Hail and well met

Posted on 05 Aug 2013 @ 2:52pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Andreus Kohl
Edited on on 05 Aug 2013 @ 2:54pm

1,795 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4 - Sickbay
Timeline: MD -02 - 0800 hours

ON:

Allyndra tarried from her shift. There was an important meeting and she had been requested to be a part of it by her department head. She sipped her hot tea and waited. A movement in the office area caught her attention. That was an advantage of having multiple lens eyes, they had much more sensitivity to movement.

She saw Kohl emerge with a blue smock and he looked rather tasseled. She raised her cup of tea in greeting and thought back to getting to know him.

As he approached, Kohl raised his own mug of tea to return the greeting. He smiled at Allyndra, but as she lowered her mug, Kohl couldn't help himself from glancing at the colour of the liquid in her mug. He couldn't expect anything other than a blood red beverage from his selfstyled vampiric doctor.

--

Three days ago:

"Doctor Kohl I presume?" Allyndra said as she greeted the honey haired man standing in the office.

Andreus Kohl was, in fact, the one standing behind the tall desk in the office of the Chief Medical Officer. His hair was side-swept to the left and his uniform had the appearance of just-replicated clothing that had never been worn. Kohl's lightning blue eyes were pointed in the direction of the LCARS terminal on his desk. He didn't look up when he said, "Don't tell anybody, but I'm not a doctor."

Allyndra blinked. "Oh? I am sorry, I just presumed." She had not met hardly anyone but doctors that were in high medical spots even though other professionals could be licensed and presumably take on positions.

She felt flustered for a moment but moved on, "Well Lieutenant Kohl, I am your new assistant medical officer. I just came on board a few days ago.
Anyway, Allyndra," She took the chance and held out her hand.

After he closed the difference between them, Kohl clasped her hand between both of his own. He held her hand warmly for a moment. "Allyndra," Kohl said. Her name came out experimentally; he made a visible effort to echo her pronunciation. "A lovely name."

"It means the morning wind off the ocean." she replied.

Kohl smiled at that, if faintly. He released her hand and he gestured to the corridor outside his office. "I have known such a thing," he said mildly. He smiled at Allyndra, and he asked, "From where has the morning wind brought you to us?"

Allyndra was surprised but smiled she followed him out to the corridor. "Well sir, I was on Obsidian Colony just before this. It reminded me too much of home and yet was too different. A science based ship seemed interesting and, well here I am."

"Interesting enough to accept a demotion?" Kohl asked, and there was a wry edge to the questioning lilt in his timbre. As he spoke, he stepped into the passageway and he turned right. He lead Allyndra to the null-gravity treatment suite and to the small biohazard unit. "Despite feigning ignorance, I have read your service jacket. You weren't just assigned to Obsidian Colony; you were their Chief Medical Officer."

Allyndra wondered why they were headed toward the biohazard unit but perhaps Kohl just wanted to talk privately. "I was, and the Chief Counselor as well for a time. If you read the entirety I was Chief Medical on the Firebird and for awhile its Executive Officer and just like the Executive Officer you wonder why?"

Allydnra made an odd little shrug that let the wings sort of flutter. "Simple I am not career minded for Fleet. Whims take me here and there..." she smiled, "it is the nature of my people."

Kohl smiled at her words easily. "My people too," Kohl said wistfully. He had been standing in the doorway of the biohazard unit, but he stepped far enough away from the sensor to let the doors close. Without preface, Kohl was on the move again, following the passageway towards the surgical ward. "Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could say the same, but my parents were far too career-minded."

Allyndra followed along. It seemed that what Kohl was saying about being moved by whims translated into his feet as well as they moved yet again. She could not help but think of a phrase from her world: 'What the mind wishes the hands and feet show.'

Allyndra smiled wistfully. "Rigidity," she said the word almost in a whisper.

Leading Allyndra into the surgical ward, Kohl strode towards the central scrub station, which was surrounded by viewports into the small operating rooms. Kohl glanced back over his shoulder, and he echoed, "Hm? Rigidity?"

"My people and society are very rigid. We have occupations, guild houses, in which one is brought into as a very young person. Though we technically have parents, every child is raised as a part of that house and as we get older it stratifies even more. That is part of my name, illm Warraquim. It literally means of the House Warraquim, or in Standard, of the House of Knowledge Gatherers."

Kohl clasped his hands behind his back and turned to face Allyndra head-on. He studied her face as he considered her words, and then he asked, "Was it challenging to leave your guild house then?"

"Let us just say that between a tragedy and a disagreement that I left my world." Allyndra said quietly but firmly.

"My people? I usually do not hear that term used except among non-Terrans. Forgive me but I presumed you were human."

Snickering mildly, Kohl tilted his head down to look at the floor. He slapped his thighs lightly, and he said, "No, not human." He smiled over at Allyndra, as he told her, "I was born from the soil of Argelius Two."

"Oh!" Allyndra raised her brows, "I do so apologize. Outwardly similar so I do so hope you will forgive me my assumption."

Shrugging slightly, Kohl said, "You followed your assumption with observation and questions. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"Argelians if I remember correctly are a peace loving people. We are as well just more of a closed society. There is a reason for that."

Allyndra motioned Kohl to a corner between the rooms and though no one was around she felt better in the semi-privacy. "Akkadians are hematophages. As such we have evolved over time an anti-coagulant and an analgesic in our bite but also a series of complex proteins that induce euphoria to aphrodisiac effects. There was a time long past when we were prayed upon by others."

At first, Kohl was surprised and amused by Allyndra's conspiratorial manner. He looked to her with an exaggerated expression of bewilderment, but he followed her all the same. He nodded at each of the secrets she shared and his expression returned to neutral. "And then who did the Akkadian's prey upon?" he asked.

"There are other creatures on the planet, they are non-sentient. It is different than a sentient creature being enslaved. That is for protein primarily otherwise soft fruit and juices are more our diet." Allyndra drew herself up to her full height as she felt slightly offended. "I believe even Argelians exist off the life of other creatures, be it flesh and or plant."

Nonchalantly, Kohl replied, "Yup." He nodded in agreement with her assessment, and his posture didn't change when Allyndra drew herself up. As far as he was concerned, neither one of them had to apologize for what was written in their DNA. He spoke in a matter-of-fact timbre, when he said, "Argelians didn't stop eating animals until the Federation shared replicator technology."

Allyndra relaxed and made a face. "Replicator," she said the word with disgust. "I am allowed transfusion grade but trust me it tastes bland."

With a shrug, Kohl cheekily said, "Maybe you're not seasoning it right."

Her expression changed again to one amusement. "Well do you have any more questions for your 'vampiric' doctor?"

Striding towards the double doors, Kohl lead the way out from the surgical ward. Looking over to regard his self-styled vampiric doctor, Kohl asked, "Are you engaged in any medical research at the moment?"

Allyndra noted the change in her boss again. He would take some getting used to. She was used to much more formality and he seemed a little mercurial.

"Actually that is one reason for me to be here on this ship and taking the gamma shift. I want to pick up on using programmable DNA nanomechanical scissors to read nanomachine templates and then interfere with their proper assembly."

While he nodded at her explanation, Kohl vocalized a soft, "huh," in interest. "Do you have a hypothesis for the results?" Kohl asked, and his timbre took a turn for the sardonic when he continued. "Or do you just want to see what happens?"

"Of course, DNA scissors have been used to insert genetic codes now for quite some time. It was observed that in certain nanomechanical structures that the DNA could 'read' these structures as well. Since the 'scissors' can be programmed the idea is to programme them to insert say a particular atom or set of atoms in the assembly of a nanomachine. As I mentioned to the Captain, for example a Germanium atom instead of a Silicon atom. Though the valences could be the same, the chemical spatiality would be different and the machine would fail to form or assemble properly. That is the hypothesis and reasoning sir. As to your other observation, it might prove useful against Borg nanites and yes, I would like to see if I get it working to 'see what happens."

As Kohl guided Allyndra back towards the intensive care unit, he continued to nod at each of the points she made. Once they strode into the ICU, he swept an arm out to indicate the largest Sickbay ward, and he said, "And that completes your tour." It was a bit of a non sequitur. Looking over to his ACMO, Kohl said, "I fully support your research project Lieutenant. I'd be mighty curious to read your status reports."

"I will keep you informed sir." Allyndra replied. "And thank you for the tour, I will familiarize myself in the off hours." She nodded politely to see if there was anything more to be said.

"Don't let me keep you," Kohl said affably, and he took a step back. "It is a delight to meet you, Lieutenant. I'm sure you will be a shining asset to Galileo."

Allyndra made a slight curtsey to the comment. It was time to get to work.


OFF:

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant jg Allyndra illm Warraquim
ACMO
USS Galileo

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