The Barking Chain - Part I

Posted on Sun Jul 12th, 2015 @ 8:26pm by Lieutenant Commander William Harding M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Ophelia Payne & Ensign Six of Ten & Suresh & Seyla
Edited on on Thu Jul 30th, 2015 @ 12:20am

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Seyla's Quarters/Suresh's Quarters/Will's Quarters/Piper Medical Center

*Seyla's*

"It was necessary," Seyla said, looking from Marcus to Owain. She set aside the small medical regenerator she had been using to heal an abrasion on Owain's knuckles. "Do you need Owain to erase that memory for you?" She coldly eyed Marcus. When he shook his head, she said, "Good. O, this is why you should have used something."

"Yeah, yeah. Short notice, Boss," Owain griped.

The chime on her door sounded a half-second before Bella burst into the room. Seyla swept the regenerator up in her hand and turned away for a second even as Bella cried, "Sey! It's Reva! Someone beat her up! We just found her in the corridor leading to the turbolift."

Seyla reacted with shock, "What!? Suresh! It must have been him. I'll kill him." Both Marcus and Owain reacted with shock as well.

"Yeah, she sassed him in Saturnalia and now...," Bella's eyes went wide and she shook her head. "He's back doing that, Seyla. You said he wouldn't!"

"I said he wouldn't touch any of my girls," Seyla corrected her. "Reva isn't one of mine." She rose and added, "I'll contact Piper and find out more." She disappeared into her bedroom.

*Suresh's*

Six had spent the evening unpacking her clothes and the few other things she’d brought. It had not taken long at all, which was somewhat depressing. She hadn’t realized how bare her quarters really had been. Now, she sat sprawled on the sofa as Suresh rounded up a late night snack. Whatever he was making smelled really good and she took an appreciative sniff. Moments later, the chime rang and continued as whoever it was pressed the panel repeatedly.

“I’ll get it,” she called and crossed to unlock the door. “Hi Patch. What’s up?”

He simply looked at her, his Cardassian features unreadable. "News for Suresh," he answered and pushed past her into the quarters. "Suresh!", he called.

Suresh stepped from the kitchen and nodded to the man. “What is it? It better be good.” He gave a slight nod in Six’s direction. “I was about to be occupied.”

Patch glanced at Six then dismissed her presence. "A fellow just arrived at Saturnalia and told some friends of ours that your favorite Orion," sarcasm dripped from his words, "has been taught a rough lesson. I went by the scene; Security is there, but she's been transported to Piper. The corridor is a mess. Whoever dealt out the lesson did a thorough job." He seemed... impressed.

Suresh chuckled at the news and shook his head. “She was repeatedly warned that this was no place for her to play at being a big girl, Patch. She also refused to understand how things work down here where I am concerned. Perhaps now, she will learn the lesson, yes?”

"Exactly," the Cardassian approved. He pinned Suresh with a direct look and chided him, "Perhaps next time, Farco and I could be the ones delivering the lesson? It's been awhile since you've called on us to do so. Farco, in particular, is disappointed."

Suresh shrugged. “This one could get explosive and quickly, since she is Fleet. I’d rather not have you two in the spotlight. You understand?”

"Sure, sure," Patch nodded. "Next time, then. Anyway, wanted to let you know before it spread too much farther. I'll let you get back to...," he looked over Six with a leer, "being occupied."

"Yes, you will.” He waited until Patch departed, then crossed to take hold of Six. “You know this wasn’t me. But there was an incident earlier at Saturnalia. She dumped a drink on my head and the old one would never have stood for it. I am assuming Seyla had something to do with this but they had to think I was making a statement.”

She hugged him tight and nodded. “Darwin warned me it was going to be rough.” She let go of Suresh to wipe at her misty eyes. “Can I go see her? I need to be there.”

Suresh debated, then frowned. “Not till the excitement dies down. Shouldn’t be long, then I have a way to get you upstairs without being seen. That’s important, Six. It would look bad if my woman was rushing to the side of the officer I just had my men attack. Try not to worry and give me ten minutes.”

She nodded and turned to the bedroom. “I need to change.”

Suresh nodded and once she was out of sight, he sent a message to Darwin.

*Darwin's*

His comm had sounded off several times, despite him not being on duty and not being on call. Finally, it was Gilroy's hail that made him untangle himself from the woman in his bed (What was her name? Bethsheba had been the other night... this one was...? He couldn't recall offhand and then decided it wasn't important.) and answered the call. "What?", he sounded testy.

"Madhava was attacked in the Pit, Dar," Gilroy said. "She's been transported to Piper, unconscious."

"Fuck... Who?" His immediate list of suspects was pretty short.

"From some reports we're getting, she had an argument with Suresh tonight. She dumped a drink on him. It looks like this is retaliation: alcohol was dumped on her, and a glass from Saturnalia left by her. Scene images have been saved. Piper will get injury images for us."

"I see. I'll be there shortly," Darwin replied. It certainly sounded like Classic Suresh 1.0, a level of mean, petty violence he hadn't thought Suresh 2.0 was capable of.

He went back into his bedroom and rousted the woman there from sleep. "Time for you to go home, sweetheart." It would be another hour before he remembered to notify Riley Sukotav.

*Will’s Quarters*

Will entered the bedroom and settled into bed with a contented sigh. Seyla was off to see to her business and he had finally finished reading a report on some research sent by one of his former partners. It had been a quiet evening, even though he was on call, and for that he was grateful. Just as his eyes were about to close, his comm badge beeped.

=^= Kiere to Dr. Harding. Please report to Piper, it’s an emergency. Patient is Orion, badly beaten, suspected several broken bones. =^=

Orion?? What the…?

Will tapped his badge, even as he jumped out of bed and began to dress. “On my way, Kiere. Arrange site-to-site transport, one minute.” He closed the channel and finished yanking on his clothes. Surely it couldn’t be Seyla? Wouldn’t they have recognized her and told him? Panic rose within him and he shoved it back down. This was no time for that and besides, she had security and surely they wouldn’t allow….moments later the worrying was interrupted as the transporter beam took him.

*Piper Medical Center*

"BP and heart rate are steady; scans show multiple breaks, lacerations and contusions," the medtech reported as he cut Reva's shirt away. His professionalism slipped and he winced at the sight of a depression and severe bruising on her right side. "Broken ribs," he checked the scan, "No internal organs damaged."

Another tech carefully laid her arm out, feeling how the forearm wobbled wrongly. "Broken ulna and radius, likely a defense wound," she commented.

"Right zygomatic bone broken, here, under this gash," reported the first medtech; he checked her pupil response and the scans again. "No apparent damage to the eye."

Will had ordered the feed from the triage room fed to his badge so by the time he reached ground zero, he was up to speed on the patient’s condition. He has also gathered by now that it was not Seyla due to the apparent age reported by one of the techs. Ophelia had met him halfway there and gave him the rest of the details: Ensign Reva Madhava, engineering officer, her age and the fact that her department chief had been notified. She also informed him that Lt. Sukotav had been called as well and Will nodded. That pair he knew about. You didn’t have an Orion officer on a station without a lot of curiosity and talk.

“That’s good news about the eye,” Will responded. He took a quick look at the panel on the wall that displayed the biobed scans. Coupled with the techs’ diagnoses, he was not happy. “What the hell was she doing down there and what did she walk into?” His tone was harsh. “This wasn’t just some simple scuffle, someone was making a point. But we can worry about that later. Ophelia, give her twenty cc’s of melorazine and let me get cleaned up while you do that. Then we’ll get her all fixed up. You two,” he nodded to the techs, “get her ready. I’ll be back in two.”

"Yes sir," said the male, passing the scissors to his coworker. She cut off the jeans and remarked, "Definitely making a point. Contusion, outer left thigh."

"A lesson to Fleet officers to not be below the equator?" He arched a brow at her. He finished his duties and pulled a modesty sheet up. "Ready, Doctor Harding."

"Maybe she can enlighten us once she’s out of recovery,” Will answered. “Alright ladies and gentleman, let’s do this.”

**************
Seyla
Marcus
Owain
Bella

Suresh
Six of Ten

Lt. Ophelia Payne
Dr. William Harding