Frog in the Throat, Part 2

Posted on Wed Dec 14th, 2022 @ 1:57am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Character Development
Location: Engineering
Timeline: After 'Get Rid of this Frog in the Throat'
1637 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Zade stared at her slightly trembling hands, trying to will them to stop as she waited for the turbolift to finish its descent to Engineering. Mentally, she felt fine after NVeid had removed the implant, because she knew who was doing the procedure. It was planned, and it was routine, with no steps out of place. It was familiar. Emotionally, though, she felt like she barely avoided getting hit by a shuttle, and the lingering adrenaline put a small pit in her stomach. Even after years of desensitization efforts, the sensation of hands at her neck was still overpowering. She found that being put under for the procedure helped a little, but it was still nerve-wracking to wake up and see a tricorder so close to her neck. The memory of her almost smacking his hand away replayed itself in her mind as she felt the turbolift slow down.

The turbolift doors opened, and Zade took a breath as she exited and made her way to Engineering. Arguably, her urge to protect her throat was justifiable, but why did her body have to act... scared? She hated it, the actual source of her fear was well into the past, yet her hands still trembled. There were many other, worse things to be scared of. Seeing the double doors around the corner, Zade took in another breath and pushed down her thoughts. No time for worrying over some silly weakness.

The doors parted, greeting the Trill with busy people moving around. Surely her implant wasn't the only tech affected by the radiation. A sigh escaped Zade's lips as the activity slammed into her already overwhelmed senses. Waving down an engineer, Zade typed on the PaDD before turning it around, the word "KEATING?" written on the screen.

"Ah," Kimeron read the sign and then turned around, quickly spotting Finn busily working around the warp core. "CHIEF," he yelled loud enough to catch her attention. Finn raised a brow, curious as to why the security officer had graced engineering with her presence, and said a silent prayer in hope that Teyo hadn't gotten into more trouble.

"Please tell me you're not here to tell me one of my engineers is in the brig," Finn pleaded as she approached Zade.

Giving a small nod of thanks to the engineer, Zade turned to Finn and gave a smile that held subtle tension. How did she not notice the chief from such a short distance away? To Finn's question, she gave a shake of her head before putting up a finger, asking her to wait a moment. Turning the PaDD back to face her, Zade then took a moment to type, her lips forming some unheard choice words as the hand she was typing with kept missing letters. Eventually, she typed out what she wanted to say before turning the PaDD around. "YOU DIDN'T SHOW UP. CAN YOU STILL FIX THE IMPLANT?" Giving Finn a second to read it, Zade then held up the small box that held the backup translator, as well as something smaller wrapped in fabric, in her other hand.

"OH! I'm so sorry, everything has been on the fritz since we entered this part of space. I saw your request and immediately got pulled away and forgot," she half lied. It was true that Finn had been busy as hell, but she hadn't forgotten the request. It was more that she had selectively decided not to make the trip to her least favorite part of the ship, hoping that it would just work out without her. "I can fix it. Make yourself comfortable in my office," the engineer pointed to the doors at the side. "I'll set my analysis up to run and then I'll be right there to fix it."

With a nod, Zade walked to Finn's office with slight haste. Anything to be out of the barrage of noise that felt like it was starting to push at her senses from all sides. She entered and shut the door behind her, a breath of relief leaving her lips as the engineering noises became quiet murmurs through the walls. Breathe, she reminded herself, standing just on the other side of the door. She recognized the sensation of being overwhelmed, namely a faint ringing in her ears, pressure on her head, and tingling in her fingers, and took a couple slow breaths to try and ease the feeling.

Realizing she didn't want to be bumped into when Finn showed up, Zade grabbed one of the chairs in the office and eased herself into it, her fingers fidgeting with the implant wrapped in fabric. The PaDD and the backup translator were nestly stacked on the desk, and after the Trill took a seat she stared at a plump yet spiky plant on Finn's desk. While she knew that engineering had no obligtion to help her with the implant in sickbay, this was the second time she ever had to walk to engineering just to get it fixed. While surprised, she understood why Finn remained in engineering, especially after the events with the Avalon unfolded.

Finn walked back in just moments later, after having set up her own automated test to run. "Sorry to leave you hangin'. This should be relatively quick though," the engineer smiled. "I happened to have done some research with Ki, of all people, on the mayhem this space is causing," she held a tricorder to the device and a satisfied smile crept on her face as the data she expected actually scrolled on the screen. "So I think we can fix it pretty easily." A small tuning device found its way into the engineer's hand next and a lighted beam emanated onto the translation box from the tuning instrument. Less than five minutes passed by before Finn announced that the task was completed. "Try it now," she prompted the security officer.

Zade gave a slight smile when Finn entered, and watched her work in silence after she handed the engineer the backup translator first. Once that was fixed, then it would be easier to communicate. She didn't realize how long five minutes was until she couldn't really do anything to occupy the time. When Finn spoke up again, the Trill turned to the backup translator on the desk and signed. "Here's a sentence to test the translator," the device repeated back. Turning a little toward Finn, Zade added, "wow, that research paid off. I think that was faster than last time. Hopefully the implant itself is easy to fix. I think that got more damaged from the radiation." She held out the small device wrapped in cloth.

Finn motioned for her to set it on the desk and then immediately went to town with the tricorder, gaining additional data. Though slightly more damaged, the repair was very doable. "I can't say these won't fail again as long as we're in this area of space, but hopefully these repairs will work until we're in a better area," she said. The new few minutes remained relatively quiet. Since her capture, Finn hadn't been much for small talk or general conversation, focusing instead on work. Work was easy and took less of any sort of emotional toll. "Done," the engineer waived her hand towards the device indicating for Zade to pick it back up and try it out.

While the silence was a little uncomfortable, Zade didn't necessarily mind it. Her ears were still slightly ringing, and quiet was what she needed. She did notice that Finn was quieter than usual, and made a note to see what was going on later. When the engineer finished, Zade accepted the small device and paused before looking at the tools on the desk. "This one is a little trickier to test," the backup translator repeated. "It has pre-recorded phrases that need something small to activate. May I?" She gestured to a tool with a small pointed end.

"Of course."

Picking up the tool, Zade pressed a small button on the side of the implant.

"Didrea Zade, Lieutenant, serial delta phi zero six two one one seven two nine," came her voice from the implant. It then ran through a series of internal checks. "Primary memory core: online. Audio processor: online. Power supply: 90 percent efficiency. Data files: restored."

Zade sighed in relief before turning to Finn. "Thank you, you're a lifesaver," the device on the desk translated as the Trill gave her a smile. "You know how hard it is to get around without saying a word?"

The standard name rank and serial number spiel unexpectedly hit Finn like a ton of bricks. It was the same engrained phrase she had used when she and Tolbarr were first in the cell. It was what she stuck to while her friend was senselessly tortured. Zade's voice ringing through pulled her back to reality, yet the thoughts still lingered in the edge of her mind. The engineer awkwardly chuckled in response and quickly tried to pull her words together. "I can't imagine, it must have been awful. Sorry again for not showing up in sickbay. If you have any other issues please feel free to stop by again," she hastily tried to shoo the security officer out.

There was a sudden tension in Finn's body language that caught Zade's attention, but before she could ask she was practically being shoved out the door. "Will... do." She stared for a moment at the door to her office that shut very quickly behind her, trying to figure out what just happened. The Trill recognized that tension from her own experiences, but the engineer clearly didn't want to talk about it right now. And frankly, Zade wasn't in the mood for chatting herself. Perhaps time would help.