Regular Maintenance

Posted on Sat Jun 11th, 2011 @ 10:37am by Lieutenant Colonel Sosuke Ishihara

1,511 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 75 - Time of Change
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Current

ON:

Sosuke dragged himself over the threshold to the station's sickbay slowly windmilling his right arm with his elbow bent, trying to work out a persistent cramp in his shoulder. The connection where he ended and the positronic prosthesis began always pained him without constant check-ups. With the lack of a chief medical officer and constant demands on his time lately it was really doing a number on him. So when he heard that they'd finally gotten someone new in sickbay, he hadn't seen who, he found a spare bit of time to go and see him or her.

Rubbing at the top of his shoulder joint with his real hand and letting the prosthetic hang limp, the Colonel looked around sickbay, noting the quiet. Sickbay wasn't usually too loud, but it was more of a calm, healing silence instead of what this was. The nurses seemed anxious, almost panicked about something. "Excuse me, Nurse Ashley, but I need to see the new doc. You know where he is?" he asked the head nurse as she passed him carrying a rather expensive painting from the back room. She walked past him and he followed her movement so that he was facing the door as she turned to regard him. Instead of answering, she seemed to pale slightly before she spun quickly on her heel and kept going.

"What'd I say?" he asked her quickly retreating back.

Suan had taken notice of the green collared uniformed human - a soldier - or as the lloann'na call them; Marines. As she watched him enter her domain and speak to her staff, she set the PADD she had been reading aside and approached him.

His back was to her when she stood, arms crossed. "What is the reason for your presence in this facility?" She asked him in what could only be taken as an authoritative Romulan tone of voice

Sosuke paused, raised an eyebrow quizzically, and turned around to find a rather tall and severe-looking Romulan woman in front of him. "I think that's my line..." he checked her rank insignia, "...Centurion." He looked around, and noticed that the nurses and orderlies were doing their best to ignore the conversation. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Ishihara and I'm looking for the new chief medical officer."

She arched a brow in an almost mimic of her Vulcan cousins. "I am the Chief Medical Officer." She stated matter of factly. "Doctor Suan t'Khellian." He had already identified her rank so decided her occupational title would be more fitting. "So what is the nature of your presence, Colonel?" She glanced away from Ishihara but a moment, long enough to scurry a curious nurse into returning to her duties.

Sosuke tried to hide his surprise. From what he'd heard, the bedside manner of most Romulan doctors rivaled the surliest Klingon surgeons. If she was as harsh with her patients as she was with her nurses he would start to dread coming to sickbay more than he already did. He hoped that he'd just heard unsubstantiated rumors and stereotypes in this case. "Nice to meet you, Doctor... Well, my right arm is a positronic prosthesis. I have to have it looked at regularly by the chief medical officer and the chief engineer to make sure my synthetic and organic parts are still working together the way they should. There specifics are in my medical history. Would you mind?" he asked.

Suan felt her own cybernetic arm and her expression softened. They were kindred spirits having suffered a similar fate. "I too have a prosthesis." she lifted her left arm, rotating her hand in front of her face. Why she told him of something that she felt ashamed - loss of a limb - was anyone's guess. Perhaps it was the kindred spirit, finding someone like herself among the cosmos.

She lowered her arm and with her other, fully biological, arm, motioned toward one of the nearest beds. "Have a seat, Colonel and we can begin." Her tone had also relaxed, to an almost human empathy.

"You too, huh?" Sosuke replied, responding to the small display of warmth as he sat down and shrugged off his black and gray uniform overshirt. He found himself starting to get cautiously optimistic about the doc. "Dominion War?" he asked. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking. That's where I...where mine happened. Jem'Hadar boarding party."

Suan picked up a small scanner and a medical tricorder from a counter and stepped over beside him. She passed the scanner, over his prosthesis as she glanced at the data being transmitted on her tricorder. "At Chin'toka. The Warbird Kormoran, of which I had been assigned, took a direct hit." She paused as she passed the scanner back over his arm, glancing momentarily at her left hand that held the little scanner.

"Chin'toka? I was at First Chin'toka, flying those sad little refit courier ships Starfleet tried to pass off as attack fighters. Then this happened." he explained, nodding toward his arm as he continued to hold it still. "I was on the USS Coleman. We were surprised and boarded by Jem'Hadar. Captain set the self destruct and ordered us to evacuate. A group of us almost fought our way clean to the escape shuttle when one of them got off a lucky shot. I can't remember much after that; just that it didn't hurt. Shock is a wonderful thing sometimes." Sosuke flexed his synthetic hand, opening and closing it.

Nodded understanding. "So you are a pilot? You must still enjoy the freedom of being in the cockpit of such a small and maneuverable craft other than helming a cumbersome starship." She tapped at a console beside the bed, the adjacent monitor came to life and Ishihara's medical file, including the current scan, scrolled across the screen.

"You're right. Had to wait a while to get back behind the stick of a fighter, but now I'm heading up the 181st here on the base. You'll get to know my pilots pretty well, unfortunately. Being a fighter pilot means you need to have a certain level of adrenaline addiction and my people are the best. That means when they can't fly they do stupid things in the holodeck or elsewhere. For instance, just recently Lieutenant Gray tried to orbital skydive in the longest turbolift tube on the station, the big one that runs vertical nearly from top to bottom. He had the foresight to shut off the turbolift system for five minutes while he did it, but neglected to realize that the gravity in the turbolift tubes isn't always constant." Sosuke winced. "Anyway, how'd you end up on a Federation starbase?"

She raised a brow at such bizarre behavior. There would be a lot she would need to understand when dealing with these Federation officers. "Klingons." She stated, saying the word as if it was an insult. "We were evacuating people from ch'Rihan - Romulus." Suan paused, still some what in shock that her homeworld was actually gone; that this wasn't some horrid nightmare she would wake up to. "We were heading to a colony to unload the refugees when Klingons attacked us. My escape pod was fortunately found by a Federation starship though I don't recall any of the specifics." She tapped another command on the console as the data continued to stream on the monitor. "If my presence on one of your starbases confuses you, Colonel..You are not alone. I have been educated since childhood that the Federation is a cruel, ruthless monster bent on dominating the galaxy." She stared at him expressionless for a moment before smiling.

"Your arm's biological components are in satisfactory condition." She added. "Though you might want the chief engineer to replace a relay in the near future."

"Well, I can't say I haven't heard negative things about the Romulans before, but I respect your people. I spent a great deal of time learning about your culture for when I had to deal with Romulans, either as an ally or an enemy. If you ever need a conversation in the Rihanh language, I could always use more practice. I could teach you a few things about Earth culture as well, if you like." Sosuke said as he put his overshirt back on. He smiled in return, surprised at the difference between Suan's hard outer appearance and the few degrees warmer personality that came through once they had actually got talking. "Khnai'ra, Doctor. Jolan'tru."

"I accept your invitation of sharing knowledge for I know I have much to learn about your people and the Federation." She tapped a command on the console and the monitor that once displayed his medical file went dark. "Jolan'tru, Colonel" She responded with a nod of respect.

The Colonel had barely left the sickbay and rounded the corner when his comm badge went off paging him to gather his pilots for a mission. With a grin and a holding his brand new clean bill of health, he quickened his steps in youthful anticipation.

OFF:

RSS Feed