Not Everything is as it Seems
Posted on Wed Jul 29th, 2020 @ 12:16pm by Captain Henry Crow & Commander Brielle Jayde & Commander Caressa Melanick & Lieutenant JG Vex Aldrin & Lieutenant JG Chance Crow
Mission:
To The Rescue
Location: Planet Surface
Timeline: TBA
Caressa and her team beamed down. She was impressed, Engineering did a great job with the current structures and equipment. All their needs have been met and more.
"Ensign Cho, Mayfield, and Springer, our patients are inside. I want you to start bio-scans on each person, complete metabolic profiles also. Brie and Vex , complete environmental scans, don’t leave any stone unturned I have a feeling about this one. Please send reports every hour. If you are compromised, report to me immediately! Let’s get to it!”
Brielle looked around and nodded. She wasn't super comfortable being here, but knew she needed to be. She was on security detail, and hoped she wouldn't have to use force on anyone, especially given the situation.
Vex hummed in agreement and started his work, taking slow steps to make sure he covered everything. "I do hope all goes well with everything" Quietly to himself, not trying to annoy Brielle as this was the first time working with her
Caressa went into the designed medical facility and went to work immediately. Each patient had the same symptoms, that was better than she expected. No surprises, at least for now. She and her team passed along as much encouragement and care as they could in complete bio suits. She examined each patient and went over all results. Hours passed and information was constantly coming in.
Ensign Cho approached Caressa, “Commander, look at this!”
Caressa took the pad, her eyebrows raised. She looked at the Ensign. “This is great work, why didn’t we get this information initially? Ensign, run a level 1 diagnostic on the equipment just to make sure."
“Yes ma’am” Ensign Cho turned and smiled as she went back to work.
“Team 2 to Lt. Commander Melanick.” Caressa turned and headed to her make shift office. “Team two go ahead”
“We are sending results, this isn’t making a lot of sense. Things are not as they appeared or was told to us initially.”
“Interesting, team two. You guys get back to base then take a break. I think we need a meeting to put all the information together. I will let you know. Melanick out”
Caressa gave her team the night off, except for Ensign Springer, who was on duty for night shift with the 12 patients.
She was bedded down for the night in the containment unit quarters. Much smaller but it was nice to come out of the bio-suit even if it was just for a few hours.
She poured over the information. She was quite confused, the patients where clearing with treatment that she had contained in the medical facility. Those on the outside however were dropping like flies. The treatment was quite simple, sulfa drugs. Nothing fancy, the drug had been around for hundreds of years and part of the treatment plan that she suggested to the government initially. She was really beginning to think this was political in nature.
She took the PADD in hand from the environmental team. The water from the mountain dam was contaminated. She thought that they had covered that with the official.
She was going to set up a meeting with Henry in the morning after her team meeting in the morning.
The next morning
Caressa met with her team. “Guys, it looks like we have it figured out, at least for those in our care. What are your thoughts as we look at the information? Ensign Cho?”
“Lt. Commander, it seems that the political structure of this planet is trying to seek compliance over the people by spreading disease. All scans have come back normal on all the patients after 48 hours of treatment with Sulfa. They have not been exposed to the environmental factors of the planet In fact, they are almost ready to be discharged.”
“Excellent Ensign Cho, Brie, Vex what do you have to report?”
Brielle spoke up, but looked exhausted. "So far, no security issues. I'm not liking watching the people outside of this area though. The politics of this planet make me cringe."
“Caressa, it appears that the water on the planet is being contaminated from an outside source. All internal sources are clean and uncontaminated. “
Caressa spoke up. "Did you determine the location of the contamination?”
“Yes ma’am, It appears on the night time rotation of the dam workers.” He passed the padd to her. “As you can see the levels spike at night and the contamination trail extends from there to the planetary water supply.”
“Interesting. Please keep all results between us. I want to chat with Captain Crow. Let’ tell the current patients that we need to run some final tests. Team two, go ahead and treat the water, but don’t tell anyone. I will take the heat if need be.
Brie looked to Caressa, "Do you still want me doing security details or something else?"
"Lets keep up what we are doing. I do not want to alarm anyone as to the information that we have gathered. Make sense? Do you agree?" Caressa loooked to Brie.
"No, that'll work. I just wasn't sure if you wanted help elsewhere since you are running this show."
Chance spoke up, hesitant to go against the tone of the meeting, but this needed to be brought up. "Doctor, I 'm not comfortable that the antibody levels have been sufficiently tested yet. The patients are showing signs of being resistant right now, but we haven't observed long enough to even give a good guess as to how long that'll last. I'd hate to send them out there, subjected to it again, and not doing anything to bring the numbers down."
Mr. Crow, while I understand your hesitation, the antibody tests can certainly be performed after we have left the surface. The mission was to come, assess, evaluate, treat. I do not want to submit anyone here to further exposure unless necessary.
A moment later the Mercutio EMH fizzled into form. "Doctor, the latest test results...," he paused looking around. "Oh, a meeting, which I was not aware of." The annoyed Bostonian accent was thick.
Brielle was surprised by the appearance of their EMH, but gave a smile. "It's alright, what is the report?"
The hologram turned to Brie. "All simulations based on the known information regarding the planetary water system show a 98.6% chance that by treating the water we can eliminate the sickness. That however is no guarantee that when the ship leaves it will not return through dubious means."
"Meaning...someone started this..." Brielle rubbed her forehead. "Did you inform the captain?"
"No, I'm a doctor, not a messenger."
Swearing under her breath, Brielle simply shook her head. "Please let the captain know? With the simulation results, we can at least help those down here, but we can't chance contacting the ship outside of this room with the information in case someone is listening."
"Oh, very well." He paused a moment. "There." A moment later he gave a nod to no one in particular. "The Captain agrees that the antibody testing can be completed from the safety of the ship. He suggests that I remain here to keep an eye on the patients while the rest of you return." His expression showed he didn't think much of the new orders.
Nodding, Brie looked to the others. "Looks like we have our orders. You all ready?" She knew Caressa was in charge but figured she'd put her second officer hat on for a little bit.
The team gathered what was needed and returned to the ship but the questions and doubts lingered.
Lieutenant Commander Caressa Melanick
Chief Medical Officer, USS Mercutio
Lieutenant Commander Brielle Jayde
Second Officer, USS Mercutio
Lieutenant JG Vex Aldrin
Engineering Officer, USS Mercutio
Lieutenant JG Chance Crow
Medical Officer, USS Mercutio
