Sickbay, U.S.S. Atlas
It wasn’t even noon and Lieutenant (j.g.) Helena Yuen, the ship’s chief medical officer, had already seen eighteen patients all with similar symptoms—headaches, memory gaps, unsettled stomachs, fatigue, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound—that had she not known better she would’ve suspect an Academy kegger. The anniversary celebrations the night before had seen some of the crew cut loose and imbibe one or two real alcohol libations, but definitely not enough for the sort of reactions she’d been seeing, especially not among those who had stuck with synthahol or just soft drinks. She’d also had a handful checking to ensure their contraceptive injections were up to date, another commonality that was hard to explain.
Something was definitely going on aboard.
The doors opened and she looked up to see Captain Keller and Commander Celan enter, the former looking very similar to a few of her patients earlier in the day. The XO flashed her a bright smile as they stepped into her office and for a brief second Yuen found her vision blurry as a haze of brain fog seemed to creep into her mind. She closed her eyes for a second and shook her head to clear it.
“You wanted to see us, Doctor?” enquired Keller.
“Yes sir. Can I ask, are you two feeling alright after last night?”
Celan rose an eyebrow in curious surprise and nodded. “Fine here. Captain?”
“A little tired, but none the worse for wear,” he said, forcing a smile. “Why do you ask?”
“I’ve had over a quarter of the crew come in this morning complaining of a number of similar symptoms, with headaches and memory loss being top among them. It would seem that all of them can’t remember much of last night.”
“A quarter?” Keller exclaimed. “Do we have some sort of contagion aboard?”
“I’m not sure yet, but the pattern is definitely alarming. It may be a technical problem to do with the replicator that affected all the drinks ordered from it, but that doesn’t explain those who had non-replicated beverages. I’ve asked Lieutenant Siraak to have someone check the system, just in case. I also have corpsman Volaar taking air samples from the lounge and few other parts of the ship, to see if there is any sort of airborne pathogen at work.
“I thought it best to inform you both now, just in case this does end up turning into something more serious,” she concluded.
Keller nodded. “Thank you for that, Doctor. Is there any other resources you need, or any further steps that you think we should take?”
Yuen thought about it for a moment then nodded. “We’ve taken a few samples from the planet for further study, I’d like to run some scans of my own.”
“All the samples would’ve gone through the transporters biofilters, surely that would’ve screened out anything harmful?” queried Celan.
“The biofilters can only screen for what it already knows, anything outside the systems parameters might not be detected because it won’t know to scan for them.”
“Run whatever tests you need, Doctor, let’s make sure this isn’t the beginnings of something worse. Keep us apprised of any developments.”
“Aye sir,” she replied. “And if the two of you start feeling any symptoms, please let me know.”
Keller’s cheeks flushed as he uttered a hasty, “Of course, Doctor,” before heading for the exit, Celan following a few paces behind.
As she watched them leave, a wavy of dizziness washed over her.
* * * * *
Botany Laboratory, U.S.S. Atlas
The botany lab aboard was really just a small nook adjacent to the arboretum, though it was surprisingly well set up to study the various plants, flowers, vegetables, and fungi the crew might encounter as they surveyed planets. Petty Officer Ngoy kept is workspace in immaculate condition, even if the exobotanist and ecologist always seemed to have dirt under his fingernails, so all the samples he’d returned to the Atlas with were clearly labelled and grouped together well away from everything else.
Yuen ran her tricorder over each and every one of them, but the device beeped at her, the screen displayed negative scan results. She turned to the non-com, who stood patiently by the entrance.
“Did you take any more samples?”
“There was the pollen,” he thought aloud.
“What pollen?”
He pushed off from the bulkhead and approached the microscope, where he removed what he’d been looking at and immediately picked up another slide and place it on the device, before peering into the senor hood.
“Commander Celan and Specialist Rellon were helping me with my samples, when one of the flowers released a cloud of pollen and they were both covered in it. I took a scan at the time and found nothing harmful, even though they did inhale some of it they both said they felt fine—they didn’t even sneeze,” he explained as he squinted into the microscope.
He stepped back and gestured for her to take a look. “I just assumed that the species was similar to the ecballium elaterium, or squirting cucumber, on Earth that ejects it seeds at the slightest touch.”
She looked at the pollen under the high magnification, though couldn’t see anything untoward about it. “Can you send me all the test results you have?”
“Of course, Doctor.”
“Thank you, Mr Ngoy, that’s been very insightful.”
Heading out the lad she hurried through the lush arboretum, the cacophony of exotic scents enticing her to remain and enjoy the green space much as she did following Crewman Randhawa’s yoga class, but she quickly stepped back into the sterile grey of the ships corridors and headed back up to the saucer. On her way, she tapped her combadge and summoned both Celan and Rellon to meet her in sickbay.
* * * * *
Sickbay, U.S.S. Atlas
Stepping into the ward, Celan was curious to find Petty Officer Rellon sitting on one of the biobeds and Doctor Yuen running a scan of him wearing a breathing mask. Other than the CMO and her fellow Deltan the room was empty.
“Doctor?” she said slowly, drawing Yuen’s attention. “Is there a problem?”
“There might be. If I could ask you to take a seat on the bed, I want to run a scan first just to confirm my suspicions.”
She frowned, her concern mounting, but she hopped up onto the bed next to Rellon’s. The exobiologist looked just as perplexed and worried as she felt, though likewise kept quiet as the CMO ran her scans. Though it would only have been a minute, two at the very most, to perform the task it felt excruciatingly longer, with every whir, beep and chirp making her heart beat that little but faster.
Yuen closed the device and sighed heavily.
“What’s the prognosis, Doc?”
“You’ll both remember being sprayed with pollen from a plant yesterday morning on the surface, correct?” Yuen began. Celan and Rellon looked at one another then back at the physician and nodded.
“Leaving the fact that you were both exposed to an unknown substance and didn’t think to inform your doctor,” she began, sounding like a disappointed mother, “you both inhaled the pollen, though it did neither of you any harm I’m happy to say. However, it has had an affect on your body chemistry, in particular your pheromone glands, causing a sudden surge in their production and potency.”
“Doctor, you of all people will know that Deltans who enter Starfleet take regular pheromone inhibitors.”
“This pollen has effectively nullified the inhibitors as well as intensifying your pheromones. The pair of you have been dosing the crew without even realising it, which seems to have come to a head last night.”
“By the Goddess!” Celan stammered. “So, everyone feeling so rough today is thanks to us?”
Yuen nodded, giving them both a sad smile. “Technically, yes, but seeing as how you can’t control it then you really can’t blame yourselves. Neither of you had any way of knowing what that pollen had done to you, or in turn what you were doing to the rest of us.”
“I’ve felt fine, no sign of anything out of the ordinary,” admitted Rellon. “Even Nalia hasn’t shown any of the symptoms.”
Celan would’ve thought if anyone would’ve been feeling the effects of their hyper-stimulated body chemistry it would have been his mate, the only other Deltan onboard. She looked back at Yuen.
“How do we treat this?”
“We need to flush out your systems, to purge them of the pollen, after which your pheromone levels should return to normal and be controllable with a standard dose od inhibitors. We’ll then also need to do the same for the air in the ship, but now we know what we’re looking for then the environmental systems can filter it out. In the meantime, I’m going to recommend everyone wears a breathing mask.”
* * * * *
Captain’s log, supplemental.
Doctor Yuen and Chief Phillips were able to use the ships transporters to remove all traces of the pollen from Commander Celan and Petty Officers Rellon and Nalia, the latter of whom appears to have been a secondary contamination from her partner. The Atlas should be clear of the contaminated air within the next hour or two, so until then breathing masks remain mandatory for all crew—including the Saurians onboard.
No lasting damage seems to have been caused to anyone, though Doctor Yuen will continue to monitor the situation for a few days just to make sure.
* * * * *
Captain’s personal log, supplemental.
Despite what the official record may say with no lasting effects among the crew, I wish I could say the same of myself. I’m sure every officer that achieves the rank of captain will spend time trying to decide on just what sort of CO they will be, if they’ll rigidly stick with what they were taught in Moral and Ethical Issues of Command, or if they’ll try something different.
I was still trying to figure that out before I crossed that line. Going from being first officer to captain is a huge leap, with so much weighing on that one additional pip. Now that the buck stops with me, can I risk doubting myself or making selfish judgement calls if I get involved with someone under my command? Especially inside the Maelstrom, where we have no reinforcements, no safety net.
* * * * *
Captain’s Ready Room, U.S.S. Atlas
Stardate: 38324.5
The enunciator shattered the peace of Keller’s private office, where he stood and looked out the viewport, his forehead resting on the cool transparent aluminium. Though the air had been successfully cleared of the Deltan pheromones and he’d managed to get a decent nights sleep, he still felt as bad as he did the previous morning—a mixture of the symptoms lingering and a healthy dose of regrets and doubts added on for good measure.
He turned towards the door. “Enter.”
The panels parted and Htennak stood there, his hands clasped in front of him, looking a little sheepish.
“Counsellor, come in,” he said, trying desperately not to dwell on what had happened.
Htennak hesitated a moment before stepping inside and allowing the doors to close. He stood just inside the doorway, clearly feeling as Keller did—or at least he hoped so.
“The crew seems to be weathering this situation well, providing a funny story here and there, as well as a few others definitely getting closer than they once were, but there’s no resentment towards Celan or Rellon.”
He nodded. “Good. I’m glad.”
The Ktarian took another step closer to the desk. “The only person I’ve not really heard anything from, indeed who seems to be actively trying to avoid me is you, Captain.”
Keller felt his cheeks burn. He wanted to be anywhere else in that moment. Silently he hoped for a red alert.
None came.
“I…well…” he let out a pent up breath. “What do you want me to say, Counsellor? Thanks to some botanical and chemical mishap I wasn’t in my right mind and acted inappropriately?”
Htennak stepped closer again. “I never said it was inappropriate.”
“The rulebook would disagree.”
Another step. “Whereabouts?”
Keller frowned. “I’m sorry?”
“Whereabouts in the rulebook does it say that’s inappropriate? What regulation forbids a CO from pursing a relationship with a subordinate? If there some James T. Kirk clause in there that no one told me about?”
Despite the exasperation he felt in that moment, he couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “If I didn’t know better, Counsellor, I’d call that a romantic proposition.”
“And what if it was?” Htennak asked, taking the final step that brought him right up to the desk.
Keller’s grey eyes locked onto Htennak’s warm hazel ones, staring at one another separated by the curved dark wood table. In that quiet moment, the hum of the engines and the faint hiss of the life support system being the only hint at a world outside that room, Bruce Keller began to consider just what if.
* * * * *
END
It wasn’t even noon and Lieutenant (j.g.) Helena Yuen, the ship’s chief medical officer, had already seen eighteen patients all with similar symptoms—headaches, memory gaps, unsettled stomachs, fatigue, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound—that had she not known better she would’ve suspect an Academy kegger. The anniversary celebrations the night before had seen some of the crew cut loose and imbibe one or two real alcohol libations, but definitely not enough for the sort of reactions she’d been seeing, especially not among those who had stuck with synthahol or just soft drinks. She’d also had a handful checking to ensure their contraceptive injections were up to date, another commonality that was hard to explain.
Something was definitely going on aboard.
The doors opened and she looked up to see Captain Keller and Commander Celan enter, the former looking very similar to a few of her patients earlier in the day. The XO flashed her a bright smile as they stepped into her office and for a brief second Yuen found her vision blurry as a haze of brain fog seemed to creep into her mind. She closed her eyes for a second and shook her head to clear it.
“You wanted to see us, Doctor?” enquired Keller.
“Yes sir. Can I ask, are you two feeling alright after last night?”
Celan rose an eyebrow in curious surprise and nodded. “Fine here. Captain?”
“A little tired, but none the worse for wear,” he said, forcing a smile. “Why do you ask?”
“I’ve had over a quarter of the crew come in this morning complaining of a number of similar symptoms, with headaches and memory loss being top among them. It would seem that all of them can’t remember much of last night.”
“A quarter?” Keller exclaimed. “Do we have some sort of contagion aboard?”
“I’m not sure yet, but the pattern is definitely alarming. It may be a technical problem to do with the replicator that affected all the drinks ordered from it, but that doesn’t explain those who had non-replicated beverages. I’ve asked Lieutenant Siraak to have someone check the system, just in case. I also have corpsman Volaar taking air samples from the lounge and few other parts of the ship, to see if there is any sort of airborne pathogen at work.
“I thought it best to inform you both now, just in case this does end up turning into something more serious,” she concluded.
Keller nodded. “Thank you for that, Doctor. Is there any other resources you need, or any further steps that you think we should take?”
Yuen thought about it for a moment then nodded. “We’ve taken a few samples from the planet for further study, I’d like to run some scans of my own.”
“All the samples would’ve gone through the transporters biofilters, surely that would’ve screened out anything harmful?” queried Celan.
“The biofilters can only screen for what it already knows, anything outside the systems parameters might not be detected because it won’t know to scan for them.”
“Run whatever tests you need, Doctor, let’s make sure this isn’t the beginnings of something worse. Keep us apprised of any developments.”
“Aye sir,” she replied. “And if the two of you start feeling any symptoms, please let me know.”
Keller’s cheeks flushed as he uttered a hasty, “Of course, Doctor,” before heading for the exit, Celan following a few paces behind.
As she watched them leave, a wavy of dizziness washed over her.
* * * * *
Botany Laboratory, U.S.S. Atlas
The botany lab aboard was really just a small nook adjacent to the arboretum, though it was surprisingly well set up to study the various plants, flowers, vegetables, and fungi the crew might encounter as they surveyed planets. Petty Officer Ngoy kept is workspace in immaculate condition, even if the exobotanist and ecologist always seemed to have dirt under his fingernails, so all the samples he’d returned to the Atlas with were clearly labelled and grouped together well away from everything else.
Yuen ran her tricorder over each and every one of them, but the device beeped at her, the screen displayed negative scan results. She turned to the non-com, who stood patiently by the entrance.
“Did you take any more samples?”
“There was the pollen,” he thought aloud.
“What pollen?”
He pushed off from the bulkhead and approached the microscope, where he removed what he’d been looking at and immediately picked up another slide and place it on the device, before peering into the senor hood.
“Commander Celan and Specialist Rellon were helping me with my samples, when one of the flowers released a cloud of pollen and they were both covered in it. I took a scan at the time and found nothing harmful, even though they did inhale some of it they both said they felt fine—they didn’t even sneeze,” he explained as he squinted into the microscope.
He stepped back and gestured for her to take a look. “I just assumed that the species was similar to the ecballium elaterium, or squirting cucumber, on Earth that ejects it seeds at the slightest touch.”
She looked at the pollen under the high magnification, though couldn’t see anything untoward about it. “Can you send me all the test results you have?”
“Of course, Doctor.”
“Thank you, Mr Ngoy, that’s been very insightful.”
Heading out the lad she hurried through the lush arboretum, the cacophony of exotic scents enticing her to remain and enjoy the green space much as she did following Crewman Randhawa’s yoga class, but she quickly stepped back into the sterile grey of the ships corridors and headed back up to the saucer. On her way, she tapped her combadge and summoned both Celan and Rellon to meet her in sickbay.
* * * * *
Sickbay, U.S.S. Atlas
Stepping into the ward, Celan was curious to find Petty Officer Rellon sitting on one of the biobeds and Doctor Yuen running a scan of him wearing a breathing mask. Other than the CMO and her fellow Deltan the room was empty.
“Doctor?” she said slowly, drawing Yuen’s attention. “Is there a problem?”
“There might be. If I could ask you to take a seat on the bed, I want to run a scan first just to confirm my suspicions.”
She frowned, her concern mounting, but she hopped up onto the bed next to Rellon’s. The exobiologist looked just as perplexed and worried as she felt, though likewise kept quiet as the CMO ran her scans. Though it would only have been a minute, two at the very most, to perform the task it felt excruciatingly longer, with every whir, beep and chirp making her heart beat that little but faster.
Yuen closed the device and sighed heavily.
“What’s the prognosis, Doc?”
“You’ll both remember being sprayed with pollen from a plant yesterday morning on the surface, correct?” Yuen began. Celan and Rellon looked at one another then back at the physician and nodded.
“Leaving the fact that you were both exposed to an unknown substance and didn’t think to inform your doctor,” she began, sounding like a disappointed mother, “you both inhaled the pollen, though it did neither of you any harm I’m happy to say. However, it has had an affect on your body chemistry, in particular your pheromone glands, causing a sudden surge in their production and potency.”
“Doctor, you of all people will know that Deltans who enter Starfleet take regular pheromone inhibitors.”
“This pollen has effectively nullified the inhibitors as well as intensifying your pheromones. The pair of you have been dosing the crew without even realising it, which seems to have come to a head last night.”
“By the Goddess!” Celan stammered. “So, everyone feeling so rough today is thanks to us?”
Yuen nodded, giving them both a sad smile. “Technically, yes, but seeing as how you can’t control it then you really can’t blame yourselves. Neither of you had any way of knowing what that pollen had done to you, or in turn what you were doing to the rest of us.”
“I’ve felt fine, no sign of anything out of the ordinary,” admitted Rellon. “Even Nalia hasn’t shown any of the symptoms.”
Celan would’ve thought if anyone would’ve been feeling the effects of their hyper-stimulated body chemistry it would have been his mate, the only other Deltan onboard. She looked back at Yuen.
“How do we treat this?”
“We need to flush out your systems, to purge them of the pollen, after which your pheromone levels should return to normal and be controllable with a standard dose od inhibitors. We’ll then also need to do the same for the air in the ship, but now we know what we’re looking for then the environmental systems can filter it out. In the meantime, I’m going to recommend everyone wears a breathing mask.”
* * * * *
Captain’s log, supplemental.
Doctor Yuen and Chief Phillips were able to use the ships transporters to remove all traces of the pollen from Commander Celan and Petty Officers Rellon and Nalia, the latter of whom appears to have been a secondary contamination from her partner. The Atlas should be clear of the contaminated air within the next hour or two, so until then breathing masks remain mandatory for all crew—including the Saurians onboard.
No lasting damage seems to have been caused to anyone, though Doctor Yuen will continue to monitor the situation for a few days just to make sure.
* * * * *
Captain’s personal log, supplemental.
Despite what the official record may say with no lasting effects among the crew, I wish I could say the same of myself. I’m sure every officer that achieves the rank of captain will spend time trying to decide on just what sort of CO they will be, if they’ll rigidly stick with what they were taught in Moral and Ethical Issues of Command, or if they’ll try something different.
I was still trying to figure that out before I crossed that line. Going from being first officer to captain is a huge leap, with so much weighing on that one additional pip. Now that the buck stops with me, can I risk doubting myself or making selfish judgement calls if I get involved with someone under my command? Especially inside the Maelstrom, where we have no reinforcements, no safety net.
* * * * *
Captain’s Ready Room, U.S.S. Atlas
Stardate: 38324.5
The enunciator shattered the peace of Keller’s private office, where he stood and looked out the viewport, his forehead resting on the cool transparent aluminium. Though the air had been successfully cleared of the Deltan pheromones and he’d managed to get a decent nights sleep, he still felt as bad as he did the previous morning—a mixture of the symptoms lingering and a healthy dose of regrets and doubts added on for good measure.
He turned towards the door. “Enter.”
The panels parted and Htennak stood there, his hands clasped in front of him, looking a little sheepish.
“Counsellor, come in,” he said, trying desperately not to dwell on what had happened.
Htennak hesitated a moment before stepping inside and allowing the doors to close. He stood just inside the doorway, clearly feeling as Keller did—or at least he hoped so.
“The crew seems to be weathering this situation well, providing a funny story here and there, as well as a few others definitely getting closer than they once were, but there’s no resentment towards Celan or Rellon.”
He nodded. “Good. I’m glad.”
The Ktarian took another step closer to the desk. “The only person I’ve not really heard anything from, indeed who seems to be actively trying to avoid me is you, Captain.”
Keller felt his cheeks burn. He wanted to be anywhere else in that moment. Silently he hoped for a red alert.
None came.
“I…well…” he let out a pent up breath. “What do you want me to say, Counsellor? Thanks to some botanical and chemical mishap I wasn’t in my right mind and acted inappropriately?”
Htennak stepped closer again. “I never said it was inappropriate.”
“The rulebook would disagree.”
Another step. “Whereabouts?”
Keller frowned. “I’m sorry?”
“Whereabouts in the rulebook does it say that’s inappropriate? What regulation forbids a CO from pursing a relationship with a subordinate? If there some James T. Kirk clause in there that no one told me about?”
Despite the exasperation he felt in that moment, he couldn’t help but chuckle softly. “If I didn’t know better, Counsellor, I’d call that a romantic proposition.”
“And what if it was?” Htennak asked, taking the final step that brought him right up to the desk.
Keller’s grey eyes locked onto Htennak’s warm hazel ones, staring at one another separated by the curved dark wood table. In that quiet moment, the hum of the engines and the faint hiss of the life support system being the only hint at a world outside that room, Bruce Keller began to consider just what if.
* * * * *
END
