Unexpected First Impressions

Posted on Sun Nov 19th, 2017 @ 4:36pm by Captain Brady Dering M.D., PhD & Lieutenant Taryn Madison
Edited on on Wed Sep 12th, 2018 @ 7:49pm

Mission: My Place In This Universe
Location: Magellan Docking Station
Timeline: 2388/08/19 1300 (August 19 2388 1300)

On:

It had been less than twenty-four hours since Brady had been promoted and given the command of the USS Solace. It was going to take a while to sink in and he found himself needing to go for a walk as soon as the ship, he had returned on, docked at the orbital station. He had found himself on one of the station's observation decks, and as he looked out a window, one with a good view of one of the docking areas, he saw a Luna class starship approaching it and a feeling of deja vu washed over him.

The memories came rushing back of another time he had stood staring out a similar window. Another Luna class, the USS Mariner, had been docking, and Admiral Samantha Fraiser stood next to him, filling him in on the Mariner's crew, on what they had been through; something so unusual and traumatizing, it was mind boggling that a crew had gone through what they had. As a specialized psychiatrist, he had taken time away from the Academy and gone with them on their next mission to evaluate and counsel those crew who had remained on her...

Suddenly, Brady sighed. So many ships, so many crews; he had bounced from one assignment to another, never staying in one place for very long. He found himself needing to breathe in deeply as he wondered if that was really about to change.


The great span of windows stretched out before Taryn, as she gazed absently out into the stars, lost in thought. It was fortunate that Edward was too young to care about changing ships whilst Kathy needed that fresh start to deal with the death of her mother. This would be changing the very course of your young lives Taryn thought as she walked without any real purpose to her steps. Perhaps this would be the fresh start they all needed, after all the Serene Colony was unlike any assignment she'd ever had before. Maybe the rawness from Doug's death might fade. She felt the high pitched whine before she saw it, and had barely enough time to bring her fingers to her temples to try to ward off what she knew was coming before it started.

"No, not now please..." she whispered through clenched teeth but it was too late, the cascade had already begun. Spots of all colors raged before her eyes. Sometimes they danced in patterns that were beautiful, but this time it was just a maelstrom of color. The dance was followed by a flash of silver bright enough to make her whimper with both real and remembered agony that the overload brought with it. The orbital station swirled into darkness for her, and her only option now was to wait and see how long it took for her 'reset' switch to activate.

His mind still preoccupied, Brady turned to walk away and ran right into her, nearly knocking her down. "Oh...oh no..!" He grabbed on to her arms to help steady her. "I'm sorry, I...didn't see you there."

Taryn, by instinct settled her hands on top of his, and turned her face towards the voice she heard. It was soft, male and full of apology and she forced a smile to her lips. When she raised her gaze, it was clear from the wide pupil and the lack of motion in the artificial eyes that they were offline and that she was shrouded in darkness. "No harm done, probably my fault anyway."

Brady brought his head back immediately, noticing her eyes, and recognition showed in his. "I'm...not so sure about that. Here, let me help you. I think you should sit down." He lead her over to a nearby bench seat. "Right here.." he said guiding her.

Her hand didn't leave his arm until she felt the bench behind her and then she relaxed only slightly. Raising her face in the direction of the voice she spoke quietly "Thank you. If I might impose on your good nature for a moment longer, I could end this idiocy a faster." a somewhat angry gesture towards her eyes told him that that was what she referred to.

"Of course," he said softly, sitting next to her, "tell me what I can do." He was giving her the chance for an alternative to him taking her down to the starbase hospital.

Part of her twisted about needing to ask for help, especially from kind but somewhat melancholy sounding voices in the darkness. Her brows knitted, showing her scars more clearly as she forced herself to voice the question "If you could find a tricorder and program a pulse wave at 1.8 MHz and point it at my face, that would force a reset of the implants. It's a Failsafe."

Understanding, Brady touched his combadge, "Captain Dering to Docking Operations." and immediately there was a response.

=A=Docking Operations to Captain Dering. What can we do for you, Sir?"=A=

"I need a tricorder and a PADD brought to Observation Deck Two, right away."

=A=Yes, Sir.=A=

Taryn's face turned a painful shade of red in sheer mortification as she heard not only his title but his name. Of course it wasn't good enough that she was rescued by another officer, it was a Captain. She was mortified, wishing she could disappear right through the bulkhead. "Boy, what a first impression I'm making." she muttered sotto voice, not actually realizing that she'd spoken out loud.

"A good one." Brady responded, "You're actually handling this situation quite well..." His eyes narrowed as he continued to study her eyes, and he wondered, "How often does this happen?"

Her response was a wry chuckle "Often enough that It doesn't make me panic anymore. The first time though..." the sentence trailed off as she stared blankly at him. "But no, in all seriousness it varies. Sometimes I'll go months without an error, sometimes it will happen a few times a day. I usually have a tricorder with me, but in my delight to transfer to a new ship I forgot to stick it in my bag."

"I'm concerned that this happens at all." Brady frowned. "And I think it needs to be looked in to." He paused as he considered doing just that. "What's your name?"

"Taryn Madison sir. I'm waiting for the next transport planetside." She refrained from comment about her eyes, as this had happened from the moment they put the implants in, and regularly since that point. It had taken her months of debilitating migraines to figure out the failsafe frequency. She was just grateful to have normal sight, and even enhanced sight in some scenarios. They could put in new implants, that would work better against the silver which was still fused to the bones of her skull, but she had declined the procedure.

"Nice to meet you, Taryn," he smiled, and reached out to accept a tricorder and PADD from a young ensign who had walked over to hand it to him. He nodded a thanks to the officer as he continued, "And what is your position?"

"Now, I'm a Certified Nurse Midwife. I can pull sickbay shifts as well as a medical officer. " was the quiet response from Taryn as she licked her lips. She'd heard the approach and withdrawal of another person, so that meant that soon there would be a flash of pain and she would see again. She didn't know that the fact she'd been a counselor for over a decade was relevant.

As she spoke, Brady began programming the tricorder. He glanced up at her, "Now that was a pulse wave at 1.8 MHz?"

"Yes sir" Taryn acknowledged with a dip of her head.

Brady finished the programming and then sat it down to access the PADD. "Taryn Madison.." he touched on it. "I'm accessing your medical file, Taryn, before I proceed."

"Of course sir" she answered with a smile, thinking she would have done the same in his shoes. Her embarrassment still colored her cheeks as she sat in darkness. One of these days you need to replace those old implants.

"...ocular nerve pain on the reset." Brady read out loud as he continued to look over her file, "Possible side effects are... visual issues: such as halos and dancing colors. Nausea." He looked up at her, "Okay, Lieutenant, we'll do this here. Are you ready?"

She snorted and forcing herself to not respond in a sarcastic manner Taryn raised her face towards his voice and said softly "As ready as I'll ever be." This was clearly not her first trip around the block with this phenomenon, and she needed to fix the underlying problem. Or better yet find the source of the disruption.

After double checking the frequency of the pulse wave, Brady aimed and then activated the tricorder.

Taryn closed her eyes, against the flash of pure light that would overcome her if they were open when the implants fully reset. Pain arced like lightening from one side of her face to the other, tearing a soft groan from her clenched jaw. Knowing that it would hurt didn't make the pain any less, just made it easier to bear. Silvery light began to flicker and shine at the edges of her vision and as she opened her eyes the darkness melted away in the shimmering light, into a pair of concerned blue eyes. "Nice to see you sir" she joked quietly.

Brady had placed a hand gently on her arm during the process, and now smiled weakly in return. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

She offered an eloquent shrug as lines of pain appeared between her eyes, deepening her scarring. Laying her hand upon his, she squeezed it gently in thanks. It was interesting how, seeing someone without eyes changed them somehow for her. Not even knowing this man, she could confidently call him friend, without even a second thought. "I can see, that's about 75 percent better than I was, except now I have a headache. "

"How about we take care of that?" Brady suggested and looking concern, he put out an arm for her to grab hold of and gave her another small smile, "Humour me?"

"Must I?" she teased him gently as she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. "Lead on Cap'n, I shall follow"

Brady smiled again, at the pun, and lead her away.

OFF


Lt. Taryn Madison
Counselor/EMT/Doula
Serene Colony

&

Captain Brady Dering
CO of the USS Solace