Post 555) Trapped

Stardate: 71116.1945
Title: Trapped
Author: Ensign Rada Dengar
Scene: Sickbay
Time: Concurrent with “Quicksand Part One”

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Rada surveyed his body; he was still trapped in Sickbay. Secured to his bio bed and with a guard outside, they clearly thought that they could keep him here.

*What fools,” Rada thought to himself with a chuckle *they genuinely think that that will stop us!* as he began to laugh with a cockiness quite contrary to his nature, this attracted some worried looks from the medical staff around him.

His emotions had been erratic to say the least since N’Dura escorted him in here and his behavior in general had been quite unusual, trapped with his thoughts it was an inevitably lost battle.

He had received a visit from Zanh Liis before and found himself praying for her to come just that little bit closer, just to step into his range and then he could show her. He found it to be utterly amazing what they had taught him about how to cease humanoid life and was looking forward to trying it out.

*I almost had her!* he told himself angrily, she had been so close that his hands couldn’t hold back anymore and when he reached up he found his hands just fell short of her neck allowing her to step back unharmed. This was why, he reminded himself, he had to be patient. This was not entirely an act of violent anger although they interpreted it as such. There was still a small part of Rada left and he felt a woman like Zanh Liis deserved to die who she is, rather than to suffer his fate.

He had been sedated but it made little difference, dreams were no longer so lonely as they had once been.

The most concerned member of Sickbay had to undoubtedly be Dr McKenna, who, thanks to his telepathic and empathic abilities had seen a much darker side of Rada than the others.

“Revenge is a dish best served cold, my friends! And even if I have to beam every one of you into the cold depths of space, I will prove it!” Rada called out angrily to no one in particular.

A knowing glance was exchanged between two nurses who both wanted to give Rada another hypo to calm him down even though they knew it would not be safe. Medically he seemed fine except for an elevated heart rate and high levels or adrenaline but this was clearly not the same calm under pressure Ensign that Nurse Bergman had told them about.

“Are you enjoying your new form?” came a deep voice from nowhere.

“Quite well, thank you” replied Rada with a smile, the entire room seeming to freeze in time around him.

“You do enjoy feeding him, don’t you?” joked the voice.

“I’m not about to risk a repeat of last time, we must not let even a drop of what once was remain,” replied Rada jokingly as if he had heard those same words a thousand times before then added “We can not risk that.”

“I don’t know why you chose this form, I mean an Angosian? If you were going for that ugly you might as well have chosen a human” joked the voice.

“We will soon have a lot of humans, I wanted to stand out,” explained Rada.

“Yes, we will.” the voice laughed.

“Are you sure that Beta can’t hear us?” Rada inquired.

“Without our intervention, their minds can’t process information this fast. We could talk for as long we wanted and to them it would seem as though almost no time had passed.” Explained the voice.

“Good, I am enjoying being the unheard whisper.” Rada stated and then added with a wicked smile. “He’s got some psychological testing coming up, I think I’ll have fun with that.”

“Just don’t let him hurt anyone we want, what you did with Zanh Liis was far too risky,” said the voice with concern.

“I made him jump too soon, didn’t I?” Rada retorted cockily.

“Next time he may not, or she may move forward too quickly. In a highly emotional state they can be as difficult to control as when we start out,” stated the voice.

“Relax, I am a Despatian. I can handle his kind,” replied Rada, both cocky and proud.

“You are young and inexperienced. Do not underestimate him, it was done before,” the voice lectured.

“It won’t be again,” replied Rada getting defensive of the accusation.

“Just don’t forget that there are many emotions,” reassured the voice.

“I haven’t, I intend soon to start on a paranoia motif. Make him think that everyone else is jealous.” explained Rada.

“How do you intend to do that and still keep his confidence low?” inquired the voice.

“I’ll make him think they’re jealous of what he’s become with us. The Klingons are jealous that he has learned to tap into his inner warrior better than them, the Vulcans are jealous that he has control over his emotions better that they do, the Trills are jealous of his superior joining…that sort of thing.” Rada explained.

“Do you think he’ll believe it?” asked the voice.

“I have no doubt. After all if you can’t believe your own feelings, what can you believe?” Rada laughed.

“Do not forget, we teach them to seek power and then we provide it. Paranoia does not create a feeling of power,” added the voice.

“No, but it does lead them to seek it. It’d be good to have them chase us for a change,” argued Rada.

“We always chase them,” corrected the voice “We can not afford to fail here.”

“We won’t fail, this body is weak. No matter how much anger I create he should not be able to escape from their grasp,” defended Rada.

“He must not be able to escape.” Corrected the voice.

“If it will make you feel safer, I’ll temporarily weaken the body,” Rada teased.

“That would be appreciated,” the voice replied sincerely.

Rada seemed shocked that the voice seriously wanted him to weaken this body further but decided that it would be fun to see some medical personnel trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

With that, time seemed to resume and Rada started to violently convulse, he couldn’t breathe. Doctor McKenna and the two nurses ran to his side.

“His vitals are crashing!” announced one of the nurses.

“Get me a hypo of hycordrazine!” shouted Dr McKenna as one of the nurses ran straight to one of the draws, her hands fumbling as she rushed to get the equipment.

She almost threw the hypo to Dr McKenna as Rada’s convulsion got more and more violent and he began gasping for air.

“Hold him down,” he shouted and the two nurses grabbed Rada by each shoulder and tried to force him to stay still. McKenna managed to touch the hypo to Rada’s neck and to administer a single dose.

Rada suddenly froze completely still and began choking as panic filled his face.

“He still not getting any air,” stated one of the nurses with desperation in her voice.

Dr McKenna started commandingly “We may have to…” but was cut off by one of the nurses.

“He’s breathing again!” she exclaimed as she looked down at Rada inhaling deeply.

Then with a sigh of relief she turned to Dr McKenna and announced “His vitals are all returning to normal, you did it doctor.”

“No, I didn’t,” explained Dr McKenna curiously “That’s not the affect that hycordrazine should have on Angosian physiology.”

“Then what just happened to him?” asked the nurse.

“I don’t know,” explained Dr McKenna “but I intend to find out.”
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Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791