PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

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PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

February 26, 2024, 11:36:28 PM

Caitlyn lay restless in bed, her gaze wild beneath closed eyelids as she began to come out of the anesthesia. "Aye sir, I'll handle it," she mumbled dreamily, repeating the words almost like a mantra as her hands reached out and brushed the monitor extended above her. Frowning slightly, she dropped her arms back on blanket and groaned. She lay still a moment, beginning to snore lightly before her breath caught in the back of her throat. "W-what? No, I can get it, hang on-" She reached up, again being blocked by the monitor. Opening an eye, she looked at the device in disdain before squeezing her eyes shut with another groan. Am I still in engineering? I didn't pass out or anything, did I? Flexing her fingers, Cait opened her eyes a second time, squinting as she peered around. Sickbay...? On the Theurgy or... Just- What the hell happened?

Caitlyn tried to call out, mouthing the words, yet no sound matched them. Her mouth felt dryer than the deserts of Vulcan, the feeling almost suffocating as she took in her next breath. Mustering the strength for a cough, she attempted to speak again and managed a hoarse whisper. "Hello?" Trying to wet her tongue with what little saliva she had, Cait continued. "Is.. is anyone there?"

Re: PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

Reply #1 – February 28, 2024, 02:01:29 AM

[LT Arven Leux | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @rae @Galaxymind @Relatively Insane
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He couldn’t shake the smell of fire suppressant, and hadn’t had time to shower the stink of it off all morning. One thing rolled into another – which was perfectly acceptable, of course; Arven could manage the stress of a busy day easily enough, but the smell was really starting to annoy him. The Trill stood in the medical staff’s bathroom, stripped to the waist as he did his best to cleanse himself of the dry, flaky residue from Azrin’s jello surprise. The hand sanitizer was a poor substitute for actual soap, but he didn’t have time to bathe properly. It wasn’t his first improvised shower, after all.

Dark brows creased as he dried his hands off then pulled the PADD from his back pocket. The engineer still hadn’t replied to any of his messages. Her vitals looked the same, but he had no inkling if the medication he’d given her had any unforeseen side effects – mostly due to Azrin’s stubborn refusal to leave engineering. Arven rolled his eyes in annoyance then typed out another message, approximately twenty minutes since the previous attempt: Ryn – you’ve got ten minutes to respond or I’m coming down there after you. Again.

Arven flinched then as his combadge chirped. “Bugger,” he swore under his breath, then cleared his throat before answering. “Leux.”

“You have a patient in the Ward – another one out of cryo. V-Nine will meet you out by Surgical 1 with the details,” Nurse Ellison reported. Arven couldn’t help but notice the amusement in her tone, which earned her a frown. “I’m sure you’ll like this one.”

“What’s funny,” Leux snorted rhetorically, “Vi create a third option for your match-making repertoire?”

Kitty sighed. “Charming – and no, I was just warning the new Chief Surgeon about you. Funny thing is, she’s actually pleasant to be around. Like your polar opposite,” the nurse deadpanned, then closed the channel – which left Arven even more confused.

"Women," he sighed, then tugged on his undershirt.

[Outside Surgical Suite One, a moment later…]

Arven walked up to the entrance of the suite just as V-Nine had exited and offered him her usual greeting with a wave of one hand and a PADD in the other. “Ah, Doctor Leux, I have -”

But something had caught Leux’ attention over the android’s shoulder – a flash of red hair and spotted skin – just as the door slid closed. What the, Arven froze, brows creased in concern. “Who was that,” he interrupted, perhaps a touch too sharply than intended.

V-Nine spun the oblong dome of her head completely around in a slow pan of servos to look behind her, then slowly spun back to face Leux to tilt her ocular sensor at him quizzically. “Is this a game, Doctor Leux? I am the only other being present other than yourself. Are you well?”

Arven blinked at her with a frown. “Yes of course,” he deadpanned with a shake of his head. “Perfectly fine. I believe you have a chart for me.”

“I do! Ms. Caitlyn Murphy; she should be waking up any moment now,” the droid replied cheerfully and handed over a PADD.

Arven took it with a nod and another glance at the closed doors to the suite. “I’ll...go see to her. Thanks,” he murmured. A hand went to rub his eyes as he walked away, PADD tucked into one armpit. Bloody hell. Now I’m seeing redheads everywhere, Leux groaned to himself. Must be more tired than I thought.

[Recovery Ward, a few moments later…]

He entered the Ward to only a solitary occupant – thankfully still resting in biobed seven. Arven approached with his hands in the pockets of his lab coat, mentally prepared to repeat the same bad news he had given the other freshly de-thawed, but froze in his tracks the instant his violet eyes saw her face.

“Uhh…,” He blinked in disbelief several times, then quickly pulled the PADD out and skimmed over her chart. “What? Azrin...," he groaned. "Are you kidding me? You hacked into the ship’s registry – you’ve been sleeping here this whole time,” Arven shook his head, confused and incredulous at the engineer's audacity. “Do you have any idea how many regulations you just violated? What about the…,” he stammered, trying to remember the silly name for the oh-so-important engineering-thing she’d been obsessed about. “The thing, in engineering? You know what, it doesn’t matter,” he sighed dramatically, then pointed a finger at her. “I’ve been messaging you all morning. We had a deal, Azrin.”

Suddenly, the door to the Ward opened, revealing another redhead. Arven’s jaw dropped. She was wearing teal, she was Trill -but she was not Azrin.

“What…,” Arven cleared his throat, trying to ignore the knot of anxiety that was building painfully in his gut. “Uh...who are you, then,” he managed to ask, as he slowly stepped back from both of them.

Re: PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

Reply #2 – February 29, 2024, 02:42:59 AM

[LT Verena Pax| Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @rae @Dumedion @Relatively Insane

Verena had been checking with the nurses before she attended to the patient recovering in the recovery ward, and somehow she had ended up face to face with a strange trill in her ward. He was dressed in blue so he obviously belonged, but he was scolding the woman in the bed as if he knew her. And since she hadn’t had the pleasure of making his acquaintance up to this point. So she studied him for a moment, he was quite a fit specimen. Probably into athletics of some variety, interesting.

“I am Verena Pax, the chief surgeon. Who are you, and why are you badgering this patient?” she asked, tipping her head to the side. Her red braid shifted over her shoulder, as she looked at him with both confusion and concern. There was no hostility, not yet. He hadn’t proved himself to have been up to no good, or anything worthy of her ire yet.

She looked past him, to the other redhead in the bed. There seemed to be a few of them running around the Theurgy, some she recognized, some not, and one in particular wearing a different face than the last time they had met. But that wasn’t important at the moment. She needed to focus on the patient, so she tapped on her PADD and brought up Ensign Murphy’s chart. And when she glanced up again she noticed the younger woman seemed to be awake.

She arched a brow, the damage to Murphy's spine had been extensive. But V-Nine, ever their saving grace on this ship, had put the poor ensign back together again. Similarly to how she herself had been operated on, and brought out of stasis. She felt for the ensign, it was quite jarring to awaken six months after having been put on ice. Verena hoped that the young woman would adjust well to the shift in time. Verena had struggled with a number of new faces, and the new developments in their fight.

“We’re here, would you like some water?” She offered. Coming into Caitlyn’s field of view, her expression was warm and kind.

Re: PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

Reply #3 – March 21, 2024, 04:29:19 AM

[ Lt. Azrin Ryn | Engineering | Deck 26 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Relatively Insane @Galaxymind @Dumedion
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Azrin was very much not in sickbay, and definitely not asleep, thank you very much.

Instead, the engineer was deep in the power leads that connected the warp cores to the slipstream drive, humming happily to herself as her fingers shifted through cables, a wide grin nearly breaking her face in two, blue eyes so bright that they made her red hair look dull in comparison. They’d finally done it. The Theurgy had gone to slipstream and Azrin had been there for every second of it. She was still riding that high, buoyed by the warm glow of an absolutely perfect hour.

She’d known that slipstream would be nothing like warp. Read all the data, seen all the predictions. But nothing had prepared her for the feeling of the Theurgy shuddering beneath her feet, gathering all the power she could muster to breach the quantum barrier. It had been so beautiful. The only thing missing had been a window. Azrin had been humming ever since, doing her best to commit the ship’s slipstream resonance to memory, tone, rhythm, and frequency. A new way for Thea to sing that was completely different than the warp and impulse drives.

A ding from her PADD broke her concentration. Again. For the first time in hours, Azrin swiped it out of her pocket, just to turn the volume off so it would stop interrupting her. The most recent message was front and center, so she couldn’t help but skim it as her finger hovered over the mute button. From the looks of it, there were a lot more messages behind it.

“Nope! No! No way! You are not ruining this moment!” She told the PADD – and by extension, Arven – firmly, sticking her tongue out as though he’d be able to sense that from fifteen decks up. “I’m coming down there after you,” she repeated in a terrible and highly exaggerated version of his voice. “Again! Not again!” By the end, the imitation had turned into a groan. Arven she wasn’t super worried about, but he’d been annoyingly efficient when it came to keeping Commander Arnold up to speed on everything – and Frank definitely would send her back to sickbay now that the drive had been deactivated.

“Fine,” she muttered, dropping the PADD to the ground beside her. “Computer, begin dictation.” At least this way she could keep working while providing the proof of life he was looking for. “How does it make sense to come after me again when I’m in a totally different place? That you said I could go to? Have you ever been to engineering? Do you know where engineering is? Its where the slipstream drive is, which, by the way, should be the focus of way more interesting questi—hey, what am I supposed to be reporting to you anyway? You put this sensor node on me, you probably know more about my health than I do right now. Am I just supposed to report every ten minutes ‘hi my shoulder still doesn’t hurt’ because that seems like overki—ha! I knew it! You are interested in the slipstream drive, aren’t you? Who isn’t? You could have just said so, no need for pretense when cool science is afoot!

“Ok so first there was the benamite catalyzer—actually no, wait, do you know anything about music theory? I put a little microphone in the quantum matrix initiator and it sounded like huuuummmammmemmmmmhhh—” Azrin paused, made a face, then continued, “Why are we talking in speech-to-text? Never mind, I’ve got it. Computer, attach audio file Ryn Gamma-07 to this message and schedule for automatic playback fifteen seconds after this message is opened, with the same settings I’ve been using. Listen to that and tell me what you think!

“End dictation and send to Doctor—” Right before Azrin said his name, she tugged a bit too hard on a line and it came right out, sending a burst of transformer oil right into her mouth. “Pah! Puht! Ptui! Paaaaah!” She spat and spit and did her best to get it out. Too much of this stuff actually was toxic.

Somewhere along the way, the soft computer voice on her PADD asked politely, “Would you like to send?”

And Azrin, who was a bit busy, shouted “Yes!”

And the computer did the best it could parsing the incomplete information it had been given, forming language trees and comparisons to Azrin’s contact list for the closest reasonable match to ‘Doctor Pah!’

And that was how Doctor Verena Pax's PADD would ding as she received a very strange text message from her very (very) old friend.

Which soon after opening would start to play a recording that might have sounded like the ambient warbles of the warp core, a background white noise normally so unobtrusive that most people aboard starships never even noticed it. Except for the fact that this recording was playing at a volume that would have drowned out a Klingon heavy metal band.

But Azrin was oblivious to any chaos that might be going on decks away. She was already back to work.

Re: PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

Reply #4 – April 02, 2024, 11:35:36 PM

Surprised to find her call answered so quickly, Cait studied the Trill as he first entered, raising an eyebrow at his change in expression. I don't look that bad, do I? She wondered, her query answered when the doctor finally spoke again, confusing her with some other engineer. Unable to voice a response, Caitlyn instead gave the Trill a bemused look. Though she vaguely remembered Azrin, at least from when they had worked together, she found some difficulty in recalling anything else about the woman.

The male doctor seemed to be expecting an answer of some sort, though Caitlyn was saved by a second Trill entering the ward; another medical officer, by her uniform at least. Seeing the first man backpedal a bit, she briefly wondered how long he'd been stuck on duty before realizing the woman had asked her... wait what had she said? Finding her voice still absent, Caitlyn instead gave the woman a simple nod, accepting a cup of water a moment later. She tried a tentative sip at first, almost moaning from the relief it provided. Draining the cup all too quickly, she blushed and wiped the residual moisture from her mouth.

Clearing her throat, Caitlyn tried again to speak and found her voice willing. "Thank you, that- that really hit the spot." She sighed, already feeling a bit better. Looking between the other two, she tried to limit her mind to a few basic questions. "Who are you two? Am I still on the Thea? And just erm.. what the hell happened exactly?"

Re: PRO: S [D01 | 1130] Back to reality

Reply #5 – April 24, 2024, 08:25:05 PM

[LT Arven Leux | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Galaxymind @rae @Relatively Insane
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Violet eyes narrowed with a frown at both of them; given how the morning had turned out thus far, Arven couldn’t help but be skeptical. The entire affair reminded him of a poorly written holo-drama episode – the kind where the protagonist is caught in some ludicrous, paranoia induced alternate reality. That might be a stretch. Sort yourself out, Arven grunted quietly, then introduced himself as Doctor Leux to the other redhead, who apparently was a new colleague. Wonderful.

“And I wasn’t badgering – I was scolding,” Leux corrected dryly, then shrugged after his eyes skimmed over Pax’ file. “You can do that when your patients are awake. It’s a whole thing we deal with outside of surgery,” he added sarcastically while he read, absorbing what details of her career he deemed prudent. Joined Trill, yadda yadda, USS Lawson, yadda yadda, Starbase 226, yadda yadda…Battle of Cardassia…yadda yadda...joining complications due to former host trauma, yadda yadda...he blinked as he read quickly. Here we go – critical, near fatal injuries sustained during escape from Sol. Vi-Nine had brought her back out of stasis barely 48 hours ago, which earned her a shake of Arven’s head; his instinct told him to kick her out right then and there, but the way Pax carried herself and the given fact that she was already working when she should be resting negated the impulse. Brilliant, another ginger workaholic-schizophrenic, he thought dismissively. Well, we'll see how that goes. He left the file open for later, curious to study her case files in detail. It was always good practice to know the strengths and weaknesses of one's team mates, after all, but now was hardly the time for such things.

There was Azrin to deal with – which was a far larger issue.

Arven looked up from the PADD as Pax offered the patient some water, a dark brow arched skeptically. He knew the standard post-treatment procedure included enough 2 bags of IV hydration, and could only assume Pax did as well, but shrugged and watched the exchange anyway; last time he’d seen the sleep-deprived engineer, Azrin certainly appeared dehydrated, among other things – probably due to the extremely excessive consumption of coffee. She probably doesn’t even remember what water tastes like, Arven snorted quietly, then blinked the mental image of Ryn out of his head. Despite his concern for her well-being, the engineer was also clearly deranged and the source of considerable aggravation; a problem he needed to deal with quickly before it impacted the rest of the day’s schedule more than it already had.

“Yes, yes, this is all quite amusing, Ryn,” Leux sighed at the two of them, “but I don’t have time for your delusions -”

A beep from Pax’ PADD interrupted, earning a scowl. Arven blinked in confusion. “Bollocks,” he swore under his breath, then immediately rolled his eyes as Azrin’s high-pitched, energetic tirade began. There was no mistaking that voice, nor the background noise and ruckus – it was clearly Ryn, blabbering on from somewhere in the bowels of the ship. Arven shook his head as the engineer actually started to emulate the sound of some component he’d never heard of. For several long seconds, an awkward silence reigned, then the ward was filled with the droning hum of what sounded to him like every other warp core he’d ever heard. “Yes, that’s very fascinating. Do you mind,” he gestured to Pax to turn it off.

Azrin Ryn – worst patient ever, Arven noted to himself as he called up and glanced at her vitals again. At least she managed to stay conscious thus far.

In the awkwardness that followed, Azrin’s clone – Murphy, her name is Murphy – piped up with the typical post-stasis inquiries, which earned her a quick frown followed by a composed sigh from Arven.

“Well, technically,” the doctor shrugged, “we’re all inside Thea,” he gestured with a twirl of his fingers. “I’m Doctor Leux, this is,” he nodded to Verena, “Doctor Pax, you’re Murphy, allegedly - everyone tracking so far? Great,” Leux cleared his throat. Lacking the specifics on her chart, he could only assume the young ensign had shared a similar fate with all those placed into cryostasis, but lacked specifics, and told her as much; but he shot a skeptical look at Pax regardless. “Of course, there’s still the possibility of the old transporter-mishap-resulting-in-a-clone thing – it’s been documented, you know.”

"She's the one with the chart, ask her," Arven snorted in amusement at his own cynicism, then returned his attention to the patient as he procured a tricorder and began waving it over her body. "Hm. Look's like you got yourself a new spine," he commented casually, then arched a brow at Pax. "Your handiwork, or Vi-Nine's?"

OOC: really, really sorry for the delay.