Chapter Text
S1E6: Terra Nova
The first time Natalie Naiman spoke to Lieutenant Reed, she was about to put an osmotic eel on his thigh. He was not very pleased.
“Keep that bloody thing away from me!” For a man fresh out of surgery he was surprisingly alert. Dr. Phlox had only sedated him with a minimal dosage. Just enough to extract the bullet from the armory officer’s thigh.
“Please stay calm, Lieutenant,” Phlox advised from the other side of the biobed. “The osmotic eel will cauterize and clean the wound much more efficiently than any other method.”
“Cauterize?” Reed’s voice rose to an uncomfortable high pitch at the word. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What happened to modern medicine?”
The starfish-like creature in Natalie’s hand curled one of its arms. Apparently, it did not like shrieking prey. She quickly adjusted her grip, careful to touch only the arms. Phlox had warned her not to come into contact with its mouth. No contamination before it could feed on the patient.
“Mr. Reed, you have been in those caves for several hours with an open wound. The eel will make quick work of any nasty bacteria.” A proud smile crossed the doctor’s face. “As a pleasant side-effect, there won’t remain any toxic residuals that have to be cleaned out of your body."
“I think my liver could handle a little exercise, thank you.” The armory officer had made it onto his elbows. His British accent had become even stronger. His pale eyes were fixed on the creature in her hands. Suddenly, Natalie was sure he would attempt to make a run for it. Despite the fact that he wore nothing but an operation gown. It barely covered anything.
“I assure you, it’s nearly painless.” The Denobulan put a hand on Reed’s shoulder pressing him back down.
Natalie found it increasingly difficult to keep hold of the eel. It grew more agitated by the second. Perhaps it had gotten a whiff of the officer’s blood.
“It’s outright barbaric! I refuse to be mistreated in such – “
“Just hold still, Lieutenant,” Natalie burst out. The eel was writhing now. A fistful of hungry muscle. “Because I am going to drop it and you don’t want to find out what happens when it lands in the wrong place.”
That shut him up. He froze, hands gripped around the edges of the biobed. His whole body was tight with tension. Natalie had no time to take in his wide eyes or the thin line of his lips. Now the eel meant business. She placed it exactly over the open wound and released one finger at a time. She hardly noticed Phlox’s instructions.
“Carefully, Crewman. Gently. That’s it.”
There was a sickening sucking sound. There was a sharp inhale from Lieutenant Reed followed by a cooing from Dr. Phlox. Obviously, the treatment was going just fine. Natalie took the medical scanner and turned it on. Scales and graphs began to appear on the tiny screen.
Meanwhile, the doctor watched the eel fondly. “Aha, it has attached itself nicely to the wound. Notice the tiny rippling motions along the arms, Crewman. A tell-tale sign that it has started feeding.”
Reed groaned. “You told me it was painless.”
“Nearly painless, Mr. Reed, not completely.”
The lieutenant snorted. His gaze implied all the insults that crossed his mind. Then he flinched again.
“Uh, I can feel its little teeth.”
Phlox raised an eyebrow. “Well, the captain never said a word about it. Some sensations are to be expected, though. Please make a note of it, Crewman.”
“On second thought, it’s no bother,” Reed uttered through clenched teeth. “Perfectly tolerable.”
Natalie was glad she had the scanner to focus on. It helped her to keep a straight face. Was she feeling amused or annoyed? She could not decide. She had to suppress a chuckle and a frown.
Phlox stepped around the biobed and looked over her shoulder. “The readings look promising. Keep an eye on those cytokine levels. Notify me when they reach ninety percent. We can remove the eel then.”
“Yes, doctor.”
With a nod he strode off to his small lab behind the partition wall.
Reed’s head snapped up. “What? Wait! Just how long do you plan on letting that monster feed on me?”
“It’s a living being and not a machine.” Phlox called from behind the counter. “It’s done when it’s done.” Natalie could tell that he was running out of patience. Remarkable. In the six weeks she had been working with him, he had been nothing but a source of constant enthusiasm.
She could not blame him, though. Their present patient was a stress test on any medic’s nerves.
Right now, he finally lay back covering his eyes with his forearm. A deep exhale accompanied his tiny headshake. “Unbelievable.”
Natalie chose to ignore that statement. It most certainly was not meant for her ears. Better to monitor the readings and check on the eel occasionally. Inwardly she was shaking her head as well. Not to criticize a superior, but had he not completed all kinds of combat training to become an armory officer? His wiry physique surely looked like it. Was he not skilled to successfully endure adverse situations? Like spending twelve hours in those caves with a bullet in his thigh, for example? That was no small thing. And then he kept whining about a harmless animal on his leg. What a tough guy, indeed. At least his cytokine levels were rising nicely.
“Haven’t I seen you at the security briefing in the hydroponics bay, Crewman…Naiman?”
Natalie started. Oh no, he had been watching her. Had those thoughts shown on her face?
“That’s right, Sir,” she hastily replied. “I work there as well. Food chemical analyses and monitoring of the nutrient solution, mostly.”
“Ah, I remember. You’re part of the medical support team.”
“Yes, Sir. Dr. Phlox is training us in the handling of his…merry little helpers.”
That earned her another snort. “That sounds just like him. So, I’m treated basically by a gardener and a parasite.” He took a quick look down his leg and shuddered. “I thought we left leeches behind with the Middle Ages.”
“It’s an osmotic eel, Sir,” Natalie could not help remarking. She was a trained lab technician and a paramedic but this was not the moment to feel offended. “The Aldebaran mud leeches are on the shelf over there.”
Reed frowned. “What are they for?”
She was just opening her mouth when he cut her off with a raised hand. “On second thought, I don’t want to know.” He gave an exasperated sigh and closed his eyes. The exhaustion and the lingering sedative finally caught up with him. If they were lucky, he would fall asleep before the treatment was over. Natalie consulted her scanner. His blood pressure still was at the lower threshold of the tolerance level. His pulse too high. For some minutes she kept her attention on the changing blood levels.
The eel had not moved. It seemed completely content at its present location. The dots on its body had turned a dark purple. According to Phlox that was caused by the extracted toxins from the patient’s body. Natalie touched the creature ever so slightly with one fingertip. Its smooth surface was warm and sticky. Perfect.
Reed chose that moment to squint at her through heavy lidded eyes. “You’re humming, Crewman.”
Natalie bit her lip. “Sorry, Sir.” That happened sometimes when she was completely concentrated or nervous. Especially when she had been listening to specific songs on repeat. Those ancient Vulcan chants she had found in the database a week ago had real intriguing harmonies.
The armory officer just frowned. He adjusted his injured leg carefully.
“Would you put one of them on your thigh?”
“Certainly. Gardeners and parasites share an implicit understanding.”
That actually produced a week laugh. “Is it done, yet?”
“Looks good, Sir.” She turned her head. “Doctor? We are at almost ninety-one percent.”
Dr. Phlox emerged from his corner with an expectant smile. He glanced at the tiny monitor, then at the osmotic eel. “Excellent! Now please remove the animal as we have practiced.”
All things considered, that went smoothly. It only took a tiny bit of persuasion and a rather undignified squeak from Lieutenant Reed to coax the eel away from its feeding ground. The result was remarkable. A thin red film had grown over the wound. It looked like it was at least two or three days old.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” From somebody else the remark would have sounded smug. Coming from Phlox, it carried nothing but the joy of observing the marvelous workings of nature.
Reed grumbled something that Natalie chose to ignore. By now he was even too groggy to complain properly. She put the eel back in its aquarium. It instantly attached itself to its favorite spot on the front plate.
In the meantime, Phlox drew the curtains around the armory officer’s biobed. He told him to get some rest now and promised to release him from sickbay in the morning.
As Natalie washed her hands at the sink beside the door, Phlox approached her with uncharacteristically deep wrinkles on his forehead.
“Crewman, please be so kind to remind me that we keep Lieutenant Reed sedated for as long as possible during our next treatment.”
Natalie smiled to herself as she dried her hands on a paper towel. “Certainly, Doctor.”