At Least the Dagger was not in the Posterior

[Nijil tr'Korjata 0]

“Your pants...” Nijil ordered Jylliene directly. “Lose them.”

 

Jylliene blinked at Nijil. “WHAT?!”

 

“You need to lower them so I can get to your wound. What did you think...” Nijil stopped himself and turned green. “I am sorry.” He hesitated. “Knowing what little I know about Romulans daggers I am worried.”

 

Considering this, Jylliene nodded. “That, I can understand. Is there a way that would not involve completely removing them, though?”

 

The engineer in him thought a moment. “My dagger, do you still have it?”

 

“Yes, it’s how I killed one of them. His uniform was absorbing energy from the phaser. Here...” she said, as she handed him his dagger. She paused. “I still have his as well, did you want to examine it?”

 

“Place it aside please.” First he had to get the green, large amounts of it, off his dagger. The dermal regenerator from the med kit did this. In moments the green turned to gray. Nijil flipped and twirled the dagger in his hand. It looked a little dangerous, but he did not lose control. “Do you want to remove your own bandage?”

 

She gave him a quizzical look. “Sure, I can. I get the feeling you’d try to cut it off,” she chuckled in reply, as she unwrapped her thigh. “He threw it from across the room - his dagger, I mean.”

 

“A good shot, required a bit of aim and force to get into your leg.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t mean to praise him, I would have messed him up for that maneuver.” The cut from the dagger looked a little worse than he expected. More blood than expected. It made him a little woozy. He turned the dagger upwards and quickly made the cut in the uniform even longer. “This is my first time seeing red blood.”

 

“Congratulations on the accomplishment,” she said, grinning at him. “Does it look like there was poison?”

 

“I’m not certain. It’s not clotting as much as I would expect, but I’m an engineer, not a doctor. Is there something special I should know about Trills?”

 

“We...have red blood. I don’t know, our physiology isn’t that drastically different. We may just need to wrap it as best we can and wait until we get to medical.”

 

While she was talking he broke open a small vial. “Hold still. I am sorry about this, e’lev.” He poured the slight amount of liquid onto her wound and grimaced in anticipation.

 

Jylliene’s eyes flew open wide, but she held still, and didn’t react to the burning sensation. She hoped that did SOMETHING beneficial. The pain faded fairly quickly, and the Trill relaxed a bit. She felt like giving the corpse a kick for putting her through this, though she did remind herself that he got the worse end of the encounter.

 

“Good. You took that well.” His grin grew wide. “With you there is always something that impresses me.” The liquid continued to do it’s work. He turned away looking for the regenerator, found it, then reprogrammed for healing. “I think this part will only tickle.”

 

“That will be a welcome change. What WAS the purpose of that liquid, anyhow?” she asked.

 

“Merely for pain.”

 

“CAUSING it? Because I really wasn’t in pain before,” she replied.

 

“I was trying to be funny.” A sense of humor is not taught at the war college. “It’s a general poison neutralizer. It has to hurt a little to be effective. Should clean the area as well. Wonder if it was meant for those with iron blood.” He checked the settings again.

 

“See, that would likely have been a good thing to know before pouring it into an open wound,” she said with a chuckle - though she had to admit to herself, a slightly worried one.

 

“If we cut right here,” Nijil motioned with his finger at a spot on her leg above the wound, “we could put your fears to rest.” His slight smile was hidden.

 

“Are you suggesting cutting my flesh, or cutting my trousers...?” she asked with some trepidation.

 

“No, later and actually I’m quite nervous. I’m an engineer for a reason, not a medic. Again, keep still as I run this over your thigh.” The dermal regenerator emitted a green glow on her leg as it started to clean the area of infection. At this point Nijl tried to concentrate as if sealing a plasma conduit trunk line. “Let me know if this does more than tickle.”

 

She watched as Nijil worked, feeling relief that her dagger injury seemed to be the worst of what the two of them had experienced. Jylliene hoped that casualties with the rest of the team and crews were light, though she actually held out little hope of not having any serious injuries or deaths. She almost felt guilty at her overwhelming relief when she saw Nijil return to the shuttle. What if they had lost quite a few crewmembers? For that matter, why should she be so privileged as to see her e’lev return when even perhaps one other crewmember will be faced with the loss of theirs?

 

Nijil was here, safe. She was...relatively intact. And the arrival of the Athicus seemed to ensure that they’d be returning safely at this point. Jylliene just wanted to be able to hold him.

 

After some minutes of waving the regenerator back and forth over Jylliene’s leg all signs of the dagger’s entry started to vanish. He stopped the beam and ran his fingers lightly over where the cut was. Like a repair on someones personal PADD or phaser, he did not like the results, then went back to the healing beam.

 

Jylliene watched him rub her thigh and cleared her throat.

 

“Does it hurt?” Nijil looked up quickly.

 

“No, e’lev, but...nevermind. It looks like it has mended well.

 

He changed the direction of the beam and spun the end of the device between his fingers. His breath slowed as he looked on. Another minute of silence went by before he turned off the beam. He checked his work with his finger one last time. “Any numbness?”

 

“No, I assure you, I can feel there just fine,” she answered rapidly.

 

He started to put away the medical kit items. A smile crossed his face. “You surprise me.” Something on the co-pilot console got his attention. He tapped and closed something.

 

“How so?”

 

“You said you were not a pilot. You lied to me.”

 

“I’m not. I’ve had a very little bit of training, but the simulator sessions we ran before the mission helped.

 

Nijil nodded. “Oh I saw the logs of your simulator time, no wonder things got cold at night.” He looked her over. Other than the dagger, she looked no worse for wear. “I’d like to further your flight training...later of course.” He turned and looked out the view windows. Another larger vessel held still in the distance. “You missed quite a show inside. I’m glad you missed it.”

 

“I think I am, too.”

 

“Have you ever seen someone die, and I don’t mean what Jorahl did on the station?”

 

“During the retaking of Aegis,” she replied. It was a memory she didn’t like reliving. Enemy or not, seeing someone’s life end was deeply, profoundly unnerving. She glanced away for a moment, remembering.

 

“Oh, well, it’s unsettling. We have training to not care about the death of our enemies and to press on when one of us falls. Then there are classes devoted to acts of revenge.” He took a deep breath.

 

She winced. “Of course you press onward, but...still.” Jylliene looked at Nijil, reaching out to stroke the side of his face softly.

 

He laughed. “I would not make a good Klingon.” The medical kit snapped closed. He turns to stow it against the wall and returns.

 

“That’s a shame. I think, given the blood, we might be considered betrothed in some Klingon circles,” she replied with a wink, chuckling.

 

Nijil looked to the side in consideration. She was joking, right? A bonding...wedding...whatever? They’d not even...no, no...no. The banter and innuendo were welcome, but the mission to M-2 concerned him. Did it concern her? And for that matter, where did the Aegean go?

 

Jylliene, for her part, WAS concerned. The return of the teams was very welcome, but she also was confused and worried that the Aegean wasn’t to be seen; even more so when she saw the warbirds, and the arrival of the Athicus. This was not looking like the secret get in-get out mission that was hoped.

 

The engineer sat back in his seat and look out the window. “This mission...was strange. I can’t place it precisely.” He gripped the console at its edge.

 

“I imagine the fact that it didn’t go smoothly and to plan. The question of consequences, perhaps. The fear that we’ll still be dealing with this in ways we had hoped not to for quite some time to come.”

 

“My people are normally more vicious. I expected really evil traps.” He paused, looking distressed. “Perhaps these rebels are more bad off then reports indicate. You are right, this is not the last time we will hear from them.” He needed no more distress. He got out of his chair, faced Jylliene, then held her tight.