Slowly, ever so slowly, a distant and faint speck of light grew in the center of Benton's field of vision. It grew larger and brighter, slowly replacing the darkness before his eyes. In a few more seconds, vague, blurry shapes began resolving themselves in the brightness. Faint, muffled sounds intruded into his ears.
He opened and shut his eyes a few times trying to clear his vision. His surroundings finally swam into focus. He realized then that he was lying on his back. Over his head, attached to the ceiling were medical diagnostic clusters. He was in sickbay. How had he gotten here?
Suddenly he remembered: the knife fight with the alternate Johnny Chee! In a reflexive burst of anxiety, Benton tried to sit up... and made it about six inches off his pillow before the stabbing pain that shot through his body and skull immobilized him. He slumped back onto his bed with a load groan.
This drew the attention of Doctor Maruu, who sauntered over to have a look at her patient. After determining that Benton hadn't actually hurt himself, Dana said, "Well now. Let that be a lesson to you. Now just lie there until I say it's okay for you to get up."
"Yes, ma'am," was all Benton could manage to groan out.
Satisfied, Doctor Maruu turned and began walking away, but she checked herself and turned back toward Benton's bed.
"Oh! I almost forgot," she said, smiling. "You've had a visitor." Dana pointed and winked, and Benton turned his head as far as he could to look at the table next to his bed. There was a large bouquet of flowers on it.
"Thank you, doctor," said Benton.
When the doctor had gone, Benton slowly and painfully slipped his left arm from underneath the covers and reached over to the flowers and the small card that was stuck in amongst them. He retrieved the card and opened it. He detected a familiar fragrance coming from the card. The flowers were from who he thought.
"Oh dear."
Benton,
Get well soon.
Love, Francesca
XOXOX
Later that day, Doctor Maruu returned to check on Benton, and this time he was recovered enough to ask a few questions.
"How long have I been here, doctor?" Benton asked.
Dana closed her tricorder and stepped closer to the biobed. Benton still had trouble deciphering human expressions sometimes, but he could read her current expression well enough. She had some bad news to tell him.
"I have some bad news to tell you," she began. "You've been in sickbay for more than a month."
Benton blinked in surprise. "A month?!" he stammered.
"Yes."
"Thirty days?!"
"Thirty-four actually."
"I see." Benton tried to come to grips with that figure.
"You were very seriously injured in your struggle with the alternate Chee. And the fact that you ran around after the injury occurred only worsened the situation."
"I had to stop Chee's counterpart and then capture the alien creature before..." Benton began, trying to defend his actions.
"I understand," interrupted Dana with a small smile. "I'm well aware of your dedication to your duty." Benton's dedication had saved them all more times than what was easily countable.
Dana continued, "The surgery we had to do was very delicate and dangerous, and afterward we had to place you in near-stasis to keep you alive. Your natural Kelvan mental healing instincts were interfering with our treatments. That's why you've been here for a month... because of the stasis." She hefted her tricorder and smiled a little. "But, according to these latest readings, you've made an almost complete recovery. Your Kelvan constitution had more than a little to do with that."
Dana looked down at the deck, and Benton noticed her smile fade. He had also heard the word 'almost' in the doctor's diagnosis. When she didn't say anything more, Benton prompted, "But...?"
"But...," began Dana, "...there was a slight complication during your operation." She paused again, gathering strength for what she had to tell her patient. Benton waited patiently.
Finally, Dana was ready. She looked Benton in the eye and said, "To save your life, we had to clone several replacement organs for you. The new organs will function perfectly and normally for the rest of your life, but as you know, there is a small genetic deviation that occurs when anything is cloned."
Benton knew what the good doctor would say next.
After but a moment's further hesitation, Dana laid it on him. "The deviation is enough to prevent you from ever changing back to your natural Kelvan form."