Tea and Texting

Posted on Thu Nov 14th, 2019 @ 8:29pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Commander Ichiko Gail

Mission: Sounds of Silence
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Despite the drug induced heavy sleep, Abigail woke still aching and almost instantly the headache returned. Disappointingly, her voice had not. Brushing aside the nurse that had tried to make her get back into bed, she replicated a clean uniform and changed before heading for the bridge and her ready room, taking a seat at her desk and typing out a message for Ichiko to meet with her as soon as possible.

Ichiko was handling a few small collections of paperwork on her own, but the call to action was a welcome distraction. She took her time heading up to the ready room, and then rang the chime to let her in. Once the door swished open, Ichiko entered...

She looked miserable.

A simple wave, before she motioned to her throat and shook her head.

Abigail nodded slightly in agreement, pointing to the usual seat and headed for the replicator, manually programming in the request for their drinks and a plate of ginger snaps. Just because they felt poorly it didn't mean they couldn't enjoy something nice.

Handing the tea to Ichiko and setting the cookies on the table, Abigail sank into her own seat, taking a sip of her chai before she set the mug down and picked up the PaDD she had left there earlier, typing out a message. "I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the sound of talking."

Ichiko gave a smirk as she read the message, then responded with a quick hand gesture, where she motioned to her eye, then tapped her ear, then motioned to Abigail all in the same fluid motion. Then she responded proper, typing away at the PaDD. Tap tap tappity tap.

"I'll take all the yelling in the world over this headache." she responded initially, then added more realizing that this current situation would change the entire 'back and forth' dynamic of their relationship.

"I spoke with Rogers. He's affected to. He thinks its odd that a disease could make the jump to this many differing species. I agree. Medical respond?" before handing the PaDD across the gulf between them... and then snagging a ginger snap. The munch of the cookie was the only noise the pair could really bring themselves to make.

Through the silence, even the sound of the soft crunching of the cookies was near deafening. It was eerie. Incredibly eerie. She took the PaDD and started typing again.

"Medical is investigating, but they don't understand either."

She stopped typing, sighing heavily and pressing her fingertips into her temples for a long moment before she started typing again.

"Could it have been something from Meria? Something viral or bacterial? Could it be some kind of poison or toxin? Do you know if the biofilters have been checked for contaminants or if our transporter logs were checked when we came back?"

Ichiko shook her head, and as a reflex she 'answered' vocally. Silence, and then she shook her head before typing. "I couldn't say. It's affecting human and Ts'usugi alike. Do you think the new pilots brought it with them?"

"I'll put checking the filters on the list."

Abigail nodded slightly, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her head as she took the PaDD and typed out her own message again. "Do you really think this is a virus?"

Ichiko shook her head before even typing a response. When the response came, it was just as concise. "No."

Then a little more typing followed, punctuated by a sip of tea. There was a wince, the tea stinging her sore throat, but she braved on.

"I'm immune to your common cold. Because I'm a Daughter of Ts'usu. I'm going to point to some parts of my head and you let me know if you're feeling anything there too."

And then the game began. Neck, temples, forehead, back of the neck, base of the skull. She motioned to the very base of her ears, then remembered, and then pointed to the edges of her head, where her ears would be were she human.

Abigail nodded with each new location, her movements slow and deliberate as she tried to avoid anything quick that would cause extra pain. She pressed her fingers into the back of her neck and typed on the PaDD. "Intermittent, worst pain?"

With a motion almost like a sigh, the rabbitess pressed her fingers into the back of her neck, right at the base of her skull.

Then something seemed to click. She tapped out on the PaDD, "The last time I tried to sleep, when I woke, I thought I saw something. A figure. Now, it could have just been the pain and the lack of sleep, but I don't think I hallucinated it."

Reading the message, the Commanding Officer paused for a moment, contemplating over the words. "I think I heard someone else talking about hallucinations in sickbay. I don't know, maybe I was hallucinating instead?"

Ichiko gave her friend the 'Really now?' expression as she typed the last message, "What if we aren't hallucinating? If it isn't an illness, or a medical condition..."

"What if we're under attack?"

Abigail stared at the words for a long moment before she started typing. "If we are they aren't triggering any alerts. How do we know?"

Ichiko typed, then erased, then typed, then erased, then grew frustrated at the PaDD and then typed again. What she handed over she wasn't proud of, but it had to make sense for Abigail.

"Moon School taught old war tactics. Everyone worries about who. Never what or why. What do they want? No deaths, so they don't want the ship. No one missing, so they don't want slaves. Everyone has headaches, pain, discomfort. All in head."

She wanted to sigh but the futility of it made it not worth her while. "Maybe they don't want anything except to make us all stressed and miserable," Abigail typed back with frustration, feeling the pain in her head increasing again.

Ichiko considered that for a moment, taking Abigail's frustration as insight. Her response was measured, and considered. "Maybe. Frustrated enemies make mistakes. Or, maybe unintentional. Their presence harms us, but they don't know?"

Abigail read the words before closing her eyes and leaning back in her seat, contemplating in Ichiko's words for a moment. With the amount of pain she was in, that she had seen her crew in, it was hard to believe that any individual could be inflicting this much pain on them without knowing or meaning to.

Finally she leaned forward in her seat, picked up the PaDD and typed back a short, to the point message. "I don't know."

Ichiko's posture gave the tiniest of slumps, her ears gave the merest of droops, and she reached across the gulf of the desk to put a hand on Abigail's while she gave a nod. Sympathy for a friend fighting to grapple smoke. A thousand questions, zero answers, and several hundred suffering crew hands. After a moment, she began her reply. "Handle delicate. On Ts'usu, increase security presence. More troops means matter being handled. Make crew feel safe. Not sure if would have same effect on Federation ship. If invasion, more security may make them think we're on to them." she offered, actually giving a shrug as she offered.

With the slightest hint of a smile, Abigail gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Call a senior staff meeting," she typed back. "We need to do something."