Overdose

Month 11 Day 3

0910 Hours

Jane Burke

When Jane approached sick bay, she saw Tall Bear coming from the other direction, saw that he stopped to tug a boot into place and pull his uniform tunic down from being bunched around his waist. He’s normally asleep this shift. “Captain,” he greeted her. “We’ve had to break up a fight between 2 crew members. Commander Winthrop is in sick bay. I’ve had Lt MacDowell taken to the brig.”

She nodded her acknowledgement. “I’m sorry you were awakened, but if Winthrop was involved, you pretty much had to take over the investigation. Abdulla said it sounded like a brawl. Do you have any idea what started it?”

“Not at this time. All I know is it took all of us to try to get them separated, without any success, before Winthrop was knocked unconscious. And MacDowell will need a replacement uniform. The one she was wearing was pretty... well... shredded.”

“What about Winthrop’s attire?”

If he was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it. “Disheveled.”

“Well, let’s go see what the doctor can tell us, if anything. Or if Winthrop has regained consciousness.” They walked in together. They entered the sick bay lobby and then the exam room, where the unconscious Winthrop was strapped into the exam table. 2 security guards stood nearby.

“He’s still unconscious, sirs,” one of the guards reported, and added, “MacDowell must pack quite a wallop.”

“She can,” Tall Bear confirmed. “I was surprised she didn’t end the fight long before we got there. Take your positions in the lobby.”

“I wonder where Dr MacGregor is?” Jane asked.

“Of all the stupid, idiotic things a man could do to himself!” Duck declared as he stormed into the exam room from the labs further back. He calmed down upon seeing the newcomers. “Don’t get too close to him, J- Captain. Your rank won’t mean anything to him if he wakes up.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s under the influence of a drug commonly called ‘doit’. And I use the common name because its chemical name is about 6 meters long and I can’t even pronounce it. It’s supposed to be a sex enhancer.”

“You didn’t know he was taking it?” she asked in surprise.

“If I had, I would have turned him in. It’s black market stuff. It was approved for medical use several years ago, but over time, it proved to be accumulative with each use. And addictive from the very beginning. Eventually, and now we’re into the theory of what happens when a man continues to use it, the man overdoses and loses all control. He attacks his chosen prey like an animal and won’t stop until he’s finally satisfied, which could take hours.” He turned his attention to Tall Bear. “I commend your people for being able to knock him out and get him here.”

“That wasn’t us,” TB stated. “That was MacDowell. I think. I still need to figure out exactly what happened. But we were just trying to separate them.”

“Since he’s not going to ‘get satisfied’ this time, how long before the drug wears off?” Jane asked.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t find any information in the papers, only theories and speculation. And those were based on very little scientific evidence.”

“Well, detox him, then.”

“That’s one thing I did find mentioned in the papers. Detox has no effect on doit users.”

“You said it was accumulative. You’ve hinted that this wasn’t his first time using it. Why haven’t you noticed it in his system before this?”

“Because between doses, it lies dormant in the fatty tissues and isn’t noticeable. That’s why it took so long to discover that it is accumulative.”

“There must be some way you can counteract the drug, get it out of his system.”

“There’s no known counteracting drug. If there was one, the lab could make some. So I’m stuck trying to remove it, which may or may not work. I’m going to try dialysis. It’s an old-fashioned method of scrubbing toxins and other chemicals out of the blood. The technicians are pulling the old machine out of mothballs and getting it ready to use, but the procedure will take time. At least 4 hours. And I can’t guarantee the drug -at least some of it - won’t go dormant and reside in the fatty tissue even after dialysis is done.”

“But if he doesn’t get any more doses of it, does that matter?”

“I don’t know. Like all addictive drugs, the more times they take it, the more frequently they take it. He probably has a supply of it somewhere.”

“We’ll keep an eye open when we search his quarters,” Bear stated somberly.

“And the papers did include one case where the patient no longer had access to doit, but what was in his system went undormant, uh, became active, again.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lot of information,” Jane remarked.

“That’s all I’ve got to work with, Jane. Papers full of anecdotes and theories but scarce of actual facts. When it was shown to be addictive and accumulative, it was pulled from the shelves, and nobody had the freedom to conduct any more studies on how bad it could get.” A technician came in from the labs with a 2-foot cube of a machine on a rolling table. “Here’s the dialysis machine. Let me get to work.”

“Keep me—both of us—apprised of your progress,” Jane told him. “And Tall Bear will need to interview him as soon as he’s able.” Then she and Tall Bear turned and left.