You're Going to Catch Me if I Fall

Posted on 03 Jul 2018 @ 8:37pm by Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 1:48pm

1,917 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: USS Schofield - Starboard Cargo Bay
Timeline: MD 01, 0110 hours

[ON]

Surrender: he surrendered to the fall. His body relaxed. This fall would have been fatal... in slightly different circumstances, despite the glacially slow pace of his plummet. In zero-gravity, he lost his hold on the biobed. He was falling away from the deck at such an angle that there were no footholds or handholds to grab onto. If he had slipped his tether off the edge of a starship hull, his fall could prove to be infinite, until he eventually dehydrated or froze to death. It was in Lake ir-Llantrisant's favour that his graceful drop --with a momentum at a rate of mere millimetres per second-- only lasted as long as it took his body to collide with the cargo bay's overhead.

"Good," Constantin Vansen's voice was gently where he was, watching, his body still because he had one hand against the bulkhead. "Staying relaxed means that you don't hurt more than you need to. But there is a better way to do it..." he pushed himself from the wall and curled up, tucking his legs to his chest. He let himself fall as well and ended up next to Lake. He uncurled and reached to lightly hold onto the bulkhead, his blue eyes warm as he smiled, his hair tied back but some had escaped and floated from his head, like tendrils of smoke. "If you are pushed with a lot of force, you can still get injured. Curling up protects your hands from breaks, your head, your neck and your chest..." he reached out and tapped Lake's arm. "Want to try again?"

Contstantin's cool hand came to rest on the skin of Lake's forearm and Lake smiled. He had abandoned his uniform jacket and was tooling around in his Medical-teal tunic rolled up at the sleeves and open down the front. Lake clasped a hand over Constantin's, saying, "Absolutely," as he did so. Lake adjusted the footing of his boots against the overhead and gently kicking himself off, aiming his body at the temporary biobed in the corner. "Only way to learn down to the bones is through repeated failures," Lake affirmed.

"But let's avoid breaking actual bones..." Constantin said with a smile, watching how he did it. He nodded with approval, taking a deeper breath. "Brilliant, you are quick to learn..." he whispered before he moved to his side. He liked doing this. And he felt he was helping Lake, especially considering how Lake had helped him when he had been at Starfleet Medical.

Lake took his eyes off his path of travel, given his molasses-like travel through the open space across the centre of the cargo bay. He turned his head to eye Constantin, offering a wink. "I have a wise teacher," Lake said, changing the emphasis. "You hardly need this preparation before Allyndra asks you to train the crew tomorr--" Lake was saying, when his shoulder very slowly collided with the biobed. "Agh," Lake muttered, his body crumpling up as he pulled his arms in close to his chest.

Constantin smiled gently as he moved to him, touching his side to still him. "You have to keep focused when doing this," he said quietly. "And not get distracted. You need to be aware of what debris is coming at you too."

Feeling turned around with nothing to ground him, Lake took hold of both of Constantin's arms with each of his hands. Lake hoped Constantin would stop his world from spinning. "It's hard to know where to look," Lake said; "My senses are accustomed to making assumptions for gravity. I can't quite predict what momentum will mean in this environment."

"Practice makes perfect," Constantine said and smiled as he pulled him closer, holding him tightly in return. "You will eventually get used to it. Sky's up. Water's wet..." he searched his eyes before he smiled. "Just need to find what helps your brain accept it. Wish I could help with it, but this is my...ideal reality for the brain."

Their bodies chest to chest, Lake folded his arms around Constantin's waist. He held onto him like his life depended on it. With their lips so close together, Lake lowered his voice. He said, "And what role do I play in your brain's ideal reality, huh?"

Constantin watched him, his breath catching at the closeness. He felt the way that Lake's breath touched his, could almost feel the vibrations. And for a man who longed for closeness, it...had its effects. He looked away, smiling weakly. "You were part of my entire world not that long ago. One of the people who talked to me, who I looked forward to seeing," he admitted before he met his eyes. "I don't like being alone. You know that." He chuckled and pulled back, his cheeks a bit flushed, but still kept a firm grip on him even if there now was a better distance between them.

"I know," Lake said and he didn't fight the distance Constantin put between them. He smiled back at Constantin and he watched him, intently watched the way he moved. Using Constantin's body for leverage, Lake moved the short distance remaining back to the biobed he had set up in the cargo bay. "That's why I recommended you to Commander Allyndra," Lake said. He palmed the tricorder from the holster on his hip and went back to pretending to treat an imaginary patient in zero-gravity. "You'll be dazzling at training the whole crew on these kinds of maneuvers," Lake said.

Constantin chuckled softly at the words, nodding as he took a moment just to...calm himself down. He watched him before he moved to the biobed, shifting to get on it before strapping himself in. "Scan me. Pretend I am a patient. Move and get what you'd need. See how it works in this environment."

Stepping closer to the biobed, Lake hooked his ankle around the pedestal beneath the mattress. Once he felt securely anchored, he reached out to pluck medical instruments out of the air. They were still spinning helplessly around the biobed, where he had scattered them during his last crash. Lake adjusted the gravity settings on the anti-grav instrument tray and dropped the tools into the trays internal gravity field. He watched close to make certain each tool adhered to the floating tray. "Patient, what are your symptoms?" Lake asked coolly.

"Apart from the increased redness to my skin...confusion...cough...my heart is racing, my breathing is rapid and I can't catch it. A lot sweating and wheezing..." Contantin said as he lay there, a small smirk on his lips as he chuckled softly.

Lake's dark gaze were flitting from one end of Constantin to another, as he considered the many possibilities. "Could be a pulmonary embolism," Lake thought out loud, and he dropped his palm on one of the biobed's control contacts. A surgical support frame rolled overtop the biobed, encasing Constantin's torso within it. Partly, the frame would make certain the patient wouldn't float away from the biobed, but it would also be useful for its sensitive diagnostic scanners. Wryly apologetic, Lake said, "You'll probably be dead within thirty minutes."

"Damn," Constantin said before he smiled weakly, meeting his eyes. "Or, if you think outside the box...what was the oxygen levels where I was found? Because it might be something...smaller...like hypoxia."

At that, Lake shrugged impishly. "...Still dead in thirty minutes or less," he offered, and then his smile broadened at that. He reached a hand towards Constantin's chest and patted the support-frame keeping a solid distance between them. "We'll have to mock-up sensor readings for when you train crewmembers," Lake said. "Our imaginations don't appear to be on the same page..."

"Well, you are trained in this...I only know what I have picked up over the years," he said as he watched him, considering it. "Is that like a brain bleed? Pulmonary embolism?"

Lake touched control contacts on the biobed, the same sequence as before, but in reverse. Accordingly, the surgical support frame receded into the biobed's pedestal. "Arterial blockage in your lungs," Lake said, patting Constantin on the chest. Explaining further, Lake said, "I assumed it was the embolism that was breathtaking."

Constantin smiled at that as he leant into the hand on his chest, shaking his head. "I don't know much about medicine unless it affects me," he said in a whisper, eyes shining playfully before he looked around. "You move well in zero g."

Blinking suddenly, Lake had fully intended to lift his hand from Constantin's chest until he felt the man's form filling his hand completely. However, just as suddenly, Constantin shied away from Lake, his eyes turning west. "I, uhm, I assumed I would be at a disadvantage at the Academy," Lake said, and then he did lift his hand away. "I was raised in orchards. I only stepped aboard a starship when we fled from Romulus. It made me self-conscious to have missed out on exploring the shores above," Lake said. As much as he shared the story in a matter of fact manner, given his dry delivery, a muddled nostalgia glimmered around the edges. It was as if he could see the humour in it now, and yet it was still painful to remember too. "I failed a couple of exams, because I used those study periods for extra zero-G training."

"Explains why you move so well..." Vansen said before he shook his head slowly. "I...am sorry about your home. But it sounds...like you did what you could to experience things. A lot of things." And Constantin could identify with that. He tried to experience everything to make up for those years stuck in a glorified shuttle.

"What was the first thing you did," Lake asked, "with that mission in mind?"

"You mean after I stopped freaking out about being on a planet and was able to lift my head off the bed?" Constantin asked playfully before he let out a soft breath. "I talked to people. I experienced conversations with people. And food! The food is...wow. You know, I had never tried cheese before. Or listened to music...I love music now. And dancing. I want to learn how to dance...properly."

Keeping close to the biobed, Lake busied himself, re-arranging the medical tools magnified to the antigrav equipment tray. "After you've done me the kindness of this zero-G training," Lake said, "I should pay you back by giving you dance lessons myself."

"I would like that," Constantin smiled warmly as he let out a breath, nodding as he looked around. "Okay, let us end this session and resume normal gravity. I suggest getting your feet on the ground now."

Bracing his hands against the biobed, Lake swung his feet down near to the deck, approximating a standing posture. It was the opposite of surrender; Lake stood his ground. As Constantin reactivated the artificial gravity, Lake heard his soles hit the deck. "How do you imagine your body moving," Lake asked; "What style of dancing is on your mind...?"

"Something...exciting," Constantin said and exhaled, the gravity hitting him as always like a ton of bricks. "I feel like I need it to be...exciting. And I suspect you can teach me a lot."

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Schofield

Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Schofield
[PNPC Rice]

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