by Lance Hartcort and Alison Schneider
90929.1010
Concurrent with Picking up the Pieces
-=USS Serendipity
90929.1010
Concurrent with Picking up the Pieces
-=USS Serendipity
The doors to the transporter room slid open as Lance walked past them. A small Starfleet issued-duffel bag was slung over his shoulder. He walked up to the transporter console and the operator that was stationed there.
"Good morning Ensign." He said as he approached.
The young ensign smiled at Lance from behind the console. "Mornin' sir. What can I do for you?"
"You can beam me down to Earth my good man." Lance said as he turned and stepped up onto the transporter pad.
"Sure, where to?"
Lance clapped his hands together and rubbed them in thought. He had not really planned on taking anytime away from sickbay, but in typical Lance fashion he woke up less then an hour ago and decided he needed a break. He had not thought about where he wanted to go, only that he wanted to go, somewhere.
He snapped his fingers. "What time is it in San Francisco?" He asked.
The ensign hit a button on the console. "Twelve after twelve in the afternoon. It is eighty-two degrees and sunny."
"Excellent!" Lance smiled as he straightened his uniform. "Bay View Café, 125 Dalton Street in sunny San Fran if you could."
The ensign smiled. "You got it. Have a good trip."
Lance winked and pointed at the ensign as he began to dematerialize. "Catch you on the flip side."
Lance materialized standing on the sidewalk directly in front of the Bay View Café. The warm sun shown in the sky, its rays reflecting off of the water in the San Francisco bay casting waving bands of light onto the front of the café.
Lance squinted as he looked at the patrons seated at round tables out in front of the café. Large brightly colored umbrellas shaded them from the sun. Waiters moved between the table taking and delivering orders to the customers.
Lance held up his hand over his eye to shield them from the glare coming off of the windows and he looked to the far corner table. Seated there was a man in a Starfleet uniform. Salt and pepper hair was cut short on his head and Lance could see the frame of the man's glasses sitting comfortably behind his ears.
* Right where he should be. * Lance thought as he started to walk towards the man.
As Lance approached he noticed that he was reading a menu and also took notice that another menu sat on the table across from the man and two full glasses of water sat on the table.
Lance approached and stood next to the man. "So, is this seat taken or am I gonna have to stand?" The Starfleet officer looked up and frowned until he recognized the man standing front of him.
"Lance! My boy!!" He stood up and wrapped his son in a strong hug.
Lance returned the hug. "Hi dad, I figured I'd find you here."
"Grab a chair!" Martin Hartcort pointed to a empty chair at a nearby table. "Join us." Lance grabbed the chair and pulled it over to the table.
"Us?" He asked.
"Yeah. Us." A female voice replied from behind him.
Lance turned around, and although perhaps he shouldn't have been, he was mildly startled. "Alison," he said.
His former shipmate, Alison Schneider, tossed him a casual smile as she sat back down. "Two Dr. Hartcorts." She glanced from Lance to his father. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
The elder Hartcort set his menu down and with an honest look of puzzlement on his face replied, "Your guess is as good as mine. This is a surprise visit." He turned toward his son. "A welcome one though."
Lance felt his father staring at him, sizing him up. It was only a brief glance; that was all his father ever needed, and it was all Lance needed to be reassured that he had made the right decision in coming down here.
A waiter came over and looked at Lance, but before he could say anything, his father spoke up. "Another menu." He then briefly turned to Alison and asked, "You don't mind?"
"Why would I? It's not like I don't get the chance to see you often. I only work for you. Again." She flashed another smile, this one less than innocent.
"Of course, sir," the petite waitress said in response to his request. "And to drink, sir?" she asked, speaking to Lance now.
"Water, for now, thank you."
"So," Alison said, breaking the anything but awkward silence as soon as the waitress had left, "I hear that you have been keeping a new ship together, the Serendipity."
Lance picked up the menu and opened it. "Yeah, it has been a wild ride in just a short time frame. You know how it is, you agree to go to a conference, get side tracked to help with a pandemic, get offered a new CMO position on an active starship, it's pretty standard. Happens all the time I am sure." He smiled.
"Yes." replied his father. "I heard about you actions on Bajor. Well done indeed. Although I don't think the government will be giving you the key you the planet anytime soon." He took a sip of water from his glass. "They should, but you made some very powerful enemies."
Lance nodded. "Maybe, but some good friends also."
Martin raised his glass. "And that my son is the main reason we do this crazy job."
Lance smiled and turned to Alison. "So, working for my old man? What does he have you doing here on the big blue marble?"
"The same thing he had me doing last time. Except that I'm not getting paid for it." She shot a look toward the elder Hartcort.
"You did agree to sign up for Starfleet," was his response, one which sounded quite well rehearsed and well used.
"Yes, well I never imagined that the paperwork was going to kill me."
The waitress returned, and the three of them stopped their conversation long enough to place their orders.
Alison then resumed with her answer. "It's why I left Indigo. Not the people, not the job, the paperwork. So I came back to Earth, thinking I could go back to private research. Except then some little green hobgoblin invoked some clause in some contract and would not let me resign."
"The little green hobgoblin in question would be Commodore Kelvik," Martin filled in.
Lance nodded in recognition. Although he was under Starfleet Medical, much like his father, he still knew who the head of Starfleet Science was.
"I'm telling you," Alison said, in her usual rapid-fire manner of speaking, "if a Vulcan can have a Napoleon complex, this one does."
Lance laughed. "I like to see him in that hat."
"So, what brings you to Earth my boy?" Martin asked.
Lance shrugged. "Free time, kind of. Needed a break mostly. While I like the activity, the politics are not my cup of tea."
Martin laughed. "Goes with the title. You're a CMO on a starship and therefore have the needs of the crew and the ear of the captain at your disposal." He reached over and squeezed Lance's shoulder. "In any case it is good to have you home."
Lance turned back to Alison. "You know, Pax is on the Sera also." He smiled "Not by choice, I was offered a position, but he was kidnapped."
Now it was Alison who laughed. "Who in their right mind shanghaied him? Last I saw him, he was still happy on the Indigo, at least with his work."
"He's a good man, and great at his job, even though sometimes it seems as if no one knows what that job is."
"Well, then perhaps he too can be persuaded for some down time on Earth. We don't see nearly enough Starfleet officers around here."
The waitress came and delivered their food. Each of them took a moment to wait for their food to be served and then dug in as they continued their conversation.
"The weather has been idyllic," Alison said in between bites, "so perhaps some time on the beach would be good. The sunset district is nice at this time of year. You'll find plenty of things to distract you and take your mind off of work."
Lance spied a particularly good-looking woman walking along the sidewalk near their open air café. "You don't say." He answered absent mindedly as he eyes followed her path.
His father laughed.
Lance turned his attention back to his smiling meal partners. "What?" Alison and Martin shook their heads and exchanged knowing glances as Lance smiled.
He picked up part of his salad with his fork and popped it into his mouth. "Well since I have two of the second greatest minds in Starfleet medical here with me, aside from myself of course, I do have a patient with a problem on the Sera that I am hoping you might be able to help with."
His father put down the burger he had been munching on and wiped the grease from his bottom lip with a napkin. "How can we help?"
"There is a little Bajoran girl on the Sera that has hearing damage from contracting the fever that I worked to stop." Lance pushed a bright red cherry tomato around his bowl with his fork. "Best that I can tell the vestibular nerves are damaged and cochlear nerves are dead. No signals are traveling to the brain from the inner ear. I can't find any damage to the physical components." He stabbed a cucumber and popped it into his mouth. "Any--" his speech was momentarily interrupted by a loud 'crunch crunch'. "--suggestions?"
Alison shot Martin a look. "You know what my first suggestion is going to be," she said slowly and seriously.
"And you know that Kelvik would veto such a procedure," Martin replied, just as somberly. "And with good reason."
"I'm not denying that such work doesn't have its moral issues---" Alison started to say and then stopped. She then turned to Lance and continued. "I can check with some of my colleagues over in the tech department. Perhaps they have some device that could be of some use."
"We actually have a team of Ferengi scientists partnering with us for the year," Martin said. "We're making it worth their while to work with us on universal translator implants."
Lance raised his eyebrows. "Interesting, how far along is the development of these implants? Are they viable?"
"It does not matter son. Kelvik won't allow it." Martin chimed in again as he took a sip from his water.
Lance smiled. "I am CMO of the USS Serendipity. What I do in my surgical suite is my business." He took another forkful of lettuce and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching on the lettuce. "Besides, this particular little girl has friends in high places." He turned back to Alison. "So tell me more."
"I don't have all of the details, but basically, it is an implant, all but invisible to the naked human eye, designed to be connected to the hammer bone of the middle ear."
"So, this device in essence controls the vibration and pressure caused by sound," Lance added.
"Right," Alison concurred. "It makes up for a weakened middle ear, assuming that's where the damage is. There may be other possibilities with these implants, but you'd have to speak with Dron, who is the lead Ferengi scientist here." On a less serious note, she added, "I doubt you'll have trouble making his acquaintance. He has the same weakness for human," she pronounced the word as a Ferengi would, "female flesh as you."
"We had to stop sending third year female interns to work with his team," Martin contributed.
Lance grinned. "Sounds like a kindred spirit." He turned to Alison. "And it is not a weakness, more of a deep appreciation."
Alison sighed. "Yeah, sure."
Lance leaned back in his chair. "Has the device ever been applied in this manner before? It would have to be connected directly to the undamaged side of the nerves, possibly to the audio sensors of the brain itself?"
"Son, I keep telling you that Kelvik will not allow it. That is the science department's baby." Martin restated.
Lance held up his finger. "Yes but you also said that it belonged to the Ferengi as well." Lance winked. He turned back to Alison. "So, do you think it could work?
"Lance, you know that I am first and foremost a scientist. I am willing to give anything a try."
"Good."
"And I'm willing to bet that I can set you up with Dron this afternoon." She winked at Martin. "Not all of us have staff meetings in less than an hour."
A concerned look flashed across Martin's face. "Has time gone by so quickly?" He finished another couple bites of his meal before standing up. Looking down at his son, he said, "I hate to eat and run--"
"Don't worry about it, dad. Duty calls. I understand."
"If you have further time, my boy, you know where to find me." Martin stepped closer to his son and squeezed his shoulder. He then looked over at Alison. "As for you..."
"Oh, you'll be seeing plenty of me."
"Don't I always." He looked down at the table and then at Alison. "Your turn?"
She smiled at him. "Scat. I'll take care of this."
He nodded for a second time before leaving the cafe.
There was silence between Lance and Alison for another moment before he asked, "Do you think Dron will be willing to share the implant?"
Alison put down the fork she was holding and stretched her fingers, cracking several knuckles in the process. "Well, that just depends on how good my oo-mox skills are today."
Commander Lance Hartcort
Chief Medical Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012
and
Lieutenant Alison Schneider
Starfleet Science
NPC as played by
Lieutenant Lara Valera Ryn