The accident

Posted on 22 Sep 2014 @ 5:26am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D.

479 words; about a 2 minute read

About five years ago...


The San Francisco shuttle terminal was unusually busy that Thursday evening.

It was a long weekend, which meant that cadets were given a reprieve from their grueling training schedules. Four days of leave for everyone - which even the Vulcans were looking forward to after being in training every day for weeks on end. And Tuula had plans. She would catch a hypersonic transport directly from San Francisco to Frankfurt. From there, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to her hometown of Tampere via Helsinki, and with any luck, she would be home within a couple hours.

Her plan was to return home for the weekend for a home-cooked meal and a nice relaxing sauna session or two. Of course, being a first-year medical student, Tuula had packed some study material with her. Finals were coming up, and she wanted to be prepared. Fortunately for her, her first exam was in anatomy - her favourite course, and one of her strong suits. She wasn't afraid of failing the exam, but she did want to do well enough to impress a few people; she was within striking distance of being top of her class in that subject.

It was a stormy night, and the windows of the terminal were battered with rain. From time to time, she would see a flash of lightning off in the distance. As she stared off into the night sky, Tuula pondered her life situation. She wasn't fitting in with the militaristic aspects of Starfleet culture. Maybe it wasn't too late to transfer to a civilian university. Sure, it might add a year onto her degree, but she wouldn't have to deal with drill sergeants, uniform inspections, or marksmanship training. The latter was the worst; she could barely hit anything, and the constant screaming from her range instructor didn't help either. Not to mention that she didn't even see the point in even bothering to learn how to use a phaser rifle; it's not exactly a standard item in a doctor's medkit.

On the other hand, there was something about exploring the stars that fascinated her. She didn't want to just stay in one place; Tuula wanted to practice medicine across the galaxy. And becoming a Starfleet doctor was the best way to do that.

"Now boarding Transport #484 to Frankfurt"

Tuula's thoughts were interrupted by the announcement over the PA system. She figured there was little sense in worrying about it right now; if she were to come to a decision she wouldn't be able to report it to the academy until after the weekend anyways. After boarding and stowing her baggage, she strapped herself into her seat and took one last glance out the window before resting her head and her heavy eyelids.

Her next memory was slowly coming to consciousness in a San Francisco hospital room.

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