Ensign Tho’Bi - Nanobite Something Stabilisation Something Threshold Something

[Tobi]

((Isolation Suites, Sickbay - Deck 7, USS Artemis-A))

Open eyes. Dark blue blinked light blue. Deep intake of breath. Long shaky exhale. Dark blue eyes tracked around the room. Silver drape of an Environmental Suit. The adult Andorian recoiled, drawing his knees towards his chest.

The Environmental Suit turned. Framed by the curved visor, the Andorian recognised the face of Doctor Bancroft.

Bancroft: ::gently:: Hey. It’s Roy. You’re safe. The suit is just a precaution. Keep your eyes on me. You’re okay.

Tho'Bi: ::thin voice:: Whe-Where am I?

Bancroft: You’re in the Artemis sickbay, the Isolation Suites in particular. And I’m here with you. What’s the last thing you remember doing?

Tho'Bi: ::uneven breathless:: Playing… Galax… …opoly. ::swallows shaky breath:: Was I singing? 

Bancroft: ::small, sad grin:: Yes, there was quite a bit of singing. Followed by a massive seizure.

The computer chimed.

Computer: Incoming file: Mess Hall holoemitter 6-A, audio subsystem logs.

Bancroft: ::without looking away, to the computer:: Park it. Absolutely no playback near this room. ::to Tho’Bi:: We’re reviewing your records, but I need your words, too. Has this ever happened before?

The room felt small to the Andorian. No, not small… massive. Infinite. A deep swell of nausea washed over him and washed back out to where the walls were, but were not. He could see them, but not sense them. His sense of the room was limited to himself, the biobed, and Doctor Bancroft; beyond that was nothing, he could not feel the hard limit of walls, ceiling, and floor.

He had felt this before, but not for years.

Tho’Bi: ::thin dry:: Yes… it has happened before. ::protracted swallow:: a lot when I was a child. …less as I got older. 

The increasingly pale Andorian let out a muttered groan and brought a trembling hand to his face. His washed out blue fingers worked their way around his eye.

Tho’Bi: …and not since I was sixteen.

Bright digital chimes. PADD inputs. Matched his words. 

Bancroft: That’s helpful, thank you. What you’re describing tracks with the picture I’m getting from these scans. ::softening:: Talk to me about the nanotherapy. What do you remember about the treatments?

Transparent Aluminum walls and doors. Silver bed sheets. White pajamas. White biobed. Holo-Novels for friends. Holo-Displays for the Silver Suits.   

Tho’Bi: ::hushed breathless:: Not much. …I was ::tilts head:: I was very young.

At first the Silver Suits held him down, they had to. No, that's not right. It can't be right. The first time he was only eighteen months old. According to his medical records. He had no memory of it… or did he? An impression of absence? Maybe, he did not know. 

When he was a few years older they held him down, they had to. Maybe they had always held him down? Maybe that's why each time he arrived, he arrived hating the Silver Suits? He did not know. He did know that he used to kick them. He cracked a visor. Once. Twice. Maybe three or four times.

He liked kicking them. Liked cracking their visors. Liked to see them dash for airlock. Of course now he knew they rushed to protect him, not themselves. But it still made him smile to think of the Silver Suits rushing to the door. Especially the tall Silver Suit. …especially that one.

Tho’Bi: I just know… ::swallow:: they started when I was eighteen months old ::long shaky breath:: and stopped when I was six years old. 

More digital chimes. Chimes for words. His words.

Tho’Bi: It was something to do with the… the… Autoimmune ::shakes head:: ...thing. …the nanobites fixed broken cells in me. …or something like that. 

Bancroft: ::looking up reflexively:: Computer, record verbal patient history, patient Ensign Tho’Bi, patient reference number EG-793-322. Start your time index two minutes ago. ::to Tho’Bi:: Did any of your previous physicians explain why they believed your NeuroPhasic episodes went away as you reached adolescence? That may give us a clue.

The Andorian let a long steady exhale. He did not want to talk about this… did not want to revisit the Isolation… the crying himself to sleep… the Silver Suits. …or the shakes that came after. The nights he'd wake to the dark and the sound of his mother crying. …or her screaming at his father over subspace channel.

He much preferred the days and weeks in-between… singing clan songs with his mother. Watching her work all over the station. The Enlisted who made him his own overalls. She was Bajoran with big dark eyes. And they were to be married some day… when he was older. And then there was Zee… his best friend Ferengi. 

Tho’Bi: Erm… something to do with stabilisation. Threshold? We reached… we reached a threshold. ::looks at Bancroft:: …does that make sense?

Bancroft: Response 

Tho'Bi: Yeah… once the nanobites had fixed enough… the other cells copied them. ::shrugs:: aaand… it stabilised. As long as I had my treatment… it stayed stable.

Digital chimes. PADD inputs. Documenting his words…. for history. …for future generations of Starfleet Medical Students, Starfleet Doctors, and Federation scientists. His words… his… idiocy. 

Tho'Bi: Oh. ::looks at Bancroft:: Uh oh.

Bancroft: Response 

TAG/TBC 

((OOC: Transparent Aluminum: 

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transparent_aluminum

Tho’Bi’s Medical Records:

https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Tho%27Bi/Medical_Records ))

—————————

Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11