A Gift For Fiction and Falsehoods

Posted on 07 Feb 2014 @ 10:19pm by Lieutenant Teth Miir & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Petty Officer 1st Class Viru Evek

2,603 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Starfleet Medical, Emergency Department
Timeline: MD 20, 2030

ON:

Viru squinted as he eyed a Bajoran triage nurse who seemed to be taking his time in assessing patients. The Cardassian scientist held his crumpled gray and teal uniform shirt to the side of his head. His standard issue gray undershirt was soaked in a stream of blood. He knew it seemed like a great deal of fluid loss, but surely it couldn't be that bad, he was still conscious after all. Though the room seemed to be spinning around him and the light was so bright when he opened his left eye, he felt as if it were being torn from it's socket.

"I'm going to bleed to death before I even have my vital signs taken." the young Cardassian complained. He quietly wondered if the nurse was ignoring him out of some long held racial grudge.

"Well that would certainly take the guess work out of reading your vital signs, wouldn't it? Thankfully you seem alive enough at the moment. A complaining patient is a living patient, we always say," Olsam quipped cheerily, appearing on the left side where the Cardassian had a limited field of vision. "We're ready to see you now, if you would please follow me back to the examination room. I'm Dr. Olsam Mott with Starfleet Medical; what brings you to emergency services today?"

Olsam had always thought the question was ridiculous, since it was usually obvious what brought people to emergency services. But protocol was protocol, and he had to follow protocol. Usually. At least when other people were watching.

"I have a head injury." he said, following the doctor and having a seat on the gray and white exam table. He removed his shirt from the wound and blood started streaming down his face again, though not with the same volume and speed as when the injury first occurred.

"A head injury? Where?" Olsam asked, grinning a bit as he reached for a vascular regenerator to stop the bleeding and give him an opportunity to better inspect the wound.

The bleeding was quick to stop under the attention of the device, and Olsam used a nearby gauze-like towel to absorb the remaining blood around the wound. He took out his medical tricorder and detached its sensor wand to get a better look at the area around the wound.

"Can you tell me what happened, petty officer?"

"I hit my head against a steel pillar." Evek said blankly, avoiding eye contact with the Bolian.

He remembered an old legend that Cardassians used to make shoes and lampshades from the vibrant blue skins of dead Bolians, the thought of which made him feel nauseated. Or it could have been the head injury, he was unsure.

Olsam replaced the sensor wand in the medical tricorder and rolled a medcart over to the bed, activating the computer terminal on top to interface with the tricorder. As the data was analyzing, he glanced at the personnel record that had been matched with the DNA reading.

"So, you hit your head against a steel pillar," Olsam repeated, looking and sounding completely unconvinced. "I see."

"It's true." the Cardassian said, now glaring at Olsam. "You sound like you think I'm lying."

"Well, in my defense, it's because I think you are lying," Olsam replied, meeting the glare with a smile. He turned to the medcart again and picked up a dermal regenerator to begin repairing the soft tissue damage around the impact site.

"Why, because I'm a Cardassian? It is one of our better known racial traits, after all."

"Racial traits? There's no physiological evidence to indicate Cardassians are predisposed to lying over, say, Andorians or Zakdorn," Olsam said, giving a smile to ease the petty officer's suspicion. "I think you're lying based on analysis of empirical data. See? The pattern of capillary damage here and here is inconsistent with an impact against a steel pillar; the soft tissue damage also fails to conform to something like that." Olsam turned the computer monitor on the medcart so they could both view it, then he grinned and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Plus, I'm a mind-reader."

Viru squinted at the doctor as he considered whether he should disclose what actually happened. He didn't want to spawn some kind of investigation into his personal affairs again.

"Well, it was a steel object. I was at a cafe, working on some personal research. A gentleman sitting across from me decided he didn't like me very much. I decided to leave. He and his friends followed me, then 'whack!". I knew the were following me but I had not anticipated that."

Olsam looked surprised. Crime hadn't exactly been eradicated altogether on Earth, but it was still rare enough to be a shock when it did occur. An assault against a member of Starfleet seemed particularly out of place, even if the victim was a much-maligned Cardassian. "I'm very sorry, Petty Officer Evek. Have you reported the incident to Starfleet Security?" Without waiting for a response, Olsam turned to the computer terminal and began opening up a report.

He tensed as soon as he saw the Bolian turn to the computer console.

"No, it really isn't necessary." Viru insisted, giving Olsam a pleading look "I would really prefer if this wasn't reported."

"You don't want to report a violent, unprovoked attack?" Olsam asked, lifting his brow in surprise. He left out the part about being ethically bound to file something with Starfleet Security, willing to hear the Cardassian out. "Is there some reason why you'd like to protect these criminals?"

Viru stared intently at the door for a long time before he was sure a security officer wasn't going to storm the exam room.

"I grew up with them." he said quietly so that no one might overhear. "They apparently had a grudge for something that happened over ten years ago... they also didn't like what was on my screen."

"You grew up with them? On...," Olsam turned his attention back to the computer terminal and looking a little surprised when he found the information, "...Bajor? I'm sorry they chose today to avenge whatever slight they feel happened so long ago. What was on your screen? Pictures of them with funny little mustaches drawn on?"

Olsam smiled and replaced the dermal re-generator, having finally repaired the soft tissue damage. He leaned against the medcart and folded his arms, turning his head to the side slightly to listen. The story had certainly been engaging thus far, but he remained on the fence about whether or not the incident should be reported.

"Well, I am a biochemist." the Cardassian paused, wanting to be sure he had the doctor's attention, "They're all Bajoran, one of them also became a biochemist, oddly enough. He recognized me and what I was working on immediately. It's actually part of a large scale, civilian based research project. We are hopeful that it can potentially control a variety of lymphatic diseases and disorders."

Olsam's brow creased. "That hardly seems like grounds for an assault. Does he support lymphatic diseases and disorders or something?"

"Well, there is something of a mild ethical issue. The drugs they are trying to design are based off of a chemical weapon. Designed by a Cardassian war criminal. That was dispersed it in a large water supply in the province where we lived. It killed eight hundred people. It also has the potential to save countless lives. But I didn't have time to explain that.."

"I see. And they mistook your work for something else, I suppose," Olsam nodded. "That still doesn't explain why you don't want me to file a report with Starfleet Security. Is it sentimentality? Racially motivated crimes, in particular, are the sort we should be pursuing with all haste."

"I really can't fault them for what they did. It was a misunderstanding." Evek said, crossing his arms like a defiant toddler, "And if you notify security, I will not cooperate with them, so you'll be wasting your time."

"Just because you don't cooperate doesn't mean it would be a waste of time," Olsam offered. "Misunderstandings don't usually degenerate into physical violence. You could have been seriously harmed; neurological damage can still be irreparable even in this day and age."

"That's my risk to take. If I say that there wasn't a crime and I do not wish to pursue charges, what would be the point in even reporting it?"

Viru was starting to feel somewhat frantic. He considered just shoving the doctor into a wall and making a run for it, but realistically that would do him no good. Assault on an officer on top of everything else.

He knew if the attack were investigated, it would give rise to further investigation of his attackers. And petty misunderstandings aside, he knew he had to protect them. In some vague sense, they felt like family, distrusted as they may be.

Olsam eyed his patient for a moment before finally nodding. "Very well, I'll not be having it said that Dr. Mott was going around unnecessarily getting his patients all stirred up for no reason." He turned back to the computer terminal and began making the final notations on the medical report. "I can't ethically just lie on this thing, but I can be somewhat vague about the attack. Are you between assignments, petty officer? Will you be in a position to encounter these ruffians again?"

"I am actually just staying here until my next ship departs." the cardassian explained while absentmindedly attempting to uncrumple his hair with a free hand.

"I have temporary quarters at Starfleet headquarters and am assigned to the department of plant sciences as a relief worker. Suffice it to say, I can keep myself busy and scarce from where they are likely to be. Not that I think they would be a problem in the future."

Olsam looked unconvinced. If Viru were a friend he might laugh it off and try to help him move on. But he wasn't a friend, he was a patient, and that made everything different. The Bolian took the health and safety of his patients very seriously. "I suppose they're the type to settle for just one beating with a blunt object, him?"

"Precisely." Viru said without flinching, "I understand why they did what they did. I think they realize it was a mistake. I really don't want to drag good men into trouble. To be fair, I incited the whole thing, I was being too careless."

Olsam thought his patient might be identifying with his attackers a little too much, but he made his report as vague as possible. Hopefully no one would see it and be inclined to ask questions; just because the Cardassian didn't want to press charges didn't mean Security wouldn't take an interest in it.

"I think you're being a little hard on yourself," Olsam said, loading a hypo spray with a mild dose of analgesic to ease the pain. "Reviewing something on a personal device in a public space hardly seems like incitement. Unless there was something more to openly provoke them?"

"No, nothing." the Cardassian said meekly. "I was trying to avoid them, actually. They were still upset over something that happened when we were all younger. It's fine."

"Did you burn their houses down or something?" Olsam asked genuinely, trying to determine what would make a group of people attack someone with a steel pipe.

"I lied. To you, I mean." Viru said sullenly.

"Those men were my brothers. Well, not my actual brothers, but sort of a family that adopted me while I was living at a war orphans home. They weren't even Bajoran, they were Trills, their parent and aunts and uncles all worked on Bajor as researchers during war.... they sort of, took me in as a brother. We were all alien outcasts among the real Bajoran war orphans. "

Viru swallowed hard, holding back tears before he continued.

"Then there was Nori, she was a few years younger than me. I was 9 and she was four. Me and her brothers used to play in this wooded area beside the monastery we stayed at. And in the woods was a wide, fast stream at the bottom of something of a slight gorge. And across the stream, there was a rope bridge. The kind with two ropes you have to balance on. We used to play on it all the time, but Nori wasn't allowed so, she couldn't swim."

The cardassian was hiding his face behind spindly gray hands, tears streaming down his face and the sensation that he couldn't breathe.

But through his tears he choked, "I was supposed to be watching her while all the other boys went to play in the water. I got distracted by a rare beetle, I had an intense fascination with them as a child. It was beautiful, copper colored wings with jewel toned jade beneath. And then I heard the scream. Nori had gone up onto the rope bridge and none of us noticed. But I was supposed to be watching her. I saw her being taken down stream and dove after her, but I got caught in a current before I could reach her and smashed my head on a rock. I woke up in shallow water. They found her body two days later, stuck in a low hanging tree."

Olsam stared, completely unsure how to respond. His young patient had been so suspicious and hostile that he wasn't sure if comforting him would elicit a positive or negative response. He replaced the medical tricorder on the cart and then hopped up on the biobed next to him; Olsam's girth took up more than his fair share of space. He tentatively placed an arm around the young man and leaned his shoulder in for him to cry upon.

"There, there," the Bolian said, looking over at him with no small amount of sympathy. No wonder he was so evasive.

"They hate me, because I let her die. I always have expected them to come find me. I am just shocked they didn't kill me."

Olsam reached over and grabbed a piece of gauze from the cart, handing it over as a handkerchief. "The circumstances of her death seem to have been very unfortunate. I'm sorry that she was lost, and I'm sorry that it created a division in your family." He patted his shoulder and gave a little squeeze. "Have you seen a counselor about this?"

"No." he said with a sigh. "I really just don't see how it would help anything."

Olsam nodded. "Yes, I've often thought that myself, but I think Bolians just have a unique way of processing feelings. You seem to have a lot of emotion bottled up over this, and it may at least reduce anxiety and stress to discuss it with a neutral third party. Others seem to find counseling very helpful, though. I have a good friend who's a counselor; he may be willing to see you, if you'd like."

"Ok," Evek said, looking at the blood all over his uniform. "I would like to try that."

"Okay, very good, I'll ask him to get in touch with you very soon," Olsam said, smiling. He eased himself off the biobed and looked the Cardassian over. "Now, let's replicate you a new uniform, hm?"

[ OFF]


PO1 Viru Evek
Biochemist
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant JG Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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