Pickled intestines

Posted on 05 Sep 2016 @ 5:24pm by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan

2,006 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3 - Sickbay
Timeline: MD -04, 0730 hours

[ON]

When it comes to being a shipboard doctor, there is one thing that makes it particularly difficult. It's not the diverse alien species you have to treat, or the occasional flooding of sickbay as a result of some terrible crisis on a planet. It's the fact that on a ship of a couple hundred people, most of the time you're treating the people you know and care about. Whether it's your neighbour from two doors down the corridor, the cute guy from the mess hall, or the person you shared a holodeck with the week before, it's so often the people you care about that you're struggling to save.

And so it was with Tuula and Eelim. She didn't know why, but she felt a strong connection with him. Maybe it was the fact that they were both lonely souls sailing the stars together, or perhaps it was just that they both liked the heat, but there was something Tuula felt that she wasn't sure what it was. In fact, when she was checking his vitals while he was in the coma, she was sure she saw a ghostly image of him reach out to her and place his hand on her shoulder.

She had heard when she had started her shift that Eelim had awakened from his coma. Though when she had gotten there -- a half hour early, of course -- he was sleeping and she decided it would be best not to wake him.

So, after some paperwork, she ended up doing her rounds and checking on his vitals. Pausing as she looked over him once more, she saw his eyes begin to flutter.

Eelim had been in a sleepless dream and he was just now waking. His eyes fluttered and the unfocused haze settled on an image that came into view quickly. He smiled. His voice still raspy he said, "Hi Tulip."

Tuula smirked at the nickname; it was at least better than Liz, her nickname at the academy. "Good morning, sunshine," she exclaimed, excited to see Eelim conscious and functioning again. "Can I get you anything? Breakfast perhaps?"

He shook his head. "Maybe... water....and a blanket." His body still healing, he was cold.

While normally it was the nurse's job to take care of these sort of patient needs, Tuula quickly rolled over to the replicator to fetch Eelim his request, stopping on the way to tell the computer to raise the temperature by a few degrees. As she returned a minute later, the blanket and glass of water was on a tray balanced precariously on her lap. She placed the glass on a medcart and threw the blanket over Eelim. "Need me to tuck you in?" she asked in a deadpan tone.

Eelim laughed and then moaned a he grabbed his stomach. "That hurts like hell."

"Yeah..." Tuula trailed off for a minute, not sure what Eelim had been told or what to tell him. "Some people would say that you're lucky to be alive. Though I would argue that luck had nothing to do with it," she added, bragging a little about her surgical prowess. "I can get you some metorapan for the pain. Or maybe some morphenolog; that's the good stuff."

He smiled. "No...I'll take the pain. I need it after what I've been through. I understand you better now Tulip." He said thinking back to the insight. "I'm so sorry about the choice you had to make about the baby and about being booted because of what they saw as a weakness at the Academy. I'm so glad you didn't give up."

"How..." Tuula was flabbergasted; the things Eelim was referring to were things that she hadn't told anyone on the ship about. "How do you know about that?"

He shrugged. "I was there...You too...well your Bajoran God double took me there. I read the letter. Those bastards."

"Ummmmmm... are you sure Allyndra didn't give you some morphenolog already?" asked Tuula. As a scientist, she was skeptical about the existence of gods and other superstitions, but she couldn't think of a better explanation.

"I'm sure." He said. "Thank you for singing to me." He said.

"Oh." Tuula blushed; she loved signing, but she often had a little bit of stage fright. She hoped her renditions of Gilbert and Sullivan tunes weren't too torturous to the poor Cardassian. "I read that music can have positive impacts on the outcomes for comatose patients. I was just... you know... trying to help my patients recover," she replied, blushing red by now. "I got you a present!" she blurted out, an effort to change the subject.

He smiled. "Well you sing like an angel. A present? You didn't have to." It was his turn to blush.

"I just saw you lying there, and I thought little get well soon gift would help raise your spirits." Reaching into her messenger bag, she managed to produce a cylindrical object wrapped in black tissue paper, with a black bow on it. "I wrapped it myself... thought it might brighten up your day..."

He smiled and he unwrapped the gift to find a Jar with liquid and some sort of tissue floating in it. "UM...what is it?" He asked.

Tuula smiled nervously, hoping that Eelim would like her gift. "Remember when we first met, and you were afraid that I would dissect you?" she asked.

He laughed. "Yes. That was scary but after it was funny." He said. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well... you had some pretty bad internal bleeding. I kind of had to dissect you a little to save you." She bit her lip for a second, wondering if this was as good of a gift idea as she thought. "That's a piece of your small intestine. I kept it from the surgery, as a reminder that what doesn't kill you..."

Thank the gods he was already pale or he would have gone completely pale. "Um...right...What doesn't kill you makes your stronger...."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Tuula, not picking up on Eelim's apprehension and thinking that he legitimately thought it was as great of a gift as she did. "You can put it on your desk! You know, as a reminder of what you've overcome, of your strength in surviving such a brutal attack... or just as a cool conversation piece!" she exclaimed, excited that Eelim seemed to enjoy his gift, or at least, she thought he did. "I'm glad you like it..."

Eelim didn't have the heart to tell her that the gift was kind of creepy. "Um...sure..." His mind was still foggy. "Did they catch her...?"

Tuula laughed and shook her head. "There isn't really anywhere to run on a starship in the middle of deep space. The gossip around the ship is that she is delusional and thought she would be hailed as a hero."

He was glad that they caught her. "And yet...it's not really her fault is it. She was driven to this by what the Cardassians did to Bajor." He sighed sadly. "I hope they were gentle with her." He meant it. She had tried to take his life yet he felt compassion for her.

"But she shouldn't take it out on you," protested Tuula as she placed a hand on Eelim's shoulder, an attempt to comfort and reassure him. She knew that there was some sadness deep down inside him, perhaps some shame over what his people had done. During her ethics course at the academy, she had read about what some Cardassian 'doctors' did to their Bajoran patients. It was brutal, and she knew reading it that their evils during the occupation was something that the Cardassians had to come to grips with. But taking it out on Eelim, the nicest Cardassian she had ever met, wasn't the solution. "You shouldn't suffer because of what some of your people had done. You're nothing like the people who occupied Bajor and brutalized the population."

Eelim smiled sadly. "You know I might not be like them but my father was there, in Kendra, with Gyce and Nelis. I feel..." He'd never told this to anyone but Gyce. "I feel responsible in way. I was never on Bajor but to think that any Cardassian can be like that. Way back in our history we were like the Bajorans. We had a spirituality that was about peace and love. Somewhere we lost our way and perhaps a yearning for the old ways drove the Cardassians mad." He shook his head and tears ran down his eyes. "I wish to see her."

"The woman who stabbed you?!" Tuula was flabbergasted. "Well, she's locked up in the brig, and you're going to be staying in sickbay with me for a while, so I'm afraid that's not going to happen soon."

As she sat there and looked in Galan's eyes, she thought about what he was saying, though. It reminded her of something; something that she hadn't talked about with anyone, aside from Allyndra, who witnessed it firsthand, and even then, it was a painful conversation. She didn't even talk to Jaana about it.

"These prophets... did they mention anything about our last mission before the visit to the colony?"

"No, just about the baby, and how you got the bone saw, the academy thing...I'm still sorting through it all." He said honestly.

Tuula sighed. She didn't know how the prophets knew all that, but she couldn't help feel that it was unfair that Eelim now knew all her secrets and she barely knew anything about him save for his medical file. "On our last mission, we were sent into the mirror universe, and ran into our mirror counterparts. They were identical to us in every way, but..."

"But..." Eelim prompted. He took her hand in a brotherly fashion.

Tuula squeezed Eelim's hand tightly, for this was still a difficult thing to talk about. "They were evil." She took a deep breath. "My mirror universe counterpart came aboard. She was genetically identical to me, and had even suffered the same injury. But the things she had done... "

A chill ran down Tuula's spine as she remembered being trapped in sickbay, shackled to a biobed next to Allyndra as her mirror universe counterpart performed gruesome experiments. It was torture, and the idea that she called herself a doctor made it even worse.

"She was a monster," said Tuula, holding back tears. "The things she had done, the pain she had caused... she tortured people. She said it was all in the name of science, but she was no different from Shiro Ishii, or Josef Mengele, or Crell Moset. I like to think that I'm not capable of that sort of inhumanity, but she was genetically identical to me..."

Eelim struggled to sit up. "Tulip, listen to me. You are nothing like her. We all possess darkness and light. She chose to embrace darkness, you are nothing but light. Do not compare yourself to her in any way." He saw a tear slip down and reached up to wipe it away. "You pay her no mind. Her choices are her own and they are based on her atmosphere but you, you are unique and even though genetically the same you are nothing alike."

"And you... you're nothing like those evil men who did all sorts of cruel things to the Bajorans." She held his hand tightly. "You're not responsible for what they did. And it's not up to you to suffer on their behalf. You need to stop punishing yourself for the sins of your fathers and focus on getting better, okay?"

He smiled at her. "Okay Tulip. Can I ask you for a favour?"

"Anything," she replied, smiling back.

"Don't be so hard on yourself."

"You first," shot back Tuula. "So, what else did the prophets tell you about me..."

*****

Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

&

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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