D is for Diagnosis
Posted on Tue Nov 25th, 2025 @ 12:03am by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Commander Daynah Ral & Lieutenant Commander Zuub & Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki & Lieutenant Amy Gordon
1,584 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
On the Trail
Location: Avan's Colony, Quatal Prime, Dispensary.
Timeline: After A Nurse Named Weld.
Data flowed across the dispensaries monitor as first the summary of the nurse's autopsies on the colonists that had died to the mysterious malady. While the Adelaide's crew reviewed her work, Nurse Weld busied herself hovering over the Proctor, then making coffee and getting out a tin of homemade cookies.
Zuub started digging through all of Nurse Weld's observations. For the moment, the Doctor could see nothing wrong with any of the nurse's findings. Her antennae wobbled unsteadily. Something had to be wrong. She looked at the nurse and said, "I have reviewed your findings. While it appears you have done an admirable job, I need to conduct those autopsies."
Sighing, Weld nodded. "I had hoped I'd made a mistake. Someplace..." she said. "I'll get some help and bring the five bodies up from the catacombs."
As ten sick and uncertain looking colonists filed out of the comendered cargo bay, Weld spoke quietly to them, both thanking her fellow colonists and friends, before turning to the Adelaides. "No room for all these in the dispensary and with the number of sick in there...well. They don't need to see this."
The bodies, wrapped in shrouds had been lain out in a double row under the harsh overhead lights. Weld had brought in what equipment she had and glanced at Zuub. "May I assist, Doctor?"
"IF you wish," Zuub answered, he antennae warbling unsteadily, her own emotions uncertain on whether she should allow it.
Daynah stood off to the side and was content to watch the autopsies proceed. At the moment it seemed that Weld and her people had hit the proverbial wall on learning anything new. Zuub may be gruff to say the least, but she was quite astute, and Daynah had hopes that they would learn something new imminently.
Zuub started running the medical tricorder over the bodies. As the results came in, Zuub's antennae stood straight upwards. Something seemed different. "I need to compare these results with those from your research Nurse Weld. I have an unsettling feeling that your computers may not have been doing your research justice, though, I do not know why."
Looking up sharply, Weld came over to where Zuub was sifting through her findings and said, "How so? " The Grazerite rubbed at her arms, a chill that possibly was from more than the surroundings creeping over her.
"Look here," Zuub pointed to her tricorder. "According to my readings, there is more nitrogen in these bodies. They've formed bubbles. That should have been recorded by the computers. Why have they not?" Zuub wondered, her antennae warbling unsteadily.
Amy was quietly watching, and keeping track of the information that had been taken. She was also rather relieved that both Zuub and Weld decided to take a step back from them locking the proverbial horns and instead focus on the problem. The word nitrogen bubbles caught her attention, there was something that was coming up from her memory, reading about something to do with deep sea diving. Wait, what the heck?
"Wait, it sounds like they had the bends? " Amy blurted out.
"That is an apt assessment," Zuub answered. "However, there should not be anything in here to decompress, which means there is something wrong in this atmosphere and that the computer that Nurse Weld was utilizing is not analyzing properly. We should check that computer further," the Andorian concluded.
The entire breadth of the centuries of knowledge that Daynah had agreed with the assessment as it was presented. "Well then the investigation may have turned a corner. We will have our people look over the computer systems. In the meantime we need to have a look at the atmosphere as well as the environmental controls in the shafts. It is possible that the atmosphere is fine, but the computer is not. Doctor, confirm your diagnosis on all the bodies." Daynah opened her communicator. "Adelaide. Scan the atmosphere of the planet and send the results to my scanner. I would like a particular scan of the elements, and gasses that are making up the atmosphere of the planet."
"Barring contrary or additional information, that is my diagnosis," Zuub responded, her antennae leaning forward.
Amy looked from one to the other, she definitely wanted to dig into the computers and really have a look at what was there. When Daynah called the Adelaide she wondered just what they would find out. For now though, she wanted to go do some digging.
Standing by the door, leaning against the wall was Aria. She had been silently observing, with her arms crossed. Finally she spoke. "Are you telling us that these people died because of a high amount of Nitrogen in their blood? If its in the atmosphere, why is it just these people that are affected?"
Amy looked at Aria, "I am thinking that they have been exposed to these conditions longer than we have, so we're not being affected by it. Maybe a build up has occurred for this to happen." she looked towards Daynah and Zuub, "Could this be a reason why we've not been having trouible with the bends?"
Weld frowned as she listened to the crew of the Adelaide sift through findings. Stalking over to a portable console she'd brought in, the nurse brought up an entry on the Bends, or Decompression sickness (along with other names) and her frown deepened. "The symptoms all match..." she said, speaking to everyone and no-one at the same time as she asked, "Computer, compare the current symptoms of the colonists to the Decompression sickness. Is there a correlation of symptoms."
"Yes," the Computer said. "Conditions are similar."
"So they have the bends," Weld asked. "Outline treatment plans."
"The colonists do not appear to have Decompression Sickness, Nurse Weld," the Computer said. "No treatment necessary for that condition."
Straightening, Weld's hands balled into fists and she cursed inventively in several languages. If the computer were lying to her...
Amy's eyebrows raised, what the heck? This had the earmarks to needing more investigation. She melted away from the scene to let Zuub, Weld and Daynah deal with the rest of this. She nudged Aria giving a gesture with her head, mumbling something to the effect to Daynah and Zuub that she was going to take a step outside to gather her thoughts.
Zuub looked over at Amy and after a moment's thought said, "I think there are only two explanations here. The computer is faulty or someone has purposely programmed this computer to not recognize these symptoms. What do you think?
"That could be a good possibility, and needs to be checked." Amy responded, taking a look towards Daynah then to Zuub. "That is my theory."
"I think we need to inform the Captain," Zuub answered.
Aboard the Valiant, Rhu heard his exec's request and he acknowledged it by sending a non-verbal back, then walked over to the sensor station and pulled a log. They'd not done anything like sampling the atmosphere, but the basic compensation was part of the log...
"Adelaide to Rix. I'm no science guy, but the computer feed the sensors captured on our way in says the planet's atmosphere is Primarily Hydrogen with lesser parts helium. There's a carbon in there too and trace to medium amounts of ammonia and nitrogen." Rhu paused as he sorted through the information and said, "That's pretty much what the computer says you can expect for a Class A planet. There's also the Cobalt Diselenaide, that is significantly present that Cardassians are still unlikely to be able to be in a non-sealed environment...or even one that is sealed and tries to process oxygen from the hydrogen for another thirty years or so."
"Thank you Adelaide I will take it from here." Daynah replied as she looked at her scanner and had the results. They did look normal for this planet. If you pair these results with what just happened with the computer they had their culprit. However, she was not convinced the nitrogen levels looked somewhat off. She wished she had a full lab at the moment, and felt the pain of being on an assignment such as this.
Daynah turned to Zuub. "Doctor we are going to have to check these scans more. I want to check the lung tissue of the deceased and see what they had been breathing prior to death. There is something off about these scans. Lieutenants Gordon and Kanzaki can work the computer problem."
"I would like to check them as well. Will the nurse allow us to do the autopsy now?"
Weld sighed then nodded. "Yes." Stepping among the bodies that were now lain out she bowed her head slightly and said, "Forgive me my friends. We must disturb your remains to answer this question. Hopefully."
Zuub had patiently waited for the bodies to be brought to her. She knew what the results would be but they needed the proverbial nail in the coffin to put the mystery to rest. Zuub's antennae bounced (the equivalent of Andorian laughter) at this thought. That was quite the pun. Her tricorder was handy, as was her scalpel.
END
Lieutenant Amy Gordon
Chief Of Intelligence
USS Valiant
Commander Daynah Ral
Executive Officer
Chief Science Officer
USS Valiant
Edina Weld
Chief Nurse for Avan's Colony.
written by R. Tyree
Lieutenant Commander Zuub
Chief Medical Officer
USS Valiant
Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki
Security Chief
USS Valiant
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