The Other Side of Paradise

Posted on Mon Jul 3rd, 2023 @ 3:16pm by Lieutenant Commander Finley Chu & Commander Arianna Frost & Lieutenant Calderon Jarsdel & Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Ensign Nandi Chakma

Mission: Season 1 Interlude II (E5.5)
Location: Villa 17 | Temtibi Lagoon, Risa
Timeline: ID 6 - Following 'Seek Those Who Hide'

Ari finished instructions to Matija and turned around, noticing Akiva's return to the open center of the villa. She sighed and headed over. "Got Matija looking into the usual tourist traps, to see if they might have gone on a tour, or to one of the events or the local markets. I should hear from him soon. Cal and Nandi are hopefully getting dressed and should be out in a moment, I interrupted their private time. They can help us look for the others. So we just need to get Fin, hopefully she's not infected either. With a few more eyes, we should cover more ground."

Hand in hand with Nandi, Cal strode confidently to join the others, some ten minutes after Ari's interruption. His hair was wet, and he smelled of shower gel and deodorant, his overall demeanor somewhat fresh, clean and intrigued.

"Trouble in paradise - again - I take it," Cal stated rather than asked, his skillset gifting him more insight into the immediate situation than most. He looked from Akiva to Ari and back again, expression closed and private on all subjects but this one. "What's the most urgent problem, and how can we help?" Cal asked.

Ari sighed, "sorry to disturb your morning." She said to Cal and Nandi as they arrived, and gave them a sincerely apologetic look. Then she took a deep breath and continued, "NICK is missing and the ship is in blackout mode until they reboot a partition of Ferrofax, if they manage it. We have four potential MIA - Khaiel, Storr, Jaya and Sophie, the latter who was apparently kidnapped by Pakleds. We're trying to ascertain the locations of Mrazak, Rodi and Bao as well, we assume that the latter two are at the very least together. Rodi and Bao haven't been back since before day before yesterday, so they could potentially be MIA aswell, Khaiel and Sophie not back since day before yesterday, Storr and Jaya yesterday. They aren't responding to comms."

Cal took a moment to absorb all of that, along with the underlying sense of inner calm Ari now portrayed. Not relaxed as such, given the chaos and troubles happening all around them, but at least a couple of layers less stressed about certain, private matters. In the midst of everything else, that was a Good Thing. He nodded, raised an eyebrow at the mention of Pakleds, and avoided interrupting with words that didn't need to be spoken. Information gathering was an important part of figuring all of these situations out. Though, mostly, he simply wanted to spend time with Nandi and explore the planet so however they could resolve this swiftly and with as little mess as possible...

Frost took another breath before continuing, "as if that wasn't enough...along with Reggie, Ryland and Sophie, Teejay and Leah, Mrazak and who knows how many others have been infected with Psolium Septicus, the sex fungus. Leah and Teejay reported that they had a shared fevered dream with Ryland, Sophie, Mrazak and a few others. In this...dream...Mrazak reported that he is already quarantining, so he's at least in place somewhere. So, it's the four of us and hopefully Fin that we have to work with to find the others."

"I think that constitutes enough urgency." Arianna sighed and then the expression on her face turned into one of those 'aha!' moments. "That's what he was talking about..." her eyes focused on a fictional spot as the memory of Qurban's words flashed in her mind. "Bastard was right."

Well, that was unexpected, thought Cal, picking up on the mysterious undercurrent. He didn't ask, not here and now.

"First thing's first," Akiva said. "Someone needs to go to Finley's room. If she is cleared, then we will need her. Arianna and I will coordinate with Leah and Teejay to have everyone scanned for the... sex fungus infection." He steeled his jaw. He would not flinch at that awkward phrase. "And then we will attempt to get to the Phantom. One way or another, we need it back up and running, if only for sensors and transporters. If that fails, then we will be entirely dependent on a ground search." Casting a leery eye toward the hut where Ryland and Laena were being kept, Akiva said, "At this time, I am reluctant to involve the authorities, not until we have no other choice."

It was then that he saw Laena marching toward him. "Akiva... I need to talk to you immediately," she said. "Especially if there is an outbreak of some kind."

Akiva looked at her, then at the others. "Ari, get the medical tricorder and the protoplaster left behind by the EMH over to Leah and see if she can get readings from it. And I still want someone to get Finley. We'll meet back here in 10 minutes."

Looking around, Nandi decided that the task of getting Fin fell to her. Fortunately she had developed an earlier rapport with the intimidatingly stoic Intelligence officer. "Yes, sir," she said. After giving Cal's hand a parting squeeze, she went toward Finley's hut and sounded the chime.

This left Cal and Arianna standing where they were for a moment in awkward silence. At least on Ari's side. "Well that was...less awkward that everything else this morning." Words left Ari's mouth although as they did she realized she didn't quite know where she was going with them. She looked down at the tricorder and protoplaster that Akiva had given her and kicked herself into gear mentally.

Cal remained calmly stationary and quiet, feeling the emotions emanate from Ari. Considering his talk with both her and Akiva, the telepath had more than enough information to connect the dots, complete the jigsaw puzzle and understand her temporary discomfort. "Less awkward is definitely an improvement," he agreed, with a passively content expression on his face. "Let's do this," Cal stated, giving her permission to skip any further small-talk if Ari desired.

"Okay, Leah and Teejay first." She said, motioning for Cal to follow her. "They should have a list of needed supplies for us by now hopefully so we can get them sorted while we figure this shit out."

"Right beside you," confirmed Cal, stepping into place to complete their walking rhythm. "So, they're sick, quarantined and working?" He asked, intrigued at that combo as they crossed the short distance to the hut itself.

"With the shared dream component, they are our connection to Mrazak and Sophie at the very least." Ari replied, "and since they are quarantining, we need to get them supplies to make them more comfortable for the interim while we get them help and find the others." Ari added quietly as they walked up to the door and rang the buzzer, "thanks for last night, by the way. It definitely helped."

"Makes sense. And my pleasure," Cal returned, his voice soft as they waited for movement in response to their announced arrival.

This time, Teejay opened the door - the safety barrier still in place. His expression was carried on an ashen face with beleagured exhaustion coloured brightly with frustration.

"Oh, it's you," he stated, as if he'd expected someone else bearing gifts. "Yeah, we've got a list together," he continued, then turned to call behind him. "Leah! It's Ari and Cal!" Back to said named duo, Teejay scratched his left arm, then face, then neck, then right leg, then repeated the cycle of itch-seeking. "This really sucks," he muttered to himself. "How's Reggie, any news? Anyone else infected?"

"Going by the report from this morning, he's making very slow progress still." Ari replied, still unable to bury feelings of guilt and shame when she interacted with Teejay. Then she showed Teejay the protoplaster and the tricorder. "We managed to get this and get a baseline scan of Ryland. Not sure what the EMH said or did but, there should be data on there we can use to analyze."

Whatever animosity still existed between them was buried beneath grey features and frustration caused by the fungus. Teejay exhaled moodily at the ceiling, went through yet another round of scratching and then took a moment to consider the two pieces of equipment Frost was sharing. "Okay, good stuff," he confirmed. He kept his thoughts about Ryland to himself for now, that particular ongoing rant one Leah had to listen to.

Leah made her way over to Teejay's side, looking even worse for wear, PADD in hand, gloves on. "Alright, I'll transfer the list over to your tricorder, and you send me the readouts to my PADD. You guys will need the tricorder to scan the others for infection."

Arianna nodded and initiated the file transfer with Leah's PADD. "We know Ryland is for sure, it doesn't look like either one of us still here are. We still have to do a check on Fin, if Nandi's managed to find her. We're still waiting for word on the others. What worries me is Khaiel, well the others too, of course, but mostly him."

Leah looked up from the PADD, "why him?"

"He was last seen on the ship and then his trail goes cold. So we don't even know if he made it back planetside or if he went MIA in space." Ari sighed.

With the little he knew of Khaiel, Cal had been internally putting together a profile. "NICK is missing, right?" He said, assuming Ari's information was shareable with these two allies. "If his AI is gone, then I can't help thinking Khaiel went wherever NICK did. Since the AI is safe from the fungus, it has the feel of a calculated exit rather than an enforced one. To me," he added, simply.

"You think he'd just flee?" Teejay asked, his tone coloured with a little respect for the young officer. "Probably a good idea..." he added, with little amusement in his tone as he found new places he didn't even know itched. "So we're just running with the EMH?" He asked then, more keyed into the situation now by this discussion. "No medics about at all?" He figured he'd answered his own question there, so kept going. "We'll go through this data," Teejay confirmed. "If you see Ryland, tell him to fuck off from me."

Ari nodded, "will do. We'll funnel data to you as we get them, we'll scan ourselves next. Let us know if you need anything."

Leah sighed, "will do. Good luck, guys."

Before they could do more, however their commbadges went off.

Ari listened to it then looked over at Cal, "alright, we best get back to the others, we'll keep in touch." With a nod to Teejay and Leah, she motioned for Cal to follow her.

Teejay watched the telepath fall silently into step beside Frost and studied them silently for a moment or two. He wondered what it would be like to have access to the maelstrom of everyone else's thoughts and decided swiftly (and not for the first time) that this was a terrible idea. With a gruff non-verbal mutter, he then turned round and stormed back, deeper, into the room and hurled himself miserably on the bed.

Meanwhile, as he and Ari walked out of earshot of the hut behind them, Cal exhaled audibly. "Lot of emotion in that space," he said, simply.

"Oh yeah..." Ari sighed as they neared the others. "They'll work it out. Pup's good at smoothing feather's over."

---

Swimming in a sea is exhausting. Far more so than swimming in a pool. And Fin had done her fair share of it these last few days. Her slumber, more akin to a coma than a light snooze was. Her dream-scape was filled with images of her on a small 40 foot sail yacht. The silent noise of the sea slapping against the hull and the wind pushing against the sails was all that she experienced. Right up to the point that a young Ensign Chakma violently shook her awake.

"Commander! Commander? Are you all right?!" Nandi felt her superficial poise melt away when Fin was unresponsive. "People are missing and we all might be infected by some weird fungus and we need your help!"

Fin did not react well to being awakened abruptly by people shouting at her. Was it some form of post-traumatic stress? Probably. Was it a survival instinct from having to live around violent and unstable terrorists while pretending to be one of them? Very likely. It also resulted in Fin almost starting to beat the daylight out of the distressed junior officer now trying to wake her. Fin praised whoever prevented her from recognising Nandi before putting hands on her. "Slow down Nandi." Fin grunted as she blinked her eyes open against the bright light streaming in from the door. "Sleeping people don't understand shouty ensigns easily."

"Badi kosh ka samhar!" Nandi exclaimed in relief. "I'm so sorry, Commander. So much is going wrong and I feared that..." Turning bashful for her stupid assumptions, Nandi cleared her throat and started again. "Captain ben-Avram ordered me to get you. I'll just leave you to your privacy now."

"Thank you Nandi." Fin replied, still quite confused. But as the door closed, Fin threw the thin sheet off her and changed out of her sleepwear of choice into some functional and comfortable summerwear, shorts and a t-shirt. With a rubber band working around the ponytail she was forming, she walked into the common area. "So... what's going on here?" Fin asked, her question directed at Akiva.

"We have people unaccounted for, and it appears that whatever Reggie contracted is spreading to others," Akiva said. "We need to make sure none of us are infected, then find our people."

"And I take it none of the medical side are in shape to help?" Fin asked, more or less answering her own question. "Do we have any tricorders on hand?"

"We acquired a medical tricorder from the EMH, though it's now, eh, offline." Akiva coughed into the back of his hand before continuing. "Leah and Teejay are presenting symptoms, so it's likely they're infected. However, we're going to have them review scans of the contagion and see if we can get any idea what we're dealing with. And then..." Sighing, he went on. "... we figure out who among our people are AWOL or simply out of contact."

At that moment, every combadge, PADD, and other communication device linked to Starfleet datasphere chirped with an impending notification which declared the following announcement:

"Memorandum To: All Active Duty Starfleet Officers, Risa
Title of Memo: Mandatory Non-Urgent Medical Screening

It has come to light that a hereto benign infectious agent on the Risan surface has begun to show an upward trending curve towards widespread infection. Starfleet Medical would like to take this opportunity to inform all recipients of this message that the dangers posed by this infection are minor, and are of negligible effect.

However, given the rapid uptake of infection cases across the Risian surface, it would behoove Starfleet as a body to act in the best interests of the wider interstellar community. To that end, all senior officers of Commander rank and higher must report to their nearest Starfleet Medical facility for screening and administering anti-parasitic medications.

Starfleet Medical Office,
Risa Starbase
Office of Commodore Yoto"

Ari and Cal jogged over moments later, "well the cat's out of the bag." Frost said with a sigh, "we gave Leah and Teejay the data we got and they are building up a profile for us. If we have to go, we should scan ourselves quickly and send them the data before we go." She said, looking over at Akiva, Fin and Nandi.

"Agreed," Akiva said. He was more than ready to get out of there.

"What about us?" Nandi asked. "What should we do?"

"Right now the best place for anybody not on an active assignment is the Phantom," said Akiva, "so make that your first priority. Get back to the Phantom, help them get operational if needed, and then start getting our people up there until we have everything sorted out." Looking at Finley, he said, "We need you to locate Commander Qiao and Sergeant Kos as their skills may yet be required. As of right now, shore leave is suspended. We have work to do."

Arianna looked over at Cal, "make sure Ryland is kept isolated as a potential spreader, and Laena needs her ankle re-examined and get scanned for possible infection. The Captain and I will be going dark for the period while we are in the Medical Center so we'll touch base once we come back up." She opened up the tricorder and gave herself a quick scan, then started working on Akiva and the others present.

"If I'm reading this right, we're in the clear. I'm sending this to Leah and Teejay for analysis." Ari said before handing the tricorder over to Fin. "To scan Bao and Rodi, just in case they caught the bug somewhere too."

Shore leave is suspended Well, that hit hard, but purely internally. Cal's calm, neutral expression didn't change to match his internal emotion, though Nandi might have noticed the slight deepening of the lines between his brows, if she was looking his direction. The Shore Leave Dream was over before it had really started, but wasn't just the way his life perpetually travelled?

"So, get Ryland and Laena to isolation on the Phantom, under guard," Cal checked the orders for clarity. "And then - stay there or go hunting for Bao and Rodi?" He asked, taking his lead from Ari with regards using familiar names. He tapped the side of his head then, and quirked a half-smile. "Yell in my direction if you need a private channel," Cal noted, then, in the absence of any conflict between his assumption and the given orders, took his leave with Nandi.

"Off into the mountains I go." Fin groused as she turned back to her quarters to find something more suited to potentially hike into the mountains.