Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft - Chain of Events
Carter Schimpff
(( Radiation Treatment Ward, Deck 7 – USS Artemis-A ))
Bancroft: ::softer:: We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I can read what happened. I can see what they tried. Here’s what I need from you: in your own words… what do you believe is happening to you? And why now?
Ollie hesitated a moment, his eyes momentarily drifting off before locking back onto Roy’s.
Bergmen: Why now? I’m not sure. Usually, it’s related to higher or more intense radiation. Maybe Callis Maelstrom irradiated us long enough? Maybe a reaction to those alien transports? I really don’t know how. I just know in the last days… I felt more tired. More irritated. There was this dull pressure, like it was everywhere and nowhere inside me, a more unpleasant feeling than pain. Nothing really special— we were over a week there, with all that stress, all that was happening, I didn’t make much of it.
Ollie looked away and fell silent for a moment.
Bergmen: But then, when we boarded Karnack, I… I saw things that weren’t there. I felt cold… the feeling in my fingers had gone numb. And I knew. This wasn’t the first time this happened after my initial treatment after Vancouver. I knew then it's it. I felt it.
That landed differently.
Roy’s expression remained composed, but somewhere behind it, the entire shape of this case shifted.
The lesions were one thing. The systemic pain, the fatigue, the irritability – those could still, in some cruel and technical sense, belong to the broad and miserable family of things that were already on the table.
Hallucinations, though, did not. Nor did peripheral sensory changes. Those were not mere surface findings – those were encroachment. Advancement. Progression.
That meant whatever this was had either moved beyond the boundaries of what Gideon medicine had once managed to contain… or it had never been nearly so contained as anyone had hoped.
When he spoke, his voice was calm and level – but it had narrowed into something far more focused than before.
Bancroft: Alright. That helps, Ollie. The fatigue, the pressure, the sensory changes, the visual disturbances – all of it helps paint a clearer picture.
It wasn’t a picture he particularly cared for, but that wasn’t something one said out loud to a patient.
Ollie cast his glance aside, remaining quiet for a moment. Finally, he moved, withdrawing a small cylinder and placing it next to the vial.
Roy’s eyes dropped to it, and for just a moment, something in his expression changed – not with relief, but with the recognition that this, too, was trust. Not only the willingness to be seen like this, but the willingness to place the ugly, measurable truth of it into someone else’s hands.
That was no small thing.
Roy picked up the rod carefully, turning it once between his fingers before glancing back up.
Bergmen: I’m not a doctor, Roy, nor do I understand how our medicine works or how can treat it. That's... just a record of tricorder readings as it progressed. Maybe this can help you, Roy?
Roy gave the smallest shake of his head.
Bancroft: Don’t undersell your contribution here, Ollie. ::holding up the data rod:: This? This is the difference between me guessing… and me cheating.
A faint, brief ghost of a smile touched one corner of his mouth – small enough not to insult the gravity of the moment, but present enough to keep it human.
Bancroft: For the record, I am very much in favor of cheating when the alternative is letting something nasty win.
Bergmen: Response
Roy moved back toward the console, already slotting the rod into place, but paused before tapping the button that would begin the data transfer.
When he looked back this time, his expression had settled into something quiet but certain – the look of a man who had decided to stop being surprised and start being useful.
Bancroft: Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to compare these data against what was documented on the Vancouver and on Gideon, see what’s diverged, and use that to determine whether we’re looking at simple recurrence, acceleration… or something meaningfully new. Does that sound alright to you?
Bergmen: Response
Roy nodded. He understood the question before Ollie even asked it. It was the sort of thing patients always asked in moments like this, usually after a heavy pause and almost always beginning with the same two words:
What if…?
Bancroft: If it’s something new, then we follow the chain of events methodically. We figure out what changed between then and now – between when this was under control and when it wasn’t. Once we find the hinge point, we’ll know where to start.
Bergmen: Response
TAG/TBC!
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Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1