Chapter 14

Nurse Chapel was the first one to report for her duty shift in sickbay that morning. She was a little early, but she had not slept well, so she had finally given up trying to sleep, showered, dressed, and had come on to work. Allowing the two night nurses to leave when she arrived, she spent the first few minutes of her shift as she always did, picking up instruments or charts that had strayed to parts of sickbay other than where they belonged, and putting them back in their proper places. Then, she wiped down the counters and tables with disinfectant. Housekeeping cleaned sickbay twice daily, and Dr. McCoy's standards of cleanliness were very high, so she knew they did a good job, but she also knew that where someone's health was concerned, there was no such thing as too clean. When she finished, she checked the bins for any paperwork that needed to be filed or copied or transcribed. She always spent a few minutes feeding data into the medical computer. Finally, pronouncing herself satisfied with her workspace and ready for the day's work, she pulled current patient charts and laid them out on the desk for the doctor scheduled on her watch, in this case Dr. Hernandez, to review.

She usually spent the next few minutes visiting patients, checking on the progress they made overnight, and making sure any new orders in their charts were being fulfilled and that they had anything they might need. She knew that Dr. Hernandez would want to visit them for himself, but she wanted to be able to report on their progress if she was asked. That was the mark of a good Head Nurse, she felt. She was pleased to find that there were no patients in the regular areas of sickbay. Either it was a quiet night, or none of the injuries were severe enough to require an overnight stay. She would check the Vulcans next, but first she wanted to go to the lab to get their latest test results, which she knew that Dr. Hernandez would want to see when he arrived. Exiting the lab, Dr. M'Benga almost collided with her, as she tried to enter. "Oh, Nurse Chapel, I'm sorry. Is it time for shift change already?"

"Almost. I'm a little early this morning." She saw the file in Dr. M'Benga's hand. "Is that the file that has the Vulcans' latest test results in it? I came to get it because I know Dr. Hernandez will want to see their progress."

"Yes, but these are just the tests themselves. Tell Jose that he can access the computerized results and recommendations under file V13a. I did not have time to print them out for the file, yet."

"Give it to me. I will do it, and then I will file this record in its proper place."
"Thank you, Nurse Chapel."

"Are you leaving?"

"Yes. I checked on our only patients about an hour ago, and they finally seem to be sleeping. I did not go inside because I did not wish to wake them. They seemed to be doing a little better."

"Good. I will look in on them when I finish this, and I am sure Dr. Hernandez will want to check them as well. Sleep well, Doctor."

"Thank you."

Upon entering sickbay for the second time, Christine Chapel went immediately through the decontam chamber and then entered the infectious diseases ward. Some of the Vulcans were sleeping, and some were attempting healing trances, with varying levels of success. She smiled with satisfaction as she checked each bed. They seemed to be sleeping peacefully, and good, healing sleep was what they most needed right now. Approaching the last two beds in the row, she noticed that they were empty. As she walked up even with them, she suddenly understood what had happened. The occupants of those two beds lay on the floor, bodies twisted at weird angles, with pools of their own green blood slowly drying underneath them. As the head nurse on Starfleet's flagship, Christine Chapel had seen plenty of unusual injuries and deaths, but as she took in the grotesque tableau before her, she wasn't sure whether she most wanted to scream and keep screaming, to vomit, or to run to her quarters and hide out there until the end of this five year mission. In the end, she did none of those things. Instead, she walked to the desk in the outer area of sickbay, and called McCoy. She was surprised at how steady her voice sounded as she placed the call. Suddenly not wanting to be alone inside the ID area of sickbay, she waited for Doctor McCoy in the outer area. A moment later, she was hit with the tidal wave that was McCoy as he barreled through the door. Without a word, he rushed to the decontamination chamber and impatiently waited for it to finish bathing him in sterile rays, so that he could see for himself what was happening. The rays went on and on, and the door remained stubbornly closed. "Damn it. Come on," he bellowed, just as the door swung open, and his bellow startled the nearest Vulcans. Slowly they began to stir, and then, as what had happened to their colleagues sunk in, they began to bunch up together like a herd of frightened cows. No one touched or spoke to anyone else, but they seemed to take comfort (if a Vulcan could be said to take comfort) in one another's presence.

Turning to her, McCoy was grim when he said, "Call the Captain and Doctor Thavalan." Silently, she left to do as he asked, and by the time she finished the last call, Thavalan stalked through the door.

"How long have you been on duty this morning, Nurse Chapel?"

"Thirty minutes or so, sir."

"Where's M'Benga?" Thavalan was a stark contrast to the other doctors in sickbay at the moment. She was as calm as they were harried, and utterly still. The pitch and quality of her voice was dangerous.

"In his quarters, I would assume. He left about fifteen minutes ago."

"Please call Dr. M'Benga back to sickbay, along with the two nurses who were on duty last night. I'm sure the Captain will want to talk to them when he gets down here." McCoy said quietly. She did as she was told, and as she cut the link to the last crewman's quarters, Kirk marched into sickbay, eyes narrowed.

"What's this all about, Bones?" Kirk knew that if McCoy had called him down here this early, something serious had happened, and he was not sure he wanted to know what it was. Kirk was accompanied by Ambassador Sarek, to whom he had been talking when the summons from sickbay came in to his quarters. All Bones had told him was that it had something to do with the Vulcans in isolation. McCoy glanced at the Commodore. She inclined her head, and he said, "I have two dead Vulcans in the Infectious Diseases area. It's a pretty gruesome scene, Jim, almost as if they fought something to the death. I'll let you see for yourself, sir, but anyone going in there is going through decontamination first. We don't need to add to their problems or our own." Silently, he led them into the decontamination chamber, and then, dressed in the suits that would protect the Vulcans from their germs and vice versa, he led them into the isolation booth. They passed eight of the Vulcans, seated over in a corner, strangely still and quiet as though in disbelief, if such a thing were possible for Vulcans. One of the Vulcans, a very pretty female, lay stabbed to death on the floor. Another Vulcan, a striking young male, had been strangled.

"I found them like this when I walked in to check on them," Chapel said, quietly.

"My visual inspection puts time of death at sometime overnight, and the tricorder agrees with me," McCoy added.

"Could they have killed each other, Bones?" Kirk looked thoughtful.

"I don't think so. For one thing, the male was strangled. He was much taller than the female. She would not have been able to get a good enough hold from the angle she would have had to reach. And if you look at her stab wounds, they are inflicted on the lower parts of her body, but with an upward thrust to the cut, as though someone standing below her thrust upward to try to reach higher. I suppose it is possible that these wounds were self inflicted, but my gut tells me they weren't." McCoy paused, considering. Then, he shook his head and turned away, preparing to clean up the mess.

"Who was on duty last night?" Kirk asked, looking squarely at McCoy.

"Dr. M'Benga, sir. I've already had Nurse Chapel call him back to sickbay."

Turning to his head nurse, Kirk spoke quietly. "Call and have security send down a four man, armed team, and ask Garrovick to step down here with them. I want answers to all of this."

M'Benga walked through the sickbay doors at that moment, and Kirk looked daggers at him.

"Is there a problem, sir?" he asked Kirk, as he strode into sickbay, curious and clearly confused at why he had been called to sickbay again so soon.

"Dr. M'Benga, would you care to explain this?" Kirk asked, motioning to the bodies lying on the floor.

"They appear to be dead, Captain."

"They don't appear to be anything, Doctor," McCoy said, sarcastically, "they are dead. What the Captain is asking, and what I would also like to know, is why we didn't know this before now. That young woman has been dead for at least four hours."

"I checked on them not one hour ago, and they all appeared to be sleeping. There were guards posted outside the door, as per regulations, so no one could get in or out."

"Except someone did, unless you are suggesting they killed one another."

"We don't know enough about their disease to know for sure. The Commodore did mention that the people on Lugubria were becoming violently ill, and she meant that literally. They get extremely violent before they collapse. Perhaps there is a connection." He looked at her meaningfully, as though he expected her to stick up for him.

"Even if they killed one another because of the disease, I would expect you to have known that it happened, and to report it before a full half shift had passed, or more. When was the last time you walked in to check on them?"

"Protocol is that no one walks into ID when there is a risk of the disease spreading to the rest of the ship. Robots are used, unless there is no other choice."

"No. That is protocol when individual patients are enclosed in their own private Infectious Disease cubicle. For a whole ward of patients, the doctor or nurse is supposed to walk in to check on them every half hour to hour as the situation warrants because it is impossible to see the end of the ward from the door. There are too many shadows, and it is too far away to tell if the patient is in distress." The Commodore's eyes were flashing, and her antenna were flattened to her head in a posture of well controlled, if thinly veiled, anger. She turned to McCoy. "This is an Enterprise matter, so far, so I am content to allow you to handle it. I would suggest you do so before it becomes a Federation matter. When that happens, it will be up to me, and I wager none of you will appreciate my solution." Her hard gaze took in the room at large, and then she said, "Gentlemen, if you will excuse me, I have an appointment. I will be in my quarters." She swept out of sickbay, not sparing a glance at the men behind her. Kirk stared after her in shock.

McCoy looked at M'Benga. "Lieutenant, you are relieved of duty and confined to quarters, until further notice." Kirk nodded, in agreement, and then added, "Have your report to me by the end of Alpha shift today." M'Benga did not look happy, but he didn't argue. He simply turned on his heel and stomped out of the room.

"Well, Bones, I don't think I have ever seen that particular side of your friend, the Commodore, before. Do you think her illness is exacerbating her already sterling personality?" Kirk asked, while following the CMO into his office and closing the door behind him.

"No, sir." McCoy's tone was glacial, and he clinched his jaw, and refused to rise to the bait. Kirk tilted his head and looked at the doctor speculatively, as if he were just now understanding something about his friend that he hadn't noticed before. McCoy snorted. "There are two things you need to know about Commodore Thavalan, Jim. One, she doesn't easily tolerate incompetence, or even the appearance of it. Two, she takes death very seriously—as seriously as you take the safety of your ship and crew. She digs her heels in as hard as she does because she cares, not just about her job, but about the people, too. She understands that when any member of her staff falls down on the job, people could die, and she finds that unacceptable."

"She is a doctor. A certain amount of death goes with the territory."

"Yes. Just as it does for a Starship Captain. That's never stopped you from blaming yourself for it, or for taking it hard when you lose a crew member."

"Touche, Bones." He looked at the doctor to see if his reaction had thawed at all. It hadn't. "My apologies, Doc. It seems that Doctor Thavalan brings out the worst in me. I don't trust her, but I trust you, and I trust your judgment, and if she is your friend, there must be something good about her. I will make a greater effort to look for it."

McCoy sighed. "The Commodore is my friend. I am not ashamed of that fact, nor will I apologize for it. You don't know her, but I do, and as far as I am concerned, she has earned a lifetime of second chances. If she were here under different circumstances, you would see a much different person. She is the way she is because she has to be right now. She has a very difficult job to do, and she has to do it before she falls apart physically. That's put her under a tremendous amount of stress. I know it hasn't been all that easy to get along with her, but I am asking you to give her a fair shake. Join us for dinner tonight, talk to her, get to know her a little outside of work. Turn on some of that legendary Kirk charm. You might be surprised at the reaction you get."

Kirk doubted very much that she would even respond to the charm, much less surprise him with such a response, but he saw the value in making the effort to be friendly to Commodore Thavalan. It might make all of their lives aboard ship easier. "All right, Bones. Dinner. Officer's mess. Nineteen hundred hours?"

"That's fine, but let's do it in my quarters. Spock is welcome, too, if he would care to join us."

"Thanks Bones, I will ask him." Kirk made his way out of the doctor's private office, knowing there was still work to be done. McCoy followed along more slowly. The assistant security chief stepped forward when he saw the Captain.

"Lieutenant Garrovick reporting as ordered, sir."

"Lieutenant, please have two of the team members you brought with you relieve the security team on duty outside of sickbay, and then escort that team into Briefing Room 3 and wait there for McCoy and me."

"Yes, sir."

Sarek walked toward them, breaking off a conversation he'd been having with one of the Vulcans in sickbay. He spoke quietly.

"Doctor, what do you show as cause of death?"

"That's hard to say, Ambassador." McCoy looked thoughtful. "It could be either the head trauma she received, the stab wounds, or something else entirely. I won't know that until I perform an autopsy, and I'll do that this afternoon."

"All right, Doctor. Please keep me informed. I must report this to my government, and I would like to be able to give them some cause of death. If this is some type of disease, they will need to take precautions, potentially on a planetary level."

"Ambassador, could I ask you to hold off on that report for a day or so? We should have more answers for you by then, and I don't want to set the whole Federation in a panic until we know whether this thing is localized or if it is spreading."

"Logical, Doctor. All right, twenty four hours."

"Thank you, sir."

"Captain, with your permission, I'd like to stay here and talk to the good doctor's patients. It may be possible for me to help them enter healing trance, and they may have more information about all of this."

"As you wish, Ambassador."

Kirk turned and left sickbay, with McCoy in tow, moving purposefully down the hall to Briefing Room 3. Of the two guards who had been posted outside sickbay, one was a young Ensign, fairly new to the ship, and probably on his first deep space assignment. The second was a big, burly, Lieutenant, fast approaching middle age. Kirk had never had a reason to doubt his word before, and he looked at the two appraisingly. Both felt the full force of the Captain's tongue, and were trying not to cower as he interrogated them.

"Honestly, sir, no one came in or out that way since we've been on duty."

"You are sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"And neither of you left your post for even a few seconds?" Kirk's tone demanded the truth. Flinching slightly, the first man shook his head, and the second one said, "no, sir." Both McCoy and the Captain caught the warning look that passed between them, but neither chose to comment.

Finally, Kirk said, "Gentlemen, you are relieved of duty and confined to quarters until further notice." He turned to Assistant Security Chief Garrovick. "Garrovick, please escort these men to quarters and place the other two men you brought with you on guard there until further notice. I want a report on the progress of this investigation as soon as you find anything. Assign as many men as you need."

"Yes, sir."

Garrovick summoned the other two members of his security team, and they all left together in the direction of crew quarters. Kirk remained seated after they left, so McCoy stayed as well. Finally, Kirk said, "Doctor, what was your impression of the guards' story?"

"I'd say they knew more than they chose to tell us. Maybe they weren't being truthful, or maybe what they said was true, as far as it went, but it definitely wasn't the whole truth in that case."

"Thanks Bones, that was my impression as well. How's the Commodore?"

"Hard to say. There is nothing showing up in her blood, yet, but you would be hard pressed to get her to admit to any type of weakness. There's nothing I can do until she consents or does something to allow me to relieve her of duty. Neither of those possibilities are likely." He paused for a moment, then with a faraway look in his eye, he said, "Of all the starships, in all the universe, she had to walk into mine."

"What was that, Bones?"

McCoy stiffened. He had not realized he had spoken aloud. "That's a personal story, Captain. Something that happened a long, long time ago."

"I'll be wanting to hear it."

"Later. After things have slowed down a bit." He quickly changed the subject. "I will stop by to see her later, and make sure she is strong enough for dinner."

"So, you still suspect she is ill?"

"If I wasn't convinced before, her reaction to this thing, whatever it is, tells me there is something wrong. Otherwise, why was her reaction more severe than the others? I'm running tests now, and will let you know when I find something."