Breath Catching

Posted on 25 Aug 2012 @ 9:20am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D.

1,986 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Null-Gravity Treatment Suite
Timeline: MD 08 - 0444 hours

[ON]

The null-gravity treatment suite aboard Galileo was little more than a biobed, a surgical support frame, and an LCARS panel inside a closet. The Sickbay facilities aboard a Nova-class vessel were sufficient to respond to the myriad of medical mysteries one will encounter in the course of exploration, but they were far from luxurious. None of the patients stumbling into Sickbay after the Klingon attack had required null-gravity treatment, and so the suite had been converted into a surgical recovery room, because it was sterile and because it already had a bed.

Earlier, Andreus Kohl had dragged a chair into the treatment suite, and the doors had refused to close for a time. There was so little space for the chair between the bed and the door, the sensors couldn't be sure if the chair was trying to leave. By now, the computer had figured out he wasn't leaving. The doors had long closed. The lighting had even been darkened to emergency levels. Kohl was sat on the chair with his legs pulled up close to his body, his arms wrapped around his midsection, and his head propped against the chair-back. He was snoring softly. Kohl was well and truly asleep.

One moment, Lucalin was dreaming of bones breaking and blood flowing and the next he was lying, awake, strapped to a bed, unable to move. For a moment, he wondered if he'd done something, if somehow his strange dreams had translated into reality - although how they could, logically, he couldn't fathom. And because that made little sense, he worked with the information he had. He could feel some sort of contraption holding his neck and head in alignment, and there a steady rumbling from his left provided Luca with some semblance of understanding of the room: it was small, with closed doors, a bed frame, a chair, a body, and him. He was facing down, his arms strapped to his sides and the bed - more provisions to keep him still, he hypothesized. And the body in the chair beside him... he inhaled, tasting the scent and body temperature of Andreus. Not Flim Flam's purring, but snoring. That was the rumble. His dry lips twitched slightly. "Hello," he uttered, his voice a touch raspy from drymouth. Nothing. "Hello?" he tried again.

The only fanfare to accompany Kohl's return to consciousness was a deep breath he took in from his mouth. The snoring stopped and he said, "Oh? ...Oh. Oh!" before he opened his eyes. He remembered where he was, soon enough, and his eyes snapped open to inspect the three nutrition packs plugged into the biobed. Kohl's heart beat faster in a panic --had Luca been sleeping too long?-- but he calmed himself once he could see one of the packs was still full. The biobed continued to feed Luca intravenously. "It's Andreus. I mean, I'm Andreus," Kohl said, but the fog of sleep made it sound as if he weren't certain of that fact.

"I know," Lucalin told the nurse, a smile warming his rough baritone.

"I came in here to check on your vitals," Kohl said in his formal timbre. Saying it, he turned his gaze to the biofunction monitor, but his eyes caught on the chronometer first. "...Twenty minutes ago," he added sheepishly.

Lucalin flexed his hands against the straps that held him down. "I don't mind," he said honestly. "You snore," he added, as though it were the most wonderful thing he could think of.

"You don't," Kohl said admiringly. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he watched with some discomfort at the bindings keeping Luca still. Intellectually, he could understand why the doctor had recommended them, but it was hard to watch. "How are you feeling?" Kohl asked.

Lucalin tried to shift under the straps again and found the only parts of him that could move were his hands and feet. "Alive. Thirsty," he said, grateful and distracted. "It's not permanent, is it? I will be able to move again?"

"You're recovering quickly," Kohl said. He used direct and clear language to avoid heightening any concerns that Luca might be paralyzed. At the same time, he didn't want to promise anything medical science couldn't deliver. Before he said anything more, he studied the biofunction monitor more closely. "You should have full mobility," Kohl said reassuringly. He put his weight on the chair's armrests as he unfolded his legs, stretching out to put his feet on the floor. Kohl lifted the brushed-chrome bottle of water from his lap to make sure it wasn't completely empty, before he twisted off the lid. Leaning in close to Luca's face, Kohl said, "Try to drink something," and he brought the bottle to Luca's lips. Luca was in an awkward position for drinking, and so Kohl tipped the bottle very, very gently.

Lucalin lapped at the water through the bottle's mouth, wetting his lips and tongue before working at swallowing while facing down. New experiences, every day. It was nice to hear he'd be able to move again. Not necessary. He could have survived worse, but... Nice. It was pleasant to think he wouldn't be bound to a chair or bed forever. That would have made his work quite difficult. "Thank you," he said when he'd lapped his fill. "I suppose this means the Klingons haven't taken over the ship then?"

"Oh... but they have. We're on course to Qo'nos at maximum warp as we speak," Kohl said. His deadpan delivery was matter of fact, but it was lacking in the distress one might expect from such a statement. Kohl twisted the cap back onto his water bottle and he shrugged helplessly, forgetting momentarily that Luca couldn't see the gesture. "If I were you," Kohl said like a educator speaking to a tardy student, "I'd start practicing my Klingonese."

"Klingonese," Lucalin repeated. "I did want to get out of the sector. Qo'nos is out of the sector." He made a rolling thoughtful sound, "It is, isn't it?"

"No, Luca, I'm sorry... You haven't even left the sector," Kohl said. Although he was smiling broadly at Luca's desire to leave the sector, he modulated his tone to sound appropriately apologetic. "We're hiding in a nebula, if I understand correctly, and we survivors have managed to evade the Klingons for now."

Lucalin sighed, flexing his toes. "I've never been in a battle in space before. I'd rather hoped to see a bit more of it." He clicked a couple times, "Maybe next time." He paused thoughtfully, wiggling his fingers. "Andreus, it's possible that I misunderstood some of the history I was taught, but I was under the impression that the Klingons were Federation allies."

"I was taught all the same histories. That was my understanding too," Kohl said, his confusion betrayed by his inflection. He drew his knees up to his chest and perched his feet against the edge of his seat. "I suppose there have been tensions underlying recent histories, but I never thought it would come to this. Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention these days..."

"I can't say I'm all together surprised, mind," Lucalin spoke in a measured, thoughtful way. "Alliances are ensured by mutual need and social symbiosis. The Klingons, from what I've read, need very little from the Federation and their tactic appears to be largely about taking rather than reciprocity." He rolled a sound around his throat, low and almost mournful. "People like that... they win until another violent-minded people with bigger sticks come to beat them back again."

With his knees pulled in close, Kohl crossed his arms over his knees and rested his chin atop his forearms. "Hmm," he vocalized in acknowledgement, and then he asked, "You speak from first-hand experience?"

Lucalin turned his head and trilled towards Andreus' voice, clicking a few times to clarify the image of the Argelian in his mind. "How much do you know about Meratah?"

As he trawled through his recollections from his days in Starfleet's diplomatic entourage along the Romulan Neutral Zone, Kohl pursed his lips and hugged his legs tighter. "I know what I heard in briefings, read in summaries of reports," Kohl said to qualify his knowledge. "I understand the nations of Meratah had barely recovered from war between them when your planet was occupied by the Dominion."

"The surface nations," Lucalin clarified. "Bireikara lies beneath the surface and we made an effort to abstain from war; Mera promotes an understanding of symbiotic tolerance. But when they began to batter our shields and our defenses, trying to force their way into our tunnels... we didn't have a standing army. We still don't. We had builders, defensive builders, and site miners. So the geneticists sought to create a version of ourselves that would be able to stand up against the warriors who had been trained since birth to kill. What they got was me." He wiggled his feet and hands again, "So... yes. I exist because of the bullies, the ones on our planet, then the Romulans, then the Dominion. There's always a bigger stick." He sighed. "Were it not so."

Kohl put his feet on the floor and scooted his chair the few millimeters it could move closer to the biobed. As his head became clearer and his eyes regained focus, he studied the biofunction monitor again. Afterwards, Kohl said, "I can let you out of these..." He reached out and squeezed Luca's arm before releasing the strap that held him to the bed. As Kohl moved to release the next strap, he asked, "Do you ponder on your origins much?"

As soon as the first strap was free, Luca flexed and stretched his arm and when the second was released, he braided his fingers behind his back to roll his shoulders. His head and feet were still strapped down, but it was a relief to move whatever was available to him. "Sometimes," he answered. "I try not to, generally, but there are times when it is hard not to think of it. I was made to protect them, and wound up unable to even protect myself." He caught Kohl's hand before the Argelian could move from the bedside, "There's blood outside. Different kinds. But you're all right. You seem all right."

"Uhm, yeah, uhm, I didn't get too banged up," Kohl said, speaking of his undamaged body. His body was undamaged, at least. Kohl stayed where he was, stayed right where he was, leaning close with his hand in Luca's hand. "I guess the systems and structures in Sickbay are hardened to be an emergency shelter. I don't think we got hit as hard as some other areas of the ship. As for the fighting, I mean, I shot at one Klingon one time, and then the EMH gassed the rest of them. Did the Klingons do this to you?"

Lucalin laughed hollowly. "My own lack of balance did this to me. Mine and one of the scientists we brought on board. Amazing how much damage getting landed on by a normal sized human can do." His brow creased as he thought about what Andreus had said. "You fought them, though. You saw them. I was out before... I don't even know if they got to us. But we got away. You can fire a phaser?"

"Yes. I'm an officer. It's what's expected of us all," Kohl said, sounding almost wistful about the expectation on him. He reached over to unlatch the restraint around Luca's neck, and pull the restraints away. As he moved to remove the restraints from Luca's legs, Kohl said, "I was re-certified on my last posting. It wasn't a safe place. I-- I suppose Galileo isn't a safe place either. We're all going to have to learn to protect our people."


[OFF]

Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina
Bioengineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Andreus Kohl
Nurse
USS Galileo

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