Chief Medical Officer's log

Posted on Mon Mar 28th, 2016 @ 2:47am by Lieutenant Urr Selren

Mission: Episode Three: Hide and Myth
Location: Starbase 621
Timeline: Stardate 93699.2

My service on board the U.S.S. Cychreides has been fascinating so far. My Reman peers were not entirely happy about the prospect of having a fellow officer serving on a Starfleet vessel, but I am glad to report that their preconceptions and reservations are just that, hollow and baseless prejudices.

Quite so. I have managed to adjust to the crew with little trouble and even those under my command never showed the slightest sign of discomfort despite the fact that they had never seen, let alone served under a Reman officer before. Perhaps Republic Command was correct in pushing for this exchange.

I, for one, have found the transition very interesting. I have extensive experience treating other species, but the current diversity at my disposal would baffle my friends on the Nheir.

The situation with lieutenant Alundi, for instance, speaks volumes of how enriching my assignment is proving to be. Her contact with the artifact from the race known as Progenitors or Preservers has the entire science and medical teams on the Cychreides perplexed. As if the apparatus itself didn't pose enough of a mystery, the visions officer Alundi suffered after brief physical contact with it had the entire crew worried for a few hours.

The nature of the visions, or hallucinations, is still to be determined, but I have come to compare them with those felt by individuals that activated Bajoran Orbs. A vague but adequate analogy for now.

Indeed, the lieutenant, of Andorian origin, speaks of sensations and feelings that go beyond a 'simple infusion or transmission of knowledge'. Almost as though it tried to instill a certain sense of purpose, together with complete sensorial information.

The first counselling session, which I performed with the patient's permission, revealed that the artifact could be a sort of weapon. Officer Alundi used a curious metaphor to describe what she perceives as its function, comparing it, and I quote, to a mythological creature from ancient Earth known as the phoenix. She believes that we may be dealing with a terraforming device that is capable of creating life out of nothing.

Puzzling as it is, the other officers agreed that it could be a far more advanced form of an old prototype by the name of 'Genesis' judging by the preliminary description she gave of it.

I considered asking one of our full-fledged counsellors to direct the sessions, but the lieutenant and I had already formed a connection as I was the first to treat her after she touched the device and felt that I was the most logical conclusion. My comrades agreed, as time in these situations is, as they say, of the essence. The original information that was transmitted to Alundi is still being processed by her brain and we fear that her memory may form associations between parts of it she cannot fully comprehend with recollections that are similar enough so that they can be digested by her mind and, eventually, distort the real content of the vision more than she may already have.

For now, however, the memories of the event appear quite vivid. She remembers the vision with remarkable accuracy and freshness. Earlier I depicted it as a weapon, for Alundi described in great detail how she witnessed a low orbit explosion of great proportions that rendered all life asunder on the area or planet below asunder. The Captain remarked on the observations that followed, comparing them to yet another Earth reference: Hell and Purgatory, which, as I understand, were places of punishment meant for the damned. The feelings of eerie chillness and the presence of a fire conveyed by Alundi could certainly be ascribed to such a place, but for now I would prefer to think that it is an attempt to put to words the aftereffects of the weapon or device.

I have decided to keep the lieutenant on restricted-light duty for at least two days and I check on her daily, but other than losing consciousness when she touched the object and some mild discomfort and headaches after she awakened, all of which are common when great mental stress is at play, I cannot find anything wrong with her health.

We hope that additional counselling sessions, together with the on-going efforts of the science officers, may yield more light on the subject.

End personal log.