Post 338: Consultation

Stardate:70801.1230
Title: Consultation
Author: February Grace
Scene: Aboard Runabout Hiawatha
Time: Hours after "Our Better Selves"
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Dabin Reece had spent the last few hours in a daze, caught somewhere in between a past lifetime of memories and the shock of the situation in which he currently found himself. He had never imagined, not in his wildest dreams, that he'd ever meet up with another of Grace's hosts.

The sound of a com-link being established brought him back to the moment.

[Dr. Hood.]

"Hiya, gorgeous." He couldn't help but smile as the image of the very familiar woman with cropped dark hair and gently pointed ears appeared on the screen before him. She was out of uniform, but that was to be expected. She was on vacation.

[Dabin! Are you all right?] Her steel-gray eyes showed concern. [I was beginning to think you'd decided to forget it and go to Risa instead, without me.]

Usually such an opening would immediately generate one of his trademark wise-ass responses, but by this point Reece was far too preoccupied.

"I'm okay, Roomie. You won't believe the stuff I have to tell you later. But first, it looks like I've got some more work to do with the Indy's crew and I was wonderin' if I could ask a favor?"

Jaine Hood had known Dabin Reece for more than a decade, but rarely had she heard him sound like this.

They had met on her very first day aboard the deep space station in the Klingon outback where they had been assigned, purposely, to share living quarters.

This was because the station was seriously short on habitable living space at the time, and their commanding officer figured that Jaine (the station's counselor at the time) was the only person there who could put up with living with him.

She never would have believed it if you'd told her then that someday, years in the future, she'd be engaged to marry him.

[Anything.]

"Could we beam you aboard the runabout and take you along on a little field trip? We need your medical expertise. "

[Where are we going?]

"The symbiont caves."

Jaine's expression changed. [Are you sure you're not in trouble? Is Reece all right?] She didn't usually speak of his symbiont as a separate entity, but at this point she felt she shouldn't rule anything out.

"Yeah. But we both need your help, for a friend. We'll swing by for you soon."

[Acknowledged. I'll be ready for anything. Hood out.]

"Good," Dabin said softly to the now blank screen. "You'll need to be."

He glanced over at February, who had finally cried herself to sleep on her bunk after talking for a while with Vedek Jariel.

Jariel still sat on the top bunk, continuing to do what he did best; listen. He caught Reece's attention with a wave and began to sign.

[[It's fortunate for February that we have the option of consulting with Dr. Hood.]]

"You've got that right. Between Jaine's unique approach to neurology, and Dr. Trind's vast experience, the girl might have a chance."

"Reece, you started to say something before," Trind whispered, trying not to wake their patient. "Something about what you thought might be wrong with February. Now that she's sleeping, care to share?"

"I think the origin of the problem might lie within the symbiont, not the host."

"But when I scanned her head to toe on the Indy, the symbiont seemed to be perfectly healthy."

"Seemed to be," he replied. "Problem is, there is still so much we don't know about the neural connections between host and symbiont. We won't know for sure until we put her into a pool down in the caves, which we need to do sooner rather than later."

He looked at February's medical read-outs again on the portable monitors. "I can't promise you for sure that's it, but I just have this feeling. That slug is holding out on us."

Knowing that Reece's symbiont was a hundred and fifty or so years senior to her own, Ashlyn was forced to entertain the possibility, as much as she hated the thought, that he may very well be right.

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Lt. (jg) February Grace
Helm/Flight Controller
USS Independence NCC-90791