Poisoning Of The Well

Posted on Sun Feb 11th, 2024 @ 10:50am by Chief Medical Officer Maeliana Lehn & Chief Engineer Jeassaho Kea (Mirror)

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: ISS Wrath Of The Prophets
Timeline: 2398
3133 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Jeassaho was not at all sure if Mae was on duty and it would be a lot easier if the woman was not but also she was likely to be treated a little more kinder. The ship was a death trap still but at least it was no longer spewing out noxious gases into the crewman's quarters and there would be less work for the small medical team. Downside Jeassaho’s rebreather had failed for a few seconds and she could feel the wheezing in her chest which she knew fully would only get worse if she tried to hide it.“

"Any…. Anyone around?” She called before collapsing into coughing. It was not often she went to the sickbay preferring to keep personal and whatever this life on the ship as an Engineer was separate but even she had to admit it was better working conditions there than Engineering or even the Bridge.

Not only was Maeliana on duty, she hadn't been anywhere but Sickbay for the past 16 hours. Long shifts weren't unusual, she was afforded a little leeway by dint of being a major bargaining chip but often ended up canceling out any special consideration by being one of the better physicians on board. Oddly enough, within the confines of the medical space, she exuded a confidence and status far more befitting her pre-displacement days, a glimmer of the woman she would have been had her entire planet not been blasted to pieces whilst she was off-world expanding her knowledge base. Though she was not the first to attempt to greet Jeassaho upon entry, she very quickly made herself the authority, rushing forward to intercept before the young medic was halfway through her greeting.

"Jea?" Even despite the concern radiating from her at a psionic level, the doctor's professional disposition reined it in to just a worried frown as she took the engineer by the elbow and, glancing up at the medic, issued an order. "Clear a bed." Staring only long enough to make sure the instruction was followed, Mae immediately returned her attention to the woman beside her, already taking care to guide her towards an examination bed. "What happened?"

“I stopped … the … gas.” She explained before the coughing came back making several people look at her strangely. The Chief Engineer allowed herself to be guided and collapsed onto the hard bed with a grunt. She could feel the gas coating her hair and clothes let alone the taste of it in her mouth and what it must be doing to her body.

Though immediate proximity was inadvisable, Mae remained close as she issued orders, already pulling over an instrument tray as the area around the bed became trapped behind a medical-grade forcefield the minute the medic left to follow through. They'd been dealing with contamination for hours, an arduous and grueling procession of cases that had at least prepped the area for what was now Mae's first priority. A tap of a device attached to her temple activate the doctor's own facial shield and, already dressed to provide a decent amount of protection, including the gloves she'd replenished countless times over the course of her long shift, she didn't wait for a full hazard suit before stepping forward to help her girlfriend sit up a little, adjusting the bed to support. "How long ago?"

Jeassaho sighed as she wriggled on the bed to get comfortable but her muscles were starting to ache.
“An… ho… ur. Had to.” It was not at all easy but someone had to get right in the thick of things. People had to lead by example and engineering was no different. The gases could not be allowed to leak any further.

They have service droids for a reason.

Outwardly, Mae remained uncharacteristically stoic, certainly a far cry from the nervous fretfulness she demonstrated behind closed doors. It was a matter of necessity, however, a battle-honed defense that ensured she didn't front up to they prying eyes of the general populace as vulnerable or weak. To her, it seemed something of a falsehood, a pretense that she'd simply mastered because she had to, whereas Jeassaho was wont to assert that Mae's capacity under pressure was the real her; the fractured mess underneath was just a product of trauma. They never really reached agreement, and Mae opted instead to derive comfort from the fact her girlfriend believed in her. Right now, she was doing her level best not to panic.

"And how long were you exposed?" With the scanning equipment in place, Mae kept her eyes trained on the readouts as they waited for the hyposprays she'd asked for to arrive.

Jeassaho watched her woman reading the readout and letting to take slow shallow breaths so that she kept getting some type of 02 into her system to keep in running. “Eno.. nough to stop.. anymore.” She broke into coughing again turning on her side to help it.

As the blood rushed past her ears, Mae felt the inevitable chill of her professional demeanor slowly permeate deep enough to shut down any thought process that wasn't immediately productive. She despised the person she became on duty, resented the necessity of rendering herself an impassive automaton forced to tuck away notions of empathy and compassion because she'd learned the hard way they were only used against her. As the medic returned, the physician halted their progress with a single glare and they diverted, setting the medication into the remote dispenser so that the medical quarantine remained intact. Without a word of thanks, Mae took up both medications and returned to her patient.

"Hold still." Both were pressed to the side of the Betazoid's neck, simultaneous hisses that prompted Mae's return to staring at the overhead readouts. There are procedures in place for equipment failure for a reason. Tucked away in the privacy of their shared thoughts, Mae's panic was at liberty to run wild. Where was your emergency detox? She had spent the day, in between treating the afflicted, preparing the injectors for the work crews forced to venture into the hazardous parts of the ship. It was hardly a surprise that Jeassaho had burned through hers and then kept going but Mae was damned if she wasn't going to make the point anyway.

Yes there are procedures but very few people know them on this pile of crap or care to follow them. The brunette responded resisting the urge to cough as she stayed very still to allow the woman to get the medicine into her. I used them all hours ago and the rebreather failed as I completed the part fix. I am fine. Jeassaho assured though deep down she wondered if she had messed herself up enough this time when the burning sensation started in her chest.

Brittle silence across all available senses masked Mae's best attempts to hold her feelings in check. She despised this dynamic, being forced to act like impartial colleagues whilst all the while trapped by the certainty that nothing about their relationship was really secret. Knowledge of it was what kept them together, a carrot dangled to keep Jeassaho in line mostly, but they lived with the understanding that it might just as easily occur to their superiors that separating them would reap similar rewards. Mae had a hunch they weren't willing to test the engineer's cooperation threshold but it didn't remove the pervasive threat. Wrenching herself from her intense scrutiny of her girlfriend's vitals, Mae moved to the intercom and placed another order before returning to adjust the bed so Jeassaho was more or less propped upright.

"I've commenced neutralising the radiation, your levels are dropping. The corticosteroid will aid the inflammation while I figure out if there is any damage requiring surgery." Cold, hard fact, delivered by a voice just a little strained from the effort of trying to hold back her alarm.

Jeassaho stayed quiet. She was not sure if the woman was cross at her or just in work mode it was hard to tell without venturing into her mind when she was trying to hold her own peace to keep focusing herself on her own breathing and keeping herself alive. She smiled relieved at the woman helping her to sit up better and found her breathing a lot easier than it had been which was nice. "Lack of radiation is nice." She said finding it slightly easier to speak now without coughing constantly.

The response was met by silence again, though the doctor maintained her flurry of hyper-focus as she calibrated the scanner for in-depth precision and set it to work. The second delivery of hyposprays was put to the side for the moment, and it wasn't until the task was reduced to waiting for results that Mae finally seemed to release the breath she'd been holding. For the first time, she met Jeassaho's eyes and wished almost immediately that she hadn't. The rapid flutter of eyelashes reined in desperate control over tears, her featured pinched yet impassive as a result of the effort. She'd have to plead forgiveness later, if she made it that far without compromising them both. "Do you feel any improvement?"

Jeassaho stayed quiet mentally and physically as she watched the woman going through her processes to calm down and focus on her job. Focusing on her job was needed especially when her own life was the one at stake even if she knew she was going to regret it later in the silence of their quarters. “I can speak without coughing.” She pointed out quietly looking away seeing the way the woman looked at her.

"That's good." It was a slight slip, and the crack in her voice made Mae wish she'd taken a moment to respond, but as much as she had learned to weather the storm, that didn't mean that a flicker of defiance didn't leave her resentful for the need. A surreptitious squeeze of Jeassaho's hand sought to make peace, an apology when none could be offered out loud, and yet was fleeting as the doctor transferred the scans to her portable device and finally risked eye contact. "I'll go consult with the others, just rest here." She slipped away before she pushed her resolve too far.

Jeassaho nodded. It was not like she could go anywhere at the moment under her own steam even if she wanted too. “I will try.” The engineer assured as she closed her eyes pulling the blanket that was nearby over her as sickbay felt colder than normal.

Distancing herself should have helped but it meant navigating several conversations required to gain authorisation to move forward. This time around, Mae had earned herself enough credibility to work with reasonable autonomy, but she already knew in advance that it wouldn't be permissible with this particular patient. She stood, aware of silent scrutiny, whilst the other physician-in-attendance reviewed Jeassaho's scans and forced herself into absolute neutrality as an unnecessary amount of explanation was used to justify exacerbation of the internal power struggle. Mae never bought into it, she wasn't interested in being queen of any roost, and was mostly respected as a result of her willingness to stay out of people's way in that regard. On the subject of dating such a prized possession, however, there was occasionally room for reminders that her place in the pecking order was unimpressive. The entire thing was petty but she endured it, if only to return to her girlfriend before they both died of old age.

When she finally returned, Mae's weariness was at least tinged slightly with relief. "They've agreed to release you to quarters to recuperate. You'll need several more doses overnight that I'll prepare before we leave and you won't be able to return to active duty without senior medical clearance." This was not something Mae would be able to provide herself.

“Well isn’t that nice of them to let me have my own bed. Of course it is with senior clearance. The one time they followed any type of rule or procedure.” Jeassaho commented as she slowly rose wrapped in the blanket still and sat up swinging her legs off the side of the bed as if to go right that second.

"Hey, easy." Mae's tone veered closer still to tenderness, though she caught herself in time to stop wrapping her arms around the other woman for support. Instead, placing a steadying hand on Jeassaho's elbow, the doctor continued quietly. "Give me a minute to gather up the reports I need to work on tonight and we can go home."

Jeassaho looked at the woman nearly moving to something that belonged in their quarters. She sighed softly and nodded. “Okay.” Jeassaho conceded thinking that she was unlikely she would be able to walk about of there under her own skin.

There was a moment where it seemed as if Mae was going to linger, before she turned and disappeared into her office to gather the work she needed to take with her now that she was being permitted to finish the rest of her impossible-long shift observing their injured Chief Engineer. When she returned, she was without her coat, and the betrayal of colour high on her cheeks hinted at a moment's lost composure behind closed doors before she had forced herself back out to carry on the pantomime. It was enough that, even as she paused to sign herself out, there was a need to pause to control the shake of her hand, and she risked laying it against her girlfriend's forearm because physical contact was just about the only thing that ever seemed to work when her nerves were this bad.

The brunette raised an eyebrow at the doctor, offering her hand and did a quick shake of her head. She indicated the door and slowly made her way out of the sanitised area to the main sickbay and into the corridor. As soon as she was in the corridor, she took hold of the woman’s hand. “We need to talk.” She said simply knowing the woman needed comfort and confirmation that the engineer was okay.

"Let's get home first." Mae's tone was fragile but also weary with acceptance. She didn't have it left in her to deal with an over-zealous officer wanting to throw their weight around.

The walk back to their quarters wasn't an overly pleasant one, but then it never was when the pair of them moved throughout the ship in each other's company. Too many prying eyes, too many recording devices, too much scrutiny. A healthy dose of paranoia didn't help matters but Mae lived in constant fear of her one source of happiness being once again ripped from her and wasn't in a hurry to provoke circumstances that might expedite proceedings. She remained silent, shut down even on a telepathic level, until the doors to their quarters closed behind them and she was finally at liberty to relax. Disappearing briefly to deposit the work she'd brought home onto the desk she used when outside demands stole even off-duty time from her, Mae emerged liberated from her jacket, hair loose, and stood in the doorframe with a weariness and delayed concern that instantly made her eyes too bright.

As if not to trust herself to move, she held out a hand towards Jeassaho.

"You scared me."

Jeassaho had stepped into the room and stepped to the side to shimmy out of her so called uniform, watching as the clothing pooled around her ankles. It made a satisfying thump as it did and she looked up just wearing shorts and a tee now as the woman held out a hand to her. “I did not mean to.” Jeassaho whispered not moving anymore, letting the doctor control the situation.

"I know, it's just been a hell of a day."

As the doctor's hand curled gently around the engineer's upper arm, there was an honesty to Mae's fatigue now that started as a slow shedding of the telepathic defenses she wore as a necessity all day. They weren't exactly safer from scrutiny behind the doors of their personal quarters but they tended to be left alone, an understanding that the occasional carrot dangled was better than repeatedly flogging the donkey with a stick to get it to comply. A thumb caressed Jeassaho's clavicle as Mae tried to process the chance in mental landscape to arrive, more or less, at a place where they could relate intimately again. "We have quite a few still on ventilators, I was..." She offered a rueful smile as she repeated herself. "Scared."

The hand slid then around to prod Jeassaho gently in the back. "Anyway, you, to bed. Doctor's orders, it's the one stipulation of your release to quarters."

Jeassaho nodded. She was too tired to argue with the order or pull fake ranks out of her ass when she could feel the emotions coming off the woman in waves. “I certainly got the best deal of where I got to rest,” Jeassaho commented moving back so the woman could sit on the edge of the bed.

"We've been too busy today for them to be tempted to make things difficult." One of the benefits of a hectic day with mounting casualties was that true purpose tended to kick in and throwing one's weight around for the sake of it took a backseat. Carefully, Mae lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed and studied her girlfriend's face intently. "Your condition is very borderline. I think we treated in time to prevent permanent damage but you're going to just have to stay put and let the treatment do what it needs to. I really don't want to have to book you in for emergency surgery."

The brunette held her hands up in surrender and shrugged out of her shorts and bra and turned to the bed. Normally she'd have showered before climbing into bed but she was past caring and if Mae cared she was sure that the fact she did not want to operate on the woman overrode that. "I will just sleep here and be good." The woman assured.

"They sent me with an hour or two's worth of reports," Mae explained quietly, wearied enough by the incessant passive aggressiveness to not even offer an opinion regarding it anymore. "Try to get some sleep, I'll figure out something for dinner once I'm done."

Jeassaho just nodded and left the woman with a sleepy smile as she settled down on the bed and cuddled into the familiar pillows and settled into the exhausted sleep that came quickly.