At The Sharp End - Part 2

Posted on 09 Dec 2023 @ 7:54pm by Lieutenant Maralen Seitha & Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters

2,784 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Ravi's Quarters - Planetside
Timeline: two days ago

ON:

* * * * * * *

Raviran Dattek-Winters lay, crumpled in an uncomfortable heap at the base of the inside of her door. She wasn't sure at first where she was but as her vision cleared and she managed to untangle her limbs and ascertain they weren't broken....and nor were any other of her bones, that the Prophets...... she recognised the temporary rooms she shared with CPO Paul Harriss, her co medic. She was still in the hallway, presumably where she had slid inside the door...... but what had happened.

.....and where was her flatmate? "Paul?" she called out and a wobbly sound came out of her throat which immediately declared war on her pain centres.

~No, he couldn't be here, or he wouldn't just have left her on the doormat......~ Ravi reasoned.

Fighting through the syrup that was her brain right now, she tried to recall what had happened and as it returned to her, she paled even more that she was normally, with her cardassian shade of blue-ish tinged skin and her black cardassian hair, contrasting each other as they always did. She had always regretted not having more of her mother's Bajoran genes, other than the soft ridges on her upper nose and lower forehead.

~Oh yes!~ Perhaps she would have preferred not to remember so clearly as she was now beginning to.

~Paul? What if he walks back after his shift too?~ she thought of her medical colleague first but she had spared thoughts for her Security colleagues too, she could remember having those thoughts whilst the rioters were passing.

Standing up, shakily and with several attempts not to fall over before she made a straight line towards her med-kit, battered and cast across the hall to one side of where she had collapsed.

Scanning her own self and satisfying herself that she wasn't badly hurt, she regenerated some scrapes and bruises but was unable to get a good go at her shoulder blade properly and just did what she could reach for now.

Dosing herself with some tea and putting her kit back together, her most 'cold weather' coat..... just in case she might need some padding as well as temperature control.... she found heavy boots; thick gloves and a big warm and concealing hat.

As she glanced in the mirror on the way to the door to go out, Ravi had to burst into laughter at herself. "Concealing hat!?! SERIOUS?? You're HALF their height.... you can hardly *fit in* with a broad brimmed hat to disguise you, can you, you idiot!!" she muttered to herself and threw it off, snatching up a warm, woolly one and scoffing at herself as she stepped into the street, looking up and down to see if it was clear before heading off towards .....

~well, I guess towards the hospital.... ~ she thought. ~....but the security temporary office is closer..... should I swing by there first?~

=/\= =/\= =/\=

In the Security Office, Maralen watched as another of his teams went dark -- their signals winked out on the monitoring table. Part of him wanted to growl.

Don't feel it; use it, his mind reminded him. Anger becomes determination. His expression became calm as he rechanneled the negative emotion into a more useful variation.

Across the table from him, Garshaan watched the strange, furred alien. He admired the being's strategic mind and the way he coordinated the teams all across the planet. But something had shifted in the alien, and Garshaan understood why. That last team had been the third to go dark -- he'd learned that phrase from the Cat-Man -- in the last hour, and it weighed on both of them. He suspected that the Cat-Man took it more personally, though, since he'd been the one coordinating the teams. Garshaan couldn't blame him. Nor did he envy the being.

"Garshaan, I need you to-" he began but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Turning toward the door, he regarded the person there with a combination of confusion, curiosity, and concern. "Dr. Winters?"

Ravi's eyes squinted as she tried to adjust to the light in the office from having come in directly from the dark streets.

"Lieutenant" she greeted Seitha tiredly. "I.... I had an experience on the street on my way back to my temporary quarters last night and I thought of you and your officers so I came in to warn you that there are rioters...... I imagine you already know all about it though but I needed to be sure I'd reported it where I should just because..... well, I should." she said, wondering why her head hurt so much and her words seemed to be arguing against coming out straight. ~Do I have concussion?~ her mind asked her silently. ~Why didn't I check for that before coming out again?~ she scolded herself internally.

Looking down she realised she had at least picked up her med-kit, instinctively. She put it on the desk and started to rifle through it for a med-corder.

"Excuse me" she remembered to apologise for her rudeness in stopping the conversation and diving into her bag instead.

Concern flickered in Maralen's brown eyes. He was about to ask if she was all right when she suddenly began going through her medical kit. Neither he nor Garshaan was injured -- they had not left this building, and the rioters had not gotten in -- so he could only guess that she was checking herself. But would she not have done that last night after the incident?

"Garshaan, continue coordinating. I will be going out with the doctor." He took up one of the earpieces and placed it into his ear, adjusting the gain for his more sensitive feline hearing. "And keep me informed."

Garshaan nodded, though he did look a little perplexed. Maralen turned back to Winters and approached her quietly. "Are you all right, Doctor?" he asked her softly, the concern for his fellow crewmember in his tones and eyes once more.

"I.... I was attacked......last night but..." just the telling of the facts seemed to be harder than she was expecting. She looked up at the tall Security Chief, grateful for his kind concern.

"it's okay" she recovered and took some deep breaths.

"I'm a doctor - my own regenerator fixed up the head wound nicely this morning and a kind Antiocian man whose daughter I had cared for, defended me and that allowed me to get back to my accommodation before passing out. It's all in the past now but I did think I must come and let you know - although I didn't really doubt you weren't already aware - it just seemed negligent not to keep you updated."

Maralen nodded, accepting her assurance that she was all right. She certainly did not display any sign of true impairment of either function or cognition. "I appreciate what you've done, but you shouldn't be on the street unprotected," he cautioned. How had he missed this? Not assigning a guard to the doctor.

~Flawed,~ his mind chastised him as it always did in the voice of the Executive. And it was right. He could not assign a guard to every doctor on the planet, not even every one from the Cygnus. He simply did not have enough people. His forces were spread far thinner than his strategic mind liked as it was. He sighed mentally.

"I've lost contact with another of my teams, Doctor. I can't, in good conscience, allow you to travel unguarded. Therefore, I will escort you to where you need to be. Were you headed back to the hospital?"

"Yes, but my colleague, Dr Harriss is here with me." She indicated to a tall - but not Antiocian type of tall - man in a Medical Teal trimmed uniform, hesitating by the entrance where he had only stepped in just far enough to be off the street but not as far as Ravi had come in.

"We have aligned and co-ordinated our shifts so that we neither travel alone anymore. It made sense," she explained.

Maralen studied the other physician for a moment before looking back at Ravi. "That was a smart precaution," he praised. "And normally, I would say so and send you on your way." His voice went completely calm. "But I'm losing whole Security teams to these riots. I would be remiss in my duties as Security Chief if I let two doctors go out there without some form of escort." It wasn't that he thought they couldn't take care of themselves; it was just that the situation was far worse than they apparently realized.

Ravi looked up at Maralen, frowning. "...whole teams?" she gasped, looking across at Harriss who had paled too.

"Is there any possibility that it's a passing trend - should we try to wait it out? I don't want to be responsible for you being hurt because you accompanied us out into that.... or came back alone afterwards....." she was conflicted and Harris looked pretty scared too. He had helped Ravi tend to her head wound this very morning and although she had done a good job of regenerating the flesh and skin, he had wanted to scan for more, just in case, but she'd been adamant she was fine and it was all over and done with.

He hadn't liked the contraction in her pupils though, but he wasn't happy arguing with her about it. She said she had been a doctor all her life and she was sure she'd feel it if she wasn't recovering properly from her incident. And anyway, there was a chance it was the lack of light in their quarters and he didn't have a medlight. He didn't want to ask her for hers and in his mind, he had mentioned it, but she wasn't having any fuss made.

Besides, she was, after all, the 'Assistant Chief' of his department and it wasn't a good idea to upset those that had the officer rank to squish you if they took the idea that was what was required to shut up an inconvenient argument you were putting up. Harriss had encountered that situation too many times in his career and it was one of the reasons that he had only achieved CPO at his advanced age. Well that was his opinion on why this was so and with that in mind he wasn't pushing Ravi's buttons right now. He took another tack.

"I think that's a good idea, Ma'am" he encouraged her suggestion that they should take a step back and return to their quarters, wait this out and not put the very impressive and frankly, although he would never say it out loud, scary Chief of Security at risk for their sakes on a run across a deadly riot just to get back to work. Lives were valuable things - their own as much as anyone's.

Ravi hesitated again, looking at Harriss and back at Maralen. Her head ached so badly and she was feeling so tired..... tired and woozy.... perhaps they did need more downtime - and getting their Chief of Security killed was a pretty bad way forward. She began to cave and Harriss sensed it.

"Besides, we haven't reported in since we left the hospital yesterday.... well, I haven't... did you Ma'am?" he asked.

"What if we get updated orders from the ship? They won't thank us for making crazy, risky decisions without even 'phoning home' as it were" he grinned at his own joke but then returned to being serious and scared.

"Ma'am?" he said, a tone of asking intensely, bordering on pleading with her to be reasonable.

Ravi still stood looking between him and Maralen, still foggy and unable to make the decision but unaware of this uncharacteristic trait in herself. "I.... erm...." she fought to remember Maralen's name. That was ridiculous but still, she failed to recognize it as a symptom.

"Commander?" she asked, settling for the rank shown by his pips. "Is that something you might recommend, Sir?"

Maralen watched both of the medical officers closely as they talked between themselves. He was watching not only their overt signals but the ones they were unaware they were giving him. Vigilant always. See what they don't want you to see... or at least try to. He was not perfect, and there were lifeforms that could fool even his well-trained senses. These two were not such though.

The young man -- Maralen went through the crew dossiers in his mind and found the name -- Harris was obviously scared. Maralen had not missed the bit of humor but had let it pass as that was some people's way of coping with stress or fear. And the humor only lasted a second, once more replaced by the fear. Fear was an appropriate response in this situation, Maralen knew. He felt it too, but his training immediately made him rechannel it. ~Don't feel it; use it. Fear becomes caution.~

In contrast to Harris, Ravi was more confused. Oh, she was afraid too, but that was sublimated to the confusion which he sensed was not normal for her. This close to her, he could smell something off. It was likely the head injury, he suspected. But he was no doctor. But this state of indecision was not a good space for a doctor to be in when working, so that made his choice easy.

He fixed Ravi with a serious but kind look. "I think it would be safer for you at this point to return to your quarters, yes. But I also think you should have yourself checked out by another doctor." That last was a suggestion based on what she'd told him and what he'd observed as well as the small bit of field medicine every Starfleet officer learned. "And I will still escort you back to your quarters for the same reasons I mentioned before."

"That's very kind of you" Ravi conceded. Harriss looked relieved. Looking dejected and defeated, Ravi just watched the floor as the group got ready to leave.

The sudden change in her demeanor confused Maralen, but what could he do? These two were as much his responsibility as everyone else on the crew -- even the ones who had been lost, and he would deal with that guilt later -- and he had to make sure they were safe. He understood that she would prefer to be out there healing people -- she was a Healer, after all -- but it was just too dangerous right now given that even his well-trained Security forces were being overwhelmed and killed.

His expression softened, and he spoke quietly to her. "I'm sorry, Doctor," he said with sincerity. "I know you'd rather be out there helping, but it's just... far too dangerous now. I am sorry." He then turned toward the door and motioned the two doctors to follow him out.

Ravi's mind was working overtime. She couldn't understand why Vaat seemed to have decided he didn't care for her after all. She had been 100% certain that they'd had something going and it confused her that she couldn't fathom it all out. She had patches of silence with vague, foggy scenarios floating around in her head and she was scared that those voids were important. If only she could clear them and see what they were.

Giving in to the will of the large Caitian Security Chief, and urged on by Harris' hand on her shoulder, she walked obediently back to their quarters without further debate.

She thanked Maralen for accompanying them - although she'd already forgotten his name - but she blagged it calling him 'chief' and went meekly into her accommodation, leaving Harriss with the Security Chief to be taken to his quarters in his turn.

She sat on her bed and wracked her brain to try to find out what was behind that fog and inside those odd empty spaces in her memory. All she managed to find clearly was a distinctly painful stabbing inside her skull.

She lay down, struggling not to lose whatever was left inside her head that the fog and the now pulsing voids hadn't covered or blurred out of any kind of focus. Sagging and failing in her attempts to stop darkness from creeping into all of her remaining senses, Ravi lost consciousness again.

OFF

A Post by

Lieutenant Maralen Seitha
Chief of Security
USS Cygnus

&

Lieutenant Junior Grade Raviran Dattek-Winters
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Cygnus

&

Chief Petty Officer Paul Harriss
Head Nurse
USS Cygnus

 

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