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 "Have you pulled the plug on absolutely everything?" Leon asked Virtus frantically.
-"Yes," Vic replied. "We're running on minimal life support as it is. I've even shut the lights off in all the habitable areas except for sickbay. They're working with wristlights and console lanterns. There's nothing more we can shutoff to save power."
+"Yes," Vic replied. "We're running on minimal life support as it is. I've even shut the lights off in all the habitable areas except for holodecks five and six for the sickbay staff. They're working with wristlights and console lanterns. There's nothing more we can shutoff to save power."
 As the minutes ticked down, Leon went from frantic to panicked, checking off every possible way to conserve energy for life support. One idea had everyone capable of wearing a survival suit to do so in order to extend battery life. Although that would have bought them two hours, it unfortunately would have taken them 20 minutes to get everyone in suits, which is more time than they had left.
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 <BOOKMARK:Chapter35>
 <fs x-large>**Chapter 35: Longings for the T'Kumbra**</fs><wrap lo right>[[archives:walking_wounded#top|Top]]</wrap>\\ \\
+**Location: Unknown**
+The smell of burned wiring permeated the shuttle as sparks jettisoned out of the panels of the ship. Jaren Tolkath was navigating the ship while Reittan assisted feverishly rerouting power to the engines and the shields.
+Jaren's son began to perspire at the anticipation of another hit. He had to maintain their shields.
+Jaren looked over at his son's control panels and noticed they had just lost the starboard shields. Reittan's fingers rabidly flew across the instruments racing for control of the power grid within the vessel. Father Tolkath said nothing but kept his stoic Vulcan demeanor.
+Jaren returned to his controls maneuvering through some of the most difficult piloting he had ever done.
+As to where the two battle ships had come from was a mystery, but that was moot at this point. They needed to get out and to the nearest star base before the shuttle was destroyed.
+Out of the corner of his eyes, Reittan caught his mother looking serene and calm; she reeked of fear as did his grandmother and the ten other dignitaries aboard.
+His attention snapped back to what he was doing as the panels flickered and the ship jerked; another shot had hit the aft shields. More sparks showered Reittan, and suddenly all power within the ship died.
+Darkness enveloped them for a fraction of a second, until emergency power brought life support back online. As the lights reappeared, Reittan saw his Grandmother laying on the floor unconscious, a trickle of blood running down her face.
+Rage engulfed Reittan, anger and a strong sense of primal self preservation began to build within him like a warp core breach. The emotion erupted; all fell into darkness.
+----
+Reittan suddenly woke up, sitting straight up with a jerk. His robe was drenched in perspiration. He looked around his quarters and grounded himself in the present moment; not in the past, anything but the past. He hadn't been sleeping well recently being effected by the recent commotion and emotional upheaval aboard the ship. He had arranged his schedule to get some sleep, but only found nightmares.
+He closed his eyes and began focusing on the feelings of his shipmates. He targeted some very strong feelings of anger, they were emanating from Doctor Cromwell.
+Leon had been a little edgy since the Hawk incident. Since a large amount of conversation surrounded Lt. Hawk, the Counselor began calling the phenomenon "Hawk talk." Leon would bristle and get angry when Hawk talk occurred around him, but Tolkath could sense hurt too; a sense of betrayal. Upon learning the Counselor had known about the condition of Nat, his interactions with the Lieutenant Commander had cooled. But, the doctor had somewhat forgiven the Counselor, when he learned he had been ordered to stay silent. Reittan wasn't sure if the forgiveness had been genuine, or if Leon had larger fish to fry.
+Since Leon had the most intense feelings aboard the ship, besides the two crew members who were enjoying each other in the extracurricular activities of a relationship, Tolkath would have to credit this last dream to him. The Counselor's conscience wasn't so easily persuaded by this explanation. After all, it was Reittan's fault he hadn't meditated and closed his mind off to what was happening around him; leaving his dreams completely unguarded.
+Suddenly, the intercom came to life overhead.
+//"Counselor, please report to your office!"//
+The sound of panic in the secretary's voice alerted Reittan that this was not at test . . .
+\\
+\\
+\\
+**Location: Deck nine just outside the Counselor's quarters, USS Republic**
+After the assault on the Counselor during the whole Hawk debacle, Tolkath had engineering install what could only be described as a "silent alarm" in the Psychology department. It was activated by strategically-placed hidden triggers that could be reached easily from anywhere around the department offices. Upon activation, the computer would instantly and clandestinely scan the room it was activated in, check the bio-rhythms of all the occupants, and verify that the alarm had been activated by an authorized individual. Unless the computer determined that Reittan himself was in trouble, the system was programmed to contact him instead of security. The reason for this system was that if one of the staff psychologists were in distress while in a counseling session with a patient, it would give Reittan himself a chance to intervene and diffuse the situation before security arrived. While ship security was good at physically restraining an emotionally-distressed patient, it could sometimes do more harm than good, especially if Reittan had a better, more psychologically-sound alternative.
+It was this alarm system that had alerted the Counselor and summoned him to the psychology department one deck above his personal quarters. Although the secretary's voice was calm enough so as to not alarm anyone who might have been with the Lieutenant Commander, the computer had alerted the Counselor that things had gone awry in the Psychology department. Reittan hurried through the deserted corridor to the turbolifts. Upon arrival, and after waiting for what seemed like an eternity to the Counselor, the doors hissed open, and Tolkath quickly stepped in.
+"Deck eight," Reittan barked. Luckily, the Counselor was the only occupant in the turbo-lift. "Computer, report on program RT-3 beta."
+//"Voice authorization confirmed"// the computer replied. //"Lieutenant Reisan, is currently in the main office with a male approximately 167 centimeters tall and 90 kilograms. Both occupant's vital signs and body temperatures are heightened."//
+"Position of the occupants?"
+//"The male is one meter directly inside the door and Lieutenant Reisan is behind her desk."//
+The turbo-lift came to a stop and the doors hissed open. The Lieutenant Commander nearly tripped over himself trying to quickly, yet casually so as to not to draw attention to himself, get to the department. The Counselor thought to himself, "It's times like these I miss the T'Kumbra; much less drama."
+The seemingly unending deserted corridor finally gave way to the main psychology department. Then Tolkath composed himself, and walked nonchalantly towards the doors as though he were just passing through, as difficult as it was not to just burst into the room. The counselor could hear the heated discussion emanating from the room. He paused just outside of the sensors surrounding the doors, so he could eavesdrop and not go inside being unprepared.
+"YOU WILL NOT TREAT ME THAT WAY!" Lieutenant Reisan shouted at the unknown guest.
+Lieutenant Reisan was a short, blue eyed, brunette. Ordinarily she was mild manner, and Reittan had yet to hear her raise her voice. Many times he wondered if she were part Vulcan with her cool demeanor, but her records showed her to be human. Because of her elevated voice, the Counselor waited no longer and entered the room.
+Something was terribly wrong.
+Upon entering the dimly lit room, the first thing Reittan noticed was how frazzled the Lieutenant looked. It appeared that someone had tried to remove her uniform by force. It was evident that Reisan had used the silent alarm because she rightly wanted someone to witness the attack for credibility in any testimony, which would unavoidably happen through an inquiry and investigation.
+The psychology department had been painted in neutral colors to help the ambiance necessary for the therapeutic process. The bulkhead in which Tolkath's fellow counselor was pinned against was painted a pale blue color. However, in this predicament, the pale blue looked terribly foreboding.
+As Lieutenant Reisan's eyes focused on Tolkath, they filled sudden calm; a sense of safety painted her expression. The perpetrator suddenly grabbed the Lieutenant's uniform, as if to finish ripping it off when suddenly, assailant noticed the change in her expression and swung around to find the Counselor standing behind him. Fury filled the Counselor as he recognized the face of the lieutenant's attacker: Talloc Morganth.
+"Why, if it isn't Rei-Rei the Crazy Guy..."
+The taunting stung Reittan, but not as quite much now as it had during his childhood. However, it opened old wounds the counselor thought had healed. Reittan tapped his combadge and said calmly.
+"Security to the Psychology department."
+//"On our way, counselor..."//
+"Oh, come on Rei-Rei you aren't going to . . ." Morganth taunted the counselor in front of his colleague.
+The silence that met Talloc was filled with anger, and enhanced by fear of the consequences that waited for him. The rage boiled over and he threw a right hook at the Counselor. Reittan instinctively grabbed the fist accelerating towards his face, and the strength of his Vulcan heritage caught Talloc completely off-guard.
+"Well, well, well, Reitty-Rei, grew up."
+Lieutenant Reisan watched Talloc futilely grappling for control . Suddenly, the struggle stopped and the conversation turned telepathic. The intensity and the hatred that Morganth looked at the Counselor made Reisan glad she wasn't a telepath.
+It was then that the doors opened announcing the arrival of Security.
+"Gentlemen, place this man in the brig!"
+The red that had filled Talloc's face from his anger suddenly drained until he was a slight green. His eyes melted into pleading orbs towards the counselor. Reittan turned and looked once more towards Morganth. The Counselor then turned the ex-assailant over to the security guards.
+"Save your pleas for your hearing, then you can say them out loud," the Lieutenant Commander mocked Talloc.
+With that, the Counselor turned his attention to the Lieutenant who was in shock. She rested her body weight and head against the bulk head and started to slide down into a fetal position. Reittan rushed over and caught her while she was halfway to the floor.
+"I'll take it from here," Reittan said as calmly as possible. "Just get him to the brig."
+The security officers nodded and began leading their prisoner out of the room to his cell.
+Reisan began shaking uncontrollably. "He was in my head," was all she could say as she rocked back and forth. The words made Reittan sick.
+"We are going to take you to sickbay," Reittan said as he tried to comfort her. "Can you walk?"
+She stared off into space still shaking, but her legs supported her as he placed her weight on them. Reittan walked all the way to sickbay with her, many times carrying her weight whenever her legs became shaky due to shock.
+----
+**Location: Captains ready room, USS Republic**
+Lieutenant Commander Tolkath looked at his Captain with anticipation in his eyes. Though he could have clearly read her thoughts on the matter, he did as he always had and respected her privacy, though her emotions emanated much caution.
+"This is highly unusual Counselor. Why is it that you want to look into the matter?" Kimberly Roth was sitting in her chair behind her desk; opposite the standing Counselor. Smoke was in her lap and had been resting lazily until the Lieutenant Commander had entered the room. He blinked and looked intently at the new visitor. Roth unconsciously stroked her pet as the Republic's Counselor continued.
+"Captain," he addressed his superior, "he is a good family friend. I also may be one of the few who could reach him, should his condition continue to deteriorate." The Counselor had been confused, to say the least, with his encounter with Talloc Morganth. Although they had been rivals as children, Talloc and Reittan had made amends years earlier; he now considered him nearly a brother. It made no sense to Tolkath, something was terribly wrong.
+"Explain." Roth pressed.
+"There was a man on Earth named Sigmund Freud who could explain this scenario best. Freud postulated that there were three main spheres of the psyche: the Id, the Ego, and the Super Ego. The Id is all about impulse and selfish desires, the Super Ego is all about rules and morals; constraint. The Ego is the bartering system between the Id and the Super Ego."
+"Yes, I am aware of Mister Freud."
+"To put it best, Morganth's Super Ego has become incapacitated, leaving him now acting impulsively. The Ego's intact, but without the other force to balance it out . . ."
+". . . he's running off pure instinct." The Captain finished his thought. "I see. But, why would you be one of the few who could face him?"
+"Because I have the training. People with my . . . sensitivity to telepathic energy are trained to block it out or deal with it, or they go insane." With the last statement Reittan's eyes reflected intense pain as he broke eye contact with the Captain; his gaze fell to the floor haunted by ghosts of his past.
+Kimberly had once heard of those who were overly sensitive to psioinic energy. Many were doomed to self-exile, and others would be driven insane by the maelstrom of energy.
+"Counselor, I am concerned with one thing. I heard about the exchange between you and Mister Morganth, the verbal exchange seemed quite heated."
+His most recent interactions with his old friend had not gone the way that Reittan had wished they had. "It is part of the reason I wanted to do this." Tolkath said repentantly. "I am ashamed of how I behaved and I need to find the truth."
+Kimberly Roth looked over the blue uniformed counselor. It didn't take an empath to know that his remorse was sincere. Smoke cocked his head and bleaked. "Yes, I agree with you Smoke. Counselor, I have talked it over with Lieutenant Beauvais. She is currently occupied with other concerns, but will look over your report, as will I. Is there anything you feel you may need?"
+What excitement had filled the eyes of the Counselor quickly drained and he looked as if he were being asked to sacrifice his friend on a prehistoric altar. "Yes, one other. I will need someone on the medical team to assist me. I am going to do a complete psycho-socio-bio report. But, my concerns are about the individual assisting me. Should he or she become angry while I am there due to telepathic side-effects of me working with Talloc, well . . . we know what Betaziods are capable of thanks to the Dominion War."
+"Do you think Mister Morganth is capable of being hostile or violent?"
+"I am not sure. This is the first time I have encountered a condition where the Super-Ego became this incapacitated, but if my hypothesis is correct, yes, he is completely impulsive..." Then Tolkath's voice trailed off as if he was talking to himself, "and there are no force fields we know of that psionic energy can't penetrate."
+Roth paused for a moment thinking of her crew's safety. The answer became evident. "Counselor, I suggest you use Doctor Harris on your team. I will arrange for you to escort Mister Morganth to Sickbay."
+Tolkath looked up at the Captain one eyebrow raised. "I haven't met Doctor Harris as of yet." Reittan had silently labeled her, 'the ghost doctor', as he was the one officer he hadn't been able to due an annual psych eval on.
+"You are dismissed."
+"Thank you, sir." The Counselor turned and began his journey through the bridge to the turbolift. As he approached the doors they gave way with a hiss, and the sounds from the bridge entered the previously quiet room.
+----
+**Location: Main corridor, deck 10, USS Republic**
+Reittan Tolkath was lost shaken from his thoughts as the turbo-lift he was in came to a halt, signaling the arrival of another passenger Republic's Counselor hardly noticed the red-headed Pediatrician enter the turbo lift. The doors closed behind her as she announced "Biology Lab."
+The voice startled the Tolkath as he sensed no emotion from the Doctor with him in the turbo-lift. He looked up to find the source of the voice only to be greeted by Doctor Harris.
+"Hello, Counselor," she began.
+Reittan paused, staring at the hologram standing before him, "Uh, hello Doctor Harris," he said absently. Tolkath's mind was racing trying to figure out why she showed no life force to him.
+"Is something bothering you, Counselor?" Shannon Harris offered. "I was an acting Counselor for a little while. I know how tough the job can be."
+Tolkath looked at her in astonishment. He looked at the obviously human form before him. Doctor Shannon Harris looked all too real, but as the empathic officer regarded her, for Tolkath, it was like looking at a well-animated puppet. His eyes told him she was there. He could even feel a bit of air being displaced by her presence, perhaps even some heat, but the parts of his brain that read emotion and thought in other beings, which would be impossible to ignore at this distance, told him that the space around him was empty.
+Tolkath took another long look at Doctor Harris, fixing his gaze on her eyes. "Forgive me, Doctor..." he said with an air of skepticism, "but, what exactly are you?"
+Shannon looked on, dumb-founded. "Excuse me?"
+"Again, I'm sorry to be so blunt, but, to my empathic senses..." Tolkath paused, taking a moment to try and focus on the other mind in the car that SHOULD have been there, but wasn't. "You're... not here."
+Shannon dropped her head with a soft chuckle. "Heh... I must be getting sloppy."
+"Come again?" The Counselor asked.
+"I'm an inter-active, autonomous hologram, Counselor."
+At one moment, Doctor Harris' answer seemed absurd, but at the same time, it answered more than a few questions. Like all Starfleet personnel, Reittan had spent more than a few hours in a holodeck. Sometimes it was for training or for casework. Other times it was purely personal. In all those times, he'd never been off-put by interaction with a hologram, the way he was now, but upon coming to that realization, it occurred to him that, while on the holodeck, he knew not to EXPECT any telepathic or emotional resonance. Logically then, it's absence would likely have gone unnoticed. Here however the expectation of at least getting a passive sense of Shannon Harris made the absence of that sensation all the more obvious. "Fascinating". He offered.
+"You are a holographic projection?" Reittan asked awkwardly, and then continued, "Why haven't we met until now?"
+"Until recently, I kept the nature of my existence a secret. But the captain has now given me permission to let the rest of the crew know... if they ask."
+"Oh, I see," the Counselor responded; still taken off guard. "It was kept secret... because you were worried that others may be discriminative towards you?"
+"Yes, that was part of it." Shannon replied.
+"How have people responded as they..." The Counselor paused mid- thought, and jumped back to the reason they were headed to the Brig. "Would you mind if we carried this conversation later? I would be interested in learning more about your situation."
+Shannon was slightly shocked by how the Lieutenant Commander was responding to the news, but attributed it to his line of duty. "I wouldn't mind, she answered.
+The Doctor and the Counselor had some things in common. The both knew more than people were willing to admit, or that they would try to hide. Yet, they respected others privacy; they both stayed as much as they could out of people's personal lives.
+Shannon looked at the level read-out, near the lift car's door. "You're headed to the brig?" Shannon asked.
+"Yes," Tolkath answered. "An unusual case, actually."
+"Does this ship have any other kind?"
+With a chuckle, the Counselor continued. "I suppose not." For a moment, the empath paused. "Actually, you might be of some use. Assuming I can take you away from whatever you're up to at the moment?"
+Shannon tilted her head and raised her left eyebrow. "You've got my attention Tolkath." She answered. "My bio-cultures can wait. What's your case?"
+"A friend of mine, actually. A man I've known for years. Morganth is his name. He's a civilian contractor, at least according to his computer file, but I must confess I had no idea he was on board, and less of a clue why he assaulted one of my colleagues."
+"Lieutenant Xera Reisan." Shannon confirmed. "Teague checked her out. She's resting comfortably... Unless there's been some sort of change?"
+"How did you...?"
+Shannon tapped her temple with a smile. "One advantage of being a hologram. I'm literally PART of the computer. I can access anything it knows, with a little effort."
+"Well then, I am glad you are here, and that you are immune to our psionic capabilities. We may need that," the Counselor said.
+"Do you have any idea what is happening to your friend?" Shannon asked.
+"Regrettably, no. That is why I need you to do a complete medical work-up on him."
+Shannon nodded. She saw the pain in the Counselor's eyes.
+The turbo lift halted and the door opened to the corridor leading to the brig. The two walked in silence and the doors opened with a soft hiss, opening the way to the cells. As soon as the duty officers saw Tolkath and Doctor Harris enter the room, the gold-clad security men opened the heavy servo-locked doors that lead to the brig's interior.
+Once inside, effectively isolated from the rest of the ship, the two stopped, taking stock of their surroundings.
+From inside the brig's only occupied cell, Morganth noticed Reittan and telepathically shouted, 'YOU DID THIS TO ME!'
+Reittan suddenly felt the barrage of psionic energy crashing down on his body. His body shook and started to collapse for a brief moment under the weight of the attack. Shannon noticed the Counselor weaken and steadied him by putting her arm around him. It took a moment for Tolkath to recover and put his training in to play. Though he could feel the pressure of the attack, the pain had subsided.
+"Thank you," he said to Shannon as his strength returned and he stood upright.
+"No worries," Shannon answered in her familiar Australian accent.
+Morganth looked at Reittan with pure hate emanating from him. "If you don't release me, I will hurt your friend."
+Reittan half-smiled and suddenly the weight no longer was there. The Lieutenant Commander had learned his lesson from entering the room unprepared. He leaned on Harris a moment longer, mustered his concentration, and focused his defenses into place.
+Morganth stared at Shannon ferociously.
+"You can't hurt her. She's immune to psionic energy."
+Morganth shouted in frustration. 'Fine,' he answered silently. 'If I can't hurt her, I'll find someone else,' he threatened telepathically. "This is an awfully crowded ship." He added the last rejoinder aloud... apparently for the female officer's benefit.
+In the Brig's foyer, one of the duty officers doubled over and collapsed in pain. His partner acted quickly to sound the security alert.
+"I don't even need to see anyone anymore. Face it Rei-Rei. I'm better than you."
+Reacting to the security alert, Shannon Harris shifted her concentration to the web of information constantly flowing to and from the ship's computer. She slipped in between bio-neural impulses and accessed the combadge network.
+"Petty Officer Rolands. Alpha Centauran." She said matter of factly. "He's having some sort of aneurism, I think!"
+Reittan warned Morganth calmly, "Stop... or I will stop you."
+The prisoner laughed outloud and exclaimed audibly. "How are you going to do that, Rei-Rei the crazy guy?"
+Reittan produced a hypospray. Hyposprays had been used before to incapacitate, but where the Counselor had obtained it, Shannon didn't know. She assumed it was a psychiatric drug authorized for the psychology department.
+As Tolkath walked slowly towards the force field, he began to feel the weight of the onslaught again. "Good," he said to his attacker, "focus on me... I can handle it."
+When Reittan began to take on the attack, Rolands regained his composure. Reittan used his medical override code to lower the force field, then to raise it after he had entered the cell.
+Shannon looked on, puzzled by the Counselor's actions. She could only assume that the Counselor's hypo-spray contained a powerful sedative. Something to end Morganth's psionic rampage.
+As he entered, Reittan's one time friend intensified the attack. With hypo-spray in hand, the Counselor inched towards his current attacker. Morganth lunged at the Counselor, but Tolkath was quicker. Mid-lunge the Counselor pressed the hypospray to Morganth's neck and the hiss of it sounded in the room.
+Shannon was puzzled when the assailant did not lose consciousness. The prisoner suddenly went pale and looked bewildered.
+"What have you done to me?" he asked in horror as he sank to the floor.
+Reittan looked down at the empty container in his hand and all he could do was apologize. Turning back, he again used his code to lower the security field, exit the cell, and look back at his one-time-friend as the bluish field snapped back into place.
+Doctor Harris looked at the Counselor. She had seen the look before on doctors who had just informed their patient's family that their loved one was going to die. She didn't understand what was happening. The once angry, violent prisoner was beginning to weep.
+For Morganth, the once buzzing world surrounding him had gone deafeningly silent. He felt empty loneliness in a way that had only been nightmares during his youth.
+"We can take him to sickbay now," Reittan stated hollowly, "He won't be a problem to anyone else for the moment."
+"We're not taking him anywhere NEAR any other patients until you tell me what was in that hypo-spray."
+Reittan took a deep breath and answered the Pediatrician. "It's a compound that inhibits the production of Psilosynine, the main neurotransmitter in psionic energy." He continued, "This specific one will continue to work indefinitely until the 'antidote' is applied. It comes as a heavy price though. We only have a short time before the effects of the drug, the silence, can have a profound psychological effect."
+"Isn't there something else that could have been used? Perhaps you could have made him unconscious?" Shannon inquired.
+"No, I have thought this through. I need him to answer questions. Hopefully the bio-scans will show something."
+"Won't the inhibitor affect the brain scan?"
+Reittan involuntarily twitched at the word "inhibitor", explaining how exactly the bio-scans would show nothing out of the ordinary.
+Shannon noted the unusual authority in his voice that a seasoned expert would display. It was as strange to her, as it was the rest of the crew, to see someone who looked Vulcan expressing emotion. Especially pride.
+Reittan was remorseful as the pair made their way to sickbay. At one point he tried to put his arm around the prisoner's shoulders consolingly, only to have the prisoner jerk away. Tolkath understood the prisoner's anger and resentment, but it was for his, Morganth's, and the crew's safety that the intervention had been taken.
+----
+**Location: Sickbay, deck 12, USS Republic**
+Upon reaching sickbay, Reittan walked to the side as Shannon took the prisoner to the medical bed. She could see pure fear in his eyes; so child-like.
+Now in Sickbay, Shannon felt back in her element. She looked to the duty station and found the somewhat confused face of Saal Yezbeck.
+"Hey Shannon. Counselor," he welcomed the new arrivals. "Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with the security alert a minute ago?"
+"Can't get anything past you Saal." Shannon smiled. "I'll need a hand with a full neural scan." She turned to face Tolkath. "If you would, Counselor?"
+"This man is... or rather, WAS a dangerous psionic. I've administered an inhibitor to block his powers, so there is no danger, but I need to know what caused his illness."
+"Illness?" Saal asked as he readied the diagnostic probes that would adhere to Morganth's temples. "How do you mean?"
+"He's had some sort of psychotic breakdown," Tolkath explained, "but I would like to know the reason why. He was... He is, a friend of mine."
+Saal nodded solemnly. "Right. Let's get you a look then."
+In moments, Saal had refined the scans of the bio-bed to Morganth's brain. The scan, repeated on a large diagnostic board mounted on the room's near wall. The picture showed not only several views of the patient's physical health, but also showed the areas of his brain that were currently active. Saal visibly winced as the scan showed the `dead area of Morganth's frontal lobe, rendered dormant by Tolkath's hypo-spray.
+"Now... let's see if we can tell what's..." Saal's voice trailed off.
+Next to the diagnostic bed, Tolkath looked at Shannon. "So, what's it like?" he asked simply.
+"Sorry?" Shannon asked.
+"You're a singular being onboard Republic, Doctor." He explained. "And if rumors are true, you and Commander Carter are... involved?" Shannon smiled at the thought of John, then looked back at Tolkath. "You want to have this conversation now?" she asked. "Shouldn't I make an appointment or something?"
+"Do you think you need an appointment?"
+"No."
+"Why not?"
+"Stop that!" Shannon chided. "Stop answering questions with questions. It's... unnerving."
+"It makes you anxious? Really?" Tolkath thought outloud. "I'm sorry. It's just that usually when I ask a question like that I already have a pretty good idea of the answer. This really is interesting."
+"Fair enough," Shannon offered. She crossed her arms in front of her and paused in thought. "I suppose it's like being inside a novel, except... if I really want to, I can be anywhere on the ship. I don't have to follow just one plot. That is... if I don't want to."
+"And, Commander Carter? I assume he knows?" Tolkath asked.
+"Damned right he does," Harris answered defensively. "He was the first one to figure it out after I did."
+"Wait..." Tolkath looked shocked. "You didn't know what you were? Really? For how long?"
+Shannon shook her head. "Not a clue. I remember waking up in my quarters when Republic was in dry dock after her first re-commissioning. Then, for the next year or so, I just thought I was one of the crew. I was born in Australia. I survived the Borg attack on Earth. I joined Starfleet just after the Dominion War."
+"You did? Or Shannon Harris did?" Tolkath questioned.
+"What?" Shannon was again confused.
+"Your background," Tolkath continued, his voice filled with warmth and curiosity. "Is your history purely fictional? Or were you modeled on a... and forgive me for this, 'real' Shannon Harris?"
+For a moment, Republic's pediatrician stood. Unsure of what the answer really was.
+"Eureka!" Saal Yezbeck shouted. "I think I found it." There were a few short beeps from the console Saal was bent over, then the display they were all looking at shifted to show a multi-colored cross-section of Morganth's frontal lobe. "Look closely. Right here at the pre-frontal cortex." The image enlarged and intensified, showing the area of the patient's brain in fine detail.
+"It looks... smaller, dimmer." Tolkath offered.
+"Exactly." Saal confirmed. "I ran a full spectro-chemical analysis, and your friend's cortisone levels are off the charts, in a highly localized area."
+"He's allergic to something?" Shannon asked. "Or is this some kind of viral reaction?"
+Saal shook his head looking at the scan, then at Morganth's bewildered expression. "My money's on option one. If this were viral, some other parts of his physiology would be either agitated or suppressed. Since they're not..." Saal folded his arms across his chest, stroking his beard with one hand in a contemplative manner. "I'd be looking for some sort of agent or irritant that he might have been exposed to."
+Saal turned to look at Tolkath directly, but the Counselor was already out the door, bolting down the corridor.
+----
+**Location: Talloc Morganth’s assigned guest quarters, USS Republic**
+Reittan entered his friend’s quarters cautiously; the lights were dimmer in the room than in the corridor. As his eyes adjusted to the darker environment, he scanned the room and noticed the quarters were in complete disarray; furniture was turned over and clothing was strewn across the room leaving the abode in utter chaos.
+Reittan spied a PADD walked over to the tablet shaped object that had been left in the mess. With a couple of quick taps to the PADD it came to life then flickered and faded, then came to life again.
+Counselor Tolkath began scanning the PADD with interest. With his access code over-ride he was able to access Morganth's personal entries since the day the Republic had left Deep Space Nine abruptly to five days ago when they had suddenly ceased. Looking over the information, he gathered up the PADD, and righted an overturned table. Reaching for a stool that lay nearby, the Counselor placed the tablet shaped object on the table top. Tolkath had learned that even the smallest detail could lead to the correct answer to the current conundrum, so he began reading the journal entries from the beginning.
+Morganth's voice filled Tolkath's mind, //"Day one aboard the USS Republic. I am not sure why I have been detained aboard this vessel; it was a very abrupt emergency departure. The day started out very nicely, the Tolkath's were gracious enough to allow me to come aboard the ship with them to see Reittan. It will be good to see him again. However, on our way to the Counseling Center, I gazed on one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Her eyes, the way she carried herself made me feel like a boy back in Betazed when I had the crush on Jemma in the second grade."//
+Reittan looked up and laughed in spite of himself; Morganth had been definitely love struck with her.
+Morganth's log continued. //"I lost track of time because we were having a pleasant conversation, then everything erupted. I didn't have time to get off the ship. I can only hope Reittan's family will inform my family about what has happened, because we have been put on radio silence. . ."// Morganth's voice continued onward, but that information had answered why Tolkath's friend was aboard the ship; to see him.
+Morganth's log continued onward with daily events, and meetings with the Lieutenant Xera Reisan, and his infatuation with her. Their voyage had also allowed him sometime, while the Lieutenant was on duty, to engage in his favorite past time; botany.
+Reittan remembered that Talloc was always, even as a child, engrossed with some type of plant and with his talent had resurrected much vegetation. Everyone thought that he would become a great botanist, but that dream took second to his current occupation.
+Reittan glanced around the chaotic room and saw Morganth's latest creation laying on the floor; Talloc often manipulated plant DNA and its subatomic structure to create new plant varieties. Through his doctoring of the plant's sub cellular makeup he was able to create many wonderful new classifications of plants that had the ability to propagate themselves; many types of these "engineered" plants lost the ability to reproduce with their inception. On Betazed, many people frowned on the genetic manipulation of plants, in favor of holistic or "natural" varieties.
+Tolkath reached out and grabbed the plant's container. He then attempted to steady the plant with his opposite hand only to be pricked by one of the magnificent purple thorns. Reittan jerked back his hand instinctively, but maintained his grip on the pot-like structure with the other. Tolkath placed the plant down and examined the wound. A purple thorn protruded from the wound, after removing the thorn, a drop of blood formed over the puncture wound and Reittan absent-mindedly stuck the wounded finger in his mouth.
+Tolkath decided he had seen enough for today and was going to take the PADD back to his office to re-process the journal logs, when he noticed that he was starting to get a headache. Instinctively he thought of ignoring the pain, but his gut reaction that had served him very well in the past, suggested that he go to sickbay. Tolkath didn't recall how he got there, but the thorn lay in the palm of his hand as the Counselor entered sickbay.
+Doctor Harris was the first to meet him. Her demeanor changed from pleasant to a worried expression on her face. "Counselor?" She already knew part of the answer to the question she was going to ask, as the Counselor's biorhythms were abnormal.
+"I have a slight headache," Reittan began, but then concluded. "It's getting worse, but strangely euphoric."
+Then Tolkath started noticing that his ability to think logically was beginning to get greatly inhibited. With one last push of thought, the answer became evident.
+The thorn.
+As the realization dawned on him, he quickly thrusted the thorn towards Doctor Harris, then blacked out.
+Already tapped into the computer's sensor system, Shannon had previously had called for assistance for the ailing Counselor, and had him placed on a biobed. Medical bay suddenly came to life with medical personnel surrounding the bed where Reittan lay.
+The sensors displayed what Doctor Harris had feared: cortisone levels elevated and were continuing on to reach toxic levels.
+"I need a hypospray of corticotropin! Stat!" Shannon commanded in her Australian accent to the attending nurse. A hypospray appeared and Shannon quickly calculated the necessary dosage. Pressing the hypospray to the Counselor's neck, it hissed and the battle over Tolkath's cortisone levels began. "Make sure to watch the amount of copper-levels in his blood . . . he is part Vulcan after all. It should give us another indicator as to what is happening."
+Regulating the cortisol levels was just buying time while the deeper roots to the problem could be solved. Shannon gave orders to the frequency and dosage of the hypospray to be administered, then left with the brilliant purple thorn in her hand.
+Shannon stared at the thorn, studying it using all of the sensors available in Medical Bay. She then cross-referenced all material available to her aboard the Republic and in the Starfleet database; a pattern emerged.
+----
+Leon looked at Doctor Harris, fascinated by the implications of this purple thorn's 'magic'. "It's comparable to an allergic reaction of the brain?"
+"Exactly. Instead of a histamine reaction, it's cortisol. The counselor is doing fine now and has returned to his quarters, despite his protests to remain with his friend. The only reason we can think of that Talloc has had as much damage to his brain as he did is because of his constant contact with the plant; which has been put under quarantine."
+Leon scratched his chin as he listened to Doctor Harris' report.
+"Doctor Ryda has begun repair on the myelin sheathing in Mister Morganth's brain. There has been a lot of damage, but the process looks promising. He'll be out of surgery within an hour."
+----
+Morganth was alone with Reittan in his section of sickbay. Tolkath looked at his friend pitifully.
+"I don't look that bad, do I?" Talloc verbally asked, half-smiling while laying in his bed. Morganth's pre-frontal cortex still lay hauntingly black on the bio-screen above him. The Lieutenant Commander couldn't take his eyes off of the darkened image.
+Morganth had been in a medically induced coma for the past few days while the effects of the surgery were being studied. He had been awake only fifteen minutes when his Counselor-friend had arrived. (Reittan would have been the moment he was awakened, except one of the officers with a histrionic personality had hindered his progress.) All of the bio scans and cognitive functioning batteries appeared normal; only some problems with short term memory.
+"Reittan," Morganth began with a new-found empathy for his friend, "Was it like this every time for you? Deafeningly silent? Empty? A holographic program? Icily still?"
+Reittan looked at Talloc and nodded in affirmation. "But it beat the madness . . . I guess." The emotional scars of years past flickered in the Counselor's eyes briefly, then were gone.
+Doctor Harris came to Morganth's bedside and pulled out a hypospray from her pocket. It was the final neurological stimulant that needed to be applied in order to restore his telepathic abilities following the surgery.
+"Are you ready?" she asked Morganth Talloc.
+"Very." came his reply.
+Shannon pressed the hypospray to his neck. With a hiss, a warm blanket of noise and life entered Talloc's mind. Morganth looked at his Doctor and a puzzled look appeared on his face.
+"Uh Reittan,. . . I'm not sure that stuff is working right. . ."
+Reittan looked at his friend in confusion for a moment, but as he realized that he and Morganth were the only two full telepaths on the ship, he smiled in amusement.
+"Morganth," the counselor motioned towards Shannon. "Meet Doctor Harris. Republic's sentient, autonomous, and fully-commissioned holographic physician."
 ----

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