Blood Is Thicker

Posted on 24 Oct 2013 @ 12:19pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Bo Chalan & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Edited on on 24 Oct 2013 @ 9:52pm

1,580 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 4 - Sickbay
Timeline: MD06 - 0500

[ON]

Three times in a row he'd checked the blood supply and three times he'd come up short. Either Bo's mathematical skills had fallen to disrepair from disuse, or they were actually losing the transfusion supplies. Or someone was misplacing them. Either way, with the situation on board and the high likelihood that the blood would be needed, the missing supplies were not something he could overlook. Though he would have preferred his first one on one interaction with the Medical Chief to be on a less troubling note, the meeting could not be put off.

Her office door was open, so he didn't ping, only stood in the open doorframe and exhaled. "Chief? Do you have a minute?"

Allyndra was looking over the medical records and trying to update everything. If was habit and she could not help but wonder why it meant anything especially with the current situation. They could all just be taken by the Borg and all this would be a moot point.

The chime interrupted and she looked up to see one of the nurses standing there. Allyndra waved the nurse in and blanked the screen. While all her personnel had access to medical records it was just polite not to keep all of it open while they talked.

Allyndra racked her brain. She was not sure she had met this nurse really yet. They had all been busy and faces were familiar but she had not really had a chance to really get to know some of them.

"Nurse......Chalan?" Allyndra inquired. "Did I get that right?"

He inclined his head. "As charged."

"Please have a seat. I am sorry, I have not had a chance to really get to know everyone. We have been a bit busy lately haven't we?" Allyndra smiled with a lilt to her voice.

"Imminent death and all, yes." Bo stepped in and took the indicated seat. "Socializing should always take a back seat to survival. Which brings me to my purpose here. We seem to have a problem with our supply of transfusion grade blood." He offered her a PADD.

Allyndra wanted to laugh at the statement. She immediately took a liking to Chalan. "Oh?" Allyndra took the PADD and glanced at it. She pretty much figured out that her needs had not been taken into account but she thought this might be a way to get to talk to Chalan a little more.

"I see it appears that we are low by four units. I see they are all different types so perhaps someone did not account for a unit during surgery perhaps?"

Bo shook his head. "I thought of that; the B Positive and Slevak-9 haven't been used in any surgeries. They're simply gone."

Allyndra knew she should just come out and say something but she felt a little in teacher mode and she had always admired that some teachers urged students along with questions designed to lead to the answer rather than handing it out.

"So if they are simply gone, and inventory is correct and they have not been used in a surgery what other possibilities could you think of even the oddest?"

Chalan studied her. She didn't seem remotely disturbed by the fact that they were losing supplies, which led him to think that she knew something about what was going on. Either that, or did simply didn't care that something that was not capable of being replicated and would most likely be needed soon was disappearing. He did not enjoy being spoken down to. It was a legitimate concern. "There's nothing odd about it. Someone is taking them. Why, or for what, is not my business. But if we get someone with injuries in here and they need four liters of Slevak-9, we are not going to be able to care for them."

Allyndra was pretty sure she had balanced things. She could see the change in Nurse Chalan attitude. "You are correct. They are gone but should have sufficient in reserve. They are gone because of a certain requirement by an individual on board." Allyndra picked up a PADD and brought up her own medical file and then handed it over.

"This should help explain the mystery." She said as she handed it over to the nurse.

Bo scanned the PADD, glanced at her, returned to the file. "So you've been... eating... our transfusion blood?"

"Yes," Allyndra sat back in her chair. "I am allowed so much by special dispensation for my unique needs. Trust me, I would have forgone even that given the circumstances but with my body re-growing my wings makes such a protein source obligatory in nature. Thus I have tried to pick the least used."

Allyndra knew that a lot species had problems with the heamatophagic nature of her kind but as her predecessor had said: 'You cannot be at fault for what is written in your genes.'

The idea that his chief in the medical department was eating their blood storage was not the most savory of ideas. Internally, he almost gagged at his own pun. He understood, of course, that she was Different from him. Just as all the other species on board were Different. And despite all the training, he would always see these other species as Different. They were. Fundamentally. Culturally. Biologically. He saw the proof of this every day. It was impossible not to when he was spending all his time becoming familiar with the hundred different evolutionary and biological varieties on this ship alone. And he could accept that. Had, ever since he'd joined Starfleet, because his calling had drawn him away from his beloved Bajor and out into the wilds of space to learn what he could.

But there was a marked difference, he decided as he stood there before the CMO, in having a biological need he was not familiar with and in trying to mask this by purposefully failing to log the use in the medical logs. They didn't store the blood for fun, he thought, reigning in a pulse of anger with a long exhale. They stored what was necessary, what had been deemed necessary, by careful calculations based on the likelihood of who would need transfusions. He hadn't been joking when he'd said they were all facing imminent death. They were. Whether assimilated or outright killed, it made no difference to him. Once the pagh had been destroyed, there was nothing left of the person who had been before.

And even more so, she had lied to him. This sat not at all well with him. He had a special kind of distaste for those who lied to his face; too many memories of smiling Cardassians. He exhaled again as he felt his hands closing into fists. She was a Starfleet Officer and he worked, tirelessly, in her department. The idea that she thought it was appropriate to mislead him about necessary supplies going missing and only tell him the truth after he honestly expressed his concerns in a way that overrode her falsehoods... His trust in her had been beaten. And it had nothing at all to do with what she ate or did not eat. Rage was strangling him. But there was no time for this. No time to reveal the deep sense of disgust he felt at the betrayal. No need, either, as it would serve no purpose. She clearly did not feel she had anything to apologize for, though the fact that she had hidden what she was doing from the logs and then tried to mislead him when he'd first come in did show that she was not entirely comfortable with her actions up to that point. She was his commanding officer and that would not change. Not now. But the situation he now found himself in, feeling as though he would have to double and triple check everything said to him by her from now on was... decidedly familiar. He had been battered and broken before and risen above. He would do so again, because there were people on this ship who deserved focused, honest treatment for the emotional and physical wounds they had sustained and would yet sustain in the coming days.

"I would suggest," his voice was quiet as he spoke, purposefully releasing the tension in his hands, "that from now on when you have need of additional supplies for your diet, you make note of it in the logs. Proper records mean lives saved." He thought of the sway of leaves against a purple sunset and the feel of cold stone beneath bared feet as he practiced the que'el quin among the other kadun, and the image soothed his countenance, though the sense of betrayal would not rest. "I respectfully request permission to return to my work."

"You are correct. I just do not like everyone knowing what I need. Yes, you may return. I do apologize about everything."

Bo wasn't sure how to respond to this, so he simply nodded and slipped out of her office.

Allyndra could tell from the set of the shoulders that Nurse Chalan was not happy with all this. She vowed to try to change that and immediately began to try to log in what she remembered.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Galileo

Crewman Chalan Bo
Nurse
USS Galileo
pNPC Lilou Zaren

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