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"Your ice cream is going to melt." a familiar voice said from behind him.
"It adds flavor." Brett said without lifting his gaze from the stars outside. He finally looked up to see who was talking to him. Kat stood there with a weird smile on her face.
"I know that smirk on your face Kat, what are you smiling about?" Brett asked, not sure what to think.
"Someone wants to see you." She smirked
"Who?" he raised an eyebrow
"You'll see" she said playfully. "Come on." she took his hand and pulled him out the door.
Kat took him all the way to sickbay where Mary-Kate was waiting on her sickbed. She was sitting up and smiling. She got up and ran to hug him. Brett greeted her with a huge smile.
Brett smiled wider than ever. "It's been a long time hasn't it MK"
"Too long Brett" she said finishing the hug. Brett noticed a cut on her forehead what was very red.
"Where'd you get that cut? How many times did I tell you not to wrestle with shivans on the hologram deck." He joked
She laughed at the comment and explained that she didn't remember where she got it. She thought it was maybe when they knocked her out or something. Brett didn't pay too much attention to it.
"How long before you can leave sickbay?" Brett wanted to know
"We have catching up to do don't we" she agreed. She looked to the doctor that said she could go whenever she wanted. Kat said she had duties to perform so she left them. Brett and Mary-Kate walked down the corridors.
"You should have seen Ashley when we were planning who would do what. She was so determined to be part of the boarding party that not even the Commodore (highest-ranking officer) couldn't have stopped her." he laughed. Mary-Kate laughed louder.
"Yep, same old Ashley. How's Jessica?" she wondered
"She's the same as ever. Work 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. Her job doesn't give her much time for anything else. I keep telling her she's going to work herself crazy, but she's determined to prove herself. To be honest, she's becoming a ghost around here." he said
"Well, I'll have to fix that now won't I." she grinned
"Many have tried, many have failed. If you do it, I'll make a legend out of you!" Brett joked again.
They proceeded to an elevator that would take them to the mess hall so they could talk some more. Mary-Kate started to have a headache. She thought she was about to collapse so she held onto Brett's shoulder. Her head was spinning.
"MK, what is it?" Brett asked with concern
"It's.... It’s nothing" Mary-Kate tried to convince him. Not seeing anything more to be worried about, Brett and Mary-Kate continued their stroll. They entered the elevator and Mary-Kate punched in the button for the mess hall. While in the elevator, Mary-Kate's headaches started again. Brett was about to make the elevator go back to sickbay deck but Mary-Kate waved her hand to show him she was ok.
"The doctor said I'd feel these head-aches for a while. I'm fine..., which is more than I can say for you" she got up and threw Brett out of the Elevator doors which had just opened as they arrived at the mess hall deck. Brett went flying into the wall on the other side of the hall.
After Brett recovered from the initial shock, he got up. "Was it something I said?" Brett wanted to know.
"No, I just don't like you" she said coldly as she sent a kick to meet Brett face. He went on a little trip into another wall hitting his head. Brett did not like this too much, so he tried to do the next best thing, try to talk.
"MK, I don't want to hurt you." he said raising his arms to a horizontal position.
"But, I do." Mary-Kate said as she threw he fist at Brett's chest.
Noticing his strategy was not working very well, he tried defending himself without hurting Mary-Kate. When Mary-Kate tried to hit him again, he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. "Mary-Kate, stop, please." he pleaded.
Mary-Kate ignored him and got her arm free, took Brett's arm and flipped him. He landed on the floor on his back. "Ok, that didn't go as I planned." he said to himself. He didn't know how to get through this. Mary-Kate didn't give him a chance to think.
Ashley was close by and heard someone getting the living snot beat out of him. She saw Mary-Kate beating Brett up. She ran towards Mary-Kate and gave her a karate chop to the neck, knocking her out.
"Hey! It really does work." Ashley said as she looked at her hand. Brett was just waking up from his short nap, on the floor in the corridor, with a pounding headache.
"Did you get the license number of that bus that hit me?" Brett said disoriented and having vision problems, he was seeing double. "Ashley! Mary-Kate is right beside you!." he yelled and stumbling while attempting to run away.
“Brett! It’s ok. Mary-Kate is knocked out., you must be seeing double.” Ashley said, "I think you should go see the doctor." she insisted. Brett went along, with the help of a passing ensign. Ashley took Mary-Kate, also being helped by a junior officer.
Commander Stacey was called to sickbay to find out what was going on. So far, only a few facts were known. The facts were that Mary-Kate just got back from being a prisoner on a rogue Orion cruiser and that she beat up her good friend a few minutes ago. Brett finally started getting back to normal. Commander Stacey took the opportunity to talk to him to find out what happened. Jessica went with them since she had questions of her own to ask.
Jessica started out the interrogation with her first question "Was there anything strange with her before the attack?"
Brett looked at her. It was almost like she read his mind "Yeah, she was complaining of head-aches. But, she said that the doctor said she would feel them for a while and it was completely normal."
Jessica looked at him and then her dad. "But Brett, she never saw the doctor. I was the one that treated her.
"Well, something is definitely not right here. What about that bump on her head?" the commander asked his daughter.
"Nothing as far as I could see. It didn't look that important at the time." Jessica said
"Well, I could see that." Brett said "But now it's a little more important. How soon can you check her out?"
"Right away." Jessica said as she left to examine the still unconscious Mary-Kate.
Back in sickbay, Jessica was about to begin the examination. Ashley was called in incase Mary-Kate decided to go on a throwing spree again. Jessica used a medical scanner on the wound and she got a strange reading. She went into the maintenance closet. Ashley looked at her funny. Jessica came back with a strange object Ashley recognized as a metal detector.
"Did Mary-Kate attack you when I wasn't here and you hit your head on something?" Ashley asked with a confused look on her face.
"Nope" Jessica said absent-mindedly. She scanned the cut and the detector beeped. "Just as I thought. She has an implant. That's what's caused her to attack Brett."
"Is there any way of removing it?" Ashley asked
"I'd have to do research. I'll get back to you as soon as I know something."
"I'll have a security team inside the doors incase anything should happen."
Jessica nodded and Ashley left the room.
Ashley went to the mess hall to visit Kat, whom had been on her feet all day. Kat was reading some leftover paperwork from what used to be mountains of paper on her desk. Ashley sat down and sighed.
"Hard day?" Kat asked
"Almost as hard as yours." Ashley replied
"By the look on your face, I'd say it was harder. What's wrong?" Kat asked, putting down her pad. Kat and Ashley usually didn't discuss personal matters with eachother, but they were always ready to listen to the other.
"It's Mary-Kate" she began "she attacked Brett today."
Kat couldn't believe it. "I knew he believed strongly against hitting women but there is also something called self-defense."
"I don't think she gave him a chance. He was banged up pretty bad too. What I don't get is that Mary-Kate would never attack Brett. I later found out Mary-Kate has an implant in her head, put in by who knows and we don't even know if it can be removed." Ashley then let out a long, discouraged sigh.
"Don't be discouraged" Kat tried to comfort her. Ashley just looked at her friend. "Bad choice of words" Kat continued. "Look, we're going to find a way to help Mary-Kate. You have to believe that with all of your heart."
"I try" she confessed "But, if we can't help Mary-Kate, I don't know what I'll do."
"Don't think like that. We will help Mary-Kate and that's all there is too it." Kat said with determination.
Ashley got up, thanked Kat and walked off in deep thought.
