Ishimura Healing

Posted on Mon Jan 1st, 2024 @ 5:33am by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Fractures
Location: USS Ishimura
Timeline: 2243
1144 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Commander Roxanne Warren had watched the people from the future fade away one by one until it was just her and the unconscious man. She had stabilised him as best she could and could see that his levels were slowly returning to normal, so she had lowered the lighting levels in the sick bay and sat just waiting for him to wake up. She was sure that he would as there was visibly nothing wrong with him now that the chroniton radiation levels were within no existent levels.

After the glimpse of Kali disappearing, Burnie closed his eyes again. For the past ...however long it had been... everything had been a jagged series of disjointed perceptions, like being in a fun house mirror hall but with every mirror was cracked and shattered, reflecting broken images endlessly in random order. And that had been the part that made some sense - at some point the fragments had shifted from at least recognizable to glimpses of ...he wasn't even sure what. So maybe this was just a new twist on having a broken brain...

"No one likes to wake up to the light level high. My name is Commander Warren and you are on the USS Ishimura." She explained from her seat a couple of bio beds away to let him wake up and adjust as best he could to what must be a bizarre turn of events. "Your friends said that she had issues with chroniton radiation." She added hoping he would be calmer if he knew she had spoken to his friends before they had disappeared.

Ishimura... That sounded familiar, and important, at least enough that he latched onto it, pushing through confusion and a pounding headache to try to place it...

His eyes flew open, and even with the doctor's considerate reduction in light levels, he instantly regretted it. "Urgh..." he groaned, half-closing them again. Knowing better than to try much in the way of verbal response, he simply nodded, then cracked an eye, looking around and pointed vaguely at the ancient but new-looking equipment. "...when..?"

The doctor smiled and stood up to get some pain killers seeing the pain written all over his face. “2243. You are on the Starfleet Vessel Ishimura.” She repeated gently as she pressed the hypo spray into his neck.

Burnie leaned back, breathing a sigh of relief as the hypo took effect. He opened his mouth, automatically to offer ...small word, th- ...t-? tak? No, or well, kinda? It was what Arnason used, but only when he'd had a few and forgot to use Standard... He lifted a hand to his shin to make the hand sign. And saw the miniPaDD strapped to his wrist and remembered his preparations for possible verbal stalls. Words were there and after a brief scroll and tap, it gave a pre-recorded. "Good, thanks."

Sadly, he had not thought to record any kind of explanation of why he couldn't communicate normally, since he hadn't expected to be around anyone who didn't already know. And since everyone he knew seemed to have gone poof, it was on him to try. "Temp... " he knew the word - how many reports had he written were it had been in practically every other sentence? - but could he pull it out of memory? Nope. "Time... shifts ...hit," he tapped his head, then his mouth, "I can't... words."

“I know your friends filled me in before they disappeared.” Warren said resuming her place on the stall. “Something happened in the future that left you all displaced but you have some type of reaction to chroniton particles.” She said repeated the basics back to him. “How did I do?” She wondered.

Not trusting himself to find words, Burnie gave a small smile and a thumbs up. Then contained a sigh. The only thing worse than being stuck in medbay, was being stuck in a century and half old medbay with zero familiar faces.

On the other hand, no familiar faces meant there might more of a presumption of innocence than he got in medbays where people knew him. Hmmm. It would be really cool to see the ship's engines in near mint condition. He sat up, and scrolled his miniPaDD, assembling words before speaking. "Better. See warp engines?" He smiled hopefully.

“Oh Mister Burnstein you are a typical engineer.” Warren laughed and rose to her feet. She shrugged and indicated the door. ”Come on then if you really want to see the engines. But only under very strict medical supervision as your condition has approved. Captain Deaveux said that I was not allowed out of my sight.”

His smile grew at the unexpected agreement. Why weren't there doctors like this in his century? He narrowly restrained himself from pumping a fist in triumph as he jumped off the biobed. "Yes. Let's... Let's." He made an ushering gesture indicating for her to lead.

The woman smiled and walked in front of him and ignored the security officer that was meant to be there to guard sickbay incase things turned violent. It always surprised Warren that they were there like medical officers were not prepared for it. “Eager. So your friends told me you were Starfleet?” She said trying to make conversation as they walked.

Burnie nodded. Normally he'd say something more, but saying stuff was ...not likely to go well right now. Still, walking in silence was awkward. He didn't want to seem rude, especially when the doctor was being so nice. "Until..." he paused, the word was not one he would have programmed into his miniPaDD, but he should know it. Starts with 'd'... not dead, though it had initially felt that way... With a sigh, he gave up, and instead tapped his head, figuring a doctor would get the meaning.

“Yeah that makes sense.” Warren decided as she pressed the button for the life and held it open to allow him into first. “Main Engineering.” She announced and the lift moved fluidly downwards. “Life must be different outside the Commbadge but apart from now you seem to be thriving. I wish I could help must if I had time but I will keep working on it. Maybe you’ll find something in database in the future.”

He wished she could help too, but given that no one quite some stretch in the future could, he could hardly be disappointed. He gave her a smile to acknowledge that. Really getting to see a Connie's engineering bay in its prime was as much gift as he could ever ask. When the lift stopped, and he stepped it out, it was almost surreal (which, time travel, no matter how many times you'd been through it), and he walked out with a huge smile on his face.

And then perception fractured and scattered like shards from a shattered funhouse mirror...