Family Visit

Posted on 05 Oct 2013 @ 6:09pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Nesh Saalm & Petty Officer 1st Class Siren Hex Saalm

1,998 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 04 - 1020 hrs

[ON]

Lirha had been asleep for five hours since her assimilation had been reversed by the expertise of Galileo's CMO and EMH. Her Orion body was slowly recovering from the nanoprobe trauma, which had the unfortunate side effect of severe disorientation and inebriation. Covered in a shiny thermal medical blanket, the captain had been stripped of her clothes and was now covered only in blue medical bands which wrapped around her chest and waist. She breathed deeply while laying on her side, snoring softly in a long sleep.

Siren moved through the doors, catching her breath. She was pretty sure she was breaking some rule or other, taking a diversion to Sickbay while they were all still on work duties until they could get the ship running on its own. But well, frankly, she didn't care. She wanted to see Lirha after the news had reached her, and the ship could do without an intel crewman for an hour.

Her throat tightened when she saw Lirha lying on the bed, the worry swelling at seeing it real, her laid out, but there was also relief, at seeing she was alive and being looked after. She wasn't used to these kinds of emotions. She didn't have family. It was hard to keep them in place.

A tugging at her waist distracted her and Siren looked down to the young boy who was still following her around like a puppy. Since he'd pincered himself around her during the attack on Deck 3, he refused to leave her alone. Everytime she tried to pass him off to medical or counselling or other Venture civilians, he kept wrapping his arms tight around her waist and refusing to move. It was surprising how strong a stubborn kid could be.

Siren sighed, looking down into the large, serious brown eyes of the boy that held onto her. "Alright, shoo," she waved her hands.

He frowned, stubbornly, pulling tighter to her.

"Look, I'm not going to run away or anything. I just need to speak to someone. Just...go and play with over there or something..." she waved at him again to shoo him to the other side of the room.

He mused on it for a moment, his lips pursing with thought before he finally let go of her and took himself off to sit quietly on the floor against the wall, but so he could still see Siren.

Siren sighed, shaking her head with confusion before moving to Lirha. She watched her face, biting her lip. Her skin tone wasn't right yet. She reached out, carefully stroking her cheek with pain at seeing it. "Lirha?"

A subconscious voice called out in Lirha's mind and interrupted her dream sleep. Lirha. The familiar tone and inflection in the voice was hard for her to pinpoint, but it kept echoing through her head over and over until she slowly regained consciousness. Her dark and baggy eyes fluttered open, and she took a long moment to take in her surroundings. Bright lights, biobeds, a sterile smell; she knew she was in sickbay, and a flood of recent memories returned to her. Her pupils dilated under the room's ambient glow, and she slowly took sight of a familiar grey-collared figure standing next to her. Her eyes traveled upwards and she finally recognized her girlfriend's face. "Siren?" she whispered in reply.

Siren smiled brightly at the single word, tears in her eyes all the same as she laughed with relief. "There you are..." she whispered, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead. "It's alright. It's alright, Lirha, you're safe."

The word 'safe' was a subjective term at the moment for Lirha, as she recently recalled being in the middle of a medical procedure during which a nightmare version of her XO had materialized and injected her neck with his tubules. She shivered at the frightening memory. "...No..." she whispered again with fear and apprehensiveness in her eyes. "Not safe. There are Borg on the ship..." Lirha had little knowledge of what had transpired since her assimilation back on the bridge.

"They've stood down," Siren whispered, shaking her head firmly as he stroked soothingly over her hand. "Some kind of ceasefire. But right now, you need to concentrate on you. How are you? Really?"

"I hate sickbay..." she answered with a mumble, then closed her eyes again for a short moment and sighed. "I feel better, I suppose. Achy and sore, but I am guessing that is a side-effect of the nanoprobes." Lirha yawned then rolled onto her back with a grimace.

"I guess so," Siren shook her head, watching her with a frown. She sat on the edge of the bed, holding her hand firmly. "You've been through a lot. You have to get yourself better, you hear? Don't go running out the doors before you're well. Promise me."

Lirha weakly smirked at the notion of her escaping. She was pretty sure there was no way she could make it through the doors of sickbay without any help, at least not in her current state. But she didn't particularly want to be here in the medical bay, and she longed for her own bed and Siren's protection. "Can you take me to my quarters?" she asked, hoping that Siren could get her out of sickbay and take care of her in her own bed. Anything to avoid more drones appearing and injecting her again.

Siren watched her with struggle, holding her breath. "Look, sweets, I don't like these places anymore than you, but do you really think it's a good idea? What if you need more medical help?" she asked with worry, settling her hand on her shoulder, her fingertips stroking against the side of her neck.

"Then you can just bring me back here to the doctors..." she smirked and yawned, then focused on the feeling of Siren's fingers on her neck. Lirha was terribly stubborn when she wanted something, but also knew that she wasn't in the best shape to be arguing.

"Lirha! You stupid cow!" Nesh Saalm declared as she marched over to the bed, her hair a mess...when she usually dressed up all punky, she now seemed battered, messy...and so much younger for it. She watched her sister, swallowing hard. "Stupid..." she moved to touch her arm, glancing at Siren with pure worry.

"She's alright, she's alright, Nesh," Siren said quickly, touching her shoulder to calm her. "They've managed to reverse the assimilation process."

The older Orion was suddenly overjoyed to see her sister who had just burst into sickbay. She looked a bit disheveled but didn't appear to be injured which was a great feeling of relief. She would never hear the end of it from their mother if she had allowed Nesh to be assimilated as well.

"Nesh!" she smiled and tried to sit up to give her a hug, weakly extending her arms to her. "You are okay?" she said matter-of-factly.

Nesh watched her, frowning as she moved to hug her tightly, closing her eyes. "Don't ever, ever, ever do that to me again!" she cried out against her neck, breathing hard.

Lirha felt her own eyes becoming wet and and squeezed Nesh close to her as hard as she could manage. "I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to scare you..." she whispered in their Yrevish language.

Nesh shook her head before kissing her cheek, swallowing as she met her eyes. "It's okay, just don't do it again," she said quietly.

"I promise," she whispered in return. Lirha smiled up at Nesh trying to reassure her as best she could. "I'm alright, but I just don't feel too well right now."

"I'm trying to persuade Lirha to stay in here where the doctors can look after her in case she becomes unwell," Siren said quietly, watching Lirha with worry clear in her eyes. What if something happened? What if they'd missed something? What if they hadn't fully reversed it and she...relapsed?

Lirha's emotions were once again getting the best of her, and she couldn't help but protest even further at Siren's insistence that she stay in sickbay. She felt traumatized and abused, and the last time she had come here for care, her XO had materialized in Borg-form and had violated her by injecting his tubules into her neck.

"My quarters. Please. That is an order." she weakly fumed, not wanting to be denied the sanctuary of her own bed and the company of her two favorite women.

Nesh let out a breath as she looked at Siren before back at her sister. "No," she said firmly, shaking her head. "No. You are staying here where they can monitor you. And you can't order anyone. You're not the Captain right now. You can't order us. And we are family, you don't order family."

Siren smiled softly at being called family. She...she liked it. She couldn't deny it. She gave a grateful look to Nesh before leaning to stroke Lirha's cheek softly with the back of her hand. "Just these first few hours? Just to make sure the procedure has no side affects? We're just worried, Lirha. Neither of us are doctors."

Most people would be unable to detect the subtle feelings betrayed by Lirha's eyes, but for Siren and Nesh, they could probably notice the strange nervousness which was present. She didn't want to speak about it, but her biggest fear was that her XO would rematerialize and re-assimilate her. For some reason, even though it wasn't logical given the public and secure nature of sickbay, Lirha felt more safe in her quarters.

"A few hours," she conceded. "No more. ..And I want you to stay with me...in case they return." she declined to mention who 'they' were, but the hint was obvious enough. "Please." she added for good measure, and tried her best to give Siren and Nesh her wounded puppy-dog look.

Siren smiled warmly at the look, running her fingertip down around the curve of her eye and across her cheekbone before looking to Nesh. "I think that's a fair deal?"

"Yes, it is," Nesh said and smiled weakly, shaking her head. "Because seriously I feel like resting too. This has been way freaky..."

Lirha looked back and forth between Siren and Nesh, then curled herself up on her side and began to close her eyes. Before she fell asleep again, she noticed what appeared to be a small boy sitting against the far wall. "Who is that?" she asked in a whisper, wondering why she had not noticed his presence earlier.

Siren chuckled, shaking her head as she followed her gaze to the boy who was playing with a tray, trying to balance it on his head. "No idea. He found me during the fight and he won't let me out of sight now. He won't tell me what his name is though. He won't tell me anything for that matter."

"Where are his parents?" Lirha quietly asked, smiling slightly at the young child's tray antics. "Did he come aboard from USS Venture?" she wondered.

"Must have," Siren shrugged with a soft sigh. "I can't search the manifest without a name. I'll use his DNA to see if we can get a match. He won't say a word. Just keeps looking with those...big brown eyes."

Staring at him for a long while, Lirha decided that Siren was right. He was cute, and his soft brown eyes were adorable as were the tuffs of dark curls atop his head. "I think he likes you." she mused, then suppressed a soft yawn. Her eyes fluttered close and she finally passed out on the biobed, content with her family standing guard over her.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CN Siren Hex
Intelligence
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Civilian
USS Galileo

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