The Universe is a Better Place with You In It

Posted on Tue Jul 4th, 2023 @ 4:53pm by Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral

2,466 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Icarus Files
Location: Ship’s Lounge
Timeline: MD2- Early Evening BACKPOST

It had been another slow day in Sick Bay. This was good as it meant nobody was sick or injured, but it was bad because it meant they’d had nothing to do except triage drills. Nobody enjoyed triage drills, Jayla included. She had gotten out of this one by being a ‘patient.’

This evening called for relaxation.

The ship’s bar didn’t have very many people in it, but it was enough for a socialite like Jayla. She could mingle with two other people and be completely happy; and in case nobody was about, she brought a PADD to keep her occupied until someone else showed up. She needn’t have worried, though- the place was fairly full. She ordered a drunken cocoa- hot chocolate with a shot of rum- at the bar and while she waited for the drink, took a better look at who was there. She recognized a couple of her nurses and gave them a little wave. But she had just spent all day with them and anyway, it looked as if they were on a date. Scanning further, she spotted Aarix on his own near the windows. Once her drink was delivered, she headed over.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked, indicating the empty chair across from him.

It had been some time since Aarix had confronted Finch about the broken FELINE and altering the ship's computer so it responded with profanity whenever it was asked for the intel chief's whereabouts. It had been less time since he discovered the vandalism burnt into the wall by what looked like a FELINE's plasma torch. He had assigned another engineer to the task of replacing that part of the wall, but not without sending an image of it to Commander Tusalo with a detailed recap of his conversation. He'd let the first officer deal with the man, because otherwise he'd likely send Finch to sickbay with several broken bones.

Aarix looked up from his PaDD when he heard a familiar voice. Huh, what a weird coincidence to be thinking about sickbay when she showed up. He gestured toward the empty seat, "all yours." Despite his neutral expression, there was a slight tension laced into his voice.

Kij, having several hundred years of experience, knew that tone. “Uh oh,” said Jayla as she sat down, placing the mug in front of her. “Everything okay in Engineering? Silver didn’t break anything, did he?”

"He hasn't broken anything," Aarix replied, watching her sit. "I didn't expect our first couple days out here to be spent fixing the things Finch keeps breaking." If it had been something interesting to fix, a genuine ship problem, then he'd be less salty about it.

“Ugh, Finch,” was Jayla’s reply. “I’ve got him good a couple of times. Smashed one of his cameras and then…” she giggled. “These was this graffiti that he obviously did. I mean, nobody else is that crude. I… graded it.” And she giggled again. “I doubt he’ll see it. No doubt maintenance will clean it up before he notices, but it was still satisfying.”

Aarix let out an annoyed sigh at the mention of the graffiti. The annoyance was somewhat involuntary, but clearly conveyed what was on his mind. The memory of Finch sitting all smug on that stupid throne kept searing itself into his mind, and not by choice. "I sent an image of the graffiti to Commander Tusalo for her to deal with, but I assigned a maintenance team to clean it up. Sorry, he probably didn't see whatever you added."

“That’s okay,” she replied, opening her PADD. “A friend in maintenance took pictures. Finch already has a reputation and apparently, they found it hilarious. Do you want to see my critiques?” she asked mischievously.

"No." The response was quick, and Aarix paused to take a breath. Jayla had nothing to do with his anger toward Finch. He did see that there was other writing on the wall, but the offensive things written by Finch enraged Aarix enough that he didn't fully remember what was there. "No, thank you," he said a little slower, "I want to think about something not related to Finch right now."

“He was wrong,” she informed him, closing the PADD again. “About everything. You’re smart, good looking, and the universe is better with you in it.” She wasn’t entirely sure what made her say that, but perhaps it was his irritated manner. He seemed affected by what Finch had written and she felt the need to make him feel better. “But you’re right; we don’t need to talk about some freak who gets his kicks spying on Sick Bay and writing rude poems on bathroom walls.”

A small and awkward 'thanks' mumbled out of Aarix's mouth at the insistence that he was not what the graffiti claimed. In all honesty, the bad-mouthing of his long-dead mother, the woman who gave her life just to keep him safe, was what fueled his sour mood. Earlier, it nearly made him go back into the holodeck and punch Finch in the face. Several times. Figuring he wasn't going to get any reading done with Jayla present, he turned off the PaDD to give her his attention. "Anything interesting happen in sickbay? That isn't bound by confidentiality, of course."

“Nah, nothing at all,” she replied. “We’ve been running triage drills. They’re annoying, but important. I got out of it this time by being a ‘patient.’ It’s more boring than actually running the drill, but a lot less annoying.”

Unsure of what went into such a drill, but assuming it was conceptually no different than giving his team "what if" scenarios so they knew how to fix things, Aarix nodded. "Are your drills similar to like an incident response? Each person has a task to complete in a timely manner? Or is it more like someone takes charge and everyone else follows their lead?"

“Usually a couple of people take charge of checking patients in and sorting them by severity of their injuries,” she replied. “But once a patient is sent to a doctor, we all know what to do and just do it.”

A slow nod came from Aarix as he imagined the drill Jayla was describing. He remembered the application from the handful of times he helped someone to sickbay, and the fewer times he was escorted himself. Someone usually came rushing over to assess, lead the injured to a bed, doctor arrived to take over, and at that point Aarix either left or was told to leave because in either case, he was in the way. His train of thought then diverted to the idea of doing something similar with his team. The go-to method of keeping everyone ready was just by asking them and occasionally having the officer demonstrate, but maybe he could reserve some holodeck time to go through real scenarios. "This has me thinking... I should organize some engineering drills, namely because we don't have the luxury of flying to the nearest starbase for repairs. Maybe we can compare lesson plans sometime."

“I’m sure there’s plenty that’s applicable,” Jayla agreed. “Triage turns into damage assessment and assignment. People assigned to their areas of speciality. Some things could be categorized as automatic with people assigned to that area. It would take a bit of thinking, but I’m sure we could come up with something.”

As an engineer, Aarix took the "automatic" part a bit more literally. Given the fancy holographic display in sickbay, it seemed logical to him that the doctor would have other special technology that people oversaw. "Unless it were a highly specialized issue, most engineers are cross-trained to do generic maintenance, so I suspect there would be more flexibility in task assignment compared to sickbay's procedures."

“Quite probably,” agreed Jayla. “Although we’re all trained in acute trauma care, so that helps.”

A simple nod was Aarix's response, unsure of what else to contribute to the conversation. Noticing the PaDD she had brought with her and asked, "reading anything good?"

“A trill novel about a space explorer who accidentally makes first contact with a primitive world,” she answered. “Currently, he’s trying to figure out how to repair the damage, but personally, I think he should just apologize for intruding and tell them we’ll be waiting when they reach the stars.” She shrugged. “It’s interesting, though not as entertaining as I’d hoped.”

"Hm," was the reply. Perhaps the lounge wasn't the best place to be alone, even though Aarix had picked a chair that he thought was enough out of the way of the public eye. He didn't want to be rude and leave, but he also didn't quite feel like talking.

Jayla recognized the awkwardness, but misinterpreted it as “I just don’t know what to say.” And what do you do when someone doesn’t know what to say? Ask them about themselves. “So you grew up on Mars?” she asked, picking up on a line from the graffiti. “What’s it like? I’ve never been there.”

For a moment, Aarix was confused. "It's um... red and dusty..."

“I meant the people, not the planet,” clarified Jayla with a grin. “Everybody knows Mars is red and dusty. What are the people like? What’s life like? Are there any interesting things to do? That sort of thing.”

"Oh. Sorry. Right, that's what you meant." Aarix fumbled over his words as he recovered from the brief embarrassment that served as his mental facepalm. "Depending on which colony you go to, the community can be anywhere from a couple hundred people to tens of thousands. The colony I grew up in is smaller, about six thousand. Everyone knows each other and everyone is friendly." He paused for a moment to find answers to the rest of her questions. "The colony has those hiking tours that Earth has, but you suit up and go for a walk on Mars. Some of the colonies are near the final resting place of early rovers, and people like to get their picture taken with them. Cliff jumping into Valles Marineris is also a popular activity."

“Ooo, cliff jumping,” replied Jayla, perking up slightly. “My sister and I grew up cliff diving. Similar concept. Did you ever try it?”

"Yeah, it's why my medical record shows I once had a broken arm." Aarix gave her a faint, sheepish smile. "There's a reason why the instructors tell you to plan your route down before you go. Those rocks are quite unforgiving." His expression began to gradually soften as he recalled the memory. "My brother and I had just reached the minimum age to cliff jump and we convinced our parents to let us go for our birthdays. For once, it was easy to tell us apart."

“Twins?” guessed Jayla.

Aarix nodded, "yep. He's three minutes older than me."

“Imagine two guys as good looking as you!” Jayla replied, half teasing. “I don’t know how the universe handles it.”

Huh, that was a weird response. Perhaps it was some Trill custom. "Heh, I mean," Aarix awkwardly said, "the impact my twin and I would have on the universe as a whole is statistically insignificant..."

Jayla grinned and stifled a giggle. “It was a compliment disguised as a joke, Aarix,” she pointed out.

A gentle blush crept onto his face when Jayla said it was a compliment. "O-oh... thanks..." The color in his cheeks came from the realization that it wasn't a Trill custom, and he felt silly for being oblivious to a compliment. "But anyway, it's not quite how we expected our birthdays to go. It was quite a shock for my mother when she was called to the colony's medbay." The mention of his mother reminded him of Finch's graffiti, and a mix of anger and sorrow seeping into his expression and fading the small smile he had.

“Mothers definitely don’t like getting calls about their kids needing emergency services,” she agreed with a gentle smile. “Were you close to her?”

"Yeah..." The engineer's expression shifted into reminiscing. Aarix's memory of Leanne was faded, the result of elapsing time eroding at what was once a crisp image. "She put up with my brother and I when we would swap places, but she always encouraged my siblings and I to pursue our interests, even if they didn't work out. That didn't stop her from occasionally dragging us along to some of her interests, though."

“Well, that’s how you find out if you like things,” she replied, sipping her cocoa- which had finally cooled to the point of drinkability. “Someone drags you along to something. That’s how I got into painting. My mother dragged my sister and me to an art class when I was about eleven years old. She ended up having to put a studio in the guest house because I ran out of room in my bedroom.” She grinned impishly. “What sort of things do you like to do?” she asked.

"Surely it's no surprise that I like to build things," Aarix responded. "I've had a general interest in architecture and understanding how certain structures can even be built."

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” replied Jayla with a grin. “Do you do any models?”

"Mostly just concepts. I've been too busy over the last couple years to really invest time into actually building a model." He also needed the resources, which were equally lacking. Sure, he could build things on the holodeck, but it wasn't the same.

“We should collaborate sometime,” she suggested. “I’m an artist,” she explained. “It’s been a long time since I collaborated with anybody. I miss it.”

It was at that moment that her combadge beeped. =/\=Doctor Kij to Sick Bay,=/\= was the message.

She carefully removed all trace of the sigh that escaped her lips from her voice before replying, “on my way,” and tapping her badge to close the connection. “Well, I guess that’ll have to wait for another time,” she said apologetically.

Understanding the feeling of being called away for work, Aarix nodded. "Another time, then. Good luck." A very small part of him was glad he was getting alone time again, but he didn't want to be rude to Jayla. She seemed to be genuinely caring.

“See you later,” she said, standing and downing the last of her hot chocolate. She had been enjoying the conversation- and distracting Aarix from Finch’s terrible excuse for bullying- but duty calls. So, after returning her cup to the bar, she headed out of the lounge and towards Sick Bay.

 

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