A Once Over

Posted on Sun Jul 24th, 2022 @ 12:52pm by Lieutenant Commander Tiandith 'Tia' Tobru & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro

2,220 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 5 - Objects In Motion
Location: Infirmary, DS21

ON:

Tia entered the infirmary and for a moment stopped in her tracks. It had been a while since she had seen such an open display of medicine, of equipment... working equipment. What she would have done with all this back on that rock she called a home.

Resistance bases can be rather dank and dreary abodes. Little dusty too.

She had an interesting chat with Lt. Reynolds on her way down. The other woman, Lt. Verona caught up but by then they were pretty much in the infirmary and they stood guard on her.

The Doctor soon arrived, she was not far behind them after all.

"Thank you Lieutenants. I think you can wait outside. I'm safe in here," Mel stated. "Should have been upfront from the get go. I don't think the Captain would have deemed a security escort. But I get it," she softened. "Do you want to jump on that biobed please? Well Cardassian hacked by Federation tech excuse of one until I get my delivery of upgraded and better equipment. The Chief does his best of course. Its just not the same though."

By now Tia's clothing had reverted back to her original look (see bio image), and she watched as the two security officers left the room. "I don't openly broadcast who I am, often leads to bloodshed in my more recent experience." Tia admitted with a sigh. "I do sometimes believe the old Human adage of 'Ignorance is bliss' to be true sometimes." she added hopping up on the biobed.

As she sat she took off her long red leather jacket and placed it neatly folded next to her. "It has been some time since I have been in a functional infirmary... since I've actually met a joined Trill... and seen Federation technology, blended or not, still functioning with no patch jobs or retrofitted to keep going."

"Its been a while since I came across an El Aurian," Mel countered. "So you going to tell me what caused the trauma at the back of your head?" she asked the computer compositing brain scans and tissue layers. "I mean someone's done a good job stitching you up but if you have been studying medicine as long as I can you can spot little imperfections."

"It has been a while since I have seen a joined Trill as well." Tia admitted. She had known one, they had been their chief of Security on the Cavalry and one of her closest advisors during the resistance.

"As to what caused the trauma, I have no memory of how it happened. I know I had been tracking a man called Rad Io Edit for Starfleet and, well I must have gotten too close. He was a member of the Orion Syndicate." she said casting her mind back over 100 years. "I was attacked, struck on the back of the head with a blunt force weapon and left for dead. It was only when I woke I tried to find the nearest medical facility and get myself stitched up. Doctor there was more interested in other parts of my body than fixing my head but he got on track when I told him I'd kill him if he didn't stop looking at me the way he was." Tia shrugged.

"He patched me up, found a small injection site in my neck. I'd been injected with a memory loss concoction that was a little too full strength. Knocked out more than they'd planned. I still cannot remember it all." Tia added more with a hint of acceptance than frustration.

"I won't pretend I haven't been in exactly that situation with wandering eyes," Mel commented. "So likely you got mixed up in some stuff you shouldn't have if someone's gone to all the trouble to wipe your memory then."

"Men of entitlement and position often feel their eyes can wander where ever they choose." Tia spoke with the experience behind those words. "But no, it was the mission I had been told to pursue, the man I'd been told to find by Starfleet. It is something I should have been doing, but wasn't careful enough to not get caught doing it. This section in question does not like failure and they cast me aside for many years."

"Women and all the other intersex people of entitlement and position can also pull that crap," Mel told her. It wasn't just men. Having lived as both the sexes she knew very well.

She was leaning towards Starfleet had got her involved in some black ops or worse the alleged section 31 folks were her prior entanglement.

~Not alleged~ Hals voice rang in her head. Mel cocked it in surprise. Her first host had been surprisingly quiet since the T'Kon had shown up. ~They are real. They have their fingers in all the pies and they think they own everyone. Don't trust her. She may be one of their spys and lying.~

Always the more distrustful and paranoid of D'BrooNis host, everyone was used to this attitude. Although he may have a point the Trill mused. That said a spy without a memory, was that still that dangerous? She was already on Keibens radar, so she decided not to worry and just get on with the task in hand.

"You are very malnourished. Are you aware of that?" she changed the subject. "Whats going on? Whats caused you not to eat well, for what looks like a long time."

Tia could feel the Doctors suspicion, or that of one if her previous hosts. She could see the internal workings, almost hear the internal monologue inside.

It was true, Tiandith's past was a little muddied, and she was a dangerous when backed against a wall but she knew when to be that person and now was not that time. Not yet.

"A lack of food." Tia said candidly. "Where I come from food is scarce, and MREs only sustain you so far. I often gave them to the children and elderly in my care. I wouldn't have been much of a leader if I let my people suffer. Not that it matters much now..." her mind cast off to her cells betrayal and the subsequent destruction of her make shift home. She cleared her throat and looked at the doctor. "We had one working replicator to feed 113 of us, and our power systems often couldn't support all we needed it too. Priority was given to others by myself."

She still felt guilty for how the Federation and Starfleet fell. She was there at the end and felt she didn't do enough so she didn't take as good care of herself as she should have and instead focussed on the people she felt she had displaced, the people she should have protected better.

“Well you were either a very long way from Federation Space or not even Federation space as we know it. You have a slightly different bio molecular signature for those of use who know what to look for. As if your vibrating on a slightly different wave length to this universe. But perhaps before we address that properly let’s address the nutrition,” Mel stated walking towards the replicator.

“What do you like to eat? Starch, protein, fat. Hell sugar, lets cover all bases. It’s still a carbohydrate.”

"Where I come from the Federation no longer exists. It was destroyed by the Dominion over 20 Terran years ago. Starfleet, and all the comforts of peace and stability have been gone for decades." Tia had a remorseful tone. "This reason I do not show as being from your universe is because I am not." Her El Aurian senses proved to her that much, and the instruments of her shuttle.

"I eat the same things as everyone eats, mostly. Your Orion on the promenade gave me a meal and a drink earlier today before I made my way into Ops. Stations security is quite lax... but then again I was not expecting to see a T'kon ship. Even the stories I was told from my people they were to be given a wide berth. It seems, as Humans would say, we are not in Kansas anymore."

"You eat meat?" Mel asked. "Yes we could do without that. Them and the Iconians who will evidently appear as well. I have a host, he has some experience." She blinked several times.

"I try to avoid meat if I am honest, but if there is nothing else I eat what's available." Tia replied honestly. "I did notice your markings, and sensed a duality in you." Tia continued. "For you to have a symbiont with experience of the T'Kon and the Iconians... it must be of considerable age."

"Just over 900 years," she nodded programming in a vegetarian alternative. "Hal my first host was a linguistics specialist. The Trill found a TKon base during his time. Do they feature in your other place or not?"

"My universe had followed the same path as yours, more or less. The only divergence I have noticed is that you beat the Dominion fleet back at DS9 with the help of the 'Prophets', where as in my own that did not happen." Tia spoke remorsefully. "The Dominion fleet came through the wormhole and decimated our joint fleet, which later resulted in their success in subjugating the quadrants."

"Sorry, I realise I've not answered your question. The T'kon did in the same manner as your universes version. I'd imagine there is not much difference on that front... but my experience of this universe is different and my senses are still slowly getting accustomed to it." Tia shrugged.

"I wonder why the prophets chose not to intervene," Mel mused. She ordered her an eggplant parmigiana. Garlic bread, salad and a glass of spring water. Handing them to her, she felt a little light headed suddenly smelling the cheese.

"Sorry," she muttered managing to not drop them and hand them over. "Think my blood sugars low too. Better get something myself."

It dawned on her on the way back to the replicator that the last time she had gone off cheese, Charlie had come along. They hadn't really been trying but if it was that .. Keiben would be happy. She needed to run some tests.

"So," she said casually as she ordered a chicken salad sandwich for herself. "Is your plan to stay here or are you trying to find a way back? Not that I would have any clue how one moves through universes."

Tia sensed something strange from the Doctor when she was handed the plate of food, the second time she'd been fed by someone else in recent days. The sense was familiar to the Doctor with a small sense of excitement and hope.

She accepted the plate of food with a nod of thanks. "I don't really know..." she answered. "I do not belong here. I cannot claim to be needed here, where as in my own universe I am a leader. Was a leader." she hung the word was in the air, she had no idea if her resistance cell had any survivors at all. Maybe it would be better to stay here, but that was her being selfish and she knew that.

"A leader of what?" Mel asked.

"Of many things." Tia replied vaguely. "Depends the decade you choose... Starfleet Captain, Admiral of Earth and the Federations defence fleet, but more recently of the last 25 years or so resistance leader, information broker and general pain in the Dominion's ass." there was pride in her voice as she spoke that last words but they hinted at the sadness she felt at her cell being wiped out not long before her trip to the universe she currently walked in.

“And Is that what you want to get back too? Cause I have to be brutally Honest, Your not going to get something of the same calibre or status here. The circumstances are wildly different and you will always fight an uphill battle in terms of trust,” Mel said sadly. “But staying here is an option. Maybe in some capacity.”

"I wasn't looking for status here at all." Tia replied simply. "I didn't look for it there either. I only performed my duties to Starfleet, and later in life picked up the chips the way they fell once the Dominion took hold... I never asked to lead." she somewhat felt as if she was defending herself but she knew this wasn't an interrogation.

"As for trust, I know it's not given out. I've been around long enough to know how the galaxy treats people." Tia's mind cast back to Corvan IV. "Trust is earned, on both sides of this." she glanced at the Doctor. "I suppose we will see what the future holds. Right now I'd settle for our own time period... different universes can be something for later."

"True. Right now as your doctor I will settle with building your immune system back up and getting a little weight on you. Deal?" she said to her. "I'm giving you permission to eat and not worry about anything here."

"I will try Doctor." Tia nodded. "All I can do is try."

OFF:

Commander Mel D'BrooNi
CMO, Styx Station

Lt. Tia Tobru
Chief Security Officer
Styx Station

 

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