Moving Day - Part 3/3

Posted on 02 Feb 2026 @ 7:11pm by Lieutenant Commander Raviran Dattek-Winters

1,410 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Caj’s Quarters/Holosuite 4/Sickbay
Timeline: after Parts 1/3 & 2/3

Previously:

"Would it need a large holographic set up? " She asked, looking around the quarters and appraising how much Caj might be able to give to the installation. "I suppose if you had to give him too much room you could always come and live with m.... " Ravi cut off, suddenly seeing flashes of equations scrawled over the walls of her own Suite on the Medical Deck. She blushed and finally got eye contact from the distracted Trill.

“Woah wait you want me to live with you!” Exclaimed Caj as his own brain finally caught up with what Ravi had said, as he had been mostly focused on his new idea of making his quarters a mini holodeck. “I mean that’s kind of you to offer and I am flattered that you offered but we are definitely not there yet…..”

Continued:

"DEFINITELY not.." Ravi repeated, trying to laugh off her embarrassment. "I didn't mean it like that she rolled her eyes. I meant I was wondering if you would actually have room to live in here alongside Kevin or if you would have to apply for larger quarters.... I just worded it in a sort of joke type exclamation..... you know... like but where would YOU live.... " she laughed at the concept. "I was trying to say obviously not with a silly example but it wasn't as funny as it was meant to be......." she hadn't breathed in a good while and was forced to stop and suck in a big intake which did in fact seem to calm (or at least slow) her down.

"Sorry, it wasn't as funny as it seemed in my head"..... "I mean.... not that .... it's just...." she took another, longer, deeper breath and then abruptly changed the subject.

"So..." she laughed but it didn't sound real, even to her own ears. "I'll stop talking or you'll have to replicate me a spade, right?" another forced laugh and her blushes were now getting out of control.

"Which of these boxes do you want to do next? We seem to have stalled on this one?" she tried to shift back to normal but that wasn't comfortable either so she made retreating noises instead.

"or we could leave them for now and I could leave you to calculate how much room Kevin would need - then with all the facts it will be easier to see if he fits in without as much bother as I was anticipating?" one more very quick breath. "..... in fact, I really ought to go and get my notes up to date ready for tomorrow's clinic.... no rest for the..... " she ground to a dreadful halt and then just said. "...doctors?" and made for the door, still breathing raggedly but calming herself enough to give him a smile as she got over enough boxes to reach the door.

"We can do more boxes in a couple of days, if you like, I'm off duty again in 72hrs from tomorrow morning...... " her face had reverted to the Doctors' standard and she was re-centering rapidly now.

"Thank you for my Orb" she remembered to move back over a few boxes to pick it up and began to 'mountaineer' back again towards the door.

"Sorry" she said, wishing she could justify an Emergency Medical Transfer request. It WAS a medical emergency for her, judging by the inexplicable way her heart-rate had gone through the top of her head, even despite the efforts she was making to just to get to the door with a shred or two of dignity still intact.

It was just her luck that she didn't manage to hold onto even that last thread and got her foot stuck as she was trying to step over a tall (they were all bulky and tall, blast them all!) box that was seemingly less heavy than she had calculated and it didn't take the weight of her attempts to lean on it as she tried to waft over it elegantly. She might have known before she even attempted it that she would cluster-fail and she did.

The box collapsed and she disappeared from sight as she was engulfed into the cardboard remnants and the spilling out contents all in a very confined space. Luckily, this box appeared to be full of clothes of some sort and no harm was done other than to Ravi's already shredded dignity. She had two choices.

Ravi decided to take the 'laugh at it' option with the ridiculous spectacle of her foot and slightly scratched shin sticking up above a pile of clothes as if disconnected and the rest of her that was almost invisible being buried under copious amounts of torn and crumpled cardboard, making that the better choice.

"Well, that served me right didn't it!" She just saw the ridiculous situation she'd got herself into and that now she needed to try to get up but knowing that she wasn't going to be able to do that elegantly, nor even at all, until she could disentangle herself, and stopping laughing might help as well.

Caj shrugged to himself “ok we’ll see you later then.” It wasn’t that the situation was comical. It wasn’t that he didn’t or did care. It wasn’t that he had missed several awkward social cues, which he had. It was that Caj was so lost in the science that he had already picked up a padd and was already frantically writing on it.

That stopped Ravi from laughing!

She struggled free, stood up and brushed herself off. The she just fled, unable to do anything more other than escape. She ran past her Orb without seeing it, her sole focus on getting outside.

Once she'd achieved that she attempted to breathe as slowly and calmly as her racing heart would let her before pulling herself up to her full height and disappearing into the nearest turbolift.

Her thoughts were racing too. ~what is happening to me? why does that idiot confuse me so much it's not like I'm a teenager who can't talk to attractive males...... ~ her heart lurched as she began to realise what she was saying to herself. And she knew there and then, that it wasn't Caj who was the IDIOT is was her!

The realisation was harsh and it hit her deeply. Cursing herself (thankfully silently as the words she was using were very, VERY impolite!) she redirected from wherever she was blindly heading and went into the holosuites.

. . . . . . . .

Ravi ran up a steep hillside - one on Bajor that she knew and the holosuite replicated for her. When she got to the top she could hardly breathe and she collapsed into a heap, gazing over the edge at the stunning view. She lay there for some time, deciding she needed a holiday but knowing it wasn't going to happen outside the holodecks.

When she finally felt better enough to get up, she hiked back down again and booked herself in for several more sessions in the holosuite, with the intention of replicating some 'vacation scenarios' and then took a sonic shower before returning to her quarters for a clean uniform. She went on, refusing to allow herself to dwell on her mistakes and arrived at Sickbay, unexpectedly since she was supposed to be off-duty today.

Sitting at her desk, Ravi set herself a gruelling schedule of extra shifts and a lot of gym sessions and included her holosuite bookings into it as well. When she had remembered how she had reacted to having been unrequited in her relationship with Lisald Vaat, she reflected some more.

~Yes she was good at failing to read relationships, wasn't she!~

However, she also recalled she'd got over that, in time, by burying herself in her work and this time, she reasoned it out.

~If she kept her free time full of getting healthy and relaxing in holiday situations, she wouldn't have time to think about any Trills ever again..... well, not ALL of them but .....just STOP> thinking about it,HALFWIT~

It seemed to make sense to her. She saved the schedule file and then added the shortcut to it on her main log-in screen for good measure.

OFF

A JP by:

Lt. (jg) Cajag Lagnas
CoSc - USS Cygnus

and

Lt Cmdr Raviran Dattek-Winters
CMO - USS Cygnus

 

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