Confronting The... Whatever It Is

Posted on Wed 22nd Dec, 2021 @ 5:05am by Commander Mikaela Locke

538 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Good Day to Hunt
Location: Deck 11 - XO's Office
Timeline: MD 03: 0913 hours

Mikaela Locke breathed a heavy sigh.

As much as she wanted to, she could no longer pretend that everything was normal.

She closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips together, just in front of her face. If they hadn't known better, a causal observer might think she was praying. After several seconds, she opened her eyes, renewed steel in her eyes. She tapped her communicator.

"Locke to Doctor Addams, please report to my office, at your convenience."

A few minutes later the door swept open, revealing the skeletal physician in a mostly-black uniform draped with a blue lab coat. "You rang?" she inquired.

"I did," Locke replied, "Please come in." She stood and indicated to the sofas in the corner of her office, moving towards the replicator at the same time. "Please sit," she invited. "Can I get you anything?"

Addams moved to the sofa. "No, thank you," she answered. "What did I do wrong, and how did you find out about it?"

Locke smiled to herself as she requested a coffee from the replicator. She turned back towards Addams, carrying her beverage. "Wow," she said, still smiling, "With paranoia like that, you could be in intelligence, but" she continued, as she sat down, "In this particular instance, it's not you... It's me."

"I believe I've heard that line before," Addams quipped. "It's not paranoia; it's deductive reasoning. Commodore Suzuki has returned, so my reports go to her again -- so it's not a departmental matter. If it were a medical matter, you would have come to where my medical tools are; a psychological matter, and you would have sought out Dr. Graves. So I am left wondering what wrong I have committed. Now you assure me that is not the case, so I find myself wondering, when was the last time you used the transporter?"

Mikaela tilted her head slightly to one side, both in admiration of the doctor's train of logic, and also, partial confusion as to what her enquiry about the transporter was leading to. "It's been a while," she answered, wondering whether she would regret indulging her, "But, I'm not sure that's relevant... Although," she mused out loud, half to Addams and half to herself, "At this point, I really have no idea what is and isn't relevant. The thing is," she recomposed herself, "I'm starting to forget things."

"Transporters," Addams said, "have by far the most sensitive scanners available on the station, by necessity. You should make it a point to use one at least once each month, so as to establish a baseline medical record for comparison and consultation." She signed and sat forward. "Lacking that data... when you say 'forgetting things,' I presume you mean memory loss beyond normal 'plop wall' phenomena?"

"That's just it," Mikaela replied, "I don't get 'plop wall' phenomena. I have a photographic and an eidetic memory," she continued, "I don't forget anything... ever..." She sat back on the sofa and took a long drink from her coffee mug. "At least I didn't until recently."

Addams shook her head. "Then, Commander, you should have come to me instead of vice-versa. Let us adjourn to my surgery, and we can at least investigate physiological causes."

 

RSS Feed