Pool Party

Posted on 29 Oct 2014 @ 12:24am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang Ph.D.

3,541 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: SB 84 - Pools
Timeline: MD 8: 1930 Hours

ON:

It was the end of a long day of getting things worked out on the Galileo, meeting bosses and getting cleared for duty. It left him tense. There was paperwork to check, boarding procedures to go over ahead of time, more busywork. Back at the labs in San Francisco, once he'd settled in, he'd managed to keep his head down and focus on the work. He'd forgotten how many hoops you had to jump through just to start somewhere new. Still, he was where he wanted to be. Space! The frontier! And at least the frontier had a swimming pool, so that was nice. He'd been making use of it ever since coming to the base, before the Galileo had even arrived.

Starbase 84 had a large pool open to Starfleet officers, 24 hours a day. It was mostly empty when Kal came in, wearing his trunks and a t-shirt, a towel around his shoulders. Back home on Farius, he lived right on the coast and went swimming damn near every day. It relieved stress and helped him to think. It also kept his sweet tooth from making him too fat. He tossed down the towel and stripped off his t-shirt when the door behind him opened and he moved out of the way, t-shirt still around his head.

Tuula had been in the water for a good ten minutes before she spotted another swimmer enter. She was relieved to hear that Starbase 84 had a pool, and one that was large and open all hours no less. The first time she tried to go swimming on the holodeck of the USS Galileo, things didn't go so well for her.

She tried to go swimming at least once a week. Mostly to keep in shape, but also to clear her head of the stresses that can easily build up on someone in her profession. And after a month of hell on her new assignment, and now Jaana not talking to her, anything she could do to clear her head was a necessity.

As she came up from under the water, she saw a man approaching. Clinging to the side of the pool, with the water glistening off her tattooed skin, she pulled a mess of hair out of her face before offering the man a polite smile.

Kal smiled back at the woman already in the pool, tossed his shirt and towel down. He saw the copious ink on her skin, and it took him by surprise. In his experience, there weren't very many Starfleet officers with that kind of art. Back on Farius, tattoos were prevalent enough. There were gang tats, Syndicate ink, and then just regular art. Most of what he saw was bad, done on the cheap by not very good artists. His own tattoo was a simple one; the artists he could afford when he was fifteen weren't good enough to trust with anything complex. It was a simple script of his sister's name on the inside of his right forearm. "I like your tats," Kal said to her as he sat down at the edge of the pool in his lane, then dropped in. He sank in up to his chest.

"Oh, thanks!" said Tuula pushing off from the edge of the pool and into her lane. This was definitely going better than trying to swim on the Galileo. "Is that one on your arm there?" she asked, treading water.

He glanced down at his own arm. "Yeah." Holding it up in the light so she could see it better, he said, "It's not much. My sister's name, is all. I didn't trust most of the artists I knew to do anything nice like you got. I'm Kalos Jang, but I go by Kal."

"Tuula Voutilainen. But I go by doctor," she joked, holding out her right arm for a moment to show off her Rod of Asclepius tattoo. "You have a sister?" she asked as she turned herself around in the water to face the length of her lane.

"I did," he said. "She's gone." With a hint of a sad smile and a shrug he said, "It was a long time ago." Kal took a deep breath, then dunked under the water for a second, getting used to the temperature. When he came back up, he felt invigorated. "If you don't mind the company, maybe you can tell me where you got the ink after some laps."

Tuula cringed slightly at the mention of Kal's sister being "gone." She didn't know what she would do if something happened to Jaana. "Sure, if I can remember where I got them all," said Tuula before pushing off from the wall and pulling herself through the water with her arms.

Kal followed after her, shoving off the wall and sliding underwater. After that, he got into his usual rhythm. His arms and legs pumped him through the water, and all the nerves of the day melted off. Every now and again he saw Tuula swimming in her lane, arms pulling her along. Eventually, he stopped at the end of his lane, arms resting on the edge of the pool while he caught his breath. He pulled himself out of the pool and sat on the edge again. "I think I've been getting too much lab time," he said as Tuula came to the end of her lane again. "I'm already dying."

"Gotta stay in shape. Doctor's orders," joked Tuula as she swam towards the lift. "I thought I saw a sauna on the way in; would you care to join me?" She carefully secured herself on the lift and began manipulating the controls, using the robotic arm to pull herself out of the pool and towards her chair which had been parked nearby.

"Sure," Kal said, standing up. He was about to offer her a hand, but she seemed to have it dealt with on her own. Which made sense, he supposed. He'd never encountered an active-duty Starfleet officer in a wheelchair, and if she managed that, she could manage getting into and out of a pool on her own. He picked up his towel and said, "Are you a doctor on the Starbase here?"

"No," replied Tuula as she steadied herself to get back in her chair. With a well-practiced motion, she was quickly in her chair, attempting to dry off her mess of dark hair. She had decided to go for a black and blue look recently; it matched her uniform. "I'm on shore leave from the USS Galileo, and believe me, this little leave could not come a day too soon."

"The Galileo?" Of course, it made sense. The Galileo had just docked today, and it wasn't like the starbase was all that big. "I've just been transferred to the Galileo." He walked towards the sauna, opening the door for them both. "I'm the new nanoengineer. Small world, I guess." The steam fell over him like a blanket and he started sweating right away. "You guys had a pretty rough one out there?"

"Don't even get me started. Zombie Cardassians, a haunted mine, and a tribble infestation. It was a rough one, and that's before you even consider the chaos in sickbay after an away team was beamed up." Tuula looked around the room; with a plasma heater and built in display screens, it wasn't exactly a traditional Finnish sauna, but it would have to do. "Computer, raise temperature by 10 degrees," she called out as she transferred herself to a cedar bench near the stove. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No," Kal lied, wiping the sweat off his face. Hotter? Was she half-Vulcan? "Don't worry about it, go ahead." He sat down on a bench as the heat closed all around him. "Cardassian zombies and ghosts? Is that type of thing normal with you guys?"

"I wouldn't know," replied Tuula, letting the steam work it's magic. Her voice had taken on a slower and more relaxed tone as the hot steam melted her cares away. "I've only been on board for a month, and as a doctor I spend more time getting phasers pointed at me by flag officers in the middle of surgery than running from zombies." She tugged uncomfortably at the straps on her bikini; it felt strange for her to be wearing a swimsuit in the sauna.

"It sounds...exciting," Kal said, unable to help himself. "I mean, I'm sure at the time it was pretty, you know, bad. But Cardassian zombies and ghosts, it's what I'm out here for. See new things. I've been stuck staring at diagnostics the last few years. I'm not sure why you'd join a thing called Starfleet and stay stuck on Earth." He frowned. "Why'd a flag officer point a phaser at you?"

"It was just a stupid little incident..." started Tuula. "So there I was in sickbay, in the middle of an operation, wrist-deep in my patient's guts. And then, out of nowhere, this commodore busts in, grabs me by the shoulder, and starts distracting me while I'm in the middle of surgery. So I get angry, and tell her in no uncertain terms that her interruptions aren't welcome." Tuula didn't think it necessary to go into too many details. "Anyways, next thing I know she's pointing a phaser at me and threatening to throw me in the brig. And a few days later, I'm getting called onto the carpet by a vengeful XO who thinks she's the Federation Medical Association, despite not even being a doctor." She took a deep breath; just telling the story was getting her too agitated for the sauna. "All this because of a simple surgery; could you believe that?"

"Well...shit." Kalos had sat staring at Tuula in awe as her story went on. It sounded like one hell of a story, and he got the feeling that was only half of it, if that much. "Anything come of it, or did you just get ripped a new one by the XO? I mean...I will see you on the ship later, right? I don't want to attend any court-martials my first day." He smiled, trying to lighten some of the tension the story had obviously put on Tuula.

"Well, it was a month ago and I haven't been court martialled yet, so I think I'm in the clear," replied Tuula in a more pleasant tone. She bit her lip for a moment before continuing. "Um, this may sound strange, but... do you mind if I take off my bathing suit? It just feels strange and... unnatural... to wear one in the sauna."

For a minute, Kal wasn't sure he'd heard her question right. But it wasn't like it was impossible to hear in the mostly silent sauna. It was uncomfortable sweating into his swimming trunks, she had a point. "Uh...no, that's fine. I went to a Betazoid wedding, once. We're all adults." He stood up to take off his trunks. "What the hell, you're a doctor, I doubt I got anything you haven't seen before."

"That's the spirit!" exclaimed Tuula as she removed her bikini top. "Back home, it's kind of a faux pas to wear a swimsuit in the sauna," she said casually. "You aren't pregnant by any chance?"

"I'd be surprised, but you're the doctor." He patted his stomach, found it wasn't as flat as it used to be. Too much ice cream. Instinctively, he tried to suck it in. Naked in a sauna with a woman, he should've been sucking in his gut from the beginning. "I guess it's time I go on a diet?" It was an idle threat and he knew it, but it seemed like the kind of thing he should say.

Tuula let out a chuckle. "No, there's nothing wrong with your physique." She glanced over at him for a moment. "It's actually quite nice. I just ask because I had a bit of a scare about a month ago. I was sauna-ing in the holodeck with another woman who I just met only a half hour earlier when she started giving birth right then and there!"

"Don't worry about that," Kal said. "Even if I could pop one out, I wouldn't be any good with it to start with. I'm not what you'd call parent material." He smiled at her. "And your physique's pretty nice, too, since now we're at the exchanging compliments phase of the sauna."

Tuula smiled. "Thanks. I try to keep in shape." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting her cares melt away. "So, aside from swimming and nano-engineering, what do you do for fun?"

Kal settled back, getting more comfortable. The heat was loosening up his muscles and the sweat wasn't bothering him as much anymore. "I build things. Fix things up. I like working with my hands. Right now I'm fixing up this old tricorder. You know, the great big ones they had in the old days, they had to walk around with them slung around their shoulders? I found this thing in a pawn shop on Earth, beat all to hell. I'm trying to trick it out. Maybe see if I can install a digital music player while I'm at it. What about you?"

"I love old stuff!" exclaimed Tuula, the story of the old tricorder being as good of a segue as any into one of her favourite hobbies. "I collect antique medical equipment. It's amazing the kind of tools they used back in the day. If you're interested, I could show you my bone saw sometime."

Kal was realizing that Tuula was different from just about most officers he'd met. "Okay, that sounds educational. I'd like to be wearing pants when handling sharp objects, though, if that's okay with you?"

"Fair enough," replied Tuula, surprised at his reaction. For some reason, most people tended to recoil in horror at any mention of her collection. "I'm sure my sister would object if I started bringing naked guys to our quarters."

"You're quartered with your sister? I'm not sure if that'd be nice, or not. I loved my sister, but she sure as hell wasn't always easy to live with. Although maybe it was just teenage stuff." It occurred to Kal not for the first time that he'd never gotten to see her as an adult. "She, uh..." He smiled as he got lost in the memory. "She used to leave her stuff everywhere. You could find a trail from the front door to her room whenever she got home. Shoes at the door, socks in the hallway, her jacket in the living room, sometimes her pants right at the door to her room. It was an ongoing war she had with my mom."

"It sounds like you loved her very much," replied Tuula in a sympathetic voice. Hearing Kal talk about his deceased sister had put her little spat with Jaana into perspective. "Living with Jaana is wonderful. It's just like back home. At least... it was. Until a few days ago." She took a deep breath. "We had an argument. She's not really talking to me right now."

Kal smiled. "Sisters are evolutionarily compelled to drive you goddamned crazy," he said. "I don't know what your relationship is like, but I can tell you love her, I'm sure she loves you. It'll pass; these things always do. You still got each other, and so it's worth all the frustration, you know?" He felt awkward then, talking like he was some kind of counselor. Apparently he got philosophical when he was naked. "Sorry, I don't mean to butt in. Tell me to go to hell, I'll understand."

"No, it's fine," replied Tuula. "I just wish she would understand what I went through and why I made the choices I did instead of..." She trailed off, taking a deep breath then letting out a hint of a chuckle. "Look at me. The sauna is supposed to be a place where you can relax and let your cares float away, and here I am telling you all my problems." She twirled an errant dread around her finger. "Say, did I tell you about my pet tribble Gilbert?"

Kal snorted, then chuckled with disbelief. A tribble, a collection of bone saws and cool tattoos. He really hadn't met a Starfleet officer like Tuula before. "You have a tribble? Aren't they illegal, or something? Isn't it like if you have one you have about a million?"

"Yeah, that kind of happened to us earlier," admitted Tuula sheepishly. A tribble infestation was one of the most embarrassing fates that could befall a starship. "The ship was totally infested with them, and I rescued Gilbert from an EPS conduit behind a replicator in sickbay. He was burned pretty badly, and I had to operate on him and nurse him back to health. But he did help us find and synthesize a chemical compund that inhibits reproduction in tribbles. I put it in his food every day." She smiled at Kalos. "I love animals, even tribbles. Did you have any pets growing up?"

"Hell, yeah," he said. "A couple cats. Poke and Dumbass. My sister named Dumbass. My parents weren't terribly enthused, but she kept saying it until it stuck. I named Poke. Whenever you poked him, he'd hop up on his hind legs and take a swing at him. I was about ten and I thought that was hilarious."

"Awwww, that's so cute." Tuula let out a hint of a chuckle at the name. "Dumbass... it sounds like your sister was a wonderful person." Tuula bit her lip before continuing. "Do you mind if I ask what happened to her?"

Kal ran his hand down his face, wiping sweat away from his eyes as he thought about it. "I grew up on Farius Prime," he said after a moment. "On Farius, the Orion Syndicate is pretty much a way of life. Crime is everywhere. Farians are outnumbered by aliens on our own planet. So, when you're young, odds are good you're going to end up in some sort of gang, for lack of a better word. Bimi was in one, had been since she was twelve. She liked the lifestyle, the money, getting to do whatever she wanted. I joined one myself when I was about the same age, until she died. We never did get the whole story, the cops are basically useless there. Rumors on the streets said she and some of her gang pulled a robbery, stole something from the Syndicate without realizing it. They found her dead in an alley, shot with a phaser at close range. It was around then I decided to get off Farius."

"Oh." Tuula paused for a moment, regretting her inquiry. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," he replied. "After spending all this time on Earth, it feels a little weird to say, you know? My sister was murdered. It's not something that most people really know much about back in the middle of the Federation. Anyway, it was a long time ago. Tell me where you're from."

"I'm from Earth," said Tuula, relieved that the conversation had progressed in a slightly less dark direction. These sort of serious topics were not exactly appropriate for the sauna where she came from. "Finland, to be specific. It's a country near the north pole. Cold, and with a lot of saunas."

"I've never been there," he said. "Although I didn't really get around much on Earth. Everything always felt so crowded but so sanitary at the same time. I never could get used to it. If I'd known about the saunas, I would have gone."

"Don't worry, it's not exactly a popular tourist destination," said Tuula, in all honesty. "Though, if we stop on Earth, I can show you the Helsinki nightlife."

He suppressed a shudder at the thought of going back to Earth. At least if he had a tour guide, maybe he'd find something of interest. "I'm willing to give it a try. It sounds fun." Sweat was pouring freely off of him, and he stood up. His muscles were all loose and relaxed, but the heat was finally getting to him. "I think I better clear outta here, though. I stay much longer, I'll melt into the bench here."

"Fair enough," replied Tuula. "I'm going to stay a little longer then grab a nice cold beer somewhere on this station. I'm sure we'll meet again." She looked up at him. "Oh, and don't forget your bathing suit."

Kal grabbed his suit and stepped into it, nodding his thanks. "That would've been embarrassing. See you on the Galileo, Tuula. I still gotta find out where you got that ink." Stepping back out, the cool air of the base hit his sweaty skin and he shivered. "Damn," he said as he draped himself in his towel, thirsty and chilled. Tuula was tough, handling saunas like that. He hurried to get back to the Galileo.

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Kalos Jang
Nanoengineer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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