residual tremor passed through her system.

“Easy,” Rowan said, not louder, just firmer. “The feedback is collapsing. Do not fight it.”

Only once her neural trace began to settle did he glance toward the others.

"Sarah, status?"

Sarah had conducted a rapid triage of her three patients. Stevens sufferrd only superficial scrapes, but bith Olivia and the Captain had been shot.

"3 patients, two serious, one minor" she called as she ran a tricorder over the three of them. T'Lar had moved over to assist.

"Counsellor, help me get the Doc and the Captain onto biobeds. Lt Stevens, you're free to report to the bridge." Sarah grabbed the Captain under her shoulders and started to hoist her onto one of the beds.

T'Lar moved immediately to comply, assisting with moving the Captain first. Once she was safely onto the biobed she moved to support the doctor who still seemed unable to get to her feet.

"Energy weapon injuries, deep, not critical though." She commented, examining the blackened hole in the Captain's back. The blast her hit het in the scapula, shielding her internal organs from the worst of it.

Olivia ran her hands over her legs in hoping to get the pain to calm down to some degree, but she wasn’t having much luck. She knew that it was going to take a bit more than just running her hands over her legs to do the trick. “You have your work cut out for you this time around, sir,” Olivia called out. After rubbing her legs a little more, Olivia attempted to stand on her own but was struggling to get up on her own.

"Easy now, Doctor..." T'Lar said gently, "Allow me to assist you please." Try as she might, even with her Vulcan strength she was having difficulty getting the woman safely moved towards the bio bed given her injuries.

Rowan spared only a brief glance toward Sarah as she delivered her report.

“Understood,” he said evenly.

His eyes remained on Batel’s cortical trace, watching for secondary spike activity.

“Stabilise the Captain’s wound first. Monitor for delayed vascular compromise. I’ll join you once this collapses fully.”

The harmonic band narrowed again, then flattened into baseline rhythm. Rowan adjusted the field one final time before stepping back.

“Neural cascade contained.”

Only then did he move to the away team.

He crossed to Olivia first, assessing her attempt to stand.

“Lieutenant, remain seated,” he said calmly. “You will not improve the situation by collapsing.”

His tricorder swept quickly over her legs.

“Neuromuscular shock and soft tissue trauma. No spinal involvement.”

He met her eyes briefly.

“You will walk again. Just not this minute.”

A pause.

“Biobed three,” he directed gently.

His gaze shifted to Sarah and the wounded Captain.

“Status update.”

Olivia collapsed back onto the floor, and she left out a groan that she had been holding in while trying to stand. “Why do I get the feeling that I will never live this down?” She alternated running her hands over her legs and arms a bit. “Promise me one thing, sir. Don’t tell my brothers about this, please. If they were to find out, they would never let me live it down.”

“I have no intention of briefing your brothers,” he said evenly.

The tricorder chirped confirmation as he adjusted the analgesic setting.

“You were extracted under hostile conditions. That is not a failing.”

He met her gaze briefly.

“Attempting to stand before clearance, however, would be.”

A small beat.

“Remain still.”

He administered a controlled pain suppressant to her thigh.

“Muscle fibre disruption only. You will recover fully.”

His attention shifted briefly toward Sarah.

“Captain’s vitals?”

"Elevated but stable" Sarah replied back susinctly, helping the Captain roll onto her stomach so she could commence treatment. The Captain's red tunic was stained dark red, a testament to the close call.

"Just stitch me up and give me a hypo. I need to get back to the bridge" Rhenora grumbled, clearly in pain and unintentionally taking it out on whoever was closest.

"You'll be released when you have been treated Captain. Now quit grumbling or I'll add sedation and a mandatory 24 hour standdown to the mix" Sarah replied, clearly not in the mood for beligerent Captains.

Rhenora wisely shut her trap, instead focusing on Batel who appeared to be resting. "What happened when we were down there?"

“You obviously don’t know my brothers all that well,” Olivia replied. She nodded slightly as the medication was injected into her thigh. It took a few seconds before Olivia felt the medication start to work its way into her system. “Will… will the extra pain medication affect my symbiont?”

Rowan didn't look up at the exchange between Sarah and Rhenora, instead maintaining his focus on Olivia.

“No,” he replied calmly. “The analgesic is peripheral. It will not interfere with your symbiont.”

He adjusted the tricorder again, verifying the metabolic response.

“Your neural activity is within expected range. There is no host-symbiont distress.”

A brief pause.

“If there were, you would already know.”

He stepped back slightly, giving the medication time to take effect.

“You'll remain under observation for one hour. If motor control returns progressively, you may be discharged to quarters.”

His gaze moved briefly toward the Captain being stitched.

“As for what happened,” he said evenly, tone clinical. “the harmonic link destabilised during extraction. The structure adapted. We severed it.”

A beat.

“You were fortunate.”

He looked between them.
.
“All of you were.”

T'Lar gingerly helped the good doctor over to biobed 3.

"So what does that mean?" Rhenora asked, not fully understanding. "Are they still in the well or did it get blown up?" She nodded towards Batel "What does it mean for the Captain?"

Rowan remained composed as he adjusted Batel’s cortical readout.

“The gateway was neutralised during extraction,” he said evenly. “I do not have confirmation of the well’s current state.”

His eyes shifted briefly to Batel’s neural trace.

“The harmonic structure adapted under stress. It was no longer behaving passively.”

A measured pause.

“For Captain Batel, it means the neural synchronisation was forcibly interrupted.”

He glanced toward Rhenora.

“She experienced feedback when the structure destabilised. We contained the cascade.” His tone remained clinical, “If there is residual linkage, it will declare itself.”

A beat.

“We are monitoring.”

He turned slightly toward Sarah.

“Bridge will advise on planetary status.”

Batel stirred, regarding the scene before her. The ship's captain and one of the doctors were being treated by the medical staff. Another stood nearby.

"You're Vulcan" she said simply, recalling the time she had spent on the Enterprise.


T'Lar looked at the legendary captain.

"I am, indeed, Captain. I am Lieutanant T'Lar. I would say it is most agreeable to be meeting you, though under these circumstances that might seem inappropriate. If memory serves, you knew Ambassador Spock when he served aboard the Enterprise."

T'Lar instantly regretted the comment, realizing she had broached the topic of the past prematurely.

Batel filed that particular nugget of information away for later. " I did, he was serving as Captain Pike's science officer at the time. I only knew him for a year though, he... helped... through some trying times" She commented, casting her eyes down as the memories of pain resurfaced.

"I am assigned to the Sunfire as one of the Ship's Counselors. If I can be of any help to you as well, please do not hesitate to call upon me." T'Lar offered as compassionately as a Vulcan might; hoping to smooth over her faux pas.

"I may take you up on that, if I can ever leave this place. My gut tells me it's not going to be easy" Batel mused sagely, regarding the counnsellor.

"It would be my privilege, Captain. As for when... I'm afraid I cannot speak to that. That purview resides with the doctors; but I am sure they are doing everything they can to make the situation safe for you," T'Lar assured her.

"Thank you...T'Lar" she made an effort to pronounce the name correctlt before letting drowsiness claim her again.

Rhenora grimced as the dermal regenerator worked, knowing better than to fight fire with fire when Sarah was fired up. "So, if she's linked to the prison...what happens when we leave? The Captain tried to prop herself up on her elbows and was rewarded with a tap on the shoulder from Sarah. "Lie still, unless you want this gaping hole to remain longer than it needs to."

Rowan didn't immediately look at Rhenora when she tried to push herself upright.

“You will remain horizontal,” he said calmly.

Only then did he shift his attention fully to her.

“If there is residual linkage, distance alone will not determine its behaviour. The synchronisation was neural, not spatial.”

He adjusted a setting on Batel’s monitor.

“If the gateway’s destruction severed the harmonic field entirely, then we will see no further activity.”

A small pause.

“If it did not, the Captain may experience transient neurological after effects. Which is why she is not leaving Sickbay.”

His gaze shifted briefly to Sarah’s work at her back.

“We will know more once long-range telemetry confirms the structural collapse.”

A beat.

“For now, the priority is stabilisation. Not speculation.”

He returned his attention to Batel’s cortical trace.

“And we do not test neural trauma by standing up.”

His gaze lifted briefly to Sarah - a silent acknowledgement of alignment.

"Is it pick on Captains day or something?" Rhenora grumped, but lay still as Sarah finished working, rebuilding the layers of muscle and tissue that had been burnt. Olivia would recover, as would she, but she felt a lingering responsibility for Batel's continued wellness. Living a life tied to a prison, now that she had retaken human form. It would be a lot to deal with.

Olivia was laying on the bio-bed trying to relax as best she could while her legs recovered some from the burn marks. Plus, it didn’t help any that she would get more than just an ear full should her brothers find out about her injuries. Her brothers were always over protective of her and it has been an adjustment in that they had to let her do more things now that they couldn’t control every situation from a distance. Olivia’s legs started feeling as though they were burning from the inside out. She guessed it was a delayed reaction to everything that had happened to her during the mission.

"Need more meds?" Kaylen quipped from the biobed next door, turning her attention to the young doctor.

Olivia looked over at the Captain over on the biobed next to her and smiled a little. "I'm trying to give what is in my system a bit of time to work, but it is a struggle in giving it a chance to work right now," Olivia replied. "If I were to ask for more so soon after the last dose of pain medication, I'm not sure how my body would react now that I am joined. Certain medications work differently for me now that I'm joined."

"Aren't there medical protocols for all that stuff?" Rhenora asked, shifting again and earning a glare from Sarah. "You know, Trill's get this much, joined Trills grt this much?"

"There is," Olivia replied. "It is a matter of finding what works for each joined Trill though. What works for one may not work for another."

"Fair enough, not that I know much about medicine. My limited knowledge was torniquets, stitching thread and blast wounds" Rhenora mused, recalling her time during the occupation. Modern medicine was a luxury.

"Plus, when one gets a symbiont, their body has an adjustment period when it comes to certain medications," Olivia replied.

Rowan regarded Olivia for a moment.

“Your caution is appropriate,” he said calmly. “We will proceed incrementally.”

He folded his hands behind his back, watching the monitors settle into steady rhythm.

Olivia nodded slightly as her hands ran over her thighs a little more. “My legs still feel like they are burning up to a degree, but now my arms are starting to get cold a little. Makes me wonder if I’m reacting differently now to the medication.”

Rowan stepped forward, tricorder already in hand.

“Your circulation is redistributing,” he said calmly. “That accounts for the heat in your legs and the cooling in your arms.”

He adjusted the analgesic balance by a fractional increment.

“Your autonomic system is recalibrating. That is expected post-joining.”

A small pause.

“You are not in distress.”

He met her eyes briefly.

“You are adapting.”

He lowered the tricorder.

“We will continue to monitor.”

Olivia curled up on the bio-bed trying to calm herself a bit, for she knew that she had to give the medication time to fully help. Yet at the same time she was nervous and didn’t want to appear weak in front of the Captain or others either for that matter. “Could my body be reacting differently now to the medication now because of my symbiont?”

Rhenora lay quietly as Sarah worked, slowly rebuilding muscle and skin until the gaping hole was little more than a shiny patch of freshly regrown skin. There woukd be a faint scar, there always was due to her advancing age, but it didnt bother her.

“Post-joining neurochemical recalibration can alter peripheral response thresholds. Your system is adapting to dual integration.” Rowan explained.

A small pause.

“It is not instability. It is adjustment.” He continued, lowering the tricorder.

Olivia exhaled, tension easing from her shoulders.

Across the room, monitors returned to steady rhythm and sickbay settled into quiet control once more.

T'Lar turned to Dr. Wilson.

"Doctor, in light of the current situation, perhaps it would be best to reschedule my physical," she offered.

"Probably a good idea, sorry for stuffing you around and disrupting your day" Sarah smiled apologetically.

T'Lar cautiously approached the Sunfire's CO.

"Even under these circumstances, I would be remiss if I did not introduce myself Captain," she said, coming to attention. "I am Lieutenant T'Lar. I would have paid my respects to you earlier but my orders were to report directly for duty as soon as I came aboard."

"Well you have me as a captive audience" Kaylen quipped, nodding to the ACMO working on repairing her wound. "Welcome aboard Counsellor. I should have scheduled an appointment with you....and don't read my file..."

T'Lar cocked her eyebrow quizzically.

"My office is open for you any time Captain. As for your file, I am fairly certain that resides under the Chief Counselor's purview. Unless of course you were to see me professionally... For now I shall leave you in the hands of the good Doctor and return to my duties if that pleases you."

"At least one of us should be getting some work done. This crew has been through alot and the counselling team will be glad to have the help. Not to mention Captain Batel will need ongoing treatment as she adjusts to her new...position" the Bajoran stamered.

"By your leave then, Captain," T'Lar said nodding deferentially before turning and exiting sickbay.

"She seems nice" Rhenora mumbled as T'Lar left, leaving Sarah to finish her ministrations in peace.

TBC

 

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