Double Double Toil and Trouble
Posted on Fri Oct 7, 2022 @ 9:32pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Commander Zachary Addams
1,921 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
We Will Take Care of You
Location: Victory
"Okay...." Zach said, psyching himself up. He swallowed and marshaled his strength, then swung his legs over the edge of the biobed, sitting up and closing his eyes as his head spun a bit.
He took a deep breath and when his head cleared he stood up. He stretched and winced, then relaxed and stood up straight. He pressed the call button and began filling out the paperwork on the padd by his bed while he waited for a nurse.
The doors opened and Nurse Carson walked in and came to his side. "Yes, Doctor?"
"I'm discharging myself for extremely light duty," Zach said. "I'll be in my office if you need anything signed off. Doctor P'k'ala can handle things for now."
"Yes, Doctor," Carson said. She took the padd from him and walked out of the room to give him some privacy.
Zach replicated a fresh set of underclothes and a uniform and left them on the biobed. He took a quick sonic shower, letting it work out a few more aches before he reluctantly got dressed. Finally feeling somewhat back to normal, he put his teal coat back on, stepped out of the exam room and slowly walked over to his office. He'd have to replicate replacements for a few of his toys, but that was easy enough for the most part.
He sat down behind his desk and let out a sigh of relief. "Computer," he said, "lower the room temperature to 4 degrees."
Penny sat at her station on the bridge monitoring the ship. While they were stationary, helm wasn't a priority, so she focused on Ops. She was watching every power transfer, every engineering request and every errant computer command. She didn't know what she was watching for, but she was waiting for some signal that something was going to happen.
She passed the eons in between alerts trying to speculate what the Captain would be discussing with the delegation. Part of her was somewhat excited. She was potentially looking at a turning point where she could be open about who she was and maybe not have to go through the awkward reveal. She had been considering talking to Zach about it prematurely, but then....
The errant thought distracted her, and she frowned. She didn't like how they'd left things, but she was beginning to think a study might need to be done on whether human names determined how insufferable they were.
That thought had passed through her head for the third time when her board lit up with a message directly for her. She assumed it was Commander Torres with another task list, or just maybe Walker looking to explain himself. Instead, it was from Sickbay.
Pen, can we talk? It's important. I'm in my office. Zach.
Penny blinked, considering whether or not she wanted to indulge him. Cass would say talk things out, she thought. Then again, Nicole would say punch his nose in. Camille would probably side with Cass, but tell Nicole to stand behind me with her fists at the ready. The image of her best friends discussing how to deal with it made her smile, then feel a pang of longing for them. Still debating, but leaning towards seeing him, she closed her access and nodded to her backups. "I'll be back shortly," she said. "You have the bridge."
The j.g.s nodded and sat down, going over their boards as Penny left the bridge. She stepped into the turbolift and pursed her lips. "I really should just ignore him..." she said to herself.
Three minutes later, the turbolift doors opened again and Penelope stepped out, walking down to the Ops/Helm station and tapping the officers on the shoulder. "Thanks, guys."
The two j.g.s looked at each other and shrugged, figuring a trip to the head happens to everyone now and then, and stood up to return to their stations.
Penelope sat down and got to work, fingers flying over the Ops console as she logged in and began rerouting communications to the bridge while accessing the defensive systems.
Zach was scrolling through a padd of reports when he heard footsteps approach his office. He looked up and he frowned a bit, then frowned more at his reaction. "Hello," he said.
"Hi," Penny said. She stood in the doorway and looked around. "I um...should I come in and sit down?"
"If you like," Zach said, gesturing to the seat across from him.
Penny walked in and sat down, crossing her legs. "So...."
"So," Zach repeated, looking at her. They stared at each other for a few uncomfortable seconds before Zach broke the silence. "Okay, I'll go first. I...should apologize for my tone earlier. I'm sorry for how I sounded. I was upset and not quite clear-headed. I should have phrased my frustration better. I'm not saying I'm not upset, but I regret letting it get to me."
Penny tilted her head. "Apology accepted," she said. "And I guess I should apologize for Cullen's behavior. I don't know what would have made him attack you."
"Jealousy, I'd guess," Zach said. "That or a psychotic 'big brother' complex."
Penny shook her head, trying to process everything. She felt like nothing made sense, and it was causing a feedback loop in her thinking. "Can I talk to him?" she said. "Or is he not allowed visitors?"
Zach frowned. "Commander Walker? Why would he be here? I would presume Security would've put him in the brig by now."
Now it was Penny's turn to frown. "He sent a message to the bridge that he was being confined to Sickbay after the incident. I've been covering the watch."
Zach's brow furrowed and he accessed his hand-held terminal, scrolling quickly through Sickbay's reports. "What the hell..." he said, tapping his combadge. "Addams to Carson get in my office now."
A moment later, Faith came rushing in. "Yes, Doctor?"
"Where's the incident report from my examination of Commander Walker?" Zach said, his voice hard.
"It's still in the queue waiting for your approval," Faith said. "I assumed you'd want to review it and add your notes once you're up and around."
Zach stared her down. "So you're telling me that no one, up to and including the captain, has been informed of what happened?"
Faith immediately realized her error and blushed. "Yes...Doctor...."
Zach scowled at her and accessed the report. He quickly added his recovery to the report and filed it. "Dismissed," he said to his nurse who made a quick exit.
"I'm starting to question the efficiency of this crew," Zach said, tapping his fingers on the desk. He shook his head, then frowned. "So...where's Walker? He isn't here, and if Security wasn't flagged..."
Penny tilted her head again. "He's loose?"
"He'd have been back here to finish me off," Zach grumbled. "Computer," he said, "where is Commander Walker?"
"Commander Walker is on the bridge," the computer said.
Penny tapped her combadge. "Naroot to Walker?" Silence was the response. "Commander Walker, please respond." The line suddenly went dead.
"Addams to bridge," Zach said. "Is Commander Walker there?" silence was his only response. "Computer, show me Commander Walker's movements after he left Sickbay."
Addams' screen lit up with a tracking line showing Walker leaving Sickbay and returning to his quarters. He was there for an extended period of time, and then left, pausing in various spots throughout the ship before heading to the bridge.
"It says he's up there," he said.
Penny shook her head. "If he had been, I'd have seen him. I was on the bridge when you asked me to come down here."
Now Zach looked confused. "I never asked you to come here."
Penny tilted her head. "I got a message from you saying you wanted to talk."
"I was a bit focused on getting out of bed, I wasn't really in the mood to talk, but I--" he stopped when he realized he wasn't focusing on the real issue. He pulled himself out of his chair, groaning as he stumbled to the doorway, shouting "Medical team to Commander Walker's quarters!"
It took only a minute or two for the team to assemble, and as they converged on Walker's quarters, albeit Zach somewhat needing to lean on Penny, they slowed to a cautious approach.
Penny put Zach's well-meaning restraining arm behind her and approached the door. When it didn't open, she put her ear to the door. "I hear...snoring," she said.
"Computer, emergency medical override on Commander Walker's quarters."
"Unable to comply. Command code lockout enabled," the computer said.
"Override lockout. Medical emergency authorization Addams-Beta-Seven," Zach said.
"Unable to comply. Command code lockout enabled," the computer said.
Zach nodded to the two nurses he'd brought--ones hopefully strong enough to handle the commander if he got belligerent again--and each took a manual door override from a storage cabinet and physically unsealed the doors. Everyone took a side and pulled, with Penny lending a hand as well, and the doors reluctantly pushed open.
They walked inside slowly. The air was a bit thick, and the lights were dim, but they could see Walker in bed, partially covered by a bedsheet. Everyone was relieved to clearly see him breathing.
Zach kept his distance, but flipped open his tricorder and scanned Walker. "There's a massive amount of sedative in his bloodstream," he said. He frowned and scanned again. "I think this is what we found traces of earlier. It's a wonder he can breathe with his body dosed this high..." He scanned further, frowning more. "His body doesn't know which way is up. Readings are all over the place. How the hell did someone get this close to drug him this much?"
He looked at the sheet, and lifted it experimentally, putting it back down immediately with a look of disgust. "Okay, that's a theory," he said to himself.
"Let's get him to Sickbay," he said. "Get him in a gown, on a biobed and restrained. Once he's secure, we'll begin safely neutralizing the sedative. Then we can see what else they did to him."
The nurses nodded, pulling in the gurney they'd brought and attempting to get the Commander onto it with some semblance of dignity.
Zach began walking slowly towards the door, and when Penny noticed she ran after him. "Where are you going?" she said.
"To find the Captain. She needs to be informed," Zach said.
"I'll go with you," Penny said.
"No, you need to get to the bridge," Zach said. "Someone lured you away. Go find out who."
Penny nodded and rushed out of Walker's running to the turbolift. "Bridge," she said. She found herself feeling impatient as the lift rose. She was used to turoblift rides feeling like they took forever to her high speed brain, but today the lift seemed to be going even slower. Finally, the doors opened, and she stepped out.
"Forget something?" Lieutenant Milhouse said.
"What?" Penny said, tilting her head.
"You said you were being called to Sickbay, and you left," Lt. Milhouse said.
"When did I say that?" Penny said.
"Just now, when you left through the other turbolift," Milhouse said, now equally confused.
Penny thought a few million thoughts in the span of a few seconds and she realized what was happened. The look of horror on her face was the last things the j.g.s saw before the lift doors closed back in front of her.
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