Fitness For Duty, part 1

Posted on 08 Mar 2017 @ 11:54am by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Miraj Derani

1,546 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q - sick bay
Timeline: MD02 0700

[ON]

At 0700 hours, utterly miserable, Miraj dragged herself into sickbay to look for Allyndra as she had been ordered. Thankfully the doctor was there, and she went over. "Good morning, commander. Can i bother you for a bit?"

"Allyndra please," she replied. "Of course, this is my primary duty. I am not sure if I will even be sitting a bridge watch with this mixed crew."

"The admiral has taken me off duty," Miraj looked thoroughly dejected. "Two whole days and I have to have a medical and psyc exam too."

"Admiral?" Allyndra thought. "Well maybe she meant General. Everyone is exhausted."

"Well can certainly help with both but would prefer that you seek one of the counselors for the later. What seems to be the problem for the relief of duty?"

"Nothing's the problem." Miraj said, sullen. "She thinks I'm tightly wound. And I am, now she's banned me from flying." there was an edge of anger in her tone. "There wasn't anything wrong with me before."

Allyndra let the the whole issue of who she was go. "Alright, things have been very on a razor's edge. The whole destruction of the ship, the odd circumstances we find ourselves in and now some sort of ill thought out mission to the heart of the Klingon empire aboard a missing battlecruiser. I am not sure I should be practicing medicine either but no one is here to relieve me. Let me get you some anti-anxiety medication and I am going to prescribe that you work on some relaxation techniques."

Miraj resisted the urge to stamp her feet. "I don't need any meds. I need to fly. You must understand that. Please don't make me take drugs."

"Alight, alright, but you will begin relaxation exercises. As to flying, I understand," Allyndra spread her wings. "You think being stuck in this cramped sickbay and before that in a sunless set of caves sits well?"

"Exactly," Miraj nodded. "You know what I mean more than anyone. So you must know its twice as galling to be stopped for flying just because she- ." she cut herself off. If she told what happened she might earn even more ire from the admiral, and on this ship she firmly believed that if the admiral wanted to give her a sharper punishment than just being relieved of duty, then she had some dire options to chose from. "-can," she finished lamely.

"Alright, so we need to get you to show calmness amid all this craziness. Take a seat on the bed there and we will get started."

Miraj hopped up and sat with her feet swinging over the edge. "What do I do?"

"Very well, lay back and I am going to put on the audible portion so you can hear your heartbeat. There we go." Allyndra listened in as well and watched the readings. She could see the stress level was high and that the Boslic hybrids heart was beating faster with the pent up emotions.

She then turned it off and got on the other bed. "Now listen to mine." She set the audible on and lay back. Soon the odd syncopated sound of her three hearts echoed. She closed her eyes and thought about being on Akkadia, how the Twins shone in the sky and imagined just relaxing by soaring on the easy breeze that swept up the cliffs from the ocean. The beats began to slow. She took deep breaths and then opened her eyes and turned the audio off and put Miraj's on. "There see the bio feedback? What I want you to do is take a memory, something fun, pleasant and relaxing and hold it in your mind. Listen to your heartbeat and as you hold that image in your mind will your heart to slow." She then turned on Miraj's biobed audio. "Go on try."

Miraj closed her eyes and let her mind drift. Happy calming memories...

When she was twelve her father had salvaged an Andorian shuttle. It was flotsam meant for auction but before he sold it he'd let her take it for a spin. They'd taken it out to Sigma Draconis VIII, where the cryovolcanoes blew plumes of nitrogen out in clouds of sparkling ice crystals. She'd swooped slowly around and through the iridescent clouds as the sun rose, turning the sky into an ever changing kaleidoscope of colours, pinks and violets and lilacs and blues, and th hum of the engines had seemed to purr in time with plumes of ice that would geyser out adding more diamond like sprinkles over the frozen landscape.

It was still one of the most breathtaking things she'd ever seen, unrivalled in beauty and awe. The thump of her own heart began to tick slower, even as her fingers twitched with the memories of being at the helm, of turning lazy barrel rolls to hear the sound of ice tinkling on the metal of the hull. Her heart slowed again, a positively zen 60 beats a minute.

Allyndra watched along with listening and noted the change in brain wave and stress patterns and levels. She said quietly, "There that is it. Now then we are going to give you some stress but if you feel yourself getting upset or angry I want you to go to that spot alright?"

"Alright." Miraj looked a bit doubtful. not sure she could manage

Allyndra waited a moment and then said, "Ensign, I wanted to comment on your performance in the shuttle bay on Kreanus. You could not follow proper procedure, nor did you follow commands. If I were you, I would seriously doubt you continuing a career in the Fleet, in fact, I seriously would not consider touching anything more than hover taxi! Do you get me?"

Miraj's guts tightened, and she felt her face going red. The logical part of her knew it was a test, but she couldn't help feel a little ashamed. taking the Romulan shuttle for a joyride. Her heart skipped up a little and the sharp electric sound of her stress reminded her to calm down. Happy thoughts, dancing an Andorian vessel through a world of light and ice... the electric beats slowed again.

Allyndra watched the response. "Excellent, sorry about that. I just wanted to try to get a rise out of you which any Klingon might try as well. You managed to slip to that state pretty good. Think you can handle doing that being around the Klingon crew?"

Miraj felt more confident at passing the test. "Only one way to find out. And I'm in no rush to do that." She sat up again. "Now all I want is for this headache to go away."

Allyndra smiled and flashed those sharp inner teeth. "WEAKLING! Is that what all you starfleeters think about! Pain is good! Pain is weakness leaving the body!" She tried to sound like a Klingon. She would fetch something but she wanted to see how fast Miraj would react and then go to her happy place again.

Miraj jumped, not expecting the doctor to roar at her at all, her pulse winding up like to sound more like sharp hammering. And then she realised what was happening, and laughed, and her heart rate fell again. "I'm sorry. I think real Klingons would be more scary."

"If I wrinkle up my forehead would that help?" Allyndra tried but then started laughing. It was a good laugh, and the tension she had not realized that was there fell away.

Miraj tried to imagined it, and laughed again. "I don't think anyone's forehead is that wrinkly." she laughed again, and then gave Allyndra a hopeful look. "So, Doctor, am I good enough to fly again?"

"I am going to sign you off as such. Just remember the situation and remember that most of the Klingon crew is bluff and bluster. They are like a pack of animals trying to constantly see who is going to be where on the pecking order."

"I'm kind of expecting to be the pecked." Miraj said. "I'm the smallest, the youngest. Compared to them anyway. I don't really care what the Klingons do. I just want the admiral to let me fly."

"The admiral will be observing. If you can handle that portion of crew without getting all flustered, I am sure you will be back in your pilot's seat in no time. Now good to go. Just tell yourself be water." Allyndra smiled at the look. "Water bends and twists, flows this direction or that but even the mightiest mountain is conquered by it."

"Its not the klingons that made me jumpy," Miraj said to herself. "Be water, and go to my happy place." She jumped down. "Thank you."

"You welcome, now you should be able if you can keep that up slip through counselling as well."

"I will." Miraj promised. "The new counsellor will write me up as the most chilled out person ever, you'll see."

"I am sure, now off with you!" Allyndra made shooing motions with her hands.

With a last smile, Miraj left, to hunt out the new counsellor.

[OFF]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
IKS Duja'Q

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