Star Trek Voyager: Fragments

Star Trek Voyager: Fragments (Chapter 6)

The young blonde woman shifted nervously on the biobed as he approached, but Ravoc could forgive that, voluntary patients were often unsettled, even ashamed, by their visit to neural pathology. He saw putting those people at ease as the one of the most important factors in his job as a doctor, after all pioneering research only worked if you could convince people to accept help. “I’m Doctor Ravoc, one of the neural pathologists. How can I help you today miss?” he asked the woman in his most pleasant tone.

Annika swallowed and curled her fingers tensely around the edge of the bed, it was now or never. At least she didn’t have to pretend to be nervous, she already was. For some inexplicable reason it had been much easier to be confident in her plans when she’d had Amal to back her up… She pushed these irrelevant considerations to the back of her mind as the young doctor’s eyes began to peer at her in gentle concern at her silence. Taking a deep breath in, she took the plunge, internally praying all the while that this would work. “Recently I have been experiencing…some disturbing thoughts.” She said though tensely gritted teeth before jerking her head up to look Ravoc in the eye as she shakily said, “I do not believe it is anything serious…but I do think I should speak to someone…”

Ravoc smiled warmly at her, giving her a quick pat on the arm for reassurance. “You’re in the right place, you can trust me.” Annika shivered in unfeigned emotion. Can I? She questioned silently, but hid her true feelings in a watery smile as he headed for his console. “Can you tell me your name and employee number, Miss…”

“Hansen.” Annika filled in quickly, “Annika Hansen, employee number 8586.”

Ravoc nodded to her and dialled in the details, recoiling slightly in surprise at what he read before looking at her again. “You work at the power plant, right?” When she nodded, he paused in thought for several seconds, “Would you characterise these thoughts as hallucinations?”

Annika wasn’t sure how best to respond to that and hedged, “I am uncertain…” She observed his expression upon hearing her reply and decided to risk pressing him. “Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been a patient here before…” Ravoc started cautiously.

“When I first arrived. Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

“You were treated for dysphoria syndrome .It seems you may have suffered a relapse…”

Annika cut him off. “What is this syndrome? I’ve never heard of it…”

“It’s quite rare, but treatable…” When he saw her tense up even further he started again in his kindest and most pacifying tone, “I wouldn’t worry, we have one of the foremost doctors on this condition working right here in this hospital…”

“I wish to speak with this expert.” Annika could hardly keep the venom out of the last word, since she knew he was the one responsible for all this.

“Dr Kadan is very busy…” Ravoc began apprehensively, something told him this woman wouldn’t let go so easily.

“I am also very busy.” Annika retorted sharply, with a dismissive sniff for good measure, “Perhaps I should return when he’s free…” She began to get off the biobed to show her false determination to leave and then, just as she’d hoped, Ravoc held her back.

“No… I’ll go see if I can find him. Wait here.” She nodded slowly, unable to stop herself from feeling a little guilty as he visibly relaxed and smiled at her before leaving, but as soon as he was gone she hopped off the biobed and headed straight for the console with a sigh of relief. Yet she was surprised by how clear her head felt as she began to run through the database, almost as if she were used to pulling off these dangerous and farfetched plans, what kind of strange life did she lead on Voyager?