The Aftermath of Wolf 359

Chapter 5

Dr. Crusher walked into ten forward late in the evening, clearly exhausted from lack of sleep and a long day. "You look like you could use a coffee." Guinian said.

Crusher nodded. "A double cappuccino with a glass of water, and a BLT."

"Coming right up." Guinian answered.

"It's late for coffee."

"I'm just taking a break. I'm going to spend time with Jean-Luc and help him get to bed, then go back to work."

Guinian brought her the food and sat down next to her. "How is the captain?"

"How do you think? He was just used to kill thousands of people. Traumatized would be an understatement, hysterical more like. You should go see him, he needs his friends right now."

"You know what the Borg did to my people?"

"All the more reason you're the right person to convince him he isn't responsible."

"To some extent they're all responsible." She answered.

"They cut the connection between his brain and the rest of his body, replaced it with a neural implant uploading his thoughts and sending their signals to control all his motor functions. He was conscious, but completely paralyzed and used by them like a puppet. I surgically reconnected his body to his brain yesterday. He was not responsible."

"Wasn't he responding to you before that?"

"Only after Data connected to him. Data must have forced the connection they put between his brain and body to allow some of his signals through somehow."

Guinian shook her head, "It must have been torture for him."

Crusher nodded. "It was. I had to sedate him to get him to calm down, and that's been the case since he woke up from surgery."

Guinan nodded, "Are you surprised?"

"I spent 7 hours yesterday removing microcircuit fibers from his brain, not to mention the highly addictive drugs they pumped him full of that he's still coming off. After the complications during surgery I'm glad he recognizes me and isn't paralyzed. I'm not surprised he's incapable of coping with the events of the last few days in this state. I'm honestly worried he'll hurt himself. Since he woke up from surgery, he's either been in tears, having something akin to a panic attack, or sedated. He seems to be doing a bit better today, but that's largely just the meds. He asked me not to treat him for something that would have killed him."

"Did you?"

"No. Not while I can't guarantee he isn't still under an alien influence."

"Has he been sleeping?"

"Unmedicated he wakes up every hour or two screaming, then cries himself back to sleep. I finally gave him something strong enough to keep him peacefully asleep late last night."

"How does that work?" Guinian asked.

"You can alter neurochemical responses to prevent nightmares. What I gave him was strong enough to almost completely eliminate feeling emotional pain, either awake or asleep."

"It's that dangerous?"

"Yes, very, but less so than being unable to complete an REM sleep cycle and waking up with his heart rate and blood pressure spiking repeatedly within hours of a cardiac replacement and major brain surgery. Now he can get the rest he needs to heal." Guinian nodded, she hadn't intended to question Crusher's medical judgement. "I'm really worried about him, I've never seen him this bad. I'm glad I took him back to his quarters last night. Sickbay has been slammed with survivors coming in, and I don't think he could have handled it."