The Massachusetts brig

You open your eyes to the bright and blinding lights of the Massachusetts's brig with your ears ringing and your head feeling like you took a sledgehammer to the dome. You're on the floor of the cell next to a puddle of vomit that, no doubt, came from you. You sit up and check your clothes. A little worse for wear, but at least you're back in uniform instead of some less than respectable loin cloth.

You're the only one in your cell and you wonder about the fate of the away team. It's possible that they everyone was in their own cell or they were in sickbay. The worst outcome being that they could still be on the surface of Kell.

"Hello?" You call out hoping to hear a reply from the security personal stationed in the brig. Normally, there's always at least one person guarding the brig. Even if there's no one in a cell, there should be someone present.

"Brig to Captain. He's up." You hear a voice just out of view of your cell. Obviously, he wasn't going to respond to you. You're incarcerated. Your wants and needs are the lowest priority on the ship.

"What did I do to get here? I don't remember getting back on the ship!" You cry out in vain.

No response, of course.

"Keep him in his cell." You hear the captain's voice on the guard's comm badge.

"You said you wanted to talk with him when he woke up."

"I've changed my mind."

"Aye, sir."

You punch the wall of your cell in anger. You don't know how you got here and the captain won't even give you a courtesy reading of the riot act. At least she might have been able to sort out some of the confusion. You must have done something absolutely awful in your blackout...

Physical contact...

"Crewman! Why am I in here! Tell me! The Massachusetts is in danger!" You yell like a crazy person. The thought of coming into physical contact and passing on whatever mind control to the captain made you sick to your stomach. Captain Miller might be the only person stopping that thing from getting that psionic enhancer.

"Shut up, swine!" Must be ensign Hirsch. He likes his archaic German insults, "You're in here for assaulting the captain!"

"Shit," you sigh.

"Is the ship still going to be destroyed?"

"Hirsch! Listen me! There's something on that planet. It can mind control people."

He didn't say anything.

"Think about it," you continue. "Wasn't I acting weird after I came back from the away mission? Don't you think the captain would respect me enough to tell me how disappointed she is with me?"

You weren't quite sure if you were acting weird, but Eva did inexplicably make love to you while she was under that thing's influence. It made sense that you were acting weird.

"There are no reports of psionics on the planet."

"I know. I read the reports too. The psionics are in the water off the shore from the villages. We didn't know they were there because Astrofleet stopped looking when we found the Kelltians on the land. There's one controlling every village. Tell science to scan for them, but don't let the captain know. She might be compromised."

"You do realize I'll get in trouble if you're lying."

"Well, I'm not and you're going the one person that can help right now."