Chapter Six
Metamorphosis
"A little help here!" Liz called as the pod rose into the sky, and Hoshi hurried back to her friends. Liz was holding Tia's shoulders down in the sand as the girl thrashed about wildly. "Tricorder." Hoshi retrieved the instrument out of the biologist's bag.
"Temperature 114. Pulse … 242! BP 60 percent above normal and climbing."
"More water. We've got to get her down. She's too hot." Hoshi started to scoop handfuls of water and run it in long rivulets up Tia's body, but she tensed sharply as the cool water touched her. She cried out each time Hoshi did so, her body fighting Liz's efforts to restrain her. "Don't stop. We've got to get her temperature down."
"116 … 117."
"What's her cellular mitosis count?"
"Dasblis korpius boasplakin!"
"What's she saying?"
"Her umbrella rock's a nostril."
"Blast it, that's what I thought." The two scientists shared a long enough glance for a stressed grin. Hoshi kept trying to cover Tia's hot body with waves of water, but it was doing no good. She checked the tricorder in her other hand as Tia stiffened with a piercing shriek. "What are the readings?"
"Mitosis count's 30 trillion."
"She was right, that's about a thousand times too high. What about the rest?"
"You're not going to believe this." She turned the small device so her friend could read it.
"Holy –. Whatever's going on, her nutrient levels are dropping like boulders. Quick." She started to pull Tia up into a sitting position, brushing the wet hair from her face. "Get me one of those hypos and a container." Hoshi opened the case and first prepared one of the ten ampoules. "Anywhere." Liz directed, so she pressed the pressure spray against the girl's arm and it started to hiss. "All of it – and hope we're not too late."
When the device was empty, she opened one of the bottles and handed it to Liz, who put it to Tia's lips. The young woman opened her eyes enough to see it, but could barely drink. She drank about a third of the bottle and then suddenly twisted away out of Liz's grip, fell to her side on the sand and was violently sick.
"Blast it, that's good Concord Grape!" She hauled the girl back up, holding her tightly and pressed the bottle to her lips. "Drink, damn it." She squeezed the bottle, forcing a mouthful into her, and then clamped her hand over Tia's mouth as the girl moaned desperately, trying to pull Liz's hand away as Hoshi stared at her friends in astonishment. "Get her hands down." Liz demanded. Hoshi pried Tia's hands away, holding her wrists tightly. "Now swallow, damn it! You've got a lot to get through." She continued to struggle, growing more violent. "What is it in Auran?"
Hoshi leaned in close. "Kasplis klais, fringati!" Liz looked up at her friend long enough to spare her a surprised grin.
It took a long time, but Liz finally won, forcing her friend to swallow the liquid, but then she forced her to take more, again forbidding her to expel the formula. Tia thrashed about in Liz's tight grip, torn between wanting to fight away and not wanting to, aware that Liz was trying to help. But the biologist had a lock on her and would not give. Finally, she'd fought it all into the girl, and they gently lowered her onto her back. Liz looked up at her astonished friend, brushing her short brown hair from her eyes. "Tough love. Sometimes it's the only way." Whatever Hoshi might have said was cut off as Tia's entire body seized up and she shrieked in agony. She screamed over and over as Hoshi retrieved the tricorder, scanning her.
"Is she all right?" A voice behind them inquired. They looked up to see the three people from the other side of the beach that had been attracted by the blood curdling shrieks.
"No." Liz answered sharply, ignoring the monumental inanity of the man's question. "But we're doing what has to be done."
"Do you need a doctor?"
"I am a doctor. Now, I don't mean to be rude – or maybe I do – but this is 'women only', so please go away."
Tia thrashed about so violently that Hoshi grabbed her, holding tightly as the girl continued screaming shrilly. If Liz was any judge, she hurt a lot more than she had before. Ignoring the men, she reached for the tricorder. "Cellular division rate is off the scale, and it's rated at 50 trillion. Temperature up to 127. Damn it! This is too high; she's going to go into shock if we don't get this down. Help me get her in deeper." Together, they lifted Tia's hot body, bringing her out deeper until the water reached to her shoulders, and she was submerged to just below her breasts. They held her tightly as she thrashed about, the two women getting soaked as well, and Liz would not have minded the men's strength, but a glance up showed that they had already departed.
"Cellular hydration levels have dropped to 82 percent." Hoshi reported.
"Blast it, we're soaking her to keep her from burning away, trying to keep her from drowning and she's dehydrating. Get me the water!" Hoshi returned to the case, bringing back another bottle. This time, as soon as Tia tasted it she clutched it desperately, drinking as fast as she could, sucking at the bottle until it started to collapse. An instant later her body convulsed in pain and she dropped the bottle, starting to choke as they turned her on her side in an effort to help her dislodge the water from her lungs.
"Blast you, Tia; if you live through this I am never letting you live it down." Liz muttered. It was a short time before the body-wracking coughs passed and they could lower her onto her back again, but Hoshi had no good news.
"Her metabolic rate is up another 10 percent. That dosage just isn't enough; her nutrient levels are starting to fall again. Cellular activity is completely off the scale. I can't even tell you what's happening in there!" She exclaimed, indicating their friend's writhing body.
"Just give me a reading, damn it." She tried several settings.
"Temperature moderating at 120; so at least that's working. BP is 68 percent above norm, pulse closing on 300, nutrient count dropping to 37."
Liz looked up, distressed. "You're freaking kidding me!"
She lowered the device. "And everything else, every other reading, is way off the scale." She concluded; opening and handing Liz another bottle of the 'vile concoction'. Liz took it and pulled Tia up, both women supporting her scorching body. Her eyes were glassy and she was panting heavily, her breath like a bellows.
"All right, hon. I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt you a lot more than it will me." She forced the bottle between her lips.
--
It took hours. Hours, and all the resources that they had brought, until it was finally over. One of Liz's greatest fears was that it would take more than they had, but in the end it was a very near thing indeed. They had finished force feeding Tia with the last of her mixture, fighting her efforts to expel it, and given her the last of the injections ten minutes before her body started to calm. Her temperature began to drop on its own and they could draw her out of the water with aching muscles. They had relieved one another several times over, fighting exhaustion in their efforts to keep the young woman from hurting herself, but there had been nothing they could do for her pain, which seemed to only grow worse as the morning waned into afternoon.
Finally it was over, and they could allow themselves to relax, virtually collapsing sitting up on the sand on either side of Tia's body. The young woman between them was totally still, completely unconscious, and as they had the time to take stock of her they were surprised indeed.
Tia's body had returned to her normal coloring, but that was the only thing about her that was familiar. Everything else had changed.
The woman was now clearly, visibly older; a woman now, no longer with a girl's body but with the mature curves of a … "If I didn't know better, I'd put her at late 20's. She looked about 20 this morning; it looks like she's grown about ten years."
"Grown is right." Hoshi agreed. "Does she look taller to you?" Liz reactivated the tricorder.
"Unless we wore this thing out, she's gained about five inches." Liz said, amazed despite herself. "She went in that water at 5 – 3. This thing says 5 – 8.21." They looked up and down the length of her body.
"Five inches in six hours."
"No wonder it freaking hurt."
Hoshi shrugged. "Looks good on her, though." She leaned back; then decided to lie down on her side in the sand. "What else does that say?"
"Looks like everything's back to normal for her. Readings are within one percent of nominal."
"How long you figure she'll stay asleep?"
"I don't know about her." Liz said, allowing herself to collapse on her own side where they could see one another over the top of Tia's head. "But I plan to take a week!"
--
A half hour later they packed and used a communicator to call the ship, requesting the Enterprise signal for an air car to take them to the hotel that Liz had booked them into well before the Enterprise had entered orbit. Hoshi was very glad for her foresight, she had not thought of arranging accommodations ahead of arriving at the planet. A moment later Reed's voice was replaced by Trip's. "What's happening?" He demanded.
"Hello, Commander. We're just waiting for transport to the hotel."
"I know that. I meant, how's Tia?"
"Oh, Tia." She said with a grin at Liz. "She's here too, but she's kind of tired. In fact, she's sound asleep. But I'll tell her you were asking about her." She snapped the lid closed. Liz gaped at her, astounded.
"Are you out of your mind?" A second later the communicator beeped. Hoshi opened it again.
"Hello?" She said sweetly. "Hoshi Sato here. We're on vacation now, but if you like, you can leave a message at the beep." She grinned. "Beep." There was a monumental silence, and she could just picture the look of astonished outrage on her friend's face.
"Hoshi?" His voice came a few seconds later.
"Yes, Commander?"
"You – you hung up on me!"
"Yes, Commander." The grin was clear in her voice. "I'd love to stay and chat, but our air transport is arriving and we've got to get everything aboard. Talk to you soon." She flipped the antenna lid closed and looked at Liz, who continued gaping at her. She had only thought her friend had lost her mind.
"He's going to have an apocalyptic fit." The communicator beeped again. "I just want to take this moment to tell you I don't know you."
She opened the communicator again. "HOSHI!"
"Commander, this really isn't the time. Look, it's all over, but she is exhausted. I mean, so exhausted we're going to have to carry her into the aircar because I don't see her waking up for nearly a day. I'm sorry. She's fine, but she's just going to have to sleep this off."
The circuit went dead a moment later.
"Well, at least he took it well."
"Took it well?" Hoshi asked. "He went through a bulkhead."
"Then why –?"
"Because he also knows I'm right. Now come on. This car's not going to sit here forever, no matter how nice these people here are."
