Doctor's Debarkation

Posted on Tue Feb 22nd, 2022 @ 3:10am by Captain Devin Hadenbeer & Lieutenant Commander Klarth & Lieutenant JG S'Lace

2,066 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: USS Lionheart, Principally Sickbay
Timeline: post launch

IC:

The Klingon courier Swift Voice was used to ferry envoys about when the situation called for a personal touch. Such ships were seldom used and for good reason, as they possessed a minimum of amenities to save mass and were essentially a small cabin mounted in front of a set of huge engines. Their speed was impressive but they made lots of cosmic noise so anyone could hear them coming from light years off, and the engines required frequent overhauls.

To Klarth it felt like traveling warp speed in a shuttle pod. But he was looking forward to being back on Voyager too much for a little inconvenience to sour his mood.

Klarth's pilot was an old woman named J'atsar who was polite but not very talkative,

Klarth was reminded of an Earth story about one of their historical presidents, Silent College. A woman at a dinner party got to sit next to the famous president and she told him that her friends had bet her that College wouldn't say more than two words to her. "Wasn't that a silly bet," she said. And College only said "you lose." Klath made the mistake of telling J'atsar this story and she didn't even say two words, she just grunted.

J'atsar got Klarth to a rendezvous with Lionheart in impressive time. He was beamed aboard and he was met in the transporter room by two people; the transporter chief, and a very young looking human ensign who was smiling nervously.

"Doctor Klarth?" she said, "I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm Dare, Dev...Captain Hadenbeer's niece. I came on board a little while before you...ah...left?"

She glanced at the chief for obvious support, but the chief seemed unwilling to get involved and found something interesting to occupy his time on the control console.

"Of course," said Klarth. Looking Dare over. "But that was just a little girl and now you are a grown woman....Time moves by as fast as ships at warp speed.... No doubt if you stay on the ship, soon I will be delivering your children."

Dare could not help but laugh at that. She knew Klarth had been through a lot, although she did not know the details. But he seemed much like the gregarious, larger-than-life doctor she remembered years ago. She took a breath, "Anyway! It's late on board ship and I should be in bed, but I couldn't resist and volunteered to see you aboard. Captain Hadenbeer is sleeping...or she should be, but she thought you would probably want to visit Sickbay first. If you want I can take your bag and drop it off in your quarters?"

"That would be so wonderful," said Klarth putting his bag down with a thump. It was mostly full of cloths, data pads, and Bat'leths. He didn't consider that it was probably too heavy for her to lift.

As Klarth exited the transporter room he says, "I think I still know the way to sickbay," He felt like someone returning to house they used to live in years after new owners have remodeled it. Everything was the same, but also different.

Dare grabbed the bag, and grunted when she could barely lift it off the floor. She tugged on it again but it didn't get any lighter. She glanced over at the chief, who grinned outright, then tapped his comm badge, "Maintenance, could we get a grav sled sent down to transporter room one? I have a young officer with a load that needs lightening..."

Klarth made his way towards sickbay fighting the urge to stare at every little difference like a green crewman who'd never seen a starship before.

The ship seemed much the same, and yet the years had made it feel somehow new. Klarth received curious stares from crew and officer alike. Some of the crew seemed to recognize him, he received smiles and nods as he made his way to sickbay. There he found more new faces, and a familiar one as well. S'Lace stood before a monitor wall, she seemed to be taking stock of a readout on what was presumably a patient. Without turning she said, "Welcome home, Doctor. It is...not unpleasant to have you back."

Seeing S'Lace again felt so great. Klarth wanted to give her a big hug and a kiss. But he knew that she would hate all that sentiment so he decided to play it as cool as her.

"It's not unpleasant to see you as well," said Klarth. "So, who is my first patient? Let's get to work."

The woman turned and Klarth saw the rank pips on her neck of a junior lieutenant. With a typical raise of an eyebrow she murmured, "There is one patient at the moment, Doctor. She awoke earlier but is currently sleeping. But before I 'hand her off' to you there is a...personal matter I believe we must address."

"Well," Klarth replied, "should we discuss it in my office, or would you prefer to discuss it over dinner?" Klarth asked.

S'Lace's eyes narrowed, she replied, "Your office, I think."

The office was largely as Klarth remembered it, although it was devoid of any personal affectation. S'Lace walked around to access the interface, as she did so she said, "Captain Hadenbeer has become...an issue. But she is not what I wished to talk to you about today."

She turned the display so Klarth could see the screen. It was the image of a large Klingon wielding a battered bat'leth, his expression fierce. Behind him was a Vulcan female, attractive, her hair long, wielding a disruptor, her clothing torn and displaying a considerable amount of skin. It was an ad for a novel: Targ! Honorless Dog, by Hina Troel.

"I came across this a few months ago. It tells the story of a dishonored Klingon doctor who must perform a hundred noble deeds to regain his name. He is joined on his adventures by a Vulcan woman who approaches him to help her solve the mystery of the death of her husband."

She turned the screen back around and stared levelly at Klarth, "Now tell me true, Doctor. Did you write this? Or do you know who did? Because I have...issues with the portrayal of the female."

Klarth felt intense anger well inside of him and he could not contain it. He knocked datapads and other items off the desk, but somehow managed to not knock over the display which still had that picture up.

"Do you really think I would do that," said Klarth. "They have made my dishonor into a story for entertainment. Who did this? If I find them I will kill them."

Klarth's anger softened for a moment and he looked and reached to touch her face with his hand. "My dishonor was my own. I am so sorry that this Patak! has made you a part of it?"

Klarth calms down more and looks at the screen. "Solves the mystery of the death of her husband?...It is not only my personal details they have researched."

"Indeed," S'Lace replied after a moment, "I...apologize for my insinuation. This," she waved at the screen, "I confess it...disquieted me."

She took a breath and seemed to grow more centered, "I did some research and the book was released by a company based on Mars called Blue Sky. They are a reputable publishing firm. It was written by one Tina Loehr, who up until now has only written novels in a genre known as "young adult"."

She manipulated the screen and revealed the face of a handsome woman of late middle age, an almost impish smile upon her face. S'Lace called up Loehr's bibliography: Deneva Dawn, Mars Maelstrom, Vulcan Vortex and Tellar Tempest. The book advertisements showed a human teenage girl with red hair and a pretty freckled face, in her arms was a blue cat.

"The protagonist is Ventures Jones and her telepathic mutant blue cat, Malla. She travels through space on a star ship captained by her aunt, D'Arcy Dwyer."

She regarded Klarth quietly and allowed him to absorb the information.

Klarth uttered some Klingons curse under his breath and almost punched a wall but his pulled his punch. "I'm sure you realize this points to the Captain's niece, have you talked to her about the YA books?"

"Not yet," S'Lace replied, "Our relationship is...acrimonious. I have pushed her regarding her health issues, logic suggest she is not in the right frame of mind to listen to me. But from you, perhaps she might listen."

Klarth face scrunched up like the situation was even worse than he thought. Klarth said, "I wasn't even thinking of talking to the Captain yet, though we'll most likely have to soon. I was thinking we should talk to the Ensign, maybe she is aware of the books that seem to have been inspired by her?...Is there anything offensive in those? I supposed we should go to the Captain first if the Ensign might find it too unsettling."

"Ah," S'Lace nodded at the suggestion, "Yes, speaking to ensign Hadenbeer first might be a more logical approach. I have read the books and they are...Let us say I am not the audience for which they were intended."

She paused, then called up the first book, "'Simplistic' may be an unfair assessment of the writing, seeing as it was written for adolescent humans. Some of it is a bit overly romantic, such as this passage:

The Manticore was not the fastest ship in Starfleet, nor was she the most powerful. And many might have called her appearance 'ungainly'. But her captain found the tapered secondary hull reminiscent of the keel of an ancient ship of the sea, the horizontally laid pylons and warp nacelles a gull in flight. To Dawes the Manticore was the most beautiful ship in the fleet and to her it was mother and daughter, sister and spouse. It was a relationship few could have have possibly understood.

S'Lace glanced at Klarth, "I fail to understand this fascination humans have with giving inanimate objects the characteristics of living beings."

Klarth declined to answer her question directly and just said, "I don't like to think ill of a crewmate but the more I think about it, the more it seems likely that this author is someone on the Lionheart. Do you think the Captain would let me settle this insult under Klingon laws?...maybe if I promised not to permanently maim them.....not gonna lie, they would probably always limp though."

"I doubt very much that after the efforts she went through to aid you in your reinstatement she would allow you to pursue a course of action that would immediately have you discharged," S'Lace noted wryly. She hesitated and then added, "Your logic is sound. At the very least the perpetrator has a source that is likely on this ship. Someone who has an intimate knowledge of your disgrace, so that would imply personnel that was here three years ago. I would say it is possible they are no longer on board, but since your...departure the ship has suffered at the hands of a 'practical joker', someone who has played pranks on people on board. Not even Captain Hadenbeer is immune. If the author and the practical joker are one and the same..."

"Well this is way worse than a practical joke. Why couldn't they just put some growk fire pepper sauce on my gagh or some itching powder on my uniform?" Klarth laughs and then continues "Those are practical jokes, I ones I may have done in my youth." Klarth considers it. "But it might turn out to be related. I will talk to security and see if they have made any progress on this prankster."

Then Klarth returned to the matter of Dare. "Computer located Ensign Dare Hadenbeer."

"Ensign Hadenbeer is in her quarters."

Klarth looks at the time, "She's probably going to sleep....Computer let me know when Ensign Dare reports for duty again."

"Acknowledged," the computer replied.

There was a quiet chirp from the console, S'Lace wiped the information and brought up the patient's chart, "Ah, we have a preliminary analysis. This should interest you, Doctor..."

And for the first time since Klarth had arrived S'Lace sounded almost...happy...

 

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