A Steamy Encounter - Part 2

Posted on 23 Oct 2025 @ 2:10am by Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant JG Cajag Lagnas
Edited on on 25 Oct 2025 @ 11:52am

1,712 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: HoloDeck 3
Timeline: After steamy Encounter (early MD1)

PREVIOUSLY:

It was now Ravi's turn to retreat into the protective space of the Tellerite Organ. She put an arm out towards it and snapped out of all reverie and straight into Doctor organiser. She slapped her comm badge and ordered the Main Ships' Computer to transfer the Tellarite Organ straight to a vacant holosuite and to set up a program to provide it with seawater that would be exactly the same pH value and saline content as the water in the oceans around the caves where it had come from.

She instructed that oxygenating plants be put into the water and that the organ be semi-submerged. She then instructed that she would be transported there as well. She made no mention of Caj. If he wanted to be there, that was up to him and he would no doubt make his own arrangements. She didn't say that last thought out loud, she seemed to have gone into her automated medical mode and was only focussed on the creature that was in need. Her newest patient.

::ON::


Caj watched as his pipe organ and doctor disappeared in a shimmering blue haze of transporter light. Did she just steal his stuff? Or was Ravi doing her medical thing? Caj asked the computer the location of the chief medical officer. The computer politely replied holodeck three. Caj however did not have clearance for site to site transport and had to walk down.

By the time Caj arrived at the holosuite, Ravi was in the water of the recreated Tellarite cave, singing softly to the coral of the organ.

Ravi looked up and smiled broadly at Caj. "Come on in." she invited him. "The water is lovely"

Their was a slight shimmer of force field energy as Caj crossed the threshold from dry corridor to being waist deep in cave water. The force field hummed a little as it let Caj through but kept the water out of the hall way. The same way it stopped space rushing into a hanger bay when a shuttle took off.

Caj found the water to be warm as he trudged through it. His uniform was getting soaked and he could not see what the doctor was wearing to stop getting soaked as she was almost completely submerged as she nursed his sick organ back to health. "Is it ok?" asked Caj with worry in his voice

"No" she replied with super-frankness. "But it's recovering" she added, seeing his pained expression at her first reply.

"I've put it back into its natural environment" she explained. "In my humble opinion it should never have been removed from it. The whole thing is to me, like taking wild animals - or organisms like this - and putting them into one of those Zoo places of captivity on old Earth when they were killing off more species than they were preserving". She took a breath.

"But that's a personal beef of mine, so I won't continue to complain about it. Anyway, this coral needs a balanced Ph where the acid and alkali of the water are balanced. It also needs saline. Seawater - the salt is essential to its welfare. The 'tropical' temperature as well, to keep it from being too hot or cold for its cells to function properly and well."

Standing up to make room for Caj at the keys-end of the "organ" as an instrument, Ravi was then visible in her polymer outer-skin covering that was made and applied in a similar way to the protective covering used in Theatre and Sickbay generally. It was applied in by lightly compressed air over a liquid mixture that 'set' on application and literally 'waterproofed' and 'germproofed' hands, arms - any part of a body that needed to be protected or covered.

It was skin-tight but it was also luminescent so it reflected like the sheen on ancient oil. It gave a similar black opaque look and generally was critical to life in this century. How anyone managed without it - especially in the Medical Universe, Ravi could never have imagined.

Having returned to crooning softly she stopped again and spoke to Caj. You should have said you wanted to come too. I would have got you some of this ProteCover clothing to save your uniform from getting wet. It will be a job to get the salt out of that." she stated, matter of factly and with a calmness that was new to Caj seeing as he'd only met her in busy or chaotic situations until now.

“I’ll replicate a new one” Caj subtly used one index finger to push up his gaping jaw. The radiance of the doctor was quite distracting. He tore his eyes away so as not gawk like a teenager. Instead he tried to look anywhere else. Including around the iridescent cave. It put him in mind of the symbiote caves on Trill. Not that he had seen them himself, only in pictures, as a non joined Trill and with no desire to be joined, for political reasons, or join the Trill academy, the shimmering pools of those caves would be forbidden to him. Caj pulled himself out of his personal distraction of his own making. He looked again at his Tellerite Organ. Without taking his eyes off the thing he asked “so I can’t take it home? I mean it was fine in my quarters back on earth”

"I imagine many of them manage if well looked after but there comes a time when their age must begin to take effect and well, old age makes a being weaker than they were when young. I think this particular coral has been around a very long time, and not all of it as an organ part. Do you know how old it is?" Ravi asked Caj.

“You know I am not sure” replied Caj thoughtfully as he sat down in the water. Soaking more of his uniform through and the water coming up to his shoulders. He shivered as little. “I got it second hand…..at something called a flea market somewhere in Delhi? On Earth?”

"Perhaps it may not have always been well looked after before you got it and perhaps it took some harm earlier in its life that might be taking a toll now it's ageing?" Ravi wondered aloud.

Caj wasn’t so sure about that. When he worked for the DTI there had been days, even weeks, when he had not returned home, possibly longer? He wasn’t so sure. He knew he had volunteered for some memory wiping as part of the job, there were simply things one was not suppose to know about their future or past, and he wondered if he had neglected his organ. Caj felt a little sad and disappointed in himself. “Maybe” he said a little flatly. “So is there anything I can do for it? Or is it time to put it out to pasture.”

"It's a living thing, Caj." Ravi said softly. "I can try some regenerative treatment? I'd start slowly, once it's had a chance to absorb what it needs here, and then we can see how it responds? Acceptable proposal?"

“Yeah……” said Caj solemnly, clearly not his bouncy eccentric self. “Whatever you think is best doc.”

"Don't be upset my friend. All things get older as time goes by. We might be able to give this coral a bit longer if we do everything we can. There is nothing you could have done to stop the Universe from turning and time from passing." Ravi reached out her hand and took Caj's. She placed his fingers on the keys gently and while he looked sadly at the Organ as a whole, she got underneath and began to apply the regenerator to the underside, where the coral could be reached.

There was a noise that sounded like a wheeze and then one more that sounded like a sigh - Ravi hoped it was a sigh of relief but they held their breath until more began to happen.

Clearly Caj was not being himself as he was not making Jokes, innuendo or outright moves on Ravi considering the compromising position they now found themselves in. Instead he he gently pressed several more bone keys and a soft tune began to form. Rosemary Brown: Jesus Walking on the Water. With a slight contemporary Cardassian twist.

Ravi set about the task of using the Regenerator on the pale coral. It didn't seem to be working underwater and the equipment itself was getting a little warm so she took it out of the water and reprogrammed the holosuite program to drain the water level right down so she could take another go at it dry.

The organ seemed to change its tone as the level dropped gently away but it did seem like it was beginning to sound better once the work was done and Ravi instructed the holosuite to refill to the level it had been before.

Once all that was sorted, the organ did sound very much better and Ravi breathed a sigh of relief. She smiled broadly at Caj. "Does that sound better to you?" she asked with a sparkle in her eyes as she caressed the top of the organ as one might reassure a child that had been ill but was on the mend.

Caj gave a wry smile “we are much better thank you.” Responded Caj speaking on behalf of himself and the Tellerite Organ. He gently pressed on a couple more keys. “And thank you.” He said sincerely. “But as much as much as I appreciate you playing with my pipe. Taking the water out then putting it back in has left me very chilly I should probably go get some dry clean clothes in.”

Ravi rolled her eyes. "You're welcome and Likewise, in that order" she smiled. "We will need to figure out what you're going to need to do to keep her in good order in the future." She added. "But that can be discussed when everyone is dry - well everyone except the organ, naturally"

::OFF::

Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters
Chief Medical Officer - USS Cygnus
&

Lieutenant JG Cajag Lagnas
Science Officer - USS Cygnus

 

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