All Things Inherit – Four – DizzyDrea

~0~

Len finally went home nearly 48 hours after her shift had started. She’d been so tired that she’d barely taken the time to strip off her uniform before she fell into bed. While the rest that she’d gotten in the pod at ‘Fleet Medical had helped, nothing beat sleeping in her own bed.

Bright and early the next morning, she bolted down a quick breakfast and replicated some coffee to go before she headed back to the hospital. Phil Boyce had left a message for her letting her know that, until further notice, her only patient was Christopher Pike. That was both good and bad. Good because it meant she didn’t have to split her focus or work a shift in the ER and could only keep up with Pike’s care via his chart. Bad because that would give her plenty of time to worry whether the treatment would ultimately restore full function, and what might happen between them when Pike finally woke up.

She’d send Phil a thank-you note anyway, because she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and then headed for the hospital.

She headed straight for Pike’s room in the ICU, finding Christine Chapel seated at the monitoring station and looking like she’d been there for a while.

“Did you even go home?” Len asked.

She leaned in and let her gaze scan over the various readouts. He was holding his own, but brainwave readings were getting more active, despite the sedatives he was currently on. It was concerning, of course, but not a surprise.

“Yes, I did,” Christine said. “I even got some laundry done before I got my eight hours of sleep.” She pointed at the screen. “What’s with the brainwave activity?”

“He’s a Sentinel,” Len said.

Christine just stared at her. “And?”

“And that means that his senses are cataloging input from his surroundings,” Len said. “A Sentinel’s senses don’t turn off just because they’re unconscious. Plus, he’s newly online and in unfamiliar surroundings. He’s probably hypervigilant as a result.”

“I was going over his readouts from yesterday after we brought him up here,” Christine said. “When Cadet Kirk and Mr. Spock were here, his brainwave activity calmed down. Do you think he recognized their voices?”

“Probably,” Len said. “Even though he wasn’t online, his brain was still collecting data. He just couldn’t interpret what his senses were telling him. It’s possible that his brain is sorting through that data now that he has the ability to make sense of it.”

“Wow,” Christine said. “I’m glad it’s not me. That sounds like hell on Earth. No offense.”

“None taken,” Len said. “It can be a lot for a newly online Sentinel, and frankly, for new Guides as well. We have to learn to shield ourselves pretty quickly because most species are noisy mentally, through no fault of their own. Well, except for the Ferengi, apparently. I’ve never met one personally, but I’ve talked to telepaths who have. Their minds are like Fort Knox. No one can get anything out of them. It’s like they’re a hole in the room.”

“You’re not missing much,” Christine said. “I hear they’re vile, greedy little creatures.”

“Good morning, ladies.”

Len turned to find Admiral April standing a short distance away, smiling at them both.

“Good morning, Admiral,” Len said, cringing. “I apologize for anything you might have heard that was… less than diplomatic.”

April chuckled. “No need for that. I happen to agree: the Ferengi are greedy.”

“What can we do for you, sir?” Christine asked.

“I came to check on our patient,” April said.

“I was just about to go in and get a good look at him,” Len said. “You’re welcome to join me.”

“I’d appreciate that, Doctor,” April said.

“Keep an eye on his readings,” Len said to Christine before she headed for the room. “I want to know if our theory is correct.”

“Will do,” Christine said.

Len nodded, then turned and headed for the force field. She passed through without any difficulties, Admiral April following behind.

She walked up to the bed and placed her hand on Pike’s arm. “Good morning, Captain. I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Doctor Eleanor McCoy. I’ve been the one treating your wounds. I’m just going to check you over to make sure you’re healing as you should be.”

She pulled back the sheet they’d used to cover him up, making sure there were no lingering irritated or sore spots on his skin. She kept his privates covered, even though she’d seen all he had to offer because he’d gone into the machine naked as the day he’d been born.

“How’s he looking?” April asked.

Len glanced at him as he stood just inside the force field, hands clasped in front of him, maintaining a respectful distance so he wouldn’t be in the way.

“His skin is pinker than the norm, but that’s to be expected,” she said. “Think of a radiation burn as a sunburn on steroids. His skin will take time to heal, but it looks healthy, and there are no fresh wounds, so I’m counting that as a win.”

April nodded. “Was there any organ damage due to the exposure?”

“His liver and spleen took some damage,” Len said. “His lungs were filled with fluid, and his heart was struggling to pump. The machine was designed to repair any organ damage, including skin damage due to radiation exposure, so the physical damage has been healed.”

“But…”

Len huffed. “But the repair itself is hard on the body, as I explained to you. A weak heart will allow more fluid to build up in his lungs, and while we can live without a spleen, we can’t live without a liver.”

“So, you’re saying that he’s still critical, even after the damage has been repaired,” April said.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” She sighed. “I wish I could tell you that he was going to just get up and walk out of here, but I have no idea if he will. He was in good physical shape before the accident, so I’m hoping that means he had the energy reserves and the physical robustness to be able to weather this storm.”

Len covered her patient with the sheet, turned, and headed for the counter in the back of the room, near the sitting area. There was a replicator there, so she ordered two cups of coffee. She handed one to the admiral and took the other to the couch.

April sat down on the side chair and took a sip of the coffee as Len did the same. “I received a call from T’Pau of Vulcan this morning.”

“I imagine that was a surprise for you,” Len said, smiling.

“I’ve never met her before,” he agreed. “She told me that if things continue to be difficult for Captain Pike on Earth, the Vulcan High Council would be pleased to host him in one of their hospitals for the duration of his recovery.”

“Well, he is a big damn hero,” she said. “As I’ve been told recently, if it weren’t for him, Vulcan might have been destroyed. Is it really a surprise they’re so invested in him?”

“I suppose not,” he said. “You don’t seem surprised by the offer.”

“Commander Spock visited yesterday,” she said. “He told me that his great-aunt had offered a ship should we need one.”

“Of course,” April said. “I’d forgotten that Spock is from the House of Surak. T’Pau has had a tremendous role in the development of the Federation. Her voice carries weight in any room she’s in.”

“As does yours, I’d imagine,” Len said. “You are the head of ‘Fleet Operations, after all. And you have the ear of the head of Starfleet.”

“Admiral Archer is a good man, but he’s also his own man,” April said. “Absolutely no one who’s ever met him would say he’s easily led. He does exactly what he wants one hundred percent of the time. He’ll take advice, but once he makes a decision, it’s done.”

“Well, he’s lived through some pretty tough experiences,” she said. “I’d imagine that can leave a mark on a man.”

April glanced over at his friend, lying on the bio bed. “Being a starship captain is a unique responsibility. ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown.'”

“I wouldn’t have taken you for a Shakespeare fan, Admiral,” she said.

“Please, it’s just Robert when we’re alone,” he said, smiling at her.

“Len, then,” she said. “Whenever I hear Doctor McCoy, I think someone must be looking for my father.”

April chuckled. “I get that. For the longest time, I used to look behind me whenever someone called me Captain April.”

“Thanks for the security detail, by the way,” she said. “My encounter with that Sentinel left me a little rattled, if I’m honest. I wasn’t expecting that from one of my own.”

“I was surprised to hear they’d come at you so hard,” he said. “My understanding is that Sentinels treat Guides with deference and care.”

“I can’t figure out how he wasn’t dormant,” Len said, shuddering a little. “Because it’s not normal for a Sentinel to behave that way. Particularly a bonded Sentinel. Having a Guide tends to knock off the rough edges, so to speak.”

“Well, if they come back around, you just let me know,” April said. “Chris is a good friend. I’m prepared to go to the wall and over it for him, and Admiral Archer is backing me up on that.”

“You’re not the only one who’d defend the captain vigorously,” Len said, frowning. “I had a dozen messages in my inbox this morning from current and former crew looking for information on his status. I can’t tell them much due to doctor/patient confidentiality, and I’m not playing message service for a bunch of people who clearly have too much time on their hands. I’m a doctor, not an answering service.”

April laughed. “I’ll take care of it. Chris is the type to inspire loyalty from his crew, so I’m not surprised.”

“Thanks,” Len said.

“I should be going,” April said as he stood up. Len stood with him and held out her hand for the cup, which April handed over with a nod. “Let me know if you need anything else. Whatever Chris needs, he’ll get.”

“I’ll keep you posted on his recovery,” Len said. “It’s slow and steady from here on out.”

“Understood,” April said.

He turned and walked out through the force field, nodding to Christine as he went. She got up, walked into the room, and requested her own cup of coffee. “Pike’s readings really calmed down while the admiral was here.”

“Makes sense,” Len said. “They’ve known each other for many years. I’m sure Captain Pike feels comfortable with the admiral.”

“I’ll add those readings to his chart,” Christine said. “It might come in handy at some point.”

“Sounds good,” Len said. She went to the replicator and disposed of both the cups before requesting a fresh one. She went back to the couch and picked up her PADD. “Now that I have the time, I’m going to catch up on some reading and do a little charting. Hopefully it’ll stay quiet.”

“And there you go, jinxing us again,” Christine said with a wink.

“Get back to work,” Len said with a smile.

Christine popped off a sassy salute. “As the Commander wishes.”

Len snorted.

~0~

“So, how come you know so much about Sentinels and Guides?” Christine asked the next day as they sat eating lunch in the small break room adjacent to the ICU.

Pike’s readings had been steady for the last 24 hours, even through various visits from people he’d served with, both past and present. The visits were probably doing more for him than any treatments Len could administer, so she’d just kept medical intervention to a minimum and let his body do what it could to heal itself.

“I think I told you that I came online during medical school, right?”

Christine nodded. “You didn’t talk about it in any of the interviews you did when you won the Nobel, but you’ve mentioned it in passing a time or two since you came to work at Starfleet.”

“Right,” Len said. “The folks at the S&G Center in Atlanta, where I was taken after I came online, were surprised I didn’t go trauma dormant as a result of what I saw when those patients were brought in with Delta radiation burns. Typically, the more traumatic the onlining experience is, the more likely the Guide will suffer permanent psychological damage from it. No one could explain why I wasn’t affected that way, so they just set about training me so I wouldn’t blow at some later date.”

“Did you ever figure out why?” Christine asked.

“My mentor suspects that it was because I had something to focus on,” Len said. “I became determined to find a way to treat Delta radiation exposure. Those people died a horrific death, and I didn’t have the mental shielding to keep me from feeling every second of it with them. After I finished my training, I threw myself into the research. Every waking moment I wasn’t on shift during my Residency and the first few years in practice, I spent looking for something others had missed. Maybe it kept me sane, I don’t know.”

“So, you learned all about Sentinels while you were doing your Guide training, right?”

“Yeah, they teach you everything you need to know about yourself as a Guide,” Len said. “Particularly, how to manage your Guide gifts until you have a Sentinel to help reinforce your shields. If I hadn’t taken the time to learn, I wouldn’t have been able to continue with medical school otherwise, and I really wanted to become a doctor, so I took the time.

“We also learn how a Sentinel moves through the world, because the assumption is that you’ll eventually meet one you’re compatible with. Leaving a Guide uneducated can lead to mistakes or issues within the bond.”

“And you never found anyone you were compatible with,” Christine said. “That seems hard to believe.”

“Well, there were more online and latent Guides than there were Sentinels back then,” Len said. “I did my due diligence on that. Went to the mixers and met everyone who was even remotely a match, but nothing ever came of it. I did meet this one Sentinel who practically ordered me to give up being a doctor so I could… I don’t know, be his arm candy or whatever.”

Christine laughed. “That guy sounds like an idiot. I mean, you’re beautiful, but you’re also brilliant. You won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, for crying out loud. Why wouldn’t he want to brag about that far and wide?”

“He came from one of the wealthier families in Atlanta,” Len said. “I guess he couldn’t stand the idea of his Guide being more successful than him. After that experience, I told my mentor I wanted nothing to do with the Guide search process anymore. She honored my request, though I could tell she really didn’t want to.”

“I can’t say I blame you,” Christine said. “Your perfect match was in Starfleet already. There was no way you were meeting each other because his records don’t even mark him as latent, so you’d have never met until he was unceremoniously dropped into your lap.”

Len laughed. “I told Trudy exactly that, as a matter of fact. If I was going to meet my Sentinel, it wasn’t going to be at a mixer, it was going to be because the universe or whatever dropped him in my lap.”

“And then the universe goes and obliges,” Christine said. “That’s gotta mess with your mind.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Len said. “Trudy laughed her ass off when I told her. She said it was the perfect example of being careful of what you wish for.”

“I don’t know,” Christine said. “Pike’s hot like fire. I think you might have gotten lucky.”

“Should you be saying that about someone you used to serve with?” Len asked.

“The general consensus on the Enterprise was that he was only single because he wanted to be,” Christine said. “I’m sure he had no shortage of offers for his time. He’s smart, courageous, compelling, a great cook, and good-looking. I know he’s had some relationships in the past, but it’s hard to maintain anything more permanent when you have no idea when you’ll see each other.”

“Well, that won’t be an issue going forward,” Len said. “Even if we choose not to bond, he’ll be a helluva lot more selective about who he spends his time with. His senses will tell him things about his partners that he may not want to know. It makes trusting people both easier and harder.”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Christine said. “I guess I just assumed you two would bond and that’d be it.”

“We don’t have to,” Len said. “He could choose to walk away, or I could. Compatibility is about more than just psionic profiles. We could be a perfect match, but if our personalities don’t mesh, or our lifestyles are incompatible, it won’t work no matter how hard we try.”

“So, you could both walk away and risk never finding someone else you’re this compatible with?” Christine asked. “That sounds risky.”

“That’s what those goons were counting on,” Len said. “The ones who came here and tried to take custody of him. They were hoping that he wouldn’t be willing to take a risk. If they presented someone highly compatible with him, they were hoping he’d feel compelled to bond. Given that it would be someone they could control, they’d have had him over a barrel before he even realized what was going on.”

“Because he’s untrained and unaware of his potential,” Christine said. “Did anyone ever figure out how they found out about the captain?”

“Admiral April sent me a message about that,” Len said. “Robards sent a message to the local center. He included Pike’s DNA profile, so they could see something that made the risk worth it. He said that there have been other pairs lurking around outside the hospital, though no one’s tried to get inside.”

“I suspect someone from ‘Fleet Security tore a strip off the people who were supposed to be managing access to the hospital,” Christine said. “How they even got on the base is a mystery to me.”

“There are so many civilian contractors that I’m sure they just blended in,” Len said. “And a Guide with the right skills could manipulate a mundane into doing just about anything. Trudy says the whole center in San Francisco is under investigation at this point. The leadership has been suspended, and new leaders have been put into place. As of yesterday, the Earth S&G Council is petitioning the Federation to join their S&G organization.”

“I thought the Earth Council preferred to handle all human Sentinels and Guides,” Christine said. “I mean, that’s what the information I have access to through Starfleet says.”

“They have in the past,” Len said. She leaned back in her chair and tossed her napkin on her plate. “It’s always been something of a sore spot for the Federation, considering Humans and Vulcans were the driving force behind the creation of the Federation. It always looked like human Sentinels and Guides didn’t trust the organization they helped found.”

“They’ve always kept themselves separate,” Christine said. “Even though there are Sentinels and Guides among the populations of many alien worlds. That’s why the Federation has a Sentinel and Guide organization to begin with; to ensure the rights of Sentinels and Guides across the Federation, so they’re not abused by their own planetary governments.”

“Yes, well, we’ve always believed that we were best situated to protect and train human Sentinels and Guides because we believe Earth is where Sentinels and Guides came into being,” Len said. “It’s arrogant, but apparently, new leadership at the top is changing their views on this.”

“Because of Captain Pike?” Christine asked.

“Perhaps,” Len said. “They’ve had to face the fact that there are those among their organization who would try to use a man like him for their own purposes. That hasn’t set well with them, and it’s made them realize that the tone they’ve set might be fostering a certain level of corruption. We’ll see what comes of it.”

“So, what do we do with the captain?” Christine asked. Just changing the leadership at the local office won’t stop whoever this is from trying to gain control of him. He might not be safe on Earth, and I’m not entirely sure he’d be safe on board his own ship.”

“Not in his current condition,” Len said. “Once he’s been trained, they won’t find him so easy to manipulate, but that’s a long way off.”

“Maybe you should consider taking the Vulcans up on their offer,” Christine said. “I don’t think even the ballsiest Sentinel would consider trying to take him from Vulcan. Unless they’ve got a death wish.”

“It’s certainly an option, but I’m not willing to just take him to Vulcan without at least discussing it with him first,” Len said. “He deserves to have a choice, and I’m going to make sure he gets to decide where the next phase of his healing happens. For the moment, he’s as safe as he can be inside this building. The Sentinels haven’t shown any desire to breach this building, and they can’t transport him out because of the shielding. We’ll just have to wait and see what he wants.”

“I hate waiting,” Christine muttered.

~0~

Cast (from top left):
Anson Mount, David Strathairn, Adrian Holmes, Jess Bush, Zachary Quinto, Sam Neill, Sela Ward, Jean Reno, Damian Lewis, Stana Katic