Office Visit

Posted on Fri Nov 11th, 2022 @ 12:09am by Warrant Officer Ahira Kasamoto & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 26 at 1730
1788 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

It had been one of those days. The night before Ahira had been running a holodeck program that was definitely intended to be private. It was one that he'd programmed himself, and it had taken place at a bar he'd frequented back when he was at his specialized warrant officer training. He'd gone there mostly to dance, drink, and enjoy himself. Just like he had the real bar seven or eight years ago. But he'd gotten lucky. A well-built blond with blue eyes and a scruffy beard. They were on the way back to Eric's home when Captain Petrov had entered the scene. That of course aborted any consummation that might have happened between Ahira and the hologram.

The captain had wanted to discuss the hybrid officer's new position acting as his bodyguard. The talk had gone well, better than he'd expected, and Ahira had ended the program and gone back to his cabin. Ahira wasn't sure why, he rarely suffered from insomnia, but it had taken almost ninety minutes before he had fallen asleep. To make matters worse, he'd had a dream, a nightmare more accurately, that he hadn't had in a long time.

He and his mother battling on the edge of a cliff, and her stabbing him where his heart would have been if he had been fully Romulan, and his shoving her over the edge. The nightmare was all the scarier because it had really happened and he had a scar to remind him of the danger of assumption and overconfidence.

So, when he awoke, he was in no mood, to be going to work. But, he had no choice. He wasn't going to be late on his first day. Just as the captain had promised, it had been boring.

So, after work he'd gone back to the holodeck, and rather than running the program he'd started the night before, he started a new, very different program. His shuttle had crashed and he was having to fight both the elements and an Alliance team seeking to find and kill him. He'd set the safety protocols to 50%.

While climbing down a mountain, he lost a handhold and plunged downward. He'd twisted an ankle, maybe pulled or torn some ligaments. Immediately he'd ended the program and limped to sickbay.

It has been slow and tedious, but he eventually made it without, as far as he could tell, without doing any further damage.

The automatic doors slid open and he stepped inside.

The sickbay was rather quiet at this hour of morning, the morning shift having not started quite yet and the night shift was done with their main duties while waiting to be relieved. Daniel himself was in early, however, and going over the results of a patient being monitored on a biobed when the doors hissed open. His head lifted slightly as he looked to see who had entered and showed no outward response to the obvious injury this man had suffered based on how he was holding himself as he walked through the door.

"Have a seat on bed three, I'll be with you in a moment." Daniel turned back to the readings and history that he had been looking at before the entrance.

Ahira grimaced, his brow furrowing displaying his Romulan heritage more distinctly, but he made it onto the biobed without assistance.

A minute or so later, Daniel made his way over to the indicated bed and flicked open his surprisingly quiet tricorder as he removed the probe. "Welcome to sickbay. What brings you here at this hour?"

"Stupidity," the warrant officer answered honestly, "I was running a program in the holodeck with reduced safety protocols and did something to my ankle. Not sure if it's twisted, sprained, or whatever, I just know it hurts like a bitch."

Daniel gave a slow nod and set to work, moving the probe starting from Ahira's feet and progressing up as he watched the indicators and readouts. He would never ceased to be amazed at the number of people who end up in sickbay for running the holodeck without the safeties. Why not just submit yourself to the inquisitorial squad and let them hurt you for a while?

"Looks like a bad sprain and possibly not the first? Have you injured yourself previously without seeking treatment?" Daniel moved to the side of the bed and set down the tricorder as he downloaded the readings and entered them into the file for Ahira.

Ahira favored the other man with a crooked smile, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was stabbed once if that counts. But that wasn't my fault" Ahira admitted, but yes, I've injured that foot before. I was treated though, but it was before I joined up. I was on a merchant vessel and the doctor wasn't the most competent man I've been treated by."

"How bad is it?"

"Oh." Daniel paused and waved a hand in a dismissive motion. "Nothing we cannot handle, though it may be tender for a few hours once I'm done." He pulled out an extension from the end of the biobed for Ahira's leg to rest on and activated a field that flickered blue in place as any sensation from the knee down was suddenly dulled to almost non-existence. "Give me a few minutes to undo the past damage and set things to heal properly and then we will initiate a regenerator to get you up and going."

Daniel gave his best cocky/reassuring smile before going and grabbing the cart and tools he would need, returning quickly. "So, you are a bit of a rarity on our ship. How did you find your way into the service exactly?" No reason to let the time pass in silence.

Ahira laid back on the biobed and tried his best to relax. He tended to not let his guard down much. But the doctor had a friendly looking face, and besides, it was all in his records, or at least everything he felt like sharing was in the records.

"I guess you could say I fell in with the wrong crowd, or more accurately I was born into the wrong crowd and I picked up some rather esotericskills growing up. Got thrown out on my ass when I was a teenager and had to fend for myself."

"I won't bore you with the gory details, but eventually, I wound up hunting down enemies of the empire and when I wasn't doing that I tried my hand at smuggling. I was pretty good at it for a while, but my luck ran out, or I got stupid. Anyway, my crew and I were caught and we were given the choice of serving the Empire or dying."

He returned the doctor's cocky grin, "I'm pretty sure I made the right choice."

"What about you?"

Daniel paused to trade out tools and looked up at his patient and responded with a small shrug. "Ambitious parents that saw me as a way to raise their status in the Empire if I made them look good." He chuckled as he took up the new tool and started to remove the scar tissue from the now severed tendons and continued to talk. "Thankfully for me, I also enjoyed the sciences and was very happy to get somewhere with real tools and challenges. Admittedly, the trip out to the far corner of the universe wasn't what I expected, but who would?"

Ahira nodded as the doctor spoke. He wasn't ready to give his entire life story to the other man, especially since he hadn't been asked for it, but he was now fully relaxed under his ministrations.

"That feels good," he said with a smile, "and yeah, no one expected this. Between you and me, what do you think our chances of getting back are?"

A slight tug could be felt as Daniel used two tools together to pull the tendons back into place and activated the regenerator to get each to knit securely in place. "I've got twelve years, six months in the pool. So I must have some level of expectation that we get back. I would've guessed around fifteen percent casualties, but was told that my position to affect that number disqualified me from the bet."

Attaching the last few fiber like pieces of the tendons, Daniel stood and put the tools away. Returning with a hypospray he injected the area before disabling the field and letting the leg back down. "That should hold up to light use at this point, but nothing more for a week, and make sure to use a dermal regenerator before bed each night."

"What of yourself? Any thoughts?" Daniel crossed his arms over his chest and tilt his head slightly in inquiry.

Now that the procedures had been done and Ahira was pain free, Ahira sat up then rolled off the bed, gingerly testing his foot to reassure himself that everything was now back to normal. All the while he kept his eyes on the doctor's face. He found it a handsome face but focused on the question he'd been asked instead of any other thoughts.

"As long as we keep our eye on the prize of getting home, I think we'll make it. I'm all for expanding the reach of the empire, but if we become more centered on that and making a name for ourselves, then we are in deep shit."

"Though at the same time, growing our fleet gives better odds of us getting home. At least, the us that matters about getting back." Daniel shrugged slightly.

"My casualties of course don't count for the fodder we pick up along the way." He paused a moment while considering and then continued. "They also don't account for people getting themselves killed in the holodeck because they turned down the safeties. So let's keep that to a minimum, hmm?"

The lips of the warrant officer twitched up in something that was a cross between a smile and a smirk. "Point taken. I may not be the smartest guy in the room, but I'm not a complete idiot either. I'll be more careful in the future."

"Am I free to go now, or will there be anything else?"

"Nothing for the moment. As I said though, make sure to keep to the regimen of healing and you should be fine in a week for normal duties. Things may be tender and more fragile until that time." Daniel nodded and then stepped to the side and motioned for Ahira to pass as needed.

"Understand sir, I'll be on my best behavior," the bodyguard replied as he exited sickbay.