Excuse for a Visit I

Posted on Wed Aug 24th, 2022 @ 5:53am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Ensign Mika Petrova
Edited on on Wed Oct 19th, 2022 @ 7:08am

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1000
4334 words - 8.7 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a few days since the incident on the Lovarr and Andrei's recovery. She had been seeing to her task as overseer with pride and precision, but the moment she had returned to the Vengeance, Christoph had wanted to have his conversation.

Madeline really wasn't overly surprised that Christoph had raised his hand against her. He had a temper that he had a tenuous control over at best, but having his manhood challenged was just too much for him, apparently. She looked at the angry cut across her face in the mirror of her bathroom. It had stopped bleeding, but she moved her hand up to pull at the skin just slightly to make it start again. She could feel the bruising starting to set in around her eye, but it wouldn't come in for a little while. She smoothed out the deep red and black ombre tunic she was wearing along with a nondescript black book and left her quarters.

Stepping into sickbay, she near immediately found whom she was looking for given she had waited until the young woman was on shift to get this addressed. She didn't look busy, so Madeline walked up toward her. "Cadet Petrova." She greeted with a smile. "Have a moment?" She gestured up to the slightly bleeding cut on her right cheek.

"Oh, ouch. That's a pretty rough cut." Mika said, looking at her newfound confidant with concern. "Of course I have a moment for you, just rest for a moment while I get some tools."

Mika turned and started working at a cart by the nearest biobed. "How did this happen?"

"We'll call it a work hazard." Madeline replied with a smile, taking a seat on the edge of one of the biobeds. Her long legs were covered in tight fitting black pants and she knocked the soles of her simple black boots together. "How are you doing?" She asked in a quieter, more concerned tone when Mika drew closer; it even reflected in her eyes as she looked at Mika's face.

"I'm doing alright. Just finishing my studies and spending a lot of time with Andrei." she said, turning to Madeline and using her now cleaned gloved hands to poke at the injury on her face. "It looks like something dug across your skin. Judging by your dress, you weren't working either."

"I changed before coming up here. Blood on the uniform and all that." Madeline held still for Mika. "How is he doing? I thought I might stop in and see him if he doesn't already have a guest in there."

"As far as I know, he's alone in there." Mika said, looking back toward the door which lead to the Sickbay Complex's interior hallway which would lead to their private rooms. "He's much strong and can walk on his own again without much trouble. He's...different though...and the eye..."

"What about it?" She followed Mika's gaze and then returned it immediately, paying attention to the young woman's expression and the tone of her voice. "Has it been giving him trouble? I've heard it can be a difficult adjustment."

“The bionic eye has him a bit overstimulated. His brain is still adjusting to all the new information it provides. It doesn’t detect light like our natural eyes do, so it isn’t easy.” Mika answered. “It’s been giving him headaches. But the worst is he’s just…very sad. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for him over there; no power; no hope. He’d never admit it, I know, but he’s in a bad place.”

Mika ran the dermal regenerator over the eye slowly.

“You are very good at dodging questions, Maddie Cassiel. And I notice you are doing just that on the subject of this eye.”

Maddie chuckled softly, but it drifted off and she put a hand on Mika's elbow. "Mika... please. I don't want to talk about it. It is something that happened that will not happen again. It is a cut and I don't need the questions that would go along with what happened. It would be... compromising."

Mika’s concern deepened. Her eyes met Madeline’s and studied there for several seconds. Her lips seemed to pout at being stymied in being allowed to help. They were full and healthy, just like the rest of her. Mika Petrova was the kind of beautiful one only got by being sweet as pie on the inside.

“I have to make a report. It’s SOP when someone comes in with any injury, especially one that looks like it was made by physical contact with another person.” Mika said. “I don’t want to pry, but I don’t know what to do.”

"If you really want to help me, Mika, you won't make that report. I promise. This isn't going to happen again. Tempers got out of hand - it happens sometimes." Madeline's voice was earnest and imploring. "If it was something more severe, I'd tell you. You can scan me if you want proof I'm not hiding something more than a little cut and bruise."

Mika seemed to consider this for a long while; longer than most people would. Dishonesty, as Madeline knew, did not come easy to her. But she could leave out details. She picked up one of the records PADDs and noted that Madeline Cassiel came into Sickbay reporting a work-related cut. The injury was easily repaired by Resident Petrova.

She placed it down and smiled, placing a hand on Maddie’s.

“All clear, my friend.” She said in a sing-sing voice. “Are you going to visit him?”

“Thank you, Mika.” Maddie gave her arm a gentle squeeze in appreciation before her eyes moved down the hallway. She seemed to consider for a moment if she was going to go after all, then gave a shrug. “Yeah I think I will. At least so I can see him with my own eyes.” She released Mika and slid off the biobed. “Which room?”

“Number 2. The first one on the right.” Mika answered and stepped back to give her some room to leave. “Be careful. He’s really moody.”

“I’ll try, and hey if he throws something at me I’m in the right place.” Maddie gave Mika another warm smile and walked down the hall the short walk to Andrei’s room. It didn’t open immediately, so obviously he had locked it. She almost hit the chime and then remembered to reach up and carefully wipe any blood off of her cheek. Satisfied it was gone, she hit the chime.

The nurses and doctors barged in without a single knock. He absolutely hated that. He had taken to locking the door in the first hour of his consciousness in hopes of at least putting a barrier up to them. He sat, at that point, in his hospital gown in a chair, his one leg draped over a rest meant for his arm and his face buried in a book. He struggled in reading it and coordinating his new eye, which was green and mechanical to contrast the silver of the other one. He felt like half a machine.

When the chime rang out, he grunted.

“Yes, come in. Whatever.” He said, still looking at the book and expecting another nurse.

Madeline stepped into the room and did not allow herself to linger in the doorway; she only looked up to Andrei as the door slid closed behind her. She took him in then, sitting there looking sour and staring into his book. Her mind wandered to his body against her on the Lovarr. He had felt - and had been - weak as a kitten. To feel that powerless… She shook away the thought and forced herself to focus.

“Whatever you are reading, mine is way better.” She offered in way of greeting and smirked, but remained by the door.

The comment was social in nature, suggesting the visit was social in nature. Four days had passed since he’d been rescued and his body had recovered well. Despite the constant headaches from this damn eye, all he had to complain about was the sting of his pride, greatly wounded, perhaps mortally. He looked up at source of the voice as if he were glaring at the stupidest person he’d ever spoken with. When he saw the source, however, his expression immediately softened. His eyes, or at least the one he had left, did not.

“I’m sure it is. But I’m reading this one.” He said. Guarded. She was the one he’d most wanted to see. But now that she was here, he felt the pain of shame. His eyes drifted back to his book. “No need to worry about me. I’m fine.”

“Good.” There was no note of sympathy or skepticism in her voice. Extremely unusual given the environment they were in and the situation Andrei was in. “I did bring you this, though.” She lifted up the nondescript black book in her hand and from the bottom could be seen dangling quite a few red threads. “A bit of fun reading with detailed illustrations.”

He looked up at her, quirking an eyebrow. He studied the book from afar, his right eye reading it in the ultraviolet and infrared bands and picking up no heat from it, of course.

“Well bring it over.” He said, rather bland; dull, lowering his own book. The position in which he was sitting was rather immodest considering he was wearing nothing under his robe and his leg was over the armrest but seemed earnestly not to care even a bit.

Maddie accepted the bland invitation, moving over to Andrei and holding out the book for him. “I find sickbay smells strange.” She stepped away from him again, giving him his space, and slid her hand into her pocket to grab something. “Always just a little too sterile and there’s that weird sweet smell.” In her hand she held something that was just slightly bigger than a marble and was a gunmetal grey color. She tapped the top with a finger and a green glowing ring appeared in the middle. It was placed on the console on the end of the bed; in around thirty seconds the room would end up very lightly touched by the smell of teak with other scents blended in.

It hadn’t been overly difficult to find what he used when she visited his quarters on the Lovarr while she had been over there. The book she had brought though, that was what she was interested to see his reaction to. Her gaze rested on him silently, appraisingly. The cover was nondescript, the first page behind the cover one simple line: Methods of Torture from Terra and Beyond.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. A gift one might only get from her. He smelled the air and recognized what it was, and seemed to relax a bit.

"Have you been putting this to good use on my former command?" he asked, looking up at her, the guardedness having diminished somewhat. He still didn't give off a strong social energy.

“A little. Not as much as I’d like, but your mother was very clear on how she wanted things to be handled. Sometimes when motivation fails them, though, I get to remind them why her way is better than what mine would be for them.” Maddie shrugged and moved to take a seat up on the foot of his bed.

He put his leg down from the chair, suddenly deciding to show a small amount of consideration for her. He leafed through the book slowly, nodding and making "not bad" face expressions continuously. When he had finished leafing, he closed it and looked back at her.

"I was told the leaders would be left for me." he stated, glad that she was sitting closer to him. Though he wasn't on the bed, this was the closest she could get to him without standing directly in front of him or sitting on his lap. "I'll pick my favorites and let you know. When I join you, we can make sure they learn a lesson. Cerron, at least...well I promised he'd live a long life, and I intend to make good on that promise."

“They will be, yes. I’m making sure of it. A couple tried to be sneaky and off themselves early. That didn’t go well for them.” She crossed her legs as she sat, the long tunic she was wearing pooling in her lap and revealing the shape of her thighs distinctly though the hugging material of her black pants.

“My mother told me she put you in charge over Christoph.” Andrei said, curiosity flashing in his left eye. He watched her, seeing much more detail then before, and yet somehow knowing less. He would have to adjust to this new device and any others. A smile flashed on his face, though it was subtle. “He can’t have been too happy about that.”

"No, not really." Madeline agreed with a chuckle, her face and expression not betraying how much Christoph hadn't been happy about it. "But, he hesitated in the moment and said he wanted to get approval from your father. I didn't." She rolled her shoulders and then brushed her dark hair back away from her face. "It has been an enjoyable time, but would be more so if you were there with me. I've done some redecorating, you know."

"Oh?" he asked, quirking a brow. "New drapes then? How thoughtful."

"Yes and decor for your walls. All in a very lovely crimson." That cruel, gleeful little smirk appeared on her face - the same one she had worn when they were impressing upon Romano the consequences of his terrible life choices. Her eyes settled on his face again, simply holding his expression with a steady look in her eye.

“I think that’s the most important color for that ship.” He said, breathing in the scent coming from the device she brought to him. His eyes went distant then, his mind gone from the room for a moment. When he was returned, his face was flat and he looked to her. “I thought it was all over.”

"It almost was." She was frank with him. Her expression didn't waver, but her mind drifted once again to seeing him chained on the Lovarr, filthy and broken. Maddie took a deep breath then and shifted off the bed. She stepped up to him, reaching to brush the back of one finger down his cheek in a surprisingly gentle gesture. "You are strong."

“Well I don’t feel very strong anymore.” He admitted in a rare display of honestly. He couldn’t imagine he would ever say such a thing just two weeks ago. But now, to her, he admitted it.

Madeline placed her hand against his cheek and coaxed him to look up at her. "Then we will make you strong again." Though they were simple words, she knew it would not be a simple matter. It would take time.

He did look up at her. Her face was natural in one eye and a mixture of reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and blues in the other. It was disorienting.

"There's no other option." he said, placing his hand on hers. "I've never been one for quitting or getting shy."

“No, it wouldn’t suit you.” She leaned in and kissed his forehead then pulled back to look down into his eyes. She looked at him no differently than she had before the replacement. “Come to the Lovarr with me. Let me show you how I’ve made them suffer for putting their hands on you.”

"I'm not cleared to leave sickbay until tomorrow." he said, and then a grin creeped onto his features. He stood with some difficulty and turned to look for his clothes. "You seen a pair of pants around here somewhere? It's entirely possible Doctor Lamont hid them from me to keep me from doing...exactly what I'm doing right now."

"I imagine she probably took them with her." The comment was pointed, but there wasn't any venom in it. Nevertheless, she slid from the bed and began to look around herself. "Though if I let you walk out of here your sister might have some choice words."

"You can't stop me..I'm too powerful." he said with his first smirk broad enough to be considered quintessentially Andrei. "Go find me something to wear, love. Just no skirts, please. Then we can sneak out together."

"So picky." Madeline gave a dramatic roll of her eyes and a sigh to go with it. "Fine, fine. Don't run off on me with the pretty nurses." With that she headed to the door to go and try to find something to fit him.

"You've got the only treatment I'm looking for, Mad Maddie." he said to her, smiling. As she left and the door closed, he decided to try the device Revana had delivered to him the day before. He walked over to the side table beside his bed and grabbed the carved piece of black carbon-like material. It was designed to be an interactive computer-interfaced eye patch. He placed it over his bionic green eye and fit it snuggly to his skin. It stayed in place through a magnetic connection with his bionic eye, through which he could control it. Activating it with a thought, he recognized that its default setting was natural vision, meaning, with this patch, his vision felt completely normal. He smiled excitedly, grabbing the book Maddie had brought for him so he could test out the new features.

The book was quite detailed with many illustrations, but Andrei would notice that for some of the methods that didn't have their own already, small, detailed drawings had been added in the spaces near the text. Red threads sat snugly between the pages of some of the more brutal or creative methods, marked by her with special interest. It didn't take long for her to return and when she stepped inside and saw him looking like a giddy child, she stopped and smiled slightly.

"What do you have there?" She nodded toward him to indicate his new eye patch.

He looked up at her, having established the computer interface with Vengeance shortly after its activation. Immediately, over the image of her he saw in his right eye, biographical information read as well as if on a screen. He saw her name, her date of birth, access to her personnel file, information on her last physical, and a separate selectable menu that gave vitals and other information one could identify with a tricorder such as heartbeat, bloodsugar, and body temperature. He hadn't mastered the menu, but its popping up had delayed his answer to her question.

"Oh, this is an eyepatch." he said, clearing the information as best he could. He grinned, stepping toward her and stopping right in front of her. "Haven't you ever seen an eye patch before?"

“You know, I think I saw a dress back out there that would look very cute with your new toy.” She turned back to the door. “Maybe I should go get that instead of what I found.” Maddie smirked over her shoulder at him and shook her head slightly. “Here I am trying to break you out of jail…”

"You get back here." he ordered, his grin still on his face. He put his hand out, trying to take the clothing she had found without telling her what she wanted to know completely for the fun of it.

“Nope.” Madeline ducked away from him though just moved toward the bed, smirking at him while she held his clothes. “It looks very fancy.” She teased him with warmth in her voice. “Another gift from one of your many admirers, no doubt.”

"Oh, it's not like that. It is from a friend. Admirer is too strong a word." he said, watching her for several seconds and using the information which the patch fed him to actually project her movements. It was trippy enough for a first-time user that it didn't end up helping at all. He darted toward her, getting low to try and tackle her onto the bed.

As he came at her, Maddie easily hopped over the bed to the other side, leaving it between them. “Is it really a strong word though? You are Andrei Petrov after all.”

“Guilty as charged.” He said, rolling over the bed the same way, this time getting her in his arms and pulling her back down with him onto the mattress. He laughed and his fingers reached out for the clothes. When she extended them beyond where he could reach, his fingers found her stomach as well, tickling her. “Well if I can’t have those pants, no one can!”

“Hey!” Maddie objected and began to squirm on top of him, still defiantly holding onto the pants even as he tried to make her let go. “Not fair.” She managed to get out between strangely girlish giggles and the squirming of her body.

“Fair is for the weak.” He said with a smile, standing up again. “I take what I want… and right now I want underwear!”

“Just any old underwear? I’m sure there are some dropped panties around here somewhere…” Madeline pointed out and began to look around the bed.

“I have just the pair in mind.” He said, his hands finding her bottom and grabbing in firmly. He released it and gave an innocent smile. Then it faded as he realized what he’d just said. “Never mind that.”

Madeline gave him a good natured nudge with her elbow and finally handed over the boxers, sweat pants, and t-shirt she had managed to find. “Let’s just focus on getting you out of here first, shall we?”

He smiled victoriously, only now preparing to tell her about the device over his bionic eye.

“The patch is a computer interface and sensor device that greatly increases the functionality of my bionic eye. It even has x-ray capabilities and I’ve been told ship functions can also be controlled to a limited degree.” He said, organizing the clothes. “Nazar says she dreamed it up a long time ago but couldn’t find a way to make it compatibility with the natural eye. I guess I’m just the Guinea Pig she needs.”

He gave a smile as he moved to remove the hospital garment, his eye pausing on her for a moment. He wanted to see if she was planning on looking away or watching him change, but he wasn’t complaining either way.

Madeline listened to his explanation as she sat once again on the edge of his bed. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the eyepatch and his less than in depth answer. When he looked back at her, she smirked at him and let her eyes linger. When he began to undress and focus on that, however, her expression did soften slightly.

He pulled the garment over his head and cast it to the floor like a man who grew up with servants. He then grabbed the boxers, an unusual wardrobe choice for him, and slid them on followed by the pants. Lastly, he pulled on the shirt.

“A bit tight, isn’t it? Did these belong to a soldier or a teenager?”

“A doctor.” She answered and shrugged. “Or a nurse. Who knows really. Besides, it’s a nice view.” She grinned at him then, letting her eyes pointedly run over his body covered under the slightly too tight shirt. “It was either this or a dress since you said no skirt.”

“Perhaps I’ll rethink that in the future.” He said with a flourish of his hands. He looked around the room, attempting to use his interface to see through the wall. When that proved to be completely overwhelming, he cued up an image of the security deck plan display. After some silent finagling in which he grunted and made curious noises. “If we turn right outside this door, I think I know the best way out of here without being spotted.”

Madeline continued to watch him with great interest on her face. She didn’t bother to hide it in the slightest right now. She watched the muscles of his face twitch, the shift in his expression and the slight sounds he made as he worked to learn quickly exactly what he could do with the thing. “Well then, I’ll follow your lead.”

He looked at her then, approaching her and placing his hands on her face. For a moment he was quiet.

“Thank you for coming for me.” He said, and then released her and walked for the door, leaving his belongings behind in his bag. He could come back for those later.

For just a brief moment, Madeline wondered if he was thanking her for now, days ago, or both at once. She didn’t dwell on it though and slid from the bed to follow him. As they walked out of the door and swung right, they came face to face with Luca Romano who was no doubt here for some sort of therapy work for his new hand. Fear immediately flooded onto the man’s face as he stared at Andrei and the expression only deepened when Madeline stepped out from behind Andrei to see why he had stopped so abruptly. When she saw Romano, she smirked.

“Shhh…” She hushed him softly and brought a finger to her lips. She stared at him like this for a moment and then waved him off; he skittered back to the room he had vacated and got out of their way.

TBD