Chapter Two: Physical
Bashir glanced over the PADD the nurse handed him, displaying the basic medical history Shan had given in response to her questions. He was twenty-five, the doctor noted, and had been joined for three years. His last physical had been nearly one and a half years ago on Trill, and as far as he could recall nothing had been out of the ordinary.
"Have a seat on that biobed, Mr Shan," Bashir invited when greeting and introduction had been gotten out of the way.
"Just Trystmar is fine," the young man told him, doing as he asked and sitting clasping and unclasping his hands in his lap. He was too nervous for just a physical, Bashir thought again. Certainly some people were that nervous about being in a doctor's office for any reason, but those that were put off having their physical until they were forced to.
But Bashir said nothing about it then, attempting to put Trystmar at ease as he asked the routine questions and conducted the basic exam. He was a bit more thorough than he might have been if he had suspected nothing wrong, but still found nothing he couldn't attribute to the young man's current state of anxiety.
"Well, it looks like I can give you a clean bill of health," he said, looking up cheerily after making a note on the PADD. "That is, if there really is nothing else you wanted to discuss with me…?"
Trystmar sighed, biting his lip. "Yeah, I guess there is."
Bashir leaned half sitting against the other end of the biobed. "What's the problem?"
"It's not exactly a problem; more of a-a concern. The doctors on Trill told me I was worried over nothing, but I thought as someone who isn't Trill, you might be less likely to assume things about my species."
Bashir smiled. "Well, I don't know about that, but I think I can promise not to dismiss your concerns without due consideration."
"Good enough," Trystmar said, once more clasping and unclasping his hands nervously.
"Go on," Bashir encouraged.
Trystmar sighed. "My last host died of a rare disease — Ogravrett's syndrome. You've heard of it?"
Bashir nodded. "I've read a few texts discussing it. It doesn't affect the symbiont, if that's what you're worried about."
"So they told me," Trystmar said grimly; "that's why I agreed to be joined to Shan. But as I accessed memories from previous hosts, I realized that my fourth host back also died of Ogravrett's. I asked the doctors about it, and they insisted it doesn't affect the symbiont and had to be coincidence. But honestly, Doctor…what are the chances of two of my hosts dying of the same rare disease?"
"Small enough that it's worth looking into the possibility that the symbiont is acting as a carrier," Bashir admitted, "though it's still just possible there's no connection."
Trystmar relaxed slightly in relief that he was at last being taken seriously. "Thank you, Doctor," he said quietly.
"Save your thanks for when I've actually done something," Bashir dismissed. "You said your fourth host back died of Ogravrett's, as well as your last host; that means you had two hosts in between who weren't affected?"
"Yes, but one of them died of other causes before the symptoms would have shown up, and the other was over thirty when he was joined; I'm sure you know exposure usually has to occur before that to catch it."
"It sounds like you've done some research on your own," Bashir commented.
Trystmar shrugged. "One does want to know as much as possible about the disease that's probably going to kill you." He shuddered. "As if those two hosts' memories weren't enough…"
Bashir's eyes shadowed in sympathy; he knew what a painful death the disease caused. "I can take a blood sample and a tissue sample from the symbiont and run tests to find out for sure, but I won't have the results before you leave."
Trystmar laughed a little hysterically. "That's all right; part of me doesn't want to find out anyway." He swallowed, gaining control of himself. "I don't expect you to be able to save me, you know, Doctor," he said in a low voice. "But if you prove Shan's infected, maybe I can convince the Trill council to have the symbiont attenuated."
Bashir's jaw tightened; he wasn't as ready as Trystmar was to give up hope.
Next chapter coming next week!
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