Brotherly Love

[Mreh K'hal 0]

The sheer scope of the Federation, not to mention its principles to lend a helping hand so long as the Prime Directive isn't being infringed, meant that there was usually a medical emergency somewhere. Today was no different. The Hippocrates was zooming its way at warp 9 to the homeworld of the Renoteth to assist with an outbreak of a troubling virus that was eating its way through that species' youth. With the ship's figurative lights and sirens on, they were breaking the warp speed limit under the emergency clause of the law designed to keep subspace from breaking through into normal space from degradation by warp fields.

 

Commander Mreh K'hal sat on the bridge in the big chair as per usual, because Captain Holman preferred to organize and do the mission planning, leaving the dark-haired Cait to deal with ship's business. This suited him just fine, because he'd given up actively practicing medicine a while ago to concentrate first on operations and then entering the command training that eventually netted him his first executive officer position. It was this combination of medical knowledge and ability to run the ship tidily that interested Holman in the Cait when his previous XO moved off to a reasearch lab on Betazed.

 

The Olympic class vessel was fresh from an overhaul at Earth Spacedock and was running like a charm. Which meant that for a change Mreh didn't have a bucket load of complaints from the department chiefs. Though the Chief Medical Officer still wasn't happy that they didn't add more beds throughout the various wards on the ship. Both the Captain and Mreh had lobbied for them but the designers said "more beds would disrupt the workflow of the areas." Considering they weren't medical types it was a silly statement as they had no experience doing the work. As most doctors would complain their mouths (or equivalent) off about cramped conditions but would still prefer to have the beds anyway so no one was happy about it. It's much better for doctor and patient to treat the wounded or sick on a biobed than on the floor. In any case the Hippocrates wouldn't arrive at its destination for a little over two days, and until the situation was further assessed on site they wouldn't be putting the overhauled wards to the test for a while so he had time before the CMO started her tirades anew.

 

Being so fresh out of dock and traveling through the safety of the Federation also meant Mreh didn't have much to do save read the occasional memo from Holman, so his time in the chair today wasn't taking much of his brainpower. It gave his mind a chance to drift back to his youngest brother.

 

Shortly after arriving at Earth for the overhaul, his family contacts had alerted him that the Excalibur was taking on a little bit more than it was doing on the record, though what exactly they didn't know and Mreh himself wasn't able to ferret out. Considering what he had been able to learn wasn't pleasant, and involved characters out of his own past on board his old ship, he did what any protective older brother would do and damn the regulations. He'd had a good long chat with his youngest brother as both their ships were being worked on at the same time, albeit in different quadrants.

 

"Hopefully the info is helping him," Mreh thought. He hadn't heard another peep about the Excalibur or its crew since the Hippocrates set out. At this stage it was too early to increase the worry level any higher than it already was, but he couldn't help thinking that Rhan would've been better off following his sister's pawprints by staying a civilian. Though the trouble probably came from the posting to the Excalibur, which seemed to guarantee trouble. After all his eldest younger brother Hakran has led a perfectly safe (and probably boring) life being a science officer on the Copernicus. There are some ships that probably shouldn't get another letter after limping into port for the last time (or not even making it that far and just blowing up), and Mreh though the Excal was one of them.

 

With a sigh he turned his thoughts back to his own ship and crew.

 

"Lieutenant Stavros, let's get engineering on their toes. Cue up an emergency drill, dealer's choice," Mreh ordered with a grim smile on his feline face.