Doctor Crusher and the rest of Picard's senior staff rushed at lightning speed to sick bay where a pale, lifeless Ensign Harvey lay unconscious. Beverly hurried to her side, her medical tricorder materializing out of thin air in her hands. "There's no doubt about it Captain; it's the plague. And somehow she has been exposed to an incredible concentration of the virus."
"What do you mean? How did it get on the ship undetected?" Jean-Luc asked frantically. "That's just it, Captain, it isn't airborne yet. Ensign Harvey didn't catch the virus accidentally." Beverly carefully lifted Ensign Harvey's head and tilted it to reveal a small red circle on the nape of her neck. "Someone gave it to her through a hypospray."
A grave silence fell over all of them, only the sound of Ensign Harvey's deep rasping breaths penetrated it. One face appeared hauntingly in Picard's mind. However he refused to believe that even under some sort of mind control Heva would do such a thing. As Heva's captain, he had to believe that she had nothing to do with this. On the other hand, as a Star Fleet officer he had to explore ALL of the options. Before Jean-Luc could give his order, Worf expressed their shared thought aloud.
"I will dispatch security teams on this deck as well as the deck above and below us to search for anyone who could be responsible." he finished on a low note as though he as well as everyone there knew what they would find. They all knew they had to try and be confident in Heva, but how could they without solid proof at this point? Without another word, Worf left sick bay and called his teams to meet him down the hall while the rest of them stood rooted to the floor unable to find where to go next.
"Heva? Please answer the door. It is only me…Data." Begging Heva to open the door was starting to become frustrating. What was more was that he had to find a way to keep his eagle eye a secret from her. He understood the need more than he would have had this been someone else, but he found himself wrestling with the choice of whether or not to keep it that way. Here he was wrestling between duty and loyalty, just as he was warned he would do.
After nearly a half an hour of standing in front of Heva's quarters, Data decided to manually open her door. What he found was completely unexpected. Heva sat in her bed with a book propped up against her knees, a calm piano medley settled in the air around her. Her eyes scanned the book with the same resolve he knew to belong to her. Her demeanor seemed to be completely improved, it was as though nothing had happened to her. She was perfectly fine. And yet…something didn't feel right…
"Heva?" Data said cautiously into the room. Heva didn't look up, she merely kept on reading. Slowly and quietly, Data approached her as a person would if they didn't want to be noticed. Once he reached the bed, he gently sat beside her extending an arm over her legs so he could lean close to her; she didn't budge. "Heva…how are you feeling?" he whispered softly. This seemed to, at last, prompt a response from her. She looked up at him with a sort of childlike curiosity. It was as if she were looking at him for the first time.
"Data? When did you get here? I must've been completely distracted…I didn't even here you come in." her voice was so level and peaceful that it almost scared him. She looked, sounded, and was acting completely normal. Part of Data's mind told him that there was nothing to worry about anymore; she was fine. Yet something in the back kept prodding him, reminding him that no one JUST recovers out of nowhere. He decided, against some of his less attuned sources of judgment, to remain wary and try to play along.
"I am sorry, I did not mean to startle you. If you like, I could let you get back to your reading material and I can sit over there where I will not disturb you and-" his motor was stopped by Heva's finger pressing against his lips. The feeling was comforting to him and he settled into it without hesitation. "Data, it's fine." she replied leaning forward to kiss him lightly on the lips. "I was actually wondering why you haven't come to see me today. I've been lonely." Heva pulled Data into a long embrace and he settled beside her, allowing her to doze off on his chest. As he watched her gracefully slip away into slumber, he began to wonder what ever drove him to think there could be anything wrong.
Not long after he was sure she was completely out, he called the Captain to meet him outside her room. "Is everything alright, Data? Do we need security?" the Captain asked hurriedly. "No, captain. On the contrary, everything seems to be…perfectly fine." There was a brief silence from the other end before Jean-Luc muttered back "I'm on my way." and before long he was shuffling down the hall toward him.
"Ok, what's this all about? What do you mean things are 'perfectly fine'?" the Captain asked hastily. Data interrupted him by pressing a finger to his own lips and shushing. He walked into Heva's room quietly and asked the Captain to follow. They both stood looking in a shared feeling of disebelief at her serene, sleeping form. "This must be the first time she's slept in days." Jean-Luc whispered to Data through the silence.
"It is, sir. And that is not all. When I first arrived, she would not answer me. Finally, I entered the room to find her concentrating on a book she had been reading prior to her capture. She was acting like nothing ever happened to her." Both of them soaked in this before Data went on. "However…I am concerned. I know I should be happy that she is alright. But I also feel suspicious, wary, and confused. How could Heva have completely recovered in such a short amount of time? And the timing seems off…just a few hours ago she was acting strange. Now, after the attack on Ensign Harvey, she is fine. I am unsure whether or not to think she did the deed, or if she is simply…better."
"Your guess is as good as mine, Data. I don't understand it either." the Captain replied, his gaze fixed on the sleeping enigma before them. "Keep your watch on her. Regardless of these developments we can't rule her out. Search her room for something that could tie her to Ensign Harvey." "But, sir!" Data argued back. "Data," Jean-Luc cut him off. "I know you don't fully understand everything we're asking of you. We're asking you to watch the woman you love just in case she is dangerous and that is a hard thing to accept but you have to try and remember the rest of the people on board this ship. And I know that if she is involved that will be even harder for you to accept but you have to remember that sometimes your duty to your crew has to come first. Even Heva would understand that. In fact, you might even be doing her a favor."
Data hesitated for a moment on this before nodding and letting the Captain out. He looked around the room wondering where to being his search…and debating on whether or not to do it, fearing what he might find.