USS Grail - The Great Brightness

Subject: Grail: "The Great Brightness" - 'What is in my head?'

<Ramin's Quarters>

Oh seven hundred hours. That was what the clock at Oku Ramin's desk marked. The digital clock gave the Federation stardate, the Earth hour and any hour the user wanted. In this case, Thairian hour. Although Oku didn't care about the 36-hour-days in old Thairia and the centesimal minutes and all the stuff, he was glad to know that it was 26:78 Official Thairian Time, 07:00 Earth and Stardate 47307.30. Oku hadn't been a time paranoid since Med School until now. He wanted to contact his boss and hear him say "Work for me now, O Mighty One". Of course the "O Mighty One" string was just a temporary delusion. Anyway it felt good to be the O Mighty One.

For an hour Oku tried to write a decent stuff and get rid of all of his mental disorders in a PADD. If it were necesarry he'd provide himself an ancient sheet of "paper" and a carbon pencil to write. But inspiration seemed to be at the Alpha Quadrant or near there, because not even a word came out of Oku.

Then he realized the time was 8:00. He slapped his comm badge and said:

=/\= "Oku Ramin to Dr. Ramius, please come in"

=/\= "Ramius here. Go ahead, Doctor Ramin."

=/\= "I'm ready for duty, sir. Am I allowed to work at the BioLab or handle some patients? The research I could have done in these 12 days has been exceeded by far. There's nothing new that we can get because we're too far now. So please, put me on."

William exhaled forcibly. "I'm sorry, Oku, but at this time your return to duty is out of the question. I cannot, in good conscience or in good medicinal practice, allow you to treat any patients. You are currently in your quarters, Oku, behind a class 4 biological field, because you are infected with the virus. Everyone on the Grail who is infected is either confined to quarters in a situation like yours or they are in Sickbay, unconscious and behind a bio-field. To get you out I would have to site-to-site transport you, and you could only go to the quarantined area of sickbay, where we both know that you could do little for those already infected."

=09

"But what about the Biolab? Surely I could work --" said Oku, but Ramius cut him off.

"Out of the question, Oku. As much as I could use another competent physician right now, allowing you access to Biolab would force me to kick out the three researchers already there. I'm sorry, Oku," Ramius said, the regret apparent in his voice. "But you know what we are forced to do in a quaratine situation. You will remain relieved of duty until we reach Kerestia, where we will hopefully find the cure to this damned thing."

"OK, then. Please keep me informed of anything relevant. Ramin out."

"Goodwill to the eyes that draw thee,

For Art will be made out from them.

Blessed the lips that describe thee, O Lady,

For Poetry shall come out from them.

Holy the hands that shape thee,

for Glory and them will be the same.

And cursed be the day Atropos shalt take thee,

for Grief will be that day's name."

That is the most famous part from the Thairian poem "Utar Naillia" or "Forbidden Love", written by Gadan Tonoio during the XV Dynasty of the Loosa Empire, the first Planetary Dynasty in Thairia, some 700 years ago. It is about an adventure of love between a noble princess and a Forbidden (a guy punished for a crime, in a way the ancient Greek did: slaving criminals), in the midst of the Unification Wars 1000 years ago. And Oku was just at that point. The part when Banau was declaring his love to Hhisha, just before Kela came to challenge him for the insult of courting his fianc=E9e.

Oku had read the book thrice this last thirteen days. His life, now, seemed just like a book: Drama, passion, but now the "author" was not "inspired". Nothing interesting could happen, except... those delusions. That Holodeck delusion. Oku had a feeling.

"Computer, please tell me how many people were there last night at Holodeck 1 between 0400 and 0600"

"Holodeck 1 was unoccupied during that lapse of time"

It couldn't be. Oku was just there. But two things were not common. One, his extended GQ made him program the computer to warn hi every time he tried to go out: there was no warning at 0400. Two, the abnormal things that happened in the Holodeck: How can a hologram know everything about Oku if he didn't tell the program?

Oku needed a drink. ASAP. He approached the replicator and ordered a soft drink: Orionii beer. Of course he had tasted real Orionii beer in Alpha Orion Prime during one of his vacation trips when in Med School, but the replicator didn't mess it. It tasted quite OK.

Could it be the neurological compromise of the infection? Could Oku's brain be infected? Of course he knew the symptoms and sings, and proceeded to explore himself. When he was touching his head, he found near the mastoid process behind the left ear a little node. There was no node behind the right ear. So Oku took his med tricorder and scanned himself. There was a device. A mechanical device. Size, an inch. Metallic. Electronic.

Oku found strange readings on his tricorder. He found, the most important, an E-band EM wave being emitted from the device to somewhere inside the ship. But Oku didn't care right now to where, but from where, the device was transmitting. He scanned again for any connections.

Oku found among the readings some moving devices, a lot smaller than the main device. They reminded him of nannites. But, nannites? In his head? There was no pain, and almost all nannites caused mild pain. But Oku was with alcohol in his blood. That made him feel nothing.

He explored that chance. He injected himself an alcohol inhibitor. Suddenly, pain started to increase, but to low levels.

He continued his analysis of the readings. There was evidence of a continuously growing number of synapses between the device and Oku's left temporal cortex neurons, where auditory sense processing and speech recognition lies. And yes, the mobile devices were making them.

Diagnosis made. Now, what to do? Oku thought for a while about nannites and their inhibition. To inhibit a nannite you must turn them off by inputing their code, or if code isn't known, destroy them with a high-pulse EM wave. But the device was emitting a high-pulse EM wave and the nannites weren't affected. Oku was troubled.

He started to search for the nannites and found with the tricorder that they were not Federation-standard nannites. "What the hell...?" thought Oku.

Then he reminded something: any nannite exposed to UV light for more than two hours or an equivalent radiation level could make them short-circuit. So Oku calculated the radiation needed: a phaser in stun setting could give him the energy he wanted.

So, balls to the neck, Oku looked for his phaser. Grabbed it, set it to stun 2 and shot himself in the area. Last thing he fent was gravity doing its own: he fell.

Then Oku found himself inside a mechanical place, something like a Borg ship but with more tubes and cables and no Borg. Only three octopus-shaped robots, the size of a humanoid, and the old man of his delusions were there.

"Why, why do you want to kill us?" said the man. "Let us be"

"How can I" Oku replied "let you be when you don't let me be?"

"You are just the means to the motive we have" answered one of the robots.

"The means?"

"Yes, Oku Ramin." answered the second robot. "You are to transmit the position of Kerestian Defenses to the glorious Romulan Empire. Just being there. We take care of the rest."

"We cannot allow that to happen. That is interference with another culture, they have done us no wrong"

"Who speaks of doing wrong" the third robot said "when you killed two million people for the guilt of three?"

"Yes, and I regret that. But if I can save more people to redeem myself that will be so, even if I have to kill you all"

"If you try, Oku, you'll be dead. Now, one of us is heading to your respiratory center in the brainstem. A signal and you're dead."

"Too late, my friend, 'cause I've phasered you all. And if I'm stunned, I can stand it"

Then it began to shake. Like a quake.

"This way" the old man said "This way to the outside"

The three robots messed with the walls and the old man vanished. Oku fainted.

Then he woke up. When he noticed the device made its way outside, tearing off the bone and tissue structures of Oku's head. Oku, nonetheless, felt nothing. But the blood revealed itself and Oku felt he needed intervention.

=/\= Ramin to Transporter room 3, emergency transport to SickBay, priority one, deck 13, room 343. One to beam in"

Oku grabbed the device. Then he felt the beam took him to Sickbay. He saw the change of place as he was transported. Then he was there in Sickbay, with a hand holding the device and the other one pressing the wound. Bleeding was hard. Then he saw Dr. Ramius approaching to him as he fainted. Before he lost consciousness, he gave Ramius the device and pointed the wound. Then, we'll see.

(to be continued)

Joint post by Drs. Oku Ramin and William Ramius