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

(snip)

Roman smiled. “I’m sure she’d be happy if it dropped like it did earlier.” He put his arm around her when she leaned down, putting her hand on his chest like she had earlier. “I’m glad you’re back.” He didn’t want to say it took a long time and make her feel bad, she was doing her job.

She laughed a little, Shrine might like his heart rate to drop that low, she just may not tolerate what caused it to drop like that. She leaned closer when he put his arm around her. She smiled when he said he was glad she was back, “Me too.” She had to fight with herself not to rush. Rand always worked fast, but she found herself rushing and had to slow down because that created mistakes. She breathed slowly with him for a moment and then figuring Shrine could yell at her later, she kissed him.

With Rand next to him as she kept her breathing slow his began to follow, helping him to relax. But it was only a moment before she leaned in and kissed him. Like before, his heart rate shot up while they kissed and then a few moments after, dropped. Roman smiled. “Worth getting it from Shrine, then?”

Rand smiled back at him. “If it makes you feel better, it will be worth it.” Keeping an eye on his monitors, Shrine saw his heart rate shoot up and had headed into his room. She stopped short, eye brows raised at the scene in front of her and then disappeared back out the door, before she ever really entered. Well now, it’s about time those two got their heads on straight. Though she and Elbbirt would never gossip, they had a quiet bet going on how long it would take Alden and Rand to figure out what was so glaringly obvious to everyone else. Good for them. But if they kept that up she’d have to put a stop to it…oh maybe not…he’s heart rate was lowest it had been in a few hours. Wasn’t that interesting?

“I’m sorry it took so long. Franks did okay with the reports but he’s not familiar with all of them. He asked about both of us. I told him your muscle wasn’t sprained but tore and would require a few days to heal completely. I think he feels bad, he kept muttering about over night landing teams should have a mandatory medical officer, no matter the mission. It’s a good idea.” She turned to pull the chair closer and sat down. “Franks had just finished feeding all the animals. Mr Wyvern stopped eating long enough to lunge at me as I passed by, one of the Chinzilla’s babies was fighting with her over the food, and I think Franks or Veatch cleaned the goo lizard’s tank, the water looked really clean. Mushu wasn’t moving much except his eyes…they looked like they might spin around fast enough to lift him into the air. He was tracking the flies and crickets in this cage, and Nibbles was stashing food in her nest.” She told him about the rest of her work, more to make him forget where he was than that he needed to know. Anything he might also need to know later as XO, that depending on the meds she might need to tell him again. She did NOT tell him about the request she’d made that was arriving over night.

Rand was telling him about her work and all the going-ons of the ship, including his labs. He listened with interest. He hadn’t been able to check on anything. He’d gone straight from the planet surface to Sickbay. He felt like he was in isolation. It gave him something to think about besides where he was. The meds were making him feel a little out of it, it helped that the pain killers were still low dose.

He hadn’t made it through the reports, and she had a feeling it was because of being in sickbay. She nodded at the screen, “The meds always make it hard for me to focus my eyes. I could read them for you and take notes?” It would be a bit of normalcy for him. She’d save them and then they could sign them later after he was off the meds.

Rand

Roman turned the computer console toward her. “Alright, here. I couldn’t focus on them.” He couldn’t sign them but at least she’d help him go over them like she usually did. It was much later in the day than usual, but at least he’d feel like he was doing something.

~ Roman

Rand pulled the computer over a little bit and sat up, to make it easier to type, but she was still close enough he could keep his arm around her if he wanted to. She started with the biology lab and the reports on the animals; that was something she knew they were both interested in. The notes were very bland which was disappointing to Rand. She knew hers were a bit on the ‘flowery’ side but she was sure they were fine. She’d just missed the animals and wanted all the details not just the ‘lab notes’. Then she read the rest of the notes from there. She moved on methodically to the general planetary science lab, general astrological science and stellar cartography. Those notes were fairly interesting to Rand. That was the day they had arrived at Kelmao and they had gotten more in depth scans of the system than the probes had. Rand didn’t know what it all implied or indicated but she found it interesting anyway. And then finally, she read the mechanical and computer science lab’s notes. She did not understand a word of it. She found herself stopping to go back and read previous information trying to make sense of it all. That probably wasn’t helping Roman so she focused on maintaining the flow. As she read she input any notes or comments he made.

Rand

Roman listened as she read through the reports, commenting occasionally. The animal notes weren’t as detailed as usual but more typical for lab notes and didn’t surprise Roman. Then she went on to planetary science and he occasionally explained part of it to her. Mechanical and computer sciences weren’t his area but because he’d been a CSO for enough years he knew enough to know what the reports said, but had no extra comments on them. He noted a few of the reports that he would send back for correction, but technically, he couldn’t do that off duty.

~ Roman

Rand stared the reports that Roman wanted corrected. She also made a note to see if Franks had already sent them back. He was almost as strict about reports as Roman was. The problem was Franks didn’t review anyone’s reports but his own. She’d double check. Being his first time as aCSO he might miss it or he might be hyper aware and send everything back. She turned to the next set of reports. The notes on the animals were much more detailed and more embellished than what even Rand did. Scott had been doing the notes. Rand was surprised she hadn’t run into Scott, now that she thought about it. The other labs notes returned to their work they had been focused on before Kelmao. They had no new projects while they were gone on whatever side assignment Sentinel had been given. They made it through the rest of the reports from the three days they were gone. The only interesting thing was a piece of equipment in stellar cartography malfunctioned. No injuries and no one at fault, but the equipment would have to be replaced. Rand made a note to get the requisition form filled out.

She was starting relax and that meant her stress level was down and that meant she was getting tired. Roman was okay, the surgery had gone well and other than his own anxiety things seemed to be progressing. She knew he had to be tired. Sleep had been illusive on Kelmao and his body had to be physically exhausted from the injury and surgery. Shrine had come and gone a couple of times, and said it would be a few hours before the next session. Rand squeezed his hand. “If you’re tired we can stop. I know it seems impossible, but I’ll be right here if you want to try and sleep a little.”

Rand