Génie Oreiller

Posted on Tue Jun 4, 2019 @ 2:49pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

1,187 words; about a 6 minute read

Nicole had released the away team, checked in on the Professor in the lab before he retired, then finally went to her quarters. She ate, got a much-needed sonic shower, dropped her uniform in the recycler and crawled into bed, sighing with relief. It was at that moment she heard the chime.

"Who is it?" she said, wearily.

“C’est Camille, chère!” her girlfriend called from outside the door to her quarters.

"Oh by all means, come in," Nicole said, sitting up and grabbing a long t-shirt, throwing it on. She came into her living room and smiled as Camille stepped inside. "Hey," she said, walking up and hugging her tight. She nodded towards the replicator. "Have you eaten?"

“Ah, yes, thank you. But I could use a glass of water, please.” She felt warm and safe in Nicole’s arms, but was also exceedingly thirsty and needed that water. Before she let Nicole go to the replicator, she snuck in a quick peck on the lips. “I had quite a day.”

"You and me both," Nicole sighed, kissing her back. She walked over to the replicator and keyed up a glass of water and brought it over, smiling. "So I'm thinking of starting a mutiny and forcing the Captain into a medical and psych ward. Join me?" she said, flippantly, smiling wider at the thought.

“Hmm...” she said, tapping an index finger on her chin as she stared off into space, exaggerating being lost in thought. “Would you be Captain and I’d be your Number One?”

"Well that'd be a lovely echo, now wouldn't it?" Nicole laughed, handing her the water. "I don't think the ship can handle another tyrant at the front." She kissed Camille again and stepped back, yawning. "Sorry," she said. "I'm wiped."

“All will love you and despair!” Camille joked as she took the water. She took a sip, feeling refreshed and cooled. “Merci. I’m tired, too. I had quite the adventure with our new Chief of Intelligence.”

"You too?" Nicole said, her smile disappearing. She folded her arms and scowled. "She came into Sickbay for her boarding physical. Brings me a padd of pre-picked readings from a previous scan from Providence-knows-when, and then lets me back her into a logical corner a few times. Not typical Vulcan behavior. Not sure I trust her yet." She yawned again and took Camille's hand. "C'mon. We're continuing this lying down before you have to carry me to bed."

Camille was happily led by the hand to bed. She stripped off her uniform completely (putting her glasses on the dining room table and pointing them out to Nicole so she also knew where they were), stepped quickly to the replicator to grab an oversized shirt of her own, slipped it on, and lay down snugly next to Nicole. “You might not trust the intelligence officer yet, but she’s smart. And protective. Our adventure was not the safest experience of my life, but it got me thinking.”

"Oh?" Nicole said, pulling Camille into her arms and kissing her ear. "Thinking what?"

She snuggled into Nicole’s arms and nuzzled her neck. “A few things. T’Mira had an interesting idea but I’ll come back to it. Parce que premièrement, I’m still puzzled by how the prions failed to interact with the virus. It was designed to interact with the virus. We made it to do that, and we’re not idiots. Deuxièmement, the virus isn’t replicating itself. Did we figure out what it’s doing instead?”

"The professor thinks it's actually producing some sort of toxin that's causing all the damage. Still doesn't explain why the prions aren't reacting, though," Nicole sighed. "It's the oddest virus I've seen. I can't help but feel we're missing something. What were T'Mira's thoughts?"

“T’Mira suggested we try to get something into the virus to disrupt it,” Camille noted. “We can’t get it from the outside, so feed it something to kill it from within. Or maybe hit the machinery after injection. It’s an idea, but I’m still fixated on why the prions didn’t interact. They’re supposed to interact! It’s what proteins do! Ugh!” She scrunched her face in a frown.

Nicole grinned in spite of the subject matter. "You're adorable when you're frustrated," she said. She hugged her tight and sighed. "But I share your frustration. The Captain is too. She was interfacing with the Borg Collective to try and determine if anyone in the area was...." She paused and bit her lip. It was there, hovering right in front of her brain. The article...the lecture...something about prions...who was it...

"Bashir!" she said, sitting up.

“Qui?” Camille asked, surprised by Nicole’s sudden change in position.

"Julian Bashir, Chief Medical Officer at DS9!" Nicole half-shouted, turning back to face Camille. "He gave a controversial lecture on prion replication inhibited by quantum signature!" She licked her lips, letting the dominoes fall into place. "Penny said something about finding people from the alternate universe on the station, and the Captain said they were active players in ships in the area. What if...they were responsible for the virus, and constructed it out of materials from their own universe?"

The wheels began to turn in Camille’s head too. “That would explain why the prions aren’t doing anything.” She suddenly bolted upright, too. “It would also explain why our immune system can’t touch it, and why the virus isn’t replicating itself, but making a toxin instead. Our immune system can’t touch the virions with different quantum signatures, but could fight it off if it used our bodies to make more virus. It’s been engineered simply to kill us and to spread the original viral particles.” She thought some more. “It’s DNA must be engineered from our side though, otherwise it couldn’t do anything inside our bodies at all. Which means they probably have lab here.”

"Supplied by the illicit goods they're purchasing on the unaligned starbase!" Nicole finished, grabbing Camille and kissing her. "Come on, we need to run some scans."

“Okay!” Camille replied grinning like the Cheshire Cat, from both their breakthrough and the affectionate kiss.

Nicole leaped out of bed, grabbing her trousers and doing a reverse somersault and slipping them on as she went, standing up fast. As she tucked her shirt in and straightened her hair, she tapped her combadge. "Anderson to Captain: Meet us in the Quarantine lab. I think we have something to discuss. She closed the channel and as Camille came up beside her, they left her quarters.

In that time, Camille managed to find her own uniform pants and shoes. Like Nicole, she just tucked the oversized shirt in rather than find the rest of the uniform. Shoes thrown on, to be tied later, she grabbed her glasses and smiled at the good doctor as they strode out of the cabin with renewed purpose and vigour.

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