The Path Ahead

Posted on Mon May 5th, 2025 @ 7:24pm by Lieutenant Gabrielle Mailliard & Master Warrant Officer Yerin Di'Ara
Edited on on Wed May 7th, 2025 @ 7:47pm

2,002 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 9: When the Stars Went Silent
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Two Days After the Battle of Vulcan

For Yerin, ‘tired’ was a concept not even enough to describe her current state.

The only reason she was still on her feet was because of her Orlanian physiology and abusing the abundance of coffee that was freely available in the staff break room in sickbay. They didn’t have one on the Bellerophon. The Intrepid class wasn’t a tiny ship in the slightest but compared to the gargantuan size of the Denver, it was like comparing apples to watermelons; completely different leagues.

She couldn’t remember having slept, as in really slept for any reasonable period of time, ever since they were first deployed to help defend Vulcan days ago. Even when she arrived on the Denver after being rescued, she had been forced to jump right into the fray. Every able bodied medical professional was vital to everyone’s survival. The only time she’d actually been able to detach herself from the hellscape of sickbay was when she took her showers. Mealtimes weren’t even a respite for she had to eat on the move as she was always busy.

She’d lost everything she owned on the Bellerophon. A well meaning nurse tried to help her with clothes but all the spare uniforms they had didn’t quite fit her properly, her body was a bit of a contradiction that made it hard to find decent clothes sometimes, at least ones that fit properly. She absolutely had nothing, and till she got an assignment for quarters, her designated bed was a cot in the on-call room she had to share with two other nurses.

She was close to breaking, and even now, all she did was just stare at her cup of coffee rather than try to drink it.

Another member of the crew who had barely stopped was the new Chief Counsellor. Gabrielle Mailliard had been on Denver a while but she wasn’t the department head until very recently. That was new, as were many of the crew. Those who were brought aboard from other ailing ships and could be put to work had been, especially in key roles like medicine, engineering and security.

Gabrielle and her team would have plenty of work ahead of them helping the crew to work through trauma and grief as the battle got further behind them. But for now their calling was more immediate and the stakes of the situations they handled much higher. She was firefighting, helping the most extreme cases; breakdowns, severe injuries, counselling the unsavable in their final hours. Somehow a smile remained on her face, the red lipstick remained on her lips and the volume and bounce remained in her large, coiffeured hair. Gabrielle entered the break room, looking for the ninth cup of coffee for that particular day.

“Un instant il est là, l'instant d'après il est parti. Un autre. C'est bien. Je peux regarder mille personnes mourir, ne t'inquiète pas, Gabrielle va tout arranger! Ça me fait chier!” She mumbled as she found a clean receptacle for that hour’s stimulant fix and poured black, hard, strong coffee from a jug. “J'espère qu'il n'avait pas peur, pauvre vieux. Pauvre vielle!”


She turned to leave, but stopped, her mind alerting her to the Warrant Officer who hadn’t moved at all in the thirty or so seconds she had been in the room.

“‘Ooever makes this coffee is pretty good, no?” She asked Yerin with a smile. “Nice and strong.”

There were no thoughts to get lost in, really. That would have at least been much better than what she was going through right now which was an empty thousand yard stare into her lukewarm cup of coffee. There was nothing going on in her head, just… nothingness manifested by trauma and fatigue.

So when it finally registered with her that there was someone right next to her, actually asking her a question.

At first she thought it was Rhaani who’d been the closest thing she had to a friend right now, and they only met a little less than two days ago. But rather than the young denobulan woman’s familiar face, she was taken aback by someone else she didn’t expect at all.

She had a shock of outrageously full brunette hair, which was styled just right to make it look fascinating. Other women might not have pulled it off as well. She was very pretty, and Yerin found her eyes and cherry red lips quite striking at first glance. But it was the thick unfamiliar accent that she used to address her in Federation standard that would normally have sounded strange in another voice, but with hers it was… intriguing.

It took a moment for the face to register. She hadn’t spoken to her before but she had seen her going around sickbay throughout the past couple of days, being busy talking to patients. The rank insignia on her collar pretty much confirmed that the woman who’d spoken to her was their chief counselor.

“Oh yes, perhaps they missed their calling,” Yerin said with a soft chuckle yet made no move to even touch her cup. “They might have become a lot more popular as a culinary tech in the mess, making the best coffee aboard.” She then smiled and nodded, unaware that her smile came with a tinge of visible weariness. “Hello, doctor. Sorry I didn’t notice you right away. My mind was… somewhere else.”

This was something Gabrielle had noticed. She didn’t need deductions, although hers were easier to make, she had observed Yerin treating patients and as her rank was non-commissioned, assumed she was either a nurse or a medic. A lot of the time it didn’t make much difference in the crazy maelstrom of post-battle sickbay. The impulse was to ask how are you or are you okay but Gabrielle felt this would be going at things like a rhino in a glassware factory. She stretched, clicked her neck from side to side and took a slurp of coffee, letting an “aaaahh” escape her lips, such was the relief it gave.

“Eet ‘elps with the not sleeping, mm?” She asked. “I think you are not wrong, ‘ooever they are would be appreciated in the mess but they are loved ‘ere! They ‘elp save lives. This is more important I think.” She took another slurp. “Manifique! ‘its the spot. But you know I am not a Doctor. My name is Gabrielle. I am the ‘ead Counselleur.” Gabrielle held out a hand warmly, accompanied with a winning smile.

Yerin couldn’t help but smile in turn as she shook the offered hand and now wished she had some snacks on the table to offer too instead of just a sad untouched cup of coffee. “I’ve seen you around, actually, though with how crazy it’s been the past few days, to me anyone with an officer rank wearing teal in sickbay is ‘doctor’ to me,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m Yerin Di’Ara. I am, well… was, the senior staff nurse and combat medic for the USS Bellerophon. As far as I know I was the only one who made it from my department, though I managed to get twelve of my patients over here before… well…” She trailed off with a shrug.

“Normally I like coffee,” she said as she lightly ran the tip of a long elegant finger along the rim of the cup. “No, I love it, obsessed with it. In my homeworld, the closest thing we had to something like this was a tea made from roasted flower seeds. But I think I must have had too much now. I poured some earlier and now I can’t seem to drink this.” Then she chuckled. “It’s strange. I’ve never imagined a time like this would ever come.” She looked up at the pretty chocolate haired lady. “Have you experienced anything like this before?”

“A time where I could not drink coffee? No. There is no such time I think. C’est impossible!”

Gabrielle's smile was presently replaced by a more serious facade, but the glint in her eyes remained. She placed a hand on Yerin’s upper arm in a warm gesture of comfort.

“No, I ‘ave not. Is quite ‘orrible, no? I feel I am barely awake any more, I just drift from crisis to crisis and rely on my training. Is ‘ard. We lose so many. But it is good to know they see a smile, ‘ear a pleasant voice, look on a pretty face before they go. You do great work I think.”

The touch on her arm reminded her of how her fellow sisters at the temple back home would comfort each other if they were in pain. Though it wasn’t quite the same now, Yerin appreciated the gesture the kind woman was offering. “Thank you, ma’am,” she said softly with an equally warm smile. “It’s hard to see them like that, it always has been. All the suffering and pain, that sense of loss. Even back in my homeland when I started out as a healer, I always had this desire to help people and take away their suffering. Though I couldn’t do much for what ails their heart and soul, at least I could do a bit more when it came to their bodies.”

She looked up at her as she sat across the table from her. “But even if it’s just small things I can do to help make their day better, I like doing it. I like the idea that I managed to make someone feel better even a little bit. But right now, it just feels like I’m running out of steam. I was about to drink this cup of coffee, I don’t even remember how many I’ve already had, but all of a sudden it’s like I couldn’t even bring it to my lips. I know it brings me some joy and energy to keep going but… suddenly it feels a little futile. Does… that make sense?”

Gabrielle nodded, her expression just the right side of the empathy/condescension line.

“Yes,” she said. “That makes sense. And I know that you want to ‘elp them. Per’aps now is the time you start to think a little about you. Your job is keep them alive, keep them comfortable, right? You can do that but you do not ‘ave to give more than you ‘ave to give. It is worse in the end if you burn out, then you ‘elp no-one. If someone needs some more attention you can call me, I will give it to them. Is what I’m ‘ere for. Okay?”

Gabrielle’s expression changed slightly, she was analysing something.

“In fact, I think we need a break, hmm? One hour away from all of this. I will clear it with the C.M.O. and we will go, you and me, to the lounge and ‘ave a propeur lunch and you can ordeur whatever you want! Your favourite! Don’t worry, the replicateur will pay for everything, ‘e ‘as very deep pockets. Come! Come on!”

What she was saying made a lot of sense, although she wondered if it was fine to tell her the other reason why she was struggling a bit. Ensign Mayer found out though he seemed more appreciative of it. Though she wondered if this woman would be the same way.

But lunch was a good idea, and while she was hungry for something else, at least food would help stave off that hunger, even for a little while. And having someone motivating her so enthusiastically just made it harder to pass up.

“That sounds wonderful,” Yerin said with a grin. “Let’s go then!”

 

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