<USS Avalon> "The Joy of Stun Screams"

 
"The Joy of Stun  Screams" 
Lt. K'etrall, Dr. Alexis Cazook, and  Ensign Talea  Erridim 
Things were off. K'etrall couldn't  explain it. She didn't understand it. All 
she knew was something was not right  and hadn't been for a while. After 
dismissing yet another new Ensign to  engineering, K'etrall closed up her 
office 
and made her way to the lift. If  nothing else happened she planned on spending 
a few hours in the lounge trying  to relax. This acting-chief business was 
starting to get on her  nerves. 
As she approached the lift, she  suddenly felt a sharp pain. It nearly 
crippled her where she stood. Only by  hanging onto the rail was she able to 
remain 
on her feet. Taking a few deep  breaths she managed to shake away the pain and 
again headed toward the lift.  Once inside, she ordered the computer to take 
her to her deck. She leaned back  against the wall and noticed the flashing 
numbers as each deck went by. As the  lift approached deck 9, she was again 
assaulted with a severe pain. This time  the intensity was much worse. 
She ordered the computer to halt the  lift. Once it stopped, she exited only 
to be assaulted again. She didn't  understand what was happening or why it was 
happening to her. Using what  strength she had left, she opened her senses to 
try and determine what and where  whatever was going on was. As she walked 
down the hall, the pain intensified and  became almost unbearable as she 
approached a  door. 
Meanwhile, in Talea's quarters, her  pain was so intense she was curled into 
a tight ball, even though she was  unconscious. Her hearts were also out of 
sync with an irregular  rhythm. 
Putting her hand on the door,  K'etrall could just barely sense that 
something was terribly wrong behind it.  Using her command overrides, she 
opened the 
door to find two bodies on the  floor. One was male and the other was the new 
Ops officer from the shuttle bay.  She first checked on the man and found him 
to be the creep who had made the "ice  princess" comment. Lucky for him he 
unconscious or she would have knocked him  out herself. 
Turning, she moved over to the woman  on the floor and checked her out. What 
little medical background K'etrall had  came from her mother, and she could 
tell this woman was in pain and was somehow  transmitting it to anyone who came 
near. Trying to close off her senses, so she  wouldn't be bombarded with the 
pain, she reached over to check the woman's  pulse. She was not aware of this 
species' biological makeup, so was taken back  by two irregular heartbeats! 
Reaching up, she tapped her combadge.  "Security, this is Lieutenant K'etrall! 
I 
need an officer in Ensign Erridim's  quarters immediately." 
Talea moaned, her body fighting to  regain equilibrium and failing. 
Searching the room, K'etrall found  the emergency medical kit in the bathroom 
and grabbed the tricorder out of it.  Doing a quick scan, she noticed that 
the woman had two hearts, which explained  the two heartbeats. What it didn't 
explain was why they weren't working in  unison. Tapping her combadge again, 
she 
stated urgently, "Sickbay, this is  Lieutenant K'etrall, I have a medical 
emergency on deck  9." 
Alexis heard the call and responded  immediately. "Lieutenant K'etrall, this 
is Doctor Cazook. Can you tell me the  nature of the problem? I shall be 
arriving shortly." K'etrall didn't know the  complete nature of the problem, 
just 
that there was a  problem. 
T'Ling blinked as the alert came in,  responding with, "Specific location, 
Lieutenant? Deck 9 is rather large, you  know." She was gathering a medical 
kit, 
and had a suspicion, so packed supplies  needed for a Regellian, just in 
case. 
Highly offended, K'etrall stated, "It  is the quarters of Ensign Erridim, 
Ensign. There is no need for such  sarcasm." 
Alexis looked at T'Ling and spoke  calmly. "Ensign, I appreciate you 
gathering the supplies, but I will handle this  myself. You are to remain here 
in 
Sickbay." She had remembered how T'Ling had  reacted toward Talea and didn't 
think 
she was the appropriate person to be  handling this problem. 
T'Ling raised an eyebrow, but nodded,  handing over the kit. "Yes, ma'am."  
Taking the kit, Alexis hurriedly made  her way to the lift. Upon entering she 
ordered it to take her to deck 9. She  wondered what had happened in the 
short time since Talea had been discharged.  Surely she hadn't regained her 
senses 
yet, had  she? 
Back in the room, K'etrall was doing  her best to try and determine the 
extent of the injuries incurred by the young  woman. She didn't see any blood 
anywhere, which was a good sign, but it didn't  explain why she was 
unconscious. 
She didn't want to move anything until security  arrived as she suspected that 
the creep had attempted to assault Ensign Erridim.  Taking a moment away from 
her examination, she moved over to the man on the  floor. Since his pants were 
down around his ankles anyway, she used them to  restrain his feet. She then 
found some cord and restrained his arms. If she had  her way, she would take 
the da'ktagh out of her boot and use it on him.  Unfortunately or fortunately 
for him, she was more civilized than he. She  reached up and tapped her 
combadge 
again. "Security, this is Lieutenant  K'etrall. I need an officer in Ensign 
Erridim's quarters  immediately!" 
Richard Smirnoff finally saw the comm  light on the duty desk blinking, and 
pressed it. "Understood. On the way." He  took off running, his phaser fully 
charged but safetied, although it wasn't  supposed to be. Nor was it supposed 
to 
be on Stun-5, but it was. A short time  later, he pulled up at the proper 
quarters door and rapped on it  smartly. 
Alexis arrived to find that it was  indeed Talea who was in trouble. She 
quickly ran the tricorder over her and  found the irregular heartbeats. 
Rummaging 
through her bag, she found a hypo and  pressed it against Talea's neck. The 
hiss of the hypo let her know the  medication had been administered. She hoped 
it was the correct one, and knowing  T'Ling, she was almost sure it was. She 
needed to calm Talea down before  transporting her back to Sickbay. 
Hearing the knock on the door,  K'etrall opened it to find a security officer 
standing outside. "Well, are you  coming in, or are you waiting for an 
invitation?" She had no use for  incompetence, especially under these  
circumstances. 
Richard raised an eyebrow. It looked  like an attempted rape, and man, did he 
ever hate those types. He just hoped the  woman was okay. He noticed the guy 
was trussed like a hog and almost grinned  before realizing he was alone. All 
of the rest of the Security personnel were  over on the -B. . .and getting 
this guy up would be  rough. 
K'etrall just watched as this so  called security officer appeared to be 
confused as to what he should  do. 
Talea's reaction to the meds was  immediate, as her hearts first slowed, then 
synchronized again, although the  pain didn't diminish much. 
Richard motioned toward the man. "I'm  the only Security officer left aboard, 
Lieutenant K'etrall. Just tryin' to  figure out how to get that piece of 
trash to the Brig." His sister had been  raped four years before and the man 
had 
never been caught, so he'd hated all  such since with a passion. 
Alexis spoke softly. "Talea, it's  Doctor Cazook from Sickbay. I know you 
don't like it there, but I need to  transport you there. I am going to give you 
another hypo to hopefully alleviate  some of your pain." She again went through 
her bag, finally pulling out another  hypo and pressed it against Talea's 
neck. "Give the meds a few minutes to work  on reducing the pain." 
K'etrall just shook her head.  "Ensign, have you ever heard of a new high 
fangled piece of equipment called a  transporter? Why can't you just beam him 
to 
the brig, for crying out loud?" Oh,  how she hated stupidity. 
Richard just got a look on his face  that clearly indicated his 
self-reproach. "One slight problem. I'm a Corporal  and site-to-site is 
Sergeant and above, 
ma'am." With that, he heaved the perp  over his shoulder in a fireman's carry 
and set off, hoping his back wouldn't  give out. 
Nothing like one idiot leading  another idiot, K'etrall thought sourly. She 
could've beamed them both to the  brig if he had remained long enough! 
As the pain-reliever took effect,  Talea first uncurled, then sighed before 
opening her eyes. While she was still a  little disoriented, she whispered, "It 
isn't that I hate Sickbay, Doctor. I. .  ." She sighed again, shaking her 
head as dizziness hit with a  vengeance. 
"I know, Talea. Just try and relax. I  believe I have something here that 
will help with the dizziness." Once again she  entered her bag and came out 
with 
a hypo and pressed it against Talea's neck.  Hopefully it would work to 
decrease the dizziness. "To be honest, there are  times I myself dislike 
Sickbay. So 
no offense is taken by your not liking it. I  don't know many people who do, 
my  dear." 
Talea whispered, her voice almost  gone, "What happened? Why am I so hoarse?" 
She didn't realize she'd all but  stripped her throat in the scream. 
"I don't have all the details, but  from what I have observed, it appears 
that a man attacked you and in the process  you knocked him down, hit your head 
on the comm system and fell against the  chair, all before landing on the 
floor. I also am going to surmise that you let  out one heck of a scream, which 
would explain your hoarseness and Lieutenant  K'etrall's raging headache. I've 
been doing a little reading and that scream of  yours is quite unique and 
dangerous." 
Blinking as she reminded herself of  K'etrall's situation, Alexis walked over 
and pressed a hypo against her neck.  "That should ease your pain, 
Lieutenant. I suggest you return to your quarters  and rest for the remainder 
of the 
shift. Try not to overexert  yourself." 
Talea grinned slightly. "It's a  last-ditch effort sort of thing taught to 
all Regellian females and many males.  The power of it is pretty high, yes, but 
it's intended to take down  attackers." 
"Well, it certainly did the job. Your  attacker was out like a light with his 
pants wrapped around his ankles. Do you  remember anything about the attack? 
Talea nodded, her face morose now.  "When he said what he did, then grabbed 
me by the shoulders, I knew he intended  to jerk me out of the chair. . ." She 
stopped, frightened now for a reason she  couldn't explain. 
"Just relax, dear. We don't have to  go over everything right now. Just tell 
me what you feel comfortable with. You  have nothing to be frightened of now. 
He is gone and won't be back." Alexis knew  about Talea's aversion to men and 
knew that this was hard for her. She didn't  want to push her any more than 
she needed  to. 
Talea said, "He-he didn't realize I  could read his thoughts when he grabbed 
my shoulders. He was intent on jerking  me out of the chair, ripping my 
clothes off. . . and. . ." She sobbed without  intending to. "Taking something 
that 
wasn't  his." 
Reaching around Talea, Alexis wrapped  her in her arms. She let the woman 
sob, to get it out of her system. "It's okay,  Talea. He didn't get or do 
anything. No one has that right without your consent.  He will be duly 
punished. You 
can be assured of  that." 
Talea just broke down, crying wildly  now. Amid her sobs, she said, "He acted 
just like the men of my own Clan. Like I  had no rights. Said he was here to 
"melt my ice", in  fact." 
Alexis felt for this young woman.  K'etrall was seething with anger. "You are 
no longer with your clan. You have  the same rights as everyone else on this 
ship. You have the right to be safe and  to not fear for your life every 
minute." K'etrall was thinking to herself that  she might pay the creep a visit 
in 
the brig and see how he liked being  assaulted. 
Talea winced and muttered something  in her people's language that didn't get 
translated by the Universal Translator.  She briefly flashed to her memory of 
Walker helping her with the container, and  where it currently resided. 
"Doctor, if you know longer need me,  I believe that I will go rest for a 
bit. Ensign, I hope you recover and you need  not fear anything from that 
p'tagh." 
Talea was gamely trying to calm  herself down, and ignored the Klingon word 
she didn't quite understand, but  sounded like. . .she wasn't sure, but it 
wasn't  complimentary. 
Alexis looked at K'etrall, "You are  free to go Lieutenant. If you have any 
residual problems, please make sure to  stop by Sickbay and let me check it 
out. Otherwise, just take it  easy." 
Talea almost responded with, "Yes,  ma'am!", but recalled her Starfleet rank 
just in  time. 
Nodding her head in acknowledgement,  K'etrall turned and left Talea's 
quarters before she made her way to her own.  She still didn't understand 
everything 
that had happened, and why it had  affected her so. 
Once they were alone, Alexis looked  at Talea. "Talea, are you okay? I mean, 
did he do anything to you he shouldn't  have besides the obvious?" 
Talea was then taken by a sense of  terror as she realized something, 
although she shook her head in response to the  question. "I'm all right, 
physically. 
I warned him once, then stun-screamed  before he had a chance to do anything, 
um. . ." She blushed  furiously. 
"Do you feel like you need to go to  Sickbay to be checked out? I don't want 
to put you through more stress than  you've already been put through." Alexis 
found herself drawn to this woman. She  seemed so fragile, yet so strong after 
having survived what she had. She almost  felt motherly towards her. 
Talea nodded. "Might be a good idea,  but I'm late for shift now!" Her 
expression was one of alarm. "Being AWOL isn't  my idea of how to impress my 
superiors!" She shook her head in  dismay. 
"You needn't worry. I believe I can  put in a word with the Captain. I am 
quite sure she will understand. Now, shall  we return to Sickbay?" 
Talea, now only slightly more  reassured, nodded. "Yes, ma'am." Her tone was 
one of respect and  chagrin. 
"Now, now. . .I won't keep you long.  Just long enough to make sure you are 
okay and that no permanent damage has been  done. As I recall, it's all natural 
material for you, is it not? None of this  replicated garbage." Alexis smiled 
at the woman, trying to calm her  down. 
Talea nodded. "Aye. Had to change my  bedding. Polyester and cotton blend 
sheets. . ." She shuddered. "It wasn't  easy." She was trembling, but began 
walking toward the door. "Shall we, doctor?"  She grinned slightly, trying to 
put a 
brave face on it. She then mentioned,  "Incidentally, your work on my nerves 
was top notch. First time in decades I  have been able to take a shower 
without pain." She didn't mention the fact that  she'd not been able to stand 
being 
in a shower at all during the previous  years! 
Taking her arm in her own, Alexis  smiled. "Well, I am glad to see that not 
everything we doctors do is bad. I  think you and I will get along just fine." 
That being said, the two women made  their way to Sickbay, while in the brig, 
there sat a creep trussed up like a  turkey.

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