Reading Does Not Equal Experience

Posted on Tue Oct 15th, 2024 @ 5:54pm by Ensign Rimal Iska & Lieutenant Ame Solis M.D.

Mission: Character Development
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Between Missions
1671 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"I swear, it's not that bad!" Iska's complaints broke the comfortable silence that engulfed sickbay. His words were quite contradictory when considering why he was in sickbay to begin with. More specifically, his hand on another officer's shoulder as he nearly hopped on one foot made his words less convincing.

Ensign Noub Odee rolled their eyes. "You can't just read a book on how to do something and just know how to do it, Iska. I warned you, but did you listen? No." Guiding him to a biobed, Noub looked around for someone, finding it surprisingly quiet. "Helooo? Is anyone here?" They called out, leaving Iska's side to poke their head around.

Iska hopped near the biobed, his hands on the edge of the padding. "Odee, please shut up! It's really not that bad!" he whisper-hissed.

Ame awkwardly rolled back in her chair to see what the commotion was all about. She leaned far enough around the door to see two junior officers in yellow fussing over a biobed. Her lips pressed together firmly before pulling herself back against her desk and heaving to her feet. “I’d ask if everything was okay but considering that questionable limp and inability to admit that something wrong would suggest that someone did something … questionable and damaged themself as a result?”

Without a second thought, she opened the medical tricorder that was attached to her hip under her blue lab coat. The Bajoran detached the scanner and approached the pair at the biobed. “Are you going to tell me what happened or do I need to get into medical forensics?” She teased with an arched brow looking between them.

Odee turned to the doctor and gave a knowing smile, brushing some of their dark brown hair aside. "Mister Bookworm here decided he knew how to do cool tricks off a one-meter ledge in the holodeck after reading about how to do it. Of course he landed funny, though the execution was admittedly subpar to begin with."

The faint blush that crept onto Iska's cheeks at Odee's explanation was the obvious hint that the other officer was correct. "They're exaggerating... slightly," he grumbled. The front flip was fine, but when he landed his foot was tilted just enough that he kept going, into the ground. "I can still move my toes around, which has to be a good sign, right? I-I don't want to take you away from more important stuff, Doctor."

“A bookworm that does his own stunts? Does that make you acro-lexic? Or just a bad judge of distance?” Ame’s nose screwed up, deepening her ridges. “Books are a great source of knowledge, however maybe next time precautions or lower the impact density whilst you're building up to the grand event.” She moved in to scan his foot up toward his knee.

Her eyes briefly moved back to Odee, “So as I’m new and the one who’ll be reporting the incident and infringement of exercise and physical practices who should I be including in the footers?” Again she teased but there was a little joy in seeing the mental anguish and panic as junior officers contemplated what they had gotten themselves into. “I’m teasing … I don’t need to add panic attacks to the list.”

The Doctor nodded at his assumption, “Yes it is good news, it’s a sprain. Unfortunately, with all the modern wizardry we have in here, these are still rest, ice, compression and elevate. I can indeed give you something for the pain, and swelling.” She transmitted the readings from her tricorder before snapping it shut, returning it to its pouch on her hip.

The series of emotions that ran through Noub felt like a rollercoaster, likely a nauseating one for any unfortunate empaths in the vicinity. Transitioning from a prideful 'I told you so' lift of the chin, to the gut-wrenching knowledge that one of them would be included in the incident report, then to a sigh of relief when the doctor confessed to her teasing before confirming that the injury wasn't that bad, left their mind spinning. They pressed their hands into the biobed's edge and leaned forward slightly, "I never knew I could feel so much in twenty seconds..."

Rolling his eyes at Odee, Iska turned his attention back to the doctor. "In my defense, I practiced it on padded floor first." It wasn't his best defense, but the burning in his ears urged him to at least try and justify his lapse in dexterity. "I guess it could be worse though. How long should it take to heal?" he asked her.

Ame stood analysing the pair’s faces, wondering if either of them would name the other.”So I’ve got Odee and…” She trailed off moving over to a replicator and adjusting some details before something materialised. Her fingers forced the stiff fabric open and attempted to stretch it out, a little at least. “At least I know I’ve left an impression on you.” She winked at Odee and returned to the biobed.

“It shouldn’t take more than a week to heal completely, a lot of this also comes down to you. Rest it when you can and apply ice. If you tell me your name I can make sure you have access to one of these.” She waved the small holey sock at him. “It’ll help support and give you a way to cool your ankle. I know it's awkward but if you’re off duty, lift your ankle slightly, a folded pillow will do fine.”

She kept the support in her hands waiting for both a name, “Try to keep Acro-lexical studies to a minimum, otherwise I’ll be seeing you much sooner than you’d like. Would you like a painkiller to keep the edge off it the first few days?” Her eyes narrowed at him and looked back to Odee. “He’s not going to try and power through it is he?”

"Iska," the Bajoran answered sheepishly. When the doctor then explained his new responsibilities, he felt like he was being put into timeout. "A week??" Iska exclaimed, before giving an exaggerated groan.

Noub rolled their eyes at Iska's response before addressing the doctor. "He might, but I can always tell on him to his boss," they answered with a teasing grin.

Briefly shooting Noub a glare, Iska then turned to the doctor. "I'm good without painkillers. I'm not on sick leave or anything, right? The security chief always has desk work that needs to be done, data entry and whatnot."

“Well, Iska, I’m Doctor Solis.” She smiled and handed over the most unattractive mesh compression boot Starfleet Medical could offer. “Unfortunately where you overstretch something to the point where you can barely walk on it, the ligament needs to recover. You’re not on bed rest, but you should take it easy. Stay off exercise outside walking and running for your life in the event of an emergency.”

Ame swivelled herself around looking for a PADD to assign the boot to his replicator authorisation, smirking at Odee’s mention of telling the boss. “Now that’s a true friend, ratting them out. I can let the Lieutenant know that way the burden doesn’t fall to you unless there’s a gloat in there too?” Her eyes narrowed playfully.

“No sick leave needed. But don’t try and soldier on, you can barely walk. I saw you hop your way in here. You’re lucky I have to ask, decades ago I wouldn’t give you the choice.” Her head tilted, “Security, right? I’m sure Lieutenant Zade can assess your abilities, I don’t know what her roster is … light duties nothing too pacey.”

The compression boot was unfortunately too bulky to hide under the uniform pants. Iska knew that a couple of his peers would give him a hard time for it. "Yes, ma'am," he answered, resigning to his fate.

The Doctor’s eyes shifted to Odee again, “Does he always look like a sad puppy?” Her arms folded across her chest and flared out the sides of her lab coat. “Look, if you want to slowly warm it up, and you’re not objecting to water you could do some hydrotherapy. There’s a holodeck program for a hydrogen-saturated therapy pool in the database. It’s recommended for 30-minute sessions 4 hours apart but that’s not really going to be possible when you’re on duty, however, two, would still help.”

There wasn’t much more Ame could offer, a sprain was still a sprain no matter how advanced things were.

Noub gave the doctor a shrug. "I think he just looks pathetic whenever he's in sickbay." They jumped back when Iska swatted at them, a little smirk spreading across their face as the teasing worked to get under the Bajoran's skin.

Rolling his eyes, Iska turned his attention to getting the boot on, a blush creeping onto his face as he realized it looked even dorkier now that it was on his leg. "Anything to get this thing off sooner," he replied to the doctor.

Ame did her best not to chuckle at Odee’s comment. She always felt bad for the younger crew, who seemed to wallow: “Good, hopefully, I won’t see you too soon. If you need pain meds, come back, and someone will sort you out.”

With a resigned nod, Iska shimmied off the bed, testing the boot while he had the support nearby. It helped, and allowed him to bear weight, but he still had a limp. "Thanks, doc," he said, before turning to Odee, who looked like they were trying not to laugh. "You shut it!"

Noub raised their hands in surrender, an amused smirk on their face. "Not a peep," they promised. "Let's hobble out of here." The dark-haired officer grinned and stayed out of arm's reach of the not-nearly-as-amused Bajoran as the two exited sickbay.