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LeftEar JoNs

"Walk Ins Welcome"

“Walk Ins Welcome”

Doctor Rue Wydown and Commander L.E. JoNs

 

Commander Left Ear JoNs stalked down the corridor toward the medical bay, upright and looking very senior officer-ish in her dress white jacket and black duty trousers. She nodded in polite greeting to a couple of third shift crew people that passed her at the entrance doors, and then disappeared into the confines of the main medical area as the doors whooshed open to admit the feline. Once inside however, she allowed herself to hunch forward a bit and her right paw flew back to grasp at her lower back; the pain was getting to be unbearable. A low purred groan vocalized the Caits discomfort.

 

Feet shoulders width apart. Arms outstretched in a 'flying airplane' pantomime for balance. Body sideways, head facing forwards. Bobbing. Weaving. Ducking. Rue Wydown was 'surfing' the solar winds. Or at least in her imagination she was. If given the means and opportunity, the Doctor would have been one of the first ones soaring through the clouds. She had not the opportunity, or the nerve for that matter, to ask...yet. Instead she was taking an imaginary trip back on of the medical bay cubicles.

 

Left Ear was in a bit of pain, and her panther like features were drawn with the fatigue of dealing with it all day. The walking tours of the Satarimi city had been absolutely fantastic, and the banquet dinner signaling the close of the events of day one had been equally interesting. But now, the brown furred feline was paying the piper for the tension and excitement (not to mention the constant standing of the various meet and greets) of the days events. "Doctor ....," it would have been rude to call for Doctor Anybody, so she decided to go with the head medico, "Doctor Wydown?"

 

"Oi!" Rue dropped her arms, an audible slapping noise as she hit her thighs in the process. Peeking around the corner, she check to see who was standing at the door, then grinned. "ello there! Sorry 'bout that. Was doing some paperwork." A minor fib, but explaining what she was doing to anyone outside of the late shift would be pointless. Not to mention embarrassing. "Can I help you?"

 

The first officer winced, "Doctor, I apologize for the late hour, but I seem to have this pain in the arse. And, no, I'm not talking about paperwork." The joke might have gone over well, but JoNs was a bit too stressed to entirely pull it off. She leaned her free paw on a nearby desk with her other paw still clamped to the lower back area.

 

"What has got your hackles up this time?" Wydown picked up a tricorder and walked over, motioning with a free hand towards one of the biobeds. "You look like you're ready to twist yourself into a pretzel. C'mon now. Let's see what's going on." She frowned with concern.

 

Hackles up was an accurate description. JoNs's neck fur had risen due to the constant onslaught of the searing pain, and her ears had almost gone permanently flat, and both gestures in combination looked odd on the normally unflappable commander. The feline allowed herself to be led over to the indicated bio bed, and then with some grunting and general hissing of displeasure, bent halfway over with her paws set down on the surface of the bed.

 

"I was fine, hsssssss, this morning. But as the day went on with all the hoopla, it really flared up...."

 

"This is worse than the last time I saw you. You been doing those exercises?" Rue pulled out the wand from the tricorder's storage compartment, activated it, and then started to slowly draw the wand through the air between them. She allowed herself a moment or two to be lost in thought as she watched the machinery do it's magic with the diagnostics. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

 

Left Ear took a good ten seconds too long to answer regarding the exercises. "Aye, I have been doing them, but haven't really gotten it down in a routine yet. As for speaking out, well, with the Satarimi first contact events, I couldn't exactly step aside or fade out of sight. The excitement, and probably my command tension didn't help at all ..." Another hiss of pain escaped.

 

Rue looked up, stared at her patient for a moment with one eyebrow cocked. She knew better, but to be honest, the Cait was a grown adult and knew the consequences. No point in arguing with her. Instead she wrinkled her nose as she crossed over to the medicine cabinet, decided to implement a diversionary tactic as she prepared a treatment for the tensed up XO. "Wasn't that Rain Shaping absolutely fantastic? I mean....Fan-Tas-Tic!" Grinning, the Doctor glanced over her shoulder.

 

JoNs managed to half turn without falling out or down, or screaming in pain, etc, and regarded the doctor. A gentle smile creased her brown muzzle, and she allowed a brief moment of the "non officer" explorer personality to come through. "Wasn't that though? And the city itself - imagine living in those clouds twenty four seven?"

 

As she picked up the vial of medicine and prepared the hypospray, Wydown continued to speak. "I know! Absolutely brilliant! Totally untethered to the world below. But boy does that bring up a lot of questions. I think I've been talking the ear off our guide today. You know I saw him at the Rain Shaping, and unless it was my imagination, but I think I saw him retreating to the other side of the gathering when I saw he saw I spotted him. I can't help it though... they have to have an immense amount of knowledge to have a floating civilization."

 

Left Ear got a twinge, winced, and then allowed the wave of pain to pass before she spoke again, although her purred voice came out a bit fainter. "Well, Earth hasn't progressed that far with a floating city, nor has Cait. And the concept of Rain Shaping? The Mental prowess required to handle all that during the water demonstration? The Satarimi seem very advanced, culturally and technology wise."

 

"Okay, so I can ask you a question that is puzzling me." Rue returned to the biobed, absentmindedly twirling the hypospray like a baton. "What really made them decide to build up in the clouds? I mean, if the were sort of a mentor colony as our guide stated, and your land masses just sank into the sea - why not swan off to another planet? Better yet, why not a floating city on the water? Why go up? Who's the bloke who said 'Oi, those clouds look nice. Bet we would be better off there then down here in the muck.' Was he sea sick or just a bit of a nutter’s?" She stopped in front of JoNs's bed, still twirling the hypospray as if she'd forgotten she had in the first place.

 

Commander JoNs looked at the whirling hypo with longing for two seconds before turning her attention back on Doc Wydown. "Well, an oceanic and tectonic upheaval can be traumatic, I am sure; maybe the Satarimi just wanted to avoid any further incidents and went with the thin air option - literally?" The uptight XO was enjoying the conversation immensely, but another lower back spasm caused her to let loose with a small yelp.

 

"You, really, need to learn how to deal with stress." Rue motioned with the hypospray before moving closer to her fur. There's no way the Doctor wanted to see those claws by any sudden movement on her part, so she gave ample warning before parting an area of the fur and depressing the hypospray into the skin with a low hiss.

 

"How much warning do you think they got? I mean before the land masses went south, literally."

 

JoNs leaned further down into the bio bed with a sigh of relief; the contents of the hypo started working right away, and the "pain in the arse" started to diminish to where she could tolerate it. When she finally answered Rue, some of the stress lines on her feline features had dissipated. "I'd say not much, considering they hightailed it to the clouds as the final result of the planetary changeover."

 

Wydown laid the hypospray down on the biobed. "But the logistics to move that amount of people into the skies that quickly? I don't see how it can be done. They must have less of a bureaucratic mess than we do. Or they've just got excellent civic emergency management techniques. Can ye imagine if we'd have tried it? You can't bloody well blow your nose at HQ without filling out a form in triplicate...and having it notarized." Rue plopped down on a stool next to the biobed, writing out instructions on a PADD. "Wish I was that clever."

 

The first officer tentatively stood from her half bent over position across the bio bed, pleased that she could move now without the pain; she placed a paw on her lower back and twisted a bit to the side, flexing the still sore muscles the rest of the way. "Maybe they really didn't have a choice? For all we know, they could have lost half the population before all was said and done with the tectonic upheaval, the cloud cities could have been a reactionary afterthought?" Left Ear's tail fur and neck ruff had smoothed down as well with the absence of the back pain.

 

"What can I say. I'm nosey. I'm about as interested in history as I am in medicine. Which I know is weird. But then again, you have to be weird to work the night shift." She finished out the last of her instructions before standing herself. "Ice your back. 15 to 20 minutes. 3 to 4 times a day. After that, then heat. Again, no more than 15 to 20 minutes. Hot water showers will work, but don't waste your water allotment if you have to. Sonic showers will do some good, but use a heating pad afterwards."

 

Rue then stared at JoNs sternly. "And *continue* those exercises. If you need demonstration or help, let me know. I'd be happy to help." She didn't acknowledge whether or not the XO had actually been following the instructions, only that Wydown hoped that she'd try to follow through.

She handed the PADD to the Commander.

 

Left Ear got a stony look across her features, the universal command staff look that basically projected to a medical team “don't preach to me". Then, her features relaxed into a wry look and smile, accepting what Wydown was telling her because the medico was right. Did the feline exec really want to half crawl into the medical bay again in so much pain she was almost in tears? No way. Besides, JoNs's instincts were telling her getting on Rue's bad side was really not .... healthy, for lack of a better term. The feline took the offered PADD in a powerful paw. "Aye Doctor. I'll continue, I promise, and if I have any questions, I'll come here for some help."

 

"Good." Twenty years of experience had taught her not to push it with patients. Instead she gave her a cheeky grin, as she relaxed. "So, one last question. Think the Satarimi have heard of solar surfing?" Rue did a little pounce into surfing position, teasing the Commander one last time before she departed. "Or would it be against first contact protocol to demonstrate?"

 

“Well, we do have one day of leave coming to the crew,” The Caitian officer glanced around the medical bay to make sure no one heard her, before finally fixing Wydown with a genuine look of happiness and continued speaking in a low tone, "You go solar surfing, and I'll grab one of those atmo cycles I saw, and we won't tell the Captain. I don't think it would cause too much of an intergalactic incident Doctor." She winked at the medical officer.

 

"Fantastic!"

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