Unholy Alliances

Posted on 16 Nov 2020 @ 1:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Amelia Warner & Lieutenant Alexandra Dering

1,155 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Just After "Bolstering The Team" (Backlog)

Having left Petrova on the bridge, Lexi -- at least the being wearing her -- made her way to Sickbay. She was pretty sure that this host's knowledge was not going to be of much help in a situation that was primarily medical, but one never knew what could be useful. And her access would be useful. So The One Wearing Lexi entered the Sickbay and looked around. Catching a nurse, she asked, "Where is Dr. Warner?"

The nurse pointed her across the bay to where the body of Dr. Amelia Warner was standing, leaning against the doorframe into the CMO's office behind her. There was a PADD in her hand and a frown on her face, but she could hear someone approaching. She looked up to see a woman that was clearly here under her own power and thus one of their own. The being in Amelia didn't know who it was but she nodded slightly in greeting. "Can I help you?"

As she approached, Lexi's eyes scanned over the woman before her. They then came up to meet those of the other. "Petrova sent me to see if I can be of any help to you." There was no waste of words or movement.

"You may," Not-Amelia said, waving the other being to follow her into the office. Once the door had shut behind them, Not-Amelia began. "Do you realize how many members of this crew have...non-organic body part replacements?" Her disgust of that was clear. She knew the general opinion would be shared among her fellows, although perhaps not to the same intensity.

The Being Wearing Lexi frowned. "From your expression, I would say a good number," she answered, the being's own distaste of it showing in her tone. "That's why you needed an Engineer? What do you want me to do exactly?"

Not-Amelia waved a hand with a sigh. "That's what we have to figure out," she said. "The beings with these mechanical bits to them are not ideal hosts for the rest of our fellows, but I don't know this vessel's technology well enough to craft biological replacements." She sighed wistfully. "Our labs on the colony were so much more...useful than this. I miss their assistance."

Not-Lexi frowned but nodded. The being in control of her remembered that as well. "I know, but we work with what we have," it said, commiserating with its fellow for just a moment before moving the conversation forward. "This body belonged to an Engineer. Perhaps between our science and her knowledge of this ship's machinery, we can construct a device for cloning parts only." It was not ready to make the same mistake again. Cloning whole beings had backfired. Perhaps if they just cloned the parts they needed instead, things would work out better.

"My thoughts exactly," the doctor-not-doctor replied. She waved to one of the glossy black screens set into the wall, pressing a button to alight an image of a human. "This ship has many different beings on it, but this one--the human--is the most common. It's the ones you and I have now."

Not-Lexi frowned. studying the image. "Not terribly sturdy, is it," she commented. "Though it does appear to be somewhat resilient. What have you got so far? We can work from there."

Not-Amelia tapped a few buttons on the panel set into the wall. "This one is a good example," she said. "He is very healthy, by the standards of these humans, but his leg below the knee was lost some years ago. Instead of replacing it with an organic component, they have melded it with a prosthetic. It looks like part of his original form yet it is not. The vein and artery system, however, is more complex than our original forms. I am concerned for removing the prosthetic but maintaining the circulatory capacity."

Not-Lexi frowned as she studied the design. "Can you show me the man's other, natural, appendage? Maybe by comparing them, I can come up with an idea for you."

"Of course," the doctor-in-doctor said, tapping a few commands and coming up with... "I don't know what that is," she said, tapping a few more times. "I'm still getting used to these interfaces." A moment later, the right image showed up of the two legs--prosthetic and organic, side by side.

Not-Lexi stared at the screen for several long moments. "Perhaps if we connected them differently, we could keep the circulation but remove the appendage. Like a stop-gap measure until we can clone him a new leg?" She moved to the monitor and created a copy of the picture, then began to 'rewire' the area just above the prosthetic. "Like this maybe?" She shrugged.

Not-Amelia examined the picture and nodded. "I was thinking along those lines," she agreed. "I believe that will work with this species' physiology."

Not-Lexi nodded. "Then I will requisition what we need and bring the stuff up here," she answered. This was going rather smoothly now that the previous owner of this body had been subdued properly.

The doctor's mouth had opened for the being within to say something further, but whatever she had been about to say was lost in an instant.

From the region of her chest came the most piercing sound, and something more. She couldn't really understand it or what was going on. Just that it drove right into this human's brain, causing the reflexive move of clapping her hands over her ears--which didn't help. Something was...was happening. She could feel herself being pulled on. Pulled where? Pulled out of the body. She resisted, but it continued.

The being inside of Lexi felt the sound as much as heard it. Or was there something else accompanying that terrible sound? It cut through her mind and body, wrenching a scream from her as the body fell to its knees. That scream was pain, but it was also defiance as the being was forcibly removed from the host it had commandeered. But try as it might, it could not hold on. It felt itself being torn free of its chosen host, dragged out by some force it could not comprehend at that moment, so wracked with pain.

Lexi's hands went to her ears as the sound screamed through her, a gesture borne both of the being's attempt to hold on by shutting out the horrible noise and Lexi's attempt to not go deaf from the high, screeching sound. But it was futile. The longer the sound persisted, the more control Lexi had once more. And pain or no pain, she added her own push to the pull being exerted on the creature by whatever that was. She was tired and weak, but she was still doing all she could to evict the being.

Eventually, it was successful. The beings were ripped free and cast out, leaving the two formerly-possessed officers half-conscious and on the floor...

 

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