Intermission ...

[T'aral 0]

( Part 1 : The Morning After )

 

Leutenant T'Aral walked the halls of Ginkay Bayouen, a facility which ( if Leutenant Kvar interpreted correctly ) represented the best medical care in the region. It certainly did appear so, but the Vulcan was gratified to have a Federation shuttlecraft parked in the back lot. Medical supplies and equipment had been sent down from the Comanche Creek, allowing T'Aral to care for the other officers much more effectively. She sipped at a cup of water as she paced between rooms, reading charts and updates. A small salad was all the food she had taken in since they had arrived - meager, but more than enough to keep her going for a little longer.

 

Commander Wesley was recovering rapidly from her injuries. The Wei were actually quite remarkable; although they did not have a suitable blood match for the Commander they were able to produce a compatible plasma in extremely short order, allowing T'Aral to maintain the Commander's blood pressure long enough to seal the injured arteries. She would be anemic for a week or so while her body replaces the lost blood cells, but she was out of danger and resting comfortably.

 

Leutenant MrKath was also recovering well. Finally having a skeletal regenerator was quite helpful, but even moreso was the arrival of Dr. Farrell and Ensign Khole. They performed the actual surgery, with T'Aral assisting to gain surgical experience. MrKath would be in therapy for quite a while; the regenerated muscle tissue needed to be re-trained and strengthened. Hopefully coming assignments would be less taxing on the Leutenant.

 

Cellular regeneration for the Captain's latest injuries was progressing favorably, though her improvement would be far more steady if she would accept medical advice. That, however, was something T'Aral wrote off under Command Perogative. She had yet to meet a Starfleet officer of significant rank who considered a physicians directives to be something that should be followed. It was no matter: the Captain would recover. The speed of her recovery was the only thing in question, and that would affect only her.

 

Leutenant Tauariki also improved rapidly once he was resting. T'Aral frowned very slightly as she read Ensign Khole's report on the Leutenant. It seemed that he was suffering from headaches for the latter half of their journey - a fact he had failed to report. T'Aral found the reluctance of the ship's officers to confide in her increasingly irritating. The tasks of a medical officer are difficult enough - when patients withhold needed information the tasks are all but impossible. Fortunately the Leutenant's headaches were based in minor complications of his head injury due to the stress of their situation. Once the stress was gone, he recovered steadily. Ensign Akade was also up and about with a clean bill of health.

 

T'Aral found a place to sit while contemplating the last few days. So much was still left unfinished ... matters that needed to be followed up, but not now. They were all tired, including herself. Tired beings make mistakes and handle matters poorly, and things needed to be handled well. She settled into the couch she had sat on, bringing her legs up while shifting over. She would meditate on the matter ... meditate, consider her options, ... consider the best way ...

 

 

A few minutes later a passing nurse saw the Vulcan on the couch. Stepping away for a moment, she returned with a blanket to tuck about the tired medical officer to keep her warm. If T'Aral was awake enough to notice anything, she gave no indication of it. It was over twenty hours before she moved again.

[T'aral 0]

( Part 2 : The Return Voyage )

 

T'Aral looked about the deck where she was on, scanning every surface meticulously. She was searching for leaks in the system ... leaks which would develop into a bio-hazardous zone just above the warp engine. Technically what she was doing was unnecessary: the system had been recently maintained and had received certification for ten months of standard operation before another inspection was necessary ... and the engineering inspections were much more thorough than T'Aral's scan. However: disciplinary duty was required, and what better way to punish a medical officer than to have her personally inspect the ship's entire waste management system?

 

The challenge in the matter, though, was not the inspection or having it on top of her regular duties. It was doing both while seeking to comply with the directives of her elders. She had reported her actions honestly; requesting guidance regarding methods to address her ethical lapse. While showing some amount of understanding, the elders were not at all pleased with her. While their words suggested that she did not require discipline seeing as though she already recognized her actions to be in error, their directives suggested otherwise. She was forbidden to eat meat for the next forty days, and she was to spend two hours a day meditating on the writings of Selnek. Some would see that as strict enough, but the elders had went further with a directive which clearly indicated that they had been keeping a closer watch upon her than she realized.

 

She was forbidden all forms of Asian cuisine.

 

T'Aral had developed a taste for Chinese during her time in the academy. There was a great deal of variety to it, ranging from bland to spicy. There also were several vegetarian dishes which would have made her fasting much less burdensome, which was no doubt why they were forbidden. Vulcan foods only, and only vegetarian - that meant preparing them herself - a task she had very little time for.

 

She continued to scan, continuing to log section after section as free from contaminant. Perhaps ... just perhaps ... if she finished early the Captain would show some amount of lienency. Forgiveness was, after all, an emotional trait. She was surviving on five hours of sleep a night, but if this ran too long there would be problems. The best outcome would be if the Captain was merciful and understanding. Perhaps she would be, if T'Aral explained ...

 

No - there would be no explainations. Explainations required divulging certain facts, which would lead to more questions, which would require more explanations, which would complicate matters more than simplify them. She would endure - it was what Vulcans did in intractable situations. She would endure until endurance was no longer necessary, for that was the Vulcan way.