Sunday Best |
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<Attention all members of the USS Leviathan. You are hereby ordered to report to the Space Dock Lounge at 1300 hours for an important meeting. Dress uniform is mandatory.> The computer announced over the intercom of space dock and the Leviathan. Ensign Chu awoke at the announcement. "Computer, what is the time?" <The current time is 1145 Hours Stardate 2460129> A couple of hours to go. *I wonder what this is all about, must be important, everyone in their Sunday best* He'd been aboard the Leviathan for less than a day and most of that he'd spent sleeping. Chu sat up and looked at his closet, best get up and find that dress uniform. *How I wish I were back on the Appalachia, it was a great deal quieter* Chu thought back to his departure from the Appalachia. USS Appalachia - Transporter room one (Twelve hours earlier) Ensign Chu and Captain Jaegar stood in the transporter room awaiting the duty transporter officer to arrive at their post. All Chu had with him was his small backpack, which contained his personal effects and a spare uniform. His other uniform was a little bit on the used side, but it was better than the one in the pack. He could have replicated another uniform, but he couldn't be bothered to enter the dimensions and make the alterations to accommodate the 'masses' on each of his shoulders. He'd get on board the Leviathan, apologies to the Commander and get a fresh uniform from his quarters as soon as he could. He could have had the 'masses' surgically removed, but they were part of who he was, just like the marking that all Trill had. The only difference was that instead of being the usual dark brown, Chu's markings were a blood red colour. Both were part of his cross species abnormalities. The 'masses' were said to be 'wing nodules', a 'throw-back' to when the ancestors of the modern Betazoid were birds. The red rather than brown markings came from Chu's Trill ancestry. There were other small things, like his blood being blue rather than pink, but the masses and the red markings were the most visible. "Well Ensign, I guess this is goodbye. You are finally going to catch up with your luggage. Thanks again for working on the EMH and I hoped you enjoyed the Stateroom" "The Stateroom was just fine, it's been so long since I've had a shower with real water and I've never slept in a bed that big. Your hospitality has been great and I've enjoyed being back, if only for a short while" Chu replied. Shaking the Captain's hand, Chu stepped onto the transporter pad and saluting the Captain, he said. "Permission to leave the ship Sir" "Permission granted Ensign. Lieutenant energize" USS Leviathan - Transporter Room Three Ensign Chu reappeared on the Leviathan to an empty transporter room. *Where was everyone ?. I knew that Starfleet was having problems filling some of the positions, but I didn't know it was this bad* Something wasn't right here, Chu could sense that the crew was troubled. Chu closed his eyes and let his telepathic abilities free. Death, that was what he sensed and it was the same feeling that he'd felt the other night. Whatever had happened to the ship, someone had died. "Computer, Please state the location of the ship's Captain" [Please identify yourself. Your voice print is not recognized.] "Ensign Chu Barker, Assistant Science Officer, USS Leviathan. Personnel Number MN-42-53-56-A-601067" [Please remain still, Medical scan in progress] [Voice print verified and medical scan complete. Identity confirmed. Commander Devore transported off the Leviathan on Stardate 2460123.645] *No point in trying to contact him now, guess I should find my quarters and get settled in* "Computer, Please inform the Commander when he returns onboard I have officially signed onto the crew and that I hope to meet him soon" [Request acknowledged] Crew Quarters Deck 8, Room 2304 (Present) Ensign Chu heard loud footsteps outside and a loud voice 'cursing' about the announcement that he had just heard. Getting up, he walked to the door and glanced outside. Ensign Shaka was the cause of all the noise, obviously annoyed at having to wear a dress uniform. He thought back to his first encounter with the young Slipstream specialist, when he had been looking for his own quarters. USS Leviathan - Deck Eight, Staff Quarters. (Eleven Hours earlier) Chu wandered along the corridor on deck eight looking for his quarters, reading the names of the various crew members as he passed their doors.
As Chu walked past Room 2302, a young Andorian woman stormed out of the door and pushed past Chu, nearly knocking him over in the process. The young figure dashed down the corridor without an apology. *Well hello to you too, neighbour* Chu looked at the name on the door. Ensign Shaka: Slipstream Specialist. The other name was still blank. Chu walked past and came to room 2304. *Home Sweet Home* Looking at the door, he noticed that only his name appeared. The name beneath his had recently been removed. Chu knew that he would be sharing, as most Ensigns' did. Only the higher ranked officers were allocated single person's accommodation. He knew that his 'bunk-mate' was to be a young Vulcan Engineer, Ensign Okuda Subytt and he'd even spoken to Okuda on Phelan V where he was visiting his parents before traveling to Earth. Entering the room, Chu saw his luggage neatly stacked on one side of the room. However, what bothered him was the fact that on the other side was all of Ensign Subytt's luggage. On each piece of luggage was a large black 'label' with Yellow and White writing in both English and Vulcan. Chu did not need to read the labels, he knew already. He'd seen the same type of label on all his mother's personal effects when they had been returned home. Ensign Subytt was dead. The labels were all addressed to Okuda's next of kin, in this case his father, Ambassador Mirek Subytt. His body would probably be sent onto Vulcan, along with whoever was holding his 'katra'. Chu ignored the Ensign's luggage and concentrated on unpacking his own. *First order of business, unpack and find a new uniform, then get some sleep.* Half an hour later, Chu had recycled the two uniforms that he'd been wearing for the last few days, unloaded the uniform specification into the computer system, replicated two replacements and changed for some sleep. The next thing he remembered was the announcement. Crew Quarters Deck 8, Room 2304 (Present) *I have a couple of hours to 'kill' so I guess I should get the neural pacifier checked out.* Chu stood up and headed for the turbolift. "Sickbay" USS Leviathan - Sickbay Ensign Chu walked into sickbay and looked around, all was fairly quiet. In one of the side ward, two of the crew were sleeping. Neither of them looked too injured. In the other side ward however, several statis pods were active, awaiting transfer. A cold chill ran down Chu's spine, these were the casualties of whatever had gone on over the past few days Chu let the feeling pass and went over to the main computer console. "Computer, Activate EMH." The EMH appeared and stated the revised standard startup message. "Good morning Ensign, Please state the nature of the medical emergency" "And good morning to you Doctor. Computer, activate Hippocratic oath protocols. Doctor everything that goes on here now is between patient and doctor am I correct ?" "Affirmative, Ensign. I cannot divulge any information about your medical treatment without your permission. The data will be secured until either you release the protocol or you die." The EMH explained. "Good. I have a little task that I need you to perform. Computer download the following program" Chu inserted the isolinear data chip he had brought with him into a vacant data slot. "Doctor, I have a neural pacifier inserted into my paracortex. First, I need you to run a level one diagnostic on the device, I suspect that there maybe some damage. Secondly, I need you to access the data storage area and download the last seven days. To do this, I must be unconscious and you must run the download program that I have just copied into the ship's computer core. Computer, activate Dreamscape download program Seven Beta and pass control to the EMH" Chu walked over to a biobed and lay down. The EMH selected a hypospray and injected it into Chu's neck. Ten minutes later, the EMH administered a second injection and Chu slowly can back into reality. "Welcome back Ensign, the level one diagnostic showed that the device has suffered no permanent damage." "Ensign, why do you have a neural pacifier attached to your paracortex ?. Surely for a telepathic species that would suppress your abilities to sense others" the EMH inquired. Chu shook his head and sat up. "The pacifier only operates when I am unconscious. Because I was born with my telepathic abilities, I experienced many nightmares as a child. Whilst living on Betazed, I had my dreams analyzed and was put onto various drug therapies." "The results of all this was I was picking up the negative emotions from people around me. My mind tried to turn these emotions into reality and became my nightmares. As I grew older and my abilities increased, I started to retransmit these nightmares telepathically into the unconscious minds of the people around me." "Over the years, I learnt to control these nightmares whilst conscious, but still had problems whilst sleeping. The pacifier suppresses the function of my paracortex whilst I am asleep." "The advantage is that there is a data storage device which records my unconscious thoughts and my basic body functions for the previous fourteen days. I can download this data and analyze my dreams" "Right let's see what we've got" Chu said, getting up and slowly walking over to the computer console. "Computer, Run program, Dreamscape analysis Five Alpha" [Running] [Program Complete] Chu looked at the results displayed on the console. "Doctor, What do you think of these reading ?" The doctor reviewed the data "Looks like you had a massive telepathic trauma episode, but why I don't know. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to overload the neural pacifier. Have you had any other events like this ?" "Doctor, no device is perfect and 'yes' I have had other episodes like this. The last was when my mother was killed by the Dominion. Most of these have been linked to telepaths who I have a genetic link to, my mother and sister, my aunt and my maternal grandparents. Occasionally if I am near another telepath I pickup vague images. But this is totally different, this was like someone had inserted a laser scalpel into by brain." The EMH 'thought' for a moment. "All the crew members that were effected by our encounter with the Loreans' were telepathic. Maybe what affected you was some sort of telepathic 'echo' from the psionic pulse. There are many cases of telepaths 'feeling' the deaths of many others, especially when the deaths are violent." Chu thought about what the EMH had said and it made sense. "Thank you doctor. Computer, end Hippocratic oath protocol and deactivate EMH" Chu walked out of sickbay and back to his quarters, the effects of the tranquilizer were slowly wearing off, but he still felt a little groggy. Once back in his quarters, he went to the replicator and ordered a glass of water, chilled to 42 degrees. He walked over to the table and sat down, taking a drink from the glass. Chu noticed that Ensign Subytt's luggage had been removed whilst he'd been in sickbay. Twenty minutes later, the effects from the drugs had finally worn off and Chu began to think about the meeting ahead. *Now where is that dress uniform* Searching the closet, he found it, put it on, walked out of his quarters and towards the turbolift. "Transporter room Two" Lounge - Space Dock Three Chu ordered a drink from the bar and took a seat in a corner, a couple of minutes later a young Warrant Officer came across and introduced himself. "Mind if I sit down Ensign ?." The warrant officer enquired. "Ensign Chu Barker and you are ?" Chu introduced himself. "Warrant Officer Lee, do you know what all this is about ?" "I'm just as curious as you." Someone yelled "Captain on deck" The whole room instinctively stood to attention and the newly promoted Captain Devore walked into the room. |
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