Hidden Dangers

Posted on Wed Jun 26th, 2024 @ 10:16am by Lieutenant Commander Oscar McDonald MD & Lieutenant K’Var & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami

2,685 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Lacertae Mortis
Location: USS Arcadia, Various

:: Engineering ::

Whistling cheerfully, Ivan Durovstein emerged from the crawlspace feeling butterflies in his stomach as he reached the familiar surroundings of main engineering. His nerves had nothing to do with a long day repairing a niggling malfunction in the environmental controls. Quite the opposite- he had helped Ensign Martin track down the issue and then spent most of the afternoon replacing a seemingly never ending series of circuits and cylinders…

No, his nerves were due to his impending date with a cute medical technician he had met yesterday. He had plucked up the courage, asked her out and in an hour he’d join her for dinner.

It struck him how much he had still to do and he hurried to log his report.

“Any issues?” Ensign Martin asked as she appeared beside him.

“Nope, like you said, follow the manual, easy as pie,” he assured her. “If only there was a manual for a date…”

Martin grinned, “sadly not. Now go before I find something else for you to try.”

With a nod, he finished up, stowed away his kit and headed out feeling pretty proud of himself. He had no idea he had spoken with a false confidence, no reason to suspect an error on the technical manual had slipped past numerous pairs of eyes. And no way to anticipate the chaos his mistake was about to cause …



Two hours later


Adrianna pinched the bridge of her nose feeling what could only be described as a pounding migraine starting. She went to grab some preventative pain relief but raised a brow to see her replicator missing. She tapped her badge to contact the doctor, but saw that missing. What the hell? The woman staggered out of her office, heading straight for the medical pay, "Doctor MacDonald?" She called out.

What she walked into was not the calm and sterile environment the crew was accustomed to. Instead it was bedlam, with all manor of odd looking creature running riot. One set its huge purple eye on the newcomer as it pivoted midstride and came charging at her, its six little legs a blur.

At the last moment a large equipment case came swinging in from her right, connecting with the creature which subsequently exploded into a mass of pink orange and blue liquid which drenched everyone and everything around it. Dropping the case, Dr McDonald grabbed the lieutenant’s hand and ushered her into a large supply closet before sealing the door. Covered from head to toe he was barely recognisable, using his sleeves to try and clear his eyes.

“We look like a paint colour chart,” he bemoaned, peeling off layers of ruined clothes. “Those things are poisonous - best to change! There should be scrubs on that shelf behind you. Quickly now…”

Ade had allowed herself to be pulled having been too stunned to react. Very unlike her- but with a migraine, the woman was always sluggish. She blinked and wiped her face, "sit, I do not know you but whilst this would be a fantasy, at least take me out to dinner first- oh my gawd... My gawd, I take it back... With a face and body like yours... Screw dinner!" Adrianna looked the man up and down, with lust in her eyes, momentarily forgetting her migraine in favour of the absolute prince before her. Who knows that the MedBay had such exquisite creatures. The stubble, the muscles, the chiseled features. He was a Roman god.

“Lieu-“

His words didn’t get a chance to leave his mouth before the ship lurched to the right, sending the pair crashing to the deck in a tangle of arms and legs.

Ade took the opportunity to take the man's face in her hands and attempt to kiss him passionately, ignoring any impending danger. Her animalistic desires taking over her. As she kissed the man, suddenly her version returned in a flash of reality. She screamed and let him go, her cheeks flashing red. She cussed in her native tongue before adding it in standard and saying, "my gawd! Doctor MacDonald! I-- I don't know what came over me. Gawd! I'm sorry!" The woman was panicked and started to scramble to her feet, but the image of the Roman god kept flashing Infront of her eyes making her question reality.

Flustered, McDonald climbed to his feet, not quite sure what had gotten into the woman - aside for impeccable taste. His ego certainly hadn’t taken a knock, unlike his elbow. He wasn’t sure what to say but was spared by the red alert klaxon as the ship lurched again.

“Arm yourself,” he decided, gesturing to rows of useless medical supplies as he grabbed scrubs and scrambled into clean clothes. “We have to find out what’s happening. My office… ,” he said as he ushered her back out into the main bay which was surprisingly monster free, “Hmm… wha - oh yes! Weapons! There is a small locker with a couple of phasers… feel like shooting something?”

"I--" she stuttered gawping, watching him change into scrubs, going between lust and 'what the hell's as her minds eye kept changing who the doctor looked like. "Doctor, I don't think that is wise. I fear something is wrong, I can't focus. You keep going from MacDonald to-" she shook her head, the migraine like feeling returning. Her hand went to her head with a groan, "doctor!" She stumbled backwards, managing to grab hold of a biobed to steady herself.

On instinct, he reached out, scooping her up and setting her down in a biobed. “I see my irresistible charm is still strong!” He chuckled to himself. And the chuckle gave way to a hearty laugh which seemed quite impossible to stop…

"Do not mock me," Adrianna chuckled, "gawd, I'm going to owe you dinner, drinks and maybe even a--" Her words faded into laughter as she followed his gaze, drunk on circumstance.


Meanwhile …

Lieutenant K'Var had been making security rounds when she could swear she heard the screams coming from one of the junior officer quarters she had just walked by. The Caitian security chief stopped and turned back and approached the door, she hit the chime requesting permission to enter and heard the screams again. This time K'Var looked down and saw blood soaking the carpet coming from inside the crew quarters "override door clearance K'Var beta-three-one-one."

The door slid open and K'Var entered, however the Ensign who was walking around his quarters in the buff didn't appreciate her barging in on him. "I heard" she paused and shook her head "I thought I heard screams" K'Var decided to try something else "as you were, Ensign" she back out of the young man's quarters still baffled what had just happened.

Oblivious to the somewhat confused security chief, Petty Officer Alicia Roberts came rushing around the corner. Her blue eyes wide, her fear evident she was pointing behind her as she ran. “Klingons!!! Run!!!!”

With that the young woman raced by, disappearing out of site as her warning cries carried down the corridor.

“What” K’Var didn’t see any Klingons and the woman seemed to vanish.

Less than five seconds later (four point six to be precise) a deep rumbling noise seemed to fill the air as if thunder was rolling in across a valley, the sound resonating and seeming to shake the walls and deck plating. From the direction a woman had appeared from a huge mass came hurtling towards the security chief, a wall which if examined closely was not solid.

No, indeed it was a mass of furry blobs, sweeping through the area like a wave and threatening to completely consume anything in its path. And right on top, seated as if on a throne, sat a koala wearing neon pink sunglasses and swimming trunks. “Hello, friend!” He bellowed cheerfully, waving at K’Var as the wall of fur seemed to ebb and flow around the Caitian and continued on by.


Back in Sickbay

This was certainly… different. Stepping over an unconscious nurse, Dr Chloe O’Connor followed the sound of laughter around the corner and stopped short at the unexpected sight. Different indeed.

Ignore a nagging headache she moved closer to the pair, “what the hell is going on? And why are there puppies all over the place?”

McDonald looked around, wide eyed before laughing aloud again. “Puppies!!!”

"Cucciolo!" Adrianna exclaimed, reaching down to scoop one up. As she did she had a vision that stopped her in her tracks. She dropped the puppy and screamed practically falling off of the biobed, "not cucciolo! Not puppies! Not puppies!"

“He’s so cute, just like Marlo,” O’Connor decided as she picked one up, which immediately began licking her face. “Yep, that’s him.”

“You should calm down, Lieutenant,” McDonald advised as he tucked puppies under each arm before ushering her back onto the biobed. “Here, have a Poodle…”

"Gawd no! Get that rat away from me," Baciami scowled, "vile creatures. They nip and whine and struggle with basic manners such as where to relive themselves."

"She didn't mean it," McDonald assured the poodle in the same tone of voice people often reserved for speaking to tiny babies, setting his new friends down. "Whatever could have made you so hostile towards puppies?!"

"Perhaps that is why you are unwell?" O'Connor suggested as she began placing puppies on the biobed, one by one. "I recommend aversion therapy. See, they aren't so bad..."

"No, no, no," Adrianna screamed before pulling a phaser and aiming for a puppy, "get that rat away from me."

The Dalmatian puppy in her crosshairs tilted its head this way and that before trying to leap at the screaming woman -

Adrianna screamed and jumped off the biobed, shooting her phaser directly up in the hope that the sound would scare off the adorable and innocent creatures. "Get those disgusting vermin away from me! I don't want rabbies!”

As one the puppies all stopped dead, looking at one another for a brief moment before all beginning to growl in unison. If one paid close attention, they’d see each one beginning to steadily grow and quickly exceed any notion of a cute puppy…

“Chloe!” McDonald called out, grabbing for his fellow physician’s arm and pulling her behind him as a cacophony of growls and barks grew louder and louder.

“Maybe you should apologise, Lieutenant?” he called out as a few started snapping at his heels, forcing him to seek the safety of a biobed.

"Nope, nope," Adrianna aimed at the puppies, "bad dogs! Bad!" She tapped her badge, "security- I request immediate back up in the medical baby- be armed."



Bridge

“Lieutenant Miles?” Turning from the communications console, Ensign Wyeland frowned as she listened in on more reports while trying to make sense of it all. “I think we may have a problem…”

Crossing towards the young Ensign, Miles listened with growing alarm as she recounted reports of strange happenings around much of the ship. A problem indeed. Calling on science he quickly ruled out any obvious external source and turned towards internal. Attempting to contact the medical bay seemed impossible, with many strange occurrences coming from that deck.

“Find me the most senior medic who you can contact,” he decided. “And isolate the areas of the ship the reports are coming from and map them to the engineering station, maybe we can find a cause based on the location. And if we can try to make sure the Captain is okay, someone. Anyone really.”

Wyeland smiled, “on it,” she promised.

Miles sighed as he began reviewing the reports and the areas impacted. He has earned his stripes in Engineering before moving to Ops, and he was hoping that would help spot something obvious. And of course this would happen when all senior staff were off the bridge.

Brown furrowed he was conscious of time, but equally did not want to rush to a wrong answer. “Wyeland, you have the Bridge until the Captain gets up here,” he announced as he tapped his sceeen, nodding in agreement with himself about an obvious cause of the mayhem unleashed on the ship.

“Where are you going?” She demanded, eyes wide.

“Engineering,” he announced as he entered the turbolift. “If I’m right, some idiot didn’t get the memo. And if so, ten minutes max and the worst thing people should have is a mild headache and maybe an odd story or two.”


Sickbay, 20 minutes later

“I think you can put the phaser down now,” Dr McDonald said quietly as he cautiously lowered himself down from the biobed and peered around the room. Not a single puppy in sight. He stepped closer, placing a hand on top of the weapon and helping to point it down at the floor just as the doors opened and security guards rushed in, all equipped with breathers to ensure the air was clear.

Adrianna lowered the weapon, looking around, very confused, "thank gawd!"

“Is everything okay?” K’Var was lead on the security team that came into sickbay.

Adrianna looked to the doctor and then suddenly groaned, her hand going to her head as her migraine came back with full force. "I don't know," came the honest response.

“Up on the biobed, now,” McDonald told her in a stern tone even a Klingon would not challenge and hope to win. Glancing at the Security team he shook his head, “I wish I had some certainty but the best I can say is it seems to be for now. But it has been somewhat odd.”

“Very,” O’Connor nodded in agreement as she began running scans on their patient while having a mild niggling headache of her own.

“Strange sightings, some quite remarkable but some also quite disturbing in their own way,” McDonald told K’Var. “I’m not sure if it is just in Sickbay…”

“Afraid not,” Ensign Miles announced as he entered Sickbay, supporting a barely conscious woman. Immediately several medical staff moved to relieve his burden, including O’Connor.
“It seems there was a mistake, a regulator incorrectly installed. But in short six areas of the ship were impacted. Including the junction where I found Ensign Martin, I think she was trying to fix the problem and didn’t realise how little breathable air was left down there.

All fixed now but here,” he handed McDonald a PaDD, “The affected areas and the issue, as well as the gasses released. Hopefully the worst will be some hallucinations and headaches now we’ve cleaned up the air.”

McDonald glanced at the PaDD before looking up and peering at the work going on to aide Ensign Martin.

“She’ll be fine,” O’Connor called over as she continued directing the efforts of the other medical staff.

“Good, right… well, I will make sure everyone here is checked over and treated. Lieutenant K’Var, would your teams be able to check these other areas? Make sure there is nobody out there perhaps unable to call for help?”

“Absolutely” K’Var said with a nod “I’ll dispatch security teams, but I’d recommend people stay in teams.”

Nodding in thanks, McDonald administered a hypospray to his own patient. “This will help a lot, And it will help you sleep. Rest is non negotiable. Just close your eyes and take nice deep breaths. I promise no puppies shall pass the threshold.”

Adrianna snorted softly in amusement, but regretting it instantly, covering her eyes with her arms. "Don't have to tell me twice, Doctor."

He doubted those were words she often said, but remained quiet as he watched the medicine work and her vital signs settle. As security filed out he found a blanket to place over the resting woman. But as he walked away in deep discussion with one of the nurses, she could almost swear he spoke to her with two words trailing in her wake as she fell asleep “sweet dreams! Kiss kiss!”

OFF

 

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