Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Nightmares Tell Us What to Pray Against
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Aasrel hugged her tightly and shook his head. “No, not at all.” He rested his head against her, relieved and happy. “I just… I don’t know. I didn’t want you to feel pressured to say it.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany shook her head against his shoulder. “I don’t.” In fact there was some almost giddy relief that he had said it first. She rested against him just breathing the moment in for a bit. If there were gods, they were cruel. Why now? Why this mission? When she was quite literally killing herself? It wasn’t fair to Aasrel. She was long years past ever expecting or wanting something fair for herself.

She kissed him, hugging him tightly, before disappearing into the bathroom.

Bethany

Aasrel kissed her back, holding her tightly. Then she slipped away and disappeared into the bathroom. Aasrel followed her in with a little smile, drying his eyes one more time.

~ Aasrel

---

Bethany pressed the button to open one of the vanity drawers, and she pulled out a medium sized tub of lotion. Her skin felt overly dry and itchy. She massaged it into her arms, shoulders and down her legs. Her skin looked red, but she attributed that to using a higher sonic setting than she was used to.

She slipped her robe up over her shoulders and tied the belt. She brushed her hair, but decided it was too much effort to try and braid it. She suddenly felt very tired and shaky. She turned into Aasrel, dropping her arms over his shoulders and giving him a long lingering kiss. “How about lunch?”

Bethany

Aasrel kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her. “Lunch sounds good.” He still wasn’t that hungry, but he wanted to encourage her to eat and not worry her. He smiled, pulling away just long enough to pull his shirt on, then pulled her back into him. He still looked upset, but better than before.

~ Aasrel

Bethany grinned when he pulled her back in. She still didn’t feel hungry but she hadn’t really eaten since breakfast the day before. She figured that’s why she felt funny. “We’ll watch something more fun after.” She liked being held close to him, sharing the same space. “Do you want to eat at the mess or bring it back here?”

Bethany

“Let’s bring it back here.” Aasrel replied. He didn’t feel like eating at the mess. He smiled at her. “Want to watch a Betazoid movie? They’re spoken since, you know, telepathy doesn’t work over a recording.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany nodded and grinned. “I’d like that. Let me put on something other than my robe.” She slipped away and padded into the main room. There was a soft thump that didn’t sound like the closet door sliding open. Then a distressed and weak, “Aasrel!” Followed by a loud crash as Bethany collapsed and took a chair with her and hit the coffee table.

Bethany

“Okay,” Aasrel said, letting her go so she could get up. At the thump, he looked towards the noise. At his name and the crash, he leapt out of his chair in record time and rushed to her side, kneeling beside her with a medical scanner. “Bethany! What’s wrong? What happened?”

~ Aasrel

Bethany was unconscious. The tricorder registered a large spike in her fever that was causing a febrile seizure and large amounts of histamines in her blood. It was a good bet her white cell count was up as well.

Bethany

“Emergency medical situation, Gadi’s quarters.” Aasrel said into his comm. When they arrived in sickbay, he got her situated and ordered a blood test to check the white count and antibody load, then a seizure med and a fever reducer/antihistamine at a prescription strength. Then he sat by her bed and waited for test results or a response to the meds.

~ Aasrel

The labbtests came back with a WBC of 19782 cells per microliter. Her IgG was 1500 mg/100 ml. Her histamine level came back as 4 ng/mL. Most disturbing was despite the cocktail Bethany had been taking the amount of psilosynine in her blood was 50% more than it had been.

A neurological scan would show both hthe psilosynine gland and the El-Aurian one were both producing more hormones than before. To Aasrel it would look similar to the steady increased readings as a Betazoid child matured at adolescence and their telepathy activated.

The anti-seizure med worked, but it seemed to take forever to take effect. What Bethany had thought was redness from the sonic shower was actually a rash forming. It got worse before the antihistamine kicked in and then faded. The fever reducer took effect quickly, but given the blood test results, it would go back up again when the medication wore off.

Bethany

Aasrel put in an order to keep her on the fever reducer. Her paracortex was apparently going into a very late betazoid ‘puberty’ and her body was reacting to the increased amount of psilosynine. She was maxed out on her dose of the drug cocktail that kept her numbers down. It wouldn’t be safe to give her more, but if he did nothing, her body was going to kill itself. He didn’t yet know how to reroute the El-Aurian chemical. He needed to buy time, and quickly. He waited for her to wake up, hoping it would be soon. If she didn’t in a few hours, he’d consult with Th’rethiss.

~ Aasrel

Bethany showed no signs of waking. She was deeply unconscious. Luckily she had not hit her head when she fell though her arm and side were bruised from falling into the table.

However, as Aasrel decided to wait and see if she would wake, the bio-monitors began to alarm. Her brain was showing swelling as the hormone levels circulated through her system, back to her brain and caused unsafe levels there. If it continued she could fall into a coma.

Bethany