Goodmorning

Posted on 11 May 2020 @ 1:54pm by Lieutenant Rosine Deschamps & Commander Kristiana Petrova

1,121 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Changing Faces
Location: Sickbay

Quietly Kristiana made her way into Sickbay. Another one of Odin's many comatose patients had awoken, which was good news. Kris had to skip today's work-out session to make time to check on her and bring her up to speed, which was the bad news. But still, all in all people waking up was a good thing. As such the Russian auburn-haired woman quietly approached the recovering officer's bed.

"Lieutenant DesChamps?" she ventured, announcing her presence.

News travelled fast indeed. Very fast. Rosine wondered why the doctor hadn't just let her go home because it would have saved Sickbay quite a bit of traffic. There were still people there, after all, who really needed their rest. Her eyes roamed to the collar of the woman who had approached her bed. "That's me, Commander," she acknowledged, once again sitting up in her bed. She was bored. She wanted to get out of here. Almost. Almost. She hoped.

"That's me," Kristiana smirked, pulling up a chair and sitting down. She observed the Lieutenant for a moment, leaning back, folding her hands together in her lap. "How are you doing, Lieutenant?" she asked, tilting her head a bit.

That was indeed the million dollar question and she wished that people would stop asking her. Then again, it showed people cared, which was also important. "I'm just about ready to get out of here and get back to work," Rosine replied after contemplating the possible answers. This one was very close to the truth, so why not?

"That's good to hear. Though don't be too eager to return to work," Kris cautioned. "You were in a coma for some time. There could be residual effects. That's why you're still in observation. I understand that it's boring and not fun, but better safe than sorry," she explained. "But where are my manners. I'm Kristiana Petrova, executive officer. It's nice to meet you."

Why was everybody so intend on keeping her away from her quarters and from work? Running through a few scenario's in her head, and quickly dismissing them all as far fetched, Rosine decided to plaster a smile on her face for now. "You know who I am, so yes, nice to meet you, Commander. There's been quite a few personnel changes since I was last up and about," she added in an afterthought. She'd read up on what had happened since she'd been in a coma, and it hadn't been good.

"Well, it's my job to know everyone," Kris offered, relaxing a bit. It seemed that Rosine was in a keen state of mind, which Petrova took as a good sign. "And, yes. Personnel changes. That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about."

Ah. That sounded like a good start. Someone who wanted to talk to her for more than just knowing how she was doing - something they could all read on the monitors. Well, her physical state anyway. "Go ahead?" she prodded the XO. She was somebody who preferred getting down to business instead of dancing around a subject.

"Long story short, we're understaffed in just about every department. Many people are pulling serious overtime and double shifts just to keep things running as smoothly as we can," Kris explained the situation. "We're currently lacking a science chief and frankly, you're the most experienced and qualified. Job's yours, if you want it. You'll start as acting chief at first, until you've settled in to the role."

They were understaffed and they were keeping her an additional 24 hours in Sickbay? Rosine couldn't quite help the deep sigh that escaped her lips. She realised it could be interpreted in many ways, but she didn't care. On this Tactical refit ship, the Science department wasn't all that large to begin with, but still. Figuring out what had happened to her previous Chief was something she added to her mental list, but it wasn't for right then and there. Instead she nodded slowly. "I can do that. As soon as I can get out of here."

"Unfortunately that's not up to me," Kris shook her head. "A coma is no small thing and just because you feel up to the task doesn't mean that your body and mind have fully recovered yet. But I can see you're eager, so I'll speak with the doc, see what we can arrange."

Rosine tilted her head slightly. She hadn't known many XO's who were so accomodating. She'd have to be careful around this one. Make sure she was really as nice as she tried to appear. So far, she had no indications to the contrary, so that was good. "I'd be grateful if you could get me at least permission to go to my quarters. Sickbay is driving me nuts," she spoke in an attempt to see just how far she could take it.

"No promises, but I'll see what I can do," Kris reiterated. "In the end it's up to Doctor Warner. In matters of medicine I couldn't overrule her even if I tried."

At least she wasn't promising something she couldn't accomplish. Rosine liked that in a person. She let the silence linger, but only for a moment. "What's the current mission, anyway?"

"We've not got anything big going on currently," Kris explained, looking actually a bit relieved for once. "Just had a few diplomatic envoys onboard with their entourages. One ended up dead. Accusations and suspicions abound. Turned out she killed herself, probably in an attempt to destabilize peace talks. Right now though, we're kinda licking our wounds, doing some personnel shifts, finding a stable status quo again."

Once more it was a statement filled with information. People certainly liked doing that. Cramping a lot of information in once sentence and hoping nobody would notice. Well. Rosine did. But she was used to it and she usually managed to filter out the information people actually intended to tell. "A stable status quo would be a good thing," she agreed smoothly.

"That's what we're going for," Kris sat up more straight again. "Now, do you have any questions?"

"I think you've answered the most important ones," Rosine replied with a shake of her head. Of course she had more questions. She *always* had questions. But for now, she didn't have any she wanted the XO to answer. "But thank you for making the time to come see me."

"No problem," Kris mused, rising to her feet and putting the chair back. "Good to see you awake, Lieutenant. I'll make sure the department will be ready for the handover," she added with a nod before turning to head out.

Rosine watched as Kris left Sickbay. This could become interesting.

--

by Cmdr Petrova & Lt Deschamps

 

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