One More Thing To Consider

Posted on Mon Jan 14th, 2013 @ 10:48am by Lieutenant Commander Kh'ali & Commander Patrick Leroy & Lieutenant Commander Terrell Kona
Edited on on Mon Jan 14th, 2013 @ 1:12pm

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: Piper Memorial Medical Center

The emergency call had been routed to Piper and Kiere had jumped into action. Since Dr. Harding had finally gone home to get some sleep, Kona was on call and she sent a message to him to get to Piper on the double, that Kh'ali was being transported directly there from Commander Leroy's quarters. Next, she called Commander Leroy to inform him as well. She had no other details to give him, but Chanella and Dr. Lo-Tseng had been present when Khali arrived. They could oversee things until Kona arrived, but Kiere was worried and despite being off duty now, she got a large cup of raktajino and settled in to wait.

Terrell had been headed to his office when the emergency call came in from Piper Medical Center. He knew that he had to cover for Dr. Harding who had been working overly long hours lately, but figured he would do so from his own office in the C.H. Mayo Medical Center. But it seems as if an emergency has arisen that he needed to attend to at Piper, so he was rushing down the corridor now, trying to not knock anyone down. About half way to Piper it dawned on him that he could have used the transporters, but it was a little late by then and they might need them for whatever was the medical emergency. They were not able to tell him what was going on when they called him on the comm.

Rushing through the Piper entrance, he uttered, somewhat out of breath, "Can someone catch me up on what is going on?"

Kiere, who'd been waiting at the front desk with the night clerk, was on her feet in an instant.

"Dr. Kona. Kh'ali was transported directly here after a call from her saying only that it was an emergency. She was unconscious at the time of arrival, but I have no other details. Dr. Lo-Tseng is in there now and Commander Leroy has been called."

"Thank you Kiere," started Terrell. He was familiar with Dr. Lo-Tseng and had interacted with her several times. She was very competent and capable. She didn't have much of a sense of humor though. Then something else Kiere said caught his attention and a strange look passed over his face. Lieutenant Commander Leroy was the Chief Science Officer, a man that Terrell had not had the pleasure of meeting yet. "Why exactly would Mr. Leroy have been contacted? Is there something to her condition that would suggest a scientist's expertise would be needed?"

"Umm, no," Kiere answered. "She is his..." What? Mate? Lover? she was unsure of their exact status. "Significant other," she finished. That was good enough.

"Really," said Terrell in a somewhat unbelievable tone. "Human and Klingon, well half Klingon. Hell, she is proof herself that such a coupling is possible, I just have never had the honor to witness such a pair." Turning to Kiere as if just remembering where he was, he said, "Thanks for the info. I would hate to make a fool of myself in front of Mr. Leroy when he arrives. Please send him in once he gets here." Terrell hurried into the exam room that Kiere had pointed him towards. The first thing he noticed was the huge frown on Dr. Lo-Tseng's child like face. It was completely out of place. Looking to the patient, he could see that she seemed to be resting comfortably on the biobed, with her breathing, even and non labored.

"Dr. what have you discovered and do we know what she was doing when the emergency happened?"

"At this point we have not discovered anything," replied the doctor. "She was beamed to sickbay in this condition, so we have had security check her quarters. They found some spilled wine, which suggests she was drinking when she passed out."

"Have we screened her for any toxins, such as poison," asked Terrell. "Her involvement with the diplomatic situation with the Archadians and their Queen's untimely death could have made her a target to the unscrupulous that would use poison as a weapon."

Mi's face had that horrible frown on it again. "The computer has eliminated the possibility of her condition being caused by the majority of toxins we check for, but this could be something new. Her vitals are all normal with the exception of her blood pressure being somewhat elevated and a somewhat significant biochemical imbalance in her immune system." The frown lessened somewhat and she continued, "That could still suggest a foreign substance that is causing the current condition."

Looking over the test results that Mi had run, Terrell could see exactly what she was talking about. The biochemical imbalance was very abnormal for a poison reaction, unless the poison was bio-engineered specifically for the victim in some way. Surely her interactions with the Archadians had not brought the seediest of elements into play here. Bio-engineered strains of poison specific to individuals were very expensive to manufacture and highly unpredictable, so only employed by the most skilled assassins. If Kh'ali had attracted the attention of one such as those, then she had real problems.

The more Terrell looked at the biochemical imbalance readings though, he got the feeling that he had seen something like this before. It was almost like a parasite was at work here and the Lieutenant Commander's body was rejecting it. There isn't an assassin alive that would use a parasite on a Klingon though, as their digestive tract can break down some heavy metals, so a parasite would be very unlikely to cause any real harm to the target. One of their delicacies was gagh, which were worms that they ate live, as an example of his point.

"Dr. Lo-Tseng," began Terrell, "let's do a full body scan to look for a parasitic infection of any kind. The readings seem like her body is rejecting something that is attempting to infest it." He almost made a joke about the Joined Trill Doctor wanting a parasitic investigation being done and the irony of such a situation when he remembered that Mi didn't have a well developed sense of humor, so he kept the comment to himself. That was when it hit him. The conversation out in the hall, the patient passing out, something resembling a parasite, it all added up to one thing that should have been obvious. The chances of this happening though, were nearly astronomical, which is why Terrell had never witnessed a union like Kh'ali and Mr. Leroy's before. "Belay that last request. I know what is wrong. If you would, could you bring me a hand scanner and five ccs of cordrazine. I know what ails our patient and it is not something we can cure," he finished with a smile.

"You are going to wake her up?" replied the doctor, incredulously.

"Don't you trust me Doctor?" he asked her with a smile rhetorically. "This is a good thing. No… this is a fantastic thing that some would even call a miracle, and it is time that we inform her of said 'Miracle'."

Mi didn't look convinced, but she retrieved the scanner and the hypospray without comment and handed them to Dr. Kona. Terrell put the hypospray to the neck of their patient and waited for her to respond to the medication. He had used a very small dosage as he didn't want to complicate the situation they now found themselves in. It took several moments, but finally the Lieutenant Commander started to regain consciousness. Terrell made sure to stand where she could see him so she would realize she was among friends. Always a good rule in the medical profession or professions of any kind, 'don't surprise the Klingon.'

Kh'ali could hear the faint beep of something that she soon recognized as medical equipment and it confused her. The scent was definitely sickbay. Why was she here? Slowly memory returned and she recalled lying on her floor, seeing the spilled wine. A low groan escaped her. She felt strange and she couldn't place what it was. Finally her eyes opened and focused on Terrell.

Terrell held up his hands, "There is nothing to worry about Commander. You had a slight scare in your quarters and were beamed here to sick bay so we could get you checked out. Everything is fine, but there is something I need to show you and I think it is going to make you very happy." Terrell was beaming. "Let me know when you are awake enough for me to explain the situation."

Her voice sounded rough as she tried to speak, so she cleared her throat and tried again. "I recall...being on the floor. Dizzy. I was afraid it was something from the dinner. What's wrong with me?"

"Well, I am proud to tell you that you are pregnant," he began. "We need to run some tests on you and the baby to confirm things and probably get you on a biochemical balance regime to handle some of the inter species conflicts your body is going through, but all that is easily accommodated." Terrell looked at her for her reaction. Like a first impression, hearing the news of something like this was momentous and could never be repeated. The chances of a Human and Klingon, even a half Klingon, conceiving was nearly zero. It was one of the reasons that there weren't more individuals like her. Nearly a one in a million chance and it had happened to her, and he could only assume Mr. Leroy, given the information he received earlier and the fact that her body was trying to reject the fetus, which it would not do if the father were a Klingon. He really did need to get more up to speed on the social interactions on this base if something like this had been completely missed by him.

"No I'm not. That's not possible. It took years for my parents." She looked up at Terrell's smiling face and shook her head, instantly regretting it as a wave of dizziness returned. "You're joking, right?"

"Commander, I can assure you that I don't joke about these things. Let me show you. If I may," he asked before using the scanner on her abdomen. The image displayed on the screen from the hand scanner was clearly a growing humanoid fetus. Judging by the stage of development of the fetus, Kh'ali would have to be in her first month, though the size was consistent with Klingons' shorter terms. Terrell looked back to Kh'ali, the pride of being able to give someone this momentous news shining on his face. Unfortunately the look on Kh'ali's face gave Terrell the impression that she was about to get sick all over him.

Kh'ali did indeed look extremely unsettled. "Where's Patrick? Has he been called?" She closed her eyes trying to get the vertigo to ease. Why now? He had enough to deal with already. Her words to him earlier came back immediately. There are more important things to consider now. How ironic. Or had she known? No, she didn't think she had. Fate was indeed capricious and apparently had a sense of humor that, at the moment, Kh'ali didn't share. What the hell would he think? Well, this solved the problem of whether to joining the Hammond team or not. It was clearly going to be 'or not'. If Terrell mentioned possible rejection to Patrick, she would be lucky if he let her lift a glass of water by herself. She sighed aloud.

"You mentioned possible rejection and --" She stopped mid-sentence as she heard rapidly approaching steps outside and Patrick's voice. "Showtime, Terrell."

Sure enough, Mr. Leroy had arrived. Terrell extended his hand to the man and introduced himself. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you. If you would excuse us, Doctor Lo-Tseng, the nurse, and myself will wait outside as you and Kh'ali have some things to discuss." One thing that Terrell had learned as a Doctor and though several lifetimes is that mothers almost always took the news better than fathers when they learned of the imminent arrival of a child as a surprise and the news was always easier to accept coming from someone you were intimate with. So in this case he was going to let Kh'ali do the explaining and the medical staff would wait outside for the 'recovery' if needed.

Leroy watched the doctor’s hand hesitating for a moment before taking it. “What’s happened? She was fine when I left her not long ago. May I see her?” His tone was full of concern as his eyes darted to some point behind the doctor in an attempt to see her.

"All you need to know from me is that Kh'ali is fine and has not been attacked or harmed in anyway. I will need to have some discussions with both of you about the near future and the steps we need to take to help Kh'ali and her new charge through the next several months biologically, but we can discuss that after you two have had a chance to talk." Terrell gave Patrick a big smile. "Yell when you are ready for me to come back in and let me be the first to say, Congratulations." He shook Patrick's stunned hand again and then shooed the nurse and doctor out of the room so Kh'ali and Patrick could have some privacy.

“Wha…” Patrick started to say his hand still extended where the doctor had shaken it.New charge? Then fighting off the daze he knelt close to the biobed taking her hand with his left and stroking her forehead with the other one. “Are you okay?” he asked as the Doctor’s words started drawing a picture in his mind of what she was about to say.

*************
Lt. Commander Terrell Kona
Lt. Commander Kh'ali
Lt. Commander Patrick Leroy

All Very Surprised