RP Log: Risky Medicine
| Roleplay Log | |
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Location(s):
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Stardate:
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| 2023-11-20 17:01 | |
- Sickbay <USS Hadfield NCC-98006>
- Sickbay aboard the vessel serves multiple functions, it is the trauma center, recovery room, and exam room. It can get a bit crowded when busy. This ward is capable of handling multiple injured personnel simultaneously, with the room separated into three sections, with a biobed in each. An alcove off to the side provides quick access to equipment and supplies needed for several types of emergencies. Subdued yet simple lighting emanates from both overhead and along the floor. The walls are of a dark titanium-colour, with the carpet a dark burgundy. A light pewter-coloured highlight runs up the bulkhead braces and along the edges of the carpet. Black, glossy panelling runs uninterrupted along the bulkheads at shoulder height near the entry door, allowing access to the LCARS interface, and tracers set into the bulkheads close to the ceiling indicate the current alert status.
Nolan is minding the Sickbay, doing his best to keep things tidied up.
T'Shaav enters sickbay. "Greetings, Doctor. I need your assistance, as I wrote you."
"Yes Commander, I've been working on that" Nolan replies, calling up a scan of his own brain. "Interesting that the blanking period seems to be affecting all of us quite similarly despite somewhat disperate physiologies and brain structure"
T'Shaav nods. "I want my memories recovered, Doctor. If it be possible, and I think it be."
"Ought be possible yes... Please, have a seat and we can have a look" Nolan says, removing a neuro-scanning aparatus from a nearby cabinet. "You know, this whole blank has made me quite nausious, trying to brute force remember it"
T'Shaav nods. "Proceed as you deem necessary, doctor."
Nolan secures the apparatus to the Vulcan and flicks it on. On the screen forward of them, a map begins to form of the Commander's brain. "Right, I've been thinking on this and I'd like to try an old technique to see if I can't figure out if there's a physical problem. Heatmapping. I want you to think of something, one particular memory you can picture very very clearly"
T'Shaav nods. Without describing the memory, or indeed, speaking at all, she focuses one one memory, one scene, recalling it in vivid, crisp, painstaking detail.
What looks like a lightning bolt streaks across the frontal lobe of the Commander's brain, bright against the rest of the scanned image. "Right, another, separate one please. This will help me know if we're calibrated correctly" Nolan requests
Without moving, T'Shaav turns her mind to a different chosen memory, different in character and from a different point in her life. Once again, she doesn't tell the doctor what it is.
Another line of bright light across the Vulcan equivelant to a cereberal cortex. "Right. That there would be your neurons connecting with electricity to recreate the memory" Nolan says, pointing to the screen. "Your memories are nothing more than little lightning strikes, following a path of preconditioned neurons that each remember a little bit of that memory. With that, if I understood your message about your mind meld, you've got a little scrap of some of the time we're missing, correct?"
T'Shaav nods. "I have some partial memories, yes," she says.
"So.. I would stand to guess that if we can partially access them, we can make an educated guess as to the areas wherein they reside and possibly recondition the neurons to reconnect" Nolan says. "Please, try to remember what you can"
T'Shaav turns her mind to one of the memory fragments. Not that Nolen would know it, but she is focusing in on Shulon's mission briefing. Yes, there was definitely a briefing. She was definitely there. But she cannot remember the details clearly.
There's a little pinprick of light out of the scan. It sparks a little, as though trying to arc to the next connection, but it can't quite make out where it ought go. It tries a few different other neurons but largely can't make the connection. "Another fragment, if you have one. All of them if you can" Nolan requests, highlighting the active node in the scan for reference.
With her usual Vulcan sticktoitness, the Vulcan goes through each memory fragment, focusing on what details she has.
More nodes light up one by one, isolated from the rest. They all try to reach out but fail to do so. Nolan highlights them one by one and marks down their attempted connections until the Vulcan finishes. By the time they're done, they do certainly appear to be closely related, but there's a fair few neurons inbetween them, making it quite hard to determine what the path should be. "Right, is that it Commander?" Nolan asks
"Yes. What caused this damage, Doctor?" The Vulcan asks tightly. "Telepathic intrusion? Is it still active? The crew has been reported being assaulted by feelings of dread. I infer these are powerful telepathic agencies."
"It's not out of play" Nolan says. "I'm looking for a more physical reaction though. I hate to say it but quantifying telepathic activity is a very tough thing to do, so I'm hoping I can find the symptoms and treat those if that's the case. Besides of which, I might suggest that it would take a lot of effort and focus to maintain an active telepathic link to all the crew to block out some very specific memories all the time. I'd like to think it might be a leave in place solution for whoever did this"
"Does that imply that it is revokable?" T'Shaav asks. "Or will we always be absent these memories? Can you do anything to reconstruct the, what is the word, the engrams?"
"In theory, yes. Think of an engram like rain on a window" Nolan says. "The drop on their own take their own path, but when they link up, they follow the same path. Your neurons just need to have a path of least resistance, in theory, the correct path for that memory to follow. Then they ought to go ahead. The tricky part here is getting them connected" The hybrid explains, pointing from point to point on the scanmap
T'Shaav nods. "I understand," she says. "How may we accomplish this?"
"Well..." Nolan says looking at the scanmap. "We extrapolate a most likely path for your neurons to connect... and then we entice them with electricity, lead them ahead so that all the pieces fall into place"
T'Shaav thinks about that, then nods. "Proceed," she says.
Nolan nods. "Commander, I have to warn you, obviously I'll give it my best go, but an errant jolt won't be good for you or your memories. You might lose something along the way. Are you willing to risk that?"
"Lose what?" T'Shaav inquires.
"Memories of home, of your childhood, of crewmembers and comrades" Nolan states plainly, letting the worst out front. "I don't want to have you risk that if you don't believe this is the only way we can find out what's happening"
"Something has robbed us of weeks worth of memories," the Vulcan says. "And they have tampered with our computer systems. We may not have technical means to discover why we are out here or where the Phoenix is. What is your medical opinion? You are the chief medical officer out here."
"My medical opinion is that it's possible" Nolan states. "And that I can perform this proceedure. I only wish to be upfront about the risk to my patient, irregardless of mission or your status as commander. You owe these people their lives, but you owe yourself yours as well. It's your choice sir"
T'Shaav considers it. "Proceed, Doctor," she says.
"Right then. Lie back for me, relax and think of nothing but that first fragment. Let's see where it goes" Nolan says, retrieving a stool for himself.
T'Shaav lays back, closing her eyes and relaxing her muscles. She hones in on the partially remembered briefing, seeing every detail she can see in her mind's eye, resisting the urge to fill in any blanks.
Nolan watches the screen intently as the node sparks again. He sets the computer about noting the aggregate average of the sparks to estimate the most likely path of neurons. After a few minutes, he hones in on one that reoccurs with regularity. "I think we might have our first jump. I'm going to try and coax it along with a targeted dose of electricity, similar to your brain's natural chemistry"
Her facial muscles contract a bit at the jolt. She reports, eyes closed, "I do not remember the fragment more clearly, but I do not think I have lost any memories, Doctor."
Nolan nods. "No news is good news, as good as it gets for that... I think your brain is trying to do something here" Nolan notes of the scan. That first neuron made a connection to a second which cascaded down quite a few of the brain cells. It certainly hasn't made a very complete line but at the end, there's more of that telltale sparking. More importantly, it does appear to be in the rough direction of the second fragment. Nolan watches and waits until a probable winner emerges from the brain's attempt at grasping at straws. "Right, I think we have a candidate for the next jump then..." Nolan says before applying the same treatment.
Her facial muscles contract again with the shock. "Ship, a ship," she says. "On long-range sensors. Captain SHulon could not spare the Phoenix to track it and make contact because they were in the midst of the work at Kuvassia. SO, he sent us. We must have been ordered to track that ship. To see where it was going?" The last is a question.
"You'll have to tell me, Commander," Nolan replies. "But that's a very strong connection you've just made. Your brain is starting to piece things together, the guesses it's making are stronger, more focused" He speaks, referring to the sparks coming off the last neuron. "From here on, it should be more reliable when I make a connection. I've got the next candidate ready" the Doctor states, going ahead.
T'Shaav gasps slightly, her whole body contracting. "That was painful," she gets out.
Nolan recoils, himself. He does his best not to let nervousness slip into his voice. "Commander, it might not be wise to continue" He speaks honestly. "Your brain is rejecting the treatment, it would be much more hostile to another wayward attempt. I can predict, but I can't guarantee the path..."
T'Shaav shakes her head slowly, eyes still closed. "You have done well, Doctor. We have information we did not have before. I thank you for the effort. But I agree with your risk assessment."
"Right... I invite you to rest Commander" Nolan says, removing the neural aparatus and switching over to more general statistics. "That took a lot out of you, your heart rate is elevated. Please, I recommend quarters for the rest of this cycle"
T'Shaav nods and stands. "Thank you, doctor. I do not recommend offering the procedure to others given the risk. But I will put you in for a commendation." Then she adds, "if I remember to do so." A joke? She doesn't say. She just heads out.
"You could just as soon not, sir" Nolan sighs. "I'll be happy with your good health"