Stop-and-Go

Posted on 26 Feb 2013 @ 10:36pm by Commander Andreus Kohl
Edited on on 26 Feb 2013 @ 10:38pm

876 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Venture - Transporter Room 1
Timeline: MD 03 - 1413 hours

[ON]

Skipping past the step, Andreus Kohl took one hell of a long stride onto the softly-glowing platform. Hurriedly, his black boots clunked into place in the centre of a transporter pad. His boots had been replicated so recently, they were still creaseless. His black and grey officer's uniform was similarly immaculate. It had been replicated to fit based on a body scan he'd taken that very morning. His Lieutenant (Junior Grade) pips practically sparkled from their perch on the high collar of his teal under tunic. Similarly shiny, the arrowhead commbadge on his chest was updated with the most current communications protocols. He needed to be in full readiness. He needed to materialize aboard Galileo mid-sprint.

In a timbre that landed somewhere between strident and apologetic, Andreus Kohl said, "Catch up. I can't wait any longer." Kohl raised a hand and snapped his fingers twice to draw the full attention of the USS Venture's transporter operator. With a scowl on his lips, Kohl's angular Argelian features must have looked unattractively sharp. His brown hair was shaved close to the scalp and dyed an alarming shade of platinum. "You can do your energizing thing now," Kohl instructed.

"No, sir," said Petty Officer Malak from his post behind the transporter console. He was a dark skinned Haliian man, similar in age to Kohl's twenty-seven Federation standard years. Malak didn't look up from the LCARS panel he was manipulating. "No, I can't."

"This is the transporter room, isn't it?" asked Kohl. His electric blue eyes narrowed on Malak, as if to dissect him with a gaze. Even as the words came out of Kohl, his heart was beating faster, his breaths were drawing shallow. Panic was creeping in, physiologically speaking, despite there being no apparent stimuli to cause it. Kohl breathed out through his nostrils once. Shortly, he asked, "I haven't had a stroke and walked into the biochemistry lave, have I?"

Malak raised his eyes long enough to study Kohl. No other part of his body moved; only his eyes reacted to Kohl's lazy use of sarcasm. Malak remarked, "Sir, I can't speak to your health, but, yes, this is the transporter room."

As if completing an arduous mathematical equation, Kohl said, "Then allow the room its intrinsic value." --Kohl opened both hands with a sort of dramatic flourish-- "Transport."

Cutting to the heart of it, Malak said, "Sir, I haven't completed the calculations yet."

"But we're within transporter range now." Shaking his head almost imperceptibly, and a little bit petulantly, Kohl said, "I can't wait any longer. You must understand. Energize."

In a dryly poetic lilt, Malak said, "If one wants to know what it feels like to be transported at warp, without the appropriate calculations, one might simply step out an airlock and ride the hull." Then, he offered Kohl an apologetic frown and met the Argelian man's eyes. "Sir, both ships will arrive in the Rojar system any time now."

Pursing his lips in defeat, Kohl stepped down from the transporter platform. This time, he took the time to use the stair. "Please let me know as soon as the calculations are complete," Kohl said. Defenses dropping, he sounded like an actual person for the first time since entering the room. "I've been too late too many times already."


Location: USS Galileo - Deck Four, Outside Sickbay

In the span between one breath and the next, Andreus Kohl suddenly regretted giving that transporter operator such a hard time. In one moment, he had been striding purposefully from one section to the next on deck four. He had missed the mission briefing, but he had read the transcript. He had missed the Borg and Romulan biology lessons, but he had done the readings while he sat in the Venture's transporter room, waiting. In one moment, he had been rushing back to his duty in Galileo's Sickbay, and in the very next moment, he was struck with emotional paralysis. Fear gripped him all the way down to his spinal column, and he couldn't take another step. He couldn't remember why he was in such a hurry, all of a sudden. He didn't want to hurry back. He wanted the other thing.

Playing it back, he was haunted by what Pola had said. By what he had said. He could remember it clearly and yet it so offended his sensibilities that his memory tried to colour that memory like it was just a dream. Like he didn't want to believe something so embarrassing could have been for real.

Kohl backed against a bulkhead. From where he was stopped, he was just about out of sight from the entryway to Sickbay. Leaning against the bulkhead, he let his knees give out and he sat down on the deck. Gripping onto the PADD in his hand, Kohl raised it to a comfortable reading-height, and requested that it show him the article on optimizing cerebral hemodynamic and oxygenation in Romulans. The one he had been reading. Right then, reading about brain trauma seemed far more appealing than his own life.


[OFF]

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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