A "Friendly" Game

Posted on Wed Jan 4th, 2023 @ 4:21am by Captain Tristan Faust & Lieutenant Michael Amato & Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Harmony Stardancer & Lieutenant Antoinette Jenkins
Edited on on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 8:32am

1,404 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Deck 7: Medical Division
Timeline: M1 MD07 (2268.22.05) 1800

Even though the ship was at high alert, every ship's captain knew his crew needed downtime to keep them calm and focused when the need arose. Of course Captain Faust wasn't expecting his ad hoc hockey game to go this way.

The doors to main sickbay opened. Captain Faust and Dr. Amato walked in. Both were wearing hockey sweaters with their hair matted against their foreheads, but most surprising was they were half dragging a bruised up and bloody Ensign Dienstag. The young man's slight face was sporting a broken nose. Luckily he weighed next to nothing.

Nurse Antoinette Jenkins was rounding the corner having heard the outer office door open. "Oh my. What have you boys been doing?"

Mike helped get Toby onto a Bio-bed, "Just having some fun, although we got a little carried away," he said before collapsing into a chair.

"Captain are you alright sir?" Antoinette asked trying to figure where to start. "Doctor let me get an ice pack for that eye. You'll have a beauty of a shiner in the morning." She ducked around the corner grabbing two instant cold packs smacking one of them on the desk to set it working. "Here's a spare for later on."

"Yeah, I'm fine nurse," Tristan responded, "I'm a little more resilient than these two. Of course I've been playing hockey a lot longer."

She handed him a towel. "Here sir, your lips bleeding." Antoinette looked at Dienstag who was unconscious but breathing. "What happened to him?"

"Well, I had the bright idea to mess with the environmental controls in cargo bay 2 and then dump a few buckets of water onto the deck," Tristan explained, "Gave us a nice little rink for some ice hockey."

"Toby here lost control, fell over the edge of the rink, punched me in the eye as he fell flat on his face, knocking himself out. Luckily his gloves and an equipment bag broke his fall. 6 inches to the right and he'd have caught a crate in the mouth." Mike responded with a smirk. "I was looking down fixing my skates, do you know how he lost control? Sir...." He asked.

"I think he got dizzy after Ensign Masters whizzed past him. I did pick him for a reason for my team," Tristan responded with a smirk.

Harmony had been in the storeroom, making sure that the field kits were stocked, and that she knew where every item was, so that, even in the dark, upside-down in the middle of a shuttle wreck, she could quickly find whatever she needed, because you never knew, when there was a commotion out front. Setting aside her work, she wandered out, catching the tail-end of the explanation given by the men, who looked worse for the wear!

"Open season on officers...sir?" She grinned, then glanced at Antoinette. "Can I help?"

"Definitely open season on junior officers," the Captain chuckled.

"Mr. Dienstag has a broken nose and probably a concussion. I think I may have bruised a few things as well," Mike chimed in, "We could certainly use a hand."

Tony pushed an instrument tray over and turned on the Bio-bed. She passed a hand scanner over him. "Definitely a broken nose, grade 2 concussion, and two broken fingers on the left hand. I can handle this Doctor, you just relax. Harmony grab an ankle we need to move him down a bit. The more we can fix while he's out cold the better." Both ladies grabbed a leg and half slid Toby off the bed. Tony lined herself up on Toby. "To the right and even out the middle. Captain take one arm, Harmony the other and hold him steady please. He might wake up from this." Tony put an auto knitter and some packing gauze within easy reach. "My father owned a bar back home, my mom had to fix his face about once a year." Tony took a deep breath flexed her fingers and quickly went to work. Three loud pops a groan and a wave of the auto knitter and she was finished. "Now some gauze to keep the shape and bleeding to a minimum, and were done." The fingers were an easy fix. "Now we just wait for him to wake up."

"I'm impressed Tony," Mike said shifting to the other side of the chair, "Captain, I may have to take down my shingle after seeing that." Mike smirked then added, "Keep him here for 12 hours after he comes too, check on him every two for another 24, and be ready with some mild painkillers he's gonna have a one hell of a headache. Unless you object Doctor?" Mike chuckled.

"No Doctor, I don't." Tony smiled back.

"Oh and Petty Officer, I would appreciate if you keep an eye on him," Mike responded before giving the bruised up face of the young officer a soft look.

The task was accomplished quickly and efficiently, with great team work, and Harmony was starting to feel more comfortable around her shipmates. She nodded when she was asked to keep an eye on the battered ensign.

"Aye, sir." As long as she was keeping an eye on him, she may as well clean him up some, too, so he didn't feel quite so bad when he woke up, so she filled a basin with warm water and started to gently wipe away dried blood. "No hockey for you for a few days," she chuckled as she worked.

After she was finished washing him he started to come to, "Ugh," he groaned. His eyes were mostly swollen shut, but one started to open revealing they were hazel in color. His vision was blury and he had no idea where he was.

"Easy Toby ... easy. Don't sit up to quick." Tony said pushing him back down gently. "She turned on a pen light. Look at me." She waved the light in and out of his vision. "Followed the light for me." She passed the light from one side to the other and back then from top to bottom and back. "Toby, breath through your mouth, your nose is packed." His breathing because easier. "How's your head?"

"Like I was hit by a freight train," the young man responded with a bit of a whimper. He couldn't quite feel anything, but he certainly felt dizzy.

"Well, considering what happened, you came out pretty good," Harmony observed with a grin. "Good thing you have a hard head! I think rest is in the plans for the next few days!"

"Ugh, I don't want to miss all of the excitement," Toby responded, "I thoroughly enjoyed the away mission. My first."

"Well, unless I missed something," Harmony chuckled, "your 'away' mission wasn't away in the traditional sense. It was just a hockey game, and a little accident. Do you remember any of that?" She grinned and crossed her eyes ever so briefly. "Or just the pretty angels hovering over you when you woke up?"

"No, the away mission to the Detroit," Toby corrected as he started to get more lucid, "And I think I remember a hockey game..." He chuckled a bit at the "pretty angels" comment although his face still hurt.

It was Mike's turn to do rounds tonight. Even though Dr. Kitchner was the senior officer, he was fairly equitable in regards to splitting the duty time between them. It was certainly difficult only having two doctors aboard ship but they had made it work so far.

Mike made his way over to Ward #2 and saw that Toby was awake, which was great news. He walked quickly over to the bed. Mike's eye was still a little swollen but nothing compared to how Toby looked.

"Sorry to interrupt," Mike said with a smile. He was holding his wedge clipboard.

"Dr. Amato," Toby said. His vision was still blurry, but he would always recognize Mike's voice.

"How are you feeling?" Mike asked as he approached and pulled out a medical scanner from the pocket of his white lab coat. He looked over at Harmony, "Thank you Miss Stardancer for keeping an eye on him for me," he said.

"No problem." Harmony grinned. "He was a model patient, even after he woke up!" She didn't mind helping out, and it freed up Antoinette for more specialized tasks.

"Heh," Mike chuckled, "Glad to hear it."

"I'm always on my best behavior sir," Toby responded with a grin.

 

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