Chapter Eight
This was the first time Tarya had stepped into the sickbay on the Enterprise and it was one of the few times she'd been to a sickbay in her life. The concept of a doctor was new to her. From a young age, her people were taught how to heal themselves from the cellular level up. Whilst she had been through several medicals in the past, she'd never really shown them who she was. Her chest began to close up. She knew she had to concentrate on breathing. Deanna sensed her tension.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" Tarya wanted to run. 'No' she thought. 'I've been through far more than this. Stop being ridiculous!'
"Tarya?!" Deanna placed a hand to her shoulder.
"I'm fine. Can we just get on with this? Please." She sounded harsh, but Deanna knew it was just to try and hide how extremely uncomfortable she was.
"Wait here for a moment. I need to speak with Dr Crusher first." Tarya sat on the edge of a bed staring at the ground, wanting the ground to swallow her and trying to avoid eye contact with the medical personal who were milling around. She slyly looked up to the office ahead. She could see Deanna chatting to a beautiful redheaded woman. Red was not a common colour on her planet. In fact, she could only think of one person whose colour came close. She assumed the woman was Dr Crusher and she was looking between her and Deanna with great intrigue and concern. Tarya hoped she wasn't judging her too harshly for her deception. What if she did? What is she was repulsed by what she had done? She shuffled around as she saw them exiting the office after what had seemed a very long time.
The redheaded Dr walked up to her smiling softly. "Hello, I'm Dr Crusher. Deanna has filled me in on your situation." She raised an eyebrow before continuing. "I must say, somehow you've managed to trick some of our best technology. I'm impressed." As she spoke Dr Crusher motioned to her colleagues to give them some space.
"I'm sorry."
"Hey! No judgment from me, I really am genuinely impressed. Mind you, you hadn't been through one of my medicals yet...you never know?" Tarya looked up for the first time and into her deep blue eyes. She could tell there was no malice there. She felt much more at ease. Deanna could sense her relax and stroked Dr Crushers arm in thanks as the doctors demeanour turned a bit more serious.
"Look, as you are an unrecorded species, I am going to need examine you thoroughly with my instruments and visually to enable me to document my readings and corroborate my findings as accurately as possible."
"Do you do that with all first contacts?"
"No, not in this depth, more often than not we just exchange data, but you are an officer on board this ship and everything we have about you in the system so far is inaccurate. Do you understand? It's for the safety of everyone – but primarily yours." Dr Crusher stroked her arm as she spoke. Tarya nodded in confirmation and Deanna bought over one of the standard medical gowns.
"If you put this on it will be easier." Tarya took the gown from Deanna and turned to undress. As she removed her uniform and vest, Deanna and the Dr exchanged a glance. Her back was covered in scars. A few looked as though they could have been from something akin to a whipping, others larger and of varying shapes. Dr Crusher was very intrigued as to what this medical would illuminate.
Tarya had changed into her gown and returned to the table. "Would you prefer to sit or lie down?" Asked Dr Crusher.
"Sit if possible."
"Okay, that's fine. There will be a time you will need to lie, but it won't be for long and we'll do the majority sitting up… I'll start from head to toe. First I will externally examine you, then I will scan internally." Dr Crusher carefully placed her hands on either side of her head. Tarya instinctively backed away. "It's okay. I just need to take a closer look. Can I place your hair up?" Tarya again nodded in confirmation as Dr Crusher carefully lifted her hair and tied it into a loose, high bun. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt such soft, silky hair. She slowly and gently brushed her fingers down Tarya's neck, rolling her fingers over the slight indent of the ligature scars. She kept glancing between her patient and Deanna, always trying to gage how her patient was feeling. "What are the doctors like on your planet?" She asked, trying to make a bit of small talk.
"We don't have doctors. I'd never heard of the concept before we left our world. We teach our young how to repair themselves at the cellular level - look." Tarya picked up scalpel from the medical tray next to her bed and found a clear patch of skin on her left arm. Dr Crusher looked to Deanna with a flash of concern. Deanna's look told her it would be okay. Tarya sliced her arm and they all watched as it only took a few moments for her skin to knit together perfectly.
"That's incredible," noted Dr Crusher who mused further still and hoped this would be a good opening. "Tell me though. You repaired that quickly and perfectly… How come you have so many scars?" Tarya hung her head, almost as if she was embarrassed or ashamed. "Listen, anything you tell us here will not be directly evidenced in any of my reports; they will all simply be noted as historical injury scars. I wasn't your doctor and didn't treat you at the time they do need to be fully reported on. I merely need to distinguish them from your natural anatomy."
"Well that's good." Tarya quipped. "We'd be here for years. I don't think you'd appreciate spending that much of your lifespan on me." Crusher laughed at her attempt to lighten the mood, but then sobered at the reality of the comment. Tarya waved the scalpel she held in front of them.
"If I took this knife and sliced my arm again, the same would happen, but if I did it again and again and again it would eventually take longer and scar. I am also very old and it becomes harder and longer to repair as you age. If one was also incapacitated or had multiple wounds at once, you'd have to prioritise and the longer they are left, the less well they heal." It was not lost on either the Dr or the Counsellor that Tarya seemed well practiced in depersonalising her responses.
"That's something our species have in common," Crusher noted. As she reached her toes, she was surprised by how similar their species were. Were it not for the eyes and slightly more drastic skin tone you could have been excused for thinking her human. "Tell me, the only thing that really stands out physically about your body are these two small humps on your back, near your shoulder blades." Tarya considered for a moment.
"As a counsellor and a doctor you are bound by patient confidentiality. Does that apply to me now?"
"Normally it would, but as you are having an official medical if it pertains to your species I really should declare it."
"What if it only pertained to me and not my entire species?"
"Possibly, but I honestly couldn't answer that until I knew what they were, which kind of defeats the point."
"In that case I am going to say I don't know. Perhaps I will tell you when don't need to record it."
"I have to say you have me horrendously intrigued now, but okay. I will just state they are a part of your anatomy."
"Thank you."
"Now. I am going to need you to lie down on the bed so I can scan you internally from head to toe." It won't take too long to complete the scans. I will place a scanner over your head. It won't touch you but it will slowly descend down your body. Is that okay?" Tarya again nodded in acceptance as she lay on the bed. Beverley started the scan and moved to her station. She thoughtfully stared at her monitor as the scan progressed and it wasn't too long before the scanner was working its way down her legs.
"I'm just going to type a few notes up with Deanna in my office. It won't take a few minutes to complete now. If you need me, just shout."
"Okay." Beverley ushered Deanna into her room.
"Dear God Deanna. I've never seen anything like this."
"What! She wasn't that dissimilar to humans externally, is she so different internally?"
"She is a bit more complex inside yes. Ultimately our systems are very similar, she seems to have a secondary cardiovascular system of sorts. That's the only real difference, the rest are minor tweaks on our own anatomy."
"Then what is it?"
"The scars you see on her outside are similar to that on the inside. This woman has been brutalised, systematically. If she were human she would be long dead. At some point, most of her major organs have been ruptured and she has a surprising amount of scarring on her brain, though it appears not to impair her, that we know of yet anyway. I would also say that, if she were human, the majority of her injuries occurred within the last... maybe three to five years. Though I don't know quite how that would translate to her species."
"All she really told us of why she had left her world was that they'd been through two centuries of great oppression and control and that many atrocities happened during this time, though the situation had since been resolved."
"I guess that would make sense, the last two centuries of a species that lives for tens of thousands of years – come on, the scan has finished," Beverly said whilst nudging her friend. "We don't want her to start getting nervous again." They left to re-join Tarya.
"Well-done, that's it for now, I will need to ask you some questions later on but I have to write up my report first and I think this has been lengthy enough. There are only two questions I really have to ask now so I can complete the report. I note you have a secondary cardiovascular system. Can you tell me what that is for?"
"Tarya sat up and placed her hands palm up and the same blue glow that Deanna had seen in her office shone around her fingertips." The Dr motioned for permission to touch it, which Tarya granted.
"Fascinating!" Declared Dr Crusher as she joined her fingertips to Tarya's, sending an unexpected shiver through her spine. "Is this coming out of the slightly larger pores on the ends fingertips?"
"Yes, it's called Equanime, it travels through our bodies through the system you just mentioned. It's what enables us to heal and have a greater control of our systems and cells. On our home world, this is present in all the creatures too. Even rocks have solidified veins. We are at one with our planet. We can heal and communicate with the animals. We use it to take care of our world. Even our technologies are biotechnological and this is a major component in its use." Beverly thought for a moment.
"You know, I am going to request your species file be stored and classified as top secret." Both Deanna and Tarya looked at her quizzically.
"I'm not saying this is even possible, but there is potential that this substance could be misused – even sort after for experimentation on. If we or anyone else could somehow integrate it into our technology, it could have any number of repercussions. I'd rather be safe than sorry, this is yours and yours alone to do with what you want." Crusher made that painstakingly clear to her and Deanna. "Let's keep this conversation between us too."
"Is that it?" Tarya asked hopefully.
"Umm…" Beverly said whilst scrolling through her PADD. "Is your species made of the more common two sexes?"
"Yes."
"Are you classified as a female?"
"I am."
"Great." She scrolled again. "I note you have what looks to be a fairly similar reproductive system to our own. Have you had any children?" Tarya's eyes began to water as several memories flooded back.
"Yes, I've had nine." Deanna took the opportunity to try and muster a bit more information.
"Have you had to leave them all behind? Are they grown?"
"They are all dead." Tarya hung her head and tried to stifle her emotions. She'd had decades of practice, mastering the art of not showing any, but Deanna could sense too much of the overwhelming guilt and grief she carried. She couldn't help a tear escaping. Dr Crusher placed a hand on Tarya's back. "Come on let's get you dressed again. I hear Deanna has a nice surprise for you." Deanna quickly wiped her tears and scrabbled to figure what Beverly was alluding too. It then clicked.
"Yes!" she said. "Due to everything that's happened over the last few days, and considering all your circumstances, we are going to give you your own quarters. Come on, I'll get you settled in."