Bat Goo Blues

Posted on 04 Aug 2018 @ 3:39pm by Staff Warrant Officer William Griffin & Commander Jayla Kij

1,264 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Search Begins
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD2, 1035 Hours

Griffin had to admit, sickbay was sounding better and better with every step that he took towards the place. On the journey from the Deck Boss' office on deck 9 to sickbay on deck 6, the tingling in his right leg had first grown to full-on pins-and-needles, as if he'd been sitting on his leg for an hour, to nothing, literally nothing. His right leg had gone entirely numb from the waist downwards and while not having the tingling was good, it was making walking very interesting. His right eye, sadly, had not gone numb and was burning like someone had rubbed Preenian Hajjlaran in it. Keeping the eye closed helped marginally, but didn't help his balance.

He garnered a few looks, that amused, slightly concerned, slightly guilty expression that people got when they saw something that was kinda funny but shouldn't be, as he stumped along the corridor, trying not to fall over, curse aloud, trip over anything, or a combination of the three. His features were set in a mask of determined concentration, spoiled somewhat by the tears streaming down the right side of his face, his one functional eye focused on the deck in front of him.

Sickbay loomed large, at long last, and he hobbled into the room. "I neet thum Hellf hee," he announced, newly discovering that the right side of his mouth had apparently stopped working somewhere along the way. An unfortunate dribble of drool found it's way into his beard and onto his uniform.

Brow furrowed in concern, Jayla turned to see who had attempted to speak. Spotting the state Griffin was in, she gasped and hurried to help him to the nearest bio bed, but Nurse Rory Graham beat her to it. The large male nurse was a better match for Griffin anyway; Jayla would have done nothing more than fall over if she'd attempted to support him. "What happened?" she asked, sounding far more concerned than was strictly necessary.

"I god shum spash bad gudsh on me." Griffin tried to explain, as the big nurse helped him over onto a bio-bed. "Sharded wid shum dinglin in ma leg, now ebuydin on ma ride shide nod wukin."

Though she didn’t understand what he’d said, Jayla nodded and pulled out her tricorder as Graham helped Griffin into the bio bed. Something about goo and numbness? Nerve damage for sure, but from what? “I need a blood sample,” she told Graham. “Get toxicology on it right away.” She scanned over her tricorser readings. “What kind of goo?” she asked Griffin. “Do you know where it came from?”

"Spash bad gudsh!" Griffin clamped down hard on the urge to yell, not being understood was extremely frustrating and, if he was honest with himself, there was a growing fear about how his body was shutting down. He tried again, talking as slowly and clearly as he could manage. "Spash. Bat. Gutsh. Fidelsh blaud dem in, ui shod one an id eshpladed all obel me." He could hear how unintelligible he sounded, it wasn't helping.

"A bat!" said Jayla, latching onto something she could understand. "You shot it and it splashed all over you? Is this bat still around? We might be able to test it to find out what's in it that's interfering with your nervous system.

"I dunno," Griffin shrugged with one shoulder, pleased that he had at least communicated one part of his garbled message. Getting the rest across was going to be hard. "Ui babulished... baa-bul-ished... deshdloeed 'em. Thince... thi-ensh, mighd shdill hab sum. They wel spash... spa-aa-sh... god dammid... they wel prom oudshide the ship!"

"You destroyed them?" she guessed. "Might still have..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "Graham!" she called to the nurse who had been helping her. "Is toxicology on that blood sample, yet?"

"They said they'd have an answer in five minutes," he replied. "They put everything else on hold for us. Even shut down other tests to divert energy to our tests."

"Awesome," replied Jayla. "You didn't intimidate them, did you?"

"What me? Never!" he said with a grin and a wink.

"Okay," she continued, turning back to Griffin. "So you destroyed them and... and what? And threw them outside?" She loaded a hypo-spray with a simple medicine typically used to repair nerve damage in stroke victims. There was little chance of it having a negative effect and a good chance it would help. Once she had pressed it to his neck, she loaded the hypo-spray with a neutralizer just in case and picked up her tricorder to monitor him again.

A tingling, almost burning sensation spread from Griffin's neck up and down his right side. There wasn't any pain but the sensation was odd, like a hundred thousand hyposprays all going off all at once. Nothing happened after that for a few moments, and then his right eye stopped stinging. Experimentally, he tried opening it and was rewarded by a watery image of the doctor. He wondered... "Well," he tried, a grin spreading as he realized, "I reckon that's done somethin' good!"

"Good," replied Jayla. "Seems to be a simple neurotoxin. I'm going to wait on toxicology for a more exact diagnosis, though. There might be something better than what I just gave you. Now what were you trying to say?"

"I was trying to tell you that they were space bats." Griffin grinned at the doctor, flexing his right fingers as sensation came back into them. "The fighters sucked a whole bunch a 'em up and brought 'em into the maintenance hangar, one or two of 'em was still kicking and when we shot one, it's damn guts exploded all over me. We washed it all off with the sonic washer, but there must've been enough time for whatever poison was in that gunk to do the job."

"Potent stuff, then," deduced Jayla. "Although, that's usually the case with neuro toxins; just a drop will incapacitate you. I'll have to see if there are any samples left on the flight deck for toxicology to study. And probably zoology, too."

"Great. More tests." Griffin deadpanned, his gruff voice didn't lend itself well to comedy, though, so he added a grin to add to the impression. "Honestly, thanks for helping me, ma'am, I really appreciate it, but I have spent way too much time in this room in the last twenty-four hours."

"Don't worry," she replied with a grin as a nurse handed her a PaDD with the toxicology report. "We won't need to keep you. That blood sample will have given us everything we need to know about how it affects humanoids. See, there?" she added, scrolling through the report. "Simple neurotoxin. Just as I suspected." She hadn't given him enough medicine, though, for the amount of toxin in his system, so she loaded another hypospray and pressed it to his neck again. "That should do it," she said. "I won't make you stay here overnight if you promise to wear a bio-monitor. That way, we'll know if anything else goes wrong."

"That sounds like a good deal to me, ma'am." Griffin took the cue to slide off the biobed and stand. There was a bit of hesitation as he tested his right leg, but found it stable and strong as if nothing had happened.

"And of course, come back immediately if you feel strange," she instructed.

"Thanks, ma'am." Griffin offered the doctor a smile and then took his leave, deciding to head for his quarters for a change of uniform, at least, before going back to work.

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