Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [3]
A mission of exploration was just the thing the crew needed, in Beverly’s professional opinion. Beverly still recalled Jean-Luc’s complaint during their mission to Evora during the Dominion War: “Can anyone remember when we used to be explorers?”
She looked over at the captain, who was now fully dressed in his uniform. The warm smile was gone. It was as if the uniform came with a force field made of dignity. He seemed to grow half a meter in height and carry himself in a much-less-relaxed manner than he had in bed a few moments ago.
After sliding thick socks up over her ankles, she walked over to Jean-Luc and put her arms on his shoulders. “I love you, Jean-Luc.”
The force field fell for an instant, and he whispered, “I love you, Beverly.”
Moments later, they walked out of their shared quarters together, and both of their force fields were back up in full. In their quarters they were Jean-Luc and Beverly, but out here they were the CO and the CMO.
Which is as it should be, she thought. I get the best of him, the part of him no one else sees. And I couldn’t be happier.
They entered the turbolift. He said, “Bridge,” she said, “Deck five.” The lift stopped at deck five first, naturally, and she gave Picard a quick nod as she departed.
As the doctor sauntered down the corridor, she tapped her combadge, which was currently attached to the purple silk sash—a gift from Jean-Luc—around her waist. “Crusher to sickbay.”
The cheery voice of her Denobulan deputy chief medical officer replied. “Sickbay, this is Doctor Tropp.” Tropp had stayed on board even after Beverly’s temporary departure to head up Starfleet Medical, before she decided to return to the Enterprise. Tropp did not yet have the requisite experience to be made CMO in Beverly’s place, but he had remained behind to be the assistant to whoever replaced Beverly. She was grateful to have the familiar face, especially since most of the medical staff had transferred—some, like head nurse Alyssa Ogawa, to Titan.
“Anything I need to know about?” Beverly asked.
“Just the usual scrapes and bruises. Ensign La Monica came in last night with a fractured arm.”
Beverly let out a long breath. “She tried the sky-diving program again, didn’t she?”
“Actually, no. Your warnings last time were sufficiently dire that she decided to spend her off-duty time in the Hoobishan Baths.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“She slipped on a wet bit of tile and is currently sitting on the biobed swearing never to go near the holodeck as long as she lives.”
Chuckling, Beverly said, “That’s probably her best move. Anything else?”
“Nothing of consequence. I’ve been showing Nurse Mimouni some of our trauma procedures.”
“Good.” Mimouni was a new arrival, fresh out of Starfleet Medical. What Tropp lacked in experience he more than made up for in teaching ability. He was the right person to show her the ropes. “I’ll be in the gym for the next hour or so if you need me.”
“Acknowledged. Tropp out.”
Beverly turned a corner and approached the large gymnasium doors, which were of the wide, hexagon-shaped design that was also used for holodecks and cargo bays. They rolled open to the sound of over two dozen people shouting in unison.
The shouts were rhythmic and alternated with one voice counting. Looking at the far end of the gym to her right, Beverly saw about two dozen people dressed in white gis lined up in three rows, throwing punches to the midsection of an imaginary opponent in front of them. The shouts came on the third punch.
Facing the shouters, and with his back to Beverly, was the broad-shouldered form and prematurely balding head of Lieutenant Zelik Leybenzon, the Enterprise’s new chief of security. He was the one doing the counting.
Glancing to her left, Beverly saw that the area that she and Miranda had reserved was empty, which meant Beverly was the first to arrive. She decided to pause and watch the new security chief in action.
Most of Leybenzon’s students were wearing white belts with their gis. There were a few exceptions: Stolovitzky and Kapsis both had brown belts,