Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Promises and Connections

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Promises and Connections

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Promises and Connections
Posted by… suppressed (29) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The Asimov, as it was once more known as, was docked at Star Base 12. The debriefing was intense. Not anything Bethany hadn’t expected. The crew was allowed no freedom or visitors until cleared. So it was with great glee that Bethany heard a commotion outside the ‘interview’ room and then silence before a most welcome sight entered.

---

Bethany and Aasrel were escorted, together, to a large VIP suite of quarters. Bethany had been closed mouthed about it, but Aasrel could tell she knew something. They were let in to a large common living area and then the guards posted outside.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Bethany was getting better with her telepathy, and Aasrel hadn’t caught wind of what was going on throug his returned abilities. The debriefing was… a lot. Bethany said it was expected, though. Aasrel had never been on a mission like that one. There were things he’d promised that were soon to come due that he wasn’t sure he was ready to pay up on. A certain trip to Betazed haunted his mind.

Guards were posted outside as they were lead into a large common living area. Aasrel glanced at Bethany, and then around the room. Still not telling me what you’re up to? He asked, telepathically. He was still re-getting used to his own abilities, after all, and he’d missed them so much he liked using them.

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany grinned, You’ll find out soon enough. She kissed him and winked.

A moment later two doors opened. The first admitted a pair of individuals. A human male with sandy brown hair starting to lighten. He walked with the posture of someone who had seen battle and fighting and survived. He had an infectious grin though. The woman had abrinzed complexion, bright green eyes and long red hair of her Irish heritage, and pointy Vulcan ears. She was wearing a command red uniform with Rear Admiral pips. The second door opened and admitted a human man, older, greying, walking with a limp, in a medical coat, reading a PaDD.

“Bethany!” The admiral walked up to her and shook her hand then took her by both shoulders, raised a single brow, and after a long moment nodded her head. “We will talk.” The man wasn’t quite as reserved. He picked Bethany up on a bear hug, “Hey Kiddo,” kissed her cheek and set her down.

“Aasrel, these are my mentors. Rear Admiral T’Jal Smith and her husband Commodore Jake Smith. T’Jal, Jake, this is Lt. Aasrel Izei.” They both offered him a hand. Jake motioned toward the distracted doctor, “And this is retired Cmdr, Dr Martin.” The doctor nodded his head, but was far too invested in what he was reading.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel shook their hands politely with a quick, light grasp. “Good to meet all of you.” He said, nodding. Who are these people? He asked Bethany, telepathically. There had once been a time when he was friendlier. These days he mostly shut himself off. He was more reserved.

His empathy picked up all three of them of course, which he paid attention to. With it back, it made him more comfortable to be able to feel their presences, their emotions.

~ Izei, CMO

I told you about them. T’Jal trained me for Intel, her husband and Dr. Martin are the ones that I told you were assimilated. She thought it easily, but there was an undercurrent of apology for bringing up a painful topic.

There was a rush of discomfort and emotional pain, but forgiveness and understanding for bringing it up. Oh, I remember.

“Well come and sit down. Bethany, we have fresh coffee, Lt Izei, would you like some? Or tea perhaps,” T’Jal offered.

Aasrel went and sat down, next to Bethany. “Coffee. Bethany’s gotten me addicted to it.”

There was a soft laugh from the older couple and the Admiral moved into another room.

Jake sat down across from Aasrel, Martin in the seat beside Jake. The doctor finally looked up. “I understand that your doctors have not been very diligent in helping you become deassimilated.”

Aasrel immediately looked incredibly uncomfortable, but nodded. “Unfortunately there are issues with it that many doctors aren’t willing to risk. Not for an ‘elective’ procedure.”

“We’ve both been there, so we understand how important it is when others do not.” Martin accepted a tea from T’Jal and took a sip before continuing. “As far as the process goes, you were with the collective a short time, so their programs did not have a chance to fully integrate. The plate on your head can be removed. I can not give you real bone, but I can put a prosthetic bone where they removed part of your cranium. There are nodes on the underside of the plate, to allow cybernetic parts they did remove to integrate. It is a delicate process, but I know how to remove it without damage. The plate is designed to short circuit the nerve endings in the skin. Depending on the damage you may always be slightly numb there. I will do a skin graft to regrow your scalp and hair.”

T’Jal handed them both a cup of strong black coffee. Bethany thanked her quietly and then the Admiral sat on the arm of her husband’s chair. Jake slid an arm around her waist as she did.

Aasrel nodded. “I’ve been told the damage could be severe, that’s why no one will do it. Honestly, I’ve looked at my own scans, they’re not wrong. But I still want to do it. I want them gone.”

“And that should be your choice to risk, not theirs,” the Admiral interjected.

Aasrel nodded and sighed. “I wish it worked that way.”

“The prosthetic eye you were given, is the best we have to offer unfortunately. Now for your arm. The tubing is integrated and fused into bone and muscle tissue. It can be removed, but you will most likely have small scars from it, and will need physical and occupational therapy to strengthen the muscles and nerves from the damage of removing them. You will need vitamin and mineral supplements for about a year to assist in the healing.”

Aasrel nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything. Just get rid of them, please.” He was dismayed about the eye, Bethany would feel, but he understood. There just wasn’t anything better.

Technology changes all the time, so not a no, just not right now. Bethany was getting a little better at it and could at least project reassurance.

There was a sense of comfort. I hope so. Then a feeling of affection washed over her. I know you like it. They’d been over that several times. That she loved them.

The reason for it, was something Bethany kept deeply to herself, and it wasn’t something she had fully acknowledged consciously.

Martin took another sip of his tea. “Your leg is another obstacle all together. The cybernetic implant is not only fused to the bone and tissue, but it is regulating the production of red blood cells in your marrow. I have a theory on how to fix it, but it is risky.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel gave a long sigh. “I just want them off. I don’t care how. I don’t care about the consequences. So what’s the idea?”

~ Izei, CMO

Now Martin looked uncomfortable. “Some of my…assimilstion could not be undone. Part of my brain was removed and replaced. I still have Borg nanties in place of, and I can control them. The idea is to inject some of my nannties into you, and program them to ‘deprogram’ the implant so your body takes back over and then remove it like I will the one in the arm. The risk is my nanites are older and unfamiliar with the newer borg tech so it may work or it may make things worse.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel looked uncomfortable and Bethany felt a sense of sympathy from him. “I’m sorry.” Then he looked up at the older man. “How much worse?” He shook his head slightly. Bethany felt his terror, his dislike for that idea. He did not want nanites in him. “I-I don’t know about this.”

~ Izei, CMO

“I don’t know. I hate to tell you that, but I don’t. I have no idea what the programming might be. I can always insert a single nanite to study the cybernetic implant and it’s programming and reintegration it with myself, but the risk is the same whether one or many. The risk being ‘the unknown.’ The other option is to insert it under your skin and tissue. It would still be there, but you wouldn’t see it.”

Bethany sensed his apprehension and revulsion. She went very still and watchful as it washed over her, but after a moment she relaxed. She held his hand, not afraid or ashamed to show her affection in front of these people.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel was more worried about the nanites themselves than how much worse it might get. He didn’t care about that. To him it was worth trying except that they were nanites. He took her hand and squeezed, hard. “I don’t want it there, at all. In any way. I want them out of me.” He said stubbornly. “I don’t care what it does to me. I just…” He shuddered. “Nanites.”

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany held on feeling the revulsion from all three men. “I understand,” Martin said. “I hate them. Think of them as Medical nanties if it helps. We use those all the time. The thing is, these I still have, have an advantage, make it more viable to work. I’ve done similar procedures in the past. On other crew from the Dresden. Myself and Jake here. Even my CMO at the time who was also assimilated with Jake.” He said the next with an ironic smile, but he was clearly not joking, “There is always amputation.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel’s look turned dark and shadowed, brooding. “My entire crew is gone. All of us, either assimilated or killed. Eight remain alive and free, of which I am one.” He had been one of the first assimilated, because he’d been trying to protect his medical staff. “Some remain assimilated. How many, we don’t know. The rest died when the Borg blew up the wreckage of our ship.” His voice was dark, haunted, hollow. He hadn’t even spoken that much about it to Bethany. She felt his grief and anger, the deep sense of loss and fear. “I hate them more than anything.”

Bethany held his hand tighter. I’m here.

Aasrel squeezed her hand and closed his eyes. I know. I need you.

You have me. I’m not going anywhere.

Jake stiffened and his wife slid off her perch and knelt before him. Her hand reached up, three fingers placed along his jaw, sinus, and temple. The a guise coming from him was pulsing like storm waves. He looked into his wife’s eyes and took both her hands in his. He took a shallow breath. “439 men, women, and children. I remember all their names. I…” he closed his eyes and shuddered. He had been forced to watch as each begged him for help as the collective slowly took prisoner of their minds and bodies and erased their souls. “Only our doctor and I survived.” They had actually been cloned, the clones released in escape pods and the ship blown. They were saved years later. Everyone else was lost.

“I’m sorry,” Aasrel said again, his voice choked up. He squeezed Bethany’s hand again. There was an overwhelming sense of sorrow, and then the rush of that all consuming self hatred of his. Then guilt. He felt bad. He’d only been a part of the collective for a handful of weeks. Not years. These men lost so much more than him.

Jake waved a hand. “Don’t be sorry for grieving for those that were lost. It’s a pain that you learn to live with but never leaves.” Bethany slipped an arm around him.

Aasrel leaned on her and slipped his arm around her. “It was a little over a year ago for me.”

He glanced up. The older doctor wasn’t joking, he was serious. “I need to be able to serve.” He said simply.

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany almost sighed with relief to feel that dedication to duty, the drive to do something with his life.

Aasrel squeezed her hand and smiled a little, and his affection for her bubbled back up. It was thanks to her that drive still existed.

Martin nodded, “You could with a prosthetic. There would be nothing stopping you as far as that goes.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

“Let’s try the other way first. We’ll consider amputation if “something worse” happens. Or if we can’t get rid of it all.” He glanced at Bethany, and then back to Martin and Jake. He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them again. “I can’t keep living like this. I can’t.”

~ Izei, CMO

“There is no reason you should. So,” Martin stood, “the Admiral has reserved a surgical suite for us. Let’s go. She has assured me you will not be needed for any more debriefing. Best get started.” Bethany looked at Aasrel, Let him try. He’s dedicated his career to this. If he couldn’t do it, he would say so.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Aasrel glanced at Bethany. “Now?” Excitement with a twist of fear engulfed him and drifted to her as well. “Okay.” He turned and hugged Bethany tightly. I will. I love you. He stayed against her for a minute. I hope it goes well. Then he let her go, turned, and followed the doctor towards the surgical suite.

~ Izei, CMO

I love you too. I’ll be there when you wake up. Even if I have defy orders to do it. Bethany grinned as he followed Martin out. When the door closed, Bethany looked at the two people who were the closest thing to an aunt and uncle she had. Her uncles having become her parents. “Thank you for coming, for helping him.”

Jake got up and sat next to her and hugged her. “We could do nothing else. He should not be allowed to suffer that way. I’m glad we are able to help.” He hugged her again. “I have a few people to talk to. Guards will be outside his surgical suite and recovery room. No one will bother them.” Jake got up and left after kissing his wife.

T’Jal sat down and looked at her. “It is difficult to watch them go through it. Be strong Bethany, he will make it.”

---

In sickbay, Martin scrubbed and Aasrel was prepped. “It will be a very long surgery, and we may have to do it in stages. Be prepared for that. I’ll see you in a few hours Lt. Izei.” Then he was asleep and Martin got to work. First was inserting the nanites to see if they could reverse the control of the leg implant. Then he started on the cranial plate. It was the simplest and the one he knew would succeed, but it was delicate.

Aasrel nodded. “This brings my number of surgeries to fifteen. I’ll be fine.” He said. Then he was put to sleep.

The cranial plate was very delicate, nestled comfortably into the skull and against the brain. Like he’d said, there were nodes on it to deaden the nerves. It went okay, the implant placed well and the graft began to take. But how numb it would be remained to be seen.

When the tissue migratory was working on growing the skin and hair back he began working on the arm.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

The implant was hastily placed. Fused deep within the bone and attached to muscle and tissue, it was well and truly anchored in. This was why other doctors had told him amputation was the only option, and they wouldn’t do that without a life threatening reason. It would take destroying the bones and shredding the muscles and tissues to remove the implant fully.

While he was working on the cranium and the arm, the nanites went to work in his body, searching out the implant in his leg. It was, as Martin had noted, not only similarly deeply anchored into bone, muscle, and tissue, and Borg technology replaced the marrow in the bones. The nanites, not ‘realizing’ this, as they recognized the Borg technology, but weren’t familiar with newer designs, deprogrammed the implant anyway, causing it to cease all functions.

~ Izei, CMO

Martin watched as the biobed flashed and he pulled up the screen with what the nanites were doing. Especially the images. He nodded seeing what had happened. He called for a bone marrow transplant, luckily they could synthesize it. He injected the bone marrow which took easily enough, but the body wasn’t deactivating. The gland that produced the hormone needed to trigger the production of rbc was replaced with a Borg implant. There was no way to fix that. Martin had to extract the nanites and then reprogram them to turn on the artificial gland.

While that was happening, Martin returned to the arm. He spliced the outside tubbing and removed it. Then he meshed the left over pieces that were so deeply embedded with prosthetic tissue. He was able to separate the pieces between bones and tissue, but the other pieces were still pushed inside those. The prosthetic tissue healed over those areas making it more seamless. Then he had to close the openings where the tubing had exited the body. He was very good at what he did. There were scars, but so faint that only a scan would pick them up. He would repeat the process with the leg, if he could get the body working correctly.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

The nanites turned the gland back on, but the marrow wasn’t functioning. Without it his immune system would be weak and his body would have trouble making enough red blood cells.

The arm was going okay. To mesh the prosthetic tissue over it he had to get all the way down to the bone in places. Healing would take time. And Aasrel would hate that it was still there at all. But it would do the job.

~ Izei, CMO

Martin could replace the bone with a prosthetic, but not the muscle and tissue and blood vessels and nerves. That was longer than he had. He set the tissue migrator over the arm and then returned to the leg. It wasn’t working. He did several scans and tests, pulling the nanites out to read the data they had collected to figure out what was wrong.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

It showed the artificial gland was having trouble stimulating the new, young, marrow. With time it might start working, or… It might not, and they’d have to try again. The only way to fix it now was to try again now, which was hard on the body, bones, and other related things.

~ Izei, CMO

It was hard on the body, but not impossible. Besides, Martin had closed up the incision sight yet. He was able to program the nanites to go in and help stimulate the growth along with the gland to another marrow transplant. He was already drafting a letter to a medical engineer. He also did some tweaking on the programming of the gland to recognize real marrow rather than the borg variation. He had had years to learn how to program them and get around with little tweaks like this.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

This time his scans showed the marrow starting to work for sure. It would take time to work 100% but his marrow and blood would recover.

~ Izei, CMO

This time Martin had to splice the tubing and graph it to the lymph and cardiovascular system to deliver the hormones, but he was able to remove most of it and treat as he did the arm. It was a long process, and he watched the marrow carefully to make sure it continued to be active. As well as his vitals.

The whole thing took hours. Martin checked each location for healing and completeness, gave antibiotics as a precaution and painkillers.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

The marrow remained alive and active. Again, the sloppiness of its install and the deepness of its anchor in his limb meant he really had to dig around to get the prosthetic tissue around it. His vitals reacted to the surgery but remained stable enough to continue.

~ Izei, CMO

Martin didn’t give up or tire. He was determined. It wasn’t perfect but it was better. And he would look more like himself. He pulled up images and scans from before Izei’s assimilation to help return his facial and cranial structure and hair to what it previously was. Martin worked until every thing was done. He had ideas on how to do more, but that would take time. Until then, much had been removed and outwardly, Izei would be more himself. He knew from personal experience, that being able to look in the mirror was a gift.

When he was done, he sent one of the guards to tell the Admiral. He had Izei moved and then he sank into a chair beside him and was forced to wait by the nurse who helped him.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

The surgery had been long. Hours and hours long. Then it was a few hours before Aasrel woke. Groggy from the aftereffects of anesthesia and his pain meds, it took him a moment to remember what happened. When he did, he glanced around the room for Bethany or that doctor, what was his name… Martin. Aasrel had to know… How had it gone? How much of it was gone? What did he look like now?

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany was in a chair beside him, her head pillowed on her arms, resting on the side of his bed, just like before. The doctor wasn’t there. The sudden activity of his mind jerked her awake. She glanced at him, worried about a nightmare, but he was awake. “Hi.” She sat up and took his other hand. Careful not to hurt the arm that had surgery. “How are you feeling. You’ve been out for almost a day.”

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

He took a deep breath and smiled. Groggy. A little bit painful but I’m going to guess I’m on something. He squeezed her hand gently. His left arm was his good one. His right was the one that had just had surgery. His right arm, right leg, and his head. How do I look? Well, right now, he looked like a giant bandage. Curiosity, anticipation, a little fear swirled about in him. He answered with telepathy because it was easier for him.

~ Izei, CMO

Like a mummy from ancient Egypt. She grinned at him. They would have to watch that movie. Trust me?

Aasrel nodded slightly. ‘Course I do. He said.

His arm and leg were only bandaged at the hand and foot where the appendages had a large percentage operated on. She ran her fingers gently up his arm right where the tubing had been. He was sore of course but nothing obstructed her touch which was light and gentle.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS

Her touch was ever so gentle and light. It was sore, but smooth. Nothing stopped the sweeping motion of her hand against his skin. He propped himself up, grunting lightly, and looked. Excitement flooded him. It’s gone? All gone?!

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany smiled, I don’t know. Dr. Martin went to bed. The surgery was nearly 20 hours. He said you made it through and you were stable. I decided to let him sleep before asking more. I’m sorry.

Lt. Cmdr. Gadi, COS