<USS Avalon> Keeping Memories

Keeping Memories

by Doctor Brookman and Lieutenant James Maturin

James placed his book down on the sofa next to him and sighed. His mind just 
wasn't on the novel. He had been excited over Intel's extensive library, but he 
hadn't been able to concentrate on a single one. All he could think about was 
Lyryn. He thought it would've gotten easier as the time went by, but it hadn't. 
Not only that, he had used the time to do a little research on Dr. Brookman's 
"procedure" and was awaiting  his return from Starbase 12.

James got up to get himself a drink when his comm-link beeped. It was Dr. 
Brookman. 

"Oh Mr. Maturin," Dr. Brookman sing-songed to him.

"Maturin here," James replied.

"Good, I caught you just in time I see. Please, come by sickbay. I?m sure you 
know your way around. I?m not bothering you am I?"

"Not at all, I?ll be there in a few minutes."

James left his room and made his way to Dr. Brookman's office.  There were some 
things he wanted to discuss with the good doctor.

"Ah, Mr. Maturin. So good for you to come by. I was told that you are 
considering the erasure. I assume that you?ve made your decision?" Brookman 
smiled as he gestured for James to take a seat. 

"I have, sir," James replied.  "I'm not going to do it."

"But Mr. Maturin," the doctor began.

"With all do respect, sir," he said, interrupting.  "I have my reasons and the 
Admiral did give me a choice."

"Well, yes, but.."

"No, I've made up my mind.  I can be cool and collected when speaking with Lyr- 
Lissi.  I will be able to tell more quickly if anything is amiss if I know what 
to look for.  Secondly, I've been doing some research into these "dangers" of 
the procedure, and frankly, I'm surprised that you promote it at all."

"What do you mean, Mr. Maturin?  This procedure is as safe as one can be.."

"If you don't mind having your brained turned around," James almost shouted his 
interruption.  "Look, doc, I read the papers.  You are essentially cramming in 
26 years worth of memories that she never experienced, attempting to over-ride 
the others.  Well, the old ones don't get deleted.  You're spontaneously 
shoving in double the memories where they don't belong."

"Well, if you want to get technical about it, but.."

"No buts," James replied.  "It causes severe adverse reactions in a large 
percentage of patients - headaches, odd feelings of memory loss, and in worse 
cases hemmorages of the brain and possible coma.  Did you tell her that?  Huh?" 
 James was now irrate.

James' anger was beginning to wear on Dr. Brookman, "Listen Mr. Maturin, Ms. 
Cate was briefed on the dangers, but her health was good, her mind was sound 
and we had a very good prognosis.  Based on that, she decided to continue with 
the experiment."

"Experiment?"

"I meant procedure, of course, Mr. Maturin, calm down.  It was a slip of the 
tongue, nothing more."

"No, you said experiment. I want to know exactly what you did to Lyryn."

"Lieutenant, you will calm yourself down, unless I have to call security to do 
just that," there was a pause as Brookman gave him a stern look. Then he 
continued, "As for your claims to this, you should brush up on your medical 
history. Those after effects do not take happen any longer. Thanks to 
technology and findings of Doctor Leonard McCoy, this sort of procedure- and 
they are procedures no point arguing with me- are safe. The risk of having such 
an effect is one out of every six."

James fell silent for a moment, then quietly stated, "It's that sixth person 
I'm worried about.  I've made my decision. I won't be going through the 
procedure."

Brookman nodded, "Then you are dismissed, Lieutenant."

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