[snip]

The briefing over, Faith came down to check on her uncle. She saw that he was sleeping and didn’t want to disturb him. “How is the Captain doing, Doctor?”

Hunter knew Glen was her uncle and did not want to worry her ‘’He’s resting though at times he does wake up and mumble something incoherently, I figure its memories from different parts of his life which he mix into one sentence ‘’.

Faith nodded her agreement, though that would really depend on whatever he had said.

He asked Faith to take a seat. ‘’You have been on the ship for a long time and I know you and Cross are friends, at one point the Captain mistook Kate for the CMO and told her that she had once stolen a map, do you by any chance know if she really did? I’m only inquiring to get a better understanding about you’re uncle’s memory , he also asked whom he thought was Cross …something on the lines of does the Elder one reward you? Have you seen the Elder one? ‘’.

“I came aboard the Merrimack at the same time that the Captain did,” replied Faith, “so yes, quite a long time ago!” She had almost forgotten some of these things he’d mentioned.

Cross had arrived from the briefing ,as she was about to turn the corner to her office the doctor heard what Hunter was asking Faith .So decided to listen to their conversation out of sight for now.

Faith remembered that merchant’s map because she had been shopping with Cross at the time. For a while that was all going to turn nasty for Cross, until the map became valuable, then she was quickly forgiven. “The map… I think you should ask Cross about that. It’s really not my place… and not because she is a friend… Understand me, that has nothing to do with it! But yes, there was a map, he isn’t making that part up… And the Elders existed too, but that’s all part of the classified stuff. If you don’t know about the classified stuff, then you aren’t supposed to know. Look, I’m only a yeoman and I need to keep this job… for the moment anyway. You’ll need to ask someone else.” Faith thought about it for a while. “…You don’t get along with Joe, do you? Only he was the XO at the time. He might tell you as he isn’t in Starfleet any longer?”.

Hunter did not interrupt he just stood still listening.

“Anyhow, I think you are right that he is mixing up memories from different parts of his life,” Faith said, but there was more, and she wasn’t sure if she could tell Hunter this or not. The worm thing that took over the Captain’s brain had had access to a hive mind, and it had the thoughts of other people too. Some of what Glen had stored inside his head possibly wasn’t even his own memory. It would be much better if Doctor Cross were here, because she knew all about this already. The worm thing had also read her memories, and then there was all the despicable things done to her, which Faith couldn’t understand how she had got over. “That’s all I can tell you!”

‘’Thanks Faith for being honest with me ‘’ he replied ‘’Frankly I don’t care if she had stolen a map or a ship , at least now I know that the Captain is not just throwing things at random ‘’ Hunter wanted to know about the Elder but it seem the Yeoman was not about to divulge anything.

Cross had heard enough and walked into her office, the first thing she did was hug her friend ,then her gaze fell on Hunter ‘’ I met this being who called himself the ‘Elder’ when I left our group which I usually did back then, we talked for awhile though to be honest I have long forgotten what was said ‘’ the CMO took a deep breath ‘’What I do remember was when he said he had pets I told him I would like to see them, he nodded and called them and to my horror from behind the rocks came these slithering horrible looking worms ,after that I ran back to the group .....so the worm around the Captain must have been send by the ‘Elder’ and for what reason we still have no idea as to why and what it did to the Captain’‘.

Faith could barely remember those events either, and to be quite frank, she had tried to bury any memories as deep as she could.

Hunter then told her what the Captain had said, asking if the Elder one rewarded her and if she had seen the Elder one. Cross was taken by surprise ‘’No to both questions ,this happened a long time ago and all that is left is that the Captain suffers from these episodes ‘’ she went on ‘’ When we came back to Earth the Captain spoke wit Admiral Spoke and Sulu and they told him that what transpired would be classified. Few of the present crew know ,guess you can count them on your fingers, even the then Cmdr Kord is no longer on the Merrimack ‘’.

“Oh! Yes!” Faith remembered, “It was Commander Kord who was the XO back then. Joe Milligan was the COS. He didn’t become XO until after Kord had left. My memory is very poor and to tell the truth, I wish I could forget everything!”

With nothing else to go on with the male doctor showed Cross the brain scans ‘’Most of it does not even make sense ‘’ the CMO nodded ‘’ I need to conduct a more in-dept images ,maybe something, anything would eventually show up’‘.

Faith tired to see the images too, her interest being both from a medical and a personal standpoint. She sat back down again when Cross began her work.

Cross did not waste any time, after injecting a dye into Glen’s vein, she brought the medical equipment she needed. After the images were produced the CMO took them to her office to decode and analyze them. She did not pick what was there straight away and took time before the female doctor realized what was on the images , now more pronounced and recognizable by the dye and it all came down to a tiny egg-shaped powerhouse sitting inside the brain.
It’s called the hippocampus.

Decades before, scientists had found that this hippocampus sits dormant in the brains of 99% of people on Earth.
As long as the hippocampus is dormant, one can never reach the cognitive potential.
However, once its activated it, it emits a powerful brainwave from the brain.

Cross showed what she found with Hunter ‘’ And the question still remains, had it been active through out Glen’s life or was it the worm that activated it, somehow I believe its the latter ‘’ .With both arms resting on the desk and her body leaning towards him Cross spoke ‘’ You do know how much calories the brain needs to work and in this case the metabolism is much more faster, we need to pump up his body with a’ liquid diet’ .

Hunter did not need to be told twice ,he got up ‘’I’ll insert a central line now’’ .

“I’ll help you with that,” Faith said. “I’ll just get my scrubs on first!” She went away and quickly got changed.

• Faith, Yeoman