The shuttle pod from the Ronin approached
the station with Lieutenant Tricia McMillan inside, held in stasis about twenty
hours after being launched from the heavily damaged Ronin.
As soon as the pod had been recovered, Tricia was quickly transferred to the
station's Infirmary. Although her injuries were serious, once she'd received
medical attention, they were no longer life threatening.
Commander Owens, the station commander was talking with the station's chief medical officer.
"What's her status Doctor ?" She asked.
"She took a severe blow to the head, we can fix the physical damage to her skull and most of the damage to her brain, along with her other injuries. However, the CT scan shows that her brain activity is highly erratic. She's got high brain activity in areas of her brain like I've never seen before. If she were part Vulcan or Betazoid, I'd maybe expect these results, but she's one hundred percent human." The Doctor replied. "For the moment, she's stable but I'd like to have her transferred to Earth ASAP, Starfleet medical is far better equipped than we are to treat her. All we can do is keep her sedated."
"Is she really fit enough to travel ?" Commander Owens asked.
"By keeping her sedated, we're trying to manage the brain activity. I'd not normally send a patient on a long space journey under heavy sedation, but it 's the only way." The Doctor replied.
"What about sending her back in a stasis pod ?" Commander Owens replied.
The Doctor thought for a moment, before replying.
"That would be another option Commander, by putting her in stasis it would reduce her brain activity. She'd need close monitoring though." The Doctor replied.
"Then prepare her for transport. The USS Kohlinar is leaving for Earth in just under twelve hours." Commander Owens ordered.
"Isn't that the vessel that Captain Evans is travelling back on." The Doctor asked. "Would you like me to inform him of the transport, after all he his her commanding officer."
"Not any more." Commander Owen replied. "Let's not worry the Captain."
Meanwhile, Tricia was 'floating' in the corner of the Doctor's office, listening to the conversation.
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice in her head calling out her name. "Tricia, I can hear you, I can ease your pain." The voice said, then it was gone. Somehow Tricia knew the voice, trusted it, but at the same time it felt totally alien to her.
Then another voice came into her head. This voice was much more familiar.
"Head back to the L-class planet Tricia, let's pick up the crew of the Ronin. We should get our crew off there as quickly as possible." Commander Markos (D) ordered.
Tricia knew that the voice had been talking directly to her, but how. She was here on Deep Space 11, floating in the air.
I was that realisation, that she was 'floating' above the ground that brought her back to reality.
Alarms started to go off as Trica started to have a fit on the bio-bed.
Quickly the Doctor arrived from the office and started barking orders.
"She's having some sort of seizure, brain activity is way up." The Doctor stated.
Tricia opened her eyes for the first time in over a day and screamed "NO. They're going to capture the crew. Commander Markos, we must get to the stranded crew before the duplicates do." She said, before the Doctor injected her with a strong sedative, sending Tricia back into the word of the unconscious.
"Her vital signs are stabilising." The Doctor said.
"Prepare her for her trip Doctor." Commander Owen ordered. "What do you think she was taking about ?. Duplicates, stranded crew, it just doesn't make sense."
[Operations to Commander Owens.]
"Owens here." The Commander replied.
[We're detecting a vessel approaching at warp one, heading in our direction. It's coming from the general direction of the Ronin.]
"What's their ETA ?" She asked.
[About fourteen hours at their current speed.]
"Keep me informed. Owens out."
The USS Kohlinar will be gone by the time the Ronin arrives. I guess we'll have to ask the Ronin's crew, see if they can make any sense of the Lieutenant's outcry.
Tricia was once more 'floating' around the room before slowly drifting back to her 'sleeping' body. She realised that there was more to this out of body experience than she could comprehend.
