Tegan Chronicles STV Style 1
Line of Fire
12
"I need to get a better medical history on you." The doctor spoke about an hour after Janeway had left.
Tegan was sitting up on the bed with her knees pulled up and her chest resting forward against her thighs. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What do you need to know?"
"Any preexisting illnesses?"
"Nope." She shrugged.
He looked at her curiously, he wasn't as good at reading people as the Captain, but he was pretty sure she wasn't being entirely truthful. "You can trust me."
"What's there to entrust you with?" She sighed. The analgesic she had let him give her was doing little to help her head.
"You're still having pain."
"There's a genius born every minute." She didn't have the bite she did earlier but the sarcasm was definitely there.
"I can give you something stronger." He reserved his own sarcasm for a more appropriate time. He knew they would never get anywhere if they kept throwing witty quips at one another.
"Later if it gets worse." They were both pretty certain it would. After a beat or two Tegan broke into the silence; "Are there any medical conditions that would keep someone from continuing to work aboard Voyager?"
He knew she was hiding something. "I guess it would depend on the illness and if it could be treated. We can treat most illnesses now. Epilepsy is very treatable, though we typically don't let epileptics run the helm or pilot shuttles. Diabetes is curable, as are a number of other ailments that weren't in your…"
"Timeline." Tegan finished when he seemed unable to find the best word.
"Right, so what's the medical condition?" He watched her lay back and stare up at the ceiling.
"Nothing, there isn't one." She reasoned it wasn't really a medical condition but rather a side effect of the two different naquada proteins in her body reacting with one another. She was also certain that she had flashed her eyes and been seen doing so, she didn't imagine Janeway was one to get physical with her crew and the security officer posted at the door only further enforced her thinking. "I don't have any 'medical' conditions. I had a temporary emergency tracheostomy done in the field once, and I've had multiple fractures."
"These are important things to note." He commented dryly as she sat up a little too quickly and had to hold on to the side of the bed to steady herself.
"Why don't you just ask Janeway for access to my medical records from earth?"
"I did and despite most of your military records being there she says your medical file has been completely purged."
"Huh." She smiled tightly and laid back down this time rolling on her side with her back facing him. "Must be classified then."
"What's classified?" He stepped around to the other side of the bed.
"My head hurts, do you mind?" She closed her eyes effectively shutting him out.
"We will finish this conversation later."
Janeway walked in after making sure things were quiet on the bridge for swing shift and whispered to the EMH. "Is she sleeping?"
"Pretending." He made a face.
"How do you know?" Tegan didn't move anything but her mouth.
He gave the Captain a smug look. "My point exactly."
"I think your bedside manner could use some more tweaking."
"As could your ability to be a patient."
"I am a doctor, not a patient." Tegan winced as she sat up.
Janeway flinched slightly when she saw the hint of pain even as she watched what she acknowledged as the soldier in Tegan push it behind a door where she was determined to keep it. "Doctor can't you give her something for pain?"
"She won't let me give her anything more than a mild analgesic and I had to fight to get her to take it. I don't know how much it is helping her pain but it is at least helping to combat the edema." He let out a dramatic sigh. "If she would let me give her something strong she might heal faster."
"How are her electrolyte levels?" She noticed the IV equipment was gone.
"They're stable, for now."
"Captain." Tegan drew her attention.
"Yes?" She lifted her head to her but didn't step any closer.
"About earlier…"
"It's water under the bridge. Your electrolytes were out of balance and you were in a lot of discomfort, I'm willing to chalk it up to that this time." She didn't think the young woman was used to apologizing and she wanted to wait until an apology was fully in order to hear one from her. "I don't want to hear anything else about it."
"Yes ma'am."
"Doctor I need some time alone with her." She turned and dismissed the security detail with no more than an expression and then looked back at the doctor who was still standing there. "If we talk about anything pertinent to her medical care presently or for future reference I will pass it along."
"Of course you will. My apologies Captain."
"How come you never apologize to me?" Tegan asked.
He looked at her a shrugged. "Computer deactivate program."
Janeway stepped up to the bed as Tegan swung her legs off the side. She had gotten the doctor to replicate a pair of navy blue surgical scrubs. Janeway recognized them from an old series Tom got her hooked on called "Grey's Anatomy." She thought it was interesting how even though she didn't need one Tegan still insisted on wearing a white lab coat over her uniform when she was working in sickbay or one of the med labs. "I need to talk to you about something that happened earlier, and I expect you to be completely honest."
She tensed at the words. "I haven't lied to you yet Captain."
Janeway's head tilted for a second and her left brow dipped momentarily before her face returned to a neutral state. "Everything is relative?"
A small smile slipped onto Tegan's lips. "Precisely."
"Well this discussion shouldn't be subjective."
Tegan moved her head slightly and let out a quick breath.
"I'm just going to come out and ask the first question." Janeway steeled herself for whatever answer she received. It wasn't like it would matter if the answer was negative. "Are you human?"
Tegan exhaled a short breath through her nose that almost sounded like an interested huh before the faintest grin pulled at one corner of her mouth. She wondered why the doctor couldn't be here for this, except maybe Janeway was playing toward her comfort level. "You've seen my DNA."
"Precisely, which is why I ask. The doctor found evidence that your DNA had been altered prior to your birth."
"Science sure has come a long way since the turn of the 21st century." Tegan stalled for a second. "I am 100% human and yes my DNA was altered in vitro."
"But they didn't have that kind of technology." Janeway shifted her weight as she studied Tegan's features.
"You have access to my military record." It was the easiest way for Janeway to get her answers, at least the easiest way as far as Tegan was concerned.
"There are huge gaps in your military record, and your medical file is nonexistent."
"Yeah, the doctor mentioned that. I wonder what's up with that. It must be classified." She refrained from saying too bad.
"Classified or not, I need the information I am asking for." She didn't want to play the rank card or the fact they were in the Delta Quadrant. She turned sideways and leaned her hip against the bed close enough that she could feel the heat of Tegan's body radiating against her outer thigh.
Tegan hated being put under a microscope and yet she knew it was inevitable. "It's a long story."
"I've got time."
"Nobody has that much time." There was no way Tegan was going to share the whole story of her scarred past. "I'll give you the nutshell version, pertinent information only."
Janeway nodded. That was all she really needed, for now.
Tegan was quiet for several minutes while she decided how to most precisely deliver the information. "My mom was abducted by an alien geneticist against his reigning government's permission. This alien altered my DNA and the DNA of fourteen others. Only five of us made it through gestation, two boys and three girls. The other two girls died before they reached age two, one of the boys made it to six and the other boy made it to puberty. I was the lone survivor and in my late 20s I was abducted by the same alien race who found me again and they saved me. I was told that I was dying when they found me. They filled me in on what I just shared and that the experiment was to alter human DNA to make it so the Goa'uld could no longer blend with us."
"Well according to what I was able to read, it sounds like it worked." Janeway moved her hand to the bed beside her hip.
"Yeah and it made me one of the most hunted humans in the universe when a Goa'uld put a bounty on my head because she knew what I was capable of. It's how I ultimately ended up losing my arm, another Goa'uld wanted to know why Nirrti had a price on my head and of course we couldn't tell her."
Janeway put her hand on her shoulder.
"Was that all?" She knew it wasn't. She knew exactly what the good Captain wanted to asked, what she needed ask.
"No." Janeway deliberated if now was the best time to ask. "Are you up for one more question?"
She wanted to say no just to avoid the subject. It wouldn't be a complete lie. Her head hurt like the devil himself was trying to build a new level of hell inside it. But it was just putting off the inescapable. "Just one?"
Janeway nodded.
"Ok."
"Your eyes?"
"What about my eyes?" Tegan flashed them long enough to make the normally unshakable Janeway take a step back. She gently grabbed her wrist and blinked, her eyes returning to normal. "Steady," she spoke just above a whisper, "I don't bite."
Janeway shivered at the thought just before Tegan released the reassuring grip she had.
"Not normally anyway." She shook her head and the unbidden thought from her head. "Do you want to know why or how?"
Janeway quietly cleared her throat and stepped back up. She didn't see anything threatening in Tegan's demeanor and she wasn't afraid of her, just startled. "Both."
"That's two questions." Tegan raised an eyebrow. "I assume you read the reports that I was 'infected' with a Goa'uld symbiote on two occasions. One of those was a really evil Goa'uld it actually devoured its twin, and the other was a good Goa'uld called a Tok'ra. Evidently the two symbiotes had a different genetic makeup because there are actually two types of naquada in my system and when they interact my eyes light up.
"I'm not really sure what makes them interact, just that when I'm extremely mad or in a lot of pain it happens, and that if I concentrate on it I can make it happen."
"When we were in the astrometrics lab, you did it then."
Tegan nodded. "I had hoped you didn't notice, my arm started to hurt really bad before I could brace myself for it."
"Thank you." Janeway patted her leg.
Tegan grabbed her nose.
"Hey?"
"I'm ok." Tegan held her breath for a second. "It'll pass."
"You need to let the doctor give you something." She rubbed Tegan's shoulder gently before stepping back. "Computer activate the emergency medical hologram."
"Is that an order?" Tegan's voice sounded stuffy as she lifted her head and pulled her hand away.
"Does it need to be?" Janeway's eyes widened. "You're bleeding."
Tegan looked at her hand. "Well, I'll be."
"She had a minor nose bleed earlier." The doctor walked over with some gauze to staunch the bleeding. "I believe it is from the trauma."
"Makes sense." Janeway stepped back. "I think she agreed to take something for the pain."
"Tegan?" The Doctor asked.
"Two against one, looks like I'm out numbered."
"It is your decision." He reminded her.
"I think its best." She debated telling both Janeway and the doctor the reason her potassium level dropped had to do with her eyes glowing and that there was another side effect if her potassium went too low, but she figured they would find out soon enough. She would enjoy not having restrictions put on her activities until that day.