<USS Avalon> "The Joy of Stun Screams"
- From: CmdrSkyler@xxxxxxx
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:42:42 EST
"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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