~~CMO’s Office~~

Corbett’s mood was getting darker by the minute as he kept sifting through Commander Fraiser’s medical files. The man’s physical exams and laboratory work ups were clean, too clean, which meant they had been altered.  Where were his academy entrance physical and psychological profile results? These were standard records that should have been uploaded into the medical database of the ship and easily accessible to the ship’s physician.

The door chime went off breaking into Corbett’s thoughts. “Enter.” He yelled.

Frank Merrick stepped into the small office and handed him a printout. “Here’s the report you wanted, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

Corbett read through it quickly, shaking his head. “You’re sure about this.”

“I ran it three times to confirm.” Merrick said.

“Alright I’ll be out shortly.” Corbett said.

“Should I give him a dose of Kelotane?” Merrick asked

“Ye…” Corbett thought about it a moment and decided against the treatment. “No not yet.”

“But doc you saw the report, his body has high levels of Omicron radiation, levels far above any safe tolerance parameter.”

“Frank just do as I say without questioning me for once.” He said, his voice harsh with the frustration he felt.

“Yes sir, you’re the doctor.” Merrick said as he quickly left.

“Damn it!” He shouted tossing the report onto his desk. Hitting the Comm button, he said. “Alika I need you to get me Star Fleet Medical.”

“I’m sorry, but Ensign Redlin isn’t on duty sir.” A male voice calmly stated.

“Well who the hell are you?” Corbett asked now even more irritated.

“Crewman Baxter, sir.” The man answered.

“Baxter, Baxter.” Corbett mumbled thinking out loud. “Laceration to the right side of the face?”

“Yes sir that’s me and thank you, the wound looks great. You can’t tell where I was injured unless you look close. I really owe you one.” The Communications mate answered

“I’m glad to hear it son, now can you return the favor and get me Captain Samuel Rawl at Star Fleet Medical.”

“I’ll try sir, I believe Ensign Redlin was able to reach Earth by bouncing a signal off a communication buoy at New Darwin. I’ll try and do the same with one from Forrest Outpost. It’ll take a few minutes.”

“Good man, patch it into my office when you get through. Corbett out!”

Fifteen minutes later Corbett was still pacing the small office wondering just what in the hell he was dealing with when the comm. unit sounded.

“Baxter did you get him?” He asked hitting the button.

“Yes sir, I’m putting Dr. Rawl through now, but the video signal might be weak as I had to bounce it around a lot.”

“You’re a good man Mr. Baxter.’ Corbett said.

A moment later the computer screen on his desk was filled with the grainy image of an older man in Star Fleet issued scrubs.

“Stile, I see you still refuse to take that damn hat off?” The man said.

“I find that it adds to my mystique sar,” Corbett said with a small warm smile, but quickly sobered. “Sam this isn’t a social call. I got something going on out here I’ve never seen before.”

“Okay so what would make the great Dr. Corbett call on his ageing mentor for advice?” Sam asked.

“I just found some kind of implant in the base of a patient’s neck.” Corbett replied.

“Why is that so surprising, implants aren’t that uncommon these days.” Sam answered

“Ones like this one are Sam. This device is really sophisticated and like nothing I’ve ever seen. This isn’t something that’s even within our technological grasp and I can tell you it isn’t within the Vulcan’s or Denobulan’s either.”

“All right Stile you have my attention, so tell me about this implant.”

“I found it by accident when I imaged the patient’s head and neck and I almost overlooked it. What was so surprising is that this thing acted in self defense. It… well I know this might sound crazy, but it hid from the Imager. I mean it actually changed its properties so that it only showed up as an opaque shadow. When I used the hand scanner it interfered with its beam.”

“So I take it you tried to get at it surgically?” Sam asked amused.

“Yeah I did try to surgically remove it and that’s what has me on this call to you. This implant uses some kind of nanotechnology far above anything I’ve ever seen, even in the laboratory. I don’t even know where to begin telling you what I found.” Corbett said his voice frustrated.

Dr. Rawl realized that his former student was not joking with him and he could see the frustration in his eyes.  He knew Stile was having difficulty telling him all the information he needed to convey, so he took the one route that had always worked. “Dr. Corbett medical report if it’s not too much trouble.” He said treating Stile like a young resident in training.

Corbett’s eyes narrowed a bit, but he immediately began his narrative.

“Patient is a 29 year old human male who presents with behavioral and mood changes over the past 48 hours. Patient was noted to have at least one seizure with a postictal period lasting approximately 8 minutes. Post seizure, patient went into neurogenic shock and was immediately stabilized. Per protocol a toxicology screen and routine drug test were preformed. Patient was transferred to the imaging chamber where an opaque shadow was seen, extending from cervical vertebrae 3 to the occiput. The scan also showed several more shadows throughout the body following the dorsal root ganglion pathways.

Upon closer inspection it was noted that the shadow seemed partially encapsulated with areas of sclerosis indicating that the device had been in the body for a significant period of time. Scanning was unable to penetrate the shell of the device so a surgical resection was preformed.

A 7cm surgical incision was made through the posterior triangle of the neck from the spinous process of cervical vertebrae 4 to the base of the skull. Tissue, muscle and fashia were resected revealing an 9cm by 4cm metallic ovoid shaped device.

Upon inspection device was shown to be almost 90% encapsulated in an impermeable ring of what was later to be confirmed as Omicron Radiation. Device had established neural connections through nanobot created pathways to the reticular formation. Pathways were also confirmed to be encapsulated in an impermeable sheath of Omicron Radiation.

Microscopic inspection of surrounding tissue showed nanobot incursion through the opening of the damaged Omicron radiation ring. All nanobot activity in the device and the surrounding tissue was nonexistent indicating that the nanobots had been deactivated.

“Okay you can stop now.” Sam said then added. “I think I’m getting the picture. What do you make of this impermeable ring of Omicron radiation?”

 “I think it was a failsafe feature and was supposed to act like a fence and keep these nanobots penned in.” Corbett replied.

“That’s incredible, what made you come to that conclusion?” Sam asked.

“Since the implant was only partially encapsulated I realized that the radiation ring had ruptured and radiation had leaked into the surrounding tissue. As I said I found nanobots in the tissue outside the capsule, but they were inactive or dead, I don’t know what else to call it.”

“You said the patient had behavioral and mood changes before the seizure. Dou you think that was because of the nanobot inactivity?” Sam asked.

“No I don’t think so, I’m almost positive it was the rupture and subsequent radiation exposure that caused the problem.” Corbett answered.

“Stile you’ve seemed to have covered all your bases and have got this under control, so what’s the real reason you called me?”

“Because I’m unsure of what to do here Sam, that’s why I called. I really believe that this radiation keeps these nonobots in check. I’m worried that if I treat this patient for radiation sickness I’ll shut down the failsafe mechanism on the other implants and these things will be running unchecked throughout his body, doing God knows what. I want you to see if you can find out what these things are and how I can safely treat this young man.”

“Alright Stile I’ll see what I can dig up around here.”

“Sam there’s something else.”

“With you there always is.” Sam said smiling.

“The patient’s name is Commander Ian Fraiser.” Corbett said then added. “I also need you to dig into the Fleet Medical Database, I think his records have been altered and I need to know when and why.”

“Given what you’ve told me I’m not suprised. However, to alter medical records in any real way means it had to be done from here. Now I see the real reason you called me. I’ll do my best to get to the bottom of this; however, this type of querying will need to be covert and may take some time.” Sam said. “ In the meantime Stile promise me you won’t…”

“Stile he’s seizing again, get out here now!” Frank Merrick shouted to the CMO’s office interrupting Dr. Rawls

“Got to go Sam, get back to me as quick as you can.” Stile said as he broke the connection and rushed out the door.

<TBC>

Stile Corbett, MD

CMO

NX-06 Meridian