Post 6 - Recovery, the Winding Road

Posted on Fri Feb 5th, 2021 @ 2:50am by Commander Kora Lenek

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: Various
Timeline: Ending MD 25, 1440 hrs

[Recovery Ward, Lunar Annex, Starfleet Medical]
[MD 5, 0800 hrs.]

Lieutenant Commander Kora Lenek pushed herself up from her prone position in the medical bed that she had found herself resting on. Her memories were vague, almost as if they weren’t truly her own. There were gaps that she instinctively knew were there given the disparity between her current location and where she knew she had been prior to the fog residing in her mind had seized her consciousness. She was positive she wasn’t in the Delta Quadrant any longer, and while she wasn’t entirely sure where in the Federation she was, it was obvious that it was somewhere close enough ‘civilization’ since all of the medical equipment was the pinnacle of current medical technology.

As the Cardassian struggled to push herself up, the subtle hiss of the door at the far end of the room caught her attention, as did the sight of the figure entering the room. A rather elderly looking man came in, a lab coat draped casually over his uniform, hands buried in his coat pockets. His surly expression actually put the woman somewhat at ease as she got the impression he wouldn’t beat around the bush with any information she might request about her current condition.

“Mornin’,” was all the man said as he approached the side of the bed Lenek was stretched out on.

“Is it?” Lenek turned to look for a window, only to find there wasn’t one in her room.

“Well… about as ‘morning’ as you get on the lunar surface. We’re facing the night side of Earth just now so it’s a bit of a strange situation,” the old man said with a shrug as he pulled the rolling stool from its hidden compartment and flopped down onto it.

“How long have I been under?” Lenek asked, looking the old man in the face.

“More than a month. They did a damn fine job keeping you alive considering the parts you were missing. You’re not missing them anymore, by the way,” the old man explained curtly and with very little in the way of the usual bedside manner that most Starfleet doctors seemed to have.

Lenek nodded in understanding, “That would explain the fragmented memories…”

“A side effect of all the medications. Probably won’t ever get those memories back… not sure I’d want them if I were in your shoes,” the doctor shrugged as he made the comment.

“Why am I here? Isn’t Earth a bit far from Barzan?” the Cardassian asked as she leaned back against the now raised medical bed.

“Because the Sol system had two things you needed. Advanced genetic fabrication facilities, and a doctor who has seen the way the Vidiians butcher people. Luna had one of those things, and I was called in from my own stint in the Delta Quadrant to handle it… among other things. And from what I walked into when I got here, had they waited another few days to call me, you’d have never come around,” the old man chuckled.

Lenek rested her head against the bed and closed her eyes, momentarily trying to imagine such a scenario. Once the moment had passed, she opened her eyes once more and gave the doctor a sincere look, “Thanks, doctor.”

“You’re welcome, kid,” the old man grinned, rolling his chair up toward the woman while extracting a tricorder from his pocket, “Judging by your ability to form coherent sentences and sit up on your own, I’d say all of the new organs are working the way they ought to. You should be fit for full in about a week.”

“That soon?”

“You say that, but you’ve been recuperating for most of that month I mentioned earlier. You just weren’t cognizant of your surroundings until today,” the doctor smirked at her shocked utterance.

“Ah…” the Cardassian muttered, her brow furrowing rather deeply at the new information.

The old man snapped his tricorder shut and stuffed it back in his coat, along with the hand holding it before pushing himself into a standing position, “Everything looks good from the medical point of view. Any complaints? Questions?”

“Actually, yes,” Lenek said with a slight frown, “I swear I should know you, but I can’t place your face for some reason…”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” the man shrugged off the comment, “We’ve only met once during your initial physical for your placement in the Delta Quadrant personnel pool.”

“I meant… your name…” the Cardassian said with a dry tone.

“I know you did,” the old man smirked, “Get some rest, Miss Lenek.”

Without answering her query, the old man sauntered out of the room, disappearing behind the door. It wasn’t until later that the Cardassian would learn the name of the man who had done so much for her, but it wouldn’t do her much good as the very same man departed from the Lunar Annex that same day.

[Debriefing Room, Starfleet Command]
[MD13, 0930 hrs.]

Lenek was finally back in her uniform, sitting across from a small panel of Admirals from different departments of Starfleet. Most of the questions she was being asked centered around her involvement in the mission her now former ship and crew had been involved in prior to their return to Federation territory. The farther forward they probed, the less she was able to answer until the panel reached a dead end with her capture. Since they had been provided an extremely graphic account of her injuries thanks to her physician, one Nathan Cowell, they didn’t ask her anything about her ordeal. In fact, Lenek got the distinct impression they were avoiding it entirely. She wasn’t certain whether it was out of sympathy for her, or if they simply didn’t want to revisit the rather gory details they’d been subjected to thanks to Dr. Cowell being such a detail oriented writer.

“Your next assignment has yet to be determined, Commander, but we will most likely reassign you to an Executive Officer posting given the nature of your service up to this point. You’re dismissed,” one of the Admirals informed her after the panel had deliberated quietly for a while.

Lenek nodded and departed the room, walking down a corridor that would lead her to the front of the building. She passed by several people of various species before she felt a hand grab her shoulder from behind her. Turning to see who it was that had stopped her, Lenek was confronted by a face she hadn’t seen in a very long time.

“Captain… oh… pardon me… Commodore…” Lenek said with a faint smirk.

“Hello Kora,” the man said with a smirk of his own.

“Jon…” the Cardassian scowled at the overly friendly attitude of one of her oldest Starfleet acquaintances.

“Someone told me a Cardassian was wondering the corridors, so I had a feeling I’d run into you if I waited around long enough. Care to join me for a drink?” the Commodore said, motioning toward the direction Lenek had been going in before he’d stopped her.

“Are you sure you want to be seen drinking with a Cardassian?” Lenek asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Commodore laughed at the insinuation, “I doubt my reputation will take much of a hit associating with you, Cardassian or not. Being a member of the Diplomatic Corps has it’s perks, not the least of which being that people don’t gossip about my strange liaisons with out of place people nearly as much as other people. I think they actually expect me to keep strange company.”

“Lucky you…” Lenek grumbled sarcastically, though she did head off toward the indicated exit.

Once outside, the Commodore led the pair to a nearby café nestled among a grove of trees. It was a rather pleasant spot to catch a quick drink and catch up on old times. Lenek couldn’t help but wonder if her friend had brought a great many people to this same spot for similar rendezvous, since the staff seemed to know him rather well.

“Your usual table, Mister Bastin?” one of the women waiting tables asked genially.

“You know me well, Angela,” the Commodore chuckled as he headed to the back of the café and sank into a booth.

Lenek eased herself down onto the seat opposite the man and picked up the small menu sitting on the counter top, “Quaint…”

“Isn’t it though?” the Commodore chuckled at her statement, “It’s hard to find a place that has this kind of rustic feel to it here on Earth. Everyone’s switching to holographic displays rather than tactile media. I must be getting old because I rather miss having a clutter of PaDDs on my desk… it was so much easier to ignore work I didn’t want to do when it wasn’t sitting in a holographic queue.”

“Yes… the incessant march of forward progress does get tiresome as we get older,” Lenek let out a slightly exasperated sigh.

“You could at least try to enjoy yourself, Kora,” the Commodore said with a sigh of his own.

Lenek set the menu down and frowned, “We’ve known each other a long time, Jon. You know better than most that I don’t ‘enjoy myself’ in full view of others. At best I tacitly approve of proceedings from a distance…”

“Ah yes… the Cardassian sensibilities at work…” Bastin said with an exaggerated eye roll.

“There you go, dismissing my people’s culture out of hand,” Lenek grumbled.

“Hardly… I’m just dismissing your stubborn need to save face around someone who knows you well enough to know that you’re not nearly as ‘Cardassian’ as you like people to believe. Or rather… you are far more progressively Cardassian than your family was,” Bastin remarked.

“And how did you reach that conclusion?” Lenek asked in a skeptical tone.

“You weren’t the only person we interviewed from your former crew, Kora,” Bastin responded in a smug tone, “And there wasn’t a single person who had anything really bad to say about you. Parsing through the comments about you being somewhat ‘standoffish’ or being ‘private’, it was fairly obvious that your former crew had faith in you. That’s not something a traditional Cardassian could cultivate in the short time you served as their First Officer. It’s very telling…”

“Only you would make such assumptions…” Kora frowned.

Bastin shrugged, “Perhaps.”

The pair was approached by one of the wait staff, who took their orders and returned with them shortly after. With drinks in hand, the two sat in their booth quietly for a long while before Lenek finally broke the silence that had settled between them.

“Why did you really drag me out here?”

Bastin set his drink down and leaned back in his chair, “Because when I read the report about what happened to you, my heart about stopped.”

Lenek looked down at the table upon hearing that. She knew where such a reaction came from, and while it had been a long time since their last meeting…

“Thanks for worrying about me, Jon…” Lenek said in a voice just shy of a whisper.

Bastin leaned forward and took Lenek’s hands in his own, “I know we didn’t exactly go our separate ways on the best of terms…”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Lenek looked up into Bastin’s eyes, “I just wasn’t…”

“Yeah…” Bastin smiled at the Cardassian, “You weren’t in a great place back then, and neither was I. Between raising my kid and trying to keep my career on track…”

“We both had our problems,” Lenek nodded with a knowing smile.

“I just wanted to see if you were ok… for myself… with my own eyes. As wonderful a doctor as Cowell is… he doesn’t really do a great job of dealing with a patient’s mental distress. More than a few people have told me he can be a down right prick to people…” Bastin admitted.

“I don’t know… I rather liked how he didn’t mince words or try to embellish things. It was rather refreshing to not be on the receiving end of a lecture from a physician,” Lenek smirked.

Bastin shook his head, “You would like that old codger…”

“Jealous?”

“Pfft…” Bastin sputtered, “Jealous? Why would I be jealous? It’s not like you’re going to hop in the sack with him or something.”

“So as long as I’m not sleeping with someone, you don’t see them as a threat?” Lenek asked with a devious grin.

“Must you always twist things around like that? Can’t we just have a genuine conversation for once?” Bastin scowled.

“Absolutely not. It’s far more entertaining to tease you,” the Cardassian admitted mirthfully.

“Guess that means you’re still you…” Bastin said, letting go of Lenek’s hands.

“I am,” Lenek affirmed as she took a sip of her drink.

“Guess that means I can give you this without being too worried about how you’ll react to it,” Bastin said, reaching for something in his pocket before placing his hand on the table, palm down. A rather metallic clack sounded from underneath his hand before a scrapping sound followed it all the way in front of Lenek. When he lifted said hand, a solid silver pip was sitting on the table surface.

“You were on the promotion list… it came out while you were… indisposed. Since I wanted to see you anyway, I pulled some strings so that I could be the one to tell you,” Bastin said after withdrawing his hand.

“I see…” Lenek said, a ripple of various emotions crossing her face as she looked at it. She hadn’t really expected it, nor had she been trying overly hard to pick up rank after arriving at Lieutenant Commander. It was a marvel that she’d even made it that far given her background, and part of her didn’t imagine Starfleet would allow her to progress too much farther than that.

“Did you perhaps want to join me for a celebratory dinner tonight?” Bastin asked after giving her a good length of time to process events.

“I… I think I’d like that…” Lenek nodded, still a bit numb over the news.

“I’ll come pick you up at eight,” Bastin said before sliding out of the booth, “Congratulations, Kora.”

“Thank you,” Lenek said with a genuine smile.

[VIP Quarters, USS Argonaut]
[MD 25, 1450 hrs.]

Lenek moaned softly from her spot on the couch, her eyes slowly opening from a rather sudden and impromptu nap that she didn’t remember wanting to take. The hum of a replicator on the other side of the couch pulled her attention, spurring her to push herself up onto her elbows to see what was being fabricated. The Cardassian watched as her roommate for the journey picked up the glass of water and walked it over to her.

“Figured you’d need something to drink after that nap,” Bastin smirked at her.

Lenek took the glass and drained it nearly half way before remarking, “I don’t even recall slipping off to sleep…”

“I didn’t imagine so. You were reading something and then the PaDD hit the deck and you were sound asleep,” Bastin replied as he sat down on the other end of the couch after Lenek had pulled her feet up.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Lenek asked, resting her legs in the man’s lap after he’d gotten comfortable.

Bastin shrugged, “You’re on leave… I’m on leave… what do either of us have to do that’s so urgent?”

“I can’t believe you decided to come with me…” Lenek murmured.

“Why not?” Bastin asked, “The last time I took leave was for Cel’s Academy graduation, and that was only a few days. I haven’t taken an actual vacation since we went on that excursion to Cestus III.”

“That was… almost ten years ago! How much leave do you have?” Lenek balked at statement.

“More than I took to come with you to Risa. And speaking of which…” Bastin remarked with a smirk, “Are you planning to try on some of the native swim wear while we’re there?”

“Actually, I was planning to swim naked,” Lenek teased.

Bastin shrugged at the statement, “That works too.”

Lenek kicked the man’s leg, “I wasn’t being serious.”

“Shame…”

Lenek gave her companion yet another kick, though she was grinning the entire time. Bastin finally seized the foot and exploited her one weakness… he began to tickle it. Lenek let out a screech as he mercilessly tortured his Cardassian companion, throwing her into a fit of rancorous laughter. It took a great deal of effort for Lenek to pry herself free, and once she had, a bevy of pillows were slung at Bastin, who was laughing rather freely despite the onslaught.

“What would your crew say if they saw you like this?” Bastin asked when they were finally both seated again, though they were both fairly out of breath.

“Rest assured… they will never see me like this…” Lenek remarked firmly.

“Oh no?” Bastin asked with a raised brow.

“Don’t you even think about it…” Lenek warned with a growl.

Bastin returned her growl with a fearless grin, “Too late… already did.”

A pillow slammed into his face in response, cutting his triumphant boasting off.

“Bridge to Commodore Bastin,” a voice suddenly interrupted their reverie.

“Go ahead.”

“We’re entering orbit around Risa, sir,” the ship’s Captain relayed.

“Acknowledged. Put us in standard orbit, we’ll be departing in a few hours. Bastin out.”

When the communications link terminated, Bastin looked over at his companion, “Ready to have some fun?”

“I suppose I could be convinced to participate in a bit of fun…” Lenek grinned mischievously.


A post by

Commander Kora Lenek
Executive Officer

Featuring

Commodore Jonathan Bastin, PhD
Diplomatic Corps, Starfleet Command

And brief appearance by

Captain Nathan Cowell, MD
Curmudgeonly Physician at Large