Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Study of Kelmao
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Rand nodded, “I did. It’s really not surprising. The ground I was running on wasn’t really ground, was it? It wasn’t slippery squishy mud, there was nothing underneath it at all. And it was collapsing as I was moving. It is most probably twisted and sprained. We don’t have a medical tricorder, but nothing feels broken. The cold compress seems to be helping.”

Roman nodded, looking relieved. “That’s good. It will heal quickly, I’m sure.” Applying the cold to his leg, either the ice packs or the compress, was painful in that he had to jostle it slightly to get them placed correctly. But after a few minutes, he had found a way to make it more comfortable. He hoped the ice would help.

Rand nodded, but looked worried. It was the foot she’d broken, and she knew that reinjury could talk longer to heal. Luckily, she hoped, it wasn’t broken so not the same type of injury. “As long as there is no bone fuser involved.” He was keeping something from her, she wished he would tell her, but at the same time she recognized that maybe she was worrying over nothing because of how she felt about him. After he finished, Rand replaced her own cold compress. Taking the bandage off, it was obvious she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. It was swollen almost like a grapefruit and it was several different colors. Once her boots had been removed the swelling had started and it got worse as heat and feeling and blood had started to flow again. There was no way she was getting a shoe back over that ankle.

Roman could tell she looked worried. The creases around his eyes returned, showing his own worry for her. It looked painfully swollen. “I’m sure it wasn’t rebroken,” he said reassuringly. “A sprain will take less time to heal than the break did.”

She ate quietly, they’d both fallen asleep before Harvey had finished cooking. From what Morgan said, Rand and Roman were the lucky ones. Putting the bowl aside when she was done she pointed to the control box for the cameras. There was another small case. “Harvey left a drone outside, and that’s the control She said it’s made to go in the air and water. The ground is too unstable to walk to the river, but you could use it to get samples and vids of any aquatic life in the river.”

Yeoman Rand

He picked up the control box for the camera, looking at the present feeds. Nothing was there, not yet. He wanted to be out on the planet, looking for things himself. The camera was a useful tool but unfulfilling to him as the only means of exploring the planet surface. The drone was a little more interesting to him, but still he preferred to observe things with his own two eyes. Still, he was grateful they’d set them up at all. They could’ve left him with the samples to label. Picking up the oatmeal, he started nibbling it.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand watched him while she tried to straighten up, just a little. Finally she sighed, “Roman you look like I just told you your whole life will be nothing but paperwork and I’m not going to help you.” She managed to scoot her way over next to him. “I know you would rather be out there yourself. But we both know, wild animals are skittish, the won’t come out till you are long away from the area. You’d be setting up cameras and watching through the camera anyway. And you would never allow anyone to go diving in the river or lake, so the drone is your best option for the equipment we have.” She squeezed his hand and held onto it a moment. She wasn’t worried about anyone coming back. They hadn’t commed and no one wanted to startle Rand and then her accidently shoot them with the phaser Morgan gave her.

Truth be told, Rand wasn’t sure she was really excited about being on the alien planet anymore. If it hadn’t been for the pain meds, she probably wouldn’t have slept. The previous days events had her rattled. She thought about what Randy had given her before they’d left. She hoped neither she nor Roman would need it. “Come on, if we’re careful, and use the cave wall for support, maybe we can sit right outside and you can make some ‘eyes on’ observations.”

Yeoman Rand

Roman still wanted to be there. Desperately so. Dangerous or not, he loved it too much. Things like the day before had happened before and would again. It wouldn’t have been so bad if his leg hadn’t given out. But nothing could be done about that either.

Rand moved next to him and Roman listened to her. He felt like someone told him he’d have a mountain of paperwork every day for the rest of his life. She was right, again. The cameras were a normal part of his routine when it came to these types of studies. And letting anyone dive into water filled with who-knew-what was way too dangerous.

She squeezed his hand, and that always made him feel better, but he was still put out he couldn’t go anywhere. Then she offered him a compromise and he looked back to her hopefully. At least then he’d be out in nature. Not in a dank, dark cave. “Alright. We’ll move slow and I’ll stay right against the entrance,” he promised.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand slowly pulled herself up, and using the cave wall to balance herself made her way to the entrance. It took a bit to get the equipment moved, along with themselves. Since they were already moving, Rand took a set of rations and plenty of water with them. No need to have to move again. Her ankle throbbed but it wasn’t nearly as painful as it had been when she woke up the first time.

Not wanting to ask Rand for help for fear of hurting her ankle, Roman leaned heavily against the wall of the cave. Using his left leg and the wall for support, he rose slowly. He could not rise fully to his feet without using his right leg. His earlier plan of attempting to stand like normal would not have gone well. Painfully, and with the support of leaning on the wall, the leg held. He grabbed the camera box and the drone controls and headed to the entrance of the cave. His pace was slow, leaned against the wall, limping. He settled into a grass patch at the entrance of the cave, his back against the stony wall. He stretched his right leg out gently, laying it flat against the ground.

Sample cases had been set by the door, as the rest of the team worked, so as to not enter and wake them. Franks figured the best thing for them was sleep. So while Roman played with the cameras and the drone, Rand had plenty of samples and data tapes to go through. After awhile, their stillness payed off. Small mammals and avians started to appear. Rand picked up her communicator to let the rest know. They were okay and Cmdr Alden asked them to stay gone for a bit so he could finish his observations. Being near the stream seemed to pay off, as different animals come for water, but then had to find safer ways to get to it after the sink hole. As long as they were quiet the animals didn’t seem to take much concern with them.

Yeoman Rand

It took time not moving his leg for the pain to subside once again to the level it had been at when he woke up. Roman worked quietly, setting up the cameras so he could see the feed without moving, and then using the drone controls to get a better look at the forest and lake. He used his communicator to remind Franks to get a sample of the water. It was a needless reminder, but he felt the need to do it. Soon, with their stillness at the edge of the cave, the wildlife returned. Birds chirped in the trees, though they looked little like the avians found on Earth. With the same basic shape and body structure, they used similar sounds to communicate, but their beaks were different, their colors unlike any Earth bird. Their feathers didn’t look quite the same, either. There was a diverse set of small mammals, about the size of mice and squirrels. In a notepad he had brought with him from the ship, Roman wrote his observations.

While he worked Rand pulled an ear piece out of a small compartment in her PaDD and put it in. She listened to the recordings from the tricorders while she labeled and sorted samples. It was paperwork, and she found that she was actually distracted. She was watching what Roman was doing with the cameras and drone. She was soaking it up, getting to watch him work. And then once the animals started appearing she was too busy watching them. She didn’t make mistakes, but it took her longer to finish.

After awhile it was difficult to be still, Rand’s ankle was starting to throb. She changed the compress again, and it helped but not enough. Looking over at Roman she could see it was the same for him. Except he was gritting his teeth and his breath was quietly hissing through his clenched jaw as he forced his leg to be still. She reached into the med kit she’d placed by the cave entrance and the placed a hypo on the ground between them. “Anti-inflammatory, not pain meds.” She looked at him, nervous and worried, and her voice didn’t sound as firm as she wished it would. “I’ll take it if you do.”

Roman glanced at the hypo like it was a dose of poison. He wasn’t sure it would help him. It might. It depended on what was really wrong with his leg. He wanted to deny the medicine on principle. If one did not need medication, one did not need to visit Sickbay. It was one of his ways of avoiding Sickbay, denying there was a problem. Less pain without the sleepy effects of the pain meds would be nice. He’d been trying to ignore it, as he had since his leg had started acting up, but the pain was worse now than it had been back on the ship. He didn’t want to use any if it wouldn’t be effective.

Rand watched as he didn’t take it. Fine. She was frustrated, she knew she needed the medication, and with the swelling in his leg, so did he. But she absolutely would not take it if he didn’t. Then he would think this self destructive behavior was okay, and it was not. He thought he was stubborn, he obviously hadn’t gone up against Rand yet. As long as nothing triggered her anxiety. And that was right over the nearest cliffs ledge, she could feel it. She added another icy cold strip to her foot.

Roman was wearing a pair of athletic shorts for the easier access to the injury. His scar began just below his hip, and ran down until a inch and a half or two inches above his knee, not quite on the outer side of the thigh, but not quite fully on the front of it, either. In the regular pants he wore with his uniform or jeans, the area wasn’t really accessible or visible unless the pants were removed.

Last night, it had looked exactly the same as always, but now with the swelling in the area the scar looked a bit pink. The darkened skin caused by burns surrounding the scar stretched with the swelling. The surrounding skin had turned a pinkish red from the irritation and inflammation. It looked, like Rand had said, nearly twice the normal size it should have been.

Roman suspected there had been an injury when he fell, causing the swelling, but the weakness in his leg and the majority of the pain were caused by a problem that existed before yesterday. He found himself sure it wasn’t broken. Despite the crippling pain the night before, it would have been worse if it were broken, and it would feel no better by now.

He wished she would simply take the medication herself, but like the night before, if he withheld, she appeared to plan to do the same. It was frustrating to him. He did not want to use a dose of it, but with the look of that ankle he was sure Rand wanted to. He’d met his match in stubbornness, that much was sure. If he didn’t care so much, if it were anyone else, it was a battle she’d never win. But Roman could not watch her be in pain simply because he did not like taking medications. Once again, he folded. But before he did… he couldn’t shake the feeling he needed to tell her that the pain started before yesterday.

Roman’s guilt over his dilemma had not diminished. His observations of the world around him could only take his mind off it for so long. He paused for a long moment, setting his pencil down. With the same look he’d worn earlier that morning, he checked that none of the others were within earshot with a look around the area. Then, he turned to her and blurted the words before he could talk himself out of it: “I don’t think twisting it is the problem.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Rand stopped the recording she was listening to and put the ear piece away and carefully put the sample back in the case. She turned carefully to look at him. She started to take his hand, hesitated, and then grabbed it anyway. “I…I thought maybe something else was wrong. I…I wasn’t sure I was supposed to ask.”

Yeoman Rand

Roman looked… ashamed, maybe. Guilty for sure. He was happy when she took his hand. The words did not want to come out, but it was time to come clean. “It’s been a problem since before the mission, before the orders even came through. If it hadn’t already been… not good, it may not have given out like it did. It twisted because it was already weak.” He looked uncomfortable, sort of like he did the first time he told her he couldn’t sleep. He shifted in his spot, partially due to pain, partially out of his discomfort with the situation.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

“I know you hate sickbay, and on the ship you can get away with just dealing with it. I understand why you didn’t say anything.” She laced her fingers with his. She breathed in slowly trying to decide how or what she should say. “We don’t have that luxury here. And just the two of us here, pain meds are dangerous and have to be used sparingly.” She was trying to remember all those tests she helped Randy study for. “Pain can make us just as tired and muddle-headed as pain medication. We can’t afford to be a liability. It is our responsibility to take care of ourselves correctly.”

“Do you know what anti-inflammatories are for?” It was a rhetorical question, of course he did. She knew there was a very good chance she was going to cross a line, make him upset, or worse - make him angry with her. But it had to be said. Better her than the team. Better him reluctantly set the example and the team trust him to make the right decision, even if he didn’t want to. “To calm parts of the body that are inflamed or swollen. They may not kill the pain, but they reduce the swelling so the body can heal itself. Then we are back on our feet faster.”

Yeoman Rand

“Pain meds always muddle my head more than the pain,” Roman argued stubbornly. His voice was calm as always, but that was what he hated most about them. He always felt so out of it on them. He didn’t particularly like taking any medication unless he had to, and after his avoidance of Sickbay had started, it had become near impossible to convince him he had to. He had yet to replace his cold treatments. He removed the warm strip of cloth and added a new, cold one. The feeling of cold was uncomfortable, but brought some amount of relief.

He was looking at her, listening to what she had to say. It was obvious she had upset him, mostly because he felt cornered in a way. He averted his gaze uncomfortably. “I… I know.” He squeezed her hand slightly. “I’ll take it.”

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO