Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Flashback- Earth, Starfleet Medical (2386)

Posted by Lieutenant Julien Smith (Doctor) in Flashback- Earth, Starfleet Medical (2386)

(snip)

With a sigh, Ghubari grabbed her crutches and maneuvered herself to a standing position with difficulty. But there was a sense that even if he had offered to help her, she’d have declined. Moving over to the terminal, she tapped in some commands and then turned to face him. “Commander Ghubari Koraia,” she said, giving him a brief bow of her head in greeting.

Julien nodded back. He knew better than to offer her help, he could remember well his own reaction to offers like that. The name sounded familiar, he was sure he had heard it before… had it been on fleet command briefings?

In her file, she was listed as being on Asinolyathin for nerve pain management, ambizine for sleep issues and heparamax to prevent blood clots. It was noted that she recent had targeted heparin treatments for a blood clot that has since dissolved.

With even the quick skim of her file, he’d see that she was noted to have significant nerve damage that made her ineligible for a biosynthetic limb and thus was stuck with a less sophisticated mechanical limb.

“Have fun with that, I’m going to go change,” she said without any further chit chat. “Meet you out front.”

~Commander Koraia, XO on Medical Leave

He nodded and let her go, returning his attention to the file. That nerve damage was nasty and he knew she had a harder journey in front of her than most… like him. She had lost less limbs, but they couldn’t be replaced with better-than-human cybernetics as in his case. If that was a blessing or a curse… he wasn’t sure and didn’t feel like pondering it.

Half Napean, right. The forehead ridge had looked familiar, that meant she might be emphatic if he remembered correctly, which made this even harder for her of course and to top things off she was an XO on medical leave like him. What were the chances. He zoomed out again with his eye and committed her med file to memory, then he shut the terminal down and limped out of the room and out of the building onto the green and flowery grounds of the Starfleet medical complex.

The sun was still shining although it was evening and everything around here looked way to idyllic for his taste. He called a glider for their short trip to the Root Beer Inn which was the local watering hole for officers and waited for her and the glider to arrive.

• Julien

Ghubari appeared a moment later and came to stand next to him on her good leg in a long black skirt that hovered about her ankles and a long black sleeved top that hugged her very fit body. Regardless of the state of her right leg, it was clear the Starfleet officer maintained an above average physical fitness regime, even as an XO- at least until recently. The telling part though was more how she seemed to be struggling to even use the crutches at the moment, even for the short distance from the entrance.

She didn’t say much on the ride over, and it was not difficult to surmise that the woman beside him was a rather private person. Or at least she was under the circumstances. Koraia had always been a reasonably social person and she had enjoyed that sort of reputation on the Cheyenne. It had taken time to cultivate though, since she had come in after the death of the previous XO. But all the desire to make small talk was well and truly lost to her right now even if at the same time she wanted to rage and vent about the injustice of it all. It wasn’t even just one thing, it was all the small things together that made her want to scream. But there were no words right now and silence the only fitting response.

~Commander Koraia, XO on Medical Leave

Julien had no problem with the silence, he thought he knew the reason for it, though when he had been at that point, his old school counselor had called it sulking. That prick. They arrived and it took him some time to get out, then there was this embarrasing moment when his weight was finally off the glider and it seemed to bounce up several inches, as if it was happy to be free of Julien’s considerable weight.

“Man you don’t look that heavy.” the glider driver commented. Julien just gave him an exhausted look, but couldn’t find the energy to be upset about it.
“Yeah yeah.” he just said, standing by as Koraia disembarked, close enough to help, but not offering of course.

They limped in together. There were still a couple of empty tables, though the bar was already quite full and he suggested a table for two a bit to the side. Of course the chair creaked as he sat down and the waiter was there really quickly.

“Hello, so listen, the lady gets a double burbon, straight, on ice, but I would need to use your replicator for mixing my drink, as I have special medical requirements.” he said. The waiter just nodded, so close to Starfleet medical they were used to these kinds of requests and their crutches were hard to miss.

Julien got up again. “Be right back.” he said to her and went with the waiter. Some time later he came back with the waiter carrying two large glasses filled to the brim and while Julien sad down, he put them on the table and left.

Once he was gone Julien switched their glasses and smiled. “It was a wee bit demanding, but this will work, it’s got a liquor basis, more like a cocktail if you like, if you’re a sweet tooth it may be a bit too bitter for you, but I had to make sure there’s no shred of sugar in it. I could give you the details if you like, but it will do the trick.” he said. Then he raised his glass of brown joy to her. “To getting back on the bridge.” he said.

• Julien