By Commander Dabin Reece
80503.17
After Final Exam
80503.17
After Final Exam
His eyes glanced off, scanning the barren room that was just days earlier filled with assorted paleontology tools, a replica of Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory, a selection of rare Earth flowers and a 1:100 scale model of the old Earth bark HMS Endeavour.
Ensign Palahna thought back to her final memories of Johnathan West, her former superior. The way a man chose to decorate his workspace said a lot about him, and as she stood outside the office of Dabin Reece, she could not help but wonder what kind of first impression would be made when the doors parted and she saw his workspace for the first time.
Her first official duty shift was not until tomorrow morning, but as she settled in aboard the Sera, she had received a message from Dabin Reece that he wished to formally welcome her aboard.
She reached out and touched the door chime. For a moment, there was silence. She reached out and tapped it again. Again silence. Palahna was just about to ask the computer for Commander Reece's location, when the door suddenly slid open.
"Come in!" She heard from within the room. Palahna stepped cautiously through the doors and peered around the corner. There sat Dabin Reece, on the rung of a step ladder, with a cutting torch in hand. He was apparently about halfway through cutting a large rectangular opening in the wall of his laboratory to the adjacent room.
"Sorry I couldn't hear you." Reece squeeze the trigger of the torch, and a small cutting beam leapt from the aperture along with a high pitched whine, as proof that he indeed could not hear the door chime. Reece squinted across the room to see Palahna's pips. "Ensign..."
"Palahna Sir, from the Endeavour." She looked around the room as she spoke, taking note that the decorations were, to put it nicely, excessive. It was not as she had come to expect from her experience with the Vulcans and Lieutenant West.
"The Christmas lights are too much aren't they?" Reece indicated the strands or colored lights that hung about the perimeter of the room. "It's just, I love color so much and I thought they looked bright and cheerful, so I thought, why not?"
"It is bright and cheerful, as you say." Palahna nodded politely. She turned back to Reece, who had extended his hand. She reached out with hers and shook.
"Welcome aboard Ensign. Glad to have you here, I could use the help. I know the Captain thinks I am a god, and rightfully so, but the truth is I can't do it all on my own and Micah is ton's of help but he and I kind of got off on the wrong foot when I married the girl he had a crush on."
"It is a pleasure to be here. Are there any specific tasks you have lined up for me, or shall we discuss duty assignments in the morning?"
*She gets right to business doesn't she?* Reece thought. He looked at his desk, upon which two PADDs sat. One with detailed plans for the construction of his window to spy on Lair Kellyn, and the other held an outdated and neglected duty roster. "Morning sounds good."
Palahna looked at the artwork in the room. There were a few renderings or nebulae, spiral galaxies and other galactic phenomenon, and a curious poster of an infant feline dangling from a string with the caption "Hang in there." Rather than a model of an old Earth sailing vessel, Dabin Reece's desk contained a bulbous brown figurine of some sort with distorted appendages and facial features.
Palahna leaned in close to examine the figurine, unsure exactly what to make of it.
"Mister Potato Head. Go ahead, give him a try. Just be careful; the lips are always falling off. There's a hatch on his rear end with extra parts if you want."
"I think I will refrain. I don't want to damage your..." Palahna was about to use the word toy, but stopped herself just short. "Artifact."
"Artifact?" Reece laughed. "You want artifacts go check out the First Officer's quarters or Captain's ready room. This is just a toy."
"I can see you are in the middle of a project, I should let you continue your work."
"Sure enough Ensign. Thank you for stopping by. We'll do lunch tomorrow, and I can answer more of your questions then. Sorry about the mess." Reece gestured towards the half cut hole in the wall.
"Not at all Commander." Palahna smiled through pursed lips and exited the room. *What a peculiar man. This will be interesting* She thought.
*What a nice young woman. She's going to do great.* Reece thought, as he watched her exit the room. "You can definitely tell she interned on a Vulcan ship for a while.'' he said as the door closed.
Reece returned to his step ladder, and resumed cutting the opening in the wall. As he brought the end of his cut back to where he had started, the panel began to tip into Kellyn's lab, and finally broke off, falling through the wall into her room.
"Crap." Reece said, as he poked his head through the wall to see the panel laying on the floor in her darkened lab. "I gotta clean that up."
He secured his torch and stepped down from his ladder. As he entered the corridor, the lights flicked and went out.
"What the..."
[Commander Reece..... the Captain....]
"I can't hear you Liis, the COMM is malfunctioning."
[Accident.... repair crew..... directly to sickbay!]
Before Reece could answer the transporter swept him up, and deposited him in Sickbay. The room was empty except for one Ensign wearing an engineering uniform, who was moaning on a biobed, in pain.
"Help me..." The Ensign gasped. Reece ran over to the biobed. The man was white as a ghost, and a jagged piece of shrapnel protruding from his belly, and copious amounts of blood.
"Oh, ok buddy hang on. We'll get you fixed up." Dabin Reece was no stranger to the medical bay. Rilan had been a Doctor and Reece carried that knowledge with him. He had no trouble using that knowledge to this day but the only hang up was Dabin.... just could not take.... blood.
"Reece to Breaux. Please respond." Silence... "Computer locate Avery Breaux."
[Unable to comply, internal sensors are off line.]
"What? That's impossible. Dabin Reece to any medical officer, please respond."
Again there was no answer.
"Computer is the COMM system down too?"
[Affirmative.]
"THANKS! Computer activate the LMH."
[Unable to comply, the LMH.....]
"Ok, shut up shut up! I guess its up to me then."
Reece picked up a hypo and pressed to the Ensign's neck to knock him out. That man's hand went limp and slipped off the shrapnel, and the flow of blood began anew.
"Rilan, I need you." Reece closed his eyes, gathered himself, and opened the medical tricorder. He scanned the shrapnel and determined with a little cutting around the wound he could extract it without harming any internal organs. He grabbed a good old fashioned pair of rubber gloves and a laser scalpel, and pressed his hand against the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
He tried to hold the scalpel steady, but the room around him began to spin, as he felt himself beginning to pass out. Reece shook his head to wake himself back up.
"Suck it up you pansy." He muttered to himself. Dabin let Rilan Reece take over, suppressing his own queasiness and letting his medical training take over. He made a small incision to loosen the piece of metal, and pulled it out, tossing it across the room. Reece pinched the gaping wound closed and grabbed the dermal regenerator, literally holding the man together as the device took its sweet time sealing the wound.
At last, the bleeding stopped. Reece grabbed a hypo with a medication to stimulate the production of new blood, and pressed it to the man's neck.
He looked down at the red stained gloves, removed them as quickly as he could, and tossed them in a reclamation bin. He wandered over to the wall, leaned against it, and let out a long slow breath as he slumped slowly to the floor. his heart was racing and he still felt a bit dizzy, but the worst was over. He put his head in his hands, and just listened to the sounds of sickbay. After a few moments the chimes and beeps ceased, and Dabin wondered for a moment if he had passed out.
He peeked between his fingers to see the yellow stripes of the hologrid, and Zanh Liis standing before him.
"Am I dreaming?"
"You better not be, if I'm here." Liis replied. "You passed."
"No.... no that's a dirty trick."
Liis stuck out her hand and hauled him to his feet. "Part of this training is ensuring any officer on this ship can serve in any department in an emergency, and face their fears if necessary. I knew Rilan's history but I also knew Dabin's fears as well and I needed to know if you could set those aside to use Rilan's talents when it means saving someone's life."
"I hate you." Dabin said, sounding a lot like Dane Cristiane.
"No you don't. You love me."
"Yeah, damn you, you're right."
"You're a terrible liar Dabin Reece, but a great officer."
-------------------------------
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012