V34
Every morning Beverly wakes up. She showers and eats a quick breakfast, feeds LuLu and grabs a cup of coffee. She hurries down to Sick Bay where she goes straight to Kathryn.
She and the Doctor run the same tests every day. Besides a battery of health tests, they check Mara's size and exact placement in the brain. They carefully note even the minutest change.
For weeks, they've noticed just the slightest change. Mara was firmly entrenched in Kathryn's cerebellum. Her 'legs' spread throughout the brain, touching on centers controlling memory, movement, even emotion. There was some movement, as Mara tried to find a place safe from the chemicals that were being pumped into Kathryn's bloodstream.
The last couple of days, they've been noticing more activity than normal. They've also recorded more erratic readings from Kathryn's brainwave monitor. Agitation levels seem higher, sleep interrupted. Beverly suspects pain, even hallucinations. She tries to reassure Kathryn, the treatments are working. Mara is failing. It will all be over soon. Kathryn doesn't seem to respond to her words or her touches.
Beverly is reading aloud. She's already been through Kathryn's favorites, the Gothic romances. Austin. Bronte sisters. Radcliffe. Alin Dahe'el. Lately she's been reading hers, fantasy and sci-fi. Tolkein. Rowling, Asimov and T'mojl. She's knee deep in a Klingon mythology about M'ra'Vex and the battle of Maveg when the cortical scanner shows wild fluctuations in Kathryn's brain waves. She waves the Doctor over.
"What is it?" he asks. "I was just about to inject Ensign Norgd with her Orion flu vaccine."
"What do you make of this?"
He peers at the display. "Well, that certainly is interesting. Something seems to be happening."
He picks up a medical tricorder and begins to scan Kathryn's head.
"Oh. Oh dear. Mara seems to be moving. Quite quickly I may add."
"What? Let me see?"
She reaches for the tricorder and, after a brief tug of war, he releases it. She begins to track Mara's movements. All of a sudden, the tricorder and the brain wave scanner flash brightly and then go dim. At the same time, a small trickle of blood emerges from Kathryn's nose. She reaches with her thumb to wipe it away when the Doctor grabs at her arm.
"Dr. Crusher! No! Wait." He runs to get a small vial and carefully scrapes the fluid in. He caps the vial and puts it under a magnifying glass. With a big smile, he turns back to Beverly.
"I believe we have just given birth to a bouncing baby Mara!"
Beverly runs over to see for herself then goes back to Kathryn. She leans close, cupping Kathryn's cheeks in her hands.
"We did it Katie. Can you hear me? It's over. We did it."