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Day 02 [2130 hrs.] Memories and Machines

[Ens. Talia Al-Ibrahim | Main Sickbay | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

She woke with a groan, her hands flying to her face against the agonizing light. Her eyes felt like someone was pouring salt into them, so she clamped them shut against the pain.

Pain; her body remembered pain. Lots of it. Her mind seemed slow, sluggish – it was so hard to think. She reached out with one hand, desperate to orient herself, acting on instinct. She felt cold, then she remembered: I couldn’t move. I was…dying. She could move now, somehow. Forcing herself to breathe deeply, she experimented with her limbs: flexing her toes, rotating her ankles, feeling her muscles move and tendons stretch by her will again allowed her to center herself. I’m not dead, she guessed. Dead people can’t feel anything, right?

Her mouth was dry, filled with an odd taste that she couldn’t place. Tentatively, she cracked an eye open, braced against more agony. Her vision swam, thick with tears. Where the hell am I? It appeared to be a medical facility. None of this made sense. How the hell did I get here? She felt so weak – it took everything she had just to try and sit up. She managed to lift her head, barely, before submitting to gravity with a groan. She shook her head weakly. This isn’t right – I need to get up, I should be able to get up!

She clenched her teeth, still holding one hand over her eyes, and reached out to grab the edge of whatever kind of bed she lay on. The nerves in her arm and shoulder howled in protest as she pulled. She remembered that feeling – soreness, the best kind of pain.

She hissed through her teeth and felt her abs contract as she pushed through the pain, refusing to submit. She managed to prop herself up on one elbow, blinking through tears as she went. When she managed to get upright, she was coated with sweat, gasping for air, but she was upright – alive – and that felt pretty damn good.

“Not. Dead. Yet,” she panted, letting her hand fall to the bed railing, she steadied herself for a moment. She grimaced as she fought to keep her head up. The fuck is going on, her mind screamed. Blinking away tears mixed with sweat, she tried to take in her surroundings. She was dressed in a medical gown – the kind used for sterile environments during surgery. The air was dry and chilly, smelling of antiseptics and something else she couldn’t identify. She managed to quickly swipe the tears from her dark eyes as they found an emblem stamped onto the bed next to her: it was the familiar iconography of Starfleet, which read USS Theurgy – NX-79854.

The Theurgy.

Memories rushed in as her mind finally caught up to her body; who she was, where she came from, all of it assaulted her like physical blows. Her parents, her sisters and uncle. The Academy, the cursed Breen – the fucking Dominion – all of it. Her hands balled into fists even as her body spasmed, near the limits of her weakened endurance. She remembered how hard she’d worked, the sacrifices she’d made. How much it hurt to feel like no matter what she did, she could never – would never – earn her father’s forgiveness. How that pain drove her, every second of every day, into a lonely existence of utter commitment to pushing herself towards a perfection she could never achieve. She remembered the training – the pride she felt – in knowing that she alone, of all her family, had dared to go as far as she had. Starfleet. The Tyson. Omega. The Diamondback.

She gasped, as the tears rolled down her cheeks. The Diamondback - they fired on us. Why? They killed her. She was alive, but they killed her. She knew it – felt it – in her bones. The body remembers what the mind choses to forget.

Talia forced her emotions down as she swiped her face free of snot and tears. Yallah, get a grip. You’re supposed to be stronger than this, she reminded herself. The all-too-familiar self-loathing returned, embracing her psyche like the arms of a lover. Fuck you, she answered, as her face settled into a mask of neutrality. She was still breathing hard, but the tremors in her limbs had eased. She didn’t know if she could stand, but she knew she couldn’t stay where she was.

The answers she needed where outside this room.

“They better be really fucking good,” she growled to herself as she threw one leg over the edge. She tested her weight on the limb, disgusted by how pale and weak it looked. Fucking pathetic. When her knee didn’t give out, she threw her other leg over, leaning her ass against the bed, palms down on either side to steady herself. “Ya ibn el sharmouta,” she panted, furious at herself. Her head fell down as she focused on defiance of gravity, spilling her sable hair across her vision. As she pushed off the bed, her muscles fired in agony, but she pushed through. Gradually, the cramping lessoned to tremors, then sporadic ticks, mostly in her calves and quads. 

“Never skip leg day,” she groaned, leaning a bit of her weight back on the bed. With her free hand, she managed to drape her mane of hair over her shoulder.

Then she noticed she wasn’t alone; some kind of humanoid...machine? Android? Was watching her from behind the glass window in the next room.

Talia took a breath and huffed the rest of her hair out of her face. “Hey! Care to tell me what the hell’s going on?”


OOC: Yallah - means "hurry up" or "lets go" / Ya ibn el sharmouta - means "son of a bitch" ;)

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #1 –
[ Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Dumedion
[Show/Hide]
While her patient had come awake and started moving, V-Nine had been inside the adjacent decontamination chamber. She'd had her back turned, unaware of the movements outside the glass wall. She was in what the organics might call 'an intro-spective mood' because of the events two days past, wherein she had aided Captain Ives and Chancellor Martok to reach Qo'noS.

Barring losses for both the Theurgy and the Oneida, the mission had been a success. She was downloading data from the reports her clearance gave her access to, and committed the accounts of many different officers to her memory banks. All in all, as they had prevailed not just against the usurper Gorka, son of Margon, but also an Infested inside the Klingon High Council, V-Nine knew that she ought to consider the fallout a success. Even more so, since a Romulan warbird had been stopped from deploying a thalaron bomb in the First City, and yet another Infested had almost succeeded in breaking the moon Praxsis into pieces, and let gravity have the broken moon bombard the surface of the Klingon home world. The planet would have been rendered uninhabitable, the very planet upon which she had been - immobilised at her own volition.

She had sacrificed her functionality in order to augment the Sabine with Savi tech, using critical units of her platform to help the shuttle get where it needed to go, and while she wasn't regretful about it... she was still processing the....'mortality' she had subjected herself to. Had the Sabine been destroyed, she - as a digital entity - would have been gone, and it was the first time she had actually considered the meaning of her A.I. ceasing to be.

So as she let the decontamination lights sweep over her top-heavy platform, she was taken by surprise when she heard the voice outside the glass wall. She spun around, and the singular lens on her cranial unit retracted in the equivalent of shock.

"Oh, dear!" Quickly, she deactivated the chamber and made the glass partitioning slide away. "Ensign Al-Ibrahim? Please, take it easy. I was about to bring you to the recovery ward, but your anaesthetics must have worn off prematurely. You have undergone extensive surgery and you shouldn't be moving just yet."

While she had been speaking, V-Nine had slowly been approaching with her metallic hands raised in a cautionary gesture. "You must let your body mend and rest, otherwise you may tear up what I had to do in order to save your spine and your cranium. Please, you are safe, so settle down, okay?" She tilted her cranial unit and zoomed in on the fighter pilot's features, trying to detect if the obvious pain she was in was of the more severe kind.

Not about to rely on an ocular examination, she raised her right hand, and her thumb and index finger unfolded to reveal a teal and yellow light. "This is just a medical tricorder, and I want to check your readings, is that all right?"

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #2 –
[Ens. Talia Al-Ibrahim | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

Talia narrowed her eyes against the pain and the approaching mechanism, grimacing as she shook her head subtly. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before; thin limbed, encased in glossy white armor over a black frame of mechanical servos which hummed with the barest articulation. On it's face, a brightly lit single blue circle shined and...dimmed, as if in mimicry of an organic creature blinking.

I'd be impressed if I wasn't about to fall out, she thought dryly as she clamped her burning eyes shut in a long blink. It spoke to her, its voice oddly....emotional, for something so obviously mechanical. What the hell is going on, she grimaced again, as more tears rolled down her cheeks. For the briefest of moments she considered that this thing might be why the Diamondback turned on the Theurgy, but she dismissed it as irrational. Creaking an eye open showed her the droid/mech approached at a slow, steady pace, perfectly neutral in its movement.

Talia shook her head again, sighing weakly at herself. In reality, the fact was that she didn't have anywhere to go, and she didn't think she could even try. It felt like someone was draining her vitality at will, then in a burst or a heartbeat later, they gave it back in a rush of adrenaline. When the machine reached the bedside with low snarls of servos and asked to scan her, all she could manage was a weak nod.

"I...I don't feel right. I don't understand what's going on," she spoke rapidly, but quietly, averting her gaze from the bright light of the scanning beams. "Why do my eyes hurt so much, why do I feel so weak?"  She focused her gaze downward, into the bed she'd struggled out of. Anesthetics...my spine? Cranium?

She lifted her gaze then to the bright blue "eye" mounted in the machine's face, her face set in determination despite the trembling in her limbs. "Who are you, and what did you do to me," she she demanded.

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #3 –
[ Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Dumedion
[Show/Hide]
Recording the scans of the human specimen, V-Nine tilted her cranial unit when detecting the question posed to her.

"Oh, I am a Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android, but my name is just V-Nine. Actually, you can just call me Vi, if you wish. Normally, I would say you are feeling weak because of a slight degree of muscle atrophy, but the stasis unit you have been in since you were hurt ought to have kept your physical conditioning more or less the same. Instead, you are feeling the effects of the multiple hours of surgery I have preformed on you today. You lost a lot of blood, but your body will be able to replenish whatever the transfusions didn't compensate you with."

V-Nine paused and let her hand return to normal, having taken the readings she needed to make sure the patient hadn't manage to rupture anything the trilaser connectors and the regenerators had done. "You suffered from critical blunt force trauma to the cranium, causing a skull fracture with traumatic brain injury. Moreover, you sustained a complete C-5 cervical spinal cord injury, which took a long time to treat as you may have ended up with permanent paralysis. You also suffered from multiple lacerations and puncture wounds to your back, your legs and your arms. There was an explosion too, causing you third and second degree burns to your head and torso. Your lungs collapsed from the shockwave, a severe case of tension-pneumothorax, and fourteen bones in total suffered from different kinds of fractures. My readings tell me your tissues are in a state of healing, and you simply need to rest."

Realising that the patient might still be disoriented, perhaps even distrustful, V-Nine made sure to supplement with some additional information of prudence to the human. "You are still aboard the Theurgy, the ship upon which I serve your medical department with my programming and abilities. The ship is orbiting Qo'noS.... and you have been in stasis for just over six months."

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #4 –
[Ens. Talia Al-Ibrahim | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

In the silence that followed the details of her injuries, with only the gentle hum of the ship around them, Talia stared down at her hands upon the bio-bed as she flexed them into fists. The droid had answered her in the sympathetic tone typical of medical professionals, yet it gave her little comfort to know just how close to death she’d come.

I shouldn’t even be here, she took a breath, ignoring the tears sliding down her face. It was a curious feeling, in a way; the images and feelings of the attack flitted through her mind as the droid – Vi – had spoken. Layered under those were how she had been before that; cruel to herself, cold and distant to others, walking through life with blinders on. Everything she did was in pursuit of her own notions of what was important. Selfish, she shook her head weakly. All of it, just to spite someone who never really gave a damn about her in the first place.

Then I died. Regardless what miracle of science brought me back. I died, she sniffed, wetly, as she raised red-tinged eyes to meet Vi’s luminous gaze. Who am I now? What do I do? “Thank you,” she managed after wiping her face. Her head was throbbing slightly; the result of such extensive surgery or simply a stress response to everything she’d just learned. Six months in stasis after getting blown the fuck up, then carved open and put back together by a droid. She huffed weakly. Sounds like a damn ER holodrama episode.

Ultimately, Talia knew that only one last question truly mattered, and she took a deep breath as she attempted to regain her former professional composure prior to asking it. Dark, watery eyes locked with Vi’s ocular sensor node, filled with all the determination she could muster. “Can I still fly? How long before I can get back in a cockpit?”

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #5 –
[ Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Dumedion
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The question was only partially within her ability to answer, but V-Nine - interpreting the actions and tone of the organic as best as she might - would do her best to comfort her.

"As difficult as this must be for you, having been deprived of so much time whilst in cryogenic stasis, that is the good news," she said, and moved to the patients side. She made sure to sound as cheerful as she could without belittling the feelings of the fighter pilot. "Given the physical condition you were in prior to your injury, you should be well able to make a full recovery within a day or two..."

She raised a metallic finger and waggled it at her in a mock-admonishing way, tilting her head in a dramatic fashion - hoping some humour might elevate the the Ensign's mood. "...as long as you allow your body to mend after the extensive surgeries I had to preform.  See, while the tissues, ligaments and bones have been fused together, nerve endings reconnected and your dermal layers regenerated, your body is in dire need of nutrients and hydration to compensate for the stress of the treatments and the natural healing process. More important than food and water, however, is rest. Therefore, I will be taking you to the recovery ward. Are you ready to be moved?"

Regardless the answer, V-Nine wirelessly requested a hover-gurney to the surgical suite, and she noticed how the Head Nurse - Vinata Vojona - answered the prompt form his console. Soon enough the Ovri - or a nurse he'd assigned to the task - would enter with the gurney, but in the meantime, V-Nine remained at the patients side, ready for any further questions she might have.

OOC: Feel free to have Vinata enter with a hover gurney at the end of your post if you want! :)

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #6 –
[Ens. Talia Al-Ibrahim | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

Her eyes tracked the metal digit as it wagged in front of her nose; it reminded her of Omul, the way he would playfully tease her whenever she grew impatient – which was often. His big dark eyes would twinkle as he rested a warm hand on her shoulder or brushed the hair from her face back behind one ear. They were warm, loving memories; she hadn’t been exactly happy then, but she’d known that her uncle loved and cared about her. That meant the world to me, she sniffed as she nodded, backing away from the droid slightly.

Her rational mind attempted to assert itself, as Vi’s words sunk in: Will you fly again? The machine didn’t really answer – that was a hint to read between the lines and let your ass recover properly, it told her. You do want to fly again, right?

“Yes,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else; she’d quite forgotten the machine had asked her if she was ready to move, but allowed the droid to move closer to help support her. She draped an arm over the droids shoulders, the cool metallic surface chilling her instantly as her flesh broke out in goosebumps. As the droid's arm eased around her waist, she realized the surgical gown was still open in the back, leaving her a tad exposed.

“Uh, Vi,” she huffed weakly as she nodded over her shoulder to her ass. “Think you could secure that back there,” she asked, as the door to the site swished open, revealing a species she’d never seen before pushing a gurney towards her with a warm smile that seemed really genuine or very well rehearsed. 

Talia blinked at the newcomer several times, amazed at its big soulful eyes and graceful form. Utterly lost for words, and unused to interacting with aliens, her lips moved wordlessly for several seconds before she managed to speak at all. She blinked rapidly to snap herself out of it, remembering herself; no one liked to be stared at. “Um, hi,” she waved with a quick twist of her wrist upon the machine’s shoulder. “Sorry – didn’t mean to stare,” she added quickly as her eyes screwed shut. Still got those impeccable social skills, she groaned to herself.

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #7 –
[ Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Dumedion
[Show/Hide]
"Of course," V-Nine answered when the Human specimen requested to have the back of her gown closed up for her. At that time, Nurse Vojona entered with the hover gurney, eliciting a... peculiar reaction from the patient. V-Nine looked between the two, unsure what to make of the wordless social exchange between the organics, but apparently Ensign Al-Ibrahim apologised for staring.

"Oh, I don't mind. I realise there are not too many Ovri serving in Starfleet. My sister and I were among a select few that graduated a couple of years ago," Vinata chirred and pushed the hover gurney to the side of the biobed. He then smoothed his skirt uniform over his wide hips and smiled to the patient. "I am Vinata, Head Nurse. I see that V-Nine was present when you woke up. Let's get you to the recovery ward so that you can rest properly now..."

"Before then, can you place your hands on the biobed for a moment so that I can close your gown?" V-Nine requested, and helped Talia put her hands on the edge of the biobed she'd woken up on - thus turning the patients exposed back towards Vinata and herself.   While she was ill-versed in artistry and the visual aesthetics that affected the organic mind, V-Nine found that after the upgrade Thea had made of her A.I., she could somehow appreciate the symmetry of the Ensign's backside - accentuated as it was by the lighting of the surgical suite.

She made no comment, of course, but when the arms of her platform were freed to acquiesce the patient's request, V-Nine nimbly closed the gown up with her metallic fingertips. She may have been somewhat slower at it than an organic medical officer might have been, but she was fairly satisfied with the accuracy of her programming when it came to her platform's manual tasks. Vinata had stepped to the hover gurney's LCARS display and entered the patient's medical journal into its socket, having taken it from the biobed. The display chirped and showed the patient's name, along with the latest entry, being the pending move to the recovery ward.

"There we go," V-Nine said, and turned her cranial unit to Vinata. "Ready?"

"Aye, come here Ensign," Vinata croaked gently and pushed a button that lowered the gurney closer to the deck, and moved to help V-Nine when she gently had Talia sit on the gurney. "Now lie down and relax. If you have no immediate questions, I would like to give you something for the pain, which will help you sleep for a while longer. You need it if you are to minimise your post-surgery recovery. Still, I can understand if you want to know ought else than what V-Nine has already told you."

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs.] Memories and Machines

Reply #8 –
[Ens. Talia Al-Ibrahim | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan

Talia huffed the hair from her face as she was turned, acutely aware of the chilled air on her exposed backside - the flesh there pebbled again as the combination of the fabric from the gown she wore, the tangled hair draped down her back, and Vi's cold fingertips sent tremors cascading up and down her body. Yaaah, she groaned mentally as her teeth chattered together. First I'm filmed in sweat, now I can't stop shaking? What the hell?

The more she focused on her sense of touch, the more sensitive it seemed to get, but Talia chalked it up to another side effect of everything her body had been through. Allah, I hope that’s not permanent, she prayed as Vi tied up her gown. In the aftermath of the chill, her skin set to tingling, she glanced down at herself - groaning with self-consciousness at the sight of her painfully hard nipples trying their best to tear a way out of the thin garment. Great, she sighed as she wrapped her arms around herself, allowing Vi to help her to the gurney.

Ugh, this is why I hate sickbay, she grumbled as she sat down, doing her best to keep as much of herself covered as she stretched out. The gown crinkled and rasped as she moved, hanging up under her ass, pulling up to her thighs. Fucking. Stupid. Gown, she hissed as she fought it back down, absently listening to the remarkably unique alien nurse.

At the mention of sedation, she froze mid-recline, propped up on her elbows, dark eyes narrowed at Vinata’s pools of glossy black. “I've been asleep for six months – I can take the pain,” she grunted out as another wave of weakness assaulted her body. “I need to know what’s going on, what’s happened since I…,” her voice died at the memory of her injuries, taking even more of her strength. Defiance flared in her eyes as she fought against it. “I know I was hurt, bad, and I’m on the Theurgy. I need to know why."

Talia groaned as she lowered herself back, submitting to gravity and the inescapable situation; offered no choice but to comply and let her body recover. Should have stayed in bed, you stubborn ass! “Sorry,” she mumbled, realizing that she was acting like a child. If everything she’d learned in the past few moments was true, the simple fact of being alive and moving again was a gift she'd never be able to repay. “Not..trying to be difficult,” she added even quieter as her eyelids grew heavier. Damn I’m tired, the thought seemed to stretch through her mind like melted cheese as her body relaxed. Did she already drug me? "Hm," she mumbled, "think I'll just rest for a bit first."

Her eyes rolled up to Vi with a weak nod. “Thanks for bringing me back,” she whispered, eyes barely cracked open. Guess a few more hours of sleep won’t hurt, she couldn’t be sure if she’d said that out loud or thought it; her wits wavered as she tried to articulate what she wanted to know. Why did they...fire on us? What...happened while I was...asleep? Maybe I'll just...read about it...when I wake up. As the pull to oblivion increased, Talia wondered if she'd wake up back on the Diamondback - back in a world that made sense.

Re: Day 02 [2130 hrs] Memories and Machines

Reply #9 –
[ Vigenary Model I-9 Surgical Android | Surgical Site 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Dumedion
[Show/Hide]
While the patient was fresh out of surgery, weary and hurting, the request to know what was going on was rather reasonable, all things considered. V-Nine didn't reply immediately though since the Head Nurse had asked the Human specimen if she had any questions. As it were, the two of them had to make sure the patient was safely lowered to the hover gurney first, though, so the pilot didn't get the answers she needed immediately.

And when the Ensign was back in a prone position, she was drifting off already - the toll upon her body catching up with her. Neither Vinata nor V-Nine had inoculated her with a sedative, however, since the patient wasn't consenting... and it appeared they wouldn't have to either. Drowsily, Talia drifted off, apologising for her outburst.

Vinata turned his black eyes to V-Nine with a smile. "I suppose the briefing will have to wait, and it might be a good thing to have a Lone Wolf here by the time she wakes up. Perhaps someone from the original squadron, if she had the time to meet any of them."

"Yes, that might be a good idea. Let's bring her to the recovery ward for now."

- FIN
 
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