Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three - They have what? Could it Get Any Weirder?

A few hours later Jim received a call that the Council members had collapsed when they had come aboard. He looked to Spock and they both agreed to go to sickbay. So with boys in tow, they headed to sickbay to see what the scans would show. They reached sickbay and went in to find that Etrim and Omal were already there. Bones and M’Benga were already performing scans on the two Council Members with a tricorder. Bones was working on Itaada and M’Benga was working on Ograi. Jim could feel frustration coming off Bones and confusion from M’Benga.

“What’s up?” Jim asked as he went over to stand near them. He shifted Sarek when he started to fuss into a more comfortable position.

“There seems to be some sort of parasitical life form attached to their spinal cords right on the medulla oblongata and seems to have tentacles reaching to the cerebral cortex.”

“Their what? English Bones,” Jim said with a smirk.

“You know what it is you brat. Playing dumb.” Bones snorted, “Remember I know you are a genius.”

“Fine,” Jim huffed out. “So what does this mean for them?”

“It means that whatever this is, controls their very thoughts and auto functions as everything that involves the rest of the body.”

“Shit, so since it helps regulate breathing, heart and blood vessel function, digestion, sneezing, and swallowing...” he trailed off.

“As well as the sensory and motor neurons from the forebrain and midbrain travel through there,” Bones picked up, “this thing can at any time kill its host,” he finished.

“Damn, any suggestions?” he asked Bones.

“Short of killing them, I don’t know.”

“Isn’t there a way to kill the parasite?”

“Not sure, I have never seen anything like this. I have no idea how aware they are and if I can remove them without there being damage to the host.”

They all turned to look at the two Betazoid council members lying on the biobeds. Suddenly Ograi jerked up into a sitting position. “Foolish humans,” he hissed out.

“Who are you?” Jim asked him.

“We are the Kree-ta.”

“Kree-ta?”

“Yes, foolish mammal. We live in the water on our homeworld of Tu-taka Prime. This life form as well as the other came to our planet. They tried to stop the warring on our planet.”

“Why was your planet warring?” Jim asked. He hugged his son closer to him, he did not want that thing near his kits.

“We control the native mammals on the planet. But over many generations of us controlling them, they started to develop a resistance. They started to evolve.”

“Evolved, how so?” Spock was interested in gathering as much information as possible. They needed to know what they were dealing with.

“It was getting harder and harder to take them. They had hard shells over their brain stems. They started fighting the ones that were still occupied. Since they could not remove us without killing the host they killed us.”

“Why did you call for help?”

“We needed new hosts. A new planet.”

“So you took over the Ambassadors?” Jim asked for clarification.

“Yes. Now that you know, we will need to remove you as a threat.” He tried to lunge for Jim but underestimated the good Doctor. McCoy grabbed a hypo that was full of a sedative and jabbed it into his neck. He had it set on such a high dosage that the Councilman dropped immediately to the floor. Bones and M’Benga lifted the unconscious man and put him back on the biobed.

“Well, now we know what we have to do,” Bones said as he stepped back from the bed. M’Benga moved to where Itaada was lying and gave her a sedative as well to keep her unconscious.

“Well, it looks like I’m going to have to call in Chris and Jon. Spock could you call your parents and see if they can watch the boys for a while?”

“Of course, my mate. I will call them now.”

“Thanks, love. I will feed them while we wait and then they will be all set.”

“Alright,” he sighed and shifted his son again. “Bones, call the Admirals. M’Benga see if you can send the report of those scans to everyone's PADDs. I will feed the boys while we wait. Once they are with my in-laws we need to see what we can do to help the councilmen.”

Spock walked back over holding Grayson, “They are on their way. I explained the situation and they will take the kits as long as is needed.”

“Hope for not too long. I hate missing or being late for feedings. My chest hurts if I don’t give them their milk.”

“We will endeavor to get this take care of as soon as possible, my mate.”

“Time to get the show on the road then. I’ll feed Sarek and then switch. Can you change them as I get them fed?”

“Yes, my mate.”

Jim went over to a private area and sat down to start feeding Sarek. While he was doing that, Spock took care of changing Grayson and having Ensign Rand collect a baby bag for each child. Once Jim finished with Sarek, they switched babies and started the process all over again; Sarek and Amanda arrived and took the boys. Once the boys were gone, they had to wait until Chris and Jon arrived to get everything going.

**********

Spock felt much better once his parents had taken the boys. Admirals Pike and Archer had arrived shortly after his parents had left. They had been on New Vulcan visited with Doctor Kirk and discussing what the plans were for the new procedure and what it now meant for both of their species. Once Doctor McCoy’s call had gotten through to them, they immediately returned to the ship. Now that all of the relevant parties were there, all they now had to do was figure out a solution to the immediate problem.

“So there is a symbiote living in them?” Archer scratched his head at the thought.

“Incorrect, Admiral.”

“Whaddaya mean, Spock?”

“A symbiote indicates a mutually beneficial arrangement where both parties get something from the joining. This would be a parasite as the host does not gain anything from the joining.”

“So, all we have to do is figure out how to remove it without killing the host?” Archer asked as he looked at the two prone figures on the biobeds.

“Indeed,” Spock said.

“They leave in three days. We can’t keep them longer than that without having to deal with the rest of the Ruling Council and we will need to talk to the rest of the Admiralty,” Pike said as he ran his hand through his hair. This was all they needed. Dealing with crazy assassins and now this. At least the nonsense with the Romulans was finished and the Klingons had been quiet.

“Admiral Pike, I am on the Ruling Council as well. I will contact them and let them know that we have been delayed due to illness and will let them know when we will back. That should give us time to figure out how to deal with this.”

“You sure that is safe, Etrim?” Omal asked.

“Why do you ask?” Etrim looked at Omal in confusion.

“Perhaps there are others infected as well,” Omal told him.

“They were the only one that had gone to the planet,” Etrim said.

“Just be careful,” Omal said to him.

“I will, Omal.” He turned back to Pike, “As soon as we are done here, I will make the call.”

“Thank you, Councilman Etrim.”

“Bones, you okay with keeping an eye on them?” Jim asked as he knew that the Council Members would need to stay in sickbay.

“Yeah, we can move them to a private room. Just means you can’t get hurt.” He smirked at Jim. Jim knew that the room he was talking about was the one he always ended up in.

“Funny,” he huffed. “So we will leave them here and Spock can work with Bones on how we can remove the parasites safely.”

“We’ll hold off on the talk with the Admiralty as long as possible but we can’t hold off too long.”

“Got it, Chris. Okay, so now that we have a plan, let's go.”

They broke up and headed off. Jim and Spock decided that Amanda and Sarek would have the boys for a while to use this time for some adult bonding. He so missed his adult bonding time with Spock since the boys had been born, but he would not trade them for anything. He figure they had an hour or so before they would need to get the boys for a feeding so they were going to use it wisely.