Follow Up

Posted on Fri Sep 30th, 2022 @ 1:55am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Sick Bay - CMO Office
Timeline: Mission Day 21 at 0800
2272 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

It has been a week since their new security chief had come in for her genetic reset. Soon she would be back in here, Daniel checked the clock, any second now actually if she was punctual. He stood and went to each of the monitors in his office and set them to the default Empire splash to keep himself from getting distracted during the appointment and to keep medical records confidential unless there was a better reason for them not to be.

With that he sat back down and turned his chair back to the door to close his eyes. He was admittedly a little bored and was curious what she would do if she thought he was gone or possibly asleep. He smirked to himself and closed his eyes, schooling his features even though they were hidden from view.

Lyra stepped into sickbay just moments before her appointment, wearing a simple black v-neck shirt with a blue and white abstract graphic pattern on the front and a pair of dark blue jeans that looked well loved. She was pointed to Brasken's office and went to it, seeing the door opened, she walked in. From the reflection in the black area around one of the monitors, she saw his eyes were closed and shrugged to herself. Walking to his empty desk, she sat down on it and then laid back across it, folding her arms under her head and looking up at the ceiling.

"Well played...I suppose that is one way to call my bluff." Daniel turned, having heard the officer enter and lay down. "Or is this your way of telling me that you've had a bout of insomnia since the reversion and are needing more time off duty to recover?" From everything he knew of Lyra, chances were that she was probably figuratively climbing the walls waiting for his approval to return to full, active duty. That was what this meeting was for after all.

“Oh no, I’ve been sleeping quite well this past week.” Lyra replied with a slight smirk, remaining prone on Daniel’s desk though she did at least turn her head to look at him. “Better than I have in quite some time, really.” She did sit up this time, but turned her body so she was now facing him and her legs were off the front of his desk.

“So, what are we doing? Are you scanning me? Old fashioned poking and prodding? Or are you going to hurt me more today, you sadist?” She asked with a smirk.

"I only did what you asked, my level of pleasure out of it hardly is a factor." He didn't deny her statement outright, where was the fun in that? "So I guess the question is...do you want it to hurt?"

Daniel pulled the tricorder from his belt and removed the probe before snapping it open to start his scans. Since she was seated on his desk he simply slid forward slightly as needed to allow himself to easily reach the different parts of her that he needed to before setting the tricorder down and pulling up the data on his console. "Ok. Now you need to move."

Lyra sat patiently as he scanned her, her hands on her thighs and her eyes following the hand scanner as he moved it around her body. When he asked her to move and didn't actually specify anything else, she simply shifted over so she was directly in front of him, her legs almost touching his as they hung in front of him. "Better?" She asked in a saccharine voice.

Daniel looked up at her and quirked an eyebrow slightly at her response. It was childish on the surface but he knew she could be dangerous if handled incorrectly. So be it then. Daniel wrapped one arm around her legs and pressed the back of his hand against her knee while at the same time reaching his other hand up to press against her hip in an attempt to push her to the side.

There was no real retaliation on Lyra’s part outside of intercepting his second hand as he reached for her hip. She grabbed him firmly by the wrist, communicating that the particular touch he was about to try was certainly not welcome without her permission, but as she did so she chuckled and shifted over on the desk out of his way again. “Alright, alright. Be a stick in the mud then.”

"Oh come now, you're the one who made the challenge to begin with." Daniel smirked at her before reviewing the data on the screen. Repetitive lines of data scrolled past the screen, each only a little different from the previous and yet Daniel kept his attention on it while the information was parsed and analyzed by the computer. Analyzing and constructing a breakdown of a humanoid genome wasn't a particularly difficult job for the computer but it was still a decent amount of data.

A few moments later the soft chirp of the computer informed that it was done and Daniel brought up a side by side comparison chart of before the reversion, just after, and current. "Computer, isolate and display only the areas of drastic change between before and after, making sure to keep the same sections of the during." The computer chirped again and a few moments later the data was cut down to a couple dozen obvious sections. "Now comes the fun part..." Daniel drifted off at the end of his comment as he focused on his analysis.

“I’m sure.” Lyra said with disinterest in her voice. Science wasn’t really her thing. She had grasp of basic concepts of course, but it wasn’t an interest so she had never really applied herself outside learning anything that might be useful for her work. After a moment or two however, she realized that sitting there doing nothing but waiting was terribly boring, so she slid off the desk and instead moved behind Daniel’s chair. Leaning on it, she folded her arms over the back and looked down at the data on the console. There was vague familiarity at what she was looking at, but past that she understood nothing. Still, it was something to look at, at the very least.

"Dreadfully sorry. Would you prefer I turn on something for you to watch?" The boredom she was presenting was not uncommon for the more physically inclined members of the crew. He even understood it if he knew less about the data that was scrolling by that he himself would fidget a bit. Daniel reached over and absently brought up a video on another screen in the desk. The video was obviously a medical procedure, exposed musculature and ligaments of the legs of adolescents. He said nothing, preferring to let Lyra come to her own conclusions.

When the other display activated, she turned her attention to it with mild disinterest at first; it was still more interesting than scrolling data. As she watched the feed for about ten seconds, she started to perk up a bit with curiosity and took a step closer to the desk and the side of Daniel. Eventually, she shook her head and gave a sigh. "Such a regrettable necessity. I hope you were able to get some good information, at the very least?" She asked and glanced down at him. She didn't show the amusement she felt at being shown the video of her own handiwork and was curious what exactly he was trying to pull here.

Daniel's eyebrow quirked slightly at her words, not believing that she actually regretted this action more than it taking time away from some other activity. "The resilience of the Kazon is fairly well known. It was interesting to note the differences in the adolescents compared to the mature specimens though. For instance, the amount of white blood cells was almost twenty five percent higher than an adult Kazon."

He hit a couple more commands into the console, the genetic analysis saving and being filed away as he had seen enough for now. "I commend the blade work. Minimal extraneous damage to surrounding musculature for what I am certain was a difficult specimen." His chair turned as he looked up at her to gauge her reaction to his comments.

"Yes, it wasn't exactly easy. They did try and flail about quite a bit." Lyra continued to watch the screen a moment, then once again looked back at Daniel. She was very hard to read in this moment still and it was entirely unclear where her head was at being shown her handiwork again. "So, did everything check out alright in your scan?" She prompted him.

"Within expected margins, though I'm still seeing some settling. Did you have any problems with motor skills or balance?" Daniel looked her over to see if there was any small or large items that he could tell might have been throwing her off. Little ticks or physical damage to indicate her body wasn't responding quite to her standards yet.

“At first, but not anymore. It just took a bit of practice to get used to everything being in a slightly different place. The change in voice was probably the weirdest thing to get used to, honestly.” Lyra crossed her legs. “Anorra has provided me with daily physical activities of all sorts, and I haven’t noticed anything strange these past few days.”

"Of all sorts? I thought their menu was a bit one note from my understanding." Daniel smirked and leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. "Though that is admittedly mostly hearsay and...well, patching people up over the last few days."

"Oh the food absolutely sucked, ended up just bringing stuff down from the ship in the end. The alcohol is surprisingly good, though." Lyra supplied and watched him. "Physical activity... well they have quite an array of activities to partake of like I said, and I enjoyed them thoroughly." Her favorite though hadn't been anything the planet offered her, of course.

"Mmm, my experience with the food was that it was trying to accommodate too many tastes and just ended up tasting washed out. The physical activity though, what did you partake in to acclimate to your new changes?" It couldn't hurt to talk conversationally for a little bit. He really hadn't had a chance to see much of the planet and was at least a little curious.

“Swimming, jogging along the beach, some dancing, lots of walking, a gorgeous man.” Lyra listed off her activities in a conversational way all while watching Daniel for his reactions. “Before I left I’d also done a fair bit of martial arts sparring and some obstacle courses.”

"They have humanoids for you to walk?" Daniel purposefully misinterpreting Lyra's words. "Perhaps I should sneak back to the planet.."

He then nodded and grinned slightly. "Sounds like you had a good experience in regards to range of physical activities, though I might have cautioned against the more physically intensive ones. So long as you feel up to it is should not be a problem. The food though, I do believe I offered to treat you to a dinner so that you could compare and contrast a bit from your previous taste palate?"

"Wave enough money around and I'm sure you'd find someone willing to let you walk them." Lyra quipped back easily. When he mentioned dinner, she smirked. "I haven't forgotten, though I'll have to take a rain check at least for a few days here. Today will be spent enjoying the last day planet side and then I'll be working on getting settled into my work proper without having shore leave interfering with everyone's schedules."

"Oh, I'm not willing to put money towards it." Daniel waved a hand with his comment to dismiss the subject all together. "I'm willing to wait for you to settle in, thought I must admit to a certain level of professional curiosity as to the changes you might have."

Professional curiosity with a healthy dose of unprofessional curiosity, she wagered. "Well, I'll make time soon. Any other questions or scans or whatever that you need to do?"

"I always have more questions, that is why I went into the sciences." He smirked at her at his little joke. "But for now I have everything I need and I am able to restrain my wants. I will extend your recovery time for another day or two so you can fully enjoy yourself and make sure you are as ready as possible when you come back on duty."

Lyra rolled her eyes at the joke but smiled as she shook her head slightly. "Thanks, I appreciate that." She finally slid off his desk and stood, stretching her arms a bit. "Well I won't keep you from your work then. I'll let you know about dinner when I'm able?"

"I will count the days. I'd count the hours but that would be depressing when I already know it'll be more than one." Daniel grinned and stood before touching his brow in a salute similar to tipping a hat. "Enjoy your remaining time off and congratulations on your transformation."

He'd likely end up quite depressed on a few other fronts by the end of dinner, too. "Thanks. I'll see you soon." Without lingering any longer, she turned to leave his office and head back to the transporter room so she could return to Andrei and they could enjoy their last day.

END