Extended Office Hours

Posted on Mon Sep 14th, 2020 @ 5:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Noah Reed M.D. & Lieutenant Kevan Dash
Edited on on Mon Sep 14th, 2020 @ 5:29pm

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Deck 7: Sickbay
Timeline: MD-03 after "More Power"
1968 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Doctor Reed stood in front of the large wall display in the central area of sickbay with his hands on his hips. The large display was flickering slightly, the same state for the last ten minutes. One eyebrow curled upward as he tried pressing a menu button. Instead of the usual options being brought up, it stuttered and then displayed a replicator menu ingredient list for Bolian souffle. "Low bid trash," he muttered under his breath. Signing resignedly, he tapped his combadge and said, "Reed to engineering."

“Keating here, go ahead.” She replied, with a slight hint of annoyance. It had been non-stop repairs all day. She had finally finished the last task of getting more power to the impulse engines and was hoping for a short break when the call came through.

He assumed that he was speaking to the chief engineer but he wasn't quite sure since he hadn't heard her voice many times before. "It would appear that I'm in need of your services. I have a malfunctioning display in sickbay," he replied. He hoped that they weren't too busy and could come fix it as soon as possible.

“A malfunctioning display? No offense, but a malfunctioning display seems like the least of our worries at this point.” She said, trying to not sound too irritated by the seemingly outlandish request.

Reed frowned at the response. The entire crew was on edge and pushed to the maximum and he was no different, as indicated by him folding his arms. "Well, I have a lot of injured officers up here and it's kind of important that the system works to monitor their conditions. I don't know if it's a display issue per se, or a computer problem but the bio bed sensors aren't linking up with the wall display and that's the easiest way to track all of the patients at a glance." Why is it so hard for gear heads to recognize the importance of my work? he thought.

“You mean you only have one display to monitor everyone’s condition down there? And that one display being broken is a major problem?” She asked sarcastically. Finnley didn’t want to waste her time fixing a display, but she especially didn’t want to fix a display in her least favorite part of the ship. However, Reed clearly thought it was important. She sighed, “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Reed rolled his eyes and muttered "I'm amazed they can keep the lights on around here." He got back to work, checking on his patients around the ICU ward, reviewing the prescribed medicine doses and adjusting them as needed and was going over one update on a PADD when he heard the door to sickbay hiss open.

Finnley entered sickbay, clearly annoyed at having to travel two decks to fix a display in the last place she wanted to be. “You called?” She asked with a raised eyebrow as she spotted Reed.

"It's about t-" Noah had been focused on his PADD and lost his vocabulary when he glanced up to see the attractive blonde woman carrying what looked like an engineer's tool kit. He cleared his throat and started again, this time with his guard down a little. "Y-yes, I did. He walked over to the large wall display and pointed to it with the PADD still in his hand. "This display is vitally important to keeping track of all the patient bio signs in one location." His eyes slid back to her blue orbs as he continued, "I think it's a bigger issue. The individual bio bed readouts are acting strange. That happened at the same time."

Great, it’s a bigger issue, just what I hoped for, her sarcastic side internally commented on the situation. Also, is it just me or does he suddenly sound nicer than he did over the combadge? She wondered, too tired to pick up on the social cues he dropped that were so similar to her first meeting with Sam.

Finnley tried some controls and a diagnostic on the main display and then walked over to one of the bio beds and tried the same thing, hoping it might be an easy fix, but no luck. “It’s probably an issue with your computer core or the main power relay in here. I’ll have to get back behind the panels to investigate. It’ll take a few minutes.” She stated, with a hint of defeat in her voice.

Finnley was exhausted and felt like her body was going to finally give out at any moment. but she supposed everyone felt that way since the initial explosion and she wasn’t going to make excuses to get out of doing her duty. “Is there anything else that’s been acting up in here?” She asked as she made her way to the nearest panel. “I might as well check out anything else suspicious while I’m digging through here.”

Reed shook his head as he watched her work. She looked tired and exhausted from all that had transpired and he could definitely relate to that. "No, nothing else is wrong in sickbay." He paused a moment before continuing, "You look like you could use a drink after the crap you've been through today, lieutenant...?" He let the last word hang in the air, indicating that he was asking her name.

“Finnley Quinn Keating the seventh,” she replied as she pulled herself as far as she could into the panel to investigate, “but most people call me Finn, Keating or Lieutenant. And yes, I could down an entire bottle of Andorian ale at this point. Though judging by the looks of this room, you need a drink as much as I do. You’re Lieutenant Reed, right? What do you normally go by?”

Reed raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "You're the seventh Finnley in your family line? Fascinating." He walked over and checked the monitor over the bed of a human female patient as she lay asleep, making sure that her vitals were within normal parameters. "I normally go by doctor but depending on the company, some people call me Noah. And yes, I could kill for a drink."

Finnley chuckled, “I guess it started to stick after the first few generations, and then it became tradition and my family is definitely into traditions.” She ended the sentence with a slightly annoyed tone. Traditions weren’t Finnley’s favorite thing. She thought it was dumb to do something just because someone before you had done the same thing. Evidence, science, and logic were how she preferred to base her actions.

A few more tweaks later and the system lit back up. “I think, that should get you your monitor….” Finnley wasn’t able to complete the sentence before a beam of phaser fire shot right next to her. “What the hell?!” she exclaimed, quickly squeezing herself out of the panel she’d wedged herself into. Brill had warned them that the device in the phaser control room would allow the enemy to transport over, but she had deactivated it. Could there have been more than one?

Doctor Reed shielded his eyes with his arm as the phaser beam hit a wall panel and caused sparks to fly everywhere as it instantly overloaded from the power. He glanced briefly to see where the origin of the weapon had come from but couldn't get past the muzzle being leveled at him. He dove head first behind the wall to his office as another shot sailed past him. He crawled over to his desk where he kept a type-II phaser in a drawer and slapped his combadge along the way. "Reed to security! Intruder alert in sickbay! We're under fire!" He scrambled to the front of the drawers and opened one, not quite sure which one he had dumped it. He pulled out a bottle of Romulan ale and chided himself that if he had a moment, he would've taken a sip.

"On my way," came the response.

Luckily, Finnley hadn’t thought to remove the phaser from her side since the incident in the phaser control room. She popped back up and fired in the direction of the intruder, but missed. “Are you ok? “ she yelled at Reed as she ducked back down.

The doctor finally found the handle of the phaser after a few frantic seconds of grasping around inside the drawer. He picked it up, made sure the darn thing had a good power cell and peeked over the desk to try and get a bead on the intruder... and just in time to see another bolt sail past his head. He could feel the heat from it, it was so close. Dropping back down, he nodded to no one. "Yeah, I'm still alive! Can you see the enemy?"

“Uhh….one sec.” Finnley popped back up and fired in the area she thought the intruder was, missing once more. Instantly a beam of phaser fire came back at her and grazed her shoulder before she was able to duck back behind the console she was using as cover. “Damnit,” she cursed under her breath as it singed her skin. “Found him!” she yelled sarcastically back at Reed, “he’s behind the biobed in that circular-ish room with the lights.” Finnley never came to sickbay so she had no idea what that area was called or how to better describe it. Kevan better get here soon before that guy's accuracy with a phaser improves she thought.

As Kevan entered the room a phaser blast singed the wall just next to his arm. He let out a little yelp but instinctively took cover. "Doc? Lt Keating?" he called out, looking to try to get a reading on the situation. "Want to help me out here?"

Finnley saw Kevan enter and then take cover not far from where she was. “He’s over there in the circular room with the lights,” Finnley responded, still unsure of a better way to explain the intruder’s location.

"I'm pinned down in my office at the moment," Reed replied. "Let me give you a clue as to where he is..." At that point, he leaned over the desk and fired a shot in the direction of the intruder before doing a diving roll toward the wall next to the office entrance. A chasing shot by the unknown threat tracked him with several quick shots, one of which blasted the glass window above his new position, showering him with bits. "Did that help any?" It had been a risky move but they needed to triangulate and corner the enemy and not let him escape.

Kevan had enough to go on.

"Cover me!" he yelled, giving it a couple of seconds before he darted across the sickbay, through the alcove and flung himself into the office doorway.

For those watching there were grunts, yelps, and crashing of bodies. But after a few seconds Kevan reappeared in the doorway, his head cut open slightly at the temple and looking slightly battered but able to stand. "We...have a problem," he explained. He pulled a body through the doorway. A familiar blue-skinned individual lay crumpled there. A Bolian. Lt Commander Brill. Or at least, a facsimile of him.

"Wait...is that....he looks just like the Bolian we caught in the phaser control room." Finnley noted in shock. A million questions started racing through her head.
But Kevan took him to the brig, right? Does that mean there's two of them? Or did he somehow break free? What the in the world is going on here....