Memories...

Posted on 19 Oct 2014 @ 7:28pm by Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D.
Edited on on 20 Oct 2014 @ 3:06am

1,207 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD -27, 0800 hours

[ON]

Tyrion yawned as he walked into sickbay. Just shortly before going off duty, he was summoned to sickbay and he was told to report immediately. So, instead of crawling into bed like he usually did after his night shift, he sauntered into sickbay instead. The Betazoid yawned again and rubbed his eyes, while looking around for the doctors. "Ensign Faye reporting as ordered," he announced, his voiced betraying both his exhaustion and his anxiety.

Tuula rolled out of the office, with Mott in tow. The Bolian had taken some time to get out of his chair this early in the morning, giving Tuula a head start. "Ah, ensign," started Tuula. She wasn't quite sure how to break the news to him. "We've reviewed your brain scans and we've found... well, we've found something disturbing."

"Hmm, yes, very disturbing," Olsam echoed, trying to finish off the morning's (fourth) pastry that he'd stuffed into his mouth before leaving the office. He looked down, brushed at some of the errant flakes of buttery dough, then gave a closed-lip smile to Tyrion, as if they hadn't just been talking about disturbing brain scans at all.

"D-disturbing?" Tyrion stammered out, taking a step away from the doctors. "What do you mean, disturbing? Everything was alright wasn't it? Other than that gap in my memory, is that what's disturbing?"

"We had thought that that gap in your memory was due to your memories being repressed as a coping mechanism," replied Tuula. "That would be the most logical explanation, and would be consistent with known humanoid reactions to psychological trauma." She took a deep breath; she didn't know how he would take this. "Instead, your brain scan revealed that someone or something deliberately erased your memory of the incident."

Tyrion's black eyes widened. "What? On purpose? But why? Is it recoverable?"

"I don't know why," replied Tuula. "And it may be recoverable, however that will involve a very complicated surgery." Tuula looked up at Mott for a moment and then back to the patient. "The other thing is, if these are memories surrounding the murder of your partner, whatever we recover will no doubt be painful memories. You will have to decide whether you want to go through with the procedure, of if these are simply things best left forgotten."

"Not everyone gets that option. The rest of us have to cope with bad memories, which in the end usually turns out to be a good thing. Imagine if we all had our bad memories erased! We'd never learn from our mistakes at all. Of course, then again, most of us aren't suffering from intentional memory loss, either, so I guess that adds another layer, doesn't it?" Olsam interjected, almost as if he was speaking to himself. He cleared his throat and rocked on his heels, greasy fingertips clasped behind his back. "But, at any rate, the procedure is incredibly complex but with a very low risk of side effects or collateral neurological damage. So really it's just a matter of whether you'd like to remember or not."

"Perhaps I saw something," Tyrion offered desperately, "maybe I saw who killed him. And I really need to know who killed him, so that he may finally rest peacefully. His katra was lost, I don't want his murder to go unsolved." He shook his head. "No, I have to remember, painful or not. There's counselors to help me deal with it if they're really bad, right? Please, perform the procedure, I have to know."

Olsam just nodded his head as he listened to Tyrion, wearing his 'concerned doctor' face. To match the outward look of concern, his mind was rushing through all the possibilities of the memory loss and murder. The case had been handled by intelligence up to his point, he'd heard, along with some other muckity mucks back on Earth, but the memory tampering had added a whole new twist to what was otherwise your standard, run-of-the-mill murder.

He wondered who or what had Tyrion seen... Had the President of the Federation struck down Tyrion's lover in a fit of jealous rage and to avoid the resulting scandal that would bring the Federation to its knees, the young Betazoid had his memory wiped? Was Section 31 involved? Or was Tyrion's lover actually a Changeling, the vanguard of a new invasion of Federation space, and the intelligence officer had accidentally caught him in the process of shapeshifting? The possibilities were endless...

Tyrion studied the Bolian doctor for a moment after which his black eyes darted from one to the other, waiting for an answer. Could they do it? Would they do it, and more importantly: when?

"It's a complicated procedure," said Tuula. "It will take us at least a few days to prepare; the Betazoid brain is very complex. We don't want to accidentally obliterate all memory of your first day at school," Tuula joked, trying to lighten the mood slightly. Seeing her joke fall flat with the patient, she continued. "There is one other thing. I don't know if someone is investigating this case, but if there is, we should share this information with him. It could help with the investigation."

"If you find something that helps yes, otherwise I'd appreciate it if it falls under doctor-patient confidentiality," Tyrion answered, after a moment of consideration.

Olsam cut his eyes to look at Tuula; doctor-patient confidentiality was not one of his strong suits, so they'd like to need to consult and agree upon what was and was not confidential information. "The procedure is called synaptic induction. Your memories aren't so much missing, per se, as they are just disconnected from one another. When you try to remember, the synaptic pathways aren't connected with one another, and you can't call to mind that period of time. After we get some highly detailed neuroimaging done, we'll begin mapping out those disconnected synapses and design a procedure to induce them to reconnect with one another." Realizing that was a lot of medical babble, Olsam cleared his throat and prepared to rephrase. "Basically, we're going to physically put your memory back together again."

"How long will this procedure take?" Tyrion asked, "and what are the chances of failure?" He was desperate to know, desperate to see if he saw anything. Anything that could lead to solving his beloved's murder.

"You'll be out for a few hours," explained Tuula. "It's a very complex procedure; we won't be able to know the chances of success until we've done a more detailed investigation. It's a rare procedure, but it's not something that hasn't been done before." Tuula hoped it wasn't, at least, but she didn't know of any examples off the top of her head of a synaptic induction on the complicated Betazoid brain. "I can schedule the surgery for Wednesday; that should give us time to prepare."

Tyrion's expression was one mask of hope. "Please," he encouraged. "I'll be here when you call you're ready. I'll be ready..." He sighed softly. "Thank you."

[OFF]

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Tyrion Faye
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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