Just a Prescription

Posted on Wed Oct 12th, 2022 @ 7:56pm by Uhlan Ezra Perez & Centurion Nancy Gable

1,297 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Chapter VI: Racing the Storm
Location: Medbay, Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238704.20

"Shit." Uhlan Ezra Perez stared into the nearly empty pill bottle in their hand and cursed. It had been over two months now that they'd transferred from the service of the Terran Empire to the colourful band of misfits that crewed the Independent Romulan Warbird Ourainavassa. A lot of things had gone on during that brief time, enough to stop Perez from seeing the ship's medical officer to discuss their prescriptions. At least, that's what they told themselves the reason was. The genetic modifications they'd undergone as a child, part of a failed Terran attempt to create "super soldiers", were a subject they preferred to avoid discussing as much as possible. But unless they wanted to "go berserk", as they called it, at the slightest bit of stress, the medication would need to be refilled. With a sigh, Perez zipped up their black combat suit, part of their old Terran uniform, grabbed the pill bottle, and headed out of the door.

Moments later, they'd arrived at the ship's medical bay. With a deep breath, they pressed the door button, and walked in. "Doc? Need your help for a sec."

Gable looked up from her inventory - T'Ango and Gunnar had gone off on a last extraction run and past experience put high odds one or both were likely to return injured, so she wanted to be sure stocks were full. But it was a task that could wait, particularly when a Terran who had previously avoided medbay showed up on their own. "Certainly, Perez. What can I help you with?"

The Uhlan briefly hesitated. This was only the second time they'd come to medbay, the only other time having been after an accident with their holodeck training programme. Finally, they held out the pill bottle. "Running low on meds. Need more. Sorry, can't give you a prescription or anything, I have no clue what's in it. But I do know what happens when I don't take one every morning, which isn't pretty."

"Hmm. Let's see what we have here," Gable said, taking the pill bottle and extracting one. she examined it briefly before placing it on scanning tile. "Computer, run full spectrum molecular analysis. Compare against Federation, Klingon and Romulan pharmacological databases. List results and near matches."

The computer whirred briefly and readings appeared on the adjacent terminal screen. "Chemical profile fits no known medication. There are no near matches."

The doctor sighed. She'd expected as much, but it would've been right to have her innate cynicism proven wrong for a change. Examining the read out, her brows lifted, and lifted some more. "It looks like this is designed to suppress over 90% of anything associated with a fight-or-flight response."

Perez simply nodded. "Since that kind of situation really doesn't play that well with me, that makes sense. I'm sure you read the report of what happened when we took that hospital ship with the frozen Romulans, before I joined your crew?"

Yeah... Gable nodded. "Battle fury. It isn't necessarily unnatural - it's a known phenomenon among Klingons, Dosadi, Kzinthi and even humans, though it's generally more latent there. However, what the report described indicated modifications to enhance physical performance beyond normal bounds when it kicked in." She frowned, glaring at the readout as she imagined the sick SOBs behind that - not that she was actually surprised Terrans would try it. "Based on needing to keep you medicated, I'd wager they tweaked your brain chemistry to trigger into it almost automatically."

"Sounds about right", Perez replied with a shrug. "All I know is that they messed around with my genetic code. I stopped growing when I was twelve, and all the other developments my body should have gone through at that age just didn't happen. Other than muscle growth. I might not look very muscular, but somehow I'm far stronger someone my size should be. Got more stamina, too."

They shook their head. "Sick bastards. All in the pursuit of creating the perfect soldier. To further their idea of Terran superiority over all other species. The 'battle fury' as you call it, it's triggered by extreme stress. Well, without the meds it would probably need a lot less to trigger it. Apparently their plan was to make it so I could go into it at will, but that never worked."

"Small mercies," Nancy muttered to herself. "I guess that's why they didn't do the same thing to millions of others. I am surprised they only gave you pills. A subdermal implant would be better for continuous medication and wouldn't need daily dosing." Which suggested to her that someone had imagined that with-holding or altering pills would be a means of control, or of terror, if a group of Perez's were dropped somewhere without medication... which suggested to her part-Klingon mind that possibly the program was killed because the people running it were killed when a subject decided not to refuse the meds. But that was not the question that mattered now. "Do you want to stay with pills? I can replicate replacement meds based on these readings, though it will take a day or two since I want to be absolutely sure the formulation is right."

"I was only given the pills after the end of the programme," Perez replied. "They wanted to train us to be able to control it ourselves, without any form of medication. Of course, when their demonstration nearly killed the entire Imperial Guard, and threatened even the Emperor himself, all surviving subjects were terminated. I got lucky, one of the researchers had taken a liking to me and managed to get me out. I took the identity of his dead son as a cover. He's the one who formulated the original meds, although they've been fine-tuned since. But yeah, I'd rather stick with the pills. They've become a part of my morning routine by now, and it actually makes me a little anxious when I don't get to take them before breakfast."

They chuckled. "Besides, I do have a small cache of adrenaline pills, in case I ever need to override the blockers. Never taken one, but, better safe than sorry."

That explained the demise of the program. Nancy couldn't help but think of Wallace's friend Jenn who had been subject to a similar program, albeit as an adult prisoner - something her captors didn't live long enough to properly regret. It had taken quite a lot of work to come up with an implant to prevent her from going into 'hulk smash' mode, so Perez' benefactor must have truly cared for them. "I'm glad there was one researcher who didn't completely mortgage their soul. Just as a data point, the adrenaline blockers would work with implants as well, but I understand the comfort with a routine. If you're confident you'll always have access to your pills when needed, I'm fine with giving you pills."

"Well, not sure about Doc Perez having a soul to begin with, but he wasn't as much of a bastard as the rest of them, at least. I've not had an issue with access to the pills yet, even when on extended away missions, so I'll be fine. I've got about seven days' worth left, let me know when I can pick up the refill. And thanks, doc." Perez smiled. "You can guess I don't really like to talk about all this."

"I understand," the doctor replied sympathetically. There were certainly enough things she preferred not to discuss, even if a certain annoyingly soft-hearted giant blonde was occasionally right that she needed to. "Just know that all of this falls under doctor patient confidentiality, so if there's ever an aspect you need to talk about, you can come to me and it won't go further."

RSS Feed