Bad Vibes
Posted on May 23, 2020 @ 6:22am by Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Edited on on May 23, 2020 @ 6:22am
Mission: Dog Days Of Summer
“Bad Vibes”
(Continued from “Blinded By The Light”)
=/\=
Location: USS PHOENIX
Scene: Sickbay
Stardate: [2.20].0512.2138
(Time Index: just after the events in “Jasmine and Ensign Wei”)
“I’m sure Owen is planning to set up another playdate for you with Wei,” Eve consoled the little pug.
Smooshy reacted by tilting his head every so slightly to the left and gently whining. He had a carefree but thoughtful expression in his glistening brown eyes. A few seconds later, just like that, he yipped and trotted out.
“Was it something I said?” Eve asked rhetorically as he scampered away.
“Maybe he’s late for an appointment,” the Klingon hybrid woman said laconically. Now that Tulla knew where the ‘humming’ was coming from, her irritation level turned down a notch. Not that she’d give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that. **How many dogs are aboard this ship, anyway?**
Eve smiled. “Anything is possible,” she quipped as she looked for an empty biobed, finding one six feet away and planting herself there. She had helped as best as she could during the crush of crew arriving for their checkup, but now it was her turn.“Regardless of Captain Smooshy’s bad manners, I won’t avoid my routine physical. It’s professional courtesy.”
“Don’t expect me to return the favor.” The aCMO almost growled.
The pale woman shrugged. It wasn’t the first or the last time she would hear that. She decided to carefully pick her battles. “And I would kindly disagree with you that it would ‘help’ the patients by calling them stupid..”
“Whatever works for you,” Doctor Keiku said dubiously. “But stupidity *is* curable. It’s not like the Phage.”
“You are correct, but hurting their feelings is not necessarily a good trade-off.”
“Be still,” the Doctor gruffed as she brought the hand-held scanner to her patient, blinking at the first few seconds of readings that made no sense. She characteristically smacked the device against the palm of her hand and shook it before going back at it. Eve thought she heard Doctor Bartlett sigh, but after the new aCMO’s warning, she didn’t risk moving her head to see if that was the case.
Keiku grumbled as the readings remained the same. Wrong. Fighting the urge to throw the equipment and further irk her department head, she passed the device down the Counselor’s torso. She worked on slowing her breathing. If she had made it through the rest of the available crew without starting a fight, one more exam shouldn’t be a big deal. With that stubbornness, it didn’t take much longer to figure out the pale woman was not what she appeared to be. “You’re not human.”
“Cardassian,” Eve admitted. “I was adopted by a couple of career ‘fleeters, so that’s the only home I really know. They live near the Academy now.”
"How does that explain... this?” the aCMO asked, gesturing to Eve’s face.
“I was in Intel for a while… but even before that, I was tired of being a distraction. Imagine wanting people to confide in you and be comfortable around you and you look like, well, like a Cardassian.”
“Maybe I should have considered that when choosing Medicine as a vocation.”
“To be more approachable?”
“No- less. Talking is overrated. My job is to *fix* people, not to talk to them.” Now that she was fully aware of the genetics at play, the readings began to fall into place. “The surgery must have been painful.”
“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Eve replied with humor.
“My brother is an idiot,” Tulla blasted, seemingly out of nowhere. “Of all things, he wanted to look more Betazoid.”
“Really? What is his profession?”
Tulla snorted. “I wouldn’t call it that. He is a proud Warrior of our mother’s house and bloodline.”
“Isn’t that confusing?”
“Garum doesn’t think so, even with the others calling his appearance ‘dishonorable’. Despite his looks, however, he has no problem showing them the truth with the sharp edge of his bat’leth.”
Eve allowed herself a smile. Even though it was obviously under duress, she’d managed to learn a little more about their newest addition to the medical staff. “That’s interesting.”
“Perhaps, but he’s still an idiot,” the Doctor added as she tapped on the biobed. “Get up. You’re clean. Now go.”
“No lollipop?” Eve asked facetiously, but was only met with a scowl.
=/\=
Location: The Vulgar Tribble
Eve entered the Tribble and walked over to the bar, her favorite part of the ship’s restaurant. “What’s good today, Iph?” she asked, sitting across from the chef-de-cuisine.
Iphie wasted no time in bringing out cocktail ingredients with a bob of her blonde braids that were currently accented with lavender and periwinkle streaks. “You sound like you need something good. What’s up?” A few limes tumbled on the counter.
“When’s the last time you saw your brother and sister?”
“Seen? That’s been a while. But I trade messages with Xana on the regular. Horatio, a little less. We do our best to stay in touch. Why do you ask?” Tequila and agave nectar went into a silver shaker in a series of seamless movements.
“I haven’t contacted Zora since the start of our last mission,” Eve admitted. “I’m not feeling the best about it.”
Iphie paused, adding a chartreuse colored liquid, a squeeze of lime juice, and some colorless carbonated soda to the shaker, along with a handful of ice. “Your clone?”
“I think of her as my twin sister. It makes things less complicated.”
Iphie put the lid on the shaker and vigorously agitated it with raised arms. “But it *is* complicated. Lying about it doesn’t help. Neither does wallowing in your feelings.” She poured the glowing drink in a martini glass and garnished it with a lime slice floating on the top. “Ta-da!”
“What is it?”
“It doesn’t have a name yet. I was thinking about calling it the Warp Core. Go on, try it.”
Trusting that Iphie wouldn’t steer her wrong when it came to her drinks, Eve sipped at it. “The sour apple flavor goes well with tequila. Maybe you should garnish with an apple slice so the customers know what they’re in for.”
“I thought calling it the Warp Core would be explanation enough- like apple core?”
Eve laughed. “I see what you did there.”
“Hey, I don’t tell you how to do your job,” the Human/Bolian woman answered, amused. She waited for Eve to take another sip, then continued. “How did you feel when you first found out when Edgerton made a copy of you?”
Eve looked up from her drink. “I was angry at first. If someone else hadn’t killed Edgerton, I would have lined up to be the first to have a whack at him. He wanted someone to be a soldier for hire, and when I refused to play that part, it must have bothered him a lot more than I ever realized.”
“And what about the role that Koniki guy played in all of this?”
“Admiral Koniki saved her life by taking her under his wing, preventing her from being brainwashed- and probably worse. But, if Kane had never met her and learned of her existence, who knows how much longer she would have been kept a secret? I wasn’t exactly thrilled about that either, but his motives were at least better than Richard Edgerton’s.”
“And where does that leave the two of you?”
“We’ve both made our peace. We’re both happy. Having a sister is a gift I never thought I’d have. I guess I’m still adjusting to that. Not always being able to hold space for her, have time for her. I’m tired of feeling guilty for not having more of a relationship with her.”
“Then stop.”
“Stop trying to have a relationship with her?”
Iphie slammed a damp rag on the bartop. “No, Woo-Woo. Stop feeling guilty about it. The best we can do is the best we can do. She’s lived the job. She knows about the time demands and tours to the far reaches of the galaxy. She is literally *you*, but with different job experience.”
“But I haven’t sent her any messages in six months.”
“It takes two to tango. Has she been pestering you? Have you not been answering her?”
Eve shook her head.
“See? She’s giving you room, she’s not hanging all over you like a drunk Dabo girl at the VALLA ROYALE. For all you know she’s sitting there on TERRA, feeling the same way you are.”
Eve continued to nurse her adult beverage, then made a gesture with her hand. “Probably.”
“So do something about it.”
“What?”
It was Iphie’s turn to laugh. “You *communicate*. *For*. *A*. *Living*. Surely you can come up with something… but not on an empty stomach. Let me fix that before you go.”
=/\=
NM: Thanks Sarah for the input on Tulla Keiku and Iphie.
This is my first post sent from the gmail account, hopefully the format isn’t all wonky.
Here’s the cocktail recipe I was inspired by for this post:
Sour Apple Tequila Cocktail - The Lucky Shamrock
Ingredients
1 ½ oz Tequila
1 ½ oz Sour Apple Liqueur
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Agave (optional)*
Sprite to taste*
Optional Garnishes: Lime Wedges, Slices of Apple
Instructions
Fill a shaker with ice and pour in all ingredients, EXCEPT the Sprite.
Shake vigorously until shaker is chilled to the touch.
Fill a highball glass with ice and slices of apple (if using). Strain the cocktail into glass. Top with sprite and garnish with wedge of lime. Enjoy!
Susan Ledbetter
Writing for
Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Cns
USS PHOENIX
