Visitation

Posted on Wed Mar 9th, 2022 @ 12:09pm by Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Ensign Mika Petrova & Lieutenant JG Karen Lamont

Mission: S1 Episode 2: Caretaker, Part II
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 0630
838 words - 1.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The prognosis for Dr. Karen Lamont was a good one. More or less. 24th century technology had come a long way in the treatment of head injuries. It was, however, poorly timed. She was an incapacitated patient right when she was most needed. She had been in and out of consciousness a few times. Enough to be aware of this fact. Now she was lying a little restively in her biobed.

Sickbay much quitter the day after their unfortunate sojourn to the Delta Quadrant and Andrei Petrov had been working nearly nonstop with his department getting weapons systems repaired and even helping where he was needed in other departments. Now that he grabbed a few hours to rest, there was something he wanted to do first. He entered sickbay with a vase full of pink, white, and red carnations. They were pristine and drew a contrast from his dirty uniform and unusually disheveled mane of hair. He noticed the biobed where Karen was and drew slowly to her side. Her head was in a bandage and he noticed she was awake. He placed the vase down on the table next to the biobed and pulled up one of the nearby chairs, sitting down wordlessly next to her.

Karen looked over. She was silent at first. Her eyes traced the flowers and then moved to Andrei. She took in his state. She knew how many other people were in here. It didn't seem reassuring. "Thank you," she said softly, reaching for his hand.

He grabbed her hand and offered a subtle smile, leaning toward her. The two of them had only been on one date thus far and it hadn't gone anywhere physical besides a kiss, but he liked her and found her interesting. Normally he wouldn't be so overtly romantic so early on, but he understood she was injured and had no one closer to her on board than him. For now, that meant he needed to be at her side for at least a moment.

"I snuck some chocolate in here for you too." he said, then he smiled. "I promise not to tell the doctor."

She smiled. "Thank you. I appreciate it." Her smile grew a little more mischievous. "The CMO is a tyrant, isn't she?" Though, really, Echo was her doctor. Echo or the EMH.

She took a deep breath. "Just how bad is it?" She wasn't oblivious to the condition of the ship.

“Pretty bad, but we’ve inverted disaster these last two days. The problem still remains, however, we’re over 70 years from home; completely cut off from the Empire and everything we knew before.” He said, squeezing her hand a bit. “And we could use our tyrannical CMO back. There are still a lot of people recovering physically and emotionally.”

"Well, hopefully they'll let me get back to them tomorrow. I can't imagine it'll be worse than the day after." She frowned and sighed softly. "Space is full of strange phenomena. perhaps we'll find something useful?"

“Perhaps, but we’ll have many aliens to deal with in the process, no doubt.” He said, and then released her hand, reaching into the bag he was carrying and pulling out a box of assorted chocolates. He placed them on the table and then looked at her again. “Are you confused at all? Since you hit your head?”

"Not since the first time I woke up," she said. "They say there's not going to be any permanent damage." She frowned anyway. Her brain was the last thing she wanted injured. "Perhaps this part of the galaxy is full of friendly aliens eager to share their transwarp technologies with lost strangers?" She's joking. Mostly.

“You are extremely optimistic, aren’t you?“ he asked with a grin on his face. “It would be nice if your dreams would be a reality. It isn’t the Terran way to be subject to the good intentions of aliens. We might very well have to take what we need by force in some cases. Would that bother you?”

"A species with engines far in advance of our own would likely be formidable in other ways too," she lamented. "I doubt we're going to find an easy fix."

He noticed she hadn’t answered the question, but gave a small smile anyway. The look was cryptic and not at all designed to make his thought at the moment clear.

“I’m going to step away so you can heal. And I shall see you Ayer, when we’re both free.” He said, standing up and releasing her hand.

"Something to look forward to," she said softly. "Thank you for coming."

He grinned, grabbing her hand one more time and kissing it softly. Making eye contact with her again, he offered a silent wink and then turned toward the exit, his fit body seeming to move confidently toward the room's exit.

She watched him go, smiling softly, and then she closed her eyes again. She would just rest them a little bit.