Part of USS Tokyo: M3: Follow The Broken Trail

5) Deception of Reality

USS Tokyo - Sickbay
June 2401
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“So this started less then a few hours ago?” Viamame looked puzzled at her tricorder, trying to make sense of the data that was showing. 

“Yes, I can say it again repeatedly; I heard Towalr's voice calling out for help,” Ko tried to defend her statement of what she had heard. She sat on the biobed and shrugged at the disbelief of her doctor. “I am not going crazy!” 

Shaking her head, “I am not saying you are crazy, though your statement and medical complaint are far-fetched.” Viamame narrowed her eyes a bit, trying to be as diplomatic as possible about the given case. “It might be a traumatic experience for you that you are reliving; maybe a counseling session would do you good?” 

Looking at Viamame, “That is your way of being nice to say I am going crazy, doctor. Check my body. Something feels off, something feels….real.” Ko couldn't put a finger on it; it was like Towalr had given his plead by whispering in her ear. That by itself is weird and uncomfortable on various levels. “Well?” 

“The thing about data is that it can be tricky to read….” Viamame spoke, walking to the wall panel and putting up the data as it showed Ko's head and the parameters of what she had scanned. “As you can see, everything looks okay.” She shrugged at her own explanation. “But…” She tapped on a certain brain area, “The data coming from here is…..incomplete.” 

Ko blinked at that. “Incomplete?” She jumped off the bed and approached Viamame's side, looking at the data. “What is that supposed to mean?” 

Crossing her arms and looking with a thinking expression on her face, “I honestly don't know….I have never seen this. It is like … something is blocking my scans?” She looked a bit puzzled, and then a moment of realization came. “Wait a second.” She grabbed the tricorder again and configured it again.

“Care to enlighten me?” Ko blinked, looking at what her doctor was doing. Now scanning her head again, “We already did that…..why are there dots on the screen” She points at the panel showing now red dots close to the incomplete area" 

Lowering her tricorder as she shrugged, “After Frontier Day, they needed to find a way to …update the medical process of removal of nanos in the junior officer's blood. Scans had a difficult time detecting them, and thus, they made it through regular checkups.” Viamame exhaled a deep breath. “There are still some nanobots in your blood, Captain,” She concluded. “The interesting part in this is that the area that got incomplete data….is your memory" 

Ko shrugged at that revelation. “Crap….okay, what does that mean, and can they be removed?” 

“It can be removed; no problem with that. It's something I overlooked when extracting it out of you last time we were dealing with the Borg. The issue, however, is that the voice you had when you were sleeping might potentially be ….Towalr really asking for help?” Viamame created a theory that she had no idea how it would further impact them.

Tapping her combadge “Ko to bridge.” 

Bridge here,” Tamaz's voice came over the communicator. 

“Have there been any changes, weirdness, or communication happening in the last few hours?” Ko asked, looking at Viamame.

Hmm, you need to be a bit more specific, Captain; we had a ton of communication going on for the last couple of hours. Weirdness, not that I know of, aside from Buldaig humming” 

Ko shrugged at the comment. He was right in that regard. There had been a lot of communication lately due to everything that was happening. “Has there been … any communication received through our system that is seen as a ….” She thought for a second. “Intrusion?” 

You are not giving me much to work with…let me check.” For a few seconds, it was quiet. “Strange, there has been no intrusion, but there has been a system glitch? It detected something coming from space but could not pinpoint its origin. It was marked as an incomplete message. Does that help?” 

“Yes, it does, Ko out.” Taking a deep breath, letting sink in the potential gravity of this sudden change. “Is it because I had the Borg nano in my blood that I was able to … receive this?” Ko looked at Viamame.

“Potentially, but I can't conclude that for certain," Viamame pointed out the medical science behind it “Because we don't know enough from Borg technology to begin understanding their vast complex communication methods.” Viamame leans on the biobed. “But theoretically, you could have received a message from the assimilated Towalr. The question is…how the hell did he manage to do that while being connected to the Borg Collective?” 

Rubbing her template, feeling a headache coming, “One question at a time, can you get these nano out of me?” Ko requested.

She pushed herself from the biobed and grabbed a nearby medical scanner. “Sure, I should be able to extract them now…but what will you do? Starfleet needs to be informed about this?” 

Shrugging at that last comment, Ko let the doctor do her job. “I need some time to think about this, or better say, how to formulate it.” Ko was now being very diplomatic about her words. She knew that this news was more complex than she hated to admit. Starfleet would deny any mission to Borg space, and Captain Takato would remind her firmly that the souls of give or take 200 people were not worth saving three people whose status was unknown. 

“I still have to deal with replacements for the crew we lost to fill in the gaps….let me focus on that first so we got a running ship.” She dodged the question that would follow from Viamame, who was already looking to extract more information from her. 

“Right.” Viamame narrowed her eyes, looking briefly at her Captain, then back at the medical equipment to see its progress. “I need some time…to finish this”