In this chapter I introduce a new character, Ensign Kylie Golan, which was created by Ihaveaglitch

Medical Deck

The number crewmen and lancers injured in Harpers rampage were relatively few in comparison to what they could have been Trance mused as she tended those with the most serious wounds. Not only that, none of the injuries were very serious and none were life threatening. Evie, ensign Kylie Golan and ensign Terra Jardonne were treating those with minor injuries. Of the three Evie was the most skilled and was ready for promotion. She had all the skills necessary all she lacked was confidence in those skills. Ensign Jardonne was progressing as expected but it was ensign Golan who had Trance puzzled. She had the potential to be an exceptional medical officer but she wasn't making the effort that was needed to accomplish it, Trance mused while watching the three after finishing with her latest patient. Trance hoped that they would soon subdue Harper without injuring him, because she knew the longer his rampage went on the greater the chances of him being seriously injured when captured. As she was thinking that she heard Lancer McGrady's voice come over the intraship communicator, "Trauma team report to computer core entrance stat." When Trance heard that she knew without a doubt that it was Harper who had been injured.

"Evie, you take care of the rest of the patients while Kylie preps for severe trauma. Terra I want you to get a couple Maria bots and a litter and meet me there ASAP while I go handle this." Trance said to them as she grabbed a trauma kit and headed out of the med deck. She knew that she could get there faster than anyone else on duty in medical. She could easily run faster than her human assistants, if necessary she could run almost as fast as Rommie. She could get there even faster if she had to but she knew it wouldn't make any difference this time.

As she arrived at the computer core Dylan and Beka had just arrived.'Careful, you almost got here too fast,' she said to herself. She knelt down beside Harper and pulled the portable scanner from the kit. As she scanned him Jardonne and the rest of the team arrived. The scanner told a grim story. Harper's respiratory system had shut down and his cardio-pulmonary system was fibrillating. He was dying, but there was still time to save him. "Respirator" she called out while she started preparing the cardio stimulator in her kit. Ensign Jardonne responded quickly to the order, placing the respirator she had already started pulling out onto his face. A few seconds later Trance had the cardio stimulator set for use to correct the erratic heartbeat that was killing him. When she attached it to his chest and activated it his body jerked violently a couple times then lay still once again. As the grey pallor left his face Trance checked the scanner which showed that his vitals signs were stabilizing. As Trance gave a sigh of relief she became aware of the stares of everyone around them. Speaking loud enough for all of them to hear she said, "Ensign Jardonne he's stabilized enough for you to get him to med deck now. I will be there as soon as I find out what happened."

When she said that she heard a collective sigh of relief from everyone. The irrepressible Mr. Harper was well liked by everyone in the crew. If he had died it would have been a serious blow the crew's morale. She stood and turned towards Dylan and Beka. "What happened here," she asked them.

"I was about to ask that question myself." Dylan responded and looked towards McGrady.

Lancer First Class McGrady felt a great weight lift from her shoulder when she heardTrance say 'he's stabilized enough for you to get him to med deck now'. She liked the chief engineer just as everyone else did, she even likeed his corny jokes that he liked to tell. So when Captain Hunt looked at her after Trance asked what had happened, she took a deep breath then relayed to them what had happened. She hoped that Trance could fix whatever was wrong with Harper.

As Dylan, Beka and Trance headed towards the medical deck, Trance said to them "I gotta hurry." and quickly left them behind without seeming to be running very fast at all. Neither Dylan nor Beka were surprised by this. After almost three years with her they were used to the fact that it seemed like Trance could appear out of thin air when you weren't watching.

"Have you ever found out how she does that?" Dylan asked Beka.

"Nope, and every time I have ask she always manages to change the subject some how." she replied curtly and started walking faster towards the medical deck.

Dylan thought about catching up with her but then decided not to since it seemed like she was still mad at him now that the emergency was over. "Andromeda" Dylan said.

"Yes captain," Andromeda's voice answered via his subdermal com link.

"Are you sure that there is nothing in Harpers personal log that might help us understand what is going on?"

"I can no longer answer that question Dylan."

"What do you mean you can no longer answer that question, did he lock you out of his personal log?"

"No, but ever since he made himself invisible to me his personal log has been invisible also. It is as if it no longer exists, but there is no evidence that it has been deleted."

"Do you think he found out about the order I gave giving you access to his personal log?"

"No, I don't think so. If he had I think he would have simply locked me out while letting me still see it."

"Good, at least that is one less problem that I have to deal with right now," Dylan said with a sigh of relief.

"No Dylan, you still have to deal with it and the sooner the better." Andromeda said in a tone of voice that made him stop in mid step. 'What did I do to get even Andromeda mad at me?' Dylan asked himself, wondering if this situation could get any worse than it already was. As he started walking again he realized that if he didn't figure out 'what he should have done a long time ago' was, it would only get worse.

Back in Medical Deck

Evie had just finished cleaning a 15 centimeter long gash on the leg of a lancer who had been hit with a piece of shrapnel, which had been saved for examination later. Her patient was a heavy worlder and the gash would heal rapidly on its own, she was about to seal it with an artificial skin bandage when Harper was brought into Med Deck. Evie almost left her patient to run over to him but when she saw Trance come in right after him she decided not to. Evie turned back to her patient and apologized to her while she applied the bandage. The lancer smiled and said "Don't worry about it, I would have rushed over there if it were my boyfriend on that stretcher."

Trance noticed the look on Evie's face as she entered the med deck and knew that Evie would be too distracted by her concern for Harper to be able to work as effectively as she needed to. "Andromeda I need you to call in the next medical assistant on the duty roster to come in now instead of wating for the next shift to start." Trance paused as she saw that Harper was being transferred to the examination table. "Kylie I need you to relieve Evie and take over on any patients she is working on." As soon as she finished speaking with Kylie, Trance turned her attention back to Harper and his scan results. The results showed that although there had been a fair amount of damage to his nervous system it was still functional, and no irreparable damage had been inflicted. The overload shunts had done their job and kept his brain from being fried by the energy that the data port had conducted.

"Terra, I want you to administer some nanobots to repair the damage to his nervous system," Trance said as she took a closer look at his dataport. "And get somebody to fix his dataport too while I take a closer look at these readings." What they showed worried her, a lot. His brain was still very active but his body was responding as if he were in a coma. He should be at least concious with readings like these.

As Trance and her team worked on Harper Dylan, Beka and Rommie arrived. As Evie was about to take a seat in the office where she could still watch them work, when Rommie went to her side put an arm around her shoulder and said "Come on lets get out of here so you can clear your head."

"But what if he needs my help?"

"If they need you all they have to do is ask. Don't worry about him Trance has everything under control, besides I overheard her say that Harper hasn't suffered any permanent injuries."