One too many

Posted on Tue Feb 21st, 2012 @ 5:23am by Lieutenant JG Justin Chadwick MD

Mission: Crises and Consequences
Location: Various
Timeline: Following 'Prepping the Medical Team'

[Sickbay]

"Computer, resume Chief Medical Officer's log," Justin said. A momentary series of chirps from the computer let him know it was ready. "I have ordered the arrest of Doctor Louis Sutton for sabotage, sedition, assault and tampering with evidence. So far, we have found 4 tricorders, 2 biobeds, an imaging scanner, and the resonance resequencer for one of the biological decontamination units which have all been tampered with, and then there are the modifications he attempted to make to the programming for the emergency medical program for holodeck 5. Had this not been detected prior to utilization, there is no telling what kind of damage could have been done, not only to the patients that would have been effected, but to the diplomatic relations between the Romulans and the crew of this ship. I am just thankful that not all of his friends shared his desires, one almost paid the ultimate sacrifice for it." Justin pause a moment to reflect on the incidents that precipitated these actions, some of which occurred before he arrived on board as CMO.


[2 days earlier, Med Lab 2]

After Nurse Dulany left the lab, Sutton pulled went to the corner of the room and pulled out a medical kit that was destined to be used to help injured Romulans. From the kit, he withdrew the medical tricorder. He pulled out a small electronic device from his pocket and used it to tamper with some of the settings of the tricorder. The unit had previously been checked out and approved for usage by one of the duty nurses, so he knew the likelihood of the kit being examined again was very low. He replaced the tricorder into the kit, and randomly pulled another kit. He performed the same modifications to the tricorder in that kit. Once he was done tampering with 4 tricorders, he seemed quite satisfied that his efforts were done, so he left the lab and proceeded to the lounge, where he met up with some of his friends.


[Lounge]

"I'm telling you guys, it's not going to be pretty once all of those fucking Romulans get on board. We'll be lucky to be able to find a place to think, let alone relax," Sutton said to one of the assembled crew.

"Louis, I'd be careful what kind of things you discuss in public right now. You never know what ears the Admiral has floating around," Doctor Julius Bartell replied to him.

"I don't care what the old faggot has planned or he may be listening to. He's not the only one with things up his sleeve. I'd rather die than to help treat a dirty Romulan scum. They all deserve to die. If he has any brains at all, the old bastard will promote me to Chief Medical Officer on the Arizona. Then I'd really make some changes."

"What do you mean, 'up your sleeve'?" Bartell asked.

"Oh, come on Jules, you know as well as I do we don't spill everything we know. Let's just say, I've made a few... modifications... to some equipment. Nothing major."

"Nothing major to you, that is," chirped in Doctor Steven Jamison. "When are you going to grow up and stop playing childish games?"

"Oh, this is no game, Stevie. The old prick has overlooked me for promotion several times. Hell, he's overlooked all of us. I'm getting tired of having outsiders come onto this ship and taking over control of Medical. We've all been here for at least 2 years and should be moved up."

"I have heard rumors that Cowell may be planning to call in a replacement CMO from one of the other ships in the convoy," Bartell added. He explained he had a friend in Astrometrics who had a friend in Science who had a friend in Security that overheard a conversation between the Admiral and Colonel DeVries about their current... needs.

Sutton slammed his fist into the table in front of him. It was almost too loud, as several people around them looked up from what they had been doing to find the source of the noise. Sutton loudly said, "And that's how I handled that spider. They were thick in the old house in Utah."

"Nice save!" Julius threw in shortly after everyone else resumed their conversations around them.

"That was too damn close, Louis. I know you are pissed off at the old man, but you have got to be a bit more careful about what you say in public," Steven warned him.

"The old prick doesn't worry me. I'm so sick of this crap," Sutton had been holding back a few details from his friends. "Did I tell you guys that I got put on report a few months ago by that faggot that we used to call our CMO?" The look of surprise on the eyes of his colleagues suggested they had not. "Yeah, the jerk ordered me to do an exam on a Ferengi pilot that we rescued. Can you believe the gall? I mean, a fucking Ferengi. The Ferengi was suffering from severe polaron radiation exposure. There was something about him, though. I just didn't like the way he looked, so I went about treating him as slowly as I could. When I found out he was in moderate pain, I was glad. I even give him an injection of cordrazine."

"Cordrazine? For polaron radiation? Wouldn't that have excited his cells and increased the pain response?" Lorelya finally chimed in. So far, she had been quietly drinking in everything being said.

"Exactly, my dear Lorelya!" Louis continued with a look of hatred on his face. "I wanted that fucking Ferengi to suffer. You should have seen the distressed look on his face. If his vocal chords and most of his major muscle systems hadn't been paralyzed by the damage from the radiation, who knows what the fucker might have done, besides, he didn't live long. He had absorbed too much of the polaron radiation. Thankfully, he was Ferengi, so no autopsy was performed. Had one been done, I would probably not be sitting here today," he sneered, contented with himself that he got away with it.

When he called Lorelya "dear" it made her skin crawl. Louis Sutton wasn't 'ugly' per se, but between his enormous pysical girth and his generally bad attitude, he had become rather... grotesque in his own right. Add to it what he just admitted doing to that poor Ferengi pilot, and her growing hatred for him went to a whole new level.

As Sutton completed his statement, a young medic trainee named Thaddius Carson, or to his friends, simply Thad, entered the lounge. Sutton saw him, and as the crewman passed their position, Sutton stuck his foot out, causing him to trip. In the process, Thad spilled the drink he had just gotton from the bar all over himself and the Commander sitting a few tables away. "Oh, my," Sutton feigned as he stood up trying to right Carson from his fallen position. "I didn't see you coming, I was just getting up to refill my drink."

As he said it, Bartell started snickering, but Lorelya furled her eyebrow in disgust. She had grown weary of Sutton and his attitude. Her full name was Doctor Lorelya Desanda, a Bajoran that had joined Star Fleet medical after the liberation of Bajor from the Cardassians. If it was true that Sutton had done something to equipment that might sabotage the treatment of the Romulans, there was no telling what kind of diplomatic damage it could cause.

"Please forgive me, Commander," Carson said. At this point the Commander was already in the process of drying the wet spots on his tunic. Thankfully he was off duty, so he didn't need to worry about running out and changing into a clean uniform.

"No harm done, crewman. Please do try to be more careful in the future," K'Riov-Deveraux replied.

Sutton turned to his table and sneered and left for his quarters. Soon after the others also dispersed.


[1 day later, Chadwick arrives as CMO]

Lorelya had once felt a close bond to Sutton and to their other colleagues, Doctors Bartell and Jamison, but even before Dr Chadwick came on board and started implementing immediate changes to the crew assignments that seemed much more logical, she grew weary of their constant complaining and often rude behavior, well except for Jamison. At least he seemed to have a somewhat level head. She also felt that Sutton often cut corners when it came to patient assessment, and if it was true that he planned to shirk his duties when treating Romulan's, his attitude was doubly bad. It just went against everything that a doctor believed in.

Immediately after she received the memo from the new CMO regarding Nurse Pardillo, Lorelya headed to Sickbay to discuss her concerns about Sutton. As she neared Sickbay, she saw a very pissed off Sutton emerge from Sickbay and head in the opposite direction. Once he was out of site, she headed in. She found Doctor Chadwick sitting in his office working on the computer. "Doctor Chadwick?"

"What is it? I'm a little busy," he responded without looking up. She was familiar with who his father was. She had a human friend that once served aboard the USS Farragut under the esteemed Admiral. She somehow hoped in this instance that the son took after the father in his sense of duty and honor.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Doctor Chadwick, but we need to talk," she said mildly and then entered into the office without waiting for an invitation.

"Please, come in," he said. He didn't know why, but he took an almost immediate liking to her.

What happened then was a blur of activity. It was confirmed that Doctor Sutton was in his quarters, and was being watched by security while the investigation was under way. Sutton may have thought he was a brilliant person, but obviously forgot that his security codes would be easily tracked in determining who performed the modifications to the biological decontamination unit's subroutines. As his investigation got deeper, he called in support from Lieutenant Lischka from Security and Commander K'Riov-Deveraux from Engineering. So far, they had uncovered the 4 tampered tricorders and the decontamination unit, it wouldn't take long before they uncovered the rest. Already Justin had all he needed to ask for Doctor Sutton to be arrested. He decided to ask Lischka to wait until the next day. He wanted to track Sutton to find out what more, if anything, he might do to sabotage things. It was agreed upon.


[Later that evening]

Justin called Sutton back to Sickbay to discuss the duty assignments for when their guests arrived.

"You want me to do what?" Sutton almost yelled at Justin.

"I'm going to have you on Holodeck 5 supervising the medics and holographic doctors there. If you don't feel capable of supervising people, I'll assign Doctor Jamison to it. We've made a lot of efforts to enhance the program for the holomatrix of the program to give the doctors more of our CMH's intelligence pathways. In essence, they will be sharing a pool of knowledge. Each of their experiences will be added to the pool so that the doctor can draw from them when and if we need him again in the future."

"With all due respect, Lieutenant," Louis started, but then thought better of it. "Permission to speak freely?"

Justin thought about it for a moment, and then nodded his consent.

"I can't stand the fucking Romulans. They make my skin crawl. I'd rather die than to help one of them, and I don't give a damn about my oath as a doctor. As a doctor, I vowed to help all forms of life, but I don't consider the Romulan's to be life... they are nothing more than parasites that cause death."

"Fine, I will post Doctor Jamison on the holodeck, and assign you here to take care of Arizona's crew."

"Perfect," the fat man replied. Suddenly, he saw another opportunity. If the modifications that had been made to the hologrid were that important, it shouldn't take too much modifying to make matters more... difficult. "Am I dismissed?" he asked rather rudely.

"You may go, Ensign."

As Sutton left Sickbay, Justin turned around and pressed the panel behind him. A backup copy of the holodeck programming had been made and the original left in place to see if Sutton took the bait. Should Sutton make any changes, a full copy was preserved so that it could be reinitialized for use on holodeck 5.

If he was going to take the bait, Sutton didn't make it look that way. He headed to the lounge to see if any of his friends were there. As he entered, he saw Lorelya sitting alone reading a padd. No doubt another novel. He told himself that for a Bajoran bitch, she wasn't that bad looking. He held all women in low regard. He didn't feel women had any business working alongside men. It was one of the very few things that he actually agreed with the Ferengi about. He also agreed with 2 of their Rules of Aquisition. Ferengi Rule of Aquisition #99... Trust is the biggest liability of all. #85... Never let the competition know what you're thinking. His opinion of them was even lower now that he was being forced to accept orders from that bitch nurse that Chadwick had brought about with him. Sutton's temper flared even hotter.

He debated whether or not to go say hello to Lorelya, but he had sensed over the past few weeks that she had grown distant. Distance could be dangerous. He took this as a warning sign, so he opted not to fetter himself with her demunitive glances. Instead, he sought to find where his best friend Ensign Bartell was. After inquiring with the computer, he found that Bartell was in his quarters, no doubt trying to decipher another of his favorite Vulcan puzzles. For a human, Bartell seemed awfully taken with Vulcan mysticism. It was almost uncanny how much Bartell preferred to answer the questions of why logic was so important to Vulcans. Logic was even more important than love, which seemed rather unusual since even Vulcan's married and had children. At some point, there had to be some type of attraction between them all, otherwise what force would there be to cause a parent to feel responsible for the needs of their offspring? Vulcans could continue denying they had emotions, or they could embrace the fact that while they didn't show them outwardly, they did indeed have strong feelings for those they cared about. But then, that wouldn't be very logical, would it?

Sutton made his way to Julius' quarters. When he arrived, his friend greeted him warmly, and they discussed their current predicament. Julius seemed to share his friend's dislike for the new CMO, but somehow he had a feeling if he took time to get to know the new doctor, they would probably get along. He worried that the same couldn't be said for Louis, and that the differences could cost Louis dearly.

"How long are we going to do this, Louis?"

"Do what?" Sutton responded with a confused look upon his face.

"Come on, you know damn well what I'm talking about. Even Steven and Lorelya have started distancing themselves from us because they've grown weary of it. You are so hell bent on bucking the system, it's almost to the point of making you... unstable."

Sutton turned on his friend rather quickly and attacked him. Punch after punch landed on his best friend, knocking the man unconscious, and causing severe swelling of the brain. As he finished his assault, Sutton turned and gave his ex-friend one last look. "Fuck you and your principles. You could have gone to the top with me, now..., now... you are nothing." He then left his friend's quarters.

He stormed off to the one place he felt he wouldn't think would arouse suspicion, the biometrics lab. It was one of his normal duty stations, and it wasn't unusual for off duty medical personnel to assemble there to share war stories. At this time of day, that was a different story.


[Meanwhile, Sickbay]

Justin and Chief Engineer K'Riov-Deveraux sat vigil waiting for any indication that the hologrid programming for the emergency medical simulation was being accessed. Moments after Sutton entered the biometrics lab, the computer gave a warning that the holodeck program had been accessed. The access location was being scrambled by encryption, however the access code could not be hidden. The security code belonged to Ensign Julius Bartell.

"Computer, locate Ensign Bartell," Justin inquired.

"Ensign Bartell is in his quarters," the computer dutifully replied.

As they made their way to Bartell's quarters, K'Riov-Deveraux called for a security team to meet them. They had to wait 2 minutes for the team to arrive before they forced entry to Bartell's cabin. When they did, they found the man strewn upon the floor in a bloodied heap.

Justin immediately tapped his communicator and yelled, "Medical emergency, two to beam directly to Sickbay." A moment later, they were rematerialized in the surgial area of Sickbay, where Justin frantically went to work on saving Bartell's life. Whoever had done this to him was either crazy, or damn near it, because no one in their right mind could be this brutal, not even to their own enemies.

While Justin labored to save Bartell, K'Riov-Deveraux and the security team went to the biometrics lab. They were thwarted by a level 10 forcefield that had been erected by Sutton, but a few simple commands input from the Ops station on the bridge, and they were able to gain entry. By then, Sutton had already closed the files in question, and hidden the fact that the terminal he was using had been the one to access the files to begin with. When K'Riov-Deveraux and the security team finally made entry, they found Sutton working on a petri dish containing a rather ominous looking film.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Sutton screamed at them. "Do you realize what this is? One stray fragment of this could infect the entire crew. Why do you think I erected a level 10 forcefield, you idiots!"

K'Riov-Deveraux ordered the team out, and Sutton reinitialized the forcefield. He did not attempt to re-enter the files. He didn't need to. He had enough time to cause the damage he wanted. Besides, it would only be a matter of time before security came knocking for what he did to Bartell. One way or another, Sutton figured he'd be spending his next few days, if not a long time, in the confines of the brig. With any luck, he'd be put off the ship at the nearest opportunity. It couldn't come soon enough.


[Present day, Sickbay]

"I'm also going to open an investigation into the treatment that Sutton allegedly gave to the Ferengi he spoke about to Bartell, Jamison and Lorelya," Justin said, continuing his Medical Officer's log. "If I find any evidence to show that he did indeed inject his patient with cordrazine, I will also seek to remove his medical license for life."

Justin took note of the stance that Ensign Lorelya Desanda had gone to make sure that Sutton was stopped. He also noted the cooperation he received from Ensign Jamison of his own accord. Neither was duplicitous in their part of their relationship with Sutton. The same couldn't be immediately be said for Bartell, however at the end, Bartell did have a change of heart, and never directly took part in any of the efforts that Sutton had made to sabotage things. Justin recommended to the Admiral that no action be taken against Lorelya or Jamison, and recommended that Bartell be stripped of his position as the second in command of the medical department and be assigned as a low level medical officer until he could re-earn his trust.

With any luck, this little escapade would serve as a warning for anyone else on board who had anti-Romulan feelings that dissent would not be allowed or tolerated. Especially if it put the crew or their Romulan guests in jeopardy or apprehension of harm.