Lt JG Tess Evinrude - Sometimes Silence is Best

[Tess Evinrude]

((Sickbay Complex, Deck 10 - USS Ronin))

Evinrude: It was a damaged EPS conduit on this deck, near Stellar Cartography. I also didn't notice any physical injury, but it was a nasty shock that actually caused our intrepid ensign here to slam up against the wall. ::He straightened a little.:: I should have assessed the damage more thoroughly before allowing her to reach inside.

Doctor Beck began to study a medical tricorder, but Wren interrupted, voice dazed.

Wren: ::completely out of it:: I need my tappers

Remy: ::immediately resuming his dance::

Beck: … oh.

Realization crossed the doctor's face.

Beck: You're having a panic attack. It should pass on its own, but I can probably come up with a set of tappers if you give me a minute.

Shortrith: I'll stay with you while he gets them, you're safe here.

Quentin crouched down beside Wren and rested a hand on her shoulder.

Shortrith: ::gently:: Hey, he's right. You need to breathe.

Tess, not wanting to over-complicate or add stimulation, remained quiet.

Beck: I can also prescribe something to help you normalize, but if you've already got a method to cope, I hate to interrupt.

Wren: I’m fine!! It’s nothing like that, I promise, it’s okay, I’m fine, I can still do my work, I can do my job, I can help, I just need my tappers, they’re in my quarters.

Sighing, Beck shook his head and left for the replicator.

Beck: Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Just a tick.

Shortrith: I'm gonna ask you to take some deep breaths with me, okay? In for four… ::they inhaled for four seconds, counting on their left hand, raising it high enough for Wren to see:: Hold for four… ::They were silent for four seconds, still counting on their left hand:: Out for four. ::They exhaled for four seconds:: And then repeat with me, okay?

Evinrude stood, slowly and gently, and made his way over to a polite distance away, keeping an eye on what was happening and standing ready to help if needed. He watched Beck at the replicator hesitating for a long moment, lost in thought. Finally the doctor made a sound of triumph and keyed in a command.

Beck: Voilà.

A pair of blue rectangles just large enough to fit in one's palm shimmered into existence. Beck picked them up and presented them to Wren.

Beck: I doubt they're configured the same way as the ones in your quarters, but they should be good enough to help you gain some measure of control again. They're wireless but connected to each other remotely. Give it a shot.

Shortrith: How are you feeling? Do the tappers help?

Evinrude: ::Quietly, to himself.:: Curious devices...

Wren: ::hesitantly:: I’m s-..... Thank you. I think I’m doing a little better…. ::embarrassed:: I think I…. I think I forgot to process things when we thought Niac and Raga were dead. And then it just kind of built up. ::still a little out of it, but no longer critical:: I’m okay now. Thank you.

Quentin noticed Remy, stooping down a bit to address the little bot. Evinrude smiled and re-joined them.

Beck: Who's that little guy?

Wren: ::Immediately focused on her son again:: That’s Remy. He’s my…helper. He has a mini tricorder inside him, he must have noticed that I was unstable…… I didn’t know he could do that.

Evinrude: He's multi-talented! Helped out with the repairs too, Doctor Beck.

Laughing, Quentin dropped to one knee by the robot and extended a hand with his palm facing up.

Beck: Pleased to meet you, Remy. I'm Doctor Quentin Beck, and I might have someone to introduce you to later.

Shortrith: Nice to meet you too, Remy.

Remy: ::No longer dancing, but reaching up his front two legs to grab ahold of Beck’s labcoat, swinging back and forth::

Wren: He’s very friendly. There’s this cat on board that he’s absolutely obsessed with.

An odd look crossed Delphina's face again, as if she were back in a negative loop of thoughts. Tess decided to try keeping the conversation's focus on Remy.

Evinrude: I'd trade a primo shift for a bad one just to get to see that. Would Remy ride a cat, I wonder?

Shortrith: Do any of you want anything to drink? Coffee, tea, water?

Wren: Could I please get some water? ::holding her hand to the ground so Remy can scamper up her arm again and back into her hair::

Beck: ::smoothing out his coat:: Nothing for me, thanks. I'll get something when I go back to the surface when I'm through here.

Evinrude: A cold glass of carbonated water, wedge of lime. Thank you, Counselor.

Shortrith stood and started towards the replicator.

Shortrith: I'll go grab them, one moment.

Quentin began to scan Delphina again, and Tess leaned around to observe the tricorder's readout. Her vitals were starting to normalize again.

Beck: Looks like the panic attack is over. That's good.

Evinrude: ::Smiling:: A solid team effort here, I think. And it didn't take long at all!

Renaie returned with drinks and handed them out.

Shortrith: Here you go.

Wren: Thank you ::taking the water::.... I don’t think I realized until now how stressful that mission was. There was so much going on.

Tess squeezed the lime into his sparkling water, frowning thoughtfully.

Beck: I feel a little guilty for not being here, even though I was doing important work elsewhere. I've read most of the reports and logs regarding the incident and… wow, I missed a lot. 

Shortrith: It was intense. If you have any questions about the medical reports, feel free to ask me about it. ::to Wren:: You sure you're okay?

Shortrith's analysis of that last mission was an understatement, to say the least. But Tess decided not to bring up any details and keep the mood on the lighter side.

Wren: I really am okay. I feel better now, I just… ::shaking herself a little:: I needed a second

Beck: Now I'd like to formally introduce myself - Doctor Quentin Beck, Chief Medical Officer. Pleased to meet you, Ensign.

Beck nodded at the tappers, and Renaie smiled.

Beck: Feel free to take those if you like - might be good to have a pair as mobile as that, anyway, in case you can't get back to your quarters. And come back any time. ::nodding at Remy:: That invitation extends to him, too.

He turned back to the others and offered a nod.

Beck: Tess, Renaie. I'll see you two later. Keep an eye on our friend here.

Shortrith: Will do, Doc. I'll see you around.

Evinrude: Thanks, Quentin. I owe you a donut sometime! ::He grinned and waved.::

Renaie offered a steady hand to Delphina, who wavered a bit as she stood. The engineer seemed hell-bent on returning to the task at hand, and Tess was closeby as she took a look at some open panels that were undergoing maintenance.

Wren: Alright, let’s take a look at what we have here. (peering into the open panel) Oh, does this…. ::pulling out what looks like two gel packs melted together:: Do you think this is what’s going on? It looks as though a couple of these are like this.

Evinrude: Those could be related to our original problem, or they could be the result of some of the mayhem the de-aged children caused here in sickbay when they ripped into some consoles. ::He explained patiently, letting Delphina come to her own conclusions.:: Let's investigate.

Wren: Hang on, I’ll ::pauses before she reaches in again, pulling on an engineering glove:: I’ll reach up and see how far it goes.

Tess almost jumped in beside Wren before she put on a protective glove at the last moment.

Wren: Try reaching in there, but be careful. ::To shortrith:: When exactly did you lose your notes, and did you do a pen and paper backup?

The ops officer nodded, donning his own protective gear and moving in beside Delphina.

Shortrith: At approximately 1330 hours, after my session with one of the Tactical ensigns. I do have a dot point summary of each session on paper, but not in the detail that I put in my session notes. Fortunately enough, I have previous days backed up on a hard drive that's not currently connected to the computer, so I haven't lost all my notes.

Evinrude: That's good at least. ::He carefully moved in to observe a conduit junction, his sentence coming out disjointed as he jockeyed for a better position.:: That...your only...problem, Counselor?

Shortrith: Pretty much, yeah. I don't know what could have caused it, but at least there's the dot point notes that don't get lost. Unless it's some form of glitch in a system or something?

Evinrude: I'm starting to build a theory here. ::His arm emerged again, clutching a section of gel-pack link conduit. The connectors from the conduit to the packs themselves looked...off.

While Delphina and Shortrith spoke, he carefully disconnected the packs from the wiring harness.

Wren: Response

Shortrith: In a way, yes. There was no mention of corrupted files or anything… It just deleted.

Wren: Response

Evinrude: ::Eyes narrowing.:: It's been carrying too much current...check this out, Wren.

He plunked down the wiring harness and its now-disconnected gel packs so the engineer could get a better look.

Shortrith: Would it be worth trying the good old turning the terminal off then back on again?

Evinrude: ::With a grin, he turned to Shortrith to reply.:: Often, yes. Believe it or not. But in this case, we have a small ripple-effect going on, physical damage caused by certain groups of gel packs taking on too much. Wren, do you think those are salvageable?

Wren/Shortrith: Response

Evinrude: My best guess? The damage over in stellar cartography caused power to re-route automatically. Normally that would be harmless, but when that issue combined with the unexpected gaggle of little saboteurs ripping and hot-swapping isolinear chips like it was a drunken game of kadis-kot...

Wren/Shortrith: Response

Evinrude: Exactly. The fix should be easy enough - and hopefully we can refurbish these! ::He gestured at the gel packs.::

Wren/Shortrith: Response 

((OOC: With shoreleave ending, I'm happy to wind this one down - if you leave me some tags, I will definitely get to the final scene soon however!))

[Tags/TBC]

--

Lieutenant J.G. Tess Evinrude

[he/him]

Operations Officer

USS Ronin

R240111TE1