SIM:German Galven - Rude Awakening

(( CMO’s Office, USS Montreal ))

:: Chythar sat staring at the scans which had been done on German and ran his hands along his face in mild frustration. There wasn’t anything he could really do, and this was more Lael’s expertise than his. He hoped she had gotten his message that her knowledge would be required, but he was very vague as he didn’t like giving details over text. A thermos of raktajino rested on his desk, and two mugs. ::

:: The door was opened, and in stepped Lael Rosek, gracing his presence. He poured some of the strong Klingon coffee into the mug across from him, then into his own mug. ::

Skyfire: Come on in, doctor. Have a seat, and some raktajino. We’re going to need it.

::Having spent the most of the last several hours convinced that German was dead, it was a relief and a burden to hear he wasn’t. Though her first reaction had been overwhelming joy, it had been closely followed by a second emotion that she was intimately familiar with...anger. It wasn’t in the least bit reasonable considering that German hadn’t asked to be infected by the virus and she was fairly certain hadn’t done anything stupid to become infected by it. But the anger was there nonetheless.::

::The moment that she’d gotten Chythar’s message, she’d wrapped things up as quickly as she could in Engineering and headed toward Sickbay to talk to Chythar about the rather cryptic message he’d sent. By the way he addressed her as she entered, she had the feeling he was in need of her engineering expertise. What could that possibly have to do with the plague?::

Rosek: ::arches an eyebrow and slides into the chair in front of his desk:: Care to enlighten me as to why I’m here when I should be helping with repairs down in Engineering?

Skyfire: I found something on Lt. Galven’s bioscans that I’ve never seen before, but it looks remarkably suspect like something out of my Borg systems extension class. I was wondering if you would be willing to take a look and see if you can help me figure out how to...remove it, I guess. :: He hands over a PADD containing the tricorder results, followed by subsequent pictures of the bloodstream with some sort of nanites in it. :: I’m not entirely sure what these are, but the rupture in his EVA suit and his infection must’ve caused these to activate.

::Lael tensed at the mention of Borg nanites. She herself used them to keep herself mobile. Hearing of them in German’s bloodstream...it made no sense. Unless he’d done something reckless at some point, which wouldn’t surprise her. He hadn’t always made the wisest decisions, especially if it had anything to do with his sister Arlil, which she suspected this did.::

Rosek: What the hell is German doing with nanites in his bloodstream? 

Skyfire: I don’t know. :: He paused. :: I was sort of hoping you could tell me. Did you get around to reading the report from our capturing the Borg drone on the Veritas? Who, or what, is Arlil?

Rosek: ::grimaces:: His sister. She was taken by the Borg.

Skyfire: In that case, do you think there’s a connection between whatever the hell happened when his device exploded and these nanites?

Rosek: ::shakes her head:: I don’t know. That’s something I intend to ask German once we wake him up. oO If we can wake him up. Oo

:: Chythar had a sip of his raktajino and sat in silence for a few moments. He had half a mind to ask if she had any suggestions on removing the tech, but on the other hand there was that sense of doubt in the back of his mind that his Lazarus license, as he termed it, was going to expire soon because the captain saw him freeze. He swallowed the coffee before speaking again. ::

Skyfire: I have never actually removed nanites from someone before, so I don’t have any idea what I’m doing. I figured with your expertise, you might have some guesses how we can de-Borg him. 

Rosek: I would think it’s similar to any other surgery once I can deactivate them. All I have to do is find the right coding to do that...in essence, reprogram them.

Skyfire: Be my guest. 

::Lael studied the PADD, her brow furrowing as she studied the nanites. It would take a couple of days, but the coding was relatively simple. She shouldn’t have an issue cracking it. Though she was fairly certain if German didn’t succumb to the virus, she was going to seriously have to restrain herself from kicking his @$$.::

:: Chythar had another sip of his coffee and sat back in his chair, fighting the impulse to run his hands along his face. He had been dealing with...stress...since he froze. And what’s worse, Mei’konda and his whole department saw him freeze. His confidence in himself was somewhat shattered, and he had to at least give her something so she knew it wouldn’t come out of the blue, when the letter he had halfway finished finally appeared on her desk. He was still writing it, but owed an apology nevertheless. ::

Skyfire: I...I’m sorry, Lael...about...all of it.

Rosek: ::looks up from the PADD and her brow furrows:: All of what?

Skyfire: This… :: He nodded to the PADD. :: ...German, the coma, the coffee… Just...all of it. 

Rosek: ::expression softens:: ~Hey. It’s okay. This last mission was hard on everyone. We all did our best.~

Skyfire: ~I...I don’t think you understand my meaning… I froze. Mei’konda, Solok, Bee, and Femi saw me freeze when he collapsed…~

::She understood Chythar better than most and knew he was his own harshest critic. If he made the slightest mistake, he’d spend forever beating himself up over it. He was an excellent doctor and a strong officer, but his own doubts were his worst enemy and had a power over him that, despite their connection, she’d never fully understand. She battled her own doubts, but she never let them define her or stop her from doing something that she wanted or needed to do. Her gaze dropped to the PADD in her hands.::

Rosek: ::nods:: ~I’m sorry, Chythar. I know that you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately.~ ::pauses:: ~I don’t know if it’ll make you feel any better, but I did, too. On the bridge when Lenik threatened to target the warp core...to blow us all to kingdom come. I hesitated and he saw my fear when that wretched woman told me that German had succumbed to the plague.~

Skyfire: ~What can I do to help?~ :: nodding at the PADD in her hand. ::

Rosek: ::pauses:: I’ll need to study this coding, but maybe you should start looking up minimally invasive procedures to remove nanites...and determining if we can remove them without causing unnecessary damage.

:: The truth was, he preferred his raktajino warm. The instant he let it go cold from neglect, it wasn’t a proper raktajino. He knew that if he started researching while his drink was warm, he’d get absorbed in the research and knew that he’d forget about it. As he had done so many times during his internship, the instant he had a hot drink in his hand, it was best to consume it while it was warm. ::

Skyfire: I’ll get right on that. oO Right after this cup. Oo

::Lael sat back in the chair and started to work on the coding. She could have easily done it in her office, but something about Chythar’s presence was soothing. This was likely going to be a long couple of days and a familiar face would go a long way to keeping her calm.::

:: CD sipped the remainder of his drink for the next ten minutes, then his cup was empty. At that point, he set it back on the desk and began researching the procedures as she requested. He had a sense this was likely going to be his last patient. ::

((Sickbay, USS Montreal))

((Time Index: Two Days Later…))

::German was in a deep sleep. The past two days, he was in a rather strange dreamstate. There he was talking with his sister in the Unimatrix and walking around getting acquainted with some of the other people as they came in and out of their conscience realities.::

::Then a few hours ago, everything vanished. He had slipped into only nothing. It was hard for him to accept that now Arlil and everything he had been learning about was gone, but then heard voices in his head as he started to regain a sense of reality.::

:: Chythar and Lael stood next to German, and the hypospray with the cure in it was injected after they’d discovered and proven that it worked. So the next phase was deactivating the nanites and bringing him out of the coma. Skyfire had asked Rosek down here to administer the reprogramming, and would probably need to supervise as he came out of the coma just to ensure that there wasn’t any violence within his sickbay. ::

Rosek: How long will it take? For him to wake up?

Skyfire: I’m not exactly sure. It depends on how his body responds to the nanite solution, I guess. 

::Lael didn’t want to admit that she’d been doing research on Denobulans in an effort to better understand the complications that it would present in starting a family with German. It just so happened that the research she’d been doing had led to her coming across writings about Denobulan hibernation. She’d read about cases where Denobulans who needed to be woken up before their hibernation was complete required a rather sharp slap to rouse them.::

:: CD took a few calming breaths and tried to shake his doubts from his mind. There just wasn’t a way to do it without Lael picking up on it, but on the other hand he could almost hear the gears in her head clicking. ::

Skyfire: ~You’re broadcasting rather loudly, Lael.~ 

Rosek: ::sighs:: ~This whole situation has just been an emotional rollercoaster. I nearly lost it on the bridge. It took everything I had to hold it together.~ ::runs her hands through her hair:: ~I guess my mental shields are weaker than usual.~

:: Chythar nodded grimly. He didn’t want himself to dig up the memories about what happened when German collapsed. His letter of intent to leave was half written on his desk in his office, and he didn’t know how Lael would take it. But, the longer they stalled on the treatment, the more time it gave the Borg stuff in his system to finish attempting to assimilate him. ::

Skyfire: ~Go ahead and make the injection with the nanite deactivation thingie, please.~

::She sombered as she felt the tendrils of Chythar’s thoughts and emotions brushing against her mental shields. This mission had been just as hard on him as it had been on her and the stress was getting to them both. Once things had settled down, maybe they’d take a bottle of brandy to Skyfire Beach for some no-strings best friend time...talk about anything but this damned mission. She took the hypo and then laid her free hand on his shoulder squeezing tightly as she tried her best to broadcast calm.::

::After a couple of moments, she turned to German and took a deep breath before pressing the hypo to the side of his neck, hearing it hiss as the contents entered his bloodstream.::

::It was then that German could pick up who the voices belonged to. Although, he couldn't figure out where he was. His surroundings were still nothingness, but then there was a faded sort of white light coming through. He mumbled some incoherent words as he grimaced. There was some kind of consciousness coming in, but still was in some form of sleep as he turned his head slightly.::

::Thankfully, he appeared to be coming to. Lael had been afraid it would take days to rouse him. Maybe his Denobulan physiology had protected him in a way, treating it like a sort of hibernation to slow his bodily functions and thus slow the progress of the disease. Either way, she’d never been more grateful to be wrong about something.::

::As she studied his groggy form, a mess of emotions slammed into her at once and she wasn’t sure what to feel. Her lips formed a thin line as she forced all emotion away, her mind going instantly into first officer mode. He was one of her crew and she had a vested interest in his safety. She needed to compartmentalize. She couldn’t deal with the other feelings right now.::

Rosek: Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Galven.

::That voice. As his body started to wake up from its impromptu hibernation mode, he tried his best to open his eyes. One could see his eyeballs rolling under his eyelids as he shook his head and lazily tried bringing his arm up to brush his face. Once out of his deep sleep, he yawned. One eye opened and there was a fuzzy image of someone above him. He brought his hand up to scratch it, then his other eye started to open.::

::It was Lael.::

Galven: ::yawns again and mumbles:: Where...Arum'nia...bak. Err… 

:: Chythar blinked slightly for a few moments before glancing over at Lael. :: 

Skyfire: Should I leave you two alone to have one of those first officery conversations? 

Rosek: ::shakes her head:: That won’t be necessary, Doctor. How long do you anticipate Mr. Galven being your guest here in Sickbay?

Skyfire: Until he regains coherence, likely. Now that he’s conscious, I would like to run a few more scans to make sure he’s fine.

Rosek: ::nods:: Fair enough. Whatever was in the inoculation must have been very effective to have him restored to consciousness so quickly.

Galven: ::shakes head groggily:: I'm..er..fine now Captain..derrr… set warp to Romulus!

Rosek: ::shakes her head and turns to Skyfire:: Keep me updated, Doctor. 

::With this, she turned on her heel and strode toward the door without another word. She had to get back to her quarters. It was the only place that felt safe right now. Her hands shook even as she clasped them together behind her back. It was taking an extraordinary amount of effort to keep her breathing calm and even. Even her knees threatened to rebel with each step she took down the corridor toward the turbolift. She was falling apart emotionally and refused to let anyone else witness it. Once the doors of her quarters had closed behind her, she stumbled toward her bed and let loose the choked sobs that she’d been containing for the last several hours, overwhelmed. He was alive. He was safe.::

:: Chythar ran a hand along his face. He wasn’t as versed in Denobulan physiology as he would’ve liked, but grabbed a PADD and a chair and started reading. He was going to look that up as Galven came more into his senses, because there were still scans to run and the question of what the hell he was doing with Borg nanotech in his system. If there was cause for him to see the counselor, he’d put in a strong recommendation for it. ::

::German started to become more aware of his surroundings and his eyes started to see clearer. He tried to sit up, but was having a bit of an issue. He glanced around the room and saw that Chythar was sitting in his chair.::

Galven: You’re not Lael. I thought I heard her.

Skyfire: You did. She was here, and has left. 

Galven: I see. ::rubs the back of his head:: What happened? I::beat::are we still trying to find the cure?

Skyfire: No. :: He sets down the PADD and glances up at German. :: We’re heading on a pursuit course to track Lenik’s ship. Meridian’s outbreak has been solved by the combined efforts of our medical and science teams. You became infected through a rupture in your suit, and for whatever reason that plus the medically induced coma put you into a hibernation state to slow the progression. 

::That certainly put him up to speed, but he would most likely see more in the mission reports from those in his department. A ruptured suit. His memory was coming back to him as he recalled looking down right before he fell.::

Galven: I guess a coma would do the trick. ::tries sitting up:: How long do you think it’ll be before I can get up?

:: The eagerness in the lieutenant’s voice to resume his duties was admirable, though there were a few questions that were burning in Chythar’s mind: such as what the hell he was doing with Borg nanites  in his system and what stupidity motivated him to do it. Though the motivation had already been answered, it still didn’t explain why he had them in the first place. ::

Skyfire: I need to run at least one more test, then ask you a question or two, if you’re up for it. 

Galven: Sure sounds like a medical exam. Is there anything else wrong with me?

Skyfire: Not sure yet. Won’t know till after I give you a full body scan to make sure we got the last of the nanites out of your system. 

::Somehow that made German sit right up. Nanites? He hadn’t dealt with anything like that since before the Academy about six or seven years ago. He was sure that they had taken them all out after… That’s when it hit him.::

Galven: So is that why I was in the Unimatrix? I was wondering how that happened.

:: CD shrugged in somewhat cluelessness. He wasn’t entirely sure what German was talking about, so had to stick with what he knew. At least, medical jargon seemed to come easier to him when he wasn’t in the middle of a crisis. :: 

Skyfire: I can’t say for sure. What I can tell you is that when Rilaw injected you with the virus, it activated the Borg nanoprobes in your system, which was beginning to degrade your neural pathways faster than the pathogen was spreading. As such, the coma was the only way to slow the process and give us time to find the cure. Now my turn: why did you think injecting yourself with nanoprobes was the best way to find your sister?

::The blunt question came out of nowhere and he wondered how he could possibly know about his sister. Then he remembered that Lael had been in the room as well as he was there after the Borg event on the Veritas when he came back from leave and told him that he wouldn’t be able to see Three of Ten because of his brash behavior. He shifted a little and began to speak.::

Galven: ::sighs:: Before Starfleet, I thought I could save her by finding her somewhere in the Hive Mind. Although, I didn’t inject myself. There was someone else that made the nanites and then put them in and before they left, I thought she got rid of them all. 

Skyfire: No more experiments like that, alright? Next time we might not be able to reverse it. 

Galven: ::nods:: Yes, sir. Should we get the body scan over with just make sure?

:: Skyfire nods and brings Galven to the imaging chamber. Once the scan is complete, Chythar is staring at the results as the Denobulan officer sits up. ::

Skyfire: I’m not seeing any more in your system. 

::Once German was sitting up right, he held out his hand for the doctor to grab and he hoisted himself up from the bed. His legs weren’t doing him an favors so he held onto the doctor’s shoulder and once he was able to regain some sort of balance, he took his hand off of him.::

Galven: Sorry about that. Needed to get the feeling back into my legs. 

Skyfire: I would strongly advise crutches for the next week or so as we get you put through a bit of rehab. According to Ms. Padix, you also suffered a heart attack. 

::Momentarily thrown, he had to sit back down and think about what Chythar had just said. A heart attack too? He was too young to have one of those. He sat there wondering how that would affect him for the rest of his life.::

Galven: How does my heart look now? Will there be anything permanent? 

:: Another look at the scans confirmed there was no permanent damage or scarring. ::

Skyfire: You’re fine, apart from needing a few rehab sessions to regain your mobility. We should have you back to normal in a week or so if you stick with it and don’t try to duck out.

Galven: What about water rehab? Can I do that in the swimming pool?

Skyfire: I don’t see a reason why not. 

::He stood back up and then grabbed the crutches from the storage closet. He had a lot to think about considering the conversation he just had. Plus being on crutches wasn’t the most ideal as he arched a sarcastic eyebrow at the doctor. He tried to straighten himself to the best of his ability and turned to him.::

Galven: So can I leave now?

Skyfire: Light duty for the next two weeks until your rehab is finished, and follow ups will occur every two days to check your progress. Questions?

::German shook his head and then proceeded to turn, then walked out of Sickbay. He was getting frustrated with how he was always in some sort of peril during a mission. He might have to go vent this all out with the counselor, but for right now he wanted to go to the swimming pool. Well, most likely the Officer’s Lounge first. He stopped midway between the turbolift and Sickbay. He had to go to his office. There was most likely a mountain of paperwork that needed to be filled out. So he made a list of things to do: Office, Lounge, Pool. Not in that order.::

:: As German left, Chythar grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew this was going to be one of his more stubborn patients, but he didn’t care. He was done with being in charge. As he strode toward his office, he tapped his badge. ::

Skyfire: =/\= Skyfire to Rosek. =/\=

Rosek: =/\= Rosek. Go ahead, Doctor.=/\=

Skyfire: =/\= Lt. Galven has been discharged from sickbay. Light duty for two weeks. If he sticks to his rehab, I expect a full recovery by then. =/\=

Rosek: =/\=Noted. Rosek out.=/\=

:: Once the comm line shuts, he enters his office and takes a seat behind the desk, pulling out a PADD. ::