Salute Your Solution

Posted on 17 Aug 2013 @ 10:42am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde

1,437 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Sickbay
Timeline: MD -02 - 1100 hours

[ON]

Dr. Alexion Wylde took a deep breath as he looked around the Sickbay. His new place of work. It looked good. It wasn't the biggest, but there was good equipment that his gaze was picking up on already. It also had a good atmosphere. Calm, clean and organised. It meant more than space.

Sliding his hands into his pockets, the tall, fair haired man moved through to find his new Chief, even as he hoped that his son wasn't currently decorating their new quarters to his own questionable tastes. It had been a few days since they'd come on board, but it was the first chance he'd gotten to meet with him between everything else. "Lieutenant?" he knocked, old fashioned with his knuckles on the arch of the door, watching the back of a man at a large desk in the office.

That man was Andreus Kohl, who was stood at his tall desk. Kohl's back faced the doorway, while he was studying a Rojarian vine in a sample container on the desk. At the noise behind him, Kohl cast a glance back over his shoulder. He followed it with a quizzical, "Hello?" Once he met the other man's eyes, Kohl turned to face him properly. "Oh," Kohl asked, "You're not Alexion, are you?"

"Actually, I am," he nodded with a small, half smile, his blue eyes taking his new boss in. He felt very old. "Hope that's not a problem?" he said lightly, at how he'd asked who he was.

"You're a solution," Kohl exclaimed, far too excitedly, "is what you are." All in a rush, Kohl closed the distance between them and he clasped one of Alexion's hands between both of his own. "Welcome to Galileo," Kohl said. He grinned at the man, and said again, "Welcome."

Alexion couldn't help but laugh softly at the sudden expression, squeezing the hand he held rather than shaking it. "Ah, it is good to be needed," he gave a wry smile. "Short staffed?"

Bobbing his head from side to side, Kohl pursed his lips and measured an answer in his head. "Not precisely," Kohl said. "No one's working double shifts, but we're using the EMH quite a lot. My background is as a Nurse Practitioner, which is to say we're short on surgeons."

"Ah...." Alexion nodded with understanding, letting out a long breath. "Well, you could say I have some experience in surgery," he assured, pausing for a moment. "100 years, give or take a decade."

The population of Argelius II was sufficiently diverse that Kohl didn't have a reaction to Alexion's age and years of experience. Kohl swept a hand towards the doorway and lead the older man back into Sickbay's central intensive care unit. "I'm sorry it's taken me so long to make introductions. I had it on my calendar to make my way to gamma shift, but sleep was always so tempting," Kohl said. Then, he asked, "Did your transfer to Galileo come as a surprise?"

"Partly," he admitted with a chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "My son is with me. We were on Venture. I'm not sure he appreciates being moved to a smaller ship. Myself? If I'm serving, I'm serving, it doesn't matter much where. People get hurt on all classes."

Nodding approvingly at Alexion's reply, Kohl was always pleased to meet other officers who embraced their careers in Starfleet for both the adventure and the duty. It couldn't all be glamour, and there was no sense complaining about the lack of planetside luxuries. As Kohl strode into the ICU, he asked, "How old is your son?"

"52," Alexion glanced to him with a half smile as he instinctively matched his pace to walk with him, one hand sliding into his pocket. "Do not be fooled though. Because our people's lifespan is longer than humans, he's actually physically and mentally the same as a human boy of about - 15 or 16. Our children aren't adults until they reach 70. You need not worry though. He is used to me working. He will not be a - distraction."

A lopsided smirk came to Kohl's face at Alexion's last statement. "I'm curious about your family," Kohl said, "not looking for a weakness."

Alexion smiled at that, a proper one as he relaxed, letting out a long breath. "Just the two of us. He is - tenacious. Likes to think he is more grown up than he really is. You remember what it is like," he laughed softly.

Laughing along with him, Kohl said, "That does sound just I used to be." --He nodded-- "Last Tuesday, or thereabouts. ...If I can ask, what made you decide to study medicine?"

Alexion watched him for a long moment as he contemplated his answer. Seeing as the man was his chief, he decided he may as well be honest. "I didn't get a choice," he replied bluntly. "We had to study what suited us. Match skills to jobs. I apologise, it is not exactly an inspirational answer, is it."

Kohl just smiled at Alexion warmly. He shook his head lightly, as if to say, 'Don't worry about it.' What Kohl literally said was, "I already work in medicine. You don't need to inspire me." And then Kohl laughed. "I'm only wearing teal because I failed as a diplomatic officer..."

"Maybe your true calling was always in medicine?" Alexion said quietly, meeting his eyes for a moment. He hadn't liked how it had been back at home, being forced into whatever career matched the ability developed by the person. But he supposed it eliminated doubt and matched skill to career. "Fate usually throws a few punches and gets its own way."

"Yes," Kohl said. He elongated the vowel, as he drifted off into his thoughts for a heartbeat. "Yes, it certainly does." Kohl smiled a bit and shook off the thought. "Can you tell me, are you engaged in any medical research at the moment?" he asked.

"I haven't had much time recently," Alexion admitted with a frown. "But I wrote some papers in the past. "Psionics in medicine and healing. Psychology of surgery. Whether they are actually good or not, I couldn't say," he chuckled, shaking his head.

Kohl explained his line of questioning with, "I don't like seeing medical officers spend too much down-time on cleaning equipment or stocking medical-kits." Dryly, he said, "The ship's computer can do that for us. The Galileo is a research vessel, and I would encourage you to partner with the Life Sciences division to kick up some research of your own."

Alexion watched with surprise for a long moment, not having considered it. His lips pursed as he thought it over. "It's more interesting than sterilising beds," he chuckled as he nodded. "I can give it a go. My views aren't always - in line with others, though," he shook his head with a small smile. His upbringing and experience of medicine on his home world has coloured his understanding of the medical field.

"Isn't that the entire point of medical research?" Kohl asked, and though he meant it as levity, it came out a little haughty. "You explain the truth very slowly and pedantically. Bring the heathens around to your way of thinking."

Alexion couldn't help but laugh at that, shaking his head slowly before sighing. "Something like that. Maybe. Although, I tend not to care much even if people do not agree. I will speak to someone in Science."

Grinning at Alexion, Kohl clapped his hands together once and he said, "Excellent." His grin turned sheepish then. "Look, I'm not the best at Starfleet formality. I can fake it when the brass is around, but I am what you might kindly refer to as 'candid'. This may sound like hollow words just now, but I want you to feel comfortable saying whatever is on your mind, at any time. Can you try to do that for me?"

Alexion's lips twitched with amusement. He'd spent his life being like that, saying what he thought without much care. He folded his arms as he arched an eyebrow to him. "I think I could just about manage it," he said lightly, humour laced in his voice.

"Then you'll do swimmingly here," remarked Kohl. He patted Alexion's shoulder affectionately, and he said, "Welcome to our tough little ship. I hope you like to handle an auto-suture. You're going to be using it a lot here."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

WO Alexion Wylde
Doctor
USS Galileo

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