Starfleet and Headaches Go Hand In Hand

Posted on Wednesday, 27 May 2020 - 10:13am by Lieutenant Talarn Zilth

Mission: Operation: Recall
Location: USS Fontana | Engineering
Timeline: 2393

{ON:}

The headache wouldn't go away. Usually it did after a few hours, but this time it wasn't cooperating. Talarn knew that it had to do with his mechanical components, namely his cortical node. They had tried, back in the day when Borg were welcome in Starfleet, to remove his cortical node, to make life easier for the Cardassian, but his body refused to do without. They finally gave him a supply of them and a pattern to put in a replicator and chalked it up to him having been a Borg for too long.

He had spent the day unpacking their belongings into their new quarters. It was heartbreaking to leave Prairie and his life with Barret Stillwater that he had there behind. If he could have cried he would have. Ever since they had arrived on the ship Talarn felt he couldn't breathe. The air was stifling. He missed the outdoors and the wide open spaces of Prairie. This place was cramped and sterile and nothing about it spoke to him of home.

The headache was finally so bad that it was affecting his vision. After a quick visit to medical where they discovered that what he needed was an engineer, he was headed to engineering and someone named Chief Petty Officer Eyelaya. He managed to find engineering, even though he couldn't see for the most part and entered the double doors with one hand shielding his eyes from the lighting above. He looked around briefly, realizing he didn't know what this Eyelaya person looked like and snagged the nearest engineer, asking to be pointed in the right direction.

Harrison smiled. "Oh Eyelaya! That girl, Gods know where she is." He looked around. "Oh! There she is by the isolinier chips." He pointed to the young woman who looked Bajoran.

The young man was too loud for Talarn's headache. He winced when Harrison spoke and looked to where he pointed, nodding and murmuring his thanks before moving away from him quickly and towards the young woman he indicated. He hated being here. Back on Prairie, a little bit of darkness and some quiet with a cup of coffee would have fixed this, but here there was no quiet. Everything around him hummed with the energy it took to power the ship. She looked busy and Talarn stood to the side and waited for her to look up from her task.

Eyelaya placed the last Isoliniar chip In place and closed the little hatch. She sighed and stood turning. She'd been so lost in her work that she hadn't heard him. As she turned she gave a startled jump and yelp. "Oh my! I'm sorry I didn't hear you."

She was also too loud and he winced again. "My name is Talarn Zilth... and medical sent me to you." The sound of his own voice in his head was also too loud. "I have a headache..." If he could sweat he would be doing that as well. He wiped at his brow as if he was and closed his eyes tightly for a moment, opening one to look at Eyelaya for a moment.

"Oh! You're Cardassian! And a Borg! How wonderful." Then as if realizing. "Oh boy. Cortical Node?"

"Just... just replaced it," Talarn replied, his face giving away his discomfort. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "It happens a lot when I change it. Usually... it just goes away." He wasn't sure how wonderful being a borg Cardassian was, but at the moment he wasn't all that concerned.

"Of course. Come with me." She led him to a small office that people used for brainstorming. She had the lights lowered. "Wait here. I'll go get my kit. Do you have the Node pattern for replication?"

Talarn nodded and held out a storage device. "Yes, here... thank you," he replied softly. Unlike most people put in a room with chairs Talarn didn't sit. He stood and closed his eyes in relief at the lowered level. "It's been a long time since an engineer had a look..." He did appreciate her time and attention, it was just hard to say so at the moment.

"No problem. We'll have you fixed up in a jiffy." She headed out and was back within a couple minutes with a node and a took kit. "Here we go!" She gasped. "Sorry, I forgot sound is painful." She smiled. "It's not a bio bed, exactly, but it's big enough. Lay back if you please."

Talarn frowned. He didn't like feeling vulnerable in front of strangers. "Is that necessary? I usually just change it in the mirror." He did sit down on the edge of the table though. It was definitely one thing for him to feel vulnerable in front of Barret, but here it was decidedly uncomfortable. "I'm not sure changing the node again is going to help..." he said softly.

"It's okay. I promise it will be fast. It's easy and it sits better in the compartment when it's placed in this way. It lasts longer." She smiled. "I know it's a little scary, but I promise it will be okay."

Talarn sighed heavily. All he wanted was for the headache to stop tearing at his brain. Briefly, he wished Stillwater was here, not that he needed hand holding, but it would be nice. He lay back on the table and turned his head so she could access the node easier. "Like this?"

"Perfect." She took a small device running it over his eyebrow. Just mere centimetres above that brow bone a small circular hole opened. She used a tweezers like device to gently remove the node an within a few moments she prepared and scanned the new node. She gently placed it in and watched as the node lowered into the hole growing green. \She closed and sealed the node compartment. "Stay down until the headache stops." She gave his hand a pat. "See no fuss no muss."

Talarn relaxed a little, the pain already starting to subside. "What was wrong with the one you removed?" he asked, curious as to why he suffered the headaches in the first place. Only one day before they left Prairie he had changed the node. He'd never had one burn out so fast, if that indeed was what it was.

"One of the chips was fused. Sometimes replication will do that. That's why I scan them." She smiled. "Okay, you can try sit up slowly." She held out her hand. "It's better if you put them in laying down and it helps to have someone else do it. Nodes can be tricky. But this should last long."

He took another deep breath, as the pain eased off altogether and took her hand, sitting himself up slowly. "We didn't have access to a scanner..." Talarn replied softly. At least now he could think. His gaze focused on Eyelaya. She seemed young to know so much about Borg. "Where did you learn about Cortical Nodes?"

She shrugged. "Lots of places. I read a lot. I studied anything I could about any and all technology. Also, I was stationed at Galvonus Stockyards. Pretty out of the way. The CO's wife was Ex-Borg. Everyone avoided her, but I helped with taking care of her and the CO would find ex-Borg and bring them to the stockyards so I could help fix what was wrong and then we'd settle them on worlds where they would be safe." She shrugged. "I guess part of it is I was always fascinated with the Borg, one mind, everyone belonged. No bullies. When I was little," she said, as she packed away her instruments. "I used to wish I was Borg. Then my half-Cardassian and half-Bajoran standing wouldn't be something to be mocked. I could have a family where I belonged." She shrugged again. "Sounds dumb huh?"

"I'm not sure that dumb is the word that I would use. Maybe inexperienced. The Borg is not a family. Not by any stretch of the means. They are cold. There is something to be said for not having to make individual decisions and not wonder if you've made the right one, but at what cost?" Talarn shook his head. "When I was first severed from the collective, the silence of it was... overwhelming. I am glad it is no longer so. I have come to appreciate having my own mind."

She smiled. "Well that's true enough." She looked up at him. "Before you were assimilated did you live on Cardassia?"

"I grew up on Cardassia Prime. I even attended school there. My father was a military man. My mother worked for the science department." He couldn't remember their faces. When he had stayed with his Uncle there had been pictures. He remembered the pictures, but that wasn't like remembering someone's face or the sound of their voice or their touch. He knew it was probably supposed to make him sad, the loss of these memories, but it had very little effect on him at all. It simply was what it was for him.

"What was Cardassia like?" She smiled. "I've never been. I was on Bajor at the orphanage a little. Then on Betazed. I never knew my parents, but they said my father was Cardassian and my mother Bajoran." She touched her forehead. "I used to look more Cardassian but... after the accident they said they couldn't save that." She shrugged. "So now I just look Bajoran."

Talarn listened, nodding as she spoke. When she was done he shook his head. "Cardassia is nothing like it was when I was young. It's changed so much that I don't even recognize anymore. Not that I recognize much of anything from my past... before being Borg." He paused, putting his words together carefully before speaking them. "I don't feel Cardassian anymore. I do feel like when the Borg took me... they stripped all of that from me. Now, in the eyes of most... I am ex-Borg and nothing else."

"Ohhh, I don't think so mister," she said, enthusiastically. "You are an ex-Borg, but also Cardassian. You are a friend, a member of Starfleet for all its faults, and my friend!" she said, enthusiastically. She smiled. "The best part of loosing yourself though is making yourself into who you want to be. Your identity is not dependent on who you were, but you are in your heart."

Talarn nodded. "Oh I agree with you, wholeheartedly and I am no longer a member of Starfleet... I haven't been for many years. They kicked me out because of the ex-Borg part. Even after years of service with no incidents." He shrugged. "I found a new life and a new purpose. Although... now I'm back here with Starfleet and still not a member..." He didn't seem upset about any of this, rather he seemed to state it matter-of-factually.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Of course," he replied simply.

"You are now and always will be a member of Starfleet. The real Starfleet, not what it is now. They have changed. Quite a bit."

Talarn nodded. He wasn't really convinced and once he had thought that he had to be truly honest and consider that perhaps he hadn't failed Starfleet, but the other way around. He frowned for a moment, in thought, and then seemed to shake the feeling free and looked up at Eyelaya again, with a small, strained smile.

"Well, if that node gives you trouble you come see me." They started heading out. As they did, Eyelaya spotted trouble. "Oh no!"

Talarn froze immedately, it had been a long time since he'd had any dealings with any sort of technology that he wasn't sure quite what the problem was.

She looked at Talarn. "Stay here okay. No matter what stay here." She quickly left the room. She'd heard the group coming. It was Gloris' voice. He was always mean to the enlisted. She had hoped to speak to the captain about them, but didn't know how to approach him.

Voices began to carry.

"What are you doing here rat?"

There was a pause. "Hello Ensign Gloris. I was just tending to something important."

There was a clatter. "Now see you've made all those instruments fall. Pick that up and when you're done I want all the isoliniar spare chips cleaned with a toothbrush."

"Yes, Ensign."

"Good, now stay out of the way and let the real engineers work."

She said nothing, hoping Talarn would stay hidden. She did not want to unleash Ensign Gloris on anyone. When he rounded the corner. She hurried back in the room. "Okay, all clear."

Talarn eyed her, untrustingly. "All clear? What was that all about?" Not that it was really any of his business, but he wasn't deaf or blind. Something had obviously been wrong. "Were we boarded?"

She sighed. "That was Ensign Gloris. He... does not like enlisted personnel or perhaps it's just me. She shrugged. "It's alright. He's young. He'll develop and learn." She smiled at Talarn. "I'm glad you are here on the ship. The implant should not give you any trouble. If it does then give me a call."

Talarn really couldn't agree that he was glad he was there on the ship, but he also knew not to be rude. "Thank you and thank you for your help. It's been a little bit since I had access to tools or equipment to fix anything. I appreciate your help. I really do." He slid down off the table and dusted his clothing. "I will return to our quarters and let you get back to work. Thank you again."

She smiled and waved. "It was great to formally meet you!"

"It was... great to meet you as well." He returned the wave awkwardly and headed back to quarters.

{OFF:}