Tell Me Where It Hurts

Posted on Wed Nov 21st, 2012 @ 10:14am by Mallory (Jade) & Lieutenant Commander Terrell Kona & Lieutenant Norval Tigan

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: C.H. Mayo Medical Station
Timeline: After 'Panty Raid' & before 'Too Close To Home'

****** Turbolift | En Route to Sickbay ******

In the turbolift on the way up from the Cherry Pit, Ensign Carter called ahead to Piper Medical Center, where the CMO, Dr. Harding, worked out of most of the time. It was a good thing he made the call, as the man was unavailable.

=/\= I’m sorry, Ensign, but you can take the patient to see Dr. Kona, the ACMO. He’s in the C.H. Mayo Medical Station, located on deck 271. =/\=

Jade pulled the blanket tighter around her and watched as the ensign redirected the turbolift to the different deck. Carter tried to give her a reassuring smile, but she was a tad out of sorts. A delayed reaction to having two goons attack her. Different locations on her person were starting to make themselves known from being manhandled. An area on her scalp where the Cardassian had grabbed her by the hair, her neck, her arms...

The next thing she knew, she was being led by a nurse into an exam room and told the doctor would be with her in a few minutes.

Terrell walked into the exam room and immediately his eyes fell on the woman seated on the biobed. Even though she was nearly covered in a blanket, all he could think of was how attractive the woman was, even with the bruises on her face and the blood on her fingernails. Her golden brown hair framed her face in such a way to highlight her deep brown eyes. Terrell was actually caught slightly off guard by his reaction. Ophelia, as always right behind the Doctor, noticed his reaction.

Terrell smoothing his features turned to the Ensign, “Ensign, what happened here and who is this woman?”

“Dr. Kona, this is Jade. Security was making a raid on a suspect’s quarters down in the Cherry Pit and we found her inside. Two men were attempting to sexually assault...well, they were assaulting her, but Lt. Darwin was able to intervene before it got that far. They roughed her up pretty good, though.” Carter found himself fidgeting with the woman’s dark gaze on him. “As you can tell by the collar on her neck, she wasn’t in the suspect’s quarters willingly,” he related, then realized that the woman’s long hair was hiding the slave collar. “Which reminds me, I need to put a call into Lt. Tigan to get him or someone else from engineering here to remove that thing.”

Looking away from the ensign, Jade sighed and met the doctor’s gaze again then reached up to push her hair back so he could see the collar for himself.

“Ensign, get someone up here immediately to remove that thing so I can treat the area under it,” stated Terrell, barely masking the revulsion he felt at seeing the steel collar. Smiling to Jade, he continued, “I am sure our friend here is more than ready to see it gone as well.” Turning back to Carter he stated, “Once it is removed I will examine her and treat her injuries, so removing it is our first priority.”

Looking back to Jade Terrell asked, “Do you have any injuries that I need to treat immediately, before this hideous thing is removed?”

While Carter stepped to the side to put a call through, Jade rubbed at her cheek carefully. “The inside of my cheeks...” she started to admit, but looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment before she gathered her courage. “They were cut when they tried to force me to open my mouth.”

“Not an issue. You probably bit your cheek, which is quite possible in the event you were trying to keep your mouth closed,” he answered with a smile, trying to put her at ease. “Open up and let me make sure and we can then get that fixed up for you.”

Nodding, she leaned forward and opened her mouth, wincing a little as she did it, but didn’t make a sound of complaint.

Terrell smiled another reassuring smile, “Not too far. We don’t want you in any more pain if we can help it.” He turned to Nurse Payne and was surprised yet again as she had a small pen light and a dermal regenerator held out for him. Sometimes he was convinced that she could read his mind, and at this very moment that might not be the best thing for anyone. Using the pen light to look inside Jade’s mouth he noticed that sure enough, she had lacerations on both sides from where her teeth cut into her cheeks. Terrell also noticed that she had perfectly straight, pearly white teeth, something very foreign in the mouth of a slave. Using the dermal regenerator on the outside of her cheeks, he repaired the damage quickly. “Give that a try and let me know if that feels better.”

Opening her mouth again, she ran her tongue over the repaired areas, grateful the pain was gone. “Good as new,” she announced with a smile. “Thank you. You don’t have to wait on engineering to get started. I’m sure you have other patients to see besides me.”

“Well, nothing pressing, but I was thinking we should probably get you into something more appropriate for a medical exam and for having our engineers in here with their hands all over you,” he finished with a smile. He asked delicately, “Do you have anything on under the blanket?”

“Just the tattered remains of a dress. I’m afraid it shows more than it conceals at this point.” Jade looked down at her lap for a moment and shook her head before looking back up at Terrell. “An exam gown would be an improvement.” Under the blanket, she shifted, grasping the torn edges of the front of her dress together again and then let go of the makeshift cover. The black sleeveless dress had indeed seen better days. The only thing stopping it from getting tossed directly into the recycler was the fact that Security would want what was left of it for evidence.

“I see what you mean, though from the looks of it, the dress didn’t cover much more before its recent incident,” said Terrell sympathetically. He turned to the replicator and replicated her a new exam gown, two piece, with full pants, in hopes that would make her more comfortable. Placing them down on the biobed she was sitting on he said, “We will step outside for a few minutes to allow you to change. Just let us know when you are ready. If you need assistance, Nurse Payne can help you get changed.”

“I think I can manage on my own.” Hopping down from the biobed, Jade frowned. “Modesty and privacy were luxuries that were not granted to me recently, but I appreciate your consideration.”

Carter had pretty much gone still in the corner, hoping to have been forgotten about, but she shot him a glance. “I was told not to leave you alone, those were my orders from Lt. Darwin.”

“Well they may not have been afforded you as of late, but it is about time they were given to you again. We all will wait outside.” He made the last statement a command to include the Ensign. “If Lt. Darwin has an issue with it, he can take it up with me. We will be just outside and I see no reason to treat Jade like a prisoner any longer. She has had far too much of that already it seems.” Terrell ushered the Ensign out and was followed out by Nurse Payne. ‘Yell when you are ready for us.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, she stripped out of the dress, placing it at the foot of the biobed and grabbed the exam gown top. She was discovering more places that were sore as she dressed, but ignored them in favor of not wasting time on the off chance the door behind her opened early.

“You can come back in now,” she called out, folding the blanket and placing it out of the way on a chair.

Terrell and company entered again and Terrell handed the torn dress to the Ensign. “Ensure this gets entered into evidence please.” Turning back to Jade he asked, “so what areas bothered you while changing? I can try to ease the pain in those areas before we attempt a full body scan to look for any possibly underlying injuries?”

Before she could answer him, Carter spoke up. “I know this is going to sound harsh, but don’t go healing stuff before we can get a record of it, Doc.”

Jade actually rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Ensign, I believe Dr. Kona was offering to give me something for the pain, not erase evidence.” She glanced at the doctor. “I’ll be fine until you’re finished with the scan.”

Terrell smiled. He was really starting to like this woman and the way she handled herself. Her direct eye contact spoke volumes about her confidence. He was very curious how she ended up in the state of affairs she had been in, given her obvious ability to handle herself.

“Ensign,” started Terrell turning to Carter. “I am sure you are aware that in matters of examinations that are critical to investigations being conducted by security, the computer here in Medical records everything. I appreciate your concern for the evidence though, as I am loathe to leave any possibility for those responsible for this situation to escape being fully punished for this crime.”

Returning his attention back to Jade he asked, “Do you have any medical history I should know about before I begin the scans?”

She knew it would come up sooner or later, but she still dreaded the question. It was one she had no real answers to. “I don’t know my medical history.” Frustration furrowed her brow. “I don’t remember. Someone did something to me so I would forget. What I do remember is coming up out of a fog as if I had been asleep for a very long time and hearing a man’s voice saying ‘she won’t remember nothing. I guarantee it.’ After that, I was tossed into a room with other slaves.”

A frown crossed Terrell’s face. “Let’s see what the scan finds and we will go from there.” He typed some commands into the control panel of the biobed. “Computer, begin full body scan of patient, identifying any internal injuries.”

“Scan commencing,” replied the computer it that sanitized voice. Terrell and company waited what seemed like forever before the computer gave notification that it had completed the job given to it. “Scan complete. Only one non minor injury found in the left ankle area of the patient. Deep bruising with possible sprain of the ankle ligaments. One anomaly found.”

“Anomaly?” stated Terrell. “Explain.”

“Foreign device, origin and use unknown, found at base of brain stem near intersection to spinal column.”

“Holographically display device,” stated Terrell and the computer displayed a holographic representation of Jade’s brainstem and upper spinal column. There was a tiny black object that obviously didn’t belong, identified in the display. “Magnify, times 25,” ordered Terrell and the object zoomed to proportional size. The item looked like a computer chip. “Composition.”

“Primarily silicon and nickel, with some titanium reinforcements.”

Turning her head to see what was going on, Jade stared at the unknown device. “What is that?” Her hand automatically went to the back of her head. Who the hell had put it there? Better yet, why had it been put there?

“That, my dear, is a very good question. The key is to remove it and then let our engineering department study it. Unfortunately I can’t really get at the location well until we get this damn collar off. Since Mr. Norval seems busy elsewhere, I have a few ideas, if you are willing.”

The doors to the examination room had parted while Terrell was mid-sentence, leaving Norval to smirk as he entered. “Never too busy for you, Kona,” he said simply. There was an air of familiarity that was easily perceived, reaching back across the centuries and the long memories of the symbionts. “Welcome back,” he added, stepping further into the room. “I haven’t had a chance to see you since you returned.”

Terrell thought to himself, leave it to Norval to use timing to perfect the flair of their entrance. “My old friend, thanks for the welcome. I apologize. I meant no disrespect. I know you are very busy and thought to try out a few of the tricks I have learned, through the years, on this mechanical nightmare.”

The Ops Lieutenant turned his attention for a moment to the holographic display that had been projected into the room, gathering it was somehow related to their patient. He gave a nod to Jade, his smile disarming but his eyes purposeful as they seemed to seek out the collar Ensign Carter had mentioned immediately. “I’m Norval Tigan,” he offered by way of introduction, removing a tricorder from the pouch at his hip but not yet opening it. “May I?” he asked before proceeding.

Her deep, rich brown gaze rested on Norval as he came closer, but she gave him a small smile. “Thank you for coming. I’m Jade and yes, you may. Please...get it off of me.”

“I promise you, that’s the idea,” Norval said as he set down his Engineering kit and unfolded the tricorder to began scanning. “No woman should be forced to wear jewelry.” His expression changed from interested to evaluating to confused and back again, taking in all the data the device managed to gather. “Well, luckily for you I’m quite good at cybernetics,” he admitted... modestly.

“I’m fairly certain I can remove this, but I’ll need to disable a few things first,” he said, setting the scanner down and beginning to work with Sickbay’s computer. “But before I do that, would someone like to tell me what the technological nightmare floating in the air is?” He knew he couldn’t go any further without asking about the holographic projection that hung between Terrell and Jade.

“Well,” started Terrell, “that is something else we were hoping you could help us with. It is a foreign device that could possibly explain some issues that our patient is having. Jade here, is having trouble remembering things and the location of the device could imply that it has something to do with her inability to retrieve memories. Our issue is how do we remove it without doing damage to her, considering we don’t even know why or how it got there in the first place.” Terrell sighed. “Unfortunately that little conundrum will have to wait till you use your engineering genius to remove that collar. With it in the way we can’t even examine the foreign device properly. Computer, discontinue holographic display.”

“That’s... more than a little disturbing,” Norval managed with a small frown. “Some kind of neural inhibitor maybe?” Even as he wondered aloud he began going through his kit for tools, removing a small spanner and approaching Jade. “If you wouldn’t mind holding your hair up for me,” he asked, needing access to the back of the collar where the receiver rested.

“Oh, right...of course.” Her smile was mildly embarrassed as she gathered the long tresses and twisted them up into a knotted bun on the top of her head. With her hair out of the way, the graceful column of her neck was visible, along with the rest of the hideous collar. She met Norval’s gaze and the corner of her mouth quirked up. “As far as jewelry goes, this really isn’t my style. It’s far too ugly and clunky.”

“It’s not your color, either,” he smirked, using a microspanner to lift a panel on the obedience device before poking and prodding around, consulting his tricorder every few moments. “There are a few safeguards to discourage even attempting this, as you might imagine,” he carried on the conversation as he worked. “Disabling them is our first priority. If you feel any pain, let me know... though I’ll probably be able to guess.” It was a less than pleasant thought, the collar’s shock being delivered as a result of his tampering, but for Norval just about everything was a subject for levity.

“You’ll be the first one I let -” Good old Murphy had to put in an appearance. It was as if mentioning the possibility of it shocking her caused it to happen. The shriek got caught in her throat as the current ran through her, causing her muscles to tense and lock up. It lasted all of two seconds, but time is odd when pain is involved. Two seconds felt much, much longer. The collar shut off just as unexpectedly as it had activated, leaving her panting for breath. Wide-eyed, she glanced at both men, and finally dragged in a deep breath, careful to remain as still as possible. “...know,” she rasped the word out and blinked. “Ow...that tickled.”

Terrell visibly flinched when Jade was shocked. “Would you like something for the pain? I may also be able to numb the area so you won’t experience any more shocks.”

The pain was fading, leaving an uncomfortable tingle behind, but it was better than the shock itself. “Isn’t the collar in the way, as far as being able to administer a local anesthetic where it’s needed?”

“Well, yes and no,” started Terrell. “The collar is in the way, but I can numb your upper back and into your neck. The issue is you might not feel something that could be relevant, especially when we need to work on the cybernetic device.”

“Hmm...” Jade still sat perfectly still, only her eyes moved as she watched Terrell and Norval. Carter stood pretty much ignored off to the side. “If that’s the case, then no, I’d prefer not to have you numb the area.” She wasn’t a glutton for pain, but it was more important for her to be able to tell Dr. Kona what she felt. “It’s okay doctor, I’ll be fine.”

“As you wish, but you must promise to let me know if the pain gets too intense. I am sure Norval will do his best to not get you shocked again,” said Terrell with a snide look at Norval.

“I will. Trust me, I don’t think I’ll be able to hide it if it hurts.” She turned her attention back to Norval. “Let’s try again, shall we?”

Norval looked positively mortified, doubly so after Terrell berated him, and set back to work in silence. Several minutes and a series to tools later, he breathed a sigh of relief. "That ought to do it," he announced. "All that's left is to take it off." He was obviously slightly hesitant to take that final step, given the earlier mishap, which was striking given his usual confidence.

Jade held Noval’s gaze, then gave a slight nod. “Do it,” she whispered.

With a ‘don’t blame me if this goes horribly wrong’ kind of look, Norval dove back in. It only took half a second of tweaking, but the satisfying *click* that followed let him release a breath he didn’t even realize he had been holding.

“Well, there we are,” he said happily. “Knew it would work all along.” His smile was back in full force.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she smiled back. “Didn’t doubt you for a second.” The tension left her body and she reached out to give Norval’s arm a brief grateful squeeze. “Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome. Kona, I think you have some wounds to treat,” Norval added as he gingerly removed the collar from around Jade’s neck. “In the meantime, I’m going to get some scans of this little mystery implant, and keep this for future reference. Maybe we can eliminate the whole damn collar enterprise.” Stepping off to work, Norval left Terrell to his devices.

Terrell put his hand on Norval’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he started. “I really didn’t mean any disrespect. I know you have been busy and we all know you didn’t shock her on purpose,” he finished with a smile. “Now let’s see what we can do to make this young lady whole again.” Grabbing a dermal regenerator from the tray that Nurse Payne offered him, he set to work on the bruises on Jade’s arms and legs, avoiding the left ankle for now. He also worked on the area of her neck that was formerly under the collar that Norval removed, as that area showed signs of abrasions and some bruising as well. It seemed like a waste to work on this area though as something had to be done about the implant, but they would cross that bridge when Norval had figured out what the device was capable of.

Once Terrell was done with all the bruises and minor abrasions, he focused on the sprained ankle. Reaching for the tray again, he replaced the dermal regenerator and removed an osteogenic stimulator to work on the damaged ankle. Using the device he stimulated the ankle to help promote repairs to any of the bones in the ankle and to do a deeper regeneration for the tendons located in the ankle, that are normally damaged during a sprain or break. “That should do it,” he stated to no one in particular after he had been working on Jade’s wounds for several minutes. “Feel better?”

Lifting her leg off the biobed, Jade moved her foot, rotating it experimentally to check for any lingering soreness. There was none. Looking up, she met his golden gaze and smiled. “Yes, much better. Thank you, Doctor.”

After Dr. Kona was finished removing the last of the bruises, it was time to take a look at the cybernetic device tucked away at the base of Jade’s brainstem. She turned her expectant gaze towards Norval and smiled. “Your turn.”

“Well, it’s definitely responsible for your memory loss,” Norval said, looking over his scans. “It appears to be selectively attacking your memory engrams... Katherine Pulaski did some work on this, but it’s been a long time since ‘Doctor’ preceded the name of Tigan. I’m sure Kona could go into a great deal more detail.” He began to scratch his chin, noticing the scruff that was gathering. He stopped a moment to wonder when the last time he had slept was, having taken over Ops with Sakkath’s field promotion. “Do you think it can be surgically removed?” he wondered out loud.

Terrell answered. “I am sure I can remove it surgically, but there are always risks when working in that area of the body. If you can give me the specifics on the device and how it connects to the brain stem, I am sure we can remove it successfully.” Terrell got a thoughtful look on his face. “Would it be possible to attempt to remove it with the transporter? If we could somehow ensure that only the device was transported out, that might be a safer procedure for our patient.”

The Ops Lieutenant’s face was twisted up in concentration as he looked over the readings. “I can shut it down remotely,” he decided, intending to use a simple targeted EM pulse to render the intrusive machine inert. He pointed at the screen, drawing Terrell’s attention to the points where it adjoined the brain stem. “It isn’t physically embedded, at least not that it’s punctured the brain tissue. It may be that it releases itself when we deprive it of power. As for beaming it out... it is possible,” he admitted, after a long moment. “I’d need to refine the containment beam, a lot,” he stressed, “in order to make sure we don’t take anything else out with it... but it shouldn’t be too difficult to target and lock on the foreign materials.”

“Yes...please don’t take anything you shouldn’t. I’d prefer to not end up with brain damage or paralyzed, thankyouverymuch.” Jade’s tone was light and teasing, but she wasn’t joking.

"Fair enough," Norval smirked. "There wouldn't be much sense in trading one mental impairment for another."

She smiled suddenly. “Pardon the plain speaking, but no shit.”

Norval actually laughed out loud before picking up his tricorder and entering several series of commands. “I’m going to generate a small electromagnetic pulse, targeted at the base of your brain stem... it’ll probably burn out the tricorder, but you shouldn’t feel anything.” He smiled and proceeded to key the activation sequence. True to his word, the tricorder - releasing a directed energy wave it was never intended to, and one that was anathema to electronics in general - sputtered, sparked and went dark in his hands.

Eyeing the now defunct tricorder, Jade slowly raised her gaze to meet Norval’s and arched a delicate brow. “You used the words brain and burn in the same sentence. I hope what’s inside my head isn’t throwing off sparks now,” she inclined her head, then smirked. “Just kidding.”

Norval slid the defunct device back into the pouch at his hip. “Shouldn’t be,” he replied as he stepped back over to the computer interface, still grinning. “This next part, you might not like so much though... Kona, I’m going to need you to immobilize Jade. If she were to even twitch during transport, well, let’s just say it would be bad. You have surgical force fields for that, as I recall?”

He was right, she didn’t like the idea very much, but it was way better than the alternative. Her expression became solemn, all jokes put on hold and she waited to be told if she’d need to lie down or not.

Terrell put his hand on Jade’s shoulder and guided her to a sitting position while he fiddled with the biobed some, adjusting its head rest so there was now an opening that Jade could lie her face in while she was immobilized on her stomach. “Go ahead and lie face down, putting your face in this opening. We will adjust the force fields to hold you in place and the opening will allow you to be lying perfectly flat without hindering your breathing.” After Jade assumed the position he had instructed, he lightly touched the biobed controls to activate the force fields. “How does that feel?”

For a moment, she felt mild fear at being restrained. Considering what had happened to her earlier, with the two goons trying to hold her still to have their way with her, it wasn’t all that surprising, but she knew the difference. Knowing that calmed her down right away. “It feels strange...at tad uncomfortable, but it’s necessary. It doesn’t hurt, though.”

“I’ll try to have you out of there as soon as possible,” Norval assured her, looking to Terrell for permission to continue. When the affirming nod came, the Trill deactivated one of the medical LCARS consoles and rerouted transporter control through sickbay. “Narrowing annular confinement beam to 0.557 microns,” he reported, unable to push the limits of the transporter much further. “Initiating power backups and redundancy systems. Locking on to non-biological matter... lock established.” He took a deep breath. “Here we go. Commencing transport. Energizing.”

The soft hum of the transporter filled the room, though its usual blue haze was absent, unseen within the depths of Jade’s skull. It lasted only a second before Norval slid his fingers back down, completing the transport. In a small, sterile tray just in front of Terrell, the memory inhibitor appeared, and everyone stood unmoving (especially Jade since, well, she actually couldn’t).

The Ops officer was too afraid to be the first one to speak and ask Jade just how she was doing.

Terrell, feeling it was his place to ensure that Jade was unharmed, was the first to speak. He used the biobed controls to remove the force fields and then said in a somewhat hesitant voice, “Jade, can you hear me? How do you feel? You can get up now if you want, but just sit up slowly as we are not sure how your body will react to that device being removed.”

“Yes, I can hear you,” she answered after taking a deep breath. Placing her hands on the biobed, she pushed herself up slowly, as Kona had recommended. Once up, she looked at both Terrell and Norval, as they gazed back at her expectantly. “I feel a little odd...but otherwise alright.”

“Excellent,” said Terrell with a sigh of relief. “I want to run a few more scans to ensure there are no lasting side effects.” Turning to Norval he said, “Thanks my old Friend. Couldn’t have done it without you!”

Norval gave a contented nod. "Like I said, Kona, anything for you. I was happy to help." He busied himself resetting the Sickbay computers to their standard functions, smiling to himself the whole while. "Mister Carter, I'll take care of assigning Jade to guest quarters," he added to the thus-far silent occupant of the room. "I assume you might want to post a guard, given her rather unique situation."

Carter had been quietly watching the proceedings, at times curious, other times bored. Hearing his name, he perked up and came to attention. “That would be appreciated Lieutenant Tigan. And yes, we’ll be posting a guard. She still needs to be interviewed and I have orders to stay with her.” For now at least.

“Why don’t we let you go get some rest and I can do the scans later,” stated Terrell to Jade. “Please let me know if you have any pain or discomfort and especially if your memories start to return. Now that the device has been removed, you should start remembering things, or so I hope.”

She would have preferred to get it all down now, but just as she started to speak, a message came through on Dr. Kona’s commbadge.

=/\= Dr. Kona, we have a medical emergency and need you immediately at Piper Medical Center. O.R. three is being prepped. Dr. Harding requested your assistance, stat! =/\=

Norval's face was full of concern at hearing that, and he still had some access to the transporters since extracting the inhibitor from Jade. "I can give you site-to-site," he announced, turning to the Commander.

Tapping his commbadge, Terrell stated “Acknowledged. On my way.” Turning to Norval he said, "Thanks buddy, I owe you one”. Then turning to Jade he finished, “Jade I will contact you as soon as I am finished with this emergency so we can schedule the follow up tests. Get some rest. You have earned it.”

With a quick nod, Norval pulled up the coordinates and energized the beam, watching his old friend vanish in a swirl of azure energy. It was in the following moment of silence that he swiftly announced, "I should probably get to Ops," and darted out. "Your quarters are on Deck 19. It was nice meeting you!" was heard echoing after him in the corridor.

********************

Jade
Free At Last

Lt. Commander Terrell Kona, M.D.

Lieutenant Norval Tigan
Popping Collars