Well This Is Not Your Bed Nor Floor

Posted on Sun Jan 16th, 2022 @ 4:17am by Commander Jherynn Lan Psy.D. & Commander Alexis Agrax (*)

Mission: Cosmos
Location: USS Cosmos
Timeline: 2397
1675 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Alexis stirred on the floor of the sickbay ward floor from where Christopher had placed her after she started to ask too many questions and tried to alert people to his strange new powers and sudden change in demeanour. “Computer… emer…gency.” She mumbled as she passed back out hoping it would alert the computer at least to her condition. She was not the patient, she was on the floor and it was not her ward.

It was enough that an alarm went off in the corridor as the computer recognised there was a situation that was not correct and alerted so.

He'd been around long enough to walk, not run, during an emergency alarm. Jherynn emerged from the internal sickbay suite to find Alexis slumped over and instantly began assessing her, flashing a penlight in her eyes and taking her pulse by hand. "Commander Agrax-" he grimaced and jammed two fingers into her sternum, falling back instantaneously on his training.

“Mmm…” Came the mumbled reply of Alexis as she tried to move through the fog her brain was creating to keep her out for the count. Everything felt heavy and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and fall back asleep but something important was biting at her thoughts that she needed to wake up and speak.

"All right, up you go," the older Betazoid facilitated her into a seated position, propped up against the wall as he detached a tricorder and started scanning her. He flared out mentally, picking up on her distress and the urgency of swirling, raging imminence. If she couldn't speak, she could think. Getting an arm under her shoulder, he helped ease her to standing, most of her weight leaned on him, and he transferred her to a bio-bed as fast as possible.

Alexis was relieved when the stimulant hit her brain and she was able to keep her eyes open to notice who was looking after her and had responded to the emergency. She glanced down at the bikini and did not even have the care to blush when she started to shiver as she finally got onto a bio bed. “Jherynn…” she breathed taking a deep breath with relief that she was starting to focus.

"That's correct, yes," he gave a steady nod. "Can you tell me what happened?" he switched on the vistat monitor over her head and consulted the readings with a critical eye.

"Mitchell." She said simply as she leant forward to put her head on her knees to try and focus better. "This is his room." She explained pointing to where the monitor had the Executive Officers name all over. The computer was struggling to make sense of the signals when it was not the person the bio bed was set for.

Lips pursed, Jherynn regarded her without much consideration for her attire, focused more on the pressing matters. "I found you here. You were unconscious. Do you remember how you got here?"

"Yes, Mitchell." She whispered sitting up properly. "Can you pass me ... that .... blanket?" She asked pointing to where the thermal blanket was laid out.

"Certainly, here-" Jherynn retrieved it and draped it over her. The counselor could be accused of brusqueness but never let it be said that Commander Lan didn't get to the point of things. "Mitchell-he brought you here?" the man's eyebrows knitted slightly.

Alexis wrapped it around her relieved to feel a little bit of warmth until she could get some proper clothes “He was here wasn’t he after what happened on the planet with him disappearing and returning. He started acting strangely and then I’m in a bikini and then I am unconscious.” She might have counted the man as her best friend but at the moment something very strange was happening to him.

He'd been in Starfleet and shipside long enough to take Alexis's words at face value. "We can replicate you some more appropriate clothing," he assured with a nod, "but if Mitchell is compromised, we will have to deal with that immediately. Your scans look functional, but how are you feeling right now?"

“Good because I need clothes to be able to kick Christopher’s ass.” He was more than compromised. He was compromised and he did not even know it. “We do need to deal with it but we need to do it without him realising we are doing it.” How were they going to do that? She mused to herself.

Jherynn hit the panel on the replicator. "Let us get you dressed," he presented her a Starfleet uniform in the correct uniform department-the uniform pips couldn't be replicated but he was certain she could figure that part out. "We may have to get in touch with Starfleet Command," he suggested. "I can submit a recommendation that he be removed from duty based on your statements, but-" but he couldn't do it solely on those grounds. He'd have to examine the executive officer himself. "We shall need to speak with him. Protocols are clear. We cannot render an assessment without it."

Alexis turned away and quickly pulled the uniform on not caring at that moment who saw what. She had been practically naked anyway. She chucked the bikini back into the replicator and pulled her hair up into a ponytail finally looking more presentable if not pale and angry. “Oh, I totally understand the processes.” She said softly. She could remember a time where the process had been used against her by someone in counselling when she had needed it.

The therapist didn't really give her a second glance. He didn't completely fail to notice that she was half-naked, but it was apparent that he didn't give it much of a second thought. She had been injured and placed in an uncertain situation, it was not the first thing on his mind. "Do you think that he is the one that placed in those clothes and knocked you out?" he just asked it, typically blunt in Betazoid fashion. Telepathy made it difficult to equivocate.

"It was like... he was acting like a Q. Click of fingers and I was wearing that thing. He wanted me to relax, it was like he was someone else but still himself enough to care about me." Alexis explained as she looked around awkwardly as she turned back. The man was nothing but professional but she could have wished for anyone other than him to be the one assisting her.

"You think he was possessed," Jherynn put the pieces together easily. "I'll have to do a topographical scan and a brief assessment before I can release you from the sickbay, I apologize," he touched the tips of his fingers to his chest, his tone containing a flare of warmth for the first time since speaking with her, branching beyond the mere coldness of formality and into something more organic. "I'm aware this isn't an ideal circumstance, nor comfortable."

Alexis was not sure if was possessed but he had been gone for a long time and they had no idea where he had been in that period of time. "I do not know Commander. All I know is he was missing for six hours and then came back." She explained and sat down on the bio bed again. She should have known it would not be as simple as she had wanted it to be despite her not having been the patient. "I was just not the patient... he escaped." She pointed out with a small smile trying to relax herself.

"Deep breaths," Jherynn encouraged, detaching the portable scanning unit from the tricorder and waving it over her in even lines. "So far your readings are nominal, but better safe than sorry." A chirp from above indicated that everything was nominal. "You know him best, it might be helpful if you're with me when we locate him."

Alexis took in a long deep breath and then repeated it encouraged to stay relaxed enough. She needed to pass this. “Can never argue with someone trying to keep me safe.” She said knowing that physically she was fine. Mentally she was shattered by the last year but the Cosmos and Christopher had been helping get her out of her own head and ignoring the huge gap that had been created in her life. She felt betrayed by whatever was happening with the executive officer. “Oh, I will be. The only way I am going to be able to smack him.”

"You two are close," Jherynn surmised softly. "I cannot tell you what may be going on with him but I have hope that it's transient," he did his best to reassure her. "We'll get all the information and then make a decision from there on how to proceed." Another chirp. "These appear to be in line with the normal, so I can release you," he offered her a smile, close-lipped, but genuine. "How about we go find Commander Mitchell?" The sooner they addressed this, the better-it was unfeasible to have someone in his alleged condition wandering around the halls.

"Computer where is Commander Mitchell," Alexis asked aloud to the computer. She was more than ready to go and track that Commander down.

"Commander Mitchell is in Commodore Ehestri's quarters." The computer announced the security chiefs request.

"Well, that is not good." Alexis decided as she got up off the biobed. "Looks like we have our first location to find him in then." She said hoping the Commodore for her lack of Betazoid would click on to his differences.

Given that Jherynn had just arrived on board the Cosmos, he didn't have a clear layout of its command structure yet, nor did he understand why this would not be good, but he straightened and gave the woman a nod. "No time like the present," he said, gesturing to the sliding doors of the sickbay. "Lead the way."