Cats out of Bags

Posted on Mon Apr 2nd, 2018 @ 2:16pm by Aewia Larani & Akira Zhuri

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Sickbay

Normally, when something happened to Nexi, Aewia was usually alerted immediately since she was family and thus concerned for Nexi's safety, but in the chaos of Nexi's destruction of Sickbay it had briefly slipped the minds of the nurses; perhaps if Nexi had asked for Aewia as she often did then they would have remembered sooner, but Nexi's memories seemed to be snapping her further and further back today, and it wasn't until hours after Hermes' visit and assistance that one of the nursing staff remembered Aewia and sent someone to inform her.

And so, as the hour grew later into the evening, a chime sounded from Aewia's door.

Aewia already knew who it was and why they were there but was unsure if she should act surprised or distraught or just tell the truth about her own issues. Sighing, she relented and got up to press the door controls herself. Her new friend was lounging on the back of the sofa but looked up curiously as the door opened. "Hey. It's good to see you."

"Is it?" replied the random nurse that had been sent to inform Aewia of Nexi's condition. "Nexi's had another episode and she's in bad shape..." The nurse trailed off as she noticed the giant demonic feline lounging on the sofa. "You've done it too?! You're supposed to report to Sickbay to report any changes in your condition!" the nurse scolded.

"Yeah, about that..." Aewia glanced over at the demonic panther as it found the two of them uninteresting and returned to its nap. "I just woke up and I'm still trying to sort things out. I'll head there now but no promises if he'll follow me though."

The nurse sighed. "Fine," she said in reply; she had owned enough cats to know that one could never make a cat do anything they didn't want to do. With that, the nurse escorted Aewia to Sickbay. Upon entering, Aewia could see there was still some disarray from Nexi's blinking episode that was being cleaned up, but Sickbay was more or less back to business as usual. Through the observation window of the Isolation chamber, they could see that Nexi was resting comfortably for probably the first time in a long time since being infected, all thanks to Hermes.

"She's exhausted and resting, and we've got her hooked up to a line to replenish fluids and nutrients, so she should feel much better once she finally wakes," the nurse briefed Aewia as they passed by the room. "Hermes was able to suppress her abilitiy and gave her something that seemed to clear her head."

Another odd sight in Sickbay was the presence of Akira; not normally one to need the assistance of medical, she was seated at a console near the isolation chamber and seemed to be staring into nothingness as she ran complex calculations in her head.

"That's good at least." Aewia commented as the demonic cat slunk from seemingly nothing and hopped up onto a biobed, pretending that it was just coincidence that he was in the same room as Aewia and started cleaning one of his paws. Shaking her head at the sight of the panther, Aewia headed over to Akira and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Those are some complex calculations. I hate to interrupt, but how are you doing?"

The nurse let Aewia converse with Akira while she got the scanners ready for Aeiwa and the demonic cat. Although Akira did not immediately respond to the greeting, instead offering a very computer-like, "Standby," as she finished the current round of calculations and saved her progress. Then she seemed to snap to and blink rapidly as she regained her equilibrium.

"Apologies, Aewia, those calculations required my full attention," Akira said politely as she offered a warm smile. "I am doing well, thank you for asking. Have you come to visit Nexi? I'm sorry to inform you that she is currently resting."

Aewia pressed a hand to the observation window. "Yeah I see that. She's dreaming of her younger days. It seems her memories are all sorts of scrambled right now. But I'm here for another reason - it seems I'm further along than expected. I have a pet demon cat now."

"Oh my, that's not good," Akira stated. "It seems I will have to prepare another isolation chamber," she said with some sadness, especially since she was already preparing one for T'Pral. "Nexi was able to hold this off for so long, I wonder why you and T'Pral seem to be succumbing so much faster."

"I should be fine for a while, though prepping another chamber is a good idea. We'll be bringing the Commodore with us." Then Aewia realized she probably shouldn't have let that cat out of the bag as Enalia hadn't been informed of that command decision yet. Grinning a bit awkwardly yet maniacally, she turned to Akira. "Oh yeah, I can hear the thoughts of every biological and artificial entity in this solar system now. Farenia is far worse off than my sister, too, so she'll be in a stasis chamber when she's transferred."

"Goodness, that must be terribly distracting," Akira remarked. "Mr. Hermes left behind a device that is suppressing Nexi's abilities so that she can stay in place long enough to get some rest; that was what I was working on when you came, the Science and Math is beyond anything Federation knowledge is capable of understanding, but perhaps with enough study I can find a way suppress the intensity of your abilities," she offered.

"It is a bit distracting." Turning back to look at Nexi through the window, Aewia's voice took on a faraway, otherworldly quality to it. "It's like I'm all of those people... and yet none of them... The voices of even the deck plating whisper to me... The depths of the sun call out my name... telling me their secrets..." Suddenly Aewia's demon panther hopped off its biobed perch and sauntered over to her and nuzzled against her, breaking her from her trance. Giggling a bit, she gave the giant cat some scritches behind its ears. "And that's why you're here, right? To keep me grounded?"

Even the deck plating? It was then that Akira realized that Aewia had been aware of her calculations, a realization that Aewia could read her even though she was an artificial life form! This caused Akira to smile, as though it somehow affirmed what Hermes had said to her earlier. "You take good care of her while I work on a solution, Mr Kitty," Akira said cheerfully to the panther. "And I promise, we'll take good care of your master."

The panther looked up at Akira, blinked its six red eyes at her, yawned a big toothy yawn, and started purring with a deep throaty tone.

Aewia chuckled softly and pet her new friend some more. "Mister Kitty huh? I think that means he will. I think the medics are waiting for me now so I should probably get my black blood levels checked. Thank you Akira. Be sure to get some rest though. We don't need you wearing yourself out."

Akira smiled, but her brow was furrowed with concern. "I am trying, but there's so much to see to, sometimes it feels like there's never a moment's peace. At the moment the fatigue I feel is simply an emulation, but I will rest before it becomes real," Akira said in promise to Aewia.

"Ok but you have an entire department waiting for you to use them. Don't try to do everything yourself. And have someone check you over to make sure you're not pushing yourself too hard just in case." Aewia nodded once more and turned towards the waiting nurse.

"I am, and I will," Akira affirmed, then as Aewia departed to get scanned, Akira returned to her calculation; it had been a long road to get here and they still had so far to go...