Post 385: Setting the Stage

Stardate:70814.1525
Title: Setting the Stage
Author: February Grace
Scene: Sickbay, USS Independence
Time: Concurrent with "Under Arrest"
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Science officer-errant Dabin Reece stared out the viewport and looked down on his homeworld as the Independence hovered above it.

It looked so clean; pure and welcoming from this distance. Still he knew that corruption was spreading. Decaying and threatening to destroy the most dearly held convictions and institutions of his species if it continued unchecked.

Somewhere within him, Dabin felt Reece's heart ache as it attempted to fathom the depths to which the more powerful in the Symbiosis Commission had sunk.

He glanced over at February Grace, who was currently sedated for her own good. During the trip she'd woken up from unconsciousness in an incoherent, panicked state.

--=Flashback: Earlier aboard the Callisto*=--

After Salvek beamed them aboard, Lt. Grace had opened her eyes and began to scream. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know who she was, she didn't understand what was going on but she kept repeating that she couldn't find them. She didn't remember, where were they? Where were Grace's previous hosts?

Dabin and Ashlyn had exchanged heartbroken glances. The idea that the symbiont had lost the memories of its past hosts was something so horrible that they couldn't, as joined Trills themselves, imagine what February was going through.

Rigin had placed his hand over her symbiont and made telepathic contact with it. At the same time, he spoke aloud and tried to calm Bru down.

"Shh, it's okay, they're all still in there, dear one. You just can't hear them. The neural link is damaged, the one between Grace's memory and yours. We'll fix it." Rigin assured her, patting her on the arm gently. "The zhian'tara."

"Please, you have to get them back," she begged. "Can you get them back?"

The doctors didn't want to answer that question with a lie and so remained silent, since any assurances they offered her at this point would definitely be that. The truth was that they just didn't know.

"You're going to be fine, February. Just rest now. Think about this for me." Rigin said, trying to distract her. "Don't think about Grace for a while at all. Focus on February's memories, and tell me what you would like us to bring to you in Sickbay when we get back to the ship. Your favorite things."

"Um," February's chin quivered and she rolled her eyes upward in thought. Suddenly, she seemed as if she was all of about five years of age.

"My warm robe, I'm so cold. And my fuzzy slippers." Tears slipped down her cheeks. "My guitars. Um. Wait. I don't remember how to play. I don't know anything! I can't do this!"

She began to sob. Ashlyn took out a hypo finally and pressed it to Bru's neck. She began to fall asleep, mumbling additions to Rigin's list as she went.

"Mmm. My glasses. My. . retainer. . .some clean under. . .a scrunchie. . .hitchhikers. . .guide." she closed her eyes and stopped speaking.

"What guide?" Rigin shook his head as Lily T'Ana tapped February's requests, no matter how silly they might seem, into a PADD.

"Hitchhikers Guide," Dabin replied, his voice heavy with melancholy. He knew that this had been Grace's favorite for lifetimes now, "to the Galaxy. It's a book. By Douglas Adams." Impulsively, he leaned forward and kissed February on the forehead. "Hang on, kiddo. We'll get you back."

Suddenly Dabin heard a clattering noise behind him and spun around to see Captain Gilmore leaning against the wall, cane on the floor. He was gasping and had one hand pressed against his chest.

"Whoa! Easy there Captain Ahab!" Reece and Hood each took one of Gilmore's arms, and they eased him into a seat. Jaine began to scan him.

"Are you in pain, sir?"

"Yes. I can't catch- my -" Gilmore rasped. Lily hurried forward and took his hand, holding tight.

"February is going to be okay. You need to rest. Come on, Uncle. Let's go sit over there." Lily gestured with her eyes to the forward cabin, indicating to Hood and Reece that it would be better if he couldn't see what was going on with Bru.

"Reece, a hand?" T'Ana requested as she took Gilmore's cane, then his arm. The two of them escorted the captain forward. Jaine nodded to Ashlyn, an understanding between them that she would tend to Gilmore. As she moved past Lily in the aisle, Lily tugged Jaine's sleeve.

"It would be better for all involved," she whispered sadly, "If from here on out, we keep those two separated. For their own good."

Jaine didn't know Grace and Gilmore well enough to understand, but she took T'Ana's word for it. "I'll make sure they're at separate ends of Sickbay when we get back."

"Thank you."

--=End Flashback=--

Dr. McKenna continued now to run tests on Gilmore to try to determine the cause of his symptoms. Hood and Trind had both reassured him though that it could simply be that he'd tried to do too much, too soon after his cardiac replacement procedure. After all, they reminded him, he had supposedly gone to Trill to take a restful vacation.

Rigin approached Reece.

"You'd never know from here would you?" the Guardian said sadly, pointing to the pristine globe with the purple oceans dotting it beyond the window. "Our world is like a beautiful piece of fruit. Shining, inviting. But beneath the skin,"

"Yeah. More than a worm or two in that apple." Reece wanted to change the subject. "All ready to start the ritual there, Slim?"

"Just about. This will be a zhian'tara unlike any I have ever presided over."

"Well despite the obvious reasons of location and condition of the host, why is that?"

"We'll be going backward. Starting with Grace's last host, Wen, and working all the back through toward the first host, Gentry."

"Because she can't remember?"

"Yes. It is my hope that by taking the memories from Grace and putting them into a temporary host body in the order of most recent backwards to first, that it will spark the neural links between February and Grace. Sort of a reintroduction by proxy."

"Is it really going to work?"

"I don't know." Rigin was an honest man, so he gave the honest answer. "But it's all we've got."

Dabin nodded, amazed at how badly this was eating at him. "I want to help. I volunteer to embody Deveral."

Rigin's eyes flew wide open. "Commander Reece, I don't know if that's a very good, I mean, you were, you know, and you're already a joined Trill with so many lifetimes of memories and personalities. It could be confusing, very disorienting to you,"

"I know who I was, and I know who I am." Dabin replied confidently. "This is something that we need to do because I knew Deveral. I can perhaps help Grace remember things about him that it may have forgotten."

"That's an interesting theory." Rigin wasn't quite convinced yet. "Are you sure that's the only reason you want to do it?"

Reece sighed. "It's the primary one," he confessed. "But not the only one.The zhian'tara is called the Rite of Closure for a reason. I suppose that part of me wants that for Reece, as well as for Grace."

"I understand." Rigin nodded. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I have to be."

"Very well. I'll permit it if Grace will. The decision is hers."

Dabin looked out the viewport again. "Fair enough."

"I've asked for use of the adjacent conference room in which to conduct the zhian'tara. That way if anything goes wrong, we can bring February back into Sickbay right away."

"Makes sense. So when do we begin, and with whom?"

"We begin right away with Lily T'Ana," Rigin said, taking a deep breath. "And Wen Grace."

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