Foreign Ailment

The Angry Phase

"I'm almost afraid to ask why the captain called me here," When Garak had reached the edge of the corridor outside of the doctor's private quarters he was met with many of the senior staff staring at him with angry looks, arms crossed. He hadn't remembered doing anything illegal at least in the past twenty-four hours.   

Plus this was a rather unorthodox way of scolding him, outside the doctor's quarters. No, something else had to be wrong. Garak put on his customer service smile and crossed his arms behind his back to give the illusion of a defenseless tailor when in actuality and was in a position to grab his hidden phaser (he had stolen) if anybody made any alarming movements in his direction. He could never be too safe, especially during the war. The Colonel let out a sigh.

"We seem to have a bit of a predicament here," Garak raised his forehead ridges.

"What could I, a simple tailor, assist the senior staff of Starfleet with that you can't already do?"

"Can it Garak," O'Brien spoke up which caused Garak's attention to shift. He glanced in the group's direction again, noticing a lot of defeated looks. He wondered if the doctor had locked himself into his quarters. After all, that augmented brain could put up a few roadblocks in their emergency access codes to enter said quarters.

Plus a few tips he had happened to teach the doctor after one of their dinners some codes that would surely keep the others busy if there was ever an emergency. Ever since their time in Julian's spy program he has been getting a mixture of dinner and lunch invitations from the doctor depending on how much time the other had. O'Brien sighed and continued.

"Julian is sick." This caused even more confusion on Garak's end. Surely the nurses could handle such precautions. Ezri spoke up.

"We had gathered the first sample of plant life in the Gamma quadrant since the war had started and Julian was more than excited to begin studying it. According to distant nurses, one of the plants shot something right in his face. A purple fog-like substance shot into him like a phaser. It seems to be taking the effect as some sort of flu but since its a foreign subject we don't exactly know how to combat it, all we know is that if not taken care of like the flu it could kill him,"

"So what is it you need me for?" Garak questioned innocently, taking note of the incidents. He wasn't surprised the other had jumped headfirst into disaster yet again. Sometimes he let the remnants of his boyish delight get in the way of safety, especially at the idea of discovering something new.

Although it was quite startling to find this chance plant could be the thing to bring the other to his demise, no he couldn't allow that to happen. If anything was going to kill the doctor besides ripe old age he had always thought it was going to him...at least at the beginning of their friendship. Kira picked up for the Lieutenant.

"Ever since he got to the station he has never fallen ill like this before. I suppose his genetic engineering and career as a doctor mixed helped him avoid serious illness but..." Kira stopped for a moment letting her defeated tone shine through.

"He doesn't seem to be allowing anybody near him," Garak found this information quite peculiar considering how adamant the doctor was in helping others. And how insistent he had been about Garak requiring monitoring with the wire. It seemed very out of character. Almost as if O'Brien had read his mind he started answering his quiet inquiries.

"I think it might be the plant. We've tried everything to get someone in there. The only time he let the nurses get near him was when one slipped him a mild sedative to knock him out. With some help they managed to get him to bed but anytime any of the nurses go near him he started throwing things...it's like he's paranoid,"