NEW: "Tincture of Madness" (2/6 DS9 Bashir)
donna_gentry
Disclaimer: See part 1.
Tincture of Madness 2/6
Donna Gentry
ys...@mindspring.com
Quark hefted the serving tray expertly and wove his way across the
room. Kira stopped him and helped herself to a fresh drink. Taking a
tentative sip, she found that it was at least palatable. She turned
her attention back to the conversation at hand. The Besimi had made an
appearance despite their worries. Her attitude, however, left room for
improvement.
Dax was attempting to engage the woman in a discussion about her
upcoming work on the *Camery*. She seemed reluctant to discuss it, as
if of the opinion no one would comprehend.
Kira suppressed a sigh and joined Sisko, Worf, Odo, and O'Brien in
trying to appear interested in the discussion.
* * * * *
Bashir approached the open door with trepidation. He hated social
functions. Especially now, when he needed to be elsewhere. He stepped
over the lip of the doorway and glanced around. There were far more
people here than he had expected to see. He was grateful that he had
taken the time to go back to his quarters to shower and change.
He spotted the senior staff with their guest and made his way quickly
to them. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could get
back to his work.
Sisko smiled at his approach and turned to the Besimi. "I would like
to introduce our doctor, Julian Bashir." He hesitated, dreading having
to attempt the name again, further offending the woman. To his relief,
she came to his rescue.
"Mns^tRVg`fprt Plc^rkB~d rrsm`dv." Her eyes watched the doctor
closely, waiting for his reaction. To her surprise and delight the
Human smiled in greeting - and repeated the name back to her,
flawlessly!
The entire group stared at the doctor in stunned silence. Before they
could recover, Bashir continued.
"Plc^rkB~d, isn't that an unusual focus name?"
The Besimi was further surprised, and impressed. "Yes, it is. It is an
ancient name, seldom used anymore. It means 'to travel far'."
"It's a lovely name. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you know, it is
difficult for Humans to pronounce." He smiled his most charming smile
and continued. "The Andorians have a enchanting word that means almost
the same thing. It is linthe. Literally translated, it means 'to
travel among the heavens'. Perhaps it would be easier if you would
allow us to call you Linthe for the duration of your stay."
Sisko sucked in a breath. If the woman was offended by the
mispronunciation of her name, how much worse would she react to
Bashir's brazen suggestion? He wished the doctor had discussed the
idea with him first.
The woman stared at the young man in silence, her face unreadable.
Sisko began to fidget nervously. Was the situation redeemable? He felt
compelled to try. "I'm sure that, with practice, we will
eventually..."
The woman placed her hand on Sisko's arm, cutting him off. With a
smile, she turned to the doctor. "I think that would be an acceptable
solution to the problem."
Sisko let out the breath he had been holding and, beside him, heard
several of the others do the same.
"How is it you have learned to do what few Humans have successfully
achieved?" Linthe asked.
Bashir winked and leaned close. In an exaggerated whisper, he said, "I
cheated."
Linthe could not help but smile at his conspiratorial tone. "You
cheated?"
Bashir was vaguely aware that everyone within earshot was staring at
him, waiting for an explanation. "I had an Besimi friend as a child.
He was extremely sensitive about the pronunciation of his name. He
broke my arm twice before I realized that it was in my best interest
to learn the language."
Linthe laughed out loud at the confession. "It has been observed that
we are entirely too temperamental about what others think of as a
minor mistake."
"Yes, and Besimi strength and temper can make for a lethal
combination," Bashir said teasingly. "Most Humans don't realize the
depth of the offense."
"That's true, I suppose, but tolerance is not an Besimi trait."
Sisko visibly relaxed. Doctor Bashir had managed to accomplish in a
few short minutes what the rest of them had failed to do in the
previous twenty hours. The woman seemed perfectly at ease for the
first time since arriving on the station.
"Captain Sisko mentioned that you are working on a miniaturized
bio-filter," Linthe said.
"Yes, as an organ replacement."
"I've heard that some advancement has been made on a similar model by
Bolian doctors."
"I've read their studies and found a great deal of useful
information." Bashir ran his hand through his hair, showing his
frustration. "The problem I keep running into is that the Bolians have
much thinner blood than Thesians. Thesians have a third lobe that
handles the extra mass. When you miniaturize the filters to a point
where they are compatible in size, they can no longer effectively
handle the filterization."
Linthe pursed her lips in thought. "Is there no room to accommodate a
slightly larger scale?"
Bashir shook his head. "Can't do it. Thesian anatomy wouldn't allow
for anything of a size to handle the blood mass. The filters would
have to be eight percent larger than acceptable."
"How long do you have?"
"No more than four days."
Linthe was silent for a moment. "It is not much time," she said
slowly. "But I feel that you are a very determined man. I doubt you
will fail."
Bashir smiled ruefully. "I wish I felt as confident."
Deep in their discussion, the two didn't notice the others slip away.
They reconvened across the room to voice their surprise at the
doctor's diplomatic coup.
"I didn't know he had it in him," Kira remarked, "but I'll admit, I am
impressed."
"We shouldn't be surprised," Dax observed. "After all, he was exposed
to diplomatic dealings all his life. Some of it had to rub off on
him."
"I, for one, am just glad to have something intelligible to call the
woman," O'Brien said with an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Did you
notice how completely she seemed to change when Bashir correctly
pronounced her name?"
"I think she was relieved to find someone that seemed to connect with
her," Odo observed.
"There did seem to be an understanding pass between them," Worf
agreed.
Kira glanced back toward Bashir and Linthe. They were very intent on
whatever they were discussing. "Do you remember how he defended her in
the staff meeting this morning? He seemed to have a pretty clear
understanding of what drives her."
Dax smiled sadly. "I had the feeling then that he was speaking from
personal experience."
Kira looked at the Trill. "You think he feels isolated here?"
"He's bound to. He's stuck down in the infirmary all day, dealing with
crisis after crisis. When faced with a major problem, whom does he
have to turn to? No one! He has to deal with it alone and find his own
solutions."
"And sometimes we forget to include him beyond our medical needs,"
Sisko admitted.
"It's no wonder he always seems to be trying so hard at everything,"
O'Brien said.
"There are two ways for someone like him to go," Dax said. "Either
they become withdrawn and hardened-- "
"Like Linthe," Kira interrupted.
"Or they go overboard trying to fit in and make everyone think they
are normal."
Normal. What a simple thing to wish for. Sisko felt a pang of guilt.
How difficult would it be to make a small effort to sometimes include
the young man? "At least he has the chance to relax and enjoy himself
tonight," Sisko remarked.
* * * * *
Bashir glanced around, suddenly aware that the remaining senior staff
had wandered away. He caught Dax's eye across the room and she smiled,
raising her glass in salute. He returned the smile.
"It appears we've run off everyone else," he commented lightly.
A flicker of frustration flashed across Linthe's face. "They do not
understand us."
"I don't think that's it," Bashir said quickly, trying to forestall
another construed insult. "They are just giving us a chance to talk in
private." He made a mental note to talk to the others about Besimi
sensitivities. They had no idea how rude she found their behavior.
"Do you not find their ignorance intolerable?"
Bashir looked at her in open surprise. "They are no more ignorant of
my work than I am of theirs."
"I doubt that is true. You must have at least a working knowledge of
all fields in order to be so successful in your chosen one."
Bashir blinked in surprise. What did she know about him?
She correctly read his thoughts. "I make it a point to know something
of all the important people I will meet when I travel. You would be
surprised how well it has served me in the past. I know, for instance,
that you, too, are different. You are considered gifted by others in
your field. You could have had any posting you wanted, yet you chose
to come here, to work alone. Do you not sometimes feel isolated here,
where you have no peers?"
"I have friends here."
"Friends with whom you have little in common."
"I suppose that's true." He thought about it for a moment. "There are
times when I do wish for someone to discuss my work with, someone that
would share my passion and enthusiasm. There is Dax, of course, and
Chief O'Brien to a certain extent, but sometimes I get the feeling
that they barely tolerate my exuberance."
Linthe nodded. "It is difficult to find someone that can understand
both the work and the enthusiasm."
"It's a small sacrifice to make to do what I love."
"For us, and those like us, there is no other choice."
Bashir thought he detected a trace of sadness in her voice.
* * * * *
Quark handed his serving tray to a short, fat Ferengi waiter and
walked over to the group of senior officers. Without waiting for a
pause in the conversation, he interrupted. "Does this mean the
reception is over? Because if it is, I'm going to still have to charge
you full price for the catering. Of course, any leftovers
automatically revert to me. It's in my contract."
"Quark," Odo said with barely restrained indignation, "what are you
babbling about?"
"The guest of honor has made her exit, albeit an understated one."
"Linthe is gone?" Sisko glanced around the room, searching for the
woman. She was not to be seen. Neither was Bashir.
"She and the doctor beat a retreat just a few minutes ago. I heard him
asking her if she wanted to see his work on some kind of filter." He
grinned lewdly. "I guess we all know what that means."
Dax frowned at the Ferengi's insinuation. "Julian is very concerned
with a gravely ill patient." For some reason she felt the need to
defend the doctor's actions. "I'm sure he was anxious to return to his
work."
Quark's smirk grew. "Whatever you say."
Kira made a face at his retreating back. "Toad!"
"I guess the party's over," Sisko stated, turning to inform the other
guest.
* * * * *
Linthe lay awake in the soft bed for a long time, her eyes closed.
Suddenly, a bright smile lit her face and she opened her eyes. A
warmth filled her chest, surrounding her heart; a warmth that had
never been there before.
She lay very still, afraid the feeling would disappear if she moved.
It was too wonderful, too different to want to lose. She felt lighter
and happier than she had ever felt before.
Linthe turned to her side and hugged her pillow close, summoning the
image of the one responsible for her shift in moods. The handsome face
of Julian Bashir filled her mind's eye and she smiled again. His deep
brown eyes had been filled with concern and urgency as they had worked
together long into the night to find a workable bio-filter, but she
had no trouble imagining those same eyes bright and twinkling. His
smile, the one he had turned to her when he had so surprisingly
pronounced her name at the reception, had been dazzling, bright enough
to light up the room and begin chiseling away at the walls she had
spent years erecting around her emotions.
Finally, she rolled from the bed and padded softly across the room to
the bathroom. She undressed and stepped into the shower. Ten minutes
later, she exited and toweled dry. Wrapping the towel tightly around
herself, she stood before the mirror and began combing her long dark
hair. She stopped and stared at her reflection. What did others see
when they looked at her? What did *he* see?
She turned her head left, then right, studying her face from all
angles. It wasn't ugly; in fact, it was sort of attractive. Not
beautiful, like the Trill or Bajoran Julian worked with here on the
station, but attractive. She glanced at her body and wished, for the
first time in her life, that she wasn't so hard and muscular. She
wished for the soft curves of a Human woman. The higher gravity of
Besimir made her people more compact, muscular. Humans males had
fragile egos. They preferred their women not be strong enough to crush
their skulls.
Linthe quickly dressed, her mind constantly questioning her emotions.
She had never been in love. *Is this what it feels like?* She had
never had the patience to listen to others describe what the emotion.
She had made up her mind long ago that it was not for her. She had no
time for such nonsense. Or so she had always thought. At last, she had
met someone to challenge her set-in-stone ideas.
Had Julian noticed her? He had been charming and attentive last night
as they had worked together.
Suddenly, she wanted more than anything for him to notice her in the
way she had noticed him. She wanted to impress him. She strode quickly
to the computer monitor on the nearby desk. Calling up all available
information on micro-filterization, she sat down and began reading.
Before this day was done, she would find a way to help him solve his
problem - and her own.
* * * * *
Julian Bashir examined the filter in his hand. It was small, barely
half the size of his palm, yet much too large to be of any help. It
would take at least half-a-dozen filters like this one to successfully
conjugate the bilirubin and all six would have to be less than the
size of the one in his hand.
He set the filter down and turned back to the patient, automatically
making note of her readings. It had been two days since he had placed
her on artificial filterization. She was stable so far, but he knew
that wouldn't last. In another fifty hours or so the process would
begin to break down and the build-up of ammonia and amino acids in the
blood stream would cause irreversible brain damage.
Staring intently at the monitor, he didn't hear Linthe enter the room
and walk up behind him. He jumped when she spoke.
"No luck yet?"
"Nothing significant," he said with an embarrassed smile. "I've
perfected the filter but I've got to find a way to decrease the size
another forty-two percent."
Linthe met his eyes and quickly glanced self-consciously away.
Bashir wondered briefly if the Besimi was irritated again. Had someone
said something to offend her? He didn't have time to worry about it
right now.
Linthe cleared her throat and turned back to face him. "I remembered
something this morning that I thought might be of some help. May I?"
She gestured toward his computer monitor. When he nodded she called up
a display and turned the screen for him to read. "There is a mining
colony on Permac IV that processes a rare mineral from the oceans
there. When they first began processing the mineral, they found that
the existing equipment couldn't handle the heavier mass of the Permac
seawater. The solution they found involves some of the same techniques
you have been trying to work with on the bio-filter."
Bashir studied the information on the screen. For a long time he said
nothing, then, "The technique is similar, but what about the filters
themselves?"
She hit a key, bringingArticle Unavailable