The Consultation

Posted on Fri Jul 16th, 2010 @ 9:47am by Lieutenant John Forest & Commander Fala Awen

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Sickbay, ACMO's Office
Timeline: MD-16 1430 hours

ON:
[[USS Pandora, Sickbay, ACMO's Office, Day 16, 1430 hours]]

"Computer, isolate the tissue sample at D-5 and magnify times ten." Margaret ordered. She had been sitting in her seat for several hours, treating the occasional sprained wrist, or healing cuts, but mostly just keeping an eye on the two Romulan patients laying on the biobeds.

Leaning in to get a better look at the sample being displayed on the monitor, Margaret shook her head. "Computer, return to previous magnification." she said as she fell back into her chair. "We're not getting anywhere with this. Computer, do we have a listing for any medical personnel on the colony? Even a medic?"

Chirping in response, the computer said, =^=Affirmative. Available colony manifest lists Doctor Saren (NPC) as primary physician=^=

Margaret nodded. "Let's hope he has a computer in his office. Computer, hail the colony, recipient Dr. Saren."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

Returning to his desk after checking on some patients, Saren frowned as his console indicated he had a trasmission coming from the Pandora. He would have preferred to ignore it, but that might look suspicious. Instead, the Romulan tapped on the screen to accept the transmission. "This is Doctor Saren."

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

As the screen on her desk changed from the Starfleet Medical insignia to the face of the Romulan doctor, Margaret had to force herself to accept that the man was indeed a doctor. While she knew that the living conditions on the planet were extraordinarily harsh, she had expected a somewhat more professional presence for the colony's doctor. "Doctor Saren, thank you for taking my hail. I'm Doctor Margaret Winchester of the Pandora."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

Saren gave the woman a brief nod, "This might be a simple colonial physician's office, Doctor Winchester, but I try to afford colleagues with the same respect I would want. Refusing to answer your hail would have served no purpose." For now, he would let her lead the conversation in the direction she wished.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

"As I'm sure you've been informed, we're treating two of your colonists. We've been trying to rehydrate them and isolate what is causing their condition, but we're not having much luck. I was wondering if you could help us." Margaret responded.

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

"Yes, Governer Dhivael (NPC) informed me that they were aboard your vessel. I must say that I was rather surprised that I was not contacted before our people were whisked away to your ship, Doctor," Saren replied, frowning. "It's usually common courtesy to give their primary physician the opportunity to treat his own patients. Not to mention that this is the first I've been contacted since you took possession of them yesterday."

Perhaps he should have simply answered the other Doctor's question, but right now he wasn't overly concerned about that. The fact was that the StarFleet officers had taken colonists over twenty-four hours ago and had not bothered to report back to the colony regarding their condition. Saren didn't want to cause trouble right now, but he also couldn't simply sit by and not even mention it.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

Margaret looked off screen to where the vitals for the two Romulan patients were presented on the wall display. "I apologize for taking them without notifying you, but at the time my primary concern was getting them some place that they could be treated and no one nearby was giving any assistance. As for just now contacting you, we've been trying to stabilize them and since I am familiar with romulan physiology, it wasn't an immediate concern."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

Deciding to drop the matter for the time being, Saren inquired, "And are they now stabalized, Doctor?"

Hearing a knock at his door, Saren glanced over quickly as one of his assistants opened the door. Before the young woman could come any further, he waved her away. Whatever it was, it could wait. He doubted that anything of importance had really happened anyway.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

Margaret paused a moment to consider how to answer the question. "It's kind of hard to answer that, Doctor. We have been able to adequately rehydrate them both, but their vitals are still extremely low. We've been trying to isolate the source of the condition, but all of our scans and tests have returned negative results."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

Saren nodded solemnly, "I'm pleased to hear that they are at least no longer dehydrated... Have you or your medical team come up with any theories as to what might be causing it?"

While awaiting her reply, he glanced down at the results from some tests he'd run earlier. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Saren looked back up at the screen.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

"We've done full body scans and tox screens and haven't come up with anything that would indicate an abnormal growth or a parasite, so we have to go with the assumption that it's a pathogen of some kind." Margaret answered. "Have you seen anything like this in the colony before?"

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

"No, Doctor, I haven't. I've seen patients with less than ideal vitals, of course, but we never had all tests and scans return negative results. We were able to identify the cause and get the patients stable," Saren told her. He couldn't tell her everything, of course...but he also hadn't exactly lied. Their tests and scans were able to identify the cause, mostly because they had realized what they were up against. It had been impressed upon him, however, that the lives of a couple of colonists were a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

Margaret sighed slightly. She had hoped that perhaps there was something that the doctor had seen before that could help with the treatment of the romulans. If the doctor had indeed never seen anything like this before, it meant that whatever it was, either it had just been introduced to the colony or that it was something that was already there and had somehow mutated in a fashion that made it undetectable to modern scans. "Perhaps you could send me the medical records for the last four or five months. Something in them might help us identify what this is."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

Saren nodded slowly, "I'll gather up what I can, Doctor. Our equipment isn't as advanced as yours, I'm sure, so it might take a little time to get all the information... But you should have it by sometime tomorrow." Truthfully, he could've had it to her that same evening, but since he was sending it to the StarFleet vessel, Saren first had to go through everything carefully. He would also likely have to cover his tracks a bit more so the records didn't appear altered...and that would mean involving Reval (NPC), which would not be pleasant.

[USS Pandora, ACMO's Office]

Margaret smiled. "Thank you, Doctor. I'll await the transmission. Well, I should go check on my patients, and I'm sure you have other duties that need your attention, so I will let you go. Thank you again, Doctor."

[Nerus V Colony, Primary Physician's Office]

"You're welcome, Doctor Winchester. Hopefully the information will be of some use to you," Saren replied. "If you need anything else, feel free to contact me. Saren out."

OFF:

JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant JG Margaret Winchester (PNPC)
Chief Surgeon
USS Pandora
Played by: Lt. John Forest

and

Doctor Saren (NPC)
Primary Physician
Nerus V Colony
played by: Lt Cmdr Fala