Star Trek: Starbase 777

Surprise, pain, struggle, dark. These four things haunted Shira's dreams throughout her restless sleep. She jolted awake with a sharp inhale, sat up and immediately fell backwards when a sharp pain flared up in her side. Dammit, feels like a stab wound. She looked around the room trying to figure out whose sickbay she was in.

During the run up to these peace talks Quinn's anxiety had admittedly increased rapidly. Imperial officers always meant trouble, always meant violence, and that wasn't what they wanted or needed. Sickbay was understaffed as it was, so added chaos was far from appreciated. What was even less appreciated was the Empire's violence in general. They hated violence. Over the past few hours the CMO had been trying to organise sickbay as best as possible, and had also been dealing with a very unconscious stabbed Imperial Tactical officer. So, when they heard her awaken their attention turned towards her biobed. Somewhat cautiously they walked over, fully prepared to defend themself if needed. "Good, you're awake. That's one less thing for the Empire to turn against us, then. How are you feeling?" They asked in a simple and to the point tone, as they pulled their PADD out of their coat pocket, now stood just over and arms length away from the Andorian.

Ah crap, first she let her guard down, then she spent the night in the enemy's sickbay. "Feels like a stab wound below my ribs. You probably found that by now though." Still woozy from the sedatives, come on, think! Shira shook her head and looked for a door, and tried to muster up the energy to bolt.

"You're quite right, although I have doubt that it would've been any of us that stabbed you. We're all quite friendly here, really." Quinn replied rather blandly as they went over what little medical information they had for the Andorian. "It wasn't the deepest wound in the universe, but it was certainly not a half-arsed attempt either. You must've pissed someone off badly." They added in the same tone as before. "Can I get your name please, or at least something I can call you by? I need it for my records. And, you know, common curtesy."

"Zh'nirhas," Shira said before coughing a little. She started thinking hard about that happened. The assailant came up from behind, and by the time she had driven them off she was too bleary to focus on them. "I shouldn't have fallen unconscious as fast as i did. Did you screen for toxins?" Maybe her solid sleep wasn't the doctor's doing, but that of a poison.

"We did." Quinn replied plainly. "They used anesthizine, which is frankly one of the most common anaesthetics out there. It would explain why you were found in the state you were in." They added simply. "Rate your current pain out of ten, and don't bother trying to make a hasty exit. It'll do more damage to you than good, and then you'd only end up wasting the Empire's resources, not that I think they'd have much sympathy for you to begin with, mind."

"Of course not, some idiot with a knife got the drop on me. Five." Shira lied about the pain. Really, it hurt like an ice viper bite, but no way she was looking weak in front of a Commonwealther. She tried sitting up again, much slower this time, and somewhat succeeded.

"Five? Okay." Quinn replied blandly, having frankly expected a higher number. They moved over to a medical cart and grabbed a hypospray before walking back over to Eshirinora and holding it out for her to take. "Pain relief. Take it or leave it. It should help for long enough to where your pain receptors have calmed down."

Shira did NOT take the stranger's hypospray, even if he was a doctor. She screwed her eyes shut against the brightness of the lights and sighed. "Gah. How long till i'm out of here?" She swung her legs over the side of the bed. grasping her aching side as she did so.

Quinn all but shrugged when the Imperial officer refused the hypo, and simply pocketed it. "Well you could leave now and hobble back to your ship in pain, provided you don't pass out from pain in the process, or you could get used to our way of doing things, accept the pain relief, heed my medical advice, and be on your merry way. No one has to know you got ambushed, we can keep it between ourselves, but if you leave right now it'll probably be quite embarrassing for you."

"Fine, give." Shira caved and reached for the spray, grumbling about the commonwealth's softness. Something was odd about it though, it sounded halfhearted like she was saying it out of a habit that doesn't suit her. "As long as i'm not gone long enough to rouse suspicion, i s'pose i'll stay for a moment."

Reaching back into their pocket and handing the Andorian the hypo, Quinn carried on glancing between their PADD and their patient. "I hate to encourage lying, but it's very possible for you to say you were doing something on the promenade. It's big enough to where no one would bat an eyelid if they didn't actually see you. In fact, this whole starbase is big enough where you could go awol for two hours and no one would know unless they were actually looking for you."

"Or maybe longer. Long enough to get left behind?" Shira scoffed. There's no way that would happen, she's an assistant head of staff. "Nah, they'd definitely notice if i'm not on board when they leave. Which is-- crap what time is it?" She suddenly started looking around for a chronometer of any sort.

At the mention of being left behind Quinn metaphorically raised an eyebrow (because they physically couldn't do that). Was this Imperial saying she wanted to leave the Empire? Huh. At the mention of what time it was they looked down at their PADD again. "1400 hours. As for what you just said, you could 'be left behind' quite easily, but it might compromise the peace talks."

"It might indeed." Funny that she could do more for galactic sanity by staying with the mad empire. "Rest assured, i'll be leaving your sickbay as soon as possible. I have no intention of staying on this station," Not anymore anyways. Shira pressed the hypo into her neck and laid back down. Once the analgesic had kicked in and the wound had been fully regenerated, it would be time to get back to what she was used to: Setting the empire up to fall, one domino at a time.

"There's no rush to leave. I mean, provided the Empire doesn't cause any problems aboard this starbase, anyway. If they do I'll probably need your bed for a worse off patient." Quinn replied quite simply. "However, you should be able to leave in a couple of hours without any consequences to your health."

"Excellent." She closed her eyes to think for a moment. Her thoughts wandered to the stabbing, and now that her head was clearer, she could remember it in more detail. The assailant was out of uniform, but the knife was definitely Terran made. Combine that with the voice ("Filthy traitor!") and hair... "I think i know who stabbed me." Her first target once she got back.

"Oh, pray tell. I could do with a bit of gossip. Most patients want in and out and very little exciting usually happens here, in truth." Quinn replied in a slightly more light-hearted tone than before. "Who doth stabbeth you? I'll take a guess and say it was some sort of Imperial rivalry. Am I right? If I'm wrong we might have bigger problems on our hands."

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"Unless someone here looks like a Tellarite with Terran proportions, it was definitely someone i know. He's convinced i stole his lover from him, when really it was her who didn't have the guts to off him like i did mine." The timid half-Vulcan scientist would always be safe in her quarters, but her ex would never treat her right on account of Terran spacism. He was already on her list to be honest, but lower down since he was unimportant. But now that he knew how conniving Shira was - not to mention that he attacked her - he was a threat.

"Ahh, romance drama." Quinn replied with a half smirk on their face. "So you lot off your exes? Talk about a messy breakup." They joked. "So this guy tried to kill you because he's jealous your partner likes you over him? Am I getting this right? Do tell me if I'm not following."

Shira laughed at the silliness of it all. "That's about it. Slimy pig thinks he deserves what he hasn't earned, as most humans do. Where i'm from he'd have to fight to even get someone in love with him in the first place." Her expression hardened a little. "My own was like that too, terrible excuse for an Andorian. He forced my hand one too many times and the last time was fatal. I fed him to the recycler so his blood would never see home again." (edited)

The mention of the use of the recycler was admittedly a little disturbing to Quinn, but they had (unfortunately) heard worse before. "Charming." They replied in a rather simple tone. "If you and your partner are in danger, though, why not stay here? We're far less likely to jealously murder you over here."

"True, but like you said, given my position on the Eventide it would cause a major issue if i don't go back there. Although, perhaps something could be done about my partner's personal safety. Something tells me those who study alien cultures are more appreciated here than in the Empire." Shira sighed. "This will have to happen fast, but perhaps it could be done." [D] By the time she was able to leave sickbay, Shira had made plans to smuggle her partner off of the Eventide. When all was said and done, they shared one last-for-now kiss, and parted ways till the next mirror event. Finally, at least one of them was free to live long and prosper.

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