Seven of Nine - Christie Golden [50]
"Birdseed." At his expression, she added hastily, "Neelix's suggestion. Do not inquire. After ingesting my meal I felt the need to work for a while, to-to think about things."
"Understandable." He waved her to the diagnostic bed and she lay down.
The metal bridge closed over her torso. "How has your memory recovery been progressing?" he inquired in a cool, professional voice.
Seven took a deep, steadying breath and answered in a like manner. "I have a theory regarding the reason why the memories of Druana, Keela, and the others were so powerful-overwhelming, in fact. I believe it was due to the fact that I was the one who assimilated them."
His movements, assembling tools and analyzing the results of his medical tricorder, halted for an instant, then continued. "That makes sense. You encountered them under extremely traumatic circumstances, and in the normal process of your becoming more organic and less cybernetic, the memories manifested themselves."
"I now recall myself assimilating them, and their own experience of the same incident."
"Double memories. It must be confusing."
"It is simple enough to distinguish one from the other." She was quiet for a moment as he continued his examination. "I am fit to return to duty. I recall everything about the vessel now."
"You leave that to me. I'll make the determination about returning you to full duty. How about the birds?"
Sixteen of the black birds perched about the room.
Seven sighed. "They are still present."
"Then I'm not returning you to duty."
"Doctor-" "Seven of Nine," said the doctor in a strict toneAnnika Hansen, you put that down right away-"I am not about to pronounce a crewman who hallucinates-how many birds?"
"Sixteen."
"Sixteen birds as fit for active duty. You may continue to work in a limited capacity." He frowned over his tricorder. "Sixteen. You must be close to a murder by now."
Seven started. "What?"
He glanced up briefly, and repeated the word, exaggerating the pronunciation. "Murder."
"I find it unsettling that you think my mental situation may deteriorate into such a dangerous psychosis," she said.
"What? Oh. No, Seven, you misunderstood. In English, the term for a grouping of crows is a murder.
Although your birds are probably ravens, so it would be an unkindness."
"It would be unkind to refer to them as crows?"
He glared at her. "An unkindness of ravens. Much the way we discuss a pack of wolves, a flock of sheep, a gaggle of geese, a squabble of Klingons." He smiled.
"Klingon gatherings aren't actually called 'squabbles,' of course.
Though it would be an appropriate term.
'i so
Peculiar language, English. The Bolian native tongue is so much simpler-but then, so are Bolians. If you wish to categorize a group of anything in the Bolian tongue, all you need to do is-" "Doctor!"
"Sorry. Just sharpening my rapier wit." He again turned his eyes to his instruments, and when he again spoke he was all business.
"Considering how intense your experience has been, you are making a most impressive recovery. I'm still not sure what triggered your flashbacks-your suppressed memories from other sources, I should say-but you appear to have come to grips with them."
He ran the tricorder over her, narrowing his brown eyes as he analyzed the results. "Blood pressure normal, adrenaline level only slightly elevated, peptides elevated. The circuit through your amygdala and thalamus is very active still. Your limbic system is getting quite a workout. Now, I'm going to apply a controlled electric current to stimulate various parts of your brain. The levels I'll be using are perfectly safe, but they might help jog your memories. Tell me if they do. Peptides. Limbic system. Amygdala. Seven frowned slightly. A memory stirred, but vanished before she could quite grasp it.
The doctor didn't miss it. "A recollection of something?"
She nodded. "Vague. What you are discussing with me sounds familiar."
"Probably because