By Nyassa Kaiba
Chapter 6-JakeMy name is Jake. While Feralae was dreaming I was sitting in the small room off Sickbay while Dr. Crusher finished up her work for the evening. She was supposed to meet Deanna after work and go to Ten Forward for a drink or two. While she worked, I worked on a lesson.
Deanna came in. "Almost done?" She asked as Crusher worked on typing up her report for the end of the day.
"Just about." Dr. Crusher replied. "Just one more…"
The door opened again to admit two people in engineering uniforms. One of them, a trill I think by the spots, was leaning on the other, tottering, barely able to stand. The other was human.
"What happened?" Dr. Crusher asked worriedly, rushing over with a tricorder. Deanna backed off, letting the woman work.
"Ensign Zia collapsed." The human replied. "We found him in an alcove off the Engineering. Mr. La Forge told me to bring him down here."
"Here, set him down on this bed over here." Dr. Crusher replied.
"Sorry to be a trouble Doctor." Zia mumbled.
"You aren't a trouble at all." Dr. Crusher replied as she scanned him. "Hmm… this is odd."
"What is?" Asked the human with him.
"Weyler go tell Geordi that Zia is off work. Right now, go." Dr. Crusher replied.
"Right." Weyler replied. He hurried out.
Deanna sighed. "Looks like it's off for tonight."
"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow night then." Dr. Crusher replied. "That is, if Zia's taken care of."
"Okay what's wrong?" Zia asked.
"I'm not sure what it is. I'll be back in a moment." Dr. Crusher sighed, walking back into the alcove. She called up a ship-to-ship communication.
"Bashir here." Dr. Bashir's face appeared on the screen.
"Dr. Bashir we have a mystery over here."
"Oh?"
"There's a sick trill over here and it seems like his DNA is degrading, unraveling. I've never seen anything like it." Dr. Crusher replied. "Do you have any idea what might be going on?"
"There are a couple of things that might be going on. Did the genetic degradation affect the symbiont?" Dr. Bashir asked.
"No it didn't." Dr. Crusher replied.
"Send me the symptoms." Dr. Bashir replied.
As I watched, Dr. Crusher sent a list of the symptoms to Bashir on the Defiant.
Bashir scanned the broadcast. "Wow. I never thought I'd see this. It's called Railer's Disease. It's not contagious. But there's no way to cure it. It's genetic. It happens when there's a significant portion of the RNA missing from a large portion of cells. The effect it has is something like a broken zipper. The cell can't divide and the DNA begins to degrade, killing the cell. Starfleet Medical was working on a cure, but they're too far from possibly finding one for your patient."
"What can I do?"
"Keep an eye on him is all you can do, and be prepared to make an emergency run to the Trill homeworld to bring the Symbiont back." Replied Bashir.
Dr. Crusher groaned. Then she noticed me staring at her. "Sorry, Jake could you go back to our quarters and tell Wesley that I'll be home late?"
"Sure." I sighed. This was not going to be a very good couple of days. My father was a doctor. No doctor likes to lose somebody, and it looked exactly like that was what Dr. Crusher was about to do.
I stood up and walked out, taking the data pad I had been working on with me. That was about the time I ran into Rachel. She was limping and had a skinned chin. "What happened to you?" I asked.
"I tripped coming out of the Turbo Lift." Rachel complained, dabbing at her chin with her sleeve. "Damn, that stings."
"Dr. Crusher is busy with an urgent case. It seems that one of the Trill onboard has some kind of genetic disease."
"Oh dear. It's not deadly is it?"
"According her it is." I explained. "How about if I take you down there myself." I suggested.
"Thanks." Said Rachel. She yawned. "What a busy day. I had to shadow Riker every which way. You'd be surprised some of the things a first officer does."
Rachel and I made our way back to Sickbay. Rachel steadied herself against me as we walked. "Rachel… I… I was so sorry about… about sending you in like that…"
"Jake don't beat yourself up over it. I did what had to be done." Rachel replied.
We came back in and Dr. Crusher swore. "What happened now?"
"I tripped." Rachel replied.
"I met her half way." I explained.
"Well, I've managed to sedate Zia, so I can take care of you now." Dr. Crusher explained.
Rachel sat down on one of the medical beds. Crusher gave her the poke and prod, healing Rachel's scrapes and bruises and the twisted ankle. But all the while Rachel kept turning to look at the sick Trill. "What's wrong with him?"
"Patient confidentiality, sorry." Dr. Crusher said as she concentrated on healing a bruise on Rachel's foot.
"Okay." She sighed.
Dr. Crusher finished the healing and then we headed back up to the Crusher family quarters. "See you tomorrow Rachel." I told her.
"See you too." Rachel replied.
Wesley practically pounced on me when I came in. "Okay, where's mom?"
"An emergency came up. Something about a sick Trill." I explained as I sat down on the couch in the living room.
"There's only one Trill on the Enterprise, Ensign Korona Zia." Wesley replied. "I hope it's not too serious. Trill are cool." Wesley shook his head. "Did you manage to overhear anything?"
"It was puzzling enough for Crusher to consult Dr. Bashir on the Defiant." I replied. "And I heard that whatever it was, it doesn't have a cure."
"That's rough. Mom will probably be under a lot of stress after this." Wesley shook his head. "I know, why don't we get her a cup of tea when she comes in. Grandma always said that if you want to calm a person down you should get them a cup of tea."
"I suppose." I said thoughtfully. "My grandpa, Grandpa G used to say the same thing." I was always wary of Wesley. He was kind of a fanboy. Or at least he acted like it. I was never easy around other people after the war. It came from being a celebrity. And he had actually read a book about our adventures. I didn't realize that they had books about us until he had told me last night.
Like I said, it was taking some getting used to. I sighed, digging through the clothes that had been replicated for me. Somewhere in the pile was my iPod. Each of us had brought one with us before leaving, filled with our favorite songs. It brought us closer to home.
About half an hour later Dr. Beverly Crusher came in, exhausted. "Mom, is everything alright?" Wesley asked. He'd been keeping tabs on his mother through the computer system, so the cup of tea was ready for her on the kitchen table. "I made some tea for you. Jake said you'd had a rough day."
She sighed. "Thanks Wes. I could use it. I ended up with a terminal case today. And no, I won't tell you about it." Crusher couldn't be coaxed into saying anything more. She sipped the tea gratefully. "How was your day?"
"Did checks on the shuttlecraft." Wesley replied. "I'm smaller than the other repairmen, so I ended up slipping into places the others couldn't make it into."
"You're clever with your fingers too. We may need one of those shuttles in the next couple of days. Ensign Zia has to pay a visit to his Homeworld." She sighed again. "Something tells me that it's only a matter of time until all Hell breaks loose."
Wesley chuckled. "Yeah, something like that. I'll pick something out for dinner okay? You just relax and let me and Jake take care of things."
I followed him to the replicator. "So what do we pick?" Wesly asked.
"Well… how about pasta with pesto? Feralae used to make that back in her cabin. She made some for the Fourth of July one year."
"Right, Pesto coming up. I'll get it and you set the table okay?"
"Sure."
In about five minutes dinner was ready. The three of us sat at the table and dinner conversation began. "So Jake, did you hear about Feralae's adventure today?" Wesley asked.
"No, what adventure?" I asked, sitting up straight in my chair.
"There was a changeling loose on the Defiant. Feralae and Councilor Troi beamed over to see if they could help. Feralae morphed wolf and she and Constable Odo beat the crap out of the changeling. It turns out the shape shifter was a teenager by her culture's standards, and didn't even know about the war with the Dominion. She didn't even have a name, so the teenage changeling chose the name Okami." Wesley explained.
"It sounds like something Feralae would do." I said with an annoyed sigh. "Okami means wolf."
"That's what the Ensign who told me said. She's Nisei, from one of the ghettos in San Francisco, and she knows her ancestor's language really well." Wesley explained.
"Oh, Ensign Himiko." Dr. Crusher said with a smile. "You told me about her."
"Yeah, since she's engineering she was asked to help with the shuttle checks." Wesley explained. "And she always knows the gossip around here. She said that Captain Sisko asked Odo to take Okami in for now."
"I never took you to be a gossip Wesley." I said with a chuckle. "Rachel was bad enough in her day. Like the time she opened her big mouth about me and Cassie right before a school dance."
"Speaking of which, what happened to you and Cassie?" Asked Dr. Crusher.
"Well, um… we sort of… grew apart, especially towards the end of the war. We didn't see eye to eye anymore. I guess you could say that we're not together anymore. She's closer to Feralae now than she is to me." That was sad. I kept meaning to talk to Cassie, to see if that flame was still there. But I never got up the guts.
"Too bad." Dr. Crusher said with a chuckle.
"I could find you a girlfriend." Wesley teased.
"Hey, I can find my own girlfriends thank you very much." I said with a low growl.
"Okay, jeesh." Wesley turned back to his food. "hm… this pesto is actually really good."
I sat through dinner in sullen silence. Feralae had always been able to handle herself. But she could at least have told me, or had there been time to do it?
I fell asleep and had the weirdest dream. I dreamed that Rachel was morphing Trill, and slipping into a cave, into the pool where the symbionts stayed until they got a new host. But most of my dreams never made sense. This one was no different, so the next morning I thought nothing of it.