Twisted

Posted on Wed Sep 20th, 2023 @ 5:53pm by Cadet Senior Grade Toareth Darqa & Cadet Senior Grade Riaothren(Ren) ch'Shaorhs
Edited on on Mon Oct 9th, 2023 @ 7:21pm

2,044 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: **ARCHIVED** 0 - Assignment Day
Location: Starfleet Academy
Timeline: Morning of Dance The Night Away

Ren looked up at the top of Spider Rock He was still a good three hundred feet from the top and he needed a break. That was difficult given the fact that he was free-climbing and had no means to anchor himself into the sandstone, but he didn't have much of a choice. He was stronger than a human, and could endure more, but the trade off was he tired more easily.

Perhaps he'd made a mistake in undertaking this solo, and a bigger mistake by resetting the safety protocols to 70%.

He clung to the side of the monolith for a good two minutes before reaching up. His hand slipped and he overcompensated trying to recover. He didn't panic, he told himself. He was an Andorian after all and they didn't panic. Plus, he knew that he was in the holodeck, so there was no way that fear could have caused his mistake.

Regardless of the cause, he was falling. His arms flayed out and he landed hard on his left ankle. He heard something snap and a plume of pain shot up his leg.

He cursed to himself and then limped over to the infirmary.

Toareth was still at the Academy. Departure for her assignment was delayed and she could only shrug at that inevitability. She dropped her duffels off at the infirmary and decided to seek rest and even billeting there until her transport. Toareth felt the infirmary/Sick Bay as a second home anyway. She was standing there, in the infirmary, given the authority to treat any injuries as she saw fit for the few moments until the CMO returned from another call. Toareth’s her empathic abilities picked up quite a familiar sensation; one from someone who had become injured but only after making a mistake, sometimes a dumb one.

‘The easiest ones to avoid,’ she thought to herself as she turned to see an Andorian hop inside, favoring one foot she quickly deduced was the issue.

Toareth stepped toward the man rolling her eyes behind closed eyelids. “Cadet, I am Cadet Toareth Darqa, SF Medical.” She stepped up and offered to take his left arm as aid. “And you are?”

He grimaced at Toareth's approach, but that was probably just from the pain. He did take her hand."You can call me Ren," he said. "Only my parents call me Riaothren."

"I was stupid," he continued pointing down at his foot. "I had the safety protocols turned down. I'm not sure if I broke or not, but it hurts like hell."

“Well pain is the best teacher,” she said as she guided him to a bed. The man did not need a biobed. Besides, stupid mistakes needed a little less than luxury. A regular bed would do. “This way.” Toareth helped him hop up onto the bed and to lying back. She gently positioned the damaged appendage, rolled up his pant leg, and slowly removed the shoe. Already there was swelling and some discoloration.

“This certainly does not appear broken,” she eyed closer, “or fractured to any degree.” She put her hand on him and gently moved her fingers about his ankle, pressing lightly upon the discolored swelling. There was some purpling going on as well as some splotches of green indicating free plasma from his blood intermingling with the blue pigment of his Andorian skin. That should be the location of the primary bit of damage. That was where she lightly pressed the tips of her fingers. “Let me know when you feel a sharp pain; like being stuck with an ushaan.”

Ren's left antenna quirked forward. The Andorians were a pretty common species in the Federation, but not everyone bothered to know a lot about them. The fact the doctor did, caused him to smile. Until her fingers touched him between his ankle and his heel. AHH! Right there."

Toareth stopped probing with her fingers, stopped where he had indicated, and lightly tapped right there two more times. Each tap resulted in a similar response from her patient; one of pain. Toareth smiled. Smiled mostly at locating the source of his injury…mostly. “You have a hyperextended secondary calcaneofibular ligament, possibly torn.” She paused a second. “Or snapped.”

She turned and went to retrieve a subdermal regenerator from the doctor’s cabinet. “The secondary calcaneofibular ligament is something I admire about Andorians. You see, no one else has a ‘secondary’ ligament.” She returned to her patient with the regenerator in hand. “Coming from an icy homeworld, that ligament aids in improved foot mobility; provides you with better footing in slippery environments.”

"You do know your Andorian anatomy, I'll give you that," he said through gritted teeth.

Toareth palmed a medical tricorder and waved the wand over Ren’s injury; read the readouts on the tricorder itself. “Yeah. You snapped it. The primary ligament is only bruised. You would still be able to walk, but not without a great deal of pain.” She put the medical tricorder aside and, looking around, reached into her own pocket and retrieved a hypospray. Toareth held it up for Ren to see. “This stuff is going to numb your foot for about ten minutes. This is the good stuff. I will need to reattach the ligament before providing regeneration. Ready?”

Both his antennae shifted. The right to the right and the left to the left before they returned to their more or less vertical position "Of course doctor. Go ahead."

Toareth placed the business end of the hypospray against Ren’s ankle and sent forth a dose.

It took a bit longer to dull the pain sensors than it would have in a human, but after two minutes he felt the pain ebb away "That feels so much better now."

She started working the subdermal regenerator and, finding the snap in the ligament, she pressed a few buttons and held the regenerator in place. Wanting to see this for herself, Toareth looked away from the regenerator’s readout and looked at Ren’s ankle; as the two ends of the ligament wormed beneath his skin and slowly met each other. She then turned the regenerator to regeneration mode, fusing the ligament ends back into one. Once she held the regenerator there for the recommended time; as she was satisfied the ligament was whole and functional again, she changed modes to use the regenerator to get his body to reabsorb what fluids it could from around the injury. The swelling was visibly waning.

“There,” she put her tools down. “Mostly better,” and she turned toward the cabinet again. This time, she returned with another device. “This,” she held it up. It looked like a hypospray. “This is a hypo-retriever as I like to call it. Its official name is something far more difficult to pronounce. Instead of injecting you with something, this pulls out what remains behind. This will completely remove the rest of the swelling.”

Returning to him, she placed the device against his ankle and let it do its work. “Feeling should return to your foot momentarily.” Toareth gave him her attention. “You must have been doing something extreme to snap that ligament.”

"Yes, you caught me. I was free climbing Spider Rock, It's a pedestal rock formation in Arizona. I've actually climbed, trad climbed, the real thing before. I wanted to see what it would be like to free climb. I doubt you would have been able to treat me if I fell off the real thing."

Toareth gave a nasal laugh. “Yeah, I suppose there would be little anyone could do for you then.” She returned her attention to his ankle and massaged it lightly as the swelling continued to wane.

"I haven't given up though. I'm going to try again. But, I've learned my lesson, I won't reduce the safety protocols until I'm ready."

Toareth’s reddish eyes connected with his. She narrowed hers just a bit, as though attempting to get a better look at him. “So you like adventure, thrills, and taking risks.” She put the device away and picked up his foot, rolled it around slowly, feeling for anything else out of the ordinary; eyeing where she worked and watching the minute movements of his foot as she flexed it about. “Usually the best way to succeed is to remove all avenues of safety from the word ‘Go’. Let the fear of failure guide you. But,” she reconnected with his eyes, “I cannot condone such activity. I am obligated to give you the ‘Safety, Safety, Safety’ speech.” Satisfied, she softly lowered his leg and let his foot rest on the bed. “Let’s just skip that part and pretend I gave you that speech.”

The Andorian rolled his eyes, making no attempt to hide that he was doing so. "You're right, I do tend to leap before I think, at least in most things. I'm a very good pilot and have no problem in, as the Terrans say push the envelope, but I don't take unnecessary risks. It's different in my personal life.

"But given your advice, I'll be sure to adjust the safety protocols appropriately.

“Just remember, sometimes just knowing there are safety protocols can take away from the thrills. It may even make you perform less than your optimum.”

"So, what do you think of our posting?"

“I cannot wait to get aboard our ship,” she said immediately. “I generally want to avoid closed-in spaces such as a ship for long durations of time, but I certainly prefer that over,” and she looked around. “Looking forward to some real-world experiences too,” despite the fact that she already had plenty of real-world experience, though she could not simply vocalize that. “And finally get awarded a commission. You?”

"I don't particularly like closed-in space either, especially if it's dark. I mean a starship, or even a shuttle or fighter I can handle, but still."

"But yes, I'm looking forward to it. I've been on starships for most of my life, but actually being on the crew is different. As you said, I am a risk-taker, so I'm not nervous or scared, I'm looking forward to it."

Toareth knew all too well the being ‘on starships for most of my life,’ bit. “Well I was stuck in a transport for about 30…,” and she realized she had let that part slip. Not that it was really a secret. She did not like going into all the detail all the time. El-Aurians appeared human enough, so, unless specifically indicating otherwise, no one ever really questioned her. “…for about 30 months,” she finished her thought. It was really 30 years but, again, she did not want to get into it. “And ever since then, I’ve always enjoyed wide open spaces. I am confident I can endure a starship though.”

She gave a few light squeezes to Ren’s ankle; right where the damage previously resided. “And, how does this feel?”

"That's much better. Thanks. You going to the party tonight?"

There was a time when Toareth would feign ignorance, but she already knew the memo was widespread. There was no point in bringing back old habits. As she was putting all the medical devices back in their respective places, “I may,” she said with a shrug. “I have not given it a thought, to be honest.” She returned and held her arms thus to help him up and off the bed. “I am not much of a partygoer.”

Ren walked around the small bay testing things out. "You should come," he suggested, "it will be fun."

Toareth watched as he stepped around, first carefully then more naturally as he grew in confidence that all was well again. ’Fun’ she thought and also doubted. She was able to think of many more things she would rather be doing but, unfortunately, none of those were possible at this time, or for days to come for that matter. Toareth did manage a nod. “Maybe I’ll show up,” she said.

Toareth went and made an entry in Ren’s medical log of the incident and resolution.

"Is that all?"

“That is all,” she said as she continued inputting the information. “You are fit to return to duty.”

 

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