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Cerulean Stars - Chapter 79
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 15:42:55 +0000 UTCCerulean Stars - Chapter 79
Stardate 48278.6 - April 12, 2371 - 16:32:00
Receiving a priority call from Jadzia to meet her in the infirmary certainly hadn't been on the list of things Raine had expected to have happened today, but here she was rushing to the Trill woman's quarters.
Walking into the treatment room, Raine was surprised to see a worried looking Sisko already there, the man standing next to a biobed with a very unhappy looking Jadzia laying on it.
“I told you Benjamin, I'm fine.” Jadzia told him in a put upon tone before grimacing slightly and giving a back acknowledging tilt of her head. “Mostly.”
“Did something happen?” Raine inquired in concern as she walked over, looking around as she did for any sign of Doctor Bashir and only spying a closed operating bay door to suggest where he might be.
“I guess you could say that.” Jadzia offered with an almost embarrassed look as Commander Sisko gave Raine a nod of acknowledgement that the Asari returned in kind.
“You know how you suggested we get checked by Specialist Na'Tal? Well, I did.”
“Oh no.” Raine muttered, not liking where this was going in the slightest. “How bad was it?”
“Not that.” Jadzia objected with an amused shake of her head as she pulled herself up. “The telepathic archive remnants were fine, better than fine even since there was a beneficial integration of them with my base personality.”
Raine blinked at that, trying to think back to which archetype Jadzia had ended up possessed by and only coming up with a vague recollection of the Trill being rather carefree and distracted while the rest of them were falling apart.
“As I was telling Benjamin.” Jadzia continued with a look over to the now glaring man. “While Na'Tal was checking me, she discovered traces of a decaying memory block.”
Something about that was familiar to Raine, and she racked her memory till it hit her, the serial killer host, whose name the Asari absolutely could not for the life of her remember.
“A memory block that may be killing her.” Sisko added in, clearly unhappy with the way Jadzia was skirting around the actual issue.
“It may be killing more than me.” The trill joked with a somewhat awkward laugh that had Raine narrowing her eyes at the woman.
“Explain.” Raine ordered, having a general suspicion now but wanting confirmation nonetheless.
“Na'Tal poked the mental block.” Jadzia explained with a sigh. “Shortly after which I apparently tried to kill her.”
“Apparently?” Raine repeated, not liking the way that suggested the Trill couldn’t recall taking the action.
“The last thing I remember before waking up here with a headache was her poking the block.” Jadzia confirmed, giving the pair a mild grimace as she refused to meet their eyes.
“Specialist Na’Tal knocked her out with a nerve pinch.” Sisko added in as Jadzia looked over to him. “And was in the middle of contacting Doctor Bashir when she started seizing.”
Which Raine knew would have been more than enough cause for Bashir to authorize an emergency site to site transport for Jadzia to the infirmary.
“I take it Na’Tal is talking about what she knows of the cause with Doctor Bashir?” Raine inquired with a glance at the still closed operating bay.
“Good guess.” Jadzia confirmed with a wan smile as she turned a worried look over to the door. “I said it was okay to talk about everything in front of others, but she insisted on only talking about it with Bashir.”
“It likely means she believes it has the potential to be a sensitive issue on multiple fronts.” Raine explained, wondering as she did if Na’Tal had been able to recall enough from the Asari’s less controlled mind-melds all those years back to connect the dots.
Sisko turned away from the biobed with a tenseness in his shoulders and a less than pleased look on his face.
“I wanted you here both in case it happens again, and because you’re probably the second most experienced person on the station when it comes to these sorts of issues.”
“I’m really not.” Raine admitted to the pair with a cringe, really wishing as she did that the Academy’s psionic based classes hadn’t fallen so far out of favor since the 23rd century.
“I could tell you what a psionic based memory block is, and explain in excruciating detail why you’d have to be pretty high on the sociopath scale to want to put one on someone. But removing them for anyone but yourself is the equivalent of delicate mental surgery, and I’m something like a decades worth of dedicated training away from being anything but a liability in that sort of circumstance.”
“High on the sociopath scale?” Sisko asked with a confused look on his face as Jadzia turned back in interest.
“A mental block…” Raine began, trailing off with a frown as a thought occurred to her. “Did either of you take Psionics 101 at the academy?”
Both Sisko and Jadzia shook their heads in the negative.
“Okay well.” Raine continued with a grimace, knowing she’d have to add at least a little context for this to make sense. “One of the first things they teach is that most people, no matter the biological race, are a little bit psychic.”
That was a very simplified version of the theory mind you, and it had had several holes poked in it over the centuries. With the most recent of those being a paper by Deanna Troi that detailed her experiences sensing the emotions of Soong type androids with emotion chips.
“Because of this there exists an effect not unlike the immune system where a person's mind actively works to eject or destroy foreign energies.”
Not very effectively outside of certain types of extreme circumstances, but it was a generally good thing that it existed since it allowed people to naturally recover from various telepathic based effects.
“Oh that's bad.” Jadzia muttered, seemingly following her explanation to its logical conclusion.
“Yup.” Raine confirmed with a nod. “From the moment a telepath puts a memory block in someone's head, that person's own mind works to tear it down. And that can lead to all sorts of nasty side effects since the block when weakened that way doesn't usually come down in a uniform manner.”
“A succinct enough explanation.” Na'Tal stated as she walked out of the operating theater with a worried looking Doctor Bashir following in her footsteps. “Though it underplays the severity of this particular situation given a joined Trill's unique circumstances."
“If you would, Doctor.” She said, motioning to the man to explain.
“The seizure was caused by Jadzia momentarily rejecting the Dax symbiont.” Bashir explained as he walked over to the biobed the rapidly paling Jadzia was laying on and began to check the data on its display.
“That…” Jadzia began in a small voice, only to trail off completely as she clutched her arms protectively around her abdomen. “Is the Dax symbiont in danger?”
“If Specialist Na’Tal is correct about the cause, you’re both in danger.” Bashir confirmed with a less than happy glance over his shoulder at the serene looking vulcan woman.
“From what I was able to discern during my brief contact.” Na’Tal offered as she gazed over at Jadzia with a look that Raine knew was the closest the Vulcan woman tended to get to pity. “One of your people put a memory block on the Dax symbiont locking away an entire host. When I probed the block, this host’s personality came to the fore, at which point Jadzia’s mind found it so antithetical to her normal self that it reactively rejected its joining with the Dax symbiont as a method of protection.”
“Are you sure it was a Trill that did it?” Jadzia inquired, her body language suggesting to Raine an almost desperate disbelief at the idea.
“All minds are unique.” Na’Tal acknowledge with a tilt of her head. “But they are unique in distinctive ways. And the mind that placed the memory block on Dax was very clearly that of a Trill.”
“So then I’ll have to go back to Trill and hope they can do something.” Jadzia murmured, slumping her shoulders despondently at the thought.
“No.” Na’Tal stated simply. “Though it will take some time, with your doctor's help I should be able to safely remove the block without risk to you or the symbiont.”
“If you wish.” She continued with an expectant look that suggested to Raine that the Vulcan woman highly suspected Jadzia's eventual answer to the question she was about to ask would be yes. “I can also teach you proper mental techniques to safely suppress the personality in question.”
“I’d also like your permission to investigate how you ended up with that memory block in the first place.” Raine put forward, never having liked the way that was covered up originally given how it ended up propping up the problematic portions of Trill culture. “Because telepathic memory manipulation of another sentient being is illegal in the Federation for a number of really good reasons.”
And that wasn’t even her exaggerating, there were just straight up very few good reasons for a telepath to go around manipulating another person's memory. And of those cases where the reasons were good, there was a required paperwork trail a mile long to guarantee the person in question was having it done of their own free will.
“I am relieved to see you remembered at least one of the topics from my telepathic ethics course.” Na’Tal offered with an acknowledging tilt of her head that somehow left Raine feeling a tiny bit ashamed about her recent choices in life.
“I’d be rather interested in finding that out myself, Commander.” Sisko added in, his tone enough to tell the Asari this was one of those rare things he was going to want daily updates on.
“I suppose you probably should.” Jadzia reluctantly agreed, her tone suggesting she had at least some suspicion of what portions of Trill culture the issue likely connected back to, even if it was clear she didn’t know the exact details.
“Will you be needing a continued security presence during the treatment?” Raine inquired, vague memories of just how bad that particular host could be driving her towards an extra level of caution.
“Will we?” Na'Tal repeated, looking to Jadzia with a single raised eyebrow.
“It might be for the best.” The Trill admitted with a sigh after silently considering the question for a moment.
“Then I'll assign Ensign Sular.” Raine told them with a nod of agreement, knowing the young Vulcan woman would be circumspect enough to at least meet Na'Tal's minimum level of standards.
“If that is all.” Bashir interjected, tossing the three non-Trill people in the room a less than pleased glare. “My patient could use some actual rest.”
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Author's Notes: This one got away from me a bit. But given it would be happening during the time period where Quark and Grilka are passed out asleep it's a workable departure.
Comments
Massgamer
Makes me wonder if this opens door for Verad to return since his canon attempt to steal Dax symbiote in story failed and he retreated without anyone realizing it was him, so he is still alive and out there somewhere. If it gets out publicly that all Trills have a much higher than reported compatibility rating with symbiotes than their government is reporting to artificially restrict who has access to them... I can totally see him leading a counter movement over that. Nearly all Trills want a symbiote, and the Trill government is actively lying about compatibility ratings due to fact there are not enough symbiotes to go around and to prevent societal upheaval they think will happen over them, using shady means to make that secret stick. I have no idea if their original fears were founded, but once word gets out there will certainly be calls to replace most of it.
Fateor
Assuming Raine's investigation is able to out the practice in a manner that let's Na'Tal do so, yes.
Massgamer
I wonder if Na'Tal will directly file a complaint to Starfleet about unethical Trill practices when it comes to memory suppression after this. The Trill government's willingness to do something like that just to lie about the high rate in which their people can bond with a limited number of symbiotes does not say good things about long-term stability.
