The Properties of Laminated Glass, Part I

Posted on Fri 29th Mar, 2019 @ 8:23pm by Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD & Khellian s'Siedhri MD

1,489 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Dr. s'Siedhri's office, Tivoli Gardens
Timeline: MD-4, 1445 hours

Lanis walked down the path to the River Village filled with trepidation--no, dread. He had no real explanation for his computer's odd behavior, and one possible explanation was that it was all in his head.

If I have dementia, would I know it? Or am I just going crazy? The idea of either situation filled him with horror and the urge to hide in denial. Surely he was too young for dementia and too old to have a first psychotic break--wasn't he?

He didn't think he'd become forgetful--at least, no more so than was usual for him. His last physical examinations hadn't demonstrated any plaque accumulations; both Chlamydia and Dr. s'Siedhri would have mentioned them.

Ah, to the pah-wraiths with it. Let's just see what he has to say.

Lanis entered the doctor's rather charming office, signed in, pulled out a Bajoran novel, and waited. After a couple of minutes he realized that he hadn't paid attention to a single word of the novel and closed it. What am I going to say to him? What am I going to say to Chlamydia? Why am I even asking myself these questions before I know a single test result? No sense working myself into a tizzy.

He shoved the worries to the back of his mind with ruthless determination and glanced up when the door to the office area opened.

"Good afternoon Lanis." Khellian's voice was a little flat as his grey robes which had silver and black embroidery seemed to fit his mood perfectly. "Would you like to come back?"

At hearing his doctor's speaking tone, Lanis flicked a gaze at s'Siedhri's face before standing. For a Romulan, he looks like a proper Vulcan. I wonder if he had to give a patient some bad news? Worst part of the job. "Thank you," he said. "It's good to see you again."

He cracked a halfhearted smile and gestured with an open hand towards his exam room. "I am pleased to see you as well. Please, come and tell me what brings you here."

Lanis followed Dr. s'Siedhri back to his examination room and finally spoke once they stepped inside. "I'd like to request a neuro work-up, Khellian. I've had some odd experiences while working late in my office recently--twice in the last week. The first incident looked like a normal computer glitch--not normal for my machine but within the realm of normal for computer problems. But the one that happened the other night..." Lanis shook his head. "I've never seen a computer behave like that before, but the Chief of Ops could find nothing wrong from her diagnostics. If it wasn't a visual hallucination, I don't know what it was or how to explain it. If it was a hallucination--I cannot do surgery."

Lanis glanced away for a moment and then looked back at Dr. s'Siedhri again. "I don't have the nerve to go to Chla--the CMO--with this until I have some idea of what's wrong; she's very perceptive. I've already cleared my surgery calendar or found other surgeons to cover for me as much as I dare. I've told people I'm having eye issues, but I need answers before someone figures out I haven't been to an ophthalmologist yet."

"Well, we can certainly do your basic eye exams and perhaps a few experiments to see if we can recreate this glitch did you call it? What does it look like precisely?"

Lanis gave Khellian a wry look. "Imagine a computer screen showing an image of fire all around the edges and then burning its way toward the center, so that the document displayed onscreen is thoroughly scorched. But when Lt. Baro came and did her analysis--nothing. All systems checked out just fine."

"Interesting. Is there sound along with it, or just the visual oddity?" he asked sounding slightly more interested as he got a lens out and instructed "Look straight ahead Lanis..." the lens glowed and allowed Khellian to examine the insides of his eyes.

"I... don't remember," Lanis said as he forced himself to gaze into the light behind Khellian's lens. "Just the sight of it startled me so much that I don't think I paid attention to anything else. I didn't notice any other sensory inputs--It didn't smell as if it were burning. I wondered later if it could have been some kind of ocular migraine with a scotoma, but I've never seen a scotoma look like that, and I don't get migraines."

"Just because you've not had one before doesn't rule it out. Have you ever looked into an orb as part of a religious ceremony? Some of them leave behind psychic traces..." he said softly as he continued to examine his eyes "there is nothing wrong with your eyes that I can tell."

Lanis blinked in surprise. "Well, that's a relief. And yes, I have had an orb experience," he admitted, "twice, actually--the second one at a large group ceremony that I couldn't get out of, and the first, which was more... private. I've avoided them since. It's not done to seek out Orb experiences; that would seem like greed." He fell silent for a moment before he resumed speaking. "The first one was about 20 years ago. It left a profound impression, and the second experience enhanced the first."

"Well, I'm going to run some more tests of course...but anything you can tell me about that experience might be helpful."

"I presume you mean the first experience, as the second one was briefer," Lanis said. He let out a breath. "It happened as the Occupation of Bajor was nearing its end--though we didn't know it. There was one particular battle where... I realized I'd had enough. I was tired of killing as an infantry fighter. I was tired of killing with explosives. All I wanted was to just go away and never have to think about killing anyone ever again.

"I've never told anyone this, but--I deserted. I just wandered off after a battle, looking for someplace away from the fighting, where I could be alone and think. I didn't find such a place. What I did find was a wounded Cardassian soldier who couldn't get back to her unit. Maybe they left her for dead; I don't know. But when I saw her, suddenly, nothing was more important to me than saving her life. I nursed her for a week frantic to save her, but... she was too far gone, and I didn't have nearly enough supplies. I couldn't even scavenge enough herbs; it was the wrong season. When she died, I lost my own will to live. Obviously, I was as much a failure at healing as I was at soldiering.

"I buried her. After that I just wandered aimlessly in a daze until I came across a village. I asked for shelter; told them I was a healer. They let me stay. After I'd been there a couple of months just existing, the ranjen took me aside and said he had something to show me. It was an Orb that the village was hiding from the Cardassians, and he invited me to look into it.

"I told him no, that I wasn't worthy of that. But the ranjen insisted and, to shut him up, I finally looked into it."

Lanis' lips twitched. "I can't really describe it. It was like talking to your very, very best friend, the one you can tell everything to, no matter how awful. It was also profoundly strange, because the Prophets felt utterly alien. The way they think is different, incomprehensible in most ways. I felt like an insect being held very carefully in the palm of something vast that loved me but at the same time was so far beyond me that I couldn't fathom how it knew I even existed. Speaking to the Prophets was a relief down to the depths of my soul, but it was also terrifying. I didn't stop looking at them; they stopped looking at me, and that is the only reason I was able to back away from the Orb."

Something in the tone of his voice snapped Khellian's total and complete attention from the tricorder to the man in front of him. The awe and respect in his voice touched Khellian deeply, for he'd once worshipped the elements in a similar fashion. "That's....I don't know what to say."

"I don't know what to think," Lanis said. "You know, you're the only person I've ever talked to about it."

"I am honored by your trust, my friend." Khellian answered quietly, a tiny smile on his lips. "Truly I am."

"I'm glad to have been able to share it with you," Lanis said. "You strike me as the kind of person who would appreciate the experience and not be bored with it."

 

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