The Bridge and the Bottle

Posted on Wed Aug 7th, 2024 @ 12:27am by Captain Björn Kodak & Lieutenant Xex Wang & Ensign Eekit Drol

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: Mission Day 0 at 1739

[Just Inside the Sojo's Hatch]
[Immediately following 'Running and Gunning']

Kodak and Drol were still laughing as they stepped through the glittering forcefield at the top of the gangway that kept out any noxious or aggressive airborne agents-- or weaponry-- from the station, but allowed organics through. They were met by another pair of security inside, the nearer of which shrank back from the Cardassian with a peculiar expression on his face.

Drol didn't have a chance to ask him about it-- she knew Frankie well enough, they'd been at the academy together-- before he cleared his throat nervously, keeping an eye on Kodak even though he'd been informed this Gorn was the captain. He didn't look entirely convinced, and there was something in Drol's smile that had put him further on edge. “D-do you want an escort to sickbay?” he asked, somehow managing to direct the question to Drol without tearing his gaze from the Gorn.

Drol lifted on eyebrowridge. “I think we can make it,” she said dryly, “We've come this far. I'll make sure the captain gets looked at.” She stressed the title, hoping to allay his fears, and clapped him on the shoulder. He smiled nervously, and she took her hand away, gesturing expansively to the Gorn. “After you, captain,” she said with a grin that was, in fact, still lined in blood-- hopefully the Vaadwur's.

"How kind," the reptilian at Drol's side said, his tone entirely comical in a Gorn's voice. He gestured with an over dramatic claw at the security officer who'd offered an escort. "Thank you, ensign," the "s" of the word was accompanied by a played-up hiss. If Kodak had been a real Gorn, the officer would have triggered hunter/prey instincts. Kodak moved past the man and down the hall proper, his powerful tail -- bruised in several places from twhacking bounty hunters with it -- swishing nonchalantly behind.

Drol fell in behind Kodak in her customary position behind and just to his left, though she left slightly more space than usual in deference to the swinging tail. She glanced once back over her shoulder to find Frankie gaping after them, a gulp sliding down his throat. Whatever familiarity he may have had with their old ops chief had clearly not prepared him for a strange Gorn coming through the hatch. She flashed him her bloody grin and winked, then turned back to follow Kodak.

The Gorn continued down the hall, reaching up to tap his combadge once out of earshot of the security personnel. "Kodak to Oliveria," the Captain said, his voice still that of the form he was in. "Will explain the bass and the growls later," he promised, "but letting you know that Drol and myself are back. Ran into some bounty hunters who kidnapped us for the First Maje. My guess is he's on his way here now. Which means we," he emphasized the word, "need to be going. Drol and I are in rough shape and headed to Sickbay. Contact t'Nai and let's start rolling up the carpets, hmm?"

After Oliveria acknowledged the order, he also provided a status update for both the Captain and Drol to hear. Included in the happenings was news of Timmoz' attack in the prison and subsequent rushing to Sickbay. While the Orion had been stabilized enough for travel back to the ship, his life was very much in question, it seemed. That hit Kodak hard but he kept his tone a confident kind of growl as he said, "I'll look in on him, Nico. I'm sure Doctor Wang will do everything he can. Try not to worry for now."

Kodak closed the channel with another badge-tap and turned back to Drol, gesturing her into the turbolift they'd arrived at. "Sickbay," he ordered, stepping in himself and sighing in sync with the swishing doors. "What a fucking day," the Gorn sagged as he leaned back against the curved wall of the lift. "Maybe Timmoz is right about our altruism often being the source of our own misery," he said with a weary note. If he'd not ordered the Sojo after the Kazon woman, Timmoz wouldn't be fighting for his life on a biobed and the kidnapping attempt wouldn't have even happened...

Drol limped into the lift and nearly slumped onto the same wall, but straightened as Kodak sagged. Looking concerned-- she could count the number of times she'd heard the captain swear casually on the fingers of one hand-- but unsure exactly how to proceed, she merely said, "Sir?" When he continued, one corner of her mouth twitched; in this particular arena, she had some commonality with the Orion. "I wouldn't let him hear you say that," she said in a low aside, "it sets a bad precedent." Crewmates on death's door? Enter: gallows humor. Belatedly, Drol added, "sir."

"If it meant Timmoz was alright," the Gorn's golden eyes -- Chameloid leftovers -- shone with concern, "I'd gladly cede the point to him publicly and loudly."

The lift slid to a smooth halt then and chimed their arrival. Drol straightened as the doors opened and once again waited to follow Kodak out. Perhaps she was a stickler for protocol. Or perhaps she didn't like the idea of a hulking great Gorn behind her.

Taking the initiative, Kodak rose to his full, lizardy height -- wincing with pain as a claw moved to cradle his injured side -- and stepped out of the lift. Thankfully it wasn't a far walk down the hallway to reach Sickbay. From the outside, it looked like just another set of double doors. The ship was full of them, after all, and they belied nothing. But the Captain knew that, behind this particular set, chaos was no doubt in full swing. His gilded gaze lingered on the doors for a few moments, the Captain hardening himself after a few moments of vulnerability had been shared with Drol.

"Here we go," Kodak breathed before stepping forward, the doors swishing open at his approach.

"--don't really care where you take it, Les, just get it out of here." Xex's clipped tones were audible as soon as the doors opened, even before the bright lights of sickbay showed the semi-organized chaos Kodak had been expecting. There were several more personnel rushing about than normally manned sickbay, and to one side, just visible past the doorway, the operating suite had been activated. Several figures worked over the still form on the table, including the smartly-pressed outline of the LMH. Nurses and techs hurried to and from the operating suite, carrying newly-synthesized fluids to and and what looked to be the remains of some kind of clothing from. The atmosphere was hushed, tense, and Xex's crisp voice cut neatly through it with the practice snap of command.

What Kodak may not have been expecting was the gravgurney blocking the entrance. This particular gravgurney shimmered with a containment field, but beneath the field, it was haphazardly smeared with a greenish substance. Some pieces of unfamiliar, cobbled-together tech could be seen strapped to its side. It was manned by a wide-eyed tech, who murmured something like, "Yes, doctor," and moved to push the gurney out-- only to find the way blocked by a rather large reptilian form. If anything, the tech's eyes widened further. "Uh," he said, his voice squeaking, "doctor?"

"Les, I really need you to--" Xex finally turned to see what the tech was so worried about, and found himself also face-to-face with the Gorn. He blinked, completely nonplussed. He could have sworn he'd seen Gar'rath get on the shuttle to Pathfinder, alongside Doctor Bracco and a few others. How could he... Xex swiftly sifted through his mental crewlist, searching for another Gorn and coming up wanting. This left two possibilities. 1) Gar'rath had not left with the shuttle. 2) A Gorn was on the station, and had somehow gained entrance to the Sojo through their security without tripping any alarms. Xex swiftly rejected 2), on the grounds that this Gorn had a commbadge, and it stretched even Xex's considerable imagination to think that the invading Gorn had had presence of mind enough to steal a commbadge. Proceeding on possibility 1), Xex said, "Lieutenant, if you could just give us a few minutes, I'm sure we'll be able to address anything--"

Although Kodak-as-Gorn filled most of the doorway, Drol managed to squeeze herself in alongside him on his good side and interrupt, "Captain Kodak needs attention now, doctor. I don't know how bad he was hit, but I think we can all agree any hit is bad, when it's on the captain."

Feeling as though his head was on some sort of whipping amusement ride, Xex found himself double-taking at the Cardassian's appearance, her blood-lined mouth merely the icing on her battered cake of an appearance. "Captain..." The shift of gears in his mind was visible in the clearing of his confused, distracted expression. Of course. How could he have forgotten their commander in chief was a Chameloid? Now that he looked at the Gorn's eyes, it was obvious. As his mind thunked into gear again, he was all motion. With a practiced swipe of hand and hip he barged both Les-the-tech and the gravgurney out of the way, while simultaneously indicating that the two should enter. "My apologies captain," Xex continued, "I'm afraid I was not paying entirely as much attention as I should have." He glanced sideways at the operating suite and while he was certainly concerned, it appeared that Marwol, the LMH, and their assisting nurses and techs seemed to have Timmoz in hand for the moment. How well in hand... remained to be seen.

“How were you to know I’m stuck as a Gorn?” Kodak replied wryly, removing the large claw he’d been using to cover the injury to his side. The disruptor burns had stopped bleeding — the numbing cream he’d found earlier also creating a sort of protective, bubbly barrier over the skin’s surface — but the smear of charred skin was wide, long, and deeper than the Captain had maybe let on to Drol. “Hurts too much to shift back to how you’d normally recognize me,” he explained his comment about being stuck, golden eyes then following Xex’s to land on the operating suite.

“How is he, Doctor?” Kodak asked grimly. “Lieutenant Oliveria filled me in on the scant details he’s aware of. Some kind of prison brawl? Multiple attackers?” He stepped towards the suite then, clearly intending to get a better view of the Orion as he was being attended to. The steps drew a hitching wheeze but the Gorn kept moving anyway, turning briefly to Drol as he walked. “If we hadn’t been captured by Subrek’s hired Hirogen, maybe we could have helped somehow,” the Captain said in a sinking tone. Ah yes, the bargaining phase of grief…

Moving smoothly with the ease of long practice, Xex stepped to one side and pivoted, which put him neatly between the Gorn and the operating suite. Of course, this would not obstruct the enormous being's line-of-site, but it did put a subtle spatial pressure on Kodak and when Xex stepped slightly forward and gestured, he knew that the movement would be impossible for the reptilian to miss, and hoped it would guide Kodak to one of the available biobeds. "He's a fighter," Xex replied, which was both true and had a positive spin to it. It had the added bonus of not actually containing any details, which the good doctor certainly was not going to provide until they were more conclusive. He continued, "as I'm sure you know. And he is getting the very best care we can provide-- as will you." This last was said with a measure of firm pride and an unsubtle change of subject, as though to put a full stop to the inquiry. "I am very much in agreement with the ensign; if it hurts too much for you to change form, it is serious, whatever your rank," he said, shooting a glance at the Cardassian that contained just the hint of a rebuke as he made to guide the Gorn to a bed.

The Cardassian in question did not seem to notice-- or affected not to care-- her own attention briefly on the operating suite. Prison yard brawls were no joking matter, and though she agreed with the doctor's assessment that Timmoz was a fighter, she was also brutally aware that such a quality did not necessarily guarantee survival. In any case, Timmoz hadn't been her responsibility-- she briefly wondered who their security had been, but couldn't make her tired mind find the name from Bridgeport's duty roster-- Kodak had, and she kept a close eye on him as she trailed captain and doctor to the biobed, taking her time in an effort to minimize her limp. "Captain," Drol began dryly, "are you suggesting that instead of being kidnapped and held for some nefarious purpose, you would rather have either been arrested and held for some other nefarious purpose?" She paused. "Or I suppose we could have staged a two-person prison-break..." This last held a carefully-calibrated note of sarcasm, hoping the slight bite would make Kodak aware of the uselessness of self-recriminations.

The Gorn came up short as Xex sidled into his path and stepped forward slightly. Though Kodak wanted to continue forward into the operating suite itself -- to get better eyes on Timmoz and the work being done to save him -- Wang's pressuring chess move had stalled that particular avenue. With an errant grunt of acceptance and pain, the Captain let himself be led to the nearby biobed instead, nodding to the Doctor's assertion that the Orion would not let himself expire without a fight and that he, himself, was just as deserving of and in need of care, too.

"I am sure you are doing all you can," he said to Xex, gingerly settling himself into position on the bed. While most people tended to hop up onto the diagnostic table's surface given its height, it was only a squat for the Gorn, who -- in this form -- was much taller than the average bear-shaped patient he normally would have been. As Xex began to fuss over him, Kodak turned to Drol and huffed out a very hot puff of air from twinned nostrils. "Point made, Ensign. Can't be everywhere at once. And even if we had been," his usual rasp had been replaced with a throaty Gorn growl, "who knows how it would have gone." Looking down at his injured side, the Captain gently removed his hand from the encrusted wound. Skin detached from skin with a sickening sklortch as the appendage came away, revealing the very nasty -- though numb-creamed -- disruptor burn.

"But do her, too," the Gorn said, now looking to Wang again but gesturing with a bloodied hand at Drol. "Her ankle. It's bad."

As the sklortching began, Xex held out an hand in an abortive attempt to stop Kodak, but he was already too late. Wasting no time, he set the bed to a diognostic while he peered with interest at the wound and its greasy coating of cream. "What--" he began, paused, glanced down at the biobed's diagnostic display and then frowned deeper. Without further hesitation, he reached out and swiped a gentle finger across the cream at the edge of the burn, bringing it up to his face and rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. "What--" he began again and then his brows arched. "A numbing agent?" he exclaimed with surprise, "in cream form? Wherever did you find such a thing?" The doctor appeared entirely diverted from the main issue which was still slowly oozing down the Gorn's side.

Fortunately, his equipment was less easily distracted than he was; the bed chimed to indicate it had finished his process, displaying the results. Xex took one look at them and nodded, as though they were merely confirming his guess. With a few practiced motions, he loaded a hypospray, frowned at Kodak, adjusted the dosage, and pressed it to his scaly neck. "Let's at least do something for the pain, shall we?" he suggested, "then we can get you laid out and start the dermoregeneration. Or--" he paused, thoughtfully, "at least, the regeneration. I suppose you don't really have a dermis as such, at least in this form."

“It’s still skin, even if it’s shaped into scales,” Kodak replied. As the hiss of the hypospray released the medicine into his bloodstream, the Captain instantly felt relief from the pain. So much so that the rigidity with which he’d been holding himself released and the Gorn became a practical puddle of said scales. “That,” the Chameloid said with eyes glassing over a bit from the pain medication, “is so much better.” A relieving sigh escaped his maw, sounding more like a hiss between his teeth. As Xex continued to prepare the table, Kodak looked back at Drol with expectancy that the woman would hop up onto a bio bed of her own.

"Might sometimes equals right in prison," Drol mused of their ability to help Timmoz, with just a little too much confidence for someone her age, "but it can get you into just as much trouble as it gets you out of." She looked as though she were quite happy to lurk around the periphery, but as soon as Kodak called her out, she hastily moved toward the other biobed, making the hop up onto its surface that the Gorn had no need of. When Xex glanced at her, she flashed him a winning smile. "Don't worry doc, it's still attached."

Xex's upraised eyebrow both appreciated the jest and censured her for it at the same time. "If I was worried about its attachment to your body," he informed her, "you would know about it. As it is, can you at least tell me if the blood in your mouth is yours?"

Drol looked positively taken aback by this, and ran her tongue hastily around her lips. Her gaze took on the faraway look of someone prodding at the insides of their mouth with their tongue. Then, tongue still stuck up in one corner of her mouth she mumbled, "'ot 'ine, 'rolly."

“Pretty sure she bit someone’s ear off,” Björn-as-Gorn said. “Which, come to think of it, I probably should have done myself. I’ve practiced with the claws and tail,” he explained, referring to his holodeck exercises to become proficient with the abilities of this particularly preferred form, “but haven’t yet taken the biting course, apparently. Got any tips, Drol?” The pain medication had clearly lifted the Captain’s spirits some, allowing him to fall back into the casually snarky exchanges he usually enjoyed with the Cardassian. He glanced briefly back towards Timmoz but did not comment further on the man’s battle for survival — they could only wait and see now.

Xex, who had been focused on the bed's diagnostic and treatment screens, jerked his head up with surprise at Kodak's explanation. Nonplussed, he blinked at the Cardassian, mentally backpedaling as he tried to both imagine the scenario Kodak described, and decide what sort of antimicrobial and antiviral courses he should be putting her through. He found that the former was actually easier than he'd expected; she had a faintly feral look to her that was only partially due to the bloodstains. The latter though... Clearing his throat, he said, "If you could take a guess at what sort of humanoid you managed to relieve of their ear, I think it would be wise to start you on some prophylactic booster courses..."

"Captain," Drol was saying, "if you started biting, I don't think you'd only be taking off the ears. But if you do try to give it a go, I find timing is everything. A nice sharp snap, and a jerk..." she mimed snapping her teeth together and jerking her head to the side at the same time. Xex's throat clearing garnered her attention again and she said, "Oh yeah, I got up close and personal with this one, an' she wasn't a local. Vaadwaur, unless I had my brains rattled worse than I thought. And it was actually her hand." This last, she seemed even more proud of than the intimation that she'd taken someone's ear off.

'Vaadwaur,' Xex mouthed to himself, making a mental note as he turned back to Kodak's biobed. "Well captain," Xex said dryly, "it sounds like if you were going to be kidnapped with anyone on the crew, you chose the right person. And you're fortunate too that whomever shot you didn't hit anything vital. We should have this closed up in no time. Hold as still as you can, and take deep breaths, please. You may notice some itching."

"Hand, ear, whatever," Kodak rasp-growled, "you were pretty vicious out there. Kind of had to be, though," he conceded to the security officer. "I don't think they knew what they were quite getting themselves into with kidnapping us. A Cardassian and a Chameloid? Good luck with that," the Gorn narrowed his eyes dubiously. "But fight dirty, get dirty. Hopefully anything nasty she was carrying," the Gorn gestured with a claw at Drol's mouth, "will be quickly eradicated." To Xex's assertion that some itching was imminent, the verdant head bobbed up and down. "Better to itch than the alternative. Was it bad?" he wondered, looking down at the wound as the Doctor ran the colored light from the regenerator over it.

"I've never seen anything like it," Xex answered, although he sounded more excited than dire. He glanced up from the regenerator, his silvery features alight with interest as he continued, "It's really quite remarkable, the way the damaged cells behaved when you changed form. In fact, the way they're still behaving. Look!" He gestured at the biobed's diagnostic screen, swiping the information into a holographic display that Kodak could view. It looked like gobbeldygook, lines and values that were difficult to parse. One little corner held a microscopic frame, looking at what indeed appeared to be cells, and they were indeed doing something, but what exactly had gotten the doctor so excited was mystifying. "Now they're damaged, they're even resisting regeneration. Fascinating!" Then, only belatedly realizing this might not be nearly as captivating to the patient, Xex glanced up at Kodak and cleared his throat, "Never fear though. We'll get them right as rain in--" he glanced at the regenerator's display, "another three minutes."

Behind Xex, Drol's expression had only gotten more concerned as the doctor waxed eloquent about Kodak's cells. Her browridges peaked with concern, she made her dark eyes wide and mouthed, 'Fascinating?!' at Kodak over the CMO's head.

The Captain made an Ugh! shrug at Drol before addressing Xex, golden eyes only momentarily looking at the display. "I feel like I should be more informed about my own anatomy," Kodak admitted, "but honestly, growing up with Federation doctors constantly fawning over 'The Mythical Chameloid' and 'his amazing morphology' sort of put me off being too impressed with my own body. I just accept that it does what it does and rely on more informed experts like you when needed." His tone of voice while explaining growing up as a Shapeshifter on Earth was wary and burdensome. He didn't seem to enjoy the spotlight and that was especially true now, while Timmoz was so gravely injured in the next room over. "I'll take the three minutes to health, though," the Captain nodded.

Xex cleared his throat at Kodak's tone, apparently having the grace to look abashed. "Apologies," he murmured, "But it really is amazing. I shall endeavor to keep my awe to myself." He flashed Kodak a grin and returned his attention to his instruments, tracking the regeneration process carefully, his earlier energy consciously tamped down, but clearly visible in the almost vibrating energy of his form.

Turning his gaze to Drol, Kodak perked an eyebrow. "Debbie's got a few bottles put back for me. The good stuff, of course," he stressed. "And who knows what she brought back from Hukatuse, aborted as her trip was, it sounds like. We going hard? Or half-measures?" he wondered, referring to the gangway promise he and the Cardassian had made to imbibe once they were safe.

"Captain," Drol said, her expression deadly serious-- a look she did especially well, with her craggy features-- "at this point wouldn't you say half measures are very much behind us?" The serious expression broke abruptly and she grinned at him, the giddy energy of being back aboard and safe temporarily overwhelming any exhaustion or trauma she might have felt. "But maybe we go half-measures on the good stuff, and hard out on the ensign-level stuff?" Her dark eyes sparkled, clearly quite happy to poke fun at the relatively enormous gulf between their stations.

It was true that a gulf existed between them so far as ranks went. However, as head of his security detail, Drol had spent an ample amount of time with the Captain over the last few months. They'd come to know each other and a friendship beyond ranks had formed. Kodak felt that bond even deeper now, having survived the kidnapping attempt together and escaping being turned over to Subrek. Shared trauma often heightened relationships and though other captains might caution Kodak against allowing that to happen with Drol, the Chameloid kept his own mind on such matters. They would definitely be drinking tonight.

"A balance between the two sounds about right," Kodak smirked back, nodding assent to hitting the synthehol hard and the real stuff easy. "Don't want to deplete Debbie's stock after she's only just resupplied," he noted with a humorous twinkle in his golden eyes. "But before we can imbibe," his eyes flicked back to Xex, "we're going to need clean bills of health. How're we doing, Doctor?" the Captain asked, studying the Chief Medical Officer's silvery face as his own eyes danced across readouts. "Am I going to live or what?" It was a cheeky question, especially with Timmoz fighting in the next room over, but sarcasm was how Kodak got himself through the difficult times: the Orion teetering between life and oblivion certainly qualified as such.

Xex's expression had closed into a frown and he didn't immediately look up. "I believe the 'or what' is probably the best description for your next few hours, captain. You're certainly not going to expire," he hurried to add, finally looking up and rearranging his features into the picture of confident calm. "However, your cells are not merely fascinating. They're actively rejecting generation and, I suspect, will equally reject a form change. We are going to have to target them more specifically and I hope you're enjoying life as a Gorn-- you may be able to unsettle the crew for another couple hours yet." It seemed like he didn't know exactly what expression he should have for this diagnosis, and opted for something halfway between joking and sympathetic. It looked a little painful.

Kodak soaked this news in and then shrugged. "I've been worse things for longer," came his snark-as-stress-response reply. Looking across the medical suite, at the operating theater where Timmoz was being tended, he thought, And it could have been so much worse than it is.

"As for you," the doctor tapped a few more commands into Kodak's biobed and turned to Drol. He was too thorough to take any patient's word for the severity of their own injuries, and had already reviewed her bibbed's diagnostic. Hers was much more straightforward-- damage in her foot and at the turn of her shoulder, in addition to the myriad bruises, without the ominous signs of an internal bleed. "Unless you too have fascinating but difficult cellular biology, you should be done in no time. Just hold still while the regen works. How is your pain?"

Drol shot the doctor a grin. "I have many fascinating and difficult characteristics, but not cellular biology-- that I know of," she added cheekily, and then answered his question with a short, "Fine." She didn't even have to lie-- the hypo he'd given her earlier was working its magic. Even her foot had eased to a dull throb.

Xex searched her face for a long moment. Although he was not as practiced as some at reading Cardassian expressions, he could not detect any of the small signs of pain that gave any humanoid away. With a sharp nod, he accepted her word and took a step back. After a quick review of both of their read-outs, he nodded. "You still have a few minutes. If you'll excuse me, I need to check on the progress in the surgical suite. I'll return before you're finished," he added, pinning them both with his best 'so behave yourselves,' stare.

Drol watched him go, amusement at the stare-- incongruous on his kind features-- giving way to preoccupation. "He'll be alright," she said, shooting a glance at Kodak, sounding more like she wanted to persuade herself than truly confident of persuading the captain. "No way Timmoz is going to let himself be killed in a prison brawl," her said, her scoff surprisingly convincing.

Golden eyes flicked towards Drol, the doctor's withdrawal having lowered his snark shield. Perhaps for the first time ever, Kodak looked visibly afraid. The effect was amplified, no doubt, by his current set of reptilian features, but the emotion was clearly keenly felt. "If only it were a matter of 'let,'" the Chameloid sighed through his toothy maw, lament in his gravely voice. "When we're done here, I need to hit the Bridge and get everything squared away. But then..." his cat-like pupils narrowed at the Cardassian, "then you and I have a date with Debbie's private stock. Forget the synthehol balance." The snark was gone. He wasn't kidding. And the lack of humor was, perhaps, even more telling than the expression on his face.

Drol's browridges arched with surprise at his decree, but she managed to keep the rest of her expression serious enough while she tossed him a salute. "Aye, captain. As you say." The words seemed careless, but the somber lines of her ridged face seemed appropriate to the moment of stark fear that twisted his reptilian face in strange ways.

Their biobeds hummed, and beeped as they concluded their procedures. Drol tried not to squirm as the regen began to itch. Before she could really reach up and cause any damage to the healing process, the silver skinned doctor returned.

Nothing in Xex's face seemed to indicate what he had found in the surgical suite, for good or ill, his features perfectly serene. Drol's bed made a pleasant chime just as he stepped up to it. "Perfect," he said, "you now have confirmation that your cellular biology is not too difficult. The healing process for your foot however..." Gray eyes flickered over the biobed's readout, and he nodded with decision, tapping a few commands into the nearby replicator. "You damaged some of the intricate bones and connections in your foot," he told her, "and the regeneration can only go so far without compromising your foot's mobility. The rest will be up to your body. Not," he lifted a cautionary finger, "that you will be entirely on your own. Here at Sojourner Sickbay incorporated, we offer only the finest in healing attire." Without looking, Xex reached behind him and took a walking boot out of the replicator. Though similar in bulk to a regular boot, it was adorned with all manner of monitors and blinking lights. With a flourish, he carefully fitted it to her foot, inputting a few commands into it and then stepping back. "You'll need to wear that for a few days. If all of these lights turn green," he indicated the little indicators which were slowly pulsing orange, "it can come off. Just come back and we'll make sure nothing has gone awry. As for your neck, it's looking--" he paused as he ran his tricorder over the area, "excellent. I'll just put a dermagel patch on it to avoid any scarring."

Drol nodded, agreeing, "Aye, doctor. Come back for the boot, don't pick at the patch." She flahsed him a grin, apparently no stranger to time in sickbay.

Xex flashed her a brief smile, "Exactly. As for you, captain," he said, turning once again toward Kodak's biobed which, in the interim, had finally chimed its own completion, "It looks like the regeneration has completed. I expect you will experience some soreness in that side for several days, and shape changes may still be difficult, but hopefully not impossible." As he spoke, Xex ran his tricorder over the gorn. The only change was a slight compression of his lips at whatever it was he saw on the little device, and finally he tapped a few commands in and looked up. "I've sent you a few exercises but most importantly, stretches, you should do to avoid any long-term problems in the area. It still appears your fascinating but difficult cells are taking the regeneration as a sign to behave poorly. If you find more than stiffness or a small ache, come back and see us and we'll see if we can't treat those little rebels to a firmer hand."

Finally, the doctor stepped back and placed a hand on Kodak's upper arm. "I'm glad it was nothing more serious," he said, managing to stop his gaze from flicking toward the surgical suite, "and we're glad to have you back. Take it easy for a few days, okay? You too, Eekit," he added, swinging his gaze back to the Cardassian who was even now hopping down off the biobed.

"Aye, doc," she said, in an almost identical tone to the one she'd used with Kodak earlier. "Believe you me, I have rarely wanted to take it easy more than I do right now. I'll be a good girl."

Xex made a noncomittal noise, clearly not entirely convinced by her assurances-- he'd worked with security personnel all his professional life. He knew their foibles. Nevertheless, he turned away from her in dismissal and watched closely while Kodak stood from the table, watching his careful movements. "You will let us know if anything doesn't feel right, captain?" He phrased it as a question, but his tone was steely enough to make it a demand. "Our databases are woefully inadequate when it comes to your physiology, despite your experience with us poking and prodding you. I shall be trusting to your own intimate knowledge to tell us if there is something else we need to address." He arched his brows, an expression that patently said, 'understood?' without him having to say it.

Poking and prodding. The verbiage caught in Kodak's mental buffer, the words unexpectedly stirring the well of his deeper memories and emotions. Xex, of course, had likely not meant to call to mind the seemingly unending array of tests the Chameloid had endured at the hands of Starfleet and Federation scientists as a boy and, later, a young man at the Academy. But brought to mind the memories had been and it was with something of a reticent look that the Gorn regarded the silver-skinned physician then.

"I...promise," came his toothy rasp in response. "Drol," the reptillian version of Kodak attempted to reassert some protective humor and swagger, "what say we get the hell out of here, eh? Let the good Doctor get back to the important stuff." Namely, Timmoz. At the Cardassian's nod, the Captain slid down from the biobed and offered Xex a clawful attempt at a wave before leading the way out of the medical facility, the Bridge and the bottle after very much on his mind.

As the pair disappeared out sickbay's doors, Xex took a deep, steadying breath and set the biobeds to clean, decontaminate, and reset. Then, he squared his shoulders, and turned back to the surgical suite and the fight for Timmoz's life.

=/\= A joint post by... =/\=

Captain Björn Kodak
Commanding Officer

Ensign Eekit Drol
Security Officer

Lieutenant Xex Wang
Chief Medical Officer