A Doctor and a Date
Posted on Wed Nov 21st, 2012 @ 6:32pm by Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keller MD, MBBS
Mission:
Reindeer Games
Location: Promenade
Timeline: After Senior Staff Briefing
Ratchford had remained in the briefing room after the departure of the stations senior officers, and once alone had accessed the station database. "Computer," he instructed. "Display the standing manifest for USS Jackal, authorisation Ratchford-Pi-Alpha-Niner."
As the computer chirped a response, the crew list began displaying on the screen in front of him, scrolling slowly down. Whilst there were a number of names of personnel who were on the list that he would talk to today regarding the ship's assignment, it was the absence of a name that drew his attention. "No medical staff?" he mused aloud. Perhaps Captain Gunning had thus far selected the staff on an ad hoc basis, per the mission at hand.
Knowing that the individual he wanted to join him on this assignment was aboard the starbase, a small grin crept into the corner of his mouth as he considered having at least one familiar face around him. "Computer, locate Doctor Miranda Keller."
"Doctor Keller is currently on the Promenade, Level 12, Section 23, Sub-Section 89-Gamma."
"Load the destination into the next turbolift I access," Ratchford instructed, before striding out of the ward room and towards the nearest one.
Promenade
The Promenade was abuzz with activity, couples taking slow walks, Starfleet Officers hurrying this way and that trying to grab a bite between meetings, busy shop owners struggling to keep track of their sales and every ten meters a Station Security Officer stood, keeping a keen eye out for trouble.
Miranda was slowly walking along the Promenade, doing a little window shopping. She didn't often get the chance to spend some time on her own, but fortunately for her work in sickbay was slow so she could leave the work to her staff and take the day off. Stopping infront of a store window which was displaying the new fashion in dresses from betazed, Miranda gave a sigh as she looked it over.
"Vesta to Doctor, medical emergency on the promenade." Ratchford said jokingly, coming up towards the physician from behind.
Suddenly snapped out of her peaceful thoughts by the unexpected call from behind her, Miranda spun around, her hands instinctively going for her Medical Tricorder she had sitting in her shoulder bag. Flipping the Tricorder open, she began to look around for the medical emergency, but all she saw was the normal flow of the crowd. Confused, and somewhat startled, Miranda slowly put away her Tricorder, and looked around for where the call could have come from.
"It's alright, I can tell you without that that the only emergency is an empty stomach," Ratchford said, grinning as he approached closer and bringing himself into the doctor's focus.
Irritated, Miranda almost glared at this man walking over go her, "Do you think it's funny to make false Emergency calls? To waist the medical staffs time?"
Brian couldn't help but chuckle at the little joke, and the doctor's instant reaction to pull out her tricorder, even when window shopping. "Sorry Miranda, I couldn't help myself. Care to join me for lunch to make up for it?"
Miranda took a deap breath and put on her best bed side manner, "sure, that sounds good Commander, um, Commander...." She said, unsure of the mans name.
"Oh, come on Doc," Ratchford said, his grin still in place. "It can't of been that long since the Vesta was put back into spacedock."
A little confused, Miranda looked a little closer at the man's face and after a moment, her memory finally clicked in, "Oh god, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot" she said, feeling embarrassed. "I spent most of my time in sickbay while I was on the Vesta"
"Don't worry about it," Brian said, dismissing it with a chuckle and a wave of his hand. He couldn't really blame the doctor to be honest; though there hadn't been any fatalities during the testing of the Vesta's Quantum Slipstream Drive, there had been a fair number of injuries; he had forgotten about how busy the medical staff must have been behind the scenes, whilst he and the captain had focussed on working with the engineering teams. Noticing one of the promenade's many generic dining areas - a collection of tables and chairs in an alcove whose walls contained three replicators, he held out his arm to indicate it to his companion, silently asking if she agreed with the rather bland choice of venue rather than search the directory for somewhere more unique.
Looking over to where Brian was pointing, Miranda thought for a moment than nodded, "alright, sounds good" she said, turning back to face him, "I could use something to eat. We could talk over lunch. I assumed you had a better reason than playing a practical joke on me to be out and about" she said, smiling
"Mmm, you've found me out," Brian responded with a slight grin, as he clasped his wrists behind his back and walked with her over towards the replimat. "Starfleet have asked me to take command of one of the station's garrison vessels, the Jackal to run some readiness drills due to those Sojourners we helped these guys out with on our way back from the Vesta's test flight," he explained. "It's only a small ship, and though I hope it won't be necessary, the manifest doesn't list any standing medical officers for her. I was wondering if you felt up to joining us for the trip?"
Miranda was caught a little off guard, she hadn't expected him to ask if she'd be willing to go on a mission with him. After a quick moment of thought, Miranda nodded, "Ok, sure why not. Things are a little slow in Sickbay anyway. When do you want to shove off?"
"I still need to discuss the details with Commander Von," Brian explained, ordering a chicken and pasta dish from the replicator, along with a glass of rich fruit juice. "But I imagine that we'll be setting off in the next few days or so."
Miranda nodded as she ordered a mug of herbal tea, "well, be sure to tell me how you talk with the commander goes" she said, walking over to one of the empty tables, "if you've got some time, I think we should get to know each other a little better as we're going to be working together more often"
"Sounds good to me," Brian responded, flashing her one of his grins. The two of them hadn't really been able to spend much time together on the Vesta, and considering that he didn't know where Starfleet would be sending him after these war games were over, he would appreciate having someone who he could chat with off duty whilst he was around - especially on a small ship like the Jackal. And besides, the doctor was really quite an attractive person to be with, to boot. "You found anywhere on the station that's piqued your interest yet?" he asked.
Miranda shook her head, "not yet, I haven't had much of a chance to explore the station yet" she said, taking a sip of her tea, "I've spent most of my time in sickbay getting used to the new layout. What about you? Any secret little places you go to?"
"To be honest, I only got here this morning," Brian admitted, tucking into his lunch. "Starfleet R'n'D wanted to quiz me and the captain more about the tests on the Vesta before they'd let us go, and then I had to be briefed on this Sojourner threat." As he chewed, he was pleased at the amount of taste that the replicator was able to synthesize in the sauce his pasta was in. Since the long trip home on the Carpathia after its last mission, he had found himself taking far more pleasure than before in simple things such as replicated foods with a flavour to them better than that of Starfleet ration packs. "I remember though speaking to a lieutenant who's served on this kind of starbase before, and she said that there's a great place on one of the lower docking levels that's barely visited by anyone - the station's power conservation protocols usually have the area set to low-lighting, and apparently it makes the view through the 'ports look really impressive. I'm hoping that I get a chance to try and find the same sort of thing here before I'm reassigned again."
"Well, how about tomorrow night?" Miranda suggested. She'd heard from a couple of other officers that there was a choice location down there somewhere, maybe Brian knew where it was. "How about we meet here after our shifts end and we can go find it together?" She asked. She found it strange that she'd never noticed before how handsome this man was, but she chalked it up to not spending much time around each other while they were aboard the Vesta. Brushing a stray hair behind her ear, Miranda glanced down at her soup, "what do you think?"
"Sounds like a plan," Brian said, his face lighting up at the unexpected invite.
Miranda looked up in surprise, "What? Really? Great! Well how about..." She started before being interrupted, =^=Dr Keller, You're needed in sickbay. Repeat, Dr Keller to sickbay =^=
Giving a sigh, Miranda smiled at Brian, "well, duty calls. See you here tomorrow night after shifts end?"
"It's a date," the commander said with a grin.
OFF:
Lt. Commander Brian Ratchford
Visiting Officer
&
Lieutenant Miranda Keller
Chief Surgeon
Starbase 332
