Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in So… This Is It

Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in So… This Is It

Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in So… This Is It
Posted by… suppressed (32) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Sisnil nodded. “I don’t know either. The antidote isn’t something you generally come across outside of high quality hospitals and medical labs.”

~ Zoi

“No, it’s not. And the poison isn’t exactly something you see in polite society,” Dradvia said. “Are you still cold?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Yes. Like I’m standing outside in a blizzard in my birthday suit.” Sisnil answered. “It’s not something the Syndicate even regularly uses. Partly due to difficulty in getting it, but still.”

~ Zoi

“Then it wasn’t a common thief,” Dradvia already knew that, and so did Sisnil. So who and why did someone do that. The Syndicate? Did they think he had betrayed them? She turned the temperature up on the bed slightly. She reached into the cabinet under the biobed and pulled out a pair of socks. She moved to the end of the bed, moved the blanket, and slipped them onto his feet before covering him back up. “Let me know if that doesn’t help.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“It feels like it’s lined with nails, but it’s warm.” Sisnil said. He shook his head to answer her comment. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t even think they expected us to believe that.”

~ Zoi

“Probably not, but then who hired him?” Dradvia wasn’t aware of what the man said to Sisnil, but she did know that his life meant he had enemies. “I’m sorry I can’t make the pain stop completely.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil remembered most of it, but he couldn’t make any sense of it right now. “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.” He smiled at her. “You’re doing everything possible.”

~ Zoi

“I’m trying. Dr. Tessan might have some better ideas, but I know you don’t want Tessan.” It was another 15 minutes before she could give him more pain medication. With everything else in his system, she didn’t dare give it to him early.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil read her thoughts. “Come on, Dee, what’s the worst that could happen?” Sisnil said and smiled.

~ Zoi

“You could die.” The fear was so obvious he didn’t need to be an empathic. “Echtallin reacts lethally with everything, even the antidote, which is why you have to take so many doses over so many days.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Oh.” Sisnil hadn’t expected that. “So how do the pain meds, whatever else, and the sedative work then? Without fatal interaction?”

~ Zoi

“The pain meds break down the chemical signals being sent through your neurons that tells your brain you are in pain. So the more you move and fight, the faster the medicine gets used up. The new broken down chemicals can cause all the impulse signals to break down if it builds up in your system, which is why the timing and dosage has to be so precise.”

“The Bromocriptine is a beta blocker. It is what is helping your body regulate your temperature and autonomic systems. Beta blockers stop or slow the production of hormones. In this case the ones telling you, you are too hot or too cold.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

The sedative was similar reasoning. The poison prevented the brain from taking up chemicals that made someone feel tired, while also having stimulant effects that made it impossible to sleep. The sedative used a different way to put him out, but when it broke down it reacted with the poison in a way that could accelerate its effects.

Sisnil nodded as she explained. “Tell me, Dee… How likely is it I survive this?”

~ Zoi

Dradvia didn’t know. She hadn’t looked at that part; she couldn’t. She was already emotionally compromised in his care. She picked up her PaDD and read through the file.

Sighing heavily, “65%. Of the 35%, 80% did not begin treatment for the echtallin poisoning until day 3 of exposure. The earlier treatment starts the higher the rate of survival. None of the recorded cases have been treated as early as you are. So that increases your chances.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil grinned, “See? Told you I was fine. Aren’t you glad you looked that up?”

~ Zoi

A small smile teased the corner of her lips and she shook her head, “You’re always right, of course.” No she wasn’t glad, but she wouldn’t acknowledged that to herself so Sisnil wouldn’t pick up on it either. “Knowing you, you’ll just charm the poison out of your system.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Of course I will,” Sisnil said, “What have I been trying to tell you?” He said and grinned. His charms and smiled didn’t last long though, before long he seemed less high in spirits.

~ Zoi

His grin made Dradvia’s stomach flutter. He was incorrigible and irresistible. She thought so anyway. About the time his smile faded the alarm on her PaDD went off again. She walked across the bay to a cabinet, input a code, and then pulled out a vial. She tapped something onto a data PaDD attached inside the door and then locked the cabinet back.

“Time for pain medicine.” She set the hypo to his neck and pressed. “Give it a few minutes and the pain should start easing.” Another beep sounded from his otherside. A nurse came over with another bag of fluids and dradvia replaced the empty one on his infusion unit. “The extra fluids will help flush the everything out of your system.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“It’s… I mean, the pain is bad, but Dee, I’m just nauseous.” Sisnil said, looking up at her. He glanced at the infusion unit, he hadn’t even realized he had one. It was a show of trust in Dee that he just closed his eyes and nodded.

~ Zoi

She finished making notes on her PaDD and then flipped back to the notes about treating the poison. “I can give you Emetrol. It works by coating the stomach lining and reducing stomach contractions. So it won’t interfere with anything else I’m giving you. There are no drug interactions or side effects.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “Okay. I don’t wanna throw up. That sounds… Unpleasant right now.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia went back to the same cabinet and returned with another vial. She loaded it into the hypo. She walked around to his otherside and administered it on the opposite side of his neck. Just to give the other spot a break. “That should start working quickly.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded again. “I miss Noril, Dee. He… He and I, we’d share the pain. All of it. It made it easier to bear.” He popped an eye open and looked at her, “and before you offer, no, I won’t do that to you.”

~ Zoi

“If it would help, I’d do that for you.” There was no point in pushing. He wouldn’t do it, but she would do that for him. She’d endured agonizing pain, so she could take some of it for him. “I wish I could bring him here for you. I wish there was a way. If it would help, I can ask Morris to let me.” She held his hand. “We’ll try again.” What she didn’t say was to get him back to Noril. Dradvia didn’t think he should try reaching Noril through the Syndicate again.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“You endured pain at the hands of cruel people, Dee, but I can’t do that to you. Not willingly.” There was that intense stare of his again. “You think the Syndicate is behind this.” He stated, frowning.

~ Zoi

He was sick and dying (okay so she was doing everything to save him, but he wasn’t on the positive side yet), and he was thinking about her and her care. It made her feel cherished, cared for. She met that gaze of his. “I don’t know, but it would stand to reason that their communications aren’t secure. Sisnil, this poison is rare and hard to get. It has to be sought out, and you said it’s not cheap. This poison isn’t used by common criminals. The wound was viscous. You weren’t stabbed by a mugging gone wrong, they wanted to make sure you bled out. You were their target. They knew you would be there.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“No one knew I was going to be there, except one person, and we’ve had each others’ backs for years,” Sisnil said, but there was a note of uncertainty in his voice. She could see a spike in anxiety based on his vital readings. He was obviously thinking, and it was scaring him. “He put me in a chokehold, Dee, he… I never saw a face… Never saw him coming. No one knew.”

He’d been afraid before, but he’d never had a panic attack and that was where he was headed. And it hurt. But if the Syndicate was involved, then he could never see Noril again. Never. Not Noril, not Vash, not his ship nor his crew. His life as he knew it would be over. Not only that, once the Syndicate was done with someone, they never stopped hunting them. Sisnil knew, he’d done it for them. Dragged ex-Syndicate members back, kicking and screaming.

~ Zoi

“Calm down. Deep breath. All we know for sure is their comms were compromised somewhere along the way. Until we know it is better to not assume.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil took a deep breath, but it did little to help his anxious vitals or calm him. “My encryption is rock solid, Dee. No one reads my messages that isn’t intended to. It had to be. To protect you and Noril.” He tried to sit up, but the force field was still over his lower abdoment and his legs. “Anything I send Noril can’t be opened by my Syndicate contact, and anything I send my contact can only be read by her.” He looked at her, he wouldn’t normally go there, but he was scared, “What if it were Kryssa? What if she were at risk?”

~ Zoi

Dradvia set a hand on his shoulder. “I would be scared too. But come on Sisnil, no encryption is foolproof. Your whole career is bases on that. Maybe they didn’t breach it, maybe they just recognized your coding. It’s kind of like a finger print, right? They could trace the signal. Maybe they were watching your contact because they know she’s associated with her. Maybe she slipped up and said something.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be worried, but until you investigate more, don’t come up with disasters.” She held his hand again, “Isn’t that what you tell me?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“It is, but they couldn’t trace the signal, I made sure of that. I don’t know, Dee,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I’m a danger to him. If… if this plot had succeeded he’d be safe.”

~ Zoi

“Well,” Dradvia took a deep breath, “We let them think you died. I’m sure Morris is willing to engage in some misdirection. After we will find a way to let Noril know the truth.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Then get me a PaDD, I need to falsify records, set up a report, put out a press release of a body found, station security reports.” Sisnil rattled off.

~ Zoi

“Okay, but you have to promise to wait to ‘publish’ it until Morris comes back. He needs to know for when people come asking,” Dradvia said. She ended up having to get a nurse to go get one m, so she didn’t have to leave him alone in Sickbay. In the meantime she commed Cmdr Morris to come back to sickbay.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Okay. And Dee? Not even Starfleet can know. Trust me. The Syndicate has Starfleet moles.” Sisnil said. He took a few more deep breaths but it wasn’t really helping. “Don’t even think about getting me with the sedative.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia gave him that look. “I won’t, yet. But if you don’t calm down, I won’t have a choice. I’ll do it, even if you get upset with me.”

“As for the other, that is between you and Morris.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil shook his head, “I can’t, Dee, I’ll sleep for hours and we need to do this now. I should’ve done it right after it happened, but I didn’t know.”

~ Zoi

“Sisnil,” Dradvia sat and held his gaze. “You weren’t coherent enough then. And reality, based on what I read and what I know of the poison, we could say it was 3 or 4 days before you died. The investigation was kept quiet because of the violence but now it’s murder.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Okay,” he said. He was clearly not on his best game now. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Where is that PaDD?” It wasn’t said rudely, but from a place of fear.

~ Zoi

The nurse came up just then with it. She handed it to Dradvia and moved away. “Right here.” She gave it to him. Everything he did would have to be double checked. He wasn’t capable of higher level thinking at the moment. Too much pain, the poison, and panic.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer