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Side Sim: Memories One - Lieutenant Ruby's Office (Tag: Medical and CO))

Posted Nov. 13, 2022, 11:42 p.m. by Lieutenant Sheleah Ruby (Diplomatic Officer / CNS) (Catt Bennett)

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim: Memories One - Lieutenant Ruby’s Office (Tag: Medical and CO))

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Natasha Knight (Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Memories One - Lieutenant Ruby’s Office (Tag: Medical and CO))

Posted by 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea (Security Officer) in Side Sim: Memories One - Lieutenant Ruby’s Office (Tag: Medical and CO))
Posted by… suppressed (14) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Memories 1

“It was after our annual track meet,” Eghimea explained in her same monotone voice. She was sitting in her favorite chair within Lieutenant Ruby’s office.

There wasn’t anything special about this chair over the other. But for Eghimea, it had just become second nature for her. Each time they would meet, she would walk into the office. Take a moment to allow her eyes to take in her surroundings before taking her seat in the right-side chair. Once settled into her chair, her posture would start off rigid then slowly slip as the conversations would continue. There were times when that military rigidness would snap back, and times when Eghimea simply couldn’t hold it up any longer.

“I remember seeing the families walking with their kids away from the field. The mood was pretty joyous, because there were so many records broken that day. So many promising new cadets. So many people were happy, so many but not my father….” Eghimea continued as she described the events that unfolded over a decade ago.

The blow rang out, leaving a thunderous ringing in Eghimea’s ear and a sharp stinging on the side of her head. The blow knocked her off balance as she toppled to the ground. “Did you think I wouldn’t be able to tell,” her father, Commander Laju Buln, barked.

“He was so angry with me,” she said trying to hold back the frown. “He was accusing me of intentionally allowing someone to beat me in one of the races….” Her frown slipped through as she looked down slightly, “it wasn’t just any race. It was one I was highly favored to excel at….”

Stepping forward as he drove his foot into her side. The blow sent the air in her lungs exploding out of her mouth. “Is that what the Prophets want for us. To be less than what they have in store for us,” he continued to bark at her while kicking her again. “Is that what the Emissary has taught us!

She shifted slightly in her chair, “I know why he was mad at me. Being a Laju was completely different than any other family in Kendra. We all lived under those expectations that were formed during the war….”

As she struggled back to her hands and knees, he kicked her in the side again. “Damnit Eghimea! How many times have I told you. Bajor stands on her own, this was the words of the Emissary himself! The very wishes of the Prophets. She can’t stand if we are too weak to support her. That means pushing ourselves further than our limits! Never giving up!” Driving his foot in to her side again as the anger filled his voice, “and that means never allowing someone to beat us!”

Her left leg started to bounce rapidly as she leaned forward in her chair, “I am not sure what made him angrier, that I lost, or…”

Buln turned to Breeje, “were you aware that she was going to allow that human boy to beat her?”

Eghimea fell silent for a moment, as if unwilling or unable to put her own words to what her narrative story was showing Sheleah. After a moment, her story continued….

Shaking his head, Breeje answered plainly, “no father.” Looking in to her eyes, she could see the disappointment he had for her as he continued, “this was all her own doing.”

There was a slight sad smile that crossed her lips as she looked at Sheleah. There was a sense of darkness in her eyes as she spoke, “never again did I allow anyone to beat me.” From that darkness rose a look of absolute devotion as she continued, “not in races or any other contest. Regardless of the personal cost to myself, I would never disappoint my family or the Prophets again. It was a promise I made to myself that day.”

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

By now Sheleah wished she could say that the manner in which people presented themselves, broken by their upbringing, had ceased to surprise her but, she couldn’t. Who had ever heard of a father doing something like that.

‘Well, there was the klingon culture.’ she thought as she listened and watched Eghimea.

“Disappointment and being disappointed is a part of life though and it’s something you’re going to have to learn to cope with to become a well rounded person. This is an extreme example I’m guessing.”

  • Sheleah, CNS/DO

Eghimea listened carefully as Sheleah spoke. She tried to take in every expression and the slightest of movements as she continued to learn Sheleah’s mannerisms. It had been a few months now, and Eghimea finally felt comfortable speaking to the alien; ‘person’ she corrected herself. Sheleah wasn’t like the other aliens aboard this ship. There was a sense of understanding or maybe that was just her job.

‘What am I to her,’ she wondered of Sheleah’s inner thoughts. ‘What does she see in me,’ Eghimea questioned as she set there for a moment in silence allowing Sheleah’s words to grow.

‘I feel normal,’ Eghimea thought holding herself to the fictitious scale that she assumed Sheleah was using. ‘I am a well-rounded officer,’ her mind continued to work over the statement. A few months ago, Eghimea would have allowed the statement to wash off her back, considering the source of some uninformed alien. But Sheleah was more than just some alien, Sheleah listened to her. ‘Still,’ she continued to wonder, ‘what does she see when she looks at me?’

Speaking in a sincere tone, “I understand how that might seem extreme to you.” She paused unexpectedly, still unsure what to do with Sheleah’s statement. ‘Was this intentional,’ she wondered. Taking in a deep breath, ‘what does she want from me.’ Letting her breath out in defeat, “it’s hard sometimes,” she finally admitted.

She shifted nervously in her chair, “I want to show you that I am a well-rounded person, that I am as normal as you or anyone else is. Often, I find myself confused as to what you want to hear or see from me. Despite my father’s faults, in his eyes, one never had to guess what was expected of them.”

She planted both hands on the arm rests of the chair and pushed herself up and pivoted on her heels. “You said, ‘This is an extreme example I’m guessing’, She said effortlessly perfectly matching the pitch and tone of Sheleah’s statement.

She started to pace between the chairs and where Sheleah was sitting, “am I supposed to defend my father’s actions and explain how this was not extreme. That this was normal for my brother and I,” she pondered. Her perfect monotone voice started to slip as she continued, “but that wouldn’t be the entire truth, nor would it be an excuse by some battered child in defense of their abuser,” she protested shaking her head.

“It wasn’t extreme for us OR the other families where I grew up,” she said almost in a whisper. The sense of sadness in her voice not quite hidden as she continued. “While children in the capital were playing on Federation built playgrounds, we were learning how to use camouflage and maintain phasers that were stolen or bought on the black-market. But we were just as normal as the kids who grew up in the capital.”

She turned to Sheleah bearing not only the wetness in her eyes but the pain on her normally concealed face, “I know it wasn’t right,” she said. Her mind unwilling to pose the question which lingered in her thoughts, ‘Does that also make me not right?’ Her words failed her as she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. The obvious question slipped across her face like some scarlet letter for all to see, and to judge her.

Frustrated, Eghimea flopped back into her favorite chair. Bringing her hands up, her face slipped into their concealing embrace as she whimpered, “I don’t know what you want to hear.”

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

Sheleah had watched Eghimea during all of this allowing her to move about and cry as she needed to. Those things were just as important as her thoughts and words.

“You need to honest and be yourself. You need to find that person and be that person because, that’s the one that is going to survive on this ship”

  • Sheleah, CNS/DO

Eghimea held her face, feeling her hands slowly becoming wet. There were no sobs, or loud crying, just the pain and soft tears. She listened silently as Sheleah spoke and couldn’t believe her ears. ‘Honesty,’ she thought as she mocked at the very word from someone in Star Fleet.

“You speak of honesty,” her pained voice dripped with venom. The same way a wounded animal would lash out at someone trying to help it. Her voice slipped into silence as she rose from her chair. ‘Do I leave,’ she wondered as her emotions ran unchecked. “You have no idea what you are asking or even suggesting,” she said walking towards the door. Her voice filled with the conflict and confusion that was being painted across her face. ‘No, you can’t run from this,’ she reminded herself then stopped halfway towards the door.

She turned half back towards Sheleah as she clinched her fist. Her mind and heart filled with anger that fueled the emotions of her voice. “I have been nothing but honest with everything I do or say with you. It’s not like I can ignore them, even if I wanted to! Each passing moment of my life played before my mind’s eye,” she said as she placed her clinched fist against the side of her head. “Regardless of if I desired to see them or not,” she admitted.

She half laughed and turned to face the wall. Her eyes were filled with the ghostly distorted image of a broken sad woman. Eghimea couldn’t even recognize the woman in the wall. Taking a step towards the wall, she continued, “in my nightmares, I can still see the fear in Doctor Knight’s eyes on my first day aboard.” As she spoke, she ran a finger over the blurred reflection. “You speak of survival on this ship,” she stated then turned her head to Sheleah and asked, “why do I deserve to survive after all that I’ve done?”

The tears returned as her face wore the shame she carried. “I remember the Captain’s words,” she said. Then a moment later recited his words, matching his pitch and tone perfectly, “Do not fail me again.” She fell silent for a moment before adding, “how can I not fail him again,” she snorted.

“I feel as if everything that defined me has been burned away, that I am lost, exiled beyond were even faith can save me,” her tears returned. Her heart continued to pound in her chest as if it would explode, covering the twisted image of the woman in the wall. ‘What a merciful end to a sad creature,’ she thought in pity.

Her voice filled with anger once more as the tears streamed down her face, “truth is, just like the Captain, I failed them.” Hatred filled her mind and eyes as she glared at that sad pathetic woman in the wall.

Her anger rose as her knuckles turned white. “I will keep failing, just like I did them. You want to know what the truth is,” Her emotions rumbled deep within her. That rage drove her heart to such a pounding pace that Eghimea was sure that Sheleah could hear it from across the room. “The truth is,” her voice growing louder as she spoke till it hit a violent scream, “I KILLED THEM!” She lunged at the wall; at the pathetic woman she saw before her eyes.

The impact was as powerful as her scream filled the room. And for all the rage and anger that fueled that attack, the wall was unyielding. Her fist impacted it with the sound of bones crushing under the force. Blood smeared the wall from where her fist landed. She turned and slid down the wall finally sobbing, “I killed them all.” She came to a rest with her back against the wall, and her broken hand resting uselessly next to her. “Everything is hollow, everything has withered,” she whimpered then added, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

By the time Eghimeah had slipped to the floor Sheleah had already put in a silent call to Medical and forwarded a recommendation that Eghimea be put on light duty for a couple of days. Quietly she walked to Eghimea’s side and stood over her.

Eghimea didn’t look up as she heard Sheleah walking over towards her. There were a wave of emotions slamming against her as the storm raged on within her heart. She wanted, ‘no, need’ she thought, ‘I need, something.’ Her mind and heart were in pain and torn. But she couldn’t truthfully say what it was that she needed. When the footsteps stopped just short of her, Eghimea looked up at the woman whom she just ripped her soul apart before. She felt so small and helpless before this woman.

The tears that welled up and ran trails down her face burned her eyes. The only anchor she had to this moment was the building pain from her shattered hand. Her eyes slowly looked downward from Sheleah and to her hand. She could see the blood, the broken bones ripping through torn skin.

“You are second Lieutenant Laju Eghimea and only you know what that means to you. Not to your father, not to any member of your family, or even Captain Knight. I am here to help that person, not to give you your last rites. I will see you again after you’ve had your hand fixed. As of right now, I think you need two days off duty.” she said quietly.

  • Sheleah, CNS/DO

Eghimea continued to look at her hand with grave disappointment growing in her heart. ‘I am Second Lieutenant Laju Eghimea. Member of the Bajoran StarGuard,’ she thought. She allowed her emotions to get the better of her.

Her heart sank even further at Sheleah’s last statement. ‘Two days off duty,’ she silently protested as she shook her head. She couldn’t deny once more how she had failed. ‘I had just been cleared for limited duty last week,’ she thought as the disappointment continued to grow in her heart. While she still wasn’t allowed to carry a weapon, she was allowed to perform limited duty in the Security Office.

She felt, once more like everything she had worked towards had been washed away by another emotional outburst.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. Her voice broken and filled with guilt of failure. Her statement also left the obvious, for failing you, unspoken.

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

In this case Sheleah had a feeling that there wasn’t anything she could say to fix this particular situation so, until medical got there, she brought out the emergency first aid kit and did everything she could to ten to Eghimea’s mangled hand. She had a fleeting thought, glad that Rex wasn’t there that day. He might have taken Eghimea’s action as aggressive.

  • Sheleah, CNS/DO

Eghimea tilted her head to the side as she watched Sheleah kneel next to her with the emergency first aid kit. With her good hand she wiped the tears from her eyes and face. “I was always jealous of my brother,” she said softly. It was a truth that she had never confided in anyone till this moment. “Everyone loved and looked up to him,” she continued. “It bore the legacy of his namesake so effortlessly,” her voice a mere whisper. Her eyes watching as if even ghosts might notice her confession. “I loved him,” she said with a grief filled laugh. “But he made being the perfect officer look so easy,” her eyes shifted down at Sheleah continued to work on her hand. She reached up and touched the side of Sheleah’s face with all the gentleness she could, “please say something,” she begged.

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

“I’m quite certain it wasn’t as easy for your brother as he made it look.” she said softly

Eghimea gave a soft smile to Sheleah as she heard the answer. The words weren’t much from the woman that Eghimea had just bore her heart to. But it was more than enough, and her eyes reflected that as she gazed into Sheleah’s. With a smile on her lips, Eghimea started to open her mouth to utter her gratitude, and just then the door hissed open. Her eyes quickly shifted over to see Doctor Knight walking into the office. Her smile rapidly faded as she pulled her hand back. Eghimea’s masks snapped back in to place as her mouth closed without uttering a word.

“Lieutenant Ruby,” Natasha said seeing the woman kneeling on the floor next to Laju who was propped up against the wall. She let her eyes drift up to the wall seeing the blood smear directly above the woman. Natasha did not rush in but casually took the situation in before taking a step forward.

Eghimea watched the doctor walking up to them. Her anxiety rose with each passing step that drew the Captain’s wife closer. Broken images of their first meeting and the calamity that ensued played out in her memories. From what Eghimea could tell, the Doctor appeared to have similar tense feeling regarding her.

Natasha was tense but more out of trying to snap the pieces of the puzzle that were an injured officer and blood-stained wall than fear for herself or Ruby. This was not the first call to counseling sick bay ever received however calls were exceedingly rare to nonexistent for the most part. . At times people slipped into panic attacks, bouts of depression, or sometimes aggression. It had nothing to do with Ruby’s skill but spoke more to the counselor’s skill in general targeting what needed to be released from the patient’s subconscious.

Natasha did not have the expertise Ruby did in counseling, as a doctor, she did have an extensive psychology background in the most general sense. What she did not need a counseling degree for was to diagnose that self-harm was not normal in any situation. People might throw or kick things in a fit of anger but that was a far cry from the shattered hand she lifted a tricorder to evaluate. The brutality of the injury spoke volumes to Natasha. “Is she under the influence of something,” she asked Ruby as she started to treat the wound on Laju’s hand.

Natasha Knight.

‘Of course, she would jump to that assumption,’ Eghimea thought with a wave of disappointment as her eyes focused on the alien female. The events of that fateful day had left such a taste in her mouth that Eghimea had even stopped drinking alcohol all together. Eghimea was careful to do nothing to trigger the alien, who was now tending to her ruined hand. It was everything Eghimea could to maintain a calm composure. Instead Eghimea was hoping that the telepathic powers she perceived Sheleah were tuned in to her thoughts.

Her eyes shifted to Sheleah as every passing heartbeat felt as if years were slowly passing by. ‘I haven’t touched anything since coming aboard,’ she begged Sheleah in her thoughts. ‘Please believe me.’

Sheleah had stepped back so Natasha could take over the medical side of things.

“The weight of unspoken grief and probably a lot more.”

  • Sheleah, CNS/DO

Eghimea let out a soft sigh of relief and for the first time since she met Sheleah, she knew her trust had been well placed.

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

Running the tricorder over Laju’s hand confirmed what she suspected from her visual inspection. Looking up at Laju, Natasha replied in a neutral tone. “You have a brawler’s fracture. It is when you break the metacarpal bones of the hands which are the bones between the phalanges of the fingers and carpel bones of the wrist. This is one of the common injuries of the hand and while it looks a lot more severe since it is compound, that tends to happen when someone decides to go ten rounds with a bulkhead.” Her verbal narrative of the injury was a normal task and not lecturing in any way. Patients deserved to know what was being done. She could recite this injury in her sleep having acted like a personal physician for Captain’s Fabulous and Chaos at least once a month. It was also one of her more annoying injuries to treat since overwhelmingly the cause was due to someone hitting an object they had no business hitting due to an altered emotional state. Whether the fracture was incurred while under a foreign substance like alcohol, like in Kelly and Dante’s case, didn’t really matter. The injury always resulted in someone losing control of their emotions.

‘It was actually one round,’ Eghimea thought as she watched the dark-haired alien continue to work on her hand. Eghimea knew enough about combat injuries to know what had happened to her hand wasn’t life threatening. Though that didn’t mean this situation couldn’t be serious. Her last run-in with Doctor Knight was the source of endless rumors that still haunt her to this very day. Her eyes moved back from what the doctor was doing to Sheleah, who had taken a step back. There was no doubt in Eghimea’s mind that now with the involvement of the Good Doctor that more rumors would be spawned from this.

“This is something for the pain.” Pulling a hypo out of her pocket, she continued. “It will feel better in about ten minutes after the oseo-knitters begin their work but what lunatic wants to sit around in pain? You should not have any issues but I have to state that if you don’t want to run the risk of having a reduced ability to grip things or a visually deformed hand it goes without saying that you should avoid hitting anything made of solid materials like a wall.”
She reached forward to depress it against Laju’s thigh.

Natasha Knight CMO

Eghimea frowned as she saw the hypo moving from the alien’s pocket. The words from the alien didn’t fall on deaf ears. ‘Lunatic,’ she thought with great disappointment. Fear rose in her mind as she watched the hypo with great focus. Her memory flooded her with the shattered images of what happened the last time someone gave her a hypo. ‘If I let her do what she intends,’ Eghimea thought, ‘I’m not a lunatic.” Her frown deepened as her eyes fell to Sheleah almost pleading her to intervene.

Her first instinct was to grab the alien at the wrist, but she knew what would happen then. Images flashed through her mind’s eyes like a child flipping through holovid channels in search of something. Her eyes jumped back to the Hypo as the panic started to rise within her and forcing her to action.

Without directly touching the alien, she used her good hand to block the hypo, “with all due respect, I’d prefer no drugs.” Her voice calm, flat and while it did show signs of the pain she was in, it also reflected her own determination to her statement.

‘At least it can’t get any worse,’ she thought ensuring that the dark-haired alien honored her request.

Natasha raised an eyebrow and mulled over the request for half a heart beat. “It’s a mild analgesic. You wanna play tough security officer do it on duty or when I am not treating an injury.” Natasha pressed the hypo into the woman’s leg before reaching into her bag and pulling out the osseogenerator.

At that point, the door opened once more and Dante walked in. He only took one step before stopping, his eyes already clocking who was in the room and then coming to rest on the limb that Nat was treating.

“What now?” He asked simply, and the look on his face indicated he wasn’t expecting a long drawn out, long winded explanation.

Captain Knight, CO

‘Then again, it just did,’ she thought as she let out a slight mental sigh. She had little choice but to close her eyes and lean her head back.

  • 2nd Lieutenant Laju Eghimea

“The counselor called me down because of an injury. It’s handled Captain,” Natasha said in a passive voice. She rarely if ever called him Sir. It was only reserved on duty when they were fighting or a marital spat had bled over into duty hours.

Natasha. Knight. Cmo.

“Odd place to be treating an injury, don’t you think Lieutenant Commander?” Dante replied to Nat ignoring her statement that it was handled and looked between Laju and Sheleah. “Concerns, Counselor?”

Captain Knight, CO

Sheleah was used to questions like this and took them very seriously. She knew the Captain would expect a simple well thought out response.

“I believe 2nd Lieutenant Laju reacted poorly in a moment of grief. If she needs to be off duty according to Doctor Knight, then I second the recommendation.”

There was a lot more Sheleah wanted to say but treating this woman’s issues was more complicated then the snapshot he was seeing at the moment. Meeting the Captain’s eyes, she nodded subtly and directed his attention to the blood on the wall.

  • Sheleah

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