Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 11: Heart of the Sunrise
Scene 3: A Crowded Room
11.3
A Crowded Room
A female purple sat on the edge of a biobed in the U.S.S. Mako’s medical bay. She had not answered repeated questions, even though the universal translators were clearly programmed with her language. Readings from the biobed monitors indicated that her brain was processing and understanding the questions.
But from her thousand-yard stare, it seemed, at the moment, she just didn’t have any answers. No answer to who she was, where she was from, or how or why she had ended up occupying an escape pod that had been rigged with a primitive, but, for the craft it had to cover, effective cloaking device. From the examination of that pod, it was evident she had spent well over a week in it, occasionally breaching it to manually exchange the atmosphere instead of activating the pod’s life support system.
Pel and Dr. Moorman had stopped asking her questions and were engaged in conversation as they both observed the purple-furred alien. Her skin was a purple so dark that it generally registered as black.
Lucian Moorman was an unusually handsome, middle-aged man with thick, dark hair, dark skin and unusually dark eyes. A native of Grenada on the southern tip of Spain, he was of such mixed heritage it was impossible to place him as African, European, or Middle Eastern - he was the optimal blend of all three. Three solid pips on his blue uniform, indicated that he carried the rank of commander.
Pel had long befriended the U.S.S. Mako’s chief medical officer. He was quiet, thoughtful and slow to form conclusions.
“I don’t think 2 weeks surviving in an escape pod did that to her,” Pel opined.
“I have learned a lot about their physiology over the past month,” said Dr. Lucian Moorman. “But I don’t know enough about the psychology of their species to rule that out.”
Pel nodded her head at that. “Perhaps, but I’m thinking it’s whatever drove her into that pod…”
Dr. Moorman nodded. “Perhaps. I don’t mind saying that I am very far out of my depth here. This is a job for a psychiatrist and this ship does not have one. Dr. Uto and his team will be better prepared to help her. Betazoid medical training does not separate out psychiatry and psychology as separate disciplines. The health of the mind is blended into every health system and discipline. More than occasionally, I envy them that training.”
“Have you thought about availing yourself of it?” Pel asked.
“I read their papers,” Moorman responded. “But I don’t qualify for their training programs. I’m not telepathic. I’m stuck in here.” He rapped his head lightly with his knuckles.
It was at this moment that Dr. Tentis Uto walked in. Lucian Moorman and Pel both started laughing. “You chose just the moment to walk in. You must have heard us…”
The bald betazoid doctor managed a look of complete innocence. “Were you talking about me? I’ve been practicing inner silence. Premiere T’Eln is helping me get off the sog.”
Uto dragged up a chair and sat next to Pel, looking at the female purple sitting on the edge of a biobed. She had not moved and her focus had not changed.
“Has she said anything? Do you have any idea who she is?” Uto asked.
Both Moorman and Pel shook their heads. A glass with traces of water sat next to a small pile of what appeared to be crackers and meat cubes on a table next to the bed. “I got her to drink a glass of water when she first sat up, but she hasn’t eaten anything,” Moorman said. “She hasn’t said anything, although the biobed readouts indicate she is successfully processing our speech. She understands what we're saying.”
Uto turned his large, dark eyes on the small, purple-furred patient. “Hello. I am Doctor Tentis Uto. I am not going to reach into your mind. I’m just listening to your surface thoughts. I have to actively shut them out when I don’t want to hear them. Can you tell me who you are?”
For a brief moment, the small, black-skinned alien made eye contact with the U.S.S. Beagle’s chief medical officer, then returned to staring into the distance.
Uto’s eyebrows went up and his eyes widened. He turned to his colleague and to the minuscule ferengi who had become so widely trusted within the task force.
“Wow are there a lot of people in there…”
11.3