Several hours later found the Counselor sitting on the floor in her quarters, cross legged, wearing leggings and a wrap around skirt-dress, in front of three candles, eyes closed in meditation. The chime on her door rang. Then rang again. And then rang a third time before the woman opened her dark eyes in response. Was that the door? She wondered as the chime rang a fourth and fifth time. "Enter," she said quickly, as she rose to greet her visitor. "Doctor, I'm so sorry," she said as Beverly strode into the room.
"Oh, I interrupted your meditation. My apologies. I wanted to bring you the hyposprays and go over the plan. She had 4 hyposprays in a carrying case. "This one," she gestured to the first and largest, is the anti-sero-Ion transmitter. We will do this one now, right before we enter the anomaly. It may inhibit your abilities, so you are aware." She glanced at her friend and they both suppressed a smirk, remember the accusations and apologies they'd shared when Deanna had lost all her abilities. The others are something we can use if the first doesn't work and you feel that it is needed. Myself or one of the medical staff will check in on you every hour during the day and every two hours at night, or more if we need to. I think it's better to keep you in your quarters, where there is less emotional lability and exposure than in sick bay."
Troi nodded at all of this. "How confident are you in this plan, Beverly?" she asked, uncertain about how this question would be received.
"Honestly, Dea, not very. I mean, I think it will work. It's certainly the very best option we have, but your abilities are so complex, and in a way that we don't totally understand. Even with compiling all the information we could get from the Betazed libraries, I'm still not 100% sure I understand how your abilities work. Telepathy is simple, ability to read mind and speak into another's mind goes up with the level of Sero-Ion Transmitters. Without those, no telepathy. You have a fraction of these transmitters that a telepath does, yet your empathic abilities far surpass theirs in some areas. Congratulations, Counselor, you've stumped me."
Deanna gave the doctor something that was a combination of a smirk and a smile, and said reassuringly "I am sure it will be fine, and if not, I'll call you and we will change something. After all, it's only three days."
Suddenly their com badges beeped, "All staff, we are approaching the anomaly. Prepare for contact in 3 minutes."
"I guess it's time then," Deanna said, turning and offering her neck for injection. She heard a slight hiss as the hypospray went in. She then attached a small device to Troi's temple. This will transmit some basic information and vital signs to sick bay. The doctor was closing the container and prepared to head out.
"I or Dr Halva will be here to check on you in an hour. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to call." Deanna nodded in return. The doctor left her alone and she shrugged her arms around herself as if trying to give herself some reassurance.
Two hours later, Doctor Crusher looked up from her console in Sick Bay and surveyed the room. So far everything was calm. She needed to get down to check on Deanna. Dr Halva had gone an hour ago and said the Counselor seemed to be coping well. She was meditating and hadn't had any complaints, just a slight rise in tension. Beverly frowned as she quickly reviewed the results of the scans sent over from the device Deanna was wearing, and though they looked adequate, she had hoped for a better response. She grabbed her med kit as she walked out of the room.
A few decks away she rang the chime and then keyed in the medical override. Her eyes had difficulty adjusting to the darkened room. Deanna had dropped the light to less than 20%. As her eyes adjusted she saw the small figure of the Counselor seated on the floor in a meditative position, two candles in front of her, the third in her hands. As she approached she could see the woman trembling slightly.
"Counsellor?" she asked. "Deanna? It's Beverly." The Doctor came around in front of Troi and inspected her face, scanning her repeatedly with the tricorder. Her brows furrowed at the readings she was getting. "Deanna?!" she said with more insistence. The seated woman still did not reply. The doctor looked at the candle Troi held in her hands. It was the old fashioned kind, with a tallow and a wick and a live flame, held in a circular glass holder the size of a orange. She hoped the glass was heat resistant as the Counselor was holding it in her bare hands. The wax was melted as if it had been burning for a while. The doctor reached to take the candle and gently eased it out of Troi's hands. Troi whimpered in response. The doctor gasped as she felt how hot the round candle holder was. She immediately set it down, blowing out the flames. "Troi! Deanna! Look at me! How long have you been sitting here like this? Your hands have second degree burns from that candle!" She was pulling out a dermal regenerator as she spoke. Deanna still sat with her eyes closed, pulling slightly away from the doctor but without much effort. "Deanna!" she said again, with more urgency.
This time she got a response. Troi's eyes popped open. She looked at Beverly and the doctor could read the pain and fear on her face. The doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and guided her to the bed. Troi still had full control and ability of her physical body. That was something, the doctor thought to herself.
Sitting on the bed, the small form of the Counselor writhed uncomfortably. "Beverly! I can't stop it. I can't control it. There is too much...too many….I can't keep it away. They're inside me, inside my mind, all the time. It hurts. I can't rest, I can't think. Please stop it. PLEASE." She pleaded as the doctor quickly finished repairing the blistered burns on her hands.
'She hadn't even noticed her hands,' the doctor thought. 'The pain she is talking about isn't physical.'
"What are you feeling, Deanna, what is hurting you?" she asked, desperately trying to find something to grab onto that she could use to help her friend.
"It's too much, Beverly. Too much emotion, too many feelings. All the fear, and anxiety, and joy, and sadness. The grief. It's all in my head and, and, and….." She drifted off. "I have to meditate," Troi replied, trying to get up only to be stopped by Dr Crusher. "No,Beverly! I have to meditate, it's the only way I can keep them out of my head." She tried to get up again.
"No, Deanna. No! Stay here. Let me sedate you, I can help." The doctor was fervently hoping something she had would work. She was worried that even deep sedation wouldn't be enough.
"Please do something." She said it with a finality as Deanna pulled her knees to her chest, as if she was defending her body from something. She rocked every so slightly.
The doctor hit her comm badge and called for two staff members to meet her in Troi's quarters. She needed to get back to sick bay to try to find a different solution. Nothing she had prepared was helping. The two medical staff members arrived within minutes and Dr Crusher explained the situation.
"No one else, Beverly, no other people It's too much. Please!" Deanna said again. Beverly didn't know what she was asking for, or even if Deanna knew what she was asking. As she stepped towards the door, Deanna spoke.
"Beverly! Please, this is important. Do not let Will in here. For gods sake, do not let WIll Riker come in here. He cannot be here."
Perplexed, Beverly replied "Okay, of course Deanna, I'll tell him." She didn't understand but it wasn't an unreasonable request. It wasn't one she was sure she could enforce regarding her commanding officer without good medical cause, but she would try, and she certainly wasn't going to tell Deanna that in her current state..
Hurrying back to sick bay, the doctor was already running through all the options for treatments she thought might work.
In Counselor Troi's quarters, the medical staff continued to monitor the results of the physiologic tests being run as well as administering a slightly higher dose of medication every 15 minutes. The door chimed and one of them replied "come" thinking it was Dr Crusher. Both blue uniformed officers stared in shock when Commander Riker appeared in the doorframe.
"Deanna?" he questioned as he entered the room. He'd read the doctor's most recent reports and didn't like the caveats she had supplied. He appreciated the complexity of the situation, but the wellbeing of the crew was of utmost importance to him, and to the Captain, and, he admitted to himself, he was worried about Deanna as a friend. His eyes slowly adjusted as he took in the scene in front of him. The two medical staff standing by the bed, Deanna pacing the room, eyes frantic, hands holding her head, fluttering to her sides, then back to her head. She was flushed and her eyes were huge in her pale face.
"Deanna!" he said in shock, concern threaded through his voice, with a little fear. The medical staff glanced at each other and back at their commanding officer, who was approaching the Counselor like she was a frightened puppy.
"Dea? Can you hear me? Can I help you? It's me, Will?" he said quietly as he inched forward into the room.
"Will?" That broke Deanna out of her pacing. She stopped dead still. "Will?" she said, her voice panicked. Riker stepped forward and gently touched her shoulders, almost in a squeeze. He gasped when their skin made contact beyond the sleeveless top she was wearing. Her skin was hot to the touch, burning and dry.
Troi stepped back, flinging his hands off of her with some force. "What are you doing here? You can't be here." Her voice was going up in volume and in pitch. "WILL GET OUT!" she screamed. She picked up the object closest to her, which was a small potted plant and threw it towards Riker. He was already backing up at the sound and tone of her voice and shied away just in time as the pottery shattered into a thousand pieces as it hit the wall, spraying white porcelain and dirt over Riker and the room. "I CAN'T CONTROL IT" he heard her yell as he ducked out of the door. He grabbed his head as a throbbing pain shot through it, temporarily blinding him. Eyes tight shut he leaned against the door for a moment and then opened his eyes as the pain subsided slightly. He saw Dr Crusher rushing down the hall.
"Commander? What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here?" The Dr said quickly.
"Yeah, I got that," Riker replied, massaging his temples, slightly sarcastic. "What the hell is going on in there, Doctor?"
"I don't know, Commander. Nothing I've done seems to be helping. She is completely overwhelmed by the emotions of everyone on board and it's starting to take a physical toll on her body." Dr Crushed paused to look at the man in front her her. He did not look right. "Commander, are you okay?"
"Yeah, well, I seem to have a bit of a killer headache, actually. I'm sure it will be fine," he replied, rubbing his temples again. Dr Crusher looked closely at him, squinting her eyes in thought. "I wonder…." she trailed off. "Commander, head directly to sick bay. I'll meet you there in 15 minutes." Seeing the protest about to come out of his mouth, "That's an order, sir," she added. "I'll have Nurse Ogawa escort you." As she spoke she opened the door and gestured to Nurse Ogawa who came immediately.
"Alyssa, escort Commander Riker to sick bay. DIRECTLY to sick bay," she added with a warning glance to Riker. "I'll meet you there in 15 minutes." And she turned into the dark room.
Back in sick bay, Riker sat on one of the biobeds, pretending to be indifferent but actually quite glad to be sitting down. His head was killing him. Nurse Ogawa was completing reports on her PADD. After what seemed like way too long, considering how bad his head hurt, Dr. Crusher appeared back in Sick Bay. Placing her medkit and PADDS down and reviewing a couple things on one of the other consoles, she approached Riker. "Will, what happened in Troi's quarters? What happened to your head?" she asked bluntly.
Puzzled himself, Riker replied, "I went to check on Deanna. I was worried about how she was coping. She was just pacing around the room, so distraught. She looked really awful and she wasn't really responding, like she was only aware of what was going on in her mind. When I finally got through to her she took one look at me and threw at pot at my head and I ran out of there."
Dr. Crusher looked astonished. "She threw a POT AT YOU? Counselor Troi did? On purpose?"
Riker looked slightly chagrined. "It's not the first time she's done that…"he muttered half under his breath. The doctor's eyebrows rose up another 2cm, 'I'll save that info for another time' she thought, then immediately moved on.
"That's it? She didn't say anything? Did the pot hit you? Is that why your head hurts?
"No. Uh, she said 'Will, you can't be here.' She said GET OUT almost screaming, THEN she threw the pot, it hit the wall, and then she screamed I CAN'T CONTROL IT" and i jumped out the door and my head felt like it had been split open."
"Will, you are certain she said that? She said 'I CAN'T CONTROL IT'?" Riker nodded. "And THEN your head started hurting? And you didn't hit it on anything?"
"Yes," Riker replied. "It was like a bolt of lightning when straight through my forehead."
Nurse Ogawa and Dr. Crusher exchanged a glance, slightly perplexed.
"Commander, neither I nor the doctor's assistant Meddall heard Deanna say that," Nurse Ogawa said, looking closely at Riker, as if trying to get her meaning across. "She said "Will, you can't be here," and that was it. Nothing else."
"But she did!" Riker replied. "She was practically yelling it." Riker paled a little as the extra exertion of his argument made his head pound. "Doctor, can't you do something about my head? It's killing me."
The doctor was already flipping open her tricorder. She hit some buttons and scanned again. Then her eyebrows raised, a bit of a surprised look on her face. Nurse Ogawa moved to her side to look at the tricorder. Riker, sitting with his eyes closed, didn't notice their reactions.
"Alyssa, let's try a dose of ASI transmitter. It won't hurt and it will be interesting to see if there is a response." Riker opened his eyes at that, but didn't bother trying to understand their medical-speak. Dr. Crusher put the hypospray to his neck and almost immediately his headache resolved and a smile spread across his face.
"Doc, you're a miracle worker." He practically hopped off the biobed.
"Not so fast, Commander," the doctor ordered, rescanning him with her tricorder. With a satisfied expression on her face, she showed Nurse Ogawa the repeated results. She nodded in response. "Commander, Captain Picard is on his way down here for a report on the medical status of his crew. I suggest you stay." Riker made his way slowly back to where the doctor was standing but didn't return to his previous seat.
When the Captain arrived, the three officers moved into the Doctor's smaller office. Responding to the Captain's query, she assured him the vast majority of the crew, including the telepaths, were doing wonderfully, with no adverse effects after almost 6 hours within the anomaly. "Captain, we need to discuss Counselor Troi," the doctor said with a sigh. "Nothing I have been able to come up with is helping. She is almost completely overwhelmed by the emotions of the crew. The injections of Anti-Sero-Ion transmitters that I have been giving the telepaths, and just used on Commander Riker, are barely touching her. A traditional sedative masks the sensation of her empathy but does nothing for the physical reaction…"
At this, the Captain interrupted her. "Doctor, explain. What do you mean by sensation versus physical reaction? And why is Commander Riker involved?" The Captain felt somehow he already knew the answer to his last question, but didn't have any concrete information to fall back on.
"Empathy," the doctor answered, "is like telepathy in that sensations normally considered non-communicative in humans, are communicated in other species. In Telepathy, this happens 100% in the brain, the cerebral cortex. It is all mental. The other systems of the body - the circulation, the temperature, digestion, vision, are not affected. In empathy, it is partly mental. A great portion happens in the cerebral cortex, but just as emotions do not occur solely in the brain, neither does empathy. When someone is afraid, or has a shock, their blood pressure goes up, their pupils dilate, their heart rate increases, their temperature even increases slightly. When someone is grieving, digestion slows or temperature drops by a tiny fraction. When someone is angry, blood pressure may rise. Empaths, in a way, require even more control over their abilities because they affect multiple systems at one time. Counselor Troi is an incredibly powerful empath with exquisite control over her abilities. She can block a single person's emotions in a room of emotional people and conversely block an entire crowd of people and sense only a single individual. The problem here, is that Counselor Troi currently has no ability to control her ability to feel the emotions of others right now. The combined effect is raising her blood pressure. She's getting more and more tachycardic. Her temperature has risen 1.8 degrees in 6 hours." The doctor paused, seeing if the officers in front of her would grasp what she was getting at before she had to tell them herself. "With telepaths, lack of control of their abilities leads to the cerebral cortex becoming overwhelmed and insanity may result, leaving the body otherwise healthy. In empaths, inability to control the emotions of others is more physically devastating. Left completely unchecked, it will simply drive Deanna's body into multi-system organ failure."
A bit stunned, neither officer had ever fully grasped the full continuum of powers that their colleague controlled on a daily basis. It made her day to day activities and her vocation equally as daunting and they marvelled in her success.
The Captain spoke, "Surely Doctor, there is SOMETHING more you can do?"
"Yes, of course," she replied. "I have a whole list of possible remedies to try. Hopefully some in combination will be successful enough to work. There is hardly any research on this topic. Half-Betazoid empaths are rare enough, much less discuss on how to deal with one that has no control. It's like baking a recipe when you are missing half the ingredients. Borrow from this one, replace this, leave this out. It's trial and error. We simply don't have enough time."
The doctor continued her lecture, pivoting to a different topic. "Sero-Ion transmitters are the tiny particles used in telepathy, one that we can measure with fairly good accuracy. Most telepaths have levels from 500-700. The most powerful telepaths top out at about 850. Empaths also have this neurotransmitter, but at much lower levels. The average empath has levels around 200-300." She paused to let this sink in. "Counselor Troi's levels of Sero-Ions are usually around 350." She paused again. "Humans have a level between 1 and 4."
"Basically incapable of any form of telepathy," the Captain summarized. The doctor nodded. Then she turned Riker.
"Commander, when you arrived here with the headache this evening, we used the same tricorder that we had used on Counselor Troi earlier. It was already programmed to detect Sero-Ion transmitter levels. When I scanned you, your Sero-Ion Transmitter level was 54."
"54?" he repeated.
"But that doesn't make any sense, doctor," the Captain added. "Perhaps it was a leftover reading or a failure to delete previous data?"
The doctor shook her head. "We deleted and repeated that test 3 times. It was over 50 every single time. And then when we administered the Anti-Sero-Ion transmitters, your headache resolved immediately. And the level dropped to 3."
"Doctor, how can this be?" the Captain asked.
"Commander?" the doctor queried. "Would you like to give us a theory on what is going on?"
Stunned, and not quite sure how to respond, Riker replied "I...um...well…"
Before he could complete his thought, the Captain interrupted again. "Commander," he said to Riker. "Is the Doctor trying to tell me that my human First Officer and my Half-Betazoid Counselor and Advisor have had a telepathic connection while on my ship for over 3 years?" The Captain was demanding in his request. There would be no avoidance.
"Well, yes. I mean No. I mean, I'm not sure, sir," Riker replied, appearing flustered and very out of character for himself. "You know, Sir," he began slowly, "that Deanna Troi and I had met prior to being stationed on the Enterprise together." He looked at his Captain for agreement.
"Yes, and?" the Captain replied impatiently.
"Troi and I met on Betazed, while I was on command there. We had an, uh, intimate relationship. We became very close. At the time, we developed some sort of bond, a connection. It wasn't exactly telepathic and it wasn't exactly empathic. Being a stranger to Betazed and a newcomer to space travel, I assumed this was a common experience on that planet. I later found that it was actually quite rare. When later we uh, parted ways, I assumed the connection was broken. I could no longer sense her. At least that was what I had always thought. When we saw each other again on the Enterprise, I felt something familiar. And in the time since then I have occasionally felt that I know her. Like truly KNOW what she thinks or feels. I attributed it to how when you know someone really well, like a family member, you know how they will react. I never thought….I mean… the connection was broken. It was impossible to begin with, Deanna and I having that bond, much less to have it persevere over such time and distance." He finished speaking and Riker's glance faded off into the corner of the room, as if looking at something that wasn't there, or thinking about something deeply.
"Will," Dr. Crusher said, interrupting his thoughts, "is it possible that the connection wasn't broken? That in fact it always remained intact?"
Riker shook his head. "I don't see how. I haven't been aware. I suppose….but….I don't think so, Riker replied.
"Remember Commander, no one else heard Counselor Troi speak to you back in her quarters. She WAS communicating with you… Telepathically…. And you heard her. And it gave you a tremendous headache," Dr Crusher tried to urge him along, hoping that he would come to the same conclusion she had. It was the only one that made sense.
"She said she couldn't control it!" Riker said with shock, appearing slightly awed. "She couldn't control it! She didn't mean the emotions of the crew on her mind, she meant the connection. The one between us"
"I think she did, Commander," Dr. Crusher said. "I think the bond, or connection, or whatever the hell you call it, was never broken. I think Counselor Troi was simply controlling it absolutely, in a way that you were no longer aware of it. When she lost her ability to control it, she also lost the ability to keep you from sensing the bond and from accessing her mind. The sensations she was feeling were communicated directly to you. THAT why she was so insistent that you stay away. She didn't want you exposed to or in any contact with all the feedback she's getting from the crew of the Enterprise. She must've known this would happen."
Riker massaged his temples. He didn't really have a headache any more, just a dull, foggy sensation, like he needed a big cup of coffee. "That headache? That pain? Is that what Deanna is experiencing now? Is that what it feels like to her?" His face was couched in worry. He looked at the doctor, a pleading look in his eyes, as if begging for better news.
"I'm not sure, Will," said the doctor honestly. I think to a certain extent yes. But we also have to consider that your physiology is set up to be empathic. That on its own could have caused the headache."
Riker sighed. "Honestly doctor, that was awful. If she's having to deal with that for three days?... No wonder people go insane in here…". He leaned his head forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"So what are we going to do about Counselor Troi? We can't just leave her how she is now?"
"No," the doctor replied, "We can't. I think…" She was cut off my the sound of chirp coming from her badge. It was one of the medical staff assigned to Troi's quarters.
"Doctor, Counselor Troi's vital sign are starting to fluctuate," the young doctor said. "Her heart rate is consistently over 100 now, and her temperature has gone up 0.8 degrees in the last hour alone. The medications we have given have been mostly ineffective."
"Alright," Doctor Crusher replied, "Time to pull out the big guns. Give her 50mg of Ketalamine and have her transported to Sickbay. We're going to need to sedate her at such a level that remaining in her quarters is no longer an option." She signed off with the medical team and starting typing and calculating on a computer. She barely glanced at the Captain. "If you'll excuse me gentlemen, I have to finish this quickly."
As the two officers headed out of her office, she spoke again "And Will, come by first thing in the morning so we can run some tests on you. Or sooner if that headache comes back." He nodded at her in response but she was already focused on her PADDs and assumed he would obey her command.