Double Helix 03_ Red Sector - Diane Carey [83]
anybody crazy after the first twenty hours. The tape had looped a few times, and by now Ansue Hasty had taken to humming harmony to the tunes he recognized.
This, in bitter contrast to the suffering empress, who was roused now and then by Crusher’s ministrations and wakened to relentless agony because from time to time medical tests required her cooperation. Even when the young woman was allowed to sink back into unconsciousness, her struggle just to breathe provided a pathetic percussion to the damned harp music. It had been a difficult two days.
“Mr. Hashley, please take these two instruments and clean them thoroughly, the way I showed you yesterday, and then bring them back;’ Crusher instructed. She’d only caught a few catnaps and was feeling the stress of fatigue. This was like being a resident again.
“I just love helping you,” Hashley said. “Maybe when we get out of this, I can join Starfleet and come to the Enterprise and be your assistant.”
“You could certainly do something like that;’ she said. “No reason you couldn’t take a few paramedical courses and start a new career. I’m thinking of switching to professional wrestler, myself. Whew… could you bring me that pillow and put it behind my back? I can’t let go of this IV pump right now. I’ve almost got a result… stand by, Data”
In her periphery, Crusher saw Data look up from his communications center, formerly the empress’s dressing-room vanity. “Standing by, Doctor.”
The imperial communications relays were tied in to over six hundred stations throughout the empire. Data had taken nearly three hours to confirm, through codes, geological information, and star-mapping devices, that the relays were actually working and in contact with a spiderweb of stations on several planets. After all, what good would it be if they were just talking to a con artist next door?
Her head swam as she took a moment to relax her brain, while her hands worked under the blue light of the portable sterile field she’d set up. She even indulged in closing her eyes for a few moments, until the fled readings bleeped. Sounded like a cannon going off.
Crusher forced her eyes open and blinked a couple of times, focusing on the readings rushing across the miniature monitor screen. “Good, very good… I was right. Data, confirm that the physicians should stop fighting the fever. Let it run its course-it stresses the attacking prions.”
“Relaying that, doctor. Your progress is remarkable for only two days.”
“That’s me-Remarkable Bey. Look at that! I knew it was there… add that they shouldn’t inject supplements of kelassiurn, no matter how low the levels get.”
Data stopped working the console and looked at her. “Doctor, is it not true that Vulcanoids can suffer irreparable intestinal scarring from lack of kelassium?”
“Absolutely, but this test is hinting to me that the kelassium’s not leaving the body at all. Look… see these protovilium levels? Those only show up when there’s a repository of kelassium. They shouldn’t be reading this way ff she is really K-deficient.”
Hashley looked up from organizing the medical instruments. “I’ve heard of that kind of thing! When I was delivering industrial incendiaries to Carolus, one of the company medics told me about how the body defends itself with some really weird stuff”
Crusher only half-registered what he said. She had learned over the past hours to pick on a word or two without really committing herself to listening. “Mmm, this is weird, all fight… if these chemical bonds are leading me down the right track, the kelassium’s being stored in the second liver. That tells me the attacking prions feed on kelassium. At least partially-Data, are you getting this?” “Yes, Doctor.”
“Storing kelassium deprives the infection of an energy source. I think low kelassium’s part of the body’s natural fortification. Let’s take a chance.”
“Is that wise?” the android asked. “Some of these patients