Behind the Wheel

Posted on Wed Dec 28th, 2022 @ 4:40pm by Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Lieutenant JG Evelyn Stewart

1,143 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission One: Goodwill Tour [Part One]
Location: Triton Seabase: Bridge
Timeline: MD1 - 0900 hours

Captain Maxwell Culver stood on the bridge of Triton Seabase, having seen to a last minute arrival and the rest of his crew as they arrived. Now, with sunglasses tucked into the collar of his shirt, he looked toward Evelyn Stewart.

“Lieutenant Stewart, the time is now zero nine hundred hours. Retract all moorings and docking clamps. Coming to her side, he opened a channel.

“Triton Seabase requesting to be cleared for departure from Triton Tower,” he asked.

=/\= Triton Seabase, you are cleared for departure. Jolan tru, Captain Culver.=/\=

Max felt himself smile. This moment had been a long time in the making. “Jolan tru, Triton Tower. We’ll see you again in six weeks.”

Once the channel disconnected, Max turned his attention forward as he sat. “Moorings are cleared, docking clamps confirm undocked. We’re under our own power now,” he said to Stewart.
“Set heading for Golden Towers, lieutenant.”

“Aye, sir. Docking thrusters engaged,” she acknowledged, tapping the controls.

Once the base cleared the docks, she continued to tap controls. “Bringing main engines online. Course laid in.” A few more taps on her console before it was done. “Triton Seabase is out to sea. We are riding the currents. ETA to first destination, four days and twenty hours.”, Stewart confirmed.

With that, Stewart’s task on the base was done. The base navigated by the natural currents and the computer compensated accordingly. Unless there was a catastrophic disaster, she had nothing to do until they docked next. If they even needed to dock.

Evelyn rubbed at her throbbing head unconsciously. How much of her headache was from the ale, she didn’t know anymore.

A short electronic buzz filled the air before an Andorian appeared next to Max. “Purge is illegal in the Federation, captain,” she chided as she scanned him with a medical tricorder. “You should know better,” she concluded, obviously annoyed.

Max swallowed hard, trying not to dry heave. “Can you just treat it and get on with your business,” he asked the hologram.

“I am your current chief medical officer, captain. You may call me Doctor or Doctor Graham, but you will comply with my treatments.“

Christine turned to Lieutenant Stewart then. “You are no better. Scans indicate you’re hung over and dehydrated. You must remember this planet is mostly tropical. Heat and humidity will worsen your conditions,” she paused and looked from one to the other.

Stewart gave the hologram a dirty look. “You needed a tricorder to tell you that?” she asked sarcastically.

“Doctor, I simply asked if you can treat us here. We are the only bridge crew available at the moment,” Max reiterated.

Evelyn half sighed, half groaned between her headache and the assessment of being a bridge officer. “Despite the fact a trained targ could do my job,” Stewart muttered louder than she wanted to herself.

Christine scowled as she pressed orders into the replicator. She walked over to Evelyn and pressed a hypospray against her neck, which dispensed a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory along with triox to clear the headache. For a moment, she adjusted something on Stewart’s chair.

Christine placed a device over Stewart’s arm and then hung a bag of fluids beside her. “I’ve given you medications to clear your headache and now you’ll receive intravenous fluids, electrolytes and vitamin B. That should help you fairly quickly.”

“Now,” she said, turning to the captain. Christine followed much the same treatment, but doubled Max’s fluid bags. When she was done, she returned to the replicator and retrieved another hypo. “You are both lucky I am automatically activated when crew is in need. Captain, that Purge you were given isn’t inducing a headache. It contained a dose of a neurological proteins that would have bound both transmitters and receptors in your brain.

Another hour or two, you’d likely go to bed. You’d die in your sleep and the compound would have broken down by the time your autopsy was completed.”

At this point, Max could barely hold his head up, much less understand what the hologram was saying. From the deepest recesses of his ancient heritage came the response, “Tell no one.”

It wasn’t a question.

Evelyn takes this all in and turns to the hologram, “Are we all set?” Evelyn’s tone was terse as she spoke to the EMH.

The doctor took a moment, sighing at the lieutenant’s tone. “I suppose, yes. I will-“

“Computer, end program.” Stewart commanded sharply. When the Andorian doctor shimmered away, she turned her chair to face Culver.

“Captain, we can’t just ignore this. Someone attempted to assassinate you, whether it was the Romulans or the Rangers, Starfleet needs to know.” Evelyn said just as sharply to him.

Max’s head was pounding, he could barely process his own thoughts, much less what Evelyn was saying. He curled up his arms and laid his head on his arms.

The short electronic buzz filled the air again. “As I told you, his synaptic pathways were blocked. It will take some time and rest for him to recover. “I will have to attend him for the next twelve hours to make sure he doesn’t enter a complete neural collapse. That means, this is our burden to bear,” the doctor replied.

“And for the record, don’t turn me off mid-sentence. That’s rude.”

“Can you treat him?” Stewart asked abruptly, ignoring the EMH’s comment about her behavior. She didn’t have time to take a hologram’s feelings into account.

“I can treat him, yes,” Christine answered. “I will need twelve hours to restore his normal synaptic responses.”

Stewart was already up on her feet and moving to the Ops station, interrupting the doctor, “Fine, I’m going to initiate a site-to-site transport for him directly to sickbay. Get him started while I inform Commander Paxidor.”, Evelyn had no idea what she was going to tell the woman, but she would think of something.

“Belay that order,” Christine interrupted. “The minute he goes to sickbay, his treatment has to be officially recorded. You can arrange to transport us to his quarters.

You may tell Commander Paxidor he has a severe case of seasickness. His treatment added to his…hangover, caused him to become overly drowsy. I will enter into my records that he relieved himself of command before transporting to his quarters with me.”

Evelyn tapped the controls and set the coordinates and transported the Captain directly to his quarters.

Stewart sighed when she had confirmation of the transport being complete and the Captain was safely in his quarters. Taking a minute, she ran through the story the doctor gave her and took a breath as she headed above deck to find the Colonel and the Commander.

 

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