The Day 27 Miracle

Posted on Sat Aug 30th, 2025 @ 4:46am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Ensign Henry Taylor & Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Sickbay

Henry was going through daily reports, correcting procedural errors he'd found when he heard two familiar voices approach. He quickly switched screens to a medical review he'd also been working on on the side, and resisted the urge to turn around for an extra glimpse of Tessa.

"Henry," Kally's voice said, a lilt in it that made him dread what favor was coming next, "could I borrow you?"

Henry stood and grabbed a padd, wondering what embarrassment was in store this time. "Yes, Doctor?" he said.

"I have to make a house call," Kally said. Henry tried not to roll his eyes. He knew what a house call meant. He was so busy focused on that he barely registered when she said, "would you mind taking some time to instruct Tessa on the finer points of after care? Show her the ICU, the recovery rooms, discuss how we monitor and care for our people after the operations are complete?"

Henry looked at Kally's knowing grin and wanted to both wipe it from her face and kiss her in gratitude. "S-sure," he said, trying to keep his composure. "It would be my pleasure, Your Grace," he said, nodding to Tessa.

Kally's eyebrows went up a bit, but given his usual formality, she didn't think anything extra of it. "All right you two, I'll be back in a couple hours. Don't do anything I would." She gave Tessa's shoulder a squeeze. "You're in good hands," she said, giving him a bit of a boost before heading out.

Henry waved at Kally but only had eyes for his new companion. "So," he said, his voice cracking and he cleared his throat. "Post-op is one of the calmer parts of the job, but we can't be any less vigilant," he said. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you one of our recovery wards." He gestured towards the rear of Sickbay.

Three weeks of yearning for this moment, the constant visits to her quarters despite rejection, days of only getting to say hello to her, but gradually being rewarded with a smile or a wave was warring in his head with the recent threat of imminent death, and he wasn't sure how to come out of without his skin being flayed.

"Of course, Milord." Tessa said, hands clasped behind her back, completely comfortable with where she was and what she had been doing so far. She still wore simplistic clothing, the tunic of the style she continued to wear the entire time and the same style of skirt as had been for the last three, nearly four weeks that she'd been spending in sickbay under the tutelage of Kally. She'd learned a great deal over those weeks.

"You...you can just call me Henry," he said, trying not to blush. "I'm not a lord or anything. I've been assured of that." He cleared his throat again as she stepped into the recovery ward with him. He felt the hairs on his arm rise as she moved next to him and he struggled not to reach out and touch her. "So, this is the recovery ward..." he said.

"I am already familiar with the needs of the recovery wards, as aftercare is just as important as surgery itself. Tending to wounds isn't the prettiest part of the job, but it is needed. My mentor back on Tial has suggested I branch off into the field of genetics, said I had the aptitude for it, but I've always felt I could do more good elsewhere."

"Well, one of the nice things about Starfleet is you can choose your destiny," Henry said, then bit his lip, worried he'd phrased that wrong. "That is to say, you can choose what branch of medicine to study. Genetics is, of course, important, but so is pulmonology, or obstetrics, or even psychology. So long as you're trying to help others, it's worth doing, I say."

"At home it is more about what is needed than what one desires to be." Tessa gave a shrug, "Sharp trauma is one of the most commonly seen of the injuries among people on Tial, burns are another major cause of injuries. It's because the surface of my world does not support technology very well, so soldiers are armed with swords, spears, arrows and bolts and fire is the primary source of light and heat. They say that it's a miracle that we ever left our world, through technology developed in sealed caves. Several of those cave complexes are buried under Light's End, by the way, making my lands very important indeed."

Henry nodded. "Well, no matter what you choose, I'm betting you'll be fantastic," he said, smiling, trying not to sound like he was being cheesy or insincere. He coughed gently and gestured towards one of the biobeds. "So, as you said, aftercare is just as important. From here, we can monitor almost everything a tricorder can, and it's fed into the computer immediately. We can provide fluids, transfusions, even nutritional supplements directly from dispensers in the biobed, and, bonus, they're pretty comfortable." He grinned at the joke, giving the bed a pat, then blushing at the accidental suggestive motion.

"Directly?" Tessa asked as she leaned over the biobed to look into the nub of the arch where it would extend out over the bed, "Through the same technology as the hypospray, I assume?" She asked, before continuing on, "Very interesting.. And the sensors are probably more sensitive than the tricorder, which would be able to see any indicators of system failure early enough to take action, right?"

"Similar," he said, leaning over to point out the individual tubes. "Intravenous injection of plasma or basic fluids require a constant connection, usually via a cannula. But temporary things like pain reliever can be administered via subcutaneous injection similar to a hypospray. It does it by--" he paused as he moved his hand to brace himself and found it half covering hers. He quickly withdrew his hand as if he'd been shocked hard, and blushed. "It um...yeah it all does it automatically."

"Automatically finds the veins and inserts the IV? I'm used to having to find the veins myself and insert the needle." She reached out to his hand and snagged it, turning it over as one hand reached up to the crook of his elbow and expertly blocked the vein inside it, causing a backing up of blood and then expressed one of the veins with a probing finger of her free hand, "That's a good one right there, wouldn't be difficult to set an IV in you, would it?"

Maybe it was the unusual warmth of her skin, or the fact that his blood flow was suddenly being manipulated, or the fact that he was actually being touched by an angel, but something sparked a round of hyperventilation. He felt lightheaded and his chest tightened. The part of his brain that was still functioning began to force him to take slow, deep breaths and he did his best to not let his spike in heartrate show down his arm. "You're...very good at that," he said. He swallowed and licked his suddenly dry lips. "The biobed can...um...it's a matter of efficiency. But damn that was fast too."

She released the arm and smoothed out the vein where she’d blocked it to speed up the return to normal, “As I say, on Tial we don’t have all of the technology available to the general population, it is very literally hands-on, unlike what Lady Kellerman has been teaching me here. I think she may have been horrified during one of those practice surgeries when I didn’t bother with the readouts, but repairing a ragged wound is almost second nature to me and do a fine stitch if I dare say so, if just from a lot of practice.”

Henry stared at his arm for a moment, then up into her blue eyes. He pulled himself together and nodded. "There's been a real push to return to more hands-on medicine," he said. "Technology does help, but we could do with learning hands-on medicine more." He wasn't just agreeing for the sake of it, he was one of the ones who believed that as well. He'd seen medical technology fail, and he knew there had to be more to medicine than that.

He pointed out more of the computer's monitoring system and how it was meant to coordinate, and report, making paperwork more efficient as well so that they could see patterns, track recovery and understand the individual response better. When they'd gotten back to the front of the room, he smiled at her, this time less nervously. She was good at conversation, and he was finally starting to relax with her. He took that as a good sign.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour," he said. "Next time, I'll bring snacks. Maybe more of my chocolate chip cookies, if you enjoyed the first batch."

“I don’t believe I’ve ever had any cookies from you.” Tessa said in some confusion, “I think I’d know, I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth and the replicators do make some rather unique desserts.”

Henry looked like a kicked puppy. "You...didn't get them? What about the brownies?" He sighed at her shaking head. "The flowers? The chocolates?" He looked more and more deflated with each negative response, sinking back against the nearest biobed. "She didn't give you any of it," he realized.

Tessa shook her head with the mention of each, “You have to keep in mind that she’s my protector, tasked by the Light of the Eastern Watch himself to keeping me alive and whole. Anything she sees as a threat? There is nothing she would not do to fulfill her mission. Period, end of story. If she had to kill everyone on this ship to keep me alive? She would do it without hesitation.”

"Cass, your protector, has been protecting you from baked goods and trinkets. I've been calling on you at your quarters every other night for the past four weeks, nearly. I've been wanting to speak with you and she's been running interference, it seems. I've brought something each time as a gift and she's taken them. I assumed she'd been giving them to you and you just hadn't wanted to discuss personal matters at work. I guess you haven't received any of them. I hope she hasn't disposed of the Elanin singing stone. I'd ask for it back but she may cut off a limb for it," he said, trying to lighten the moment.

"That stone is the one thing she gave to me, she didn’t say from whom it was, though. And her ‘running interference’ is, again, just her protecting me, I’m sure. She has warned me against forming any friendships or the like because she’s not certain what it will be like when we return home. In essence, while it may not seem it, she’s terrified. I wasn’t supposed to be captured when our ship was attacked, measures had been in place that would have me dead before that would happen, to keep me from being a prisoner or a piece in someone’s hands to try to use as leverage against my father or mother. Cass could be castigated, declared Shilan or even executed for failing in that task. Not that I’m not grateful she left me alive.”

Henry nodded. "I see. I wish I could explain to her that I'm not attempting to kidnap you or harm you in a way she would believe. Quite the opposite, in fact," he said. He gave her a small smile. "Did you enjoy the stone at least? Its song is unique to each person, so what you hear is special to you."

“The stone is interesting and pretty, but I wonder why it sounds so sad?” Tessa asked, not sure if it were a question or just a comment, “Almost as if it were keening over a loss that it could not overcome.”

Henry frowned. "I don't know," he said. "It does that for me sometimes when I think of my mother. I lost her some years ago. I don't know why it would feel you're sad. It was supposed to be a gift to make you happy, I'm sorry."

“If that is why, then there’s no question. I miss home, Milord. Aside from brief trips within the home system, this is my first extended trip off world. I miss what friends I had, my mother, even the maids back at home.” Tessa glanced down, “But why were you coming with gifts anyways?”

Henry blushed hard. "I um...well I'd come to see you about a personal matter. It's really not something we should be discussing at work. I'd come by again, but I'm not sure it would do much good. Maybe, we could meet somewhere else? Somewhere your protector wouldn't object to?"

“My quarters will still do, she has an intense dislike when I am unaccounted for. I can send her on an errand if so desired, we are coming up on home after all, and while she is my only guard at this time, she would prefer some additional security when we go to land, even if it means borrowing some from your Captain until she can arrange additional personnel.”

Henry's elation at the prospect of finally having a chance to talk to her on a personal level bloomed and immediately withered under the knowledge that she'd soon be off the ship. In hindsight, he realized that her departure was inevitable, and he was getting his hopes up for nothing. Still, it didn't lessen the ache in his chest, or the desire in his mind.

"The day after tomorrow, I'll come by after my shift at 1730 hours," he said, sealing his fate.

“It shall be so, I shall be expecting you.” Tessa smiled in a more relaxed fashion, “And then, you can tell me what is so very important to you.”

Henry nodded, already relaxing knowing he'd finally have an opportunity. "Sounds good," he said. "Now, if we're done here, how about we look at the Intensive Care Unit? You might be interested in the equipment's auto-resuscitation features. They're essential to reducing the time between alert and intervention." He gave her a warm smile.

"I believe that would be the right next step." Tessa agreed, gesturing in the direction of where the ICU was, "Auto-resuscitation? Like bringing someone back from the dead?"

"Well, from the edge of death," Henry said, feeling a pang. "Once someone's gone...there's nothing you can do," he said, softly, then shook himself. "But, we've gotten far better at redefining what 'death' actually is. Maybe someday, we'll defeat it. Until then, we continue to push it back."

"Or at least delay it as long as we can." Tessa agreed with him, "Which is the task of everyone dedicated to Urd."