Dolores Medicinae

Posted on Thu Nov 1, 2018 @ 8:24am by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

1,831 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: USS Victory- Sickbay
Timeline: About an hour after the mission briefing

{Sickbay}

The doors to Sickbay opened and the Captain swept through like a storm. Her mood had not improved since the revelations made by Miguel earlier in the conference room, and it showed. Approaching a Nurse, she said without preamble “I will require a bio-signature blocker for the upcoming mission. The denizens of Heouron V are a bit paranoid, if they pick up my bio-signature all hell will break loose and we’ll never get close to our target. A second nurse was nearby, one of Anderson’s med-goons as Rhea thought of them. She was scanning the Captain with a medical tricorder in response to the obvious tension she radiated. Noticing the intrusion, Kennit shot a truly alarmingly threatening scowl at the second nurse and said “Unless you want that tricorder rammed forcefully up your ass so deeply that it comes out your nose I suggest you get the fuck away from me.”

Odd. How she could convey such deliberate menace in such an otherwise calm, normal tone of voice.

Nicole heard the commotion and sighed, leaving her office. She wished she had Amber's telekinesis. She knew the ability to throw people around a room without lifting a finger would make her life so much easier. But, if she were being honest with herself, she knew she would abuse the privilege.

Still, with a flick of her eyes, her staff knew to jump back and keep a distance, and she face-to-face with the captain and alone in the middle of Sickbay.

Spotting Dr. Anderson now approaching Kennit shook her head. pointed at the Doctor (who she did like and respect highly despite her own internal driving need to be difficult) and said simply, “No.”

"Oh pull the stick out," Nicole said, not in the mood for it. "It's not that bad."

Still giving the nurse a look which could only be described as ‘the stink eye’, the Captain answered “That totally is subjective based on one’s point of view.”

Nicole pointed a finger at the Captain and stepped up, getting her attention. "Now, you listen here," she said. "I am scanning everyone for their Quantum Signature, and that includes you, so you might as well let me give you a checkup while we do it. You can fuss all you want, but I'm going to win in the end, so how about we just give in and save everyone some time, hm?"

Kennit’s head swiveled back to meet the Doctor’s gaze, glower to glower. “Fine. I need a bio-signature block implant for this mission or they’ll know I’m there real quick as they are rather paranoid on Heouron and the Borg implants will immediately trigger an alert. So you can get that accomplished in the process.”

Nicole smiled. "You see what happens when you play nice?" she said. She turned and signaled to the nurse nearby. "Kelly, we'll be using Room A. Get me a bio-block implant and bring my black bag," she said.

Kelly nodded, giving the Captain a sideways glance before hurrying past. Nicole shook her head and rubbed her eyes and beckoned the Captain to follow.

As soon as they were alone, the moment the door closed cutting them off from the rest of Sickbay, the Captain said, “I think your nurse out there is going to need clean shorts. Did you see her face when I told her to get the fuck away from me? I almost lost it..”

"You're an awful person," Nicole scolded. "And I'm a doctor, not a laundress, so she'll have to get her own shorts." The doors opened and Nurse Mirina came in, handing Nicole a small case and her black bag. "Thank you, Kelly," Nicole said. "I'll take it from here."

"Yes, Doctor," Nurse Mirina said, heading back to Sickbay.

"Quiet," she said as she saw the Captain's eyes twinkle with wicked mirth as he watched the nurse scurry out at warp speed.

Nicole opened the case, pulling out a small device and attached it to a programming box. She placed it on her tricorder and used the probe to scan the Captain carefully. "Implants functioning normally," she said, half to herself. "Scanning signature..." When the device beeped she detached it and then opened her bag, muttering to herself. "Laser scalpel," she said, then reached in and pulled it out. "Programmable hypospray," she said, then pulled that out as well. "Rigelian Petal Nectar," she finished, pulling out a small bottle.

"You can sit up now," she said.

“Satisfied now?” Rhea asked. “I keep telling you I can monitor my own status with internal diagnostics which give a better analysis than your toys...”. She paused, “It is fun to harass your little nurses though..”

Nicole put the bottle to the side and took the hypospray, programming an anesthetic and injecting the Captain's shoulder. She then took the scalpel and made a small incision and implanted the bio-dampener in the soft tissue of the Captain's back, activating it and synching it with the Captain's implants. She reached back into her bag and pulled out a derma-sealer, closing the incision and removing any scar tissue."

"It might itch in an hour," she said, "but it shouldn't bother you much after that." She took the bottle and pulled to small glasses out of her bag and sat in a chair in front of the Captain, pouring a small snort into each, then handing one to her. There were some things that you told your doctor, and some you told a bartender. She wasn't a counselor, but she could pour a drink. "So....'Nathan.' You two have history?"

The sigh which Rhea let out was long suffering, resigned, and annoyed all in one. “Captain Nathan Torrance. Successfully transited here from what we refer to as the mirror universe oh.. must be almost 12 years now. By accident, so he eventually claimed. He ended up taking his doppelgängers place in Starfleet. The original Torrance died in a bar fight of all stupid things, giving him the opening. I thought he was a Lt Commander when I met him.. about 2 years after John...”

She knocked back the snort and eyed the empty glass. “You know, it’s criminal. I could drink that entire bottle of yours and it wouldn't faze me at all. The nanites neutralize the effects almost instantly. It really sucks. I can’t even blame being drunk for it...”

Nicole poured her another. "Then try sipping it and enjoy the flavor," she said. "And to what 'it' are you referring?"

“All of it.” Kennit answered. “Everything from agreeing to the undercover operation, to having him with our team even though he was an unknown we hadn’t worked with, to deciding he was a better option to scratch an itch than a holodeck program... to trusting him when he said the documents I signed supposedly for supplies and repairs to the Rascal, yes the same ship sitting on the flight deck... and eventually discovering he’d had me sign contracts of a totally different sort entirely.. “

Nicole tried not to snicker at the euphemism. She knew other races sometimes were shy about sex. Rigelians weren't quite on par with Deltans when it came to sex, but they weren't prudes by any stretch of the imagination, and Nicole knew exactly what itch the Captain needed scratched.

"So you're married?" she said, guessing which contracts the Captain might be bitter about.

“Not as far as I’m concerned,” was Kennit’s somewhat morose reply. “False information, false presentation. Just because some backwards damn planet doesn’t recognize anything but their own damn contract doesn’t make it valid."

"My people have an old saying for times like that," Nicole said. "C'thia if-ring ka'es-tor aitlun. Roughly translated: Reality is not desire. You are going to be in trouble if Commander Hunter finds out you're even technically married."

“It isn’t legal. If the rotten little shitstain of a planet wasn’t such a stain it would have been invalidated. They aren’t part of the Federation..so it’s a moot point. And thanks to Miguel’s big mouth, he knows about it. Doesn’t change a thing as far as I’m concerned and if I didn't have orders telling me to go retrieve him I’d let Nathan rot where he is, he’s a liar, he’s a manipulative son of a bitch and yet he likely has information we need so.. here we are.”

"Information about the Alternate Universe?" Nicole said. "Can't imagine what he could know, being 12 years out of their affairs. But, I suppose it's fortunate you have me here in that case," she said.

“He can tell us if there were more ships than one that brought him here. He can view data on the ship’s we discovered, perhaps identify them. If there are more transferees in this region they likely know one another and he’d be a good prospect to provide documentation to help legitimize others who managed the transfer.” Kennit said. “Every investigation has to start somewhere.”

"I suppose," Nicole said. "Meanwhile, I'll be scanning most of the crew to determine that they don't have traces of the other quantum signature. Nothing like tracking down everyone on board all over again. For now, the only ones I can rule out are myself, Cassandra, Penny, and yourself."

“I don’t expect to find any refugees hiding out on this ship, to until we bring Nathan back and he won’t be here long. Long enough to glean what information we can from him then we’ll be dropping him at the first system we find which is inhabited and leaving him behind.”

"He'll be expecting that," Nicole warned.

“I’m not worried about him..” Rhea answered. “I am slightly concerned that Miguel will follow through and actually break his legs...”

"Why? What'd he do to Torres?" Nicole said, genuinely curious. She hadn't had much contact with their CEO, save for a few brief discussions about Penny, but he didn't seem the ruffled feather type to her.

“Nothing that I’m aware of. It’s what he did to me that Miguel has issues with. He thinks I need a big brother.. and figures he can do the job.”

Nicole snorted. "As an only child, myself, I'll take independence over some watchdog."

“Sometimes it’s nice to think there is someone out there who cares about you..not for any reason of personal gain but just...simply because that person considers you a friend...” Kennit answered softly.

Nicole nodded. "Every time Doctor Hanopar would catch me eating my lunch in my office, he would say, "Hinek, friends are like atoms. They share electrons to find stability and balance their numbers. Without them, it is a very unstable universe."

She poured the last of her bottle into their glasses and clinked them together.

Rhea Kennit
Captain

Nicole Anderson
CMO

 

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