Commander William Riker of the Starship USS Enterprise groaned and coughed, his tall frame racking with the movements. Gasping for breath he waited in silence before sitting up in his bed, squinting in the darkness of his quarters. Blinking twice he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, before running a shaky hand through his sweat soaked hair and swinging his heavy legs over the side of the bed to touch the cool floor.
Standing up on shaky legs he stumbled for a second before righting himself and walked over to the small bathroom off the side of the bedroom. Opening the retractable sink and running the water, he leaned heavily on the sink cursing slightly as it bowed under his weight. Splashing cool water on his face, his body once again succumbed to another coughing fit.
Bending over the sink, Riker spat the excess liquid from the back of his throat in the basin before looking up at the mirror. He looked like absolute crap from where he stood. His blue eyes were bloodshot and his hair was everywhere, covered in a thin layer of sweat that also covered his skin.
The hollows of his cheeks were prominent and his skin so pale, he was close to the colour of Beverly Crusher's skin which was near porcelain. And he felt worse than he looked.
Dripping water over his pulse points on his wrist and the back of his neck, Riker groaned as the feelings of nausea unsettled in his stomach. Coughing again, he spat back down in the sink before rinsing his mouth out with water. Stopping suddenly he swore at the sight of red tainted water that was being washed down the drain.
Coughing, he looked down at his hand swearing again as his hand was covered with red sticky fluid.
Stumbling over to his bedside table, his fingers fumbled for his com badge knocking a couple of PADDS off. Pressing down he waited for the computer to up load his request.
'Riker to Crusher'
'Crusher here'
'Doctor could you come to my quarters, bring your medkit, please' Will slumped to the floor his legs finally giving out on him, his head hitting the bedside table on his way down. The sound reverberated through the com system, as blood began dripping down over his forehead.
'Will are you alright?' asked Beverly as she jumped out of bed and gathered up her medkit. She headed out of her quarters grabbing her robe to cover her nightgown.
'Beverly….' He passed out before he could finish his sentence.
Beverly Crusher stopped outside William Riker's quarters momentarily, before using her medical override to enter his quarters. The quarters were dark, reasonably clean for William Riker with only dirty dishes covering the table and some stray PADDS on the floor.
"Will?" asked Beverly as she headed towards his bedroom. "William?"
She gasped and ran over to his side as she rolled him over onto his side and ran her tricorder over his prone body. Slapping his comm badge that was still in his limp hand, "CRUSHER TO TRANSPORTER ROOM 2 MEDICAL EMERGENCY, TRANSPORT TWO TO SICKBAY IMMEDIATELY" she pressed her hand to the blood flow on his forehead and waited for the transporter to take hold.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Captain Jean-Luc Picard straightened his uniform as he walked quickly down the hallways towards Sickbay. The nightlife on the ship had sparked suddenly to life with Commander Riker suddenly falling violently ill, and Doctor Crusher was worried that other members of the crew were going to come down with it. She had quarantined the whole deck and had now had requested that all senior staff report to sickbay immediately for testing. Approaching the doors to sickbay he was nearly bowled over by an Ensign who was holding vials of what he assumed was blood before disappearing behind the Lab doors.
Quick footfalls behind him let him know that Counsellor Deanna Troi wasn't far behind him and he turned to look at her. She unlike him hadn't bothered to get change into her uniform; she was still dressed in her cream nightgown covered by a pale pink robe.
Entering Sickbay Picard entered cautiously in case of getting bowled over again by another medical staff member, Deanna following closely behind him. Just as Picard had expected the whole sickbay was full of crewmembers sitting on the various biobeds around the sickbay with medical staff buzzing around. Picard spotted Beverly Crusher in the midst of all the chaos and he grinned at her state of dress, definitely not standard uniform, scanning someone in her sleepwear consisting of pink satin pyjamas and a robe.
Marching over to her, he nodded at Geordie who was being scanned by Nurse Ogawa in the next biobed. The black man was sitting there silent as his visor had currently been confiscated by one of the nurses checking for the virus. Beverly turned towards them and smiled, though Picard could see the fatigue in her eyes and her stance. From what he had gathered from all the gossip is that Beverly didn't get to have any sleep before Will had called her and that she'd been in surgery all the night before he knew she had got at least 4 hours of sleep before the meeting in the morning.
"Captain, Counsellor" said Beverly nodding towards them "down the hall to your left are two rooms, one for each of you. Wait there and you'll be attended to by someone"
Captain Picard looked at her "We have private rooms now?" he asked
"Cargo Bay 2 and 3 have been changed into quarantined rooms Captain" said Beverly as she placed two folders in their hands. "Go!" she exclaimed as they looked at her peculiarly
Picard looked at her and nodded. He followed one of the nurses down the hallway towards his private room. Deanna however stayed behind with Beverly and waited patiently by her side as she followed her around the room.
"Dee go to your private room, you can't see him" said Beverly "he's in quarantine and so are you till further notice"
Deanna shot her a look "How about you?"
"I've been stripped, decontaminated and then decontaminated in my clothes, then given these pyjamas instead, still can't manage to get anyone to get me a uniform" said Beverly "I'm clean, Deanna I promise"
"But I'm not completely human, will it still affect me?" asked Deanna
"We don't know, we don't know anything right now" said Beverly running her hand through her hair "we have 10 scientists on it right now and once I'm done here, I'm going to Lab 3"
Deanna nodded and turned on her heel "If you go anywhere near Will's room, I will personally sedate you till we figure out if it's infectious or not" came Beverly's voice behind her.
Deanna stopped and turned back noticing the hard look on her best friend's face. She nodded slowly again and turned to head down the corridor towards the quarantine rooms. She headed down the long grey corridor noticing the doors, each having a name written on it before finding the door that said 'Counsellor Troi'
Opening it she entered the white room. The room was completely white with only a bed and a desk with a chair pushed in the corner. Sitting on the bed was plain blue sickbay dressing robe and a PADD.
Dear Counsellor Troi
You are under quarantine protocol till further notice. On the wall there is a blue button. If you began to feel overly tired, headaches, coughing fits, sneezing, and/or vomiting, press the button and immediate medical staff will be there to help you. Food and water will be provided for you, and a bathroom is located to your right.
Your quarantine should last for 36 hours, longer if you develop symptoms or if you come into contact with someone other than medical staff.
A medical officer will be there momentarily to asses you, if you have had any contact with Commander William Riker in the past 48 hours please notify medical staff.
Doctor Beverly Crusher M.D
Chief Medical Officer of USS Enterprise
Deanna sighed before sitting back down on the bed. It was going to be a long 36 hours.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Captain Picard waited patiently in his quarantine room standing by the desk, his hands clasped behind his back. He had been pleased with walking in here to find a stack of PADDS on his desk thankful for the medical staff and their generosity also with a cup of Earl Grey tea.
He looked up as the door opened admitting Beverly Crusher who he noted was still in pyjamas. She looked ruffled and overly tired and she pretty much collapsed on his bed.
"Your clear, Captain but your still here for another 10 hours just to make sure" she said lying back on the bed.
"What about you?" asked Picard standing up and looking over to her collapsed body
"I'm fine Captain, I've been scanned and tested, and I'm clean" said Beverly sitting up "being the first person at the scene I was the first to be quarantined"
Jean-Luc looked at the door as it opened and an Ensign in medical scrubs entered placing a tray of food on the table as well as another full of tea. He noted that there were two sets of plates on the tray and stood up to grab the food.
"Lunch is served" said Jean-Luc placing the plate on her stomach
"I'll eat it later, let me sleep" came Beverly's voice, muffled from her arm thrown over her face.
"Eat Beverly" said Jean-Luc sitting down
She sat up carefully trying not to displace the plate that was resting on her stomach before placing in on the floor and pulling a tricorder out of her pocket. She ran through the specks on the device and looked up at him and then back at the tricorder.
"Will's getting worst" said Beverly as she looked back at him, she sighed "I've got to go" she stood up and hurried quickly out of the room.
Jean-Luc looked up as she left the room, before looking back at his plate of food and the tricorder that rested on the bed.
Picking it up, he looked blankly at the small device trying to read the gibberish of medical terms and Latin objectives. Giving up he began looking at the diagrams displayed on the tricorder showing the DNA structure of a normal human next to what he assumed was Riker's. Even he, who was not trained Medical gibberish, could clearly see that there was a very big difference between the two specimens.
Placing the tricorder back on the bed, he looked down at the chicken soup that had been provided for him before turning slightly green. He knew Beverly would yell at him but right now eating just felt wrong, his first officer was sick and no one knew what was happening to him. Standing up he placed the bowl of soup on the chair before picking up Beverly's discarded plate off the floor and put that dish on the table.
Anger got the best of him and he slammed his hand on the tables counter, momentarily forgetting that the two cups of tea were still sitting on the trays. His hand connected with the edge of one of the trays, using momentum to flip the tray up and cover his hand with burning hot herbal tea.
Swearing, he shook his hand to try and get the excess tea off his hand, before grabbing the towel off the rack in the bathroom and holding it over his burning hand. Rushing into the small room, he activated the basin and let cool water run over his scolding hand. Sighing in relief he looked up at the reflection of himself in the mirror.
"What a day" he muttered
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO