Bajor: Under Seige
"
By: Clarice, Orphan
, [RNPC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Margaret Rose MacAlister , Marine CO, [RNPC]
Sister Moira
, Clinic Director
, [NPC]
Stardate: 58207.07 1500
Now Major Margaret MacAlister had been trained in Advanced Combat First Aide, so was no slouch around injuries. And although having five older brothers had prepared her for cranky sick people, she was easily more at home with gaping wounds. So she was very glad that Sister Moira had her doing the more mundane work which freed her up to concentrate on the patients, because by her own admission, the Major had THE WORST bedside manner possible.
As she dried her hands and wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with her forearm, the doors to the clinic burst open and Lyrr's gang swarmed in, armed, carrying their unconscious leader. There were 10 of them; all except Lyrr were armed.
"Where is the doctor," demanded Varl leveling his weapon at Madge. Beads of sweat rolled down his face. He felt so hot all of the sudden. "Where is he?"
Madge didn't flinch at having a weapon pointed at her and actually quirked a brow at the young man instead. Her instinctive reaction was reach for her weapon... Only at the present time, that would have been a towel and a bedpan. Neither of which she thought would do any good against a superior force, although she did keep hold of both because they each had potential.
"And what would ye boys be wantin', then? Barging in like ye are an' scarin' the poor wee ones?" she asked in her Scottish brogue, motioning to the children who were still conscious enough to be scared by the blatant show of force, and knowing full well *why* they were there since they were carrying an unconscious man and demanding to see the doctor. She was also astute enough to notice that several of them seemed to be showing early signs of the disease.
"Lyrr is sick," he said, "Get the doctor." Varl stepped closer to Madge, so that the weapon was only inches from her face. "Now!"
Madge was standing to the full extent of her six foot height and met Varl's gaze directly. "Putting that weapon in my face laddie, will nae get yer friend seen ta any the quicker," she told him quietly and for his ears only. "Take the lad over there and I'll get the doctor," she instructed in her normal tone of voice and motioned to an empty bed. Her eyes left Varl's then to search the clinic for Wright and Moira and Clarice, wanting to get a visual on their locations.
The two holding Lyrr brought him over to the bed and set him down.
Hearing the commotion Wright came into the room from the lab, followed closely by Clarice, "What is going on here."
Another Bajoran aimed his weapon at Wright, "Go slowly Doctor."
"Like I said," said Wright slowly, "what is going on?"
Varl spoke up from the other side of the room, "Lyrr is sick. You need to save him."
Wright took his tricorder out of the pocket of his lab coat and started walking over to where Lyrr was. He did not really need to scan Lyrr to know what was wrong with him, but decided to do so in order to satisfy their captors, "He is pretty sick," said Wright, "He has it worse than anyone else here."
"Fix him," demanded Varl. Varl started to cough.
Wright scanned Varl, "You are sick too."
"Shut up," snapped Varl, "Your job is to help Lyrr."
"My Job," said Wright, "is to help everyone. Look around you boy, everyone is sick. Don't you think that if I knew how to fix this I would?"
Varl looked around, his vision was starting to blur and he felt a bit dizzy. Looking at Sister Moira he issued several order in Bajoran and two more of his gang leveled their weapons at the sister. "If Lyrr dies, she does too."
"Here now and ye dinnae need ta do that, laddie," Madge frowned at Varl. "The good doctor is nae going ta let *anyone* die if he can help it," she told him. "Let him and Sister Moira do their jobs unhindered."
"Just help him," screamed Varl. Sweat now covered his face and drenched his tunic. Casting a wary look at Madge he moved himself so that he could use the wall to help support him and still keep his weapon on them. He was sick, he had tried not to admit it. "Get moving," he demanded.
Wright looked at Varl carefully, assessing his condition. He did not think that Varl would be able to stay focused on his task much longer. Wright turned to take another look at Lyrr. He gave Lyrr the same medicine and care that he had every other patient in the clinic. When he was done he stood up. Looking around he made eye contact with Madge and gave her a quick wink. Hopefully, they were on the same page. Simply wait the illness out and sooner or later their captors would either succumb to the illness or give up. They were just kids after all. He was reassured by her slight returning smile and an almost imperceptible nod of understanding. Wright started to walk back to the lab, grabbing Clarice as he went by.
"What...where do you think you are going," demanded Varl between coughing fits.
"I am going to try and figure out what is causing this sickness," said Wright.
"The half-breed stays here," he said wiping the sweat from his eyes.
"I need the girl's help," said Wright. "If you want me to help any of you, then get out of my way and let me work."
"She is probably the cause of all this," said another one of the captors. "Maybe if I killed her right now it would solve all of our problems."
"Back down young man," said Wright. "If you wish to continue breathing until tomorrow you better find another plan." The tone of Wright's voice indicated that he was serious. There had been a time in his life when that threat would have been funny; a time when "Do no harm" was his mantra, however, the war had changed him. There were times when even a doctor had to take a life, he knew that now, and would do it if he thought anyone was going to be harmed. Wright and Clarice walked into the lab.
Madge looked at each one of the boys in turn, noting their condition and their placement in the clinic. She then went quietly back to work, all the while keeping an eye on the boys and instinctively keeping herself between them and Sister Moira, and keeping herself in the most optimal position to react should she need to.
Time seemed to pass fairly slowly as first one hour went by. Wright and Clarice remained in the lab for the most part, with brief patient checks by Wright that Madge knew were to assess the condition of the boys. Sister Moira went calmly about her work, and Madge pretended to be busier than she actually was. She was waiting. Soon the illness would take its toll.
Varl stood leaning against the wall. The marine had resumed her work and Varl relaxed a little. He started shivering and it was a struggle for him to keep his eyes open. He had to fight, he told himself, for Lyrr. He felt so cold and yet he could not stop sweating. After about an hour he heard a noise. Lyrr had said something. Varl took a step toward Lyrr's bed and his world began spinning. He collapsed to the floor, dropping his weapon.
"Doctor!" MacAlister called out as she rushed to Varl's side to help the lad up and into a nearby bed. As she did, she quietly stowed his weapon out of sight. Another of the hoodlums lurched forward, brandishing his gun as if to warn Madge off Varl. But he too collapsed onto the floor, dropping his weapon in the process. The Major hurried over to him, stowing the weapon away and helping him into a bed. Several of the other hoodlums moved closer to their position, still brandishing their arms.
"You better fix them all!" One of them threatened. "Or we're going to start killing people!"
"Val Joran," said an old Bajoran as he sat up in a nearby bed. "Put that weapon down and let these people do their job." He coughed several times before continuing, "I knew your parents...good people. They would be very disappointed by this," he gestured at the boys around the room.
The young boy looked around. He could see the indecision on the faces of his remaining gang members. He dropped his weapons and slowly slid to the floor and started to cry.
Wright exited the lab and looked at the remaining captors. They were just young boys, too young for this, he thought. "Listen, please put down your weapons. I promise to do what I can, but holding us at gun point is not going to make it happen any faster."
The remaining captors looked at one another and one by one dropped their weapons to the floor.
"Thank you," said Wright. He looked at Madge, "Major secure these weapons."
"Aye, aye, sir." Although she had already begun to move, Madge responded instantly and automatically to the obvious tone of command in his voice. She was intrigued at the air of experience he projected; it seemed as if the good doctor was more than he appeared to be and she was going to have to reassess the situation. She quickly collected the weapons and secured them all in Wright's "office" where they could be locked up.
"The weapons are secured, sir," Madge reported a few minutes later when she rejoined Wright. She almost saluted him, and definitely quirked a curious brow in his direction along with a suppressed smile.
Wright looked at the Marine with a confused look, then it hit him that he has just issued a command. He had forgotten that he left his commander's hat on the Zion. "I'm sorry," he said, "I did not mean to start tossing orders around."
"Ach, 'tis a fine thing, doctor. Dinnae fuss yerself." Her smile bloomed to full force as she spoke. "Although, 'tis also a very curious thing, I must admit. I think I'll need ta fall back a wee bit, and regroup. Gather more intel and reassess the situation," she told him with a liberal does of merriment dancing in her eyes. "Aye, 'tis definitely time ta regroup," she nodded and clasped her hands behind her back as she turned and sauntered quietly off to go speak to the young men who'd held them hostage.
Wright watched her go. So much for just being a doctor, he thought. It was a foolish notion anyway, he decided, he could not just stop being a commander any more than he could stop being a doctor.
"Here now, and let's be getting ye up on a chair, laddie," Madge bent down to the first youth to help him up off the floor. Her smile was both genuine and warm. "I'm Major MacAlister," she told him.
The boy got up off the floor and sat in the chair. "Thank you...Major."
"I'll have the doctor come take a wee peek at ye, hmm?" She crouched down so she was on eyelevel with him. "Ye can call me Mac if ye like," she told him, still with the warm smile. "Can ye tell me where ye got the weapons, laddie?" she asked quietly. She'd taken a look at them when she'd gathered them up and had been surprised to find they were old style Cardassian arms. Something she thought had long ago been confiscated.
The boy shrugged, "Lyrr found em some where," he said. "He would not tell us where...said it was a secret."
"Alright then. Ye rest and I'll send the doctor over," she told him as she stood and left him.
Madge repeated the same scenario with all the boys, asking each of them the same question and eventually appearing before Wright to give him a small update.
"The weapons were all old style Cardassian arms," she told him. "I've spoken ta the lads and they all said the same thing. 'Lyrr found them somewhere and wouldnae say where he got them. T'was a secret..." she quirked a brow at him as if to say 'what do you think of *that*?.
"Do you suppose that Lyrr found a old Cardassian armory?" asked Wright.
"Aye, doctor, that I do," the major nodded. "Maybe nae if they had one or two. But they had *ten* of them," Madge responded.
"I can't help but wonder if Lyrr did not stumble onto more than Cardassian arms." Wright paused. "Let me tell you what I have got," said Wright. "You will notice that this illness has not affected You, the Sister, or Myself."
"’Tis most peculiar," Madge frowned. "Why would it only be affecting the Bajorans and nae us? And what aboot Clarice?"
"That is because we are dealing with a nanophage that is attacking a specific cellular protein that is present in Bajorans but not humans," he said. "Now, Clarice is infected," he said looking at Clarice, "however, she is not getting sick because she has a specific genetic marker found in Cardassians. This marker causes the nanopahge to self destruct."
"’Tis a biological weapon then…" Madge rubbed the back of her neck. This was serious.
"This is a biological weapon programmed to assault Bajorans, specifically designed to go out of its way to avoid Cardassian genetics." Wright looked at Clarice, "You my dear, are the key to saving all these people."
Clarice swallowed hard, "I am?"
Wright nodded, "I need to synthesize an agent to mimic the genetic factor that you have naturally. We need to trick the nanophage into self destructing."
"Ok..let's get started then," she said, "These people have not been very nice to me, but I do not want them to die."
Wright smiled at her, "I am very proud of you."
Clarice smiled brightly at Wright's compliment. For some reason she could not put her finger on, it meant a lot to her.
Madge smiled over at Clarice, pleased with her obvious happiness at being able to do something tangible to help. "I think yer right, doctor. I think Lyrr found something much bigger than just an armory," she agreed with his hunch. "Ye said he was sicker than all the rest?" she looked at him for confirmation. "Is that because he’s more susceptible? Or because he was the *first* ta be exposed and the disease is more advanced in him…" She was giving him some very pointed looks as if to say ‘see where I’m heading with this?’. "An old armory ‘tis not a place ye store biological weapons," she pointed out.
"Lyrr is exhibiting the most advanced stages of illness," said Wright. "It follows that he was the earliest Bajoran exposed." Wright called up a map of the area on his lab terminal. "When this started to look like an epidemic I started updating this map." The map had several dots, some darker than others. "The darkest dots represent the homes of the earliest patients. As you can see they are concentrated around here," he said pointing at a section of the map.
"There are lots of caves around there," said Clarice, "I used to go there to hide." Clarice frowned, "But Lyrr's gang hangs out there," she said pointing at a different spot on the map. "That is pretty far away from the dark dots."
"Aye, but that doesnae mean Lyrr couldnae have found something there," Madge observed and tapped the screen where the large concentration of dots was. " ’Tis being much easier ta keep a place secret from yer chums if it’s nae in yer backyard," she referenced the information she’d gotten from Lyrr’s gang. "I think ‘tis time for a wee bit of spelunking," she nodded decisively and looked over at Wright with a smile. "Doctor?"
It was clear to Wright from the look on her face and in the depths of her eyes that she wasn’t officially asking his permission because she wasn’t under his command, but she was respectfully acknowledging the apparent “command-authority” air he’d exhibited and wasn’t going to do anything until she got his thoughts and opinion. It was also clear that she was more than willing to defer to his suggestions if she found them sound and reasonable. After all, this *was* basically a medical situation, but if their hunches were right, it was also a terrorist one, however unintentional.
"I agree," said Wright, "we need to find the source. Maybe there is some information there that will help us counter the nanophage."
"’Tis settled then," Madge nodded. "I’ll gear up and get ready ta leave. Would ye care ta be me guide when the doctor is finished with ye, Clarice?" she looked to the young girl, and then in almost perfect unison, they both turned to direct their clear gazes on Wright. It was rather comical in a way, even given the severity of the situation. One pair of startling blue eyes, older and wiser gazed at the doctor, along with rather penetrating brown ones, not so old but also holding a wisdom that belied the owner’s youth.
"Go ahead, I have enough samples to work with," he said. "Be careful," he looked from Clarice to Madge, "Both of you."
"Dinnae worry yerself, doctor," Madge patted his hand. "I’ll take good care of the lass…." She smiled at him and winked at Clarice. "Or maybe she’ll take good care of me, hmm?" That said, she touched the girl on the tip of her nose and turned to go change clothes and get her things, leaving the doctor and the orphan alone.