Aoife

Posted on Fri Jan 8th, 2021 @ 1:43am by Cailus Griffin & Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Eva Griffin
Edited on on Fri Jan 8th, 2021 @ 1:44am

Mission: The Evils Within
Location: Conference Room/Sickbay
Timeline: BACKPOST: shortly after "Ring A Ring O' Rosies" and "Prime Directive"

With the conference winding down, three of its participants were the last to leave, all going together. One of them, a yellow-shirted severe looking man, was in a desperate need of a shower, his uniform and face filthy. Another, a blue-shirted vulpine bushy-tailed girl, was similarly in need of a shower, if less so than her husband. The third man, by dint of having stayed aboard the ship, made for a stark contrast to his friends in his pristine uniform.

It was, by all accounts, just a normal meeting in the midst of a normal mission. Important, certainly, but normal. Neither Nyx, Cailus nor Shae had any idea what sort of cannonball was coming their way, or the effect that it would have on all of their lives.

It was Nyx's combadge that chirped, the anxious voice of a nurse coming through. =/\=Sickbay to Captain Temple.=/\=

=/\= Temple here =/\= He replied quickly.

=/\=Captain, I have an update on Miss Brennan's condition. Whatever is happening, we need her parents down here immediately. We don't have much time."

Nyx's eyes widened with the news, mind starting to race.

Shae's ears shot upright at the sound of her former surname, now only used on duty to differentiate her from her husband over comm calls, and there was of course Aoife... "Nyx?" Shae said uneasily, gazing at her Commanding Officer with a severe yet concerned expression. "Aoife's condition? What happened?"

Shaking his head cluelessly, Nyx wished he had an answer. "I... I don't know. Oh my... Go! Go to her."

Cailus looked pale, a sick feeling starting to burn in his gut. He touched Shae's shoulder and without a word, rushed straight to the turbolift with his wife at his heels.

Nyx tapped his badge =/\= Brennan and Griffin are on their way now. =/\=

Shae was wringing her hands as she ordered the lift to Sickbay. "Perhaps she took a tumble? The ship did get jostled about quite a bit, and her bones are still quite brittle, a good fall and..." Shae rambled to fill the silence; something about the nurse's tone had filled Shae with a foreboding sense of unease, and she was trying to think of 'conditions' that didn't make her feel quite so uneasy.

“She’ll be fine,” Cailus said gruffly, but there was a tension in his voice all the same. “She’s stronger now, healthier. They wouldn’t approve her for that surgery at Carnwennan if she wasn’t. Besides, kids fall down all the time, it’s part of...of being a kid,” Despite his words, the sick feeling in Cailus’s gut was growing worse and worse, his own hands starting to shake at his sides as the lift sped along the length of the ship, He could hear the concern in the nurse’s tone just like Shae could, he knew what it meant...

Silence fell; both of their minds were going to the worst, there was nothing either of them could say to ease this tension. Shae practically jumped out of her skin when the lift finally stopped and opened the door, and together they rushed to Sickbay where a nurse quickly ushered them back to the surgical ward.

What Shae saw sucked the air out of her lungs: Aoife on a biobed with the surgical canopy covering her little body and a mess of neurological tools attached to her forehead. She stared wide-eyed for a moment before the EMH noticed.

"Doctor Brennan, Commander Griffin," the EMH greeted in a grim tone.

"Wha-" Shae croaked out, trying to find her voice and failing.

Cailus was frozen, his eyes locked on the prone form of Aoife. He didn't say anything. He simply stared at his daughter, unmoving.

"I'm sorry, but I have bad news," The EMH said, but clearly both parents could see the truth despite the life support in the canopy keeping the girl's heart beating. "It was multiple aneurysms, one cascading into another. We attempted to preserve brain function, but she was essentially gone before she was ever on my table," the EMH continued, attempting to emulate empathy with moderate success. "Take all the time you need to say your goodbyes."

"How?" Cailus croaked, his eyes still fixed on Aoife's body. She looked fine, almost as if she was simply sleeping...but Aoife never slept flat on her back like that. Her little fox ears always twitched, even in slumber, but now they were completely still. It was Cailus' worst nightmare made real. Only belatedly did he force himself to look at Shae, his heart seeming to have stopped beating altogether, the moment stretching and stretching tortuously. This can't be happening again...it can't be...

"We won't know for absolute certain until the post mortem examination-" Even the EMH looked uncomfortable talking about an upcoming autopsy on an individual that was still biologically alive. "Er, preliminary examinations seem to suggest cloning flaws indicative of the Gaussian method of cloning..."

At this, Shae shook her head. "She wasn't made that way," she said softly, her voice full of hurt. She approached the biobed with tears welling up in her eyes. "Please, little one, please don't leave me," she said, stroking Aoife's curly hair, then with a sniffle she turned to look back at Cailus, then reached out with a hand to bring him closer. "Don't leave us," she corrected herself as she resumed stroking those ebony locks.

Wordlessly Cailus moved over, taking Shae's hand. His own hand was shaking in hers, but only for a few moments before Cailus got it under control. Squeezing Shae's hand, he looked down at Aoife, completely lost for words. Finally he let go of Shae's hand and wrapped an arm around her, not caring a whit that he was still filthy from the mission on Hesiod. "This isn't right," he finally got out, his throat dry, still gazing down at the little one. "It's not right, dammit. Aoife..." His voice cracked, choking off whatever else he was going to say.

Making a notation in Aoife's file that she wasn't cloned in the manner suspected, the EMH decided that now was not the time to discuss it further and left the grieving parents to say their goodbyes.

Shae slowly devolved into sobs as the finality of it all was starting to truly hit her. This couldn't be happening! Aoife was still breathing, her skin still felt warm, how could she be gone?! What good was all this technology if they couldn't save this little girl?!

"There has to be something we can do," Shae as she sobbed, then sniffled as she dried her eyes with a glimmer of hope. "I heard of an experimental treatment done to a Vedek on Deep Space 9, involving a positronic brain! It could work, right? She's still here with us, she can't be truly gone!" It was a wild idea bourn of truly mad science, and even when used on the Vedek it had only been out of sheer desperation, but the ethics of such technology were such that this could never be a valid idea and she knew it, but she needed to beg, plead with the universe, bargain even for this child's life, this one small pebble that had made such large ripples in the mutual ponds of Shae and Cailus' lives.

"Shae..." Cailus whispered in the dead silence of the room. He held her tighter. He didn't even begin to believe her wild idea, not daring to go down that road, knowing that neither of them could possibly survive that. "She's...she's gone, love. This is it. She wouldn't...she wouldn't want to stay like that." He turned slightly so that he could face her. Lines of tears ran down his cheeks, distinct against the grime on his skin, his blue eyes broken yet, conversely, still hard with resolve and bitter experience. He grasped both her shoulders lightly, forcing Shae to look him in the eye. "I'm so...so sorry, Shae. We need to be her mama and papa one...one last time. For her."

"But..." Shae started, her voice breaking as tears flowed anew. "How can I let her go?" she asked, even though she knew he was right; of course he was right, it was the natural order of things, but that didn't mean she had to like it! She eventually conceded her stance with a shudder and fresh wave of tears.

With that, Cailus let Shae go, turning around. His movements were jerky and slow, but nevertheless he found them a couple of chairs, bringing them over to the biobed. He gently eased Shae into the chair at the head of it, closer to Aoife, while he took the one next to her.

Together they sat, an hour or possibly two, neither had any presence of mind to keep track, sometimes they cried together, and sometimes they spoke to Aoife, telling her how much they love her and how much they'll miss her, and the rest of the time was spent in a stunned silence. Eventually, it came time for them to make a choice: let her go or let her linger on life support a little longer. Alarms had started to sound off and the EMH returned to check Aoife's status; her little body was starting to shut down, one organ after another, and even on life support it was only a matter of time.

Shae looked to Cailus for comfort and strength before finally nodding to the EMH that they were ready. No, one could never truly be ready for the death of their child, but they were as close as they could get. The EMH began disabling the life support system and removing the neural probes. After collapsing the canopy, the only biobed sensor he left active was on her heartbeat so that they would know when she had finally passed. A testament to the child's force of will, she hung on for several more hours before finally, inevitably, the beeping of the sensor stopped.

 

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