Champions' Arena (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 02 May 2022 @ 8:00pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant JG Karras & Petty Officer 1st Class Ember Locksley
Edited on on 02 May 2022 @ 8:02pm

2,906 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 08, 1847 hrs

Previously, on Champions' Arena (Part 1)...

Aria pulled herself up, keeping the grip on her nose. "Not the only thing, I suspect..." she said, her voice thick with it as she took a step forward. No dizziness, that was good. She could get there. "I'm okay, I'll go there."

He grabbed his gym bag and tank top then handed his shirt to her for temporary use to plug her nostrils. "Use this. The new cap'n probably won't like you dripping blood in the corridors."

"Doesn't matter..." Aria said, but put the shirt under her nose. The nosebleed had slowed down though, and she wished she had her tampons with her. Even so, here she was, walking with him.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

The medical bay's entrance hissed open with little fanfare. Lamar, still shirtless with some splatterings of blood on his bare chest and arms, followed Aria inside and stepped into the Doctors' Paradise. He subtly cringed at the bright overhead lights and sterile scent of the room. Three vacant biobeds lined one of the walls and he could only make out two blue-collared personnel in the rear office area.

Aria looked around, lowering the shirt now her nose had stopped bleeding. She blinked against the lights as well. Blood had started to dry on her face, in that sticky way that nosebleeds always did. She held herself carefully as well, her ribs now aching with the bruises from the training session.

Dr Ember Locksley looked up from her research as the battered pair moved in. It had been a quiet shift so far; she was in a neat uniform, leaning back against a biobed with a padd in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Her dark red hair had been plaited down the side of her face, with all of it gathered in a silver celtic clasp at the back, and she had looked, generally, relaxed. She straightened up as she looked at the blood that spattered them both. "What on Earth has happened here?" she looked at the state of them with disbelief for a moment. They weren't at battle stations. No accidents had been called in. The doctor grabbed a tricorder as she moved for the biobeds. "Take a bed each, let's get you cleaned up. Quite literally."

Aria moved to one of the beds and got up, breathing through her mouth because her nose was a no-go. She looked at Ember, watching the woman before she grimaced. "Hand to hand combat training," she finally said. "'m Security."

Karras had followed Locksley from the back, and just sighed when he saw the two new patients and heard their explanation. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see them both like this. "Didn't know when to stop?" he asked, not chiding but just making conversation as he prepared some clean, sterile cloths.

For some strange reason, Lamar didn't completely follow the instructions given to him. Instead he sauntered next to the biobed adjacent to Aria's. His gaze was focused on the new red-haired medical officer he'd never met. She was tall. Well-proportioned and pretty. The woman's blue eyes were striking contrasted against her light skin and dark ginger locks. The way her body filled out her uniform was...

The counselor's arrival snapped Darius from his observations. He grinned at the familiar Ba'ku man. "Karras! My man. She told me to do it, I swear." He winked to Aria then innocently held his hands up. His swollen and bloody knuckles were faced away from the counselor and discreetly hidden.

"Yeah, I'd bet," Karras replied, gently touching the other man's shoulder and guiding him onto the biobed. "Go ahead, and lay down here, Lamar. easy..." He allowed Darius the opportunity to situate himself but kept light contact as a precaution. Once settled, he reached for one on the cloths and started to dab at the blood on the man's chest, carefully checking for any open wounds.

"Oh that's all hers. Nose bleed. Accidental," Lamar casually commented.

"Uh, huh," Karras mumbled, turning his attention from the cleaned chest to the hands that where laying palm up at Lamar's sides. He reached for the nearest wrist and carefully turned it palm down, revealing the inflamed, oozing hand. "And this?"

Lamar innocently looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, so the holodeck program was...in a gladiator arena. After a few rounds your hands just get like that," he shrugged. "And Aria's kind of bony..."

"I see," the counselor acknowledged, keeping his focus on cleaning one set of knuckles before turning to the second. He would need to scan for any breaks or fractures, but he figured he's leave the doctoring to Doctor Locksley and continue in his role as aide.

"Did you really need to take it quite this far?" Ember wasn't as neutral as the counsellor, frowning as she held Aria's chin gently in her hand, the regenerator working on her nose. She'd give her a proper scan after, but for now she wanted to at least get her breathing more comfortably again. "Aren't there a hundred holoprogrammes for indulging in this sort of thing?"

Aria sat still, clearly thinking about it. "There is, but this was...training. The pain...helps. You have to be able to handle it," she said, quietly.

"I see, well when Starfleet adds wrestling or cage fighting to their list of acceptable diplomatic opening gambits and first contact procedures, I'm glad that you'll be prepared," Ember replied in an unimpressed drawl, carefully touching the bridge of the now healed nose. "Breathing helps with your work too, don't you think?"

Aria chucked softly, meeting her eyes and holding them. "Yes," she said, her voice quiet. "It's not...necessarily the way the pain happens, doctor. It's the fact there is pain. If I don't know what it feels like, it'll...be shocking. Learned that the hard way."

"I don't particularly see this..." the doctor motioned between Aria and Darius with a delicate wave of her hand, "...as the easy way," she pointed out as she pressed a hypo to the security chief's neck. "Counsellor, if you could start a scan here, I can attend to our other gladiator there..."

Karras nodded and traded places. He held the probe of the medical tricorder near Aria's nose but he could not look her in the eye because he was afraid he'd start laughing. He made several slow passes, but the imaging showed only inflamed tissue; the injury itself had been repaired. "The nose looks good," he reported. "But let's just make sure there aren't any hidden surprises elsewhere. Would you mind lying down, Lieutenant?"

Aria shook her head, easing back on the biobed as she sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the ache in her ribs, the bruises she had. It had been tough training because someone, not her, was built like a starfreighter.

Ember moved to Darius' side, reaching to turn his head carefully so she could start healing a split on his temple. "I suspect you're in agreement with your sparring partner?" she asked lightly, watching the skin with satisfaction as it started to knit closed.

The chief warrant officer wasn't exactly paying attention to the medical officer's query. Instead, he'd been preoccupied observing the faint freckles on her forehead and nose. They were exotic. And cute. Lamar looked into her blue eyes again then realized she was fixing something on his head. He hadn't even realized he was cut. "Hmm?" he finally mumbled, refocusing on the question he'd missed.

"I think it's safe to say that's a yes then," Ember gave a soft clicking sound but chuckled as she tested the skin out with a careful fingertip, satisfied with the tissue. She was relenting though. She'd given them a ticking off, now it was up to them. "At least they keep us in jobs, hm, Counsellor?"

"They certainly do," Karras agreed, focusing on the last of his scans. Aria was certainly banged and bruised, but he couldn't find any other injuries. He caught Ember's eye and gave her a thumbs up before offering his hand to the Chief Of Security. "You can sit up if you'd like. Everything looks good. Well, everything looks battered, but good."

Aria nodded and took his hand, using it to pull herself up to sit. "Thank you," she said, before adding quickly, "This isn't some masochism thing. It's...part of the training. But unfortunately there's no holodeck safeties when it is a real person against you. Sort of regretting that now."

Over at the adjacent biobed, Lamar continued his scientific observation of the new doctor. "So...what's your name?" he casually asked in an attempt to make small talk.

"Ember. Ember Locksley," she finally gave a small smile, having finished up her telling off. She urged him to lie back so she could start to tackle the bruising across his bare ribs. "Keep breathing normally, that's it...I was on the Trial, so I'm still new around here. Learning the rhythm of the ship, I'm sure you know how it is on a new posting."

Ember. A nice name for a nice-looking woman. He rested his head back on the biobed's headrest. It was hard not to fidget while being examined, especially when he felt little pain. Maybe it was the adrenaline from his recent hand-to-hand combat which was still wearing off. "I'm Lamar. Darius. Conn officer." He offered his hand to her to shake. "Welcome to the Gal. And...sorry about your ship."

Keeping her occupied hand working on the contusions, she managed to reach her other hand over her outstretched arm to take his offered hand, a little awkwardly, but she gave it a gentle shake all the same. "Thank you. We all know it can happen, but it doesn't make it easier. I hear that it wasn't exactly plain sailing over here either."

He returned her physical pleasantry, feeling the softness of her fingers and palm inside of his hand. Her touch felt nice even if it was just formal in nature. "The L-T probably knows more about that than me. Rice, I mean. I was below decks for most of the mission doing maintenance." It was the easiest reply he could think of to avoid commenting with his own personal opinion of past events. Whatever they were, none of them were relevant now that the ship was back underway with a new assignment.

Aria looked at them before she gave a small shrug. "I never pay attention. One day at the time sort of woman," she admitted, grimacing as she moved on the biobed, swinging her legs down to stand.

"I'm hoping it won't be too much to ask that the pair of you take it easy for the next few days?" Karras asked, meeting Aria's eyes before looking over to Lamar.

Lamar scratched the short curly hair in his goatee. "What, you mean yoga and meditation?" He didn't like either of them.

Ember couldn't help but laugh at the response, shaking her head as she stood back slightly to regard her work. "Sorry, I just like the extreme slide from bashing each other to meditation. Is there nothing in between in the world of security?" she teased them, looking between Aria and Lamar.

Aria laughed warmly, her eyes shining as she looked at her. Oh, it hurt to laugh. Never mind. "I am sure we will find some balance...although I think there's some time until we do this again."

Ember knew there was likely an element of placating the medical staff in that statement, but even if it was half true, it was an improvement. She folded her arms, her weight shifting onto one leg as she nodded. "Maybe...bash each other gently?" she chuckled, shaking her head. "Well, the worst is now fixed, but Karras is right, you should take it easy for a couple of days. If you start feeling stiff and achy in a few hours once the painkiller wears off, you can take another. Or if you want to be Spartans, you can endure with grace and dignity instead."

The conn officer scratched his chin again. Aria didn't seem like the gentle type and his minor wounds felt inconsequential. He also hated drugs of all sorts; they weren't without their side-effects. No, none of that sounded appealing. Lamar would probably be back in holodeck within 24 hours doing another combat simulation. Before he thought about it too much, however, his thoughts lingered on the new doctor's last sentence. "Spartans? What planet are they from?"

"Earth," Ember leant back against the edge of the biobed, her hands resting on the edge of it and her ankles crossed. "They were ancient warriors. From the age of 7 the boys were taken from their families to devote their lives to military training and Spartan splendour. The women were centuries ahead of their time compared to their contemporaries. They competed in sport, owned property, were educated, literate and spoke their minds. Together, they were a formidable force of the classical world.

"The overwhelming Persian army were forcing the Greek world around them to their knees. But Sparta refused to ally with them and stood against them alongside a few other Greek cities, despite being hopelessly outnumbered. When the Persian king asked King Leonidas of Sparta to lay down his weapons, Leonidas told him to 'come and take them'...."

Ember held her arms out, as if speaking the line herself before shaking her head with a tsk of admiration. "Leonidas only had an army of about 7000 soldiers. Persia had tens of thousands, at least ten times more, some say even more. Their military prowess managed to hold the invading Persian army at bay, until they were betrayed. The betrayal allowed the Persians to flank them, and it left them with no choice but to retreat. But King Leonidas refused to stand down; it went against everything that Spartans believed in. So he stayed behind with only 300 Spartans and about a thousand Greeks to hold the Persians back to cover the rest of the army's retreat..." she shrugged gently, shaking her head as she let out a long breath. "Legendary."

Karras smiled. He was not a fan of violence, but he respected the Spartan's sacrifice. He also considered them an apt comparison, because he knew that Aria and Lamar would make the same sacrifice if ever called upon.

Aria looked at Ember with surprise, then awe, searching her face. "You're like a walking history database!" she said, unable to stop it as she shook her head. "I mean, I have heard like...'this looks Spartan', but I never really got it before. As much as I love Earth history." She stopped suddenly before she narrowed her eyes. "Leonidas sounds like a bad arse."

On the adjacent biobed, Lamar listened to the story. He didn't know much about Earth history but more often than not, the ancient tales involved a good deal of 'creative interpretation'. At least that's what his history teacher in high school had said to his class. Not that he'd paid much attention. "Too bad he didn't have phaser rifles for his unit."

"I wonder..." Karras mumbled, suddenly drawn into speculation. "I mean, granted, phaser rifles against handheld weapons? Clear advantage. But at the end of the day, wouldn't it still be a numbers game? After all, Leo... um, Leo-whosit's side would still get tired, and that could give those other people a chance, especially if they had more soldiers, right?"

Aria looked at them before she sighed. "But they didn't have that, they had the...weapons and technology of their time. And that is what makes such a stand...so brilliant. If they had phasers, it wouldn't have been a battle worth mentioning."

Ember looked to Karras with a soft, almost playful smile, shaking her head. "You'll learn that humans love an 'under dog'. Even if Leonidas was doomed to fail the moment he made the decision to stay, the battle became legendary for his willingness to fight for what he believed in, against impossible odds, even if that meant dying for what he believed in," she gave a delicate shrug as she wondered if that made sense to the Counsellor who came from such a peaceful culture. "Perhaps it's our way of making sense of the toll of war."

The muscular chief warrant officer hopped off his biobed then stretched his arms and torso. The two sickbay staff had done a good job repairing his bruised ribs. He was ready to go back to the holodeck as soon as the opportunity presented itself again, however for now, a sonic shower was needed followed by a hot meal in the mess hall. "Hate to break up the philosophy. Time to get clean and get dinner." Lamar gave Karras and Locksley an appreciative nod then winked at Rice. "Next time, we're training with bat'leths."

Ember lifted her hands up in the air with a 'for goodness sake' motion, but she was laughing softly, shaking her head to herself as she turned away to start clearing up.

[OFF]

--

LTJG Karras
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

Lt. Aria Rice
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Ember Locksley
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

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