What I've Done - Sickbay

Posted on Fri Aug 22nd, 2025 @ 10:46pm by Lieutenant Rio Kholin MD & Lieutenant Amber Laurell & Lieutenant (J.G.) Rrawran & Crewman Tiazal Jiru & Director Aamis

3,072 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Gaia - Short Treks
Location: Sickbay, U.S.S. Enterprise
Timeline: 2439-06-14, 20:30

Director Aamis of the Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations walked silently down the corridor of the Enterprise. Outwardly she was perfectly prim and proper in stature, her movements controlled and even as she walked down the hallway. Inside she was screaming and not very Vulcanish. When she was sent to the Enterprise she was to serve as an advisor during their mission and, while she had her own views, the Commodore had seemed to be in agreement with her after she had shared them. She had come to respect him and his views, feeling she had found someone who was a kindred spirit of sorts.

Then he pulled that away. Like a common interloper, the Commodore had ordered her taken off the Bridge by the Enterprise's Security Chief. Now she was being escorted through down the halls like a criminal and, worse, she wasn't there when the crew of the Defiant needed her the most. She wouldn't be there for her crew, nor for the family that she left behind.

A family that shouldn't even exist.

A family that would die if they did exist.

It would mess with even the sanest person's head.

Walking along with the Security Chief nearby, Aamis protested, "Your Captain had no right to do this. You know that, right?"

"That decision is beyond my paygrade, Director," Lieutenant Rrawran answered as they continued walking down the corridor toward Sickbay. "The Captain ordered me to escort you to Sickbay for an evaluation, that's all the more I know."

"You and I both know that he wasn't able to order me relieved without the full evaluation of your Doctor and Counselor," the Vulcan challenged, "that's why he has to insist on doing them now. To protect himself."

The alien Security Officer shrugged, "I'm just following orders."

"The source of so many tragedies throughout history," Aamis said with a twinge of annoyance.

Rio looked up as the doors to Main Sickbay slid open automatically to receive an incoming visitor and Director Aamis appeared to be walking in but looking behind her as she did to an officer in a Security Uniform close behind and to one side of her. It was clear there had been some form of discussion, possibly even a little heated, that had been taking place, judging by the Director's deeply furrowed frown (an odd look on a Vulcan, Rio silently and instinctively noticed in a flash moment of thought).

The CMO left what she had been doing and approached the main reception area, handing a PaDD she had been holding to a nurse who had been working with her, giving some muted and brief instructions as she did so. Returning her full attention to the Director, heading her off as she didn't seem to know where she was going.

"How can I help you, Director?" Rio asked.

Aamis looked at the half-Human/half-Trill Chief Medical Officer cautiously, almost disdain in her gaze. She was about to answer when she heard the doors open behind them.

Having departed from the bridge Amber had followed on down to Sickbay, she was going to be needed to assess Director Aamis. Walking into Sickbay she offered a polite, yet respectful smile. “Doctor, Director. I’m here to see what I can do to help.”

"I'm not exactly sure myself," the Vulcan answered with a twinge of what could be perceived as annoyance in her tone. "I was removed from the Bridge of this starship without cause. Perhaps it is your Captain who should be here being examined?"

“Forgive me Director, but you are exhibiting emotional responses, or are you going to tell me that’s usual for a Vulcan?” Amber looked at Aamis curiously.

"Counselor, being half-Vulcan yourself, you know that Vulcan emotions are far more intense, violent, and passionate than those of many other species, including even Humans. As I have not attained Kolinahr, I have not reached the ultimate level of logical thought and purged myself of all remaining emotions. It is unsurprising that some of my emotions would show with the ordeal in which this ship is embroiled."

Amber nodded. “That’s very true, you’re here now and I are very much alike in that respect” she motioned Aamis towards an empty office where they could talk more privately. “I never wanted to attain Kolinahr, I chose to keep my emotions much to the disapproval of my father. I have never really been bothered about being logical.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Tell me why this mission means so much to you.”

As this was beginning to appear much more a part of Amber's remit, Rio moved away a little and went back to her current duties, leaving the two to discuss where this was going to go.

Director Aamis noticed that the Chief Medical Officer had backed away a bit, returning to the small office off to the corner to work on her projects. The Vulcan called out to her, "Your Captain probably wants you to scan me, Doctor, to ensure that I am physically not a risk to the ship, or that I am so that he can justify his actions. You may scan away."

"Director, with all due respect Ma'am" Rio returned immediately to the conversation, unwilling to shout across Sickbay in any form of unprofessional manner.

"I will carry out all and any requests my Commanding Officer makes of me, as and when he instructs me to do so." she said, gently and politely but firmly. "....until such an event should occur then I have no commitment to your complaints or accusations. I will therefore do scans only if I get orders to do so, or if I decide it's medically appropriate for my care of you as my patient." Without the need for a reply to her rhetorical comments, the CMO returned to her previous retreat, keeping an eye on the new admission, in case she should transfer her attitude and obvious anger, into any form of troublesome behaviour towards Amber next.

Returning her attention to the Counselor, "I would not go that far, Counselor, to assert that this mission means anything to me more than it is my responsibility. I was assigned to this vessel as an advisor and your captain essentially placed me under arrest and ordered me removed from the Bridge mid-mission. I have no other opinion on the subject."

“The Captain felt you were being… emotionally affected Director.” Amber tried to keep her own opinion unbiased. “As you’ve already explained you have not yet mastered full control over your emotions, something that the Captain isn’t aware of. Perhaps it would be useful to explain that fact, and your feelings to the Captain in private? I could request his presence once he’s finished on the bridge?”

"Your Captain and I have already spoken on the subject, Counselor. Not long before he had me removed from the bridge in fact," the Vulcan explained and then sighed, "I have been emotionally compromised before, back in the 2370s when the incident with the Defiant first occurred." She decided to retread the conversation with the Commodore and Commander zh'Roothi, "The Defiant crew visited this planed and discovered a world populated by their own descendants. The crew got to know their descendants and would later decide to recreate the accident to ensure their survival. The Helm was transferred to auto-pilot, shields raised, and a communications probe with final messages for the crew's families launched. The Defiant proceeded toward an unusual temporal signature within the barrier, determined to be an anomaly that would cause a temporal incursion that would take the ship back in time. The auto-pilot adjusted course to clear the barrier, emerging in normal space with no trace of the settlement or the inhabitants left behind due to Odo altering the flight plan."

"I was emotionally compromised by the events that occurred then," Aamis explained. "While Defiant was at the planet, I learned that I had descendants within the population of the planet after having mated with another crewperson. While I had a family of my own with my husband on Deep Space Nine, the loss of these descendants caused me emotional strain. I became fixated upon Gaia and what had happened, intent upon finding a way to restore the colony. After a great deal of research, I recalled the duplication of Major Kira upon arrival and considered the potential that the Defiant had been duplicated during the encounter with the barrier. It was not farfetched a possibility. Afterall, Thomas Riker had been duplicated by a transporter beam carrying the same phase differential as a distortion field returning him to a planet's surface. All I needed was a ship that could bring me here to confirm my theory."

She paused a moment, "I know that I am compromised yet again, which I admitted to your Captain, but that is compounded by what else I had found about Gaia, which gives him no right to have removed me from the Bridge."

Amber nodded. “To be honest I would probably feel the same as you if I knew I had descendants down there. It’s difficult to face what might, or might not be, the Captain probably felt it was best for you to be out of the way so that you didn’t jeopardise your own future, or your career. I know that’s no comfort.” She paused. “In my professional opinion, you are not compromised in a way that would make you act irrationally. You have explained the situation to me in perfect clarity, which I appreciate. If you were running around screaming, or fighting to get back to the bridge I’d be concerned, but as it is you aren’t. I see no reason why you need to be kept in sickbay under guard.”

"Nor do I" Rio agreed "...but I'd ask Lt Rrawran to accompany you back to your quarters though, so you can get some rest and not be disturbed." She looked meaningfully at Rrawran as she said this, knowing he would know what she meant and also what the CO would be happy with.

"I would prefer to return to the Bridge," the Vulcan answered evenly. "As the Department of Temporal Investigations Liaison for this mission I am aware of facts that the rest of the crew are not. While this may have played a part in your Captain's actions, the decision to remove me from the Bridge was groundless."

“If the doctor agrees then I will accompany you to keep you…shall we say, grounded?” Amber offered.

Director Aamis turned toward the Chief Medical Officer, "Doctor?"

"I hear your anxiety to resume your course Director, but the Commodore has more information about this mission, this ship and this crew than I do and short of declaring him to have lost his mind, I am in no position to go against what he has directed, nor would I wish to. I don't see any evidence nor have I had any reason to think that he is losing anything at all, without full and due consideration of all the facts before him."

"If it should be that YOU are holding back some essential information that would serve to change how he is seeing the current situation then I suggest you may wish to rethink the consequences of NOT informing him of what he needs to know, in your opinion, so that, if he deems your information to be correct, then he could decide to rectify whatever you feel is so wrong in the information he has in front of him."

"Your situation is not of his making, it is entirely of your own. Your removal from the Bridge was FAR from groundless, especially if your presence, arguments or refusals were distracting, interfering with or obstructing his actions and decisions. Therefore you will need to remain under observation for both your own medical recouperation good and ultimately for the safety of this ship and her crew in such a critical moment where behaviour of that kind, if repeated, could even be the very cause of an event that may dooms us all."

"I have said that, in acceptance of the Chief Counsellor's observations that you are neither disruptive nor hysterical now, and that you don't seem to be in need of direct guarding, you could be returned to your quarters to rest."

Rio sighed, exasperated that the Director couldn't see how much she was 'metaphorically' hog-tying the Commodore by keeping him in the dark whilst he was trying to save more than the 900 lives on this ship and the more than 50 more on the Defiant. It was all Kholin could do to keep a civil tongue in her head when she had heard the Director saying that the CO had no grounds to remove her from the hub of the mission when she was virtually sabotaging his decisions by keeping him blind to some part of the situation he was trying to deal with.

Drawing in a deep breath to soothe down her anger at this woman and the blindness she seemed to have over this whole tightrope of a mission with so much at stake, the CMO simply, in a monotone, empty of all emotion as only a seasoned medical officer can, said: "Mister Rrawran, If you could please continue to accompany the Director to her quarters and see that she remains there until the CO sends new or different orders regarding her health.

"Is that acceptable to you Lt Laurell?" Rio asked Amber, fully aware that the Director was about to make her own opinion known again, but she, as CMO, was much more interested in what Amber was feeling and intending on this matter.

Director Aamis looked at the Security Officer then the Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise, "I can see that there are many aboard this ship who are willing to go along with the Commodore's orders, even though they are wrong in this instance." She looked at the Counselor, "If I am not emotionally compromised by the mission at hand, I would assume that there is some matter that the Doctor has identified physically supporting such a demand to maintain my restriction from the Bridge?"

The Rorworr Officer adjusted his stance as he stood near the door, watching the Doctor, Counselor, and the Director very carefully.

Amber could see she hadn’t made matters any easier herself. “I have to agree with the Doctor, there are grounds for your being removed from the bridge. As such being allowed to return to your quarters seems a good compromise right now. I have no doubt the Commodore will want to talk to you again.”

Rio was exasperated at the Director's inability to comprehend the structure of a Starship, a mission, a working Fleet & Federation and the difference that she was apparently determined to apply out of her own insular determination. The CMO shifted her weight and her "impenetrable doctor's neutral face" changed into a deep and confused looking frown.

"Director, what part of *many aboard this ship who are willing to go along with the Commodore's orders* is so hard for you to realize on board a Federation starship? The Commodore is SENIOR in rank to ALL of us - also the Commodore is the COMMANDING OFFICER - so anyone, like you, who is actively attempting to countermand and undermine what he has ordered is stirring up MUTINY...... I think you need to be confined to quarters for THAT alone and that's without your disrespectful insistence that our COMMANDING OFFICER is wrong..... in your very modest opinion," Rio realised she was getting too personal now she had descended into irony and sarcasm so she reigned in her feelings, re-established her professional straight face and bit her tongue.

"Officer Rrawran, if you would kindly remove this person from Sickbay and confine her (and her mutinous nonsense!) to her quarters." she finished formally.

"I'm sorry Counsellor" Rio apologised immediately to Amber. "I can't condone this kind of disrespect and tantamount sabotage being adhered to and the patient refuses to see reason or exercise restraint in what she's advocating. I fear she will continue with her quest to undermine the Command Team, the Commodore in particular, with great determination and he doesn't need to have to deal with that until this danger to the ship and crew is at least abated."

"I can't let her loose to pursue him again and it's my opinion that she will do exactly that. Please could you make it possible for her to make her statements to yourself and for you to impart anything you think the Commodore will need to, or want to know - ie if she stops withholding what she thinks is so important."

"I'm sorry to land you with this but I have to admit that I have too much to do and too little time to do it for myself, not to mention having wasted too much time and attention away from my other patients. Is that going to be okay with you, Ma'am?"

"I really AM sorry to pass this off on you." Rio wasn't junior to Amber so she didn't need to call her Ma'am but she wanted to show respect to add sincerity to her apology and deference to the Chief Counsellor because she realised she could be seen as undermining her and that was not her intention, quite the contrary, she couldn't let the Director divide them or set them into conflict in any way. The Director's underlying intentions were not clear in Rio's opinion but her intense and passionate resistance to the CO were.

“That’s okay Doctor” Amber nodded. “I didn’t make things any easier myself.” She offered a little sheepishly. “I’ll take it from here.”

"So, just to clarify, I'm taking her to her Quarters, right?" The Security Officer asked sheepishly.

“That’s correct” Amber nodded. “Any problems please call me.” She looked to Aamis. “If there’s anything you’d like relayed to the Commodore please let me know.”

The Vulcan's stare remained as cold as an Andorian morning, "He will learn soon enough." She looked at the Rorworr, "I'm ready to return to my cabin, Lieutenant."

"This way," the Security Officer motioned toward the door and led her out.

END

 

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