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

(snip)

Roman smiled and shook his head. Randy was good at keeping things secret. Then he looked up at her. “No one knows?” He sort of liked that no one knew. No one would be trying to see him or asking him questions about why and what happened. But it wouldn’t stay a secret. He was going to be recovering for too long for it to be a sprain or pulled muscle like they’d thought on Kelmao. And the amount of padding and bandages on it would be excessive for anything other than a major surgery on it. Not only that, but Captain Rogers was going to need to know why exactly her first officer was off duty for at least the next week.

“The medical staff involved in the surgery know, and of course Dr. Haadok, and I’m sure Cpt Rogers knows. Or she will when she gets the departmental report. But no one else.” She understood the need for privacy and keeping things quiet. “I…I thought…maybe you could say the muscle was torn instead of sprained. That would probably explain the extra time off and the dermal regenerator. I mean…Elbbirt was a bit excessive about my foot, people would believe it.” She was making up a lie for him, to make him feel better, and she’d sell it too. No one would doubt her when she told them - if she told them. Randy heard of course and thought it wasn’t a bad idea. It was amazing how much medical knowledge Rand retained from helping him study. What was also amazing was the calming effect she was having on Alden. Despite her own high strung tendencies she was good for his health apparently.

Roman nodded in approval to the idea. It sounded plausible, and then he wouldn’t have to tell anyone. He wouldn’t feel expected to talk about it when he didn’t want to. Anyone who knew him would wonder why he didn’t insist on recovering in his quarters but that was easy for two reasons. He had to be in Sickbay for the regenerator, and he could say he was ordered to stay. It wasn’t technically untrue. It also wasn’t technically true, he hadn’t pushed Elbbirt that far, but he might as well have.

He smiled as she kissed his cheek. “Franks will do fine managing the labs. I’ve been working with him, he’s to be temporary CSO if for some reason I can’t be.” Either because of his XO duties or something like this, something happened to him, Franks would be in charge. It made it easier, because then everyone knew who to go to if Roman wasn’t there. He was clearly more awake than he had been before. He sounded clearer, his responses taking less time. And he was moving around more, mostly just his arms and head but his movements didn’t look so sluggish.

~ Roman

“I’ll check on him and the paperwork, so you don’t have so much waiting.” She laid her forehead against his arm for a moment, just because. Maybe because her adrenaline was dropping now that he seemed better. Randy came over hearing Alden shifting around. “Let’s sit you up a bit. Slowly, we don’t want your blood pressure to drop going too fast. Might make Elbbirt keep you here longer. Let me lift you, we don’t want to shift your leg and the regenerators not be lined up correctly.” Randy lifted him carefully and then watched his vitals for a few minutes. Then repeat until Alden was inclined by 45°.

Rand

Roman slid his own head over a little so it was next to hers while she had her head on him. Another moment later, Randy was headed back over to them. He had been about to protest that he could sit himself up, and that would be evident from the look on his face, but the last thing he wanted was Elbbirt to decide he needed to stay even longer. Randy sat him up little by little, pausing every so often to look up at the biobed’s readings of his vitals for several minutes. Roman found it to be an irritatingly slow process. But when he tried to sit up more than Randy was moving him at a time, the soreness in his body protested and his heart rate went up. He decided to wait for Randy to sit him up after that. Finally, he was at a forty five degree angle and he had a better, more comfortable view of the room. “What happens if the regenerators aren’t lined up correctly?” He asked.

~ Roman

As he tried to sit himself up and the monitors went a little nuts with his heart rate Rand glared at him. She wasn’t comfortable enough, even with just Randy around, to say anything out loud, but she was thinking all kinds things about how he needed to be still. Once Randy had him settled she tried not to fuss with his pillow or over him. Randy was going to tease her endlessly for how she was acting. As long as it was only Randy she could handle it.

“The regenerators have to be programmed, to help stimulate the right type of tissue growth. So your muscles are multi-layered and each layer goes in a different direction. So right now it’s working on a specific layer, you move and that layer…it doesn’t grow right.” Put two finger next to each other touching, side-by-side, and then he made one go off in a crooked direction, then the next followed, and again. “So you end up with tissue that won’t work right because the muscle didn’t heal and grow like it should. It’s not connected right. In the end, instead of looking like a brand new skein of yarn it looks like a three year old and a kitten got together and yanked and pulled and knotted the skein in a marvelous display of child delight…and then tried to shove it all back in the paper wrapper before Grandma catches you. Then that means Elbbirt has to go back in and remove the ill formed tissue, and we start over.”

Rand thought that sounded sickening. She had been looking at Randy while he talked and now she turned to look at Roman. “You are staying still, I don’t care how much you don’t like it.”

Rand