Genre: StarTrek: The Next Generation

Title: New Civilizations

Summary: Riker falls ill and a new discovery is made about the hat.

Chapter 13

Entering Riker's quarters, Dr. Crusher wasn't sure which was more alarming, the darkness, or the light odor that assailed her nostrils. The gloom was relieved only by the few safety lights that were forever on throughout the ship. Glowing out of hidden recesses, the LED's gave the room a dim twilight. It seemed that the air circulation for the room had been turned so low as to leave the air almost still, so there was an unabashedly male aroma, not strong, not sickening, just surprising to the clean-conscious Doctor. Looking about in the barely lit room, Beverly called out, "Will?"

"Here," he answered softly out of one of the shadows.

"What's going on? Please, turn on some light," Dr. Crusher pleaded.

The lighting immediately brightened to just beyond murky, allowing Dr. Crusher to see not only Commander Riker, but the clutter of clothing, under as well as outer, scattered about on the furniture and floor. There were a few oddments of dirty eating utensils and uneaten food, as well. Riker, in a dressing gown that looked worse for the wear, seemed to look a little tattered as he stood uncertainly in the middle of the mess. Even the headdress he still wore was appeared somewhat droopy.

Beverly wavered between a giggle and a sense of concern for the uncommon disheveled appearance of the man and his quarters. "Will, what is going on? Are you sick? Is that why you called me to your quarters? You look flushed."

Riker moved closer to Dr. Crusher. "No, I don't think sick is the word. But why not feel my forehead to see if I have a temperature?" He moved closer again and tried to sniff her hair.

Dr. Crusher moved back. "Will, what are you doing? Why did you call me to your quarters?"

He raised his hand towards her face and looked puzzled when she jerked away. "Actually I have two reasons. One, I think, is fairly obvious. The other is strictly in the line of duty." His voice was again throaty and heavy. "The Kronatina would like you to become acquainted with this Kronatt. Since I am his initial contact, I thought I'd help you with the fit." He lifted his hands to the headdress as if preparing to remove it.

Forgetting the implication in his first remark, Dr. Crusher was absolutely shaken by the second reason. "You want me to wear that? You mean put that thing on my head? No, thank you. Aside from the fact that I don't like to wear hats, I wouldn't be caught dead in the corridors wearing that thing."

"That's fine. You can stay here while you get acquainted. I think you'd look wonderful with the Kronatt on that lovely red hair." Again, he reached out to caress her.

Crusher backpedaled. "No I won't wear that thing and quit pawing at me." She slapped at his hand. "What is wrong with you?" Puffing in exasperation she then called out, "Computer, lights up to normal." She looked at Riker closely in the brightened light. "Will, I think you're coming down with something."

"Computer, dim the lights by half," barked the commander. He was squinting, trying to shield his eyes. As soon as the computer had responded, he reached out to Dr. Crusher again. "We don't need so much light for making love."

Outraged, dodging the grasp, Beverly called out, "Computer lights up and keep them that way by command order of the Chief Medical Officer!"

The brighter illumination seemed to confuse the Commander, which gave her the time she needed to reach the door to the outer corridor. She paused, torn between concern for her own well-being and her duty as a doctor. She slapped her communicator, "Security!"

Riker suddenly halted his advance towards the redhead. "Wait! Security? I'm not going to hurt you. Please, let me; let me make love to you." He had stopped but was reaching towards her, his arms outstretched. "Please?"

Dr. Crusher, half-heeding Security's answer, made a command decision. She slapped her com' insignia again saying, "Standby, Security." Speaking to Will she said, "I think you'd better report to Sick Bay immediately. You're not looking well and you are certainly behaving oddly. I want you there now! You can take time to get dressed and come on your own or you can come as you are with Security."

Riker looked ridiculously hopeful. He struck a pose. "Why not examine me here? It could prove to be very interesting." Will raised his hands to the ties on his robe as if to remove the garment.

At first, Dr. Crusher was taken in by the remark. "Well, it's just that I'll need the diagnostic… I want you in Sick Bay immediately!" She made a sprinting exit.

In Sick Bay Dr. Crusher pressed her communicator and called out the name of Captain Picard. Another member of the Away Team answered her. "This is Lieutenant Sugiki. The Captain has just started another round of talks, so he can't answer you directly. He signaled me to reply. Is there something I can do, Dr. Crusher?"

She informed the lieutenant that Commander Riker seemed to have taken ill and that she had asked him to report to Sick Bay for a routine exam. She emphasized that the situation did not seem to be serious but that she wanted to keep Picard abreast of the matter. She had hardly signaled out when Riker entered looking more feverish than when she had left him just moments before.

He paused, hanging onto the doorframe for support and looked blearily around the room, as if he'd never been there before. He seemed to take careful notice of the examining tables, the computer displays on the walls, the smaller computer terminals placed strategically close to the tables, and of all of the rest of the furnishings of Sick Bay. When he noticed a young nurse standing at a schematic anatomical display, making notes on a handheld board, he advanced. Nearly stumbling before he reached her, but recovering just in time, he tugged at his noticeably stained and wrinkled uniform blouse in an effort to regain some composure. All this while, the drunken smile he'd engaged at the sight of the slim, dark and very young ensign didn't alter. Reaching her, he crowded close and stage whispered, "How would you like to become very well acquainted with a Kronatt and then me?"

Crusher rushed to rescue the confused woman who had no idea of how to behave to a senior officer who was putting the make on her while she was on duty, in uniform, in front of another senior officer. Before the Medical Officer could reach them, however, the color drained from Will Riker's face and he sank, unconscious, to the floor.

"Orderly!" yelled Crusher. Within seconds, several of her staff appeared through several doors and Riker was gently being carried in the arms of one of the larger members of the medical team to a central diagnostic couch. He was preceded by Dr. Crusher who was already keying in the computer for full diagnostic readout. The young nurse who was so embarrassed just a minute earlier was standing at the small terminal near the couch, her agitation gone, ready to assist.

As soon as the orderly had arranged the unconscious commander comfortably on the couch, he stepped back. Riker's head lay at a slight angle to one side, the headdress not permitting him to lay it flat back. The feathers swept back and hung out over the edge of the couch. "Take that damned hat off of him," barked the doctor as her fingers danced urgently over the keyboard attached to the couch. The young man moved to the head of the couch and tried to slip his fingers under the flaps that hugged Riker's face just in front of his ears. Failing to get a purchase that way he tried the more direct approach, grabbing a handful of feathers, putting one hand on Riker's shoulder, and pulling. Though Riker's head moved and his neck stretched, the hat stayed on. Dr. Crusher looked up in annoyance at the orderly.

"It won't come off, Doctor."

Beverly tried to slip her fingers under the close fitting cowl of the hat and met the same resistance as the orderly had, so she bent over and peered at the edges of the headdress. The button eye on that side, gleamed dully at her, seemed to 'see' her. Standing up, she moved back to the computer keyboard saying, "Leave it on for now. Please stand by, I may need you." The remainder of the personnel melted out of the room.

As was required by Starfleet Regulation, and to make sure that everyone assisting knew what was going on, Dr. Crusher spoke aloud as she read the diagnostic display on the board in front of her, knowing every word was being picked up and recorded by the ship's computer. "He has a virus, unknown in origin but I'll bet it's from Kron. But how can that be? The transporter was programmed to screen out any virus! He has a fever of 105 Fahrenheit but no other outward signs, no rash, no change in skin color. Computer is currently working on chemistry to find a vaccine that will kill the virus but not injure Commander Riker. Ensign Greenblatt, please keep an eye on the terminal. I'm going to take another look at this headdress."

Beverly picked up a headband that had a powerful light attached to it from the portable instrument cabinet that had been wheeled to within easy reach. Putting it on, she bent to peer at the edges of the headdress. Jamming a thumb just barely under the flap that came down in front of Will's ear, partially covering his sideburn, she managed to pry just a bit away from the skin. Her voice straining with the effort of bending and exerting force she said, "I have just barely been able to lift some of the headdress away from Commander Riker's skin. I see what appears to be filaments, hundreds of them, coming out from the inside edge of this thing, that have penetrating his skin.

"Here," she said, looking up to the orderly. "Slip your finger under here but not too deep. I don't want these things attacking you." She turned to the instrument cabinet and picked up a diagnostic tool. Switching it on, she aimed the twittering end at the small aperture under the hat. "Just as I thought, they're part of the headdress." She stood up. "I have to come up with some way of taking this thing off without ripping his skin off with it. Those cilia seem to be fully involved with his scalp. Just the small area I have been able to tear loose is looking very raw and irritated now."

Dr. Crusher paused, going over the possibilities in her head. After a moment's consideration, she raised her head, "Diagnostic computer, audio response. Are the filaments penetrating Commander Riker's skin part of the headdress?"

"Define headdress."

"Headdress! That, that thing sitting on Commander Riker's head! Are the filaments part of that!" Her exasperation had her nearly spitting as she spoke.

"Yes, the fibrils penetrating the skin of Commander Riker are part of the... headdress." The answer, incorporating the new word, had a hardly noticeable pause.

An alarming new thought came to Dr. Crusher. "Is the headdress alive?"

"Yes."

The eyes of all three of the attending people moved to the limp spread of featherlike tendrils. With an uneasy voice, she called out to the air, "Is this creature doing anything else to Will– Commander Riker that cannot be observed from the outside? List any observations of variance from Riker's last health exam."

The impassive voice droned out the information in feminine tones. "The fibrils each end in numerous cilia that have either made contact with neuron tissue or have wrapped around substructural dural cells. The fibrils are in direct contact with Commander Riker's subdural nerves as well as with nerves of the spinal column through the first, second and third cervical spinal ganglia. There is evidence of partial involvement of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves at that location. Chemicals are being transmitted via the cilia. The virus which is affecting Riker's health is being transmitted via the cilia."

"What are the chemicals?"

The computer voice started listing the elements in its concise, precise delivery.

Beverly held up her hand reflexively. "Stop the list. Do a printout. I recognize one combination as being a drug that produces a light hypnotic state. List the effects of all of these chemicals on humans.

There was a slight pause. "One is a light, local anesthetic. One produces the effect of mild hypnotic trance. One suppresses certain functions of the cerebral cortex leaving pathways open to unrestrained functions of the thalamus and the hypothalamus. One slightly enhances hormonal secretions, primarily those effecting sexual activity and the coronal behavior patterns." The computer-generated voice fell silent.

Dr. Crusher nodded. "I thought so. Aside from the effects of the drugs, does the neural contact have any affect on Commander Riker?"

"Unknown at this time."

"Can the headdress be removed without harming Commander Riker?"

"Unknown at this time."

"Will Commander Riker suffer undue consequences if the ha...headdress is not removed."

"Unknown at this time."

Three responses of "Unknown at this time," was the doctor's patience limit. She had long ago learned that once she got on a sequence of 'unknown' responses that she would likely continue to elicit the same repeatedly. She'd analyzed, once upon a reflective moment, that she often seemed to stop thinking when dealing with the non-thinking microchip, liquid crystal stuff that comprised the computer. Sometimes she wondered if it was because there was some sort of built in computer wisdom that would cause it endlessly to refuse to answer questions best suited to human inspiration. She also wondered why the programmer hadn't inserted the one answer that would best fit the moment, something like, 'Think, you silly-ass doctor!'

"Okay," she said out loud.

"Do you wish further information?" the bodiless female voice asked dispassionately.

"Computer, end audio response." Dr. Crusher said firmly. She continued with vocalizing her own thoughts for the benefit of the records and her assistants. "Okay, we know the hat is holding on to Commander Riker with those filaments and injecting him with chemicals as well as a virus. There is no physiological harm being done to the nerves as shown by the diagnostics. As far as we know, the harm is from the virus that has been transmitted via the subdural penetration.

"We also know the hat is alive, but we don't know what purpose those filaments fulfill. Since they're in contact with his nervous system, I can't help but wonder if this thing is affecting his mind in any way other than what the drugs may be doing. I see nothing on the displays or in his outward appearance, so apparently, it doesn't affect any gross motor control, and aside from natural reactions to the viral infection, his autonomic reactions are normal. That still leaves his conscious behavior."

The young nurse standing at the small computer terminal interjected, "How about increased libido?"

Beverly had been concentrating so hard on the problem at hand she had forgotten about the commander's advances on the nurse as well as her own encounter in Will's quarters and D'Jang's conversational report. She gave a brief smile to the young ensign, "Yes, increased libido has been observed." Pausing, mentally reviewing, then resuming, she said, "The creature seems dormant now but maintains its hold on Commander Riker's head. I'd say we should try to remove the thing, but the question is, how?"

The orderly spoke up, "Stun? Shoot it with a phaser on lightest stun?"

Beverly almost seemed to accept the answer as a solution but then her eyes flickered. "How to set the range short enough so as not to penetrate to Commander Riker?"

The orderly shook his head, "I don't think there's a way to do that. Sorry."

"No, that's okay, Lieutenant Bismark, shows you're thinking. Think some more."

Again the orderly spoke, "Injection?"

Beverly thought a moment and shook her head. "We can see the anatomy but have no idea what it means, or of the metabolism. We don't know what it might respond to or what might even kill it."

All were silent a moment. The young nurse spoke, "Electric shock."

Dr. Crusher shook her head, but the ensign persisted. "Something mild maybe, you know, like what we used back in first year zoology to get flatworms to move. Remember? I was thinking of just putting the shock to the fibrils. It wouldn't necessarily affect the whole creature."

Dr. Crusher nodded. "It might work. Sort of like slapping its fingers rather than knocking it out entirely." She thought a moment longer. "Yes, and I think we even have an electric shock needle here." She turned towards the instrument cabinet then paused. "But, you know what? I think I'd better talk with Captain Picard before we do anything. Believe it or not, this, this thing is supposed to be a representative of Kron. We thought it was just a fancy hat. I don't have one iota of information on the lesser animal life. What we propose sounds harmless enough but it could cause damage. Since Commander Riker's condition is stable, drastic action is not necessary, yet." Dr. Crusher tapped her communicator button.

TBC to Chapter 14

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