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Posted on Sun May 18th, 2025 @ 12:27am by Lieutenant Colonel Savannah Sorrel & Commander Onofron Zuir

1,459 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: New Crew, New Mission

Despite her protests the rescue crew had immobilized Sav and transported her straight to sickbay to her embarresment. She was supposed to be the super fit marine commander and here she was flat on her back not even a week after coming on board, way to go. She could only pray her fathers would not find out or she would never hear the end of this.

"Guys, I am fine, truely." She tried again once they transferred her to a biobed in sickbay very gently.

As the biobed’s sensors began registering Savannah’s vital signs, a figure glided into view—tall and green, with softly waving tendrils that moved as though tasting the very air. Her combadge was clipped to the center of a teal medical vest that fit her vaguely plantlike form in a way that was somehow both loose and meticulous.

“Ah! A new blossom in the garden of the infirm!” Gamze trilled, her translator giving her words the crisp yet melodic cadence of a science lecturer who had once been a poetry instructor. “Lieutenant Colonel Savannah Sorrel, yes? Do not fret, your root system remains intact—though slightly compressed along the spinal stalk. Fascinating!”

She leaned in slightly—not too close, but with unmistakable curiosity. “Please relax and do not struggle against the immobilizer. It is only trying to prevent your muscles from staging a mutiny. And between us,” her fronds quivered with amusement, “you are much easier to scan when you are simulating hibernation.”

Gamze’s tone, though unfailingly cheerful, dropped a half-tone in warmth as she accessed the biobed’s readout. “Ah yes, recent regenerative reconstruction of vertebral tissues. A medical symphony still tuning itself. Do not worry, I shall not let anyone pluck the wrong string.” She gave what might have been a wink—except that it came from a shifting of bioluminescent markings on her outermost leaf. “Now then... shall we begin the gentle tending of your very grumpy back?”

She paused, tilting her head at an angle perhaps intended to approximate empathy. “Also, if you have any cultural or emotional resistance to being poked by a seven-limbed photosynthetic lifeform in front of your subordinates, please state so now and I will activate the privacy screen. Otherwise, I shall assume you are as proud as a Vulcan bonsai in bloom.”

"Hell no. I am a marine." Sav tried to smile but her back was spasming so bad that it was hard to maintain a smile. "Doctor, I hope you can get me back on my feet again today. I don't want to start this tour flat on my back. There is so much work I need to do. .... Auch." She could not help herself, the spasm pains were just too bad.

Gamze's fronds quivered sympathetically, a ripple of vibrant chartreuse passing through her surface as she tilted toward Savannah with what might, on a humanoid face, have been concern.

"Ah, yes, the noble warrior spirit—so stubborn, so vertical." Her translator sang with warmth as she raised a cluster of scanning tendrils and passed them smoothly over Savannah’s torso, the tricorder module chirping softly. “But you must forgive your flesh, dear Colonel. It is not made of bristlewood or phase-hardened silica. It bends, it spasms, it protests.” She gave a chitter of gentle amusement. “Much like a Terran housecat, it sometimes demands rest regardless of your plans for the day.”

The biobed display updated, and Gamze trilled again, this time with satisfaction. “You are suffering from acute muscular recoil and partial neural disruption along vertebral segments L2 through S1—an entirely predictable result of your biomechanical history combined with today’s... unfortunate vertical misadventure.”

A cooling dermal stimulator deployed from the bed, and Gamze guided it with two gently undulating limbs. “Now I will administer a Class-B neural relaxant and localized muscular analgesic. It will not inhibit your motor control, but it may leave you slightly more… pliable. Please avoid sudden declarations of battle-readiness or attempts at cartwheeling.”

With a melodic purr from her translator, Gamze carefully pressed the hypospray to Savannah’s side. Pssht.

“There. Now let us allow the medicine to perform its chlorophyllic ballet, and we shall reevaluate your vertical ambitions shortly.”

She paused, antennae flicking thoughtfully. “Also, I have taken the liberty of disabling your combadge for the next twenty minutes. I do not wish to see your blood pressure spike every time a duty request dares interrupt your recovery. Your subordinates and mating partners will just have to make due until you are back on your feet.”

Sav started to nod then stopped. "Xcuse me? Mating partners, I am very much single." A nice glow was starting to flow through her and it made the pain fade away to just a trickle at the back of her mind. Despite herself she relaxed and felt strange, rather mellow. "I am very much celibate at the moment." She sighed. "Oh this is good."

"Oh, please forgive me if you are out of your estrous cycle," Gamze trilled with her fronds wiggling in excitement. "I will be sure to mark it in your medical profile." She ran the medical tricorder back and forth. "Ah, yes, the analgesic is taking effect. I am detecting a cumulative decrease in your muscular inflammation already. We can cancel the amputations." She made another trilling sound. "This is how I joke with you!"

"You are so funny, doc." Sav was grinning widely now, she felt so good now. The pain was gone. "I like you and you are a miracle worker. No more pain, I guess I can get up now and go back to work."

Gamze’s fronds fluttered in a rippling gesture of alarmed amusement as Savannah made to rise. With surprising speed for a being made entirely of botanical grace, she extended two limb-like vines and lightly pressed her patient back against the biobed’s surface.

“Ah-ah-ah, young shoot,” Gamze cooed. “Let us not mistake the numbing of pain for the absence of consequence. That is how errant seedlings fall to the wind.”

She tapped her tricorder twice and tilted it toward the ambient light like a leaf soaking photons. “Your muscular response is currently stable, but the inflammation markers have not fully dissipated. Light duty for the next thirty-six standard hours. This is not a suggestion, but a lovingly enforced medical mandate.”

With a flick of her fronds, she accessed the first responder incident report on the nearby wall console. Her body pulsed a soft green as she absorbed the data. "According to this account, you were jostled from an axial support posture due to a turbolift malfunction. This is highly inadvisable for those with prior spinal trauma or inadequate root anchoring." Gamze turned back to Savannah, her tone as bright and musical as a wind chime. "Therefore, you are to avoid broken turbolifts for the foreseeable future. And be sure to get plenty of rest, water, and sunlight."

"Sure thing, doc. I never want to be in a malfunctioning turbolift again." She shuddered. "There is only one tiny problem with that. You never know in advance when they are going to malfunction. Light duty is fine. I don't feel like working out right now." In fact she was tired even with the pain killers. "If I give you my word am I free to go?"

Gamze let out a gentle oscillating hum, like wind through distant reeds, and angled her upper fronds in a gesture of reluctant acquiescence.

"Very well, young shoot. I sense the restlessness in your chloroplast... or its humanoid equivalent." She fluttered her fronds as she backed away from the biobed. “You may be discharged, on the solemn condition that you adhere to the prescribed light-duty regimen and refrain from lifting anything heavier than your own overdeveloped sense of responsibility.” She plucked a small vial from a side compartment, handing it off with the elegant precision of a florist placing a blossom in a bouquet. “A tonic of replenishing enzymes and phyto-stabilizers. Twice daily with water, not synthehol. Your circulatory sap will thank you.”

Then, with a melodic swish of fronds that nearly resembled a curtsy, she added, “Until we share scent-notes again, Lieutenant Colonel. May your roots stay strong and your shade wide.”

She turned from Savannah, voice already pitching up brightly toward the next biobed. "Now then! Patient K’torr, is it? I see here you are presenting an acute case of dermatitis caused by a Sickbay-borne fungal infection?" Gamze’s fronds suddenly retracted ever so slightly. "Oh, I find that hurtful."

Savannah came to her feet very gingerly but the pain stayed away and she still felt a little floaty. Humming a little tune she left sickbay for the bridge.

 

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