Back to the quarters

Posted on 18 Jun 2015 @ 1:27pm by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant Olsam Mott

1,151 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Tuula's quarters
Timeline: MD01 - 2330 hours

[ON]

After a long night of eating, drinking, and defending people's honour, Tuula was returning to her quarters and not a moment too soon. The food was good, but she quickly tired of being in the same room as a bunch of drunken Klingon warriors, and left with Olsam a little early.

Of course, for her, the night was not over. Or at least, so she hoped. She had asked Olsam to walk with her back to her quarters as a favour, but as her room approached up ahead, she had to make her move quickly. "Thanks for walking with me back to my quarters," she said as she pushed herself down the hallway. "That was real sweet of you."

"I'm happy to do it. You never know what might happen on the walk from a Klingon ship to your quarters given all the drinking and revelry and the like," Olsam said, shifting his eyes from side to side. "Someone might take the opportunity to assassinate you or something."

"Oh yeah, you can never be too careful," gushed Tuula as they neared the door to her quarters. "Especially after you just demolished them in a challenge. I don't know much about Klingons, but I don't think they take too kindly to having their lack of honour illustrated, least of all by us Starfleet types."

"No, they don't. Did you see the look on that big guy's face? He was all," Olsam said, scrunching up his face to do his best angry Klingon impression; it came off a lot more like constipated Bolian. "But that's what they get. As if I'm going to just stand around while they're picking on my most beloved colleague. What sort of man would I be then?"

"Not a very good one, that's for sure," replied Tuula, slightly dismayed at Olsam's choice of the word 'colleague' to describe her. Was that all they were?

As they stopped in front of the door to Tuula's quarters, she decided that it was time to go for broke. "Thank you, again, for everything," she said, softly, looking up into his eyes. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?"

"Oh, no, thank you. I don't like coffee," Olsam said, smiling. "It tastes so bitter! And it keeps me awake this late at night. I don't know how you can drink it at this hour!"

"Oh." Tuula paused for a moment, a look of dismay appearing on her face. In truth, she had no intention of drinking coffee. "Well, I can make you some decaf tea if you want," she added, hopefully.

"Decaffeinated tea always tastes like it's been processed with ethyl acetate," Olsam said, wrinkling up his nose. "Which... I guess it has. That's probably why it tastes that way. Did you know they used to decaffeinate tea with methylene chloride on Earth? Goodness. It's a wonder you didn't all die from cancer before you developed the warp drive." He paused, looking around the corridor thoughtlessly. "What were we talking about?"

Tuula let out a sigh. Looking up at Olsam with big doe-eyes, she batted her eyelashes in an innocently flirtatious manner and put on her most sultry voice. "Are you sure there isn't anything you desire?" she asked, leaning forward to give him a better view of her chest. "Anything at all?"

"Is something wrong with your larynyx?" Olsam asked, worried about the change in her voice. He leaned down, practically burying himself in her cleavage in order to get his ear pressed against the appropriate part of her upper chest. "Say something. I'll listen to see. You might have caught something that's giving you Lissepian whooping voicebox."

"Oh Olsam," sighed Tuula, wrapping her arms around him. "I want you so bad..."

Almost as if he didn't hear what she said but just that she'd said something, he nodded against her chest in agreement. "Mm-hmm, well, everything sounds okay. No voicebox damage that I can tell. Maybe just some jumpy laryngeal nerves, who knows." Olsam stood up and smiled, though the smile very slowly faded. "Wait... What did you say? Were you reading a script? That phrase isn't from the Standardized Lissepian Whooping Voicebox Diagnosis Protocol. Did you learn something different at the Medical Academy?"

"I..." Tuula looked beyond Olsam's faded smile and into his eyes, looking desperately for any sign he felt the same way. But instead, all she saw was his usual slightly confused expression. "It's nothing," she added, a dejected look appearing on her face. "I had a good time tonight. Thank you."

"You don't look like you had a good time, though," Olsam said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He leaned closer and put a hand on her shoulder, concern on his face. "Did you have too much bloodwine? Are you not feeling well? I can tuck you in if you'd like. I know lullabies in seven different languages, including Klingon if you want to maintain the atmosphere."

Tuula placed her hand on Olsam's. "I'm fine, Olsam, it's just..." Tuula sighed longingly as she looked up into his blue eyes. "Have you ever been in a situation where you had a colleague that you wanted to be more than just colleagues with?"

"More then just colleagues? You mean, like, research partners? Co-authors?"

"I mean..." A look of sadness came upon Tuula's face. "Never mind. Good night, Olsam."

"Hmm, okay," Olsam said, supposing that she wasn't feeling well enough to continue the discussion. He hesitated outside the door, unsure of what to do, and then extended his hand toward her for a friendly parting handshake. "Good night, Tuula. I hope you feel better soon."

"Good night, Olsam," she replied, awkwardly shaking his hand. She smiled at him once more before turning towards the door and returning to her quarters.

Olsam turned away and strolled down the corridor, thinking over Tuula's condition for a few moments. She didn't seem to have the symptoms of too much bloodwine consumption, but she'd definitely been acting weird lately. She kept getting flushed in the face and leaning over a lot and her voice was all over the place. Maybe she had vertigo?

Eventually, he shrugged and began whistling a tune that was stuck in his head from the Klingon party. It was The be'Hom from Haktuth, an upbeat aria (for a Klingon opera) about some woman who was blind or something so she couldn't see all the young warriors clamoring for her attention. Olsam had always thought it was an incredibly stupid song, but then again most of the songs in Klingon operas were stupid if you paid too much attention to the lyrics. Blind people could hear, so why didn't they just talk to her?

Idiots.


[OFF]

Lieutenant Olsam Mott
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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