Human?

Posted on Sat 8th Mar, 2025 @ 5:20pm by Crewman MED-Comps Pentaptych LPN & Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD

1,778 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: Infirmary- SB109

-Start-

{IBEX- Duke’s Quarters}

Duke was putting on a brave face but the truth of the matter was three weeks of constant burning nervous pain had cut through the fun-loving cowboy and gotten into the meat of his true person. He had increased the dose to maximum for painkillers and suffered side effects from that as well. The phaser in his hand had fired twice perfectly, then exploded mid-sequence on its third, that had been twenty-something days ago. He was allowed to live off IBEX if he kept a low profile but sitting and dwelling on nothing at all made the pain worse.

Akio Itachi on the Second Star performed a hasty surgery with holographic tools and a remote interface to satisfy some requirement of stealth operations. The result was a bleeding, swollen suture from a hasty job and lack of follow-up care. He tried to focus away the pain, suddenly when Duke had no warning as the site-to-site grabbed him and whisked him from the IBEX to the Main Infirmary on Starbase 109.

{SB109 Triage Ward}

The sound of a privacy curtain being hastily pulled around him came to Duke's ears, along with a woman's voice over the PA system: "Attention, all personnel. Attention, all personnel. Clear the deck between the triage bay and OR-1, stat. Dr. Brown, report to OR-1 to scrub in for surgery." The voice clicked off.

"Hello, Mr. Duke?" another woman said. "I'm Nurse Olsek. You're in Starbase 109's main infirmary. We've received your bioscans. Your hand is in pretty bad shape. You need IV antibiotics and immediate surgery. I'm going to prep your hand for surgery and take you to the OR. We've made sure the hallway is clear. When did you last eat, and do you have any allergies to medications?"

Duke blinked, for the second time he had been taken without warning. He was in better shape this time, despite his wounded limb, and tried to sit up but the bio-bed restraints engaged and gently prevented his motion. Then the nurse began swabbing his arm with an antiseptic solution. It was a gentle but exquisite torture.

"Nurse? I just had a surgery, what's going on? How-" Duke was cut off as the bio bed was populated with patient data as recently updated as one hour ago from Reggie's command of the IBEX. It was a dead giveaway he was in the hands of the program yet again, so he stopped resisting.

"I haven't eaten a thing in a week other than nutrient jerky. I really have to go through this again? You can't save it?"

"It's badly infected, the way it is," Nurse Olsek told him as she hastily entered the date of Duke's most recent meal into her PADD, "and it's causing you a lot of pain; your blood pressure is sky high. I heard them call our hand specialist in to surgery, so I don't think they'd do that if they were going to amputate--but that infection has got to go, and I think they'll have to grow a new biosynthetic limb for you. Your body is rejecting the graft you have."

Duke deep sighed, finally willing to admit it since she could clearly see it, his whole arm was in agony. "If I lose the whole arm, I want one that spins, and shoots lasers, or just surprise me but make it good, ok?"

The nurse grinned. "I'll tell them to make it fancy, sir. Now, let's get you into the OR."

She summoned an orderly, and the pair wheeled Duke's gurney into the operating room through a totally empty corridor.

The operating room was rectangular, with stainless steel, modular walls, and a white glass floor, all of which could be cleaned easily. Numerous large monitor screens on wall-mounted brackets were visible from the surgery table, all showing internal images of Duke's hand, wrist and arm. Machines to support breathing, heartbeat and anesthesia also ringed the area.

A gloved, masked, and gowned surgeon entered the room. "Hello, Mr. Duke. I'm Dr. Brown. Would you point out to me the hand I'm supposed to work on?" He paused at the look Duke gave him. "Yes, it seems like a dumb question in your case, but it's standard procedure to ask, and there's a very good reason for it. Just humor me, please."

It had been unwrapped, Duke could see the mottled and rashy skin very clearly now. He raised the injured hand, even that simple motion causing pain.

"Thissn."

"Right-o." Brown marked an X on the back of Duke's infected hand with a black marker. "You have no known drug allergies, which is good. The first thing we need to do is administer a hypospray of antibiotic, which we'll follow up with an IV drip once you're out of surgery. Nurse, prep a spray with two units of vancomycin." He glanced at Duke. "It's an oldie but goodie, but the best thing is, it's effective."

Nurse Olsek handed Dr. Brown a hypospray, which he placed against Duke's arm. "Take a deep breath, and...we're in."

The man of a thousand missions knew drugs, but something in this administration was extra cozy. The world was suddenly better, and the mood he had been under for weeks evaporated.

Another surgeon entered the OR backward through a swinging door and walked over to the surgery table. "Hello, Mr. Duke. I'm Dr. Dhuro, and I'll be assisting Dr. Brown here while our EMH gives you anesthesia. We're going to have to amputate your hand, clear out the disruptor particles that are causing your infection, and grow you a biosynthetic hand. Either we're going to have you with us for a while, or you're going to be laid up a bit on your ship until your hand completely forms and integrates with the rest of your body. You'll need to do occupational therapy with it for a while."

Duke wasn't quite in control, and said "Well, that's nice of you."

Dr. Brown nodded. "We're going to use your transporter pattern to create the scaffolding and shaping you'll need for your replacement hand and attach it to your forearm. Once it's fully grown, you won't notice any difference from your original hand." He paused. "Except it'll look younger."

"Can we apply that to other parts of my body, kidding nurse HA!" Duke looked suddenly mortified at his lack of control. "Maybe I better lay down. Lie Down. Lie, Layyy never could remember, is it, will you lay with me or lie with me, and will you do it right now?!" He laughed at his own joke and began to feel sleepy. His spy programming nearly kicked in and amped his adrenaline up to fight the effects but he felt comfortable and knew he was in good hands. that thought made him laugh again.

"HAHA, I'd give you a round of applause but I'd break the glass here, seriously though... hands off to you, " Duke pantomimed taking a hat off with his good hand.

His final words awake were about the hand he just used, "Not that one, the one encased in glass and rotting off." Then he fell asleep.

"That was...weird," Dr. Brown said. "Vancomycin doesn't usually affect the patient's mood at all."

"Agreed--and it hit him fast, too," Lanis said, frowning. "Computer, scan the patient for histamine build-up secondary to administration of vancomycin."

"Working," the computer said. "Histamine levels of patient Duke are within normal limits. However, brain scan shows a spike in oxytocin-similar hormone levels consistent with it being secondary to introduction of vancomycin."

"Oxytocin-similar?" Lanis said aloud, "not actual oxytocin. Hm. Computer, run genetic analysis of patient Duke from bioscan. Given his genetics, are there any pharmaceutical contraindications?"

From the Docking Bay Eudora heard the request, relaying with the other four and running a supercomputers worth of processing power on the answer. Uplinking to the station computer enabled their joint decisions as a result.

A full genetic analysis took at least twenty seconds, but the computer answered in a moment, "Analysis complete. Patient presents within standard genetic ranges for a Human of this age. Further inquiry into Quantum fissuring has revealed paramorphic field values which have influenced metabolic processes. It is possible patient is not within alignment norms for their quantum signatures. Ships Logs indicate Akio Itachi is previous operator to perform this procedure, whose patterns indicate the usage of illegal biometric mimicry."

Lanis considered asking the computer to rephrase what it had just said into Bajoran; maybe he'd understand it better. He frowned. "That was fast. I'm beginning to suspect antibiotics aren't going to work on this--or won't work as well as expected...because the patient has been near a tear in space-time that has altered his body, or perhaps he isn't even from this universe."

"I guess that's what 'paramorphic' refers to," Brown said. "So I'm guessing that whatever Itachi did to repair our guy's hand interacted with the...paramorphic field values...and that's causing his tissues to reject the graft. I don't think that's the whole picture, though, because look at this scan. Computer, display Duke scan 5."

A scan image hung between them in mid-air, and Brown pointed to a blotch of bright green on the image of Duke's palm and fingers, which had begun spreading up his arm. "This looks like a disruptor burn, to me, but it can't be, because that would just show on his hand; it wouldn't extend into his blood vessels. I've seen cases where subatomic particles did something like this. We're going to have to clean out all of the particles, or this 'infection' will just spread to the rest of his body and kill him."

"Do you think nanites will work?" Lanis asked.

Brown nodded. "Nanites can break down the foreign particles without causing an embolism, and they can be excreted, so yeah. Computer, rustle me up a hypospray of scrubber nanites, type NAN-99872, compatible with patient Duke's, er, quantum signature."

Lanis arched an eyebrow at him. "'Rustle me up'?"

Brown grinned. "It's Texan for 'Make me some.'"

"Does that mean it's usually followed by the word, 'barbecue'?"

The other surgeon beamed at him. "You're learning!"

The medical replicator chimed, and a filled hypospray appeared on the build tray. The scrub nurse handed it to Dr. Brown, who injected its contents into Duke's arm.

Lanis rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. Are we going to start this procedure anytime soon? The scrub nurse is tapping her foot."

"Just give those little nanites time to work; we'll be cutting and debriding before you know it."

Lanis eyed Dr. Brown. "So when did you teach the computer to understand Texan?"

END

 

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