Star Trek: Theurgy

Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

January 24, 2025, 07:37:31 AM

[Ensign Sash Kreshkova | Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2] @Dumedion @Ellen Fitz

Two figures disappeared from the Erudite and materialized in the sickbay aboard the Theurgy. 

One was a young woman - who looked little more than a girl.  Her green hair was matted against her head in places.  Her skin was lacerated in at least four places - her right forearm, her left cheek, across her torso, and her left calf.  Those were the larger gashes.  But several smaller wounds showed here and there across her body, almost like someone had cut her open and used what was left of her as a dart board - only instead of darts, they were throwing scalpels.  The gashes and cuts - which had been clean at the time of their infliction were no longer so.  Some were older than others.  Many were dark red and, if someone had cared to reach out, would be hot to the touch.   The rudimentary medical facility on the Erudite had tried to clean and close the gashes and other incisions, but something that the Scion had used seemed to prevent them from easily being healed.

The other was a half-transformed figure who appeared stuck somewhere between a human and a wolf.  The figure had the head of a wolf, and a good part of the body was covered in fur, but the rest of him or her - it was hard to tell - was skin just like a humans.

Both figures were mercifully unconscious - whether because of the extent of their injuries or because they had been sedated was not readily apparent.  But the younger of the two could be heard murmuring addled expressions.  

In her mind Sashenka was fumbling through a hedge maze.  She was hemmed by large bushes on every side.  Around every corner lurked a potentially deadly situation.  One time, she raced around a corner to find a Tal-Shiar operative who pointed a disruptor at her.  She turned tail quickly and ducked, but the disruptor cut across her abdomen.  The operative took off after her.  So she tried to make several quick turns to evade the operative, but she could hear him searching for her.  He even called her by name.  “Sasch… You know you can’t get away.  There are only so many places to hide.” 

The green-haired woman kept running.  Left, right, right, straight for a little while, then left again.  The longer she ran, the slower she got.  Just being upright seemed to sap her energy.   While she didn't hear the voice of the Romulan, she heard some rustling in the hedges which seemed to cut through some of the fatigue and urge her on.  When she turned the next corner, she saw a different sight - her friend Tria … the one she had taken her trip to Vulcan with. 

"Tria!" Sash cried out, rushing to her friend and giving her a hug.

"Sash?  Where'd you go?" the green-haired woman's friend gently moved her to arm's length as she studied the Russian's face.

"I ... I vas kidnapped, Tria."

“I’ve been looking for you," the Trill said as if she hadn't even heard what Sash said.  "ya know, your dad is going to kill me if I don’t make sure you get back on time.”

"I vas kidnapped," the pilot repeated.  "I vas taken by zhe Tal-Shiar."

"Yes," a voice behind both girls said.  "She was taken by me."

Sasch spun sideways, to turn and face the voice, but as she did, a disruptor blast narrowly missed her.  Instead, it hit Tria squarely on her sternum, and her friend disintegrated before her eyes.  It only took a split second before Sash was on the move again, but during that split second, another disruptor blast grazed her thigh.

Sash cried out and stumbled.  It took a lot of her strength to push herself up and get moving again, but when she looked back, she couldn’t see the Romulan.  She took a moment and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes and then removed them thinking maybe she would see something different.  But it was just her again - her and the hedges.

But a loud rumbling sound began.  It seemed to be far off, but steadily growing nearer.  Sash couldn’t tell if it was a large animal, or a machine, or something else.  However, with the absence of any immediate danger, she sat down and leaned back against one of the hedges.  As she did, something grabbed her from behind and fastened her wrists together behind her back.  The green-haired pilot squirmed away from the hedge, afraid of what would happen next.  Was something going to emerge and restrain her further?

But as she looked on, the hedge was just a hedge.  The rumbling, however, continued to grow louder.  Sasch pushed herself to her feet.  Between her injuries and her hands being tied together, she was less than steady on her feet.  She tried to worm her hands out of the restraints as she moved away from the direction of the quickly crescendoing noise.   As she scrambled along, she stumbled into the hedge, and a sharp branch cut her across her cheek, leaving a long, deep gash.  A cry escaped her lips, but her heart - more than anything else - urged her on - and promised her an eventual respite.

The green-haired woman continued to weave her way through the corridors of hedges.  Every decision was random.  Left, then left, then right, and left.  Each bend looked like the last and the next.  There was no telling them apart, but the rumbling was growing louder, she wasn't sure how long it would be before it overtook her, and that fear pushed her forward.  This time, however, when she rounded another corner, she came face-to-face with the Scion.  He loomed over her with a wicked, mirthful grin. 

"Hello again." The tone of his voice stopped her in her tracks - as though with that one instrument, his voice, he was able to paralyze her.   The mirthful laugh he unleashed was more of a threat than anything else.

Unable to move, Sash's eyes flashed with defiance.  "Leave me be!" she ordered. 

"Why should I do that?" the Scion asked.

"Because somezhing is coming to get you.  Can't you hear it?"  Sasch said, narrowing her eyes to slits.  The pilot had no idea what the sound was and if it meant his destruction, her annihilation, or both, and she was determined to take advantage of any tool at her disposal.

"Do you think you frighten me?" As he asked the question, the menacing smile fell from his face and was replaced with a grimace of unmitigated hatred. In his left hand, he held out a strange instrument.  He depressed a small nodule on the side of the tool and a jet of light flew out of it and cut the young woman’s arm.  

Unwilling to give him the satisfaction of crying out as the firey incision tore at her arm, she managed to keep her response to a barely audible whimper.

"The sound is coming closer." She threatened.  "Can't you hear it?"  She glared back into his eyes insolently.  "And It's not coming for me," she said with more confidence than she felt.

But the creature loomed above her, paying her comment no heed.“I haven’t yet decided.” The Scion’s grin widened into an evil smile that split his face in two. 

“Haven’t decided what?” Sash's voice threatened a growl.

“If I should make your death quick or draw the elegant agony out and allow you to suffer for a great while.”

With her wrists restrained beneath her, all the Russian could do was jut her chin out.  “Who says it's you who gets to choose?  Maybe I von’t let you take me?”

He held up his tool again and, this time, pressed a different button, and from the hedges all around, Sash shot out little pieces of metal which cut into her skin and then, once they had embedded themselves, simply melted away.  The soon-to-be pilot fell to one knee and cried out as each stylus seared into her skin.  It took nearly a full minute for her to catch her breath after the last barrage.  This time, she had no energy left to rail against the villain.  Her will was nearly gone.  The noise had grown to deafening levels and was almost on top of them.  Maybe it would consume them all.  Maybe, her pain would be gone. 

“Little one,” another voice just behind her made her jump back to her feet.  Sash swung around just in time to see Ehfva and to hear her say, “Run!”

Ehfva growled and rammed herself into the Scion, momentarily sending him sprawling, but by this time, the rumbling was overhead.  Sasch saw the Scion burst into flames.  She closed her eyes, awaiting the awful end, but instead, she and Ehfva were appeared on two beds in a bright ward of a Starfleet ship.

Sash’s eyes flew open, and her loud scream rent sickbay’s bustling interior.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #1 – February 03, 2025, 10:49:47 AM

Many years ago...

[Ehfva Feynri | Personal Abode | Okashii Atama | Vulpinian Space ] @Dree  @Dumedion

Ehfva's ears lowered, tail tucking between her legs, as her grandmother's tongue continued to swipe over the top of her head. It was a mixed gesture, one of admonishment and encouragement. Sitting across the fire pit was her grandfather, his deep amber eyes watching his mate as she tended to the youngest member of their household.

"Why did you hesitate?" His voice rumbled with his advanced years when he finally spoke, breaking the thick silence that hung over the room like a heavy canopy.

"I couldn't see," Ehfva replied, "at least, not clearly. And when I finally could, it was too late." She dropped her gaze to the earthen floor, ashamed. It was her fault their clan had less to eat this day.

Her grandmother's snout tucked under hers, forcing Ehfva's head up, her gaze connecting. "When you are in doubt, you should be still, and wait; when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage. You did well, Ehfva. So long as mists envelop you, be still; be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists."

Ehfva glanced over to her grandfather and again lowered her ears when she felt his gaze penetrate into the deeper truth of why she'd failed on the hunt.

"You were not committed to the hunt." He spoke the truth without harshness, waiting for Ehfva to nod confirmation. "Ehfva," he allowed a pensive silence after her acknowledgment, "whatever you do in life, do the very best you can with both your heart and mind, and if you do it that way, the Power of the Universe will come to your assistance if your heart and mind are in Unity." Ehfva nodded, already feeling comforted and ready to try again another day. "When one hunts, one must be responsible because all of creation is related. And the hurt of one is the hurt of all. And the honor of one is the honor of all. And whatever we do effects everything in the universe. If you do it that way- that is, if you truly join your heart and mind as ane- whatever you ask for, that the way it's Going to be."

Ehfva gave her grandmother's snout a quick lick before padding around the firepit and repeating the gesture with her grandfather.

"I vow never to divide my heart and mind again. I want to live in unity."

Present day...

[ Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2]

The human scream ripped Ehfva from her medicated slumber. Alertness jolted through her ravaged veins, sending the partially transformed Vulpinian's arms out as if seeking to grab hold of whatever was threatening her. When she grasped air and nothing else, Ehfva's eyes opened, blinked shut against the brightness of the lights overhead, then opened again. Without having to look around, Ehfva could tell they were no longer on the Erudite. The smells and sounds were different.

She quickly recognized the source of the scream, Sash, and without bothering to note if there were any others in the room, Ehfva immediately began the the healing chant she'd taught Sash when they'd been prisoners, hoping the sounds would calm the woman down.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #2 – February 16, 2025, 08:02:58 PM

[LT Arven Leux | PCU, Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | The Ranger] Attn: @Dree @Ellen Fitz
[Show/Hide]

For all his faults – which Arven was dutifully aware of, (thank you very much) – he had always strived to never allow arrogance or apathy to be counted among them. Sure, he could appear that way, especially to engineers that refused to listen to common sense, or…just idiotic patients in general, but that was all just a coping mechanism. To do his duty, to enable the necessary compartmentalization to preserve his own sanity, he had to maintain that distance; it was a hard lesson learned a long time ago – otherwise, every loss, every failure…it would all add up and cripple him with doubt, or worse. What good would he do then?
 
Some called him an asshole for that…detachment. Some questioned his “bedside manner”. Arven questioned it too, in the rare moments of self-reflection he was afforded, but those moments came and went, and in the end, he always managed to shrug and soldier on; because his way of working worked – so far, at least. So when the Erudite survivors were beamed aboard and flooded Sickbay with a fresh host of casualties, Arven didn’t panic; he didn’t gripe, or grumble – he didn’t feel a torrent of horror or pity or allow their trauma to affect his ability to do what he needed to do.

Work the patient, not the circumstance.

Even if the why’s and whyfore’s could be easily deducted, (given the nature of the mission, where most of them had been, and with whom); Arven refused to speculate on the horror’s some of them had obviously been through. He refused to allow himself to feel anger at the grossly unethical maltreatment suffered; the abuse, the physical traumas, but most of all – and this was particularly difficult to countenance – the terrible mental wounds inflicted which would likely take years to heal.

If they ever heal at all, the Doctor grumbled darkly after sedating yet another patient. “Get this one to the ward,” he nodded to a nurse over his shoulder. “Hourly checks only, just make sure his levels stay stable until we can fit him in for surgery to take those monitors out.” Arven moved on as he spoke, already scanning the next bed; a Bolian, twitching with nervous tremors, his eyes blank and staring at nothing.

“What’s your –“ Leux began to ask, when a high pitched shrill pierced the groans and soft, whimpering cries around him. He half turned over his shoulder to the outburst and witnessed a young-looking woman - human by appearance, with emerald hair – being comforted by another patient, which just happened to have the body of a female but the head of a grey wolf.

“I got him, go,” Dr. Pax appeared out of nowhere, in a blur of copper locks and oddly pungent perfume.

Arven snorted quietly to clear his olfactory senses, then approached the odd looking couple with what he hoped was a reassuring appearance. “My name is Arven, this is the Theurgy,” he explained over the wolf-lady’s quiet chanting. “I’m here to help you. Is it all right if I run a scan,” he asked, even as he was already passing a tricorder over both. “I need you to return to bed please,” he added to the chanter quietly. “What are your names? Does any place hurt more than anywhere else?”

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #3 – February 24, 2025, 05:10:55 AM

[Ensign Sash Kreshkova | Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2] @Dumedion @Ellen Fitz

As the scream ripped through her lungs, Sasch’s arms started flailing around looking for something of which to take hold.  Her eyes were working, but didn’t seem to be connected to what her arms were doing, but once they felt human arms, the scream died on her lips, and her eyes were able to focus on the face in front of her.  The head of a wolf on the body of a woman didn’t seem to upset her in the least.  In some ways, it was eerily comforting. The rhythmic chanting also felt familiar.

But her ease was suddenly interrupted as another person came into view.  He was a very tall, Asian-looking Trill.  If Sasch saw the Starfleet uniform, it didn’t register with her, and she tried to use her feet to scoot herself away from him, but her momentary strength had evaporated all but leaving her limp.

“My name is Arven, this is the Theurgy,” he explained over the wolf-lady’s quiet chanting. “I’m here to help you. Is it all right if I run a scan,” he asked, even as he was already passing a tricorder over both. “I need you to return to bed please,” he added to the chanter quietly. “What are your names? Does any place hurt more than anywhere else?”

He asked about their names….Everything in her head felt disjointed.  She knew her name.  She did…what was it?  Before she could gather her thoughts and figure things out, “Sasch,” fell from her lips.  She hadn’t expected the words, but as they escaped her mouth, memories came flooding back.  “Kreshkova.”  As she said her name, she realized that the man in front of her was in a Starfleet uniform.  She felt less apprehensive - though not yet relaxed - at that awareness. “Ensign Sashenka Kreshkova.  I vas assigned to TacConn.”

The more she talked, the more her situation struck her.  “My parents…You need to let my parents know I am alive.  Admiral Kreshkova….please!”  She managed to barely push herself up onto her elbows only for a second before she collapsed back onto the biobed nearly gasping for breath.  There were too many things going through her mind.  She … Ehfva … they had made it.  They had been rescued.  But her parents had to be in turmoil of the worst kind.  She had been kidnapped, rescued, and overtaken by their nefarious captures.  Her parents had no way of knowing she was alive.

But as her mental faculties had returned to her, she became very aware of how much she hurt, and she groaned loudly, closing her eyes against the pain.  “I hurt … all over,” she barely managed.  “I do not know exactly vhat zhey did to me.”   As she spoke, she realized that she had seen Ehfva, and her eyes swept around until they found the Vulpinian.  “Vhat zhey did to us.  Ve vere two of zhe last vones left.”

Sasch took note that Ehfva was still caught between forms, but the pilot could see the care that the Vulpinian had for her.  She knew that without her companion, she never would have made it through their ordeal.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #4 – March 13, 2025, 03:14:27 PM

[ Ehfva Feynri | Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2] @Dree @Dumedion

Only when the doctor made his presence known, directing her to return to her biobed while brandishing the tri-corder, did Ehfva relinquish her hold on the younger human female. With weary steps, Ehfva shifted back to her bed and leaned against it, needing a moment before she could hoist herself atop it again. She closed her eyes to collect herself as she listened to Sasch introduce herself, likewise requesting that her parents be informed of her rescue. It would hurt to talk again, just as it’d hurt to talk on the station and ship during their rescue, but it was necessary.

Catching Sasch’s look, Ehfva did her best to respond with a reassuring smile, though it looked more like a spasming snarl. The medics onboard that Savi ship had done much to help stave off the worst of the pain of being in this partially transformed state though they’d not been able to help her shift into one for or another. But what they had done allowed her to speak more clearly, though still with discomfort, when she followed Sasch’s introduction with her own.

“Ehfva Feynri. Civilian volunteer, mate to Chief Petty Officer Keokuk.” She took a steadying breath before continuing. Now was not the time to dwell on her loss. “And Sasch is correct, Doctor Leux; what few of us were brought aboard your ship is all that’s left of the Cayuga.” Ehfva waved a hand-paw over her body. “I don’t think you can help me aside from helping me with pain. If the Savi who were aboard that ship that rescued us truly are allies, I believe only they can reverse the damage their malevolent counterparts did to me.”

Looking past the doctor to the rest of the sickbay, the rapid movements of the nursing staff as they sought to treat the wounded, Ehfva frowned.

“If you can relieve my pain,” she lifted a shaking hand-paw. “And something to stop the shaking, I would like to help. I am trained in basic Starfleet field medicine and occasionally supported the sickbay on the Cayuga.”

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #5 – June 27, 2025, 11:42:10 PM

[LT Arven Leux | PCU, Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | The Ranger] Attn: @Dree  @Ellen Fitz
[Show/Hide]

While each patient spoke, the Doctor did his best to listen while he worked; his eyes glanced up from the console every other word at least, which was pretty good for him. Between the green-haired girl’s accent and wolf-lady’s wet-edged growls, it wouldn’t have been easy for him to follow along in the best of times, and this wasn’t exactly the best of times.

“We’ll get to that, stay still please,” he frowned at green-hair's request to inform her parents, more out of absent-minded concentration rather than any real disapproval, then turned to wolf-lady. “We could use the help, but we need to get you treated first, or…at least diagnosed. Lie down. Try to relax. Stay still,” he nodded to the bed, again, then returned his full attention to the screen before him while he adjusted the settings.

No wounds, no external or internal hemorrhaging, no obvious organ damage or trauma, Arven shook his head with another frown. He had to look deeper, closer. Please don’t be cellular, please don’t be cellular, please don’t be –

The console chirped.

Arven’s eyes narrowed.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed.

Vulpinian biology was truly remarkable, having evolved to “shift” between three forms via specialized hormone glands and a fascinating cellular receptor throughout their entire body; to facilitate each “shift”, they essentially altered themselves – at will – at the cellular level. Bones grew and shrunk, even altered position and orientation. Muscles contracted, expanded, entire organs changed positions, or new ones grew altogether. Humans, by contrast, were…well, weren’t the same. We tend to die when our cells get altered. But…that didn’t seem to stop the bloody Savi from trying.

”Okay. Listen. Both of you. I…,” Arven blinked, his mind racing. Where's Vi when I need her. It. He turned from the console, in a hurry to race to the research lab to double check the data and get a simulation going on possible surgical treatments, when he remembered the patients and turned back to them, hands up in placation. “Sorry. I have to research this. I think,” he paused, pointing at the console, then the two of them, seemingly lost for words but…almost maniac with excitement. “This is…well…its amazing, but…horrible,” Arven panted, then ran a hand over his face to regain his composure.

It didn't work.
 
“PAX,” he hollered suddenly, then “Kitty,” when the red-head didn’t appear. His head snapped left and right for the Nurse, but she didn’t come running either. “Shite, okay,” he remembered the patients, again, and rushed back to their beds to prep a hypo for each of them. “This…should alleviate the pain, but if the cellular rearrangement has blocked the receptors it wont work at all,” he told green-hair, then looked to wolf-lady. “I can give you a temporary shot of hormones to balance you out, but I wouldn’t try changing form any time soon,” Arven told her cryptically, as he prepped the hypo-sprays for both of them, utterly oblivious to their facial expressions.

OOC - Arven is the worst Doctor. I'd run, seriously, and I sincerely apologize for taking so long in replying.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #6 – July 16, 2025, 03:40:31 AM

[Ensign Sash Kreshkova | Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2] @Dumedion @Ellen Fitz

Sasch lay there pressing her eyes shut against the pain.  But the physical pain was only part of what was going on.  Here was a twenty-one-year-old young woman.  One who just graduated from the Academy only months before.  A girl on vacation that her parents had sprung for during her short time between graduation and TacConn.  She had been kidnapped, rescued, caught by the Savi, tortured her, and now..Now the damn doctor didn’t even want to allow her let her parents know she was alive.

”Okay. Listen. Both of you. I…,” Arven blinked. “Sorry. I have to research this. I think,” “This is…well…its amazing, but…horrible,” Arven panted.
 
“It’s amazing?  It’s amazing?”  Sasch swallowed the words so they were almost a gurgle and incomprehensible.  This ass had no idea what the two of them had been through, and he didn’t seem to give a damn about them as people, or even about them as patients. 

He stepped away to a terminal and then started yelling for people who didn’t appear.  She turned her head away, but a moment later - after hearing a curse - something cold pressed against her neck and the some of the sharp pain that she felt dulled, but some of it continued to bite and tear and gnaw at her.  But then he said
 
“This…should alleviate the pain, but if the cellular rearrangement has blocked the receptors it wont work at all,” the doctor said.

Trying to listen to the doctor through what felt like a new wave of pain.  She didn’t like it, but it made sense why some of her pain was gone and some of it wasn’t.  “Some of zhe pain is gone,”  She continued through a groan, “but some feels vorse.  Is zhat vhat you vere talking about …on zhe cellular level?  Is somezhing going on vizh some of my cells?” the green-haired young woman asked.

Sasch pressed her lips into a thin line.  “And, I do need to let my parents know zhat I am okay.”  With a groan Sasch pushed herself into a sitting position.  “You don’t understand.  I vas kidnapped before I vas rescued by zhe Cayuga.  If you von’t do it, let me haf access to a terminal so I can let zhem know zhat I am alive - even if you have no idea vhat is vrong vizh me.  I haf to let zhem know.”  She tried to stand.  As her feet touched the deck, her knees buckled and she caught herself on all fours.  Feeling incredibly awkward, she slipped into a seated position on the floor.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #7 – July 26, 2025, 12:00:56 AM

[ Ehfva Feynri | Primary Care unit | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2] @Dree  @Dumedion

Ehfva pitied the doctor. He did not seem to be a man suited for high-stress situations, and this was, indeed, a high-stress situation. She almost allowed herself to ponder whether he'd have survived the ordeal she'd just come through, but then she growled and shook her head. That was unfair and also unwise. It was a waste of time to ponder such things, even if the answer was momentarily gratifying. Sitting on the biobed as instructed, Ehfva had half an eye on the spinning-wheels doctor and the other on Sasch, who, being told she couldn't contact her parents right away, seemed to enter another phase of panic. Ehfva wondered about the current status of her own parents, her siblings, their pups. So much life had happened since they'd last spoken, and not all of it good. She wouldn't know where to start if she were to try to contact them, making her situation a good deal different from that of the younger human female.

"I do not believe he meant harm." Ehfva hissed in response to Sascha's incredulity. "From a purely scientific perspective, what we have endured is 'amazing.'" Her warped voice turned dark, the grotesquely half-morphed features on her face twisting in pain both external and internal. "But it was in the name of science we were made to endure it." She was uncertain if the doctor heard the admonishment or would've cared had he heard.

When Sasch abruptly pushed off the biobed, Ehfva made to stand, frowning when she wasn't fast enough to catch the smaller woman. She cupped a hand-paw under Sasch's arm and tugged upward, throwing a semi-judgmental glare at the doctor.

"Administer the hypos. I will assist you here after she is given access to a terminal." She didn't mean for it to sound as a threat but given she was partially shifted into a form that could very well bite the man's head off, it wouldn't have surprised her if he did hear a threat nonetheless.

Re: Epi 2 S [D02| 1900] The Ravaged Prisoners of War

Reply #8 – August 09, 2025, 10:58:27 PM

[LT Arven Leux | PCU, Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | The Ranger] Attn: @Dree @Ellen Fitz
[Show/Hide]

Arven shook his head, too absorbed into manipulating the data scrolling across his console to really pay attention to what the two patients were doing. A three dimensional construct of the Vulpinian morphogenic matrices hovered in the air off to his right, highlighted within a holographic rendering of a body; it played and re-played the “shifting” processes for observation in a healthy subject. Fascinated, Leux drew up a rendering of Ms. Feynri’s most recent scan for comparison: the data was less than revelatory.

They’ve butchered her ability to shift – stolen it, mutilated it – then tried to implant it into a human.

“This isn’t science,” he murmured, almost to himself, before meeting the wolf-lady’s eyes. “This is barbarity. It’s cruelty,” he nodded, then blinked and moved to help them both get to their feet. “This is an affront to the moral and ethical pursuit of knowledge – a gross and unconscionable abuse – a violation of natural law,” he told them, his voice and tone meeting the Vulpinian ‘bark for bark’, as it were.

He sighed then.

“I will do everything I can to fix it. I just need time,” he promised, then shook his head again and prepped a hypo after handing the young ensign a PADD. “You don’t need to look for a terminal. You don’t know the situation and I don’t have time to explain it all; suffice to say, we aren’t communicating with Starfleet and haven’t been for a spell. We’re on our own, where angels fear to tread, trying our best just to survive. It’s all on there,” he nodded to the PADD, then injected Sash with a moderately powerful mixture of pain suppressants and muscle relaxers in the hope that her agony-laced nervous system would accept it. “I’m sorry, but that’s the reality of the situation here.”

He turned his violet eyes to the Vulpinian.

“You seem to have taken to her. Keep her here, as comfortable as you can make. I’ll see about getting you two some lodgings as soon as I can. Until I can parse this data, and consult with my peers on such…significant genetic meddling….,” his voice trailed off.

I have no idea how to correct this, Arven admitted to himself. I don’t even know where to start.

Suddenly, a hand tapped him on the shoulder, belonging to a short, curly haired woman dressed in a stained uniform, nursing a limp arm; she looked like she’d literally crawled around on the inside of something before going out the wrong end. Her uniform was filthy, the red of her undershirt stained almost...orange in places. “Having trouble with genetics, then,” the woman, Cora, managed to smirk despite her obvious wretched appearance and wounds. She almost sounded...cheerful. “I might know a bloke who could have some interestin’ data on that subject.”

Where do these people keep coming from? Arven blinked in utter confusion. “And you are,” he preempted, followed immediately with a sniff and grimace. “You smell terrible.”

Cora nodded and shrugged. “Yes, well, I’ve had a day. My name isn’t important – the name you should be interested in is one Mr. Sylvain Llewellyn-Kth. I believe he’s your new Chief Conn officer? If you’re looking for revelatory genetic research, I’d ask him.”

Arven folded his arms over his chest, utterly unimpressed. “Nurse,” he called over his shoulder; the woman was clearly in need of medical attention, likely delirious. “Please move to the Ward area, I’ll make sure someone sees you, miss.”

Cora leaned in closer. “Ask him or Cross. It’s Savi tech,” she whispered low, then simply nodded and limped off to the ward, leaving Arven to blink in confusion before turning once again to his patients.
 
“That was random,” he shrugged, then held the hypo out for Ms. Feynri. “Still want something for the pain,” he asked, then looked over the green-haired girl for any signs of improvement or worsening conditions. “I’d recommend you remain here for observation, at least until we can isolate and improve your pain levels,” he paused, then jerked his head to the side. “Not here, but in the ward, I mean.”

OOC - tagging @TWilkins bc Cora is back and she's dropping dimes :D