Remedy for the Redeemer

Posted on Fri Mar 20th, 2026 @ 4:03am by Commander Dean House & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

2,207 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Sickbay

As soon as the away team materialized back on the Sunfire transporter pad, then were beamed to sickbay without a word being uttered.

Hale moved with purpose the moment they materialized.

“Biobed, now - careful with her,” He said, stepping in as Dean lowered Marie onto the biobed, tricorder already active.

“Short-acting neural and cardiovascular stimulant administered planet side,” he announced to Olivia and Sarah, his eyes scanning rapidly as he glanced between readouts.. “We are approaching the crash phase.”

He glanced briefly toward Olivia. “Lieutenant, I want full telemetry - cardiac, neural, and metabolic. Flag anything that deviates more than five percent.”

He adjusted the biobed controls without hesitation. “Prep a stabilization protocol. We’ll support her through the rebound. It’s going to hit hard.”

His attention shifted briefly to Sarah. “Doctor, stand by with cortical support and vascular suppressants. I’d rather not lose her to the solution. Let’s stay ahead of this.”

He raised his head acknowledging Rhenora and Dean. “The rest of the away team - standard post-mission scans. Triage anything acute."

Sarah nodded and readied the necessary equipment in preparation for the dance with death they were about to enter into. Neural shock was inevitable, biological shock was a distinct possibility.

"Ready Doc" she announced as the three of them readied themselves for the fallout.

“Unknown substance is spreading along the pleural lining,” Cathaur noted, her tone steady but intent. “It is not passive.” Meanwhile, one of the nursing staff stepped up to do the post mission checks, finding Dean still carrying Batel's hybrid DNA in his body, and the Captain with a black unknown substance in her lungs and pleural cavity.

“Commander House’s genetic markers are fluctuating,” she added, adjusting her scanner with a precise motion. “They are attempting integration. I recommend we discourage that.” She finished with a snide remark silently to herself.

Rowan's attention was fixed on the biobed readouts as they began to fluctuate. “Stabilization protocol, now,” he said evenly. “Easy, don’t fight it. Control the drop.”

Cathaur stepped closer to Kaylen’s biobed, studying the readings rather than the patient. “Respiration is compensating beyond safe parameters,” she said quietly. “You may wish to stop helping.”

The biobed chimed in response as he adjusted the parameters, guiding the decline rather than resisting it outright.

“Bring cortical support online ,” he added, looking briefly toward Sarah. “Let’s keep her ahead of the neural drop.”

A sharp tone cut through the background noise of Sickbay. His eyes flicked to the adjacent display as the nurse’s findings populated.

“Report,”

“Captain Kaylen has an unknown substance present in the lungs and pleural cavity. Commander House is showing residual foreign genetic markers - non-native.”

Hale’s expression didn’t change, but his focus sharpened.

“Quarantine protocols for both,” he said without hesitation. “Full scans, no assumptions.”

He spared Rhenora the briefest look. “Captain, I’m going to need you on a secondary biobed.”

His gaze shifted to Dean. “And you’re not leaving either.”

He shifted his focus back to the task at hand as Batel’s vitals dipped. “Stay with me,” he murmured, more to the room than the patient. “Let’s keep this controlled.”

Sarah's attention was glued to the controls before her, adjusting them in the slightest increments to support gently rather than sharply correct Batel's decline. Once the Cayuga Captain hit rock bottom they could carefully bring her back, but for now it was a one way trip.

Kaylen did as she was told, for once, without complaint - fully realizing the battle between life and death was going on before her eyes. Marie looked so tired, mentally and physically from the years keeping the Vezda at bay. Surely she deserved a break?

"Is there anything I can do?" Rhenora asked, wanting to help but forgetting there was a quarantine field that flickered into existence around her biobed.

Hale’s focus remained on the biobed, monitoring the fragile balance they’d established. “Not yet,” he said, voice even. “Best thing you can do right now is stay still and let us manage this.”

He looked towards her direction. “I’ll call on you if we need you.”

The Sunfire's Captain nodded, coughed, and felt useless, watching the team battle nature.

A slight tilt of her head as she watched Batel’s vitals dip. “Her body is prioritizing survival over stability,” Cathaur observed. “We should allow it to choose... but not for long.” She glanced briefly toward Hale, then back to the scan. “The margin for error is narrowing,” Cathaur said. “I trust that is already understood.”

"The body always chooses survival, most times sacrificing itself in the process, a most interest scenario if not for the whole life and death thing" Sarah replied, adjusting the controls again. Batel's neural functions were almost completely erractic as her brain struggled to regain it's equilibrium, which in turn caused havoc for her autonomic functions.

"She's crashing, if she doesn't level soon...."

Sarah’s warning hung in the air. “I know,” he replied quietly, not looking up from the display. “We’re not trying to stop it. Just slow it enough to keep her from dropping out entirely.”

There was another shift in the readings. Narrower this time.

“Ease the neural load by two percent,” he added. “Any more and we risk shutting her down before she stabilises.”

His gaze flicked briefly toward Cathaur. “If her physiology wants to stabilise, we give it the space to do so. We don’t force the outcome.”

A beat.

“But we don’t let it fail, either.”

The margin tightened again, causing Rowan to exhale slowly. “Come on…” he murmured under his breath, his eyes fixed on the display. “Find the line.”

The readings continued to decline, dropping dangerously close to the point of no return when they slowed, giving the biological shock a moment to catch up. This was it.

"Come on Marie, choose life - you've done so much, you deserve better than this" Sarah murmoured, fingers poised over the controls - watching, observing.

On the biobed next to them Rhenora held her breath, whispering a prayer to the Prophets, lest they for once actually listen.

The readings steadied only slightly but enough to break the downward spiral. Rowan watched as the pattern held, then narrowed.

“Hold it there,” he said quietly to the team. “No further adjustments.”

He let out a slow breath, more controlled than relieved. “Maintain current support. We’re not out of this yet.”

His eyes lifted briefly from the display, meeting Sarah’s across the biobed. No words passed between them. They didn’t need to. The numbers were holding but only just. He gave Sarah the faintest nod, an acknowledgement more than reassurance. He turned his attention back to the console.

“Let’s keep her here,” he said. “Minimal interference. If she’s going to stabilise, it has to come from her.”

He looked up from the console.

“And be ready if she slips.”

Sarah nodded, glancing towards Olivia who was standing ready with the 'crash cart' in case it was required.

They watched, and waited for what seemed like forever, time passing in long increments that left everyone in the room exhausted. Then slowly, ever so slowly, the readings inched upwards.

Rowan watched the gradual shift in the readouts, the upward trend small but consistent.

“There it is…” he said quietly.

He made a minor adjustment to the biobed before stepping back slightly. “She’s stabilising,” he added. “Not safe yet, but she’s holding.”

He shifted his attention toward Rhenora and Dean, his expression sharpening just a fraction. “Which means I can now focus on the two of you.”

He stepped toward Kaylen’s biobed, glancing at the readings. “Unknown substance in the lungs is not something I’m comfortable ignoring, Captain.”

He turned briefly towards Dean. “And neither is foreign genetic material attempting to make itself at home.”

Dean's nose scrinched a little bit, "We kind of knew this might happen after all.."

"I wasn't ignoring it, I just knew you had your hands full, which I completely support." Rhenora replied, being compliant for once. She waited patiently whilst Rowan ran his scans. "Do you think she will make it?" She asked, eyes still glued on the gentle rise and fall of Batel's chest.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “She’s past the immediate drop. That gives her a chance.”

His eyes remained focused on the display for a moment. “Right now, that’s the most honest answer I can give you.” He continued as he began scanning her chest. "Which means I can focus on making sure we don't add to the patient list." His tone returned to something more clinical. “Take a slow breath for me, Captain.”

Rhenora did as she was asked, mulling over the information Hale had provided. She was subdued, feeling a sense of foreboding in the air.

"Batel can handle it. She's handled everything else and..." there was a long pause, "I can feel it," Dean said. Back to the other focus, "Deal with everyone else for now. We don't know what this will do unless I start eating people, or am pregnant. We don't know the full circle of what I've done with the deal to play out yet either."

"You can't stay part Gorn/Illyrian forever" Rhenora replied as she tried to stay still for Rowan's scans. "I'm sure the DNA fusion can be reversed...." she let that linger for a moment.

Hale kept his focus on the scan as the readings settled into a narrow, steady pattern. “Again,” he said quietly. “Slow and steady breathing.”

He watched Rhenora's next breath cycle before making a small adjustment. “Good. Keep it there.”

Hearing Dean’s comment drew a brief glance. “Let’s avoid testing the limits of that particular theory,” he said dryly, shifting his focus back to Rhenora’s scan. “The substance is present, but not progressing,” he said. “Respiratory function is stable.”

He glanced between the two of them.

“As for the DNA fusion,” his gaze settled briefly on Dean, “I’m not seeing active integration beyond what’s already occurred. But I also wouldn’t assume it’s finished deciding what it wants to be.”

He lowered the tricorder a fraction. ““Which means we manage it carefully,” he said. “Controlled intervention, not aggressive correction.”

Cathaur stepped back into the quiet margin of Sickbay, hands folding loosely behind her as the crisis shifted from chaos to watchfulness. Her gaze moved not to the faces, but to the patterns, the rise, the hesitation, the fragile agreement between body and will. Survival, she considered, not as a triumph but as a negotiation, one the body rarely wins without cost.

There was a faint, almost imperceptible tilt of her head as the readings steadied, interest settling where urgency had been. She did not hope; she observed. And in that observation, she remained ready, still as a held breath, waiting for the moment the balance tipped again, in either direction. Ultimately she waited for the Doctor to provide direction.

Rhenora coughed again, a more pronounced spasm that left black flecks on her sleeve as she tried to cover her mouth.

"Ugh, that tastes grose"

Cathaur angled her scanner toward Rhenora's pulmonary field, watching the particulate pattern shift with each breath. “Doctor,” she said, calm but intent, “the substance is adhering to the pleural surfaces rather than diffusing. If we introduce a controlled mucogenic response, stimulate secretion along the bronchial lining, we may be able to encapsulate the material and encourage expulsion.”

She adjusted the scan, isolating the densest concentrations. “A targeted hypospray agent, like mucogenesis, should suffice. Induce, coat, then assist the cough reflex. It is inelegant,” a brief pause, almost thoughtful, “but will be effective.”

"What does that mean for those of us who don't speak fluent medical?" The Captain asked curiously.

Cathaur tilted her head slightly, almost reassuring. “We will give you a medication that makes your lungs produce more mucus. It will coat the invading substance so you can cough it out instead of letting it spread.” She paused, then added with quiet clarity, “It will not be comfortable. But it will work. As humans say, better out than in?”

Rowan listened without interrupting, his eyes tracking the patterns on the display as Cathaur spoke. “Controlled mucogenic response…” he repeated quietly, with a slight nod. “Alright. We can work with that.”

He tapped a few commands into the console already adjusting parameters. "Prepare a targeted dose, We’re encouraging expulsion, not flooding the airway.” He said, looking to Rhenora. “It’s going to feel worse before it improves,” he added. “That’s expected.”

She loaded a hypo with the medicational parameters and handed it to Doctor Hale, "Correction, that's an expect-orant." Cathaur's dry humor delivered as a Vulcan might, despite her obvious non-Vulcan nature.

"You're deliberately making it worse?" There was a healthy dose of sarcasm in Rhenora's voice as her eyebrows rose a bit. "Like seriously?"

"I think that's kind of the point. Sour the milk." Dean smiled lightly.

Rhenora cringed and looked at the hypo with concern. "I've got a feeling this isn't going to be pleasant"


TBC

 

RSS Feed