Visit from a friend

Posted on Fri Aug 8th, 2025 @ 4:24pm by Lieutenant Commander Ryan Price & Lieutenant Commander Rutherford (RJ) Milton & Lieutenant Zara Kingston Ph.D.

Mission: Those who are left behind
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: 56 hours After away mission

As the Main Sickbay doors opened, Zara stepped through, looking around. In her head, she kept asking herself what she was even doing here, but it just felt right to visit. She took a single step inside Sickbay, the doors closing behind her. She felt like a fish out of water. Nerves? Maybe. She spotted the CMO and swiftly walked over to approach him.

"Dr. Milton?" she said. "I'm here to see Commander Price."

"He is not happy to be here so he might be cranky, I do warn you." Milton chuckled and gesture to one of the isolation rooms. "He is right over here; I had to control as many factor as possible to get him stable and keep him... here.

He led the new person along.

"You can call me Doc, everyone generally does." He chuckled as a bright streak of light came at the and drew up short, The little Pix hovered in front of The science person and did a light bow of introduction.

"That is Pix, Sick Bay welcoming Little lady." Milton introduced.

“It’s good to see you again, Pix,” Zara said giving a slight bow of her head. She gave the CMO a smile. “Commander Price doesn’t scare me, doc. Besides, I trained with Klingons so in a game of who’s crankier, I think I have him beat.”

Pix smiled and her glow brightened a bit.

He is on the other side of the door; I wanted him alone in the vent he became sick from the recovery from the toxin." Milton mentioned

Milton opened the door and proceed into the recovery room.

"You have a visitor Commander." Milton gesture towards Kingston. "Keep in mind you are still on the road to recovery and enjoy the company."

Zara walked into the recovery room and nodded at Milton. She looked at Ryan with a soft smile. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Ryan propped himself up, setting the report he'd been reading on his lap, "I'm still tired, but seeing you helps." he said with a smile.

Milton checked the Bio-monitor for a couple of seconds as Pix landed on his shoulder and little jingling of bells was heard.

"Yes Pix, it is just verified in the monitor." Milton chuckled. :With ... those readings I think it is safe to leave them alone." Milton turned and Winked . "The Alarms are set if he gets 'too active and such until he leaves." He tried to joke as he was venturing to leave.

Ryan smiled, mostly to be civil. He turned to look at Zara, "I screwed up..." he said knowing she'd ask "I crushed a vial of the drug Ketricel white and it atomized and it got absorbed by my skin while I was doing some intel stuff."

"Well, I'm just glad that you're okay," said Zara. She held out her hand for him to take. "I'm not sure what I'd do if you weren't here."

Taking her hand, "This isn't a regular thing..." pausing "not always." he said trying to make a joke of the situation.

She chuckled at the joke. "Knowing how you intel officers are, I'm sure you're anxious to get back out there?" She sat down next to him. "I've been reading reports from the Federation News Service to keep up with the war."

Shifting more upright in the bed Ryan decided to lift the veil off of something that wasn't widely known, "What do you know about the Antwerp bombing and the subsequent issues around Admiral Layton?"

She remembered the Antwerp Conference bombing all too well. She had just left Starfleet Academy and accepted a position at the Daystrom Institute. She was a sociologist who studied the politics of war, after all, so she had consumed whatever information was available to her. "It was a conference where diplomats from the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire met," she said softly. "27 people were killed, and with the help of Admiral Leyton, Earth was placed under martial law." Zara let out a sigh, "But Leyton's career essentially ended after his failed coup—" she paused, realizing she was getting ahead of herself. "Why do you ask?"

"Beings known as Changelings may have impersonated the XO's father in an attempt to cause chaos within starfleet to turn them on the organization he's part of, like they did when the bombing took place, I don't want you caught in the crossfire of what could happen next." Ryan said as he sat up "That's not the only thing, before it becomes a thing, I'm one quarter Illyrian."

"Ryan, that's very thoughtful of you, but you don't have to worry about me. Besides, I want to be a part of this. This is what I do. I've worked to bring peace between the Federation and Klingons and fought against the Maquis and the Cardassians, and I won't stop now." She paused, thinking about what he had just confessed to her. "I know there has been some prejudice towards that race, but nothing changes between us," said Zara.

Ryan shifted to sit more upright, "I'm glad about that." his eye caught the small creature's reactions to the people it was around, making a mental note about it. "Doc can we have a minute?"

"What would you like to tell me, Ryan?" Zara asked.

"I am sorry, we should be going." Winking he turned to leave. "Come along Pix, we should let them have their privacy."

Pix noted the 'observation by Ryan and lifted an eyebrow in curiosity; almost as if saying 'Just say it' while her hands went to her hips. Keeping eye contact with him as Milton and she left.

Ryan waited until the doctor left. "Keep an eye on the first officer from a distance when you can, I don't want her getting wrapped up in another FSB shoot out." he paused "Her father is the prime suspect in a stolen technology case and all forms of hell are about to break loose."

Zara's face formed a frown. "Commander Stoffels is...?" she paused. "What technology has her father been accused of stealing?"

"Accused is the key word here, there are surveillance images of a group that are rumored to be connected too his organization involved in theft of salvaged Dominion technology, I originally was sent to clear the Commander of any involvement." he paused almost as if he'd just confessed his own crimes, "There's not enough evidence to even implicate her, let alone justify her panic over family, most of the FSB grunts on this case are chasing false leads right now including ones implicating a Ferengi crime boss."

Zara let out a deep sigh. "You do realize that people on this ship already didn't trust you because of your duty post as an intelligence officer?" she said. "There's already paranoia spreading in Starfleet and the Federation about Changelings impersonating officers. This could exacerbate that...I'm assuming FSB will be waiting at the Starbase for her father?"

Ryan let out a small sigh of his own, "They'll be waiting to arrest and charge the Commander with conspiracy, Technically incorrect since I'm alive and the items in question were missing when I arrived which is part of my body camera footage that is part of the report, the down side is people are listening to FSB over the facts and now we're loosing a war, when Betazed fell FSB were responsible for evacuating civilian representatives from the federation council, instead they evacuated themselves and blamed Starfleet when things went to hell," he paused as if the emotions had been drained from him "When this war ends I'm done with Starfleet."

Zara was a little speechless, and without realizing it, she pulled her hand away from his. "You're leaving Starfleet?" she asked. It felt like there was a lump in her throat as she felt saddened by the thought of them not serving together. She stood, dusting off the pants of her uniform. "I should probably let you continue resting with your recovery," she said. She could hear her father in the back of her head telling her that Klingons do not cry. For once, she didn't want to feel her human side. She wanted to adhere to her Klingon proverbs to avoid the feelings that were manifesting. "And besides, I have some..." she paused, trying to think of an excuse, "...astrometric reports to compile. Maybe we can catch up later once you're discharged."

"Uh yeah...sure." Ryan felt confused, it wasn't like he was packing up and leaving soon as he was healthy enough to do so. There was a war going on and he did have some sense of duty to take this too the bitter end, He just sat there, Ryan wasn't going to hide his feelings about the future, he'd become more disenfranchised in the last few years then he'd wanted to accept until now, he caught himself on his next words, he just sat there as she walked away. A crewman quietly walked up to Ryan and handed him what looked to be an encrypted message pad as he took it he opened the message.

==Message reads==
To: RP INTOPS SFI
FR: SECOPS SFI
RE: CHINTOKA THEFTS

FSB is again ignoring reports. Advise against any further intervention due to possible FSB aggression. SECOPS recommends against further missions outside of RESOLUTION related missions at this time. Operation Jigsaw is TERMINATED.

Continue duties on RESOLUTION, file reports as scheduled.

Regards
SECHQ
SECOPS

===Message ends===

Ryan deleted the message setting the pad down.

End