Seeing things?

Posted on Sat Mar 3rd, 2012 @ 9:51pm by Commander Basil Hart

774 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: [Typhon] Through a Window Darkly
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: Present

ON

Basil looked up. He had heard something coming from Exam room one. Getting up from his desk, he sauntered over to see who needed patching up. Exam room one was empty. Shrugging his shoulders, he went back to his desk.

Again, something made a noise. This time, from O.R. "Anybody there?" he called out. Nobody answered. He looked at his chronometer. Midnight. "Fine time to be playing pranks," he grumbled to himself.

Settling into his unfinished report once more, he almost missed the distinctive sound. A sniffle echoed through the empty sickbay. Leaping from behind his desk, he went into the empty O.R., and saw nothing. "Computer, lights down to twenty five percent," he ordered. "I guess there's nothing there. I'm going to turn in for the night." He rubbed his eyes, and headed back towards his office. As soon as he was out of sight, he crouched behind a wall, and slowly peeked out at the empty O.R. For a moment, silence and darkness were his only companions. Then, another quiet sniffle met his ears. Slowly, he moved back into the O.R. The sound came from the other side of the main bio bed. Sneaking as quietly as he could, he looked over the top of the bed. The hairs on the back of his head stood on end. his skin felt cold and clammy. There, revealed to his view, was a small child. A teddy bear was clutched tightly in its hand. Its head hung down as it stared at the floor. The chilling thing about this child, and the thing which caused Basil's adrenal gland to go into overdrive, was that it was translucent, and the air around it was so cold, he could see his breath.

Calming himself so as not to startle the child, he spoke softly. "Hi. Are you okay?"

The little one whirled on him like a startled puppy, its eyes wide with fear. He could see the angry red scar in the middle of the child's thorax. "Please, don't hurt me," it whispered, terrified. There was a strange hollow quality to the voice.

"It's okay, little one. I won't hurt you," Basil soothed. He was scared, to be sure, but long years of practice helped him not to show it. "My name's Basil. What's yours?"

The child sniffled again. "Jenny," she answered.

"What's wrong, Jenny?" He shifted slightly, coming around the bio bed.

"Nuthin'," she lied. That hollow voice made him shudder.

He smiled reassuringly at her. "It's okay, Jenny. You cal tell me. I'm here to help."

"My chest hurts." a tear trickled down her cheek. "The doctors told me I would get better, but it still hurts."

As he looked at the scarring on her sternum, he noted the primitive method the "doctors" used of stitching up the wound or incision with nylon or carbon fiber thread, and was appalled. Only barbarians still used that technique! Quelling his anger at the crude treatment, he smiled. "I might be able to help you with that. I'm a doctor, too."

Jenny curled up into a tight little ball. "Please, no. Doctors just make it worse. Mommy said I had something wrong with my heart, and the doctors would make it better. Now I'm not tired anymore, but it hurts all the time! Don't make it hurt more."

Basil sighed. What had they done to her? "Okay, Jenny. I won't hurt you, I promise. Is it okay if I look at you so I can see what the other doctors did? I promise that if you tell me it hurts at all, I'll stop."

She uncurled. "Pinky-promise?"

He smiled again. "Pinky-promise."

"Okay, Basil," she said timidly.

Basil took a nearby stool and placed in next to the bio-bed. "Can you climb on to the bed right here? It'll make it easier for me to see what's going on inside your chest."

Jenny nodded, and stepped gingerly onto the stool. Then she hopped up onto the bio-bed, wincing in pain slightly at the movement.

Basil turned on the bio-bed to get a baseline diagnostic. He wasn't sure it would even work on what looked like a ghost. The bio-bed began scanning. It showed incredibly high levels of Tetryon and Chronoton radiation. The readings were questionable to say the least.

Jenny giggled. "That tickles!" Then she vanished.

"WHAT THE..." Basil looked around. "Jenny? JENNY!" The room was silent. Double-checking his bio-bed, the readings were normal. They had always been normal, and had not registered anything over the past few minutes. "I'll be damned!" he swore.

OFF

Commander Basil Hart
Chief Medical Officer,
StarBase Typhon

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