Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [27]
“You mean you can’t believe you took a fall just now?” she said. Norellis was certain that the willowy Pazlar had never made a graceless move in her life—her cane and gravity-compensating exoframe notwithstanding. He saw in her barely suppressed smile that she was politely refraining from reminding him about the other tumbles and minor accidents he had suffered in his rush to make Titan ready to study the cosmos by her scheduled departure date. As though this couldn’t have happened to anyone, he thought, his rising indignation almost—but not quite—distracting him from the lancing pain in his right knee.
“Good thing I happened to be nearby,” she said after he followed her out into the corridor, she walking with a smooth economy of motion, he advancing in a tentative, painful crawl. “Need any help, Kent?”
He winced, praying silently that he wasn’t badly hurt. “I think I’m okay. Just need. A minute. To catch my breath. And gather up my tools.”
She nodded, standing beside where he half sat and half lay on the deck. The delicate Elaysian planted her cane firmly with one hand and extended the other down toward him. “Let’s see if you can stand first.”
He took her hand, using it to steady himself as he slowly rose, while Pazlar’s exoframe whined with the effort of keeping them both steady. As soon as he reached his feet, his already-throbbing right knee felt as though it had just entered Titan’s matter-antimatter annihilation chamber.
He settled back onto the deck plating with a sharp cry and a resounding thump.
“Let me help you get to sickbay, Kent,” Pazlar said. “You need to have Dr. Ree look you over.”
“No!” he said, somehow finding enough wind to shout before he even realized what he was doing.
“I think you may have sprained more than your pride, this time, Ensign,” said another voice, deep and rich and resonant.
Norellis turned in the direction of the voice and met the concerned gaze of Lieutenant Commander Ranul Keru, the tall, burly unjoined male Trill who served as Titan’s tactical officer and chief of security.
Crap, Norellis thought. Why does he have to see me like this? The universe must really hate me today.
“I’m fine, Commander, really,” he said aloud, struggling up into a crouch that made a Cardassian interrogation chamber seem like mercy itself. “No need to bother Dr. Ree. Really. I mean, he’s a very busy man—er, dinosaur.”
“Ree isn’t a dinosaur,” Keru said. “He only looks like one.”
“Ah, so that’s what this is about,” Pazlar said, a look of understanding crossing her fair features. “I have to confess, even I find Dr. Ree a little scary-looking. But he’s extraordinarily gentle. I even heard Nurse Ogawa telling Olivia Bolaji that Ree is a world-class obstetrician.”
The astrobiologist smiled lamely, hugging the bulkhead as his breathing normalized and he continued trying to straighten his knees. “That’s a lucky thing for Olivia. And if I ever get pregnant while I’m serving on Titan, I promise that Dr. Ree will be the second one to know.”
His flexing knee reached a critical angle, and the pain once again dumped him deckward. Keru’s thick forearm caught him before he completed his latest pratfall.
Pazlar favored Norellis with a sympathetic gaze. “Take some friendly advice from an expert, Kent. Next time you have to crawl around at the top of a Jefferies tube, disable the artificial gravity in there.”
He nodded. “Great idea.” Fat lot of good that does me now.
“Come on, Ensign,” Keru said in mock-stern tones. “To sickbay with you.”
“You might outrank me, Commander, but I’m not sure you can make me go to sickbay.” But he knew he was losing the argument. Keru and Pazlar had already flanked him and were supporting him, effectively frogmarching him down the corridor toward a turbolift.
“Consider it an order if you like,” Keru said, smiling, “or think of it as a strong suggestion from someone who never goes anywhere without a sidearm.”
What remained of Norellis’s spirits fell at least as quickly as his tool kit had. Great.