Making an apology

Posted on Tue May 16th, 2017 @ 1:41am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant Sara'draphia T'eseri & Captain Allen Jones

Mission: The Trial of Cor Cordale
Location: USS Victory

Bertrand stepped out of the door of his quarters.

There were two Marines standing guard, as expected. He was surprised to see Jones was one of them, but not very surprised. The XO cleared his throat and tried to straighten his rumpled uniform.

"I...er.." he began and petered off.

"I believe we should lift the restriction on the Medical bay, Captain Jones," he managed. "I suspect you have found no evidence of Borg incursion?"

AJ first did a quick assessment of the XOs pupils. "I think that would be prudent. As for the borg, you seem to know what we found." He said with a sigh.

"Then, with your permission, I would like to leave my own quarters and return to my duties. The first of which is to check on the Doctor and Chief Tactical Officer, both of whom I believe I owe an apology to."

"Yes, you are cleared to go." AJ was just glad that this detail was coming to an end.

"Thank you, Captain," Bertrand nodded. "A question before you go. If I had been right, what would you have done?"

"My teams where prepared to deal with either scenario. My inital response team was not the only." AJ reassured the XO. "I had a second team in a forward position and a third on standby in our briefing room."

Bertrand nodded satisfied.

[Sickbay]

Down in sickbay, Sara was laying asleep on one of the biobeds. After Bertrand's last visit, she needed time to recover her stamina after her little fight with Bartrand.

Kevin sat making a freehand sketch of snowy owl.

"That's quite good," a voice said behind him. Bertrand could move with surprising stealth.

"It's too......bland" Kevin replied, not looking up from the sketch "It needs a little something else to make it stand out. I know..." he said, starting to make an adjustment to the owl.

"I want to congratulate on your quick response to my summons and the level way you handled the situation. You maintained the security of the people and did not escalate the conflict. That is important in those volatile times."

"Yes, screwing the Security department in favour of using Marines really does help 'us' realise our lack of worth Commander" Kevin said, continuing his adjustment to the sketch.

"The lock down on medical is, of course, lifted and you are free to return to duty. I would appreciate your discretion on this matter."

"Oh no, this one goes into my memoirs Commander, and my memory" Kevin replied calmly, tapping the side of his head. Getting off the bio-bed he'd been sat on, he handed the finished adjusted sketch to the XO, then moved off, leaving Sickbay. On the sketch, the owl's head had been altered to show a Borg implant in it's left eye.

Bertrand tossed the whole picture into the medical replicator and pressed the "recycle" button to reduce the image to atoms. He wished he could do the same with all of the memories. Kevin thought he understood what it meant to have a thing in your memory, but he didn't know ho wit burned and consumed you. Hopefully he would remain blissfully unaware.

'Was I ever like that?' Bertrand wondered.

Bertrand moved over to the sleeping doctor. He ran his eyes over the monitor and was troubled by the frontal core readings. The doctor's implant had misfired, probably as a result of his own mental push and the strain it was under. He was not a doctor, but he was from a telepathic race and had a great deal of experience with bio-implants. The damage was not serious, but it would be uncomfortable for a while. It could have been a lot worse.

Much worse. The kick he had delivered to her head was designed to kill, not just incapacitate. Just as well he had let his practice slip. But if she had been a drone...

He shook himself mentally, and fought the urge to go and check the corner where he imagined seeing the drone earlier. instead he gave the Doctor a gentle shake.

"Doctor T'eseri?"

Having been woken by the gentle shake, Sara opened her eyes to see Bertrand standing over her. Out of a knee jerk reaction, Sara lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the ceiling. As she did, a small spark of blue energy shot from the back of her neck, causing her to curl up in pain again.

"Ah, Oritsir!!" She yelled

Bertrand landed on his feet as the pressure relaxed. The blow had been sudden and instinctive, meaning he had not been able to prepare for it, but it was not the first time he had been launched across a room by an attack.

He moved quickly to the doctor's side and drew a vial for a hypo and handed it to her, "Cisto-Baccurium. 20 ml."

It was a chemical well known to telepaths, acting to numb or block some of the telpathic receptors. Betazoids used it on early adolescents who were struggling with their emergent abilities. It should decrease the performance of Sara's own abilities and reduce the pain from the implant, at least temporarily.

Taking the hypo with one shaky hand, Sara applied it to her neck than dropped it. After a moment, she began to relax as the pain subsided.

After the doctor began to relax Bertrand looked back up to the ceiling, "I guess I more than earned that. I apologize for the... ferocity of my reaction."

"You're not the first to try to kill me" Sara replied, rolling over to look at him. After looking him over, she chose to trust him with something she considered personal, "if I may, I'd like your assistance with replacing my implant."

Bertrand was surprised by the query, but he was aware of the mental change in state to one of trust, so he nodded.

"Of course. Since I was partially responsible for breaking it, it is the least I can do. What do you need?"

"In my office you will find a blue cube shaped box, about this big" Sara explained, holding her hand apart about 15cm, "bring it over to immersion tank in the corner" she said, motioning to the opposite corner of the room where a large upright cylinder stood connected to a pump, a filter and a medical console. The technology didn't look like anything starfleet, instead it had graceful curves and a slight blue tint to the metal of the machinery.

Bertrand walked into the office and walked straight to the box. Sara had a very clear image of it in her mind so he found it with no trouble.

Slowly making her way over to the cylinder, Sara began to strip down to her birthday-suit before entering the tube. Fortunately for Bertrand a third of the tank was opaque, only leaving a 50cm clear area at the top and bottom of the tank. As soon as she was in the tank, Sara triggered it to start filling with water.

Bertrand returned with the box and noticed the doctor had moved. He was not unaccustomed to nudity, but he knew different species had different social norms.

"Where do you want this placed?" he asked keeping his eye and thoughts focused squarely on her face.

Motioning for Bertrand to wait as the water filled the tank she was now floating it. As soon as the tank was full, Sara opened her mouth and allowed the liquid to fill her lungs.

"Ah, it's been a while since I've done this" she said, demonstrating that she could breath underwater.

"Please open the box, remove the chip inside and place it on the medical console" she said swimming around to face Bertrand, "Oh and reading my mind without permission. Even a matriarch wouldn't do that."

Bertrand placed the device as instructed.

"Not exactly reading your mind," he countered. "You had the image very clear at the front of your thoughts. You can hardly blame a telepath for being aware of what you blatantly display, any more than you can blame a person for looking when you parade naked. I assure you, I do not make a habit of either. Do you need this activated or something?"

Sara smiled, "Are you embarrassed to see my body Commander? I understood that sort of thing wasn't a problem for Betazoids" she teased, trying to gauge his reaction. "No you don't need to activate it. Simply place it on the console. The system will than activate, scanning the chip and replicating a new one, which is than delivered to me inside the tank."

Bertrand watched as the scan began, "It is difficult to embarrass a Betazoid, you're right. When your ever adolescent thought is broadcast to everyone in a 5 kilometer radius that doesn't leave a lot of room for embarrassment. We tend to be very direct. It took me a long time to learn the art of duplicity, and that has made it much easier for me to see it in others."

Bertrand sighed heavily as the scan finished, "It is not a science, though. It is not like reading a PADD with everything laid out clearly. It is more like trying to find pictures in clouds. You are never quite sure if you are seeing what you want to see, or what you are afraid to see."

Giving a knowing smile, Sara closed her eyes as two small arms emerged from the wall of the tank and reached out to replace he bio-chip. "Tell me Commander, have you taken a mate?"

Bertrand snorted, "Big strapping lad in uniform like me? beating them off with a stick."

He looked over at the woman, "Let me get this straight. I try and kick you to death, for which you throw me into a roof and then ask if I am seeing anyone. You're not part Klingon, by any
chance, are you?"

"No I am not part Klingon. I have merely lived for almost 200 years and the more basic questions get boring after a while" Sara explained, giving a sigh of relief as her bio-chip was replaced, relieving her pain. "My people have an average lifespan of around one thousand years. I am considered what you might know as an adolescent. I still finding it interesting how there are so many species that only live for around one hundred years."

"Long life is over rated," Bertrand growled. He looked for a towel or some other implement. Not finding one obvious he moved to the replicator to order one. "I have found that most long lived species tend to fritter their lives just as much as the shorter ones. In fact, I met a species that live for five years. Perhaps it is the pressure of the short lives, but they tend to cram as much in, maturing faster, learning faster, working harder."

He handed Sara the towel, "Perhaps we should try this... whatever this is... after we finish with the Nironeese?"

Draining the liquid from the tank, Sara took a couple breaths of air before stepping out of the tank and taking the towel. "Of course, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Thank you for the towel,"
she said, wrapping it around herself to cover up. "At any rate, I appreciate your apology and I will accept it. You weren't the most difficult patient I've ever had, but you definitely were one of the top 10"

"Not uncomfortable," Bertrand said, putting his customary scowl back in place. "Just... distracted. That hasn't happened for a bit."

"That's good to know" Sara replied

OFF:

Commander Bertrand
XO, USS Victory


Lieutenant Sara T'eseri
Chief of Medicine