RP Log: In Quest of Answers, Part I

Roleplay Log
Participants: Sawyer	Coil
Location(s): Recovery Ward -- USS Buran
Stardate: 123364.8
2022-08-17 22:41

Recovery Ward -- USS Buran NX-96400

The recovery ward is exactly that, a recovery area for patients that may require extra watching after a delicate surgery. The ward is divided into several alcoves, each of which has diagnostic equipment and a bed for a recovering patient. A nurse's station is at the fore of the alcoves, where doctors and nurses can discuss patient needs. The decor is an off-white bordering on pink, something light and relaxing while patients recover.

Coil is laying on the biobed, continuing his reading on a padd.

Sawyer is brought in by a slightly fluttering nurse. "And recovery is this way sir." "I know it I know it. Seen one sickbay seen em all. Kellen!" He exclaims more loudly. "Dammit, you know how to send dramatic notes to people, don't ya. Were you a theater critic one time?"

Coil chuckles and shakes his head, "A novelist and poet, Doc. Surely my note didn't drag you and the Phoenix from your patrol."

"Too damned right it did," he says. "Well, and a call from Nolan askin' for help. I told him." he sighs. "I told him I'd do what I could. All I can ever promise. But I explained it to Ki'vek and well ... you know Ki'vek. She asked her questions, and then damn if she didn't bring the whole boat here. We're on the other docking ring."

Coil nods and gestures to the uplink set up next to his bed, "I was watching. I still have a duty to figure out how to free the prisoners on Volan and destroy the system allowing the cloaks to operate."

Sawyer nods. "You work that brain of yours," he agrees. "Speaking of." He studies the readings for a long minute. "Hmmm." He considers. "Can ya tell me as best you know, what particularly was it that caused the injury to Coil?

Kellen the hoast seems shipshape. But I need to understand the type of physical damage I'm seein' here. So I need a little info about how it occurred."

Coil sighs deeply and sets the padd aside, "When I was kidnapped, I was deprived of food and water. First by the farmers on Orias III, then by Dal Rijett on Volan III. That was at least a week, maybe longer, that I was deprived. Unlike when we were crash landed and I could trust all of you to make sure Coil was safe if I starved to death, the only result of starving to death on Volan was my death. So I drew on Coil's strength to gain moments of lucidity, especially when I escaped with Doctor Ronukk and the prisoners that would fit on Prosperity."

Sawyer cups his chin in his hand. "Drew on Coil's strength. What does that mean. In biological terms?" Coil shrugs, "I was never a medical professional, so I can't tell you the details. But our biologies are melded together, the symbiont draws strength and energy from the Host. Normally that's the only way, since the symbiont's life comes first. I did the opposite."

"You drew on the symbiont, depleted its energy, rather than the other way round. And if ya hadn't have done that, you'd both be dead right now," Sawyer reasons.

Coil nods slowly, "If not dead, then nearly so. Or subject of Cardassian experiments, which may have resulted in the death of Host and/or symbiont."

"So if Coil, and incidentally Kellen, or Kellen, and hence Coil, would have died without ya doing what ya did, then doing what ya did was the only way to save Coil. That's logic you don't even have to be a Vulcan to understand," Sawyer offers.

"There are no witnesses to everything that I went through," Kellen notes. "The Commission sees it as intentional harming of the symbiont, of which my Mother has been pushing for the ultimate punishment of removing the symbiont from any host who puts the symbiont at risk. No matter the circumstances. And guess which person in the Commission is overseeing this?"

"Your mom. Nolan told me." He frowns. "SO your mother wants her own son put to death?"

Coil nods, "A punishment must be fair to all. And sadly, Monx has never gone through a life where it's been put in harms way. Mom is the third Host and none left Trill aside from pleasure trips. I've been through more trying times with Mara and especially Darias."

The doctor sighs. "Ok. Ok, alright. critiquing Trill politics won't solve this mess." He seems to be talking to himself more than you. "Computer. Run a submolecular scan on the bioneural interlinkage points between the Coil symbiont and the Kellen hoast. Give me a side by side with the interlink readings taken from his intake physical from when he first came aboard this ship." He smiles and adds to you. "Let's do a little research and find out just where the shit's gone wrong."

Coil shrugs, "Where it's gone wrong is no one's had reason to do this in generations. It's one of the things we were warned about." He sighs, "I don't know why my energy isn't being replenished and as Nolan's already pointed out, the people who can best help are the people who are least likely to help at this time."

"Computer, focused neural scan of the Coil symbiant," he says next. "Let's see if any of Coil's nervous capacities are damaged." He looks to you. "What's the first biological imperative of any organism?" He quizzes, half smiling.

Coil chuckles, "Reproduction, or rather survival long enough to reproduce. Biology 101. And simple biology doesn't apply as I've been married for decades now, and no children. Plus we have a different imperative when we're Joined."

"You're almost right," Sawyer says. "Survival. SImple survival. Nothing, left to its own biological imperatives, wants to die. It's a rare organism that instinctively seeks its own death. Survival. Explains everything from Klingons and their redundant body systems, to the Vulcan healing trance, to the human body's ability to metabolize itself, fat anyway, when starved for neutrients, and Coil here. Coil wants to survive."

Coil shakes his head, "Survival isn't a biological strategy. Reproduction is, and through that survival long enough to reproduce. It's one of the ways that mutations are kept in check, as a mutation that affects the ability to reproduce will ensure that mutation won't be passed on."

"Well I'll give you reproduction as a key strategy. But the imperative, the overarching reason behind the strategy, is survival," the doctor argues. He grins. "ALright now. COmputer, spool up a graph showing osmotic absorption rates by the symbiont over the past 7 days. Compare with osmotic patterns from last standard physical."

Coil chuckles, "I think you just are trying to get me to debate this point, Doc. Nature doesn't support self centered strategies such as survival of the individual at the expense of everything. That's why the survival imperative is so closely tied to reproduction and so many species die as, if not before, their children are born."

"Looks like I succeeded," Sawyer says. "Thing is, once there's a species, that species has individuals, and those individuals have innate survival instincts towards self-preservation which, taken as a whole, perpetuate the species, QED." He harumphs. "C'mon, dammit, spit it out," he tells the computer. "Workin' on perpetuating your lifespan," he grouses.

Coil shrugs and notes, "We don't know much about the lifespan of the symbionts or even their reproductive strategies." He says thoughtfully, "Maybe the reproductive imperative doesn't apply, which is why we have a different view on biological imperatives."

"What made your people start joining, anyway? I mean, at some point in Trill history, someone had to go, eh, this here seems like a good idea. Let's link up with these creatures. Do the historians on your world know?"

Coil thinks about it for a long while, "There are many legends, but what is the truth is hard to say. The Commission probably have records of the first documented Joinings. Most of the legends revolve around wise men who go into seclusion and return to civilization with the wisdom of the ages. Thankfully whatever the origin, the people of the time realized that there could be pitfalls and took steps to establish the traditions that we still uphold now."

Sawyer nods slowly. "Mmmhmmm," he says. A long beat. "Alright, Kellen, it's gonna take the computers a while to run the scans I've asked for and tabulate the data into something sensible. I'll just crash out on a free bed here in sickbay. I'm staying here until we figure somethin' out. I'll see Nolan when he wakes up and we're gonna do what we can, K?"

Coil nods to the other bed where Ronukk is either sleeping or working, "You'll have to find a different ward, Doc. Doctor Ronukk's been assigned as my roommate currently."

Sawyer nods. "I'll do that. Now you enjoy your readin'," he says. Clapping the Trill lightly on the shoulder, he heads out to go find a bed someplace else.