Finding Divash!

Posted on Sun Aug 20th, 2023 @ 5:37pm by Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Nollel Livaam (*)

Mission: Fractures
Location: Rosie
Timeline: 1st February 21:00
2452 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Nollel had meant business when she had left sickbay and gone to wake Kalahaeia from her sleep if needs to be to get her assistance in contacting Divash. She repeatedly pressed the chime until she heard a voice from inside. She strode in with purpose not even taking in the room or the person calling from inside. "I am sorry for waking you or whatever you are doing but Michael is sick and I need your help." She declared firmly. She had not overly ever spoken to the woman outside of business but she knew that the woman would want to help Michael.

"Sick? How?" Kali didn't seem to be even considering 'sleep' yet; on the couch along one wall was the haphazardly tossed control for the entertainment system, and projected frozen in 'pause' on one wall was the scene from an old 23rd-century action movie, a half-empty bucket of popcorn on the floor.

"It is related to something temporal so we need to contact someone called Divash. Michael cannot tell me more as the temporal issue is affecting him like before. You were there and you know Divash." Nollel explained. She looked worried but was trying to be brave.

"I was transferred actually, long before he was injured. To go punch admirals and all. But I do know Divash, yeah." Kali was digging in one pants pocket, coming out with another little device of sorts; this one not the lock-override her aunt had given her, but a secure-comms key that wasn't surprising to find on a Romulan, except for the fact that the other half of this particular pair was sectors away in the possession of an Orion. "She's a doctor, though, so she may end up wanting to speak to our doctors if we can reach her."

“We need to reach her. Come on Deck 8 and the communication centre.” Nollel said looking at the device that was being pulled out. “Gregnol has permitted me to do what I did to contact.” She half lied. She had not spoken to him but she knew he would have given her permission for it.

"Sure." Kali led Nollel back out of her quarters, pausing to toggle the variety of locking codes and devices she had on the place as they stepped out.

---

Kali drummed her fingers against her thigh as she waited for the call to route itself - something that always took a bit longer the more complicated an encryption and security level you were employing or how many extra places you were bouncing a signal off of - to see if they managed to connect the call at all or not: If Divash was on duty...or otherwise occupied...she might not pick up; or if she wasn't carrying her half of the key set, the computer wouldn't let the call pick up, at least not in any intelligible way.

"If this does not work I am going to get Gregnol or Jeassaho to contact Starfleet," Nollel said looking nervous as it took longer and longer. One of them had to have contacts and she knew Jeassaho was still in Starfleet's good graces and still had a commission to return to if she needed to.

After few more minutes there was buzz and click, indicating connection and then a fine featured woman with green skin appeared on the comm screen. "Kali, about time you got in touch," she scolded, albeit with a smile, as she removed a scrub cap, revealing dark hair pulled up in bun. Then noting someone else on the screen, she added, "Forgive my appearance, I just got out of surgery - some idiot ensign got toasted and did a back flip off the promenade." An eloquent eye roll spoke to species who couldn't hold their liquor. "So, I'm guessing you didn't finally comm to catch up or get the latest scuttlebutt from your family's colony."

"Yeah, I'm uhh, just the messenger this time..." Kali blushed a dusky olive across her cheeks and sounded a bit apologetically sheepsih, waving a hand slightly at Nollel.

Nollel offered a smile at the light scolding and the appearance of the woman she had heard lots about. “My appearance is not much better I fear. I am afraid not. My name is Nollel and I am married to someone you know called Michael Burnstein he has been hurt and you are the only one who can help.”

Burnie got married? Divash blinked in surprise. In her opinion, some peculiar mental defect had to be involved for anyone to choose pair bonding, but that there was a second woman in the universe who had wanted to commit to that with Burnie... Still, she was happy for him; the last time she'd seen him he had been far more broken by Erica's death than by the remaining brain damage. A thought which led to an obvious conclusion as to what sort of 'hurt' made she was the only doctor who could help. "What are his symptoms, and is there any chance they're simply new head trauma from whatever explosion he was in this time?"

Nollel could see the surprise on her face and smiled at her. It was a normal reaction for people who knew Burnie and she took great amusement in it. "No explosion was involved this time. I think it would be easier to sort out if it was. It is time-related." She explained.

That explains using Kali's extra secure connection, the doctor thought. She was surprised even a life partner knew that much, since the whole thing was classified to nearly Black Hole status. "What was he exposed to?"

“We do not know I am afraid just that his symptoms are the same as last time. I need to know what you did before to bring him back.” Nollel pleaded quietly. She was not one to beg but for Micheal she would. She kept thinking back to when she had been unwell with the effects of fault air filters and how this must be how Michael had felt.

Divash puffed a frustrated breath. "That's not easily explained. I don't know how much Burnie has told you, and legally he shouldn't have told you much, if anything, but what we did relied on using information even more classified than the events that led to his injury. We were one sympathetic CO and a couple of technicalities shy of being court martialed for accessing it." She hated the idea of leaving him in a bad state - she was doctor, and a patient's well-being should come first. But she was also a Starfleet officer and there were oaths there that she couldn't set aside lightly. "Is there any way you could bring him to me? I know it's almost the other side of the quadrant, but Aeon has the facilities to treat him."

“He needed to tell me something and I know that he was hurt and he lost someone he loved in the same incident and that it left him with a medical discharge,” Nollel assured quickly cause she knew nothing more. “There is no way. We are a civilian vessel that is 150 years old and barely able to go past warp five. Plus we have our own mission and I do not know if this thing is going to affect more people as we do not know what it was. It could come back.”

Kali considered offering to get the information herself - though since she wasn't a doctor she wasn't sure whether she'd be able to do anything useful with it even then - but decided against it: Not only would she probably have not been need to know on whatever this was regardless; her clearance had been for the most part revoked with her discharge, so she doubted she'd rate much more than Nollel did.

"Chastity!" Divash swore. "Do you mean to tell me you don't know what exactly affected him or if it's still active!?" She swallowed her frustration, quickly thinking through options, but not having full information made that considerably more difficult. "Okay, you said the same symptoms as last time, but I'm assuming Burnie didn't tell you everything, because last time he initially presented as catatonic. However, after treatment, the lingering issue was with his speech processing centers. As long as he didn't jump through a time portal, he shouldn't be more scrambled than that, but I need to know what we're dealing with here."

“No, I do not and I was standing closer to him than me and Kali are standing together. He shouted in pain and dropped to the floor and I got him out of the compartment.” Nollel took a deep breath. She knew there was not much to go on but she could only tell her what she knew. “He is scrambled but I know how unwell he was last time and whatever affected him is not close now to him now and our engineers are searching better but they have found nothing that could cause time sickness.” It was the only thing she could think of to call it.

Goddess, but she hated long distance medicine. "I'll need to consult with some people here, and for that I need to speak to your doctor and them to send brain scans, particularly the posterior inferior temporal area and left arcuate fasciculus, also waking and sleeping brain wave patterns. I'll have better idea of what needs to be done after reviewing those. But if it's any comfort, if he's only struggling with words, and he's well away from whatever initiated the reaction, he should eventually recover on his own."

Nollel could see the worry and hate on the woman's face. She was already thinking about how she was going to get Evelyn to get everything. She knew the woman would be already on her way to organising all the things, she was still Starfleet but normally there was more time.

"I am glad to hear that but you will have it within 3 hours as well as communication with our Chief medical officer," Nollel said standing up already getting up out of her chair to get what she needed to send back as they were on a time-limit thanks to contact with the rangers and the requested assistance.

Once Nollel had left, Divash arched an eyebrow at Kali. "Burnie got married? When did that happen?"

"Not that long ago, actually. On Hysperia; the planet with all those dragons." Kali's eyes flicked down to check the signal again, then back up at Divash. "...I wish I could give you a better clue to go off of on all this, but the compartment they were in is kinda a...uhh, imagine if someone crossed a hoarder's place with a rich Ferengi's warehouse. It's a massive collection of random junk and not anything near fully recorded and cataloged; so I can't even begin to make a guess for you at what may or me not be in play there."

"Of course, Burnie would find fire-breathing dragons the perfect scene for romance." Divash rolled her eyes. "What I don't understand is why, knowing his own issues, he took a berth on a ship with that kind of hazard. Unless it was the woman... Let me guess - she's an Ops genius who likes his pyro tendencies?"

"He was here before I was, so I can't really speak to that part; I kinda wound up here by coincidence when the Rosie picked me up from a cruiseliner wreck. But as I understand the other part...yeah, basically. They bonded over a shared ability for things that go 'boom'." While there was a hint of amusement in Kali's voice at that last, there wasn't the sort of judgement some humans might have made; plenty of romances in Romulan history had started over some shared affinity for sharp objects, marksmanship, or politics, after all.

"A cruiseliner wreck?" Divash shook her head, mentally resolving to re-engage the contacts she'd had keep tabs on Kali when she seemed to be spiralling after the admiral punching spree. "We need to catch up more often. Just tell me: did you tell your parents or should I avoid mentioning it to Gunnar?"

"It hasn't come up." A good deal of Kali's exploits and locations the last decade 'hadn't come up' with her parents and her aunt; she'd moved around a lot and explaining herself each time would've been exhausting. Still, the idea that one could consider 'cheating almost certain death' to be something that 'hadn't come up' was the sort of thing that was perhaps only approached that way by those who'd had a lot of experience in situations that involved doing so in one way or another. "I wouldn't say I've been deliberately avoiding the topic though; just hasn't risen to the top of the list."

Kali shrugged her shoulders and eyebrows: If or when she did bring it up; she resolved to see if she could get Caithlin to sue the company for her; the incident itself was on those who'd done the sabotage; but the piss-poor emergency supplies was totally on the cruise line.

"Fine," Divash chuckled. "I don't tell my mother everything either - not that it doesn't stop her from somehow knowing everything anyway. But I'll refrain from mentioning it when I talk to Gunnar. Which may be sooner than usual since I might pull him in to consult when I get Burnie's brain scans. He's about the only one still available who was there when it happened. Plus, he may know a pilot we can persuade to pick Burnie up if you can't bring him to me."

"Got any tips for us in the meantime...?" Kali sighed; she was about as far from a medical officer or doctor as one could get, but 'massive improvising' had been her MO for years now it seemed, so really just a continuation on the theme she supposed.

"Just keep him from doing anything stupid, or stupider," Divash said with an answering sigh. "And contact me if he gets worse or doesn't start to improve over the next couple days."

"Right." Kali sighed again and raked one hand through her hair, which given the hour and that she'd been alone in her quarters, was unbound and long down her back. "I'll let you get back to your patients, then."

"Yes. Keep an eye on the there," Divash replied. "But don't feel like you can only comm with an emergency," she added with a pointed look. "Divash out."