Skeletons In The Closet ("The Fast & The Fleet" Backpost) (Part 1)

Posted on Wed Nov 1st, 2023 @ 6:45am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Captain Shimakaze Zh'gero & Commander Keisuke Takahashi 'K.T.' & Lieutenant Commander Ryosuke Takahashi 'Ry' & Commander Ichika Misono & Commander Victor Delling MD & Lieutenant Commander Kurumi Ebisuzawa & Lieutenant Commander Brennyn Scott M.D. & Commander Rize Tedeza

1,086 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Operation Tokyo Return
Location: Earth Space Dock- Sickbay
Timeline: A few minutes after "I'll Show You The Difference"

Following her accident, Kurumi was rushed to Spacedock sickbay. It had taken quite a lot of convincing, but Tohru finally agreed to red flag the races until it was confirmed that Commander Ebisuzawa was okay (much to Shimakaze's aggravation)

Though Captain Zh'gero had remained behind to entertain those who were doing the same with some practice runs, her Chief of Security, Kyhl Th'udou, had broken ranks from his Captain and joined those at Spacedock sickbay to make sure Kurumi was alright. And as such, a rather sizeable crowd had gathered at Kurumi's bedside waiting for Kurumi to wake up, among them were two visitors from the USS Europa: Commander Rize Tedeza and Lieutenant Commander Ryosuke Takahashi:

"Kurumi?" Rize called out. "Kurumi! Can you hear me?"

Kurumi's eyes snapped open. She instantly sat up in her bed and reached out, breathing heavily. "No!" she shouted as if reaching to catch something in the distance. It took a few seconds for her to recognise where she was and she relaxed. "Not again..." she sighed.

"Gently now, gently..." Victor said softly as he'd only just begun fixing the more superficial of Kurumi's injuries.

Meanwhile, Bree kept an eye on the monitors tracking Karumi's vital signs. Despite being given something for pain, blood pressure and pulse remained elevated. "All will be well," Scott soothed.

"Where? What...?" Kurumi asked.

"Easy there, Commander:" Maho spoke. "You were in quite a nasty wreck back there. The safety protocols were on and spared you major injuries, but it's probably still going to sting for a bit."

Kurumi relaxed a little. "I see. I crashed..." she said sadly. However her eyes caught the familiar face of someone who she wasn't expecting to see. She looked up to see Rize Tedeza. "Rize?"

"Hey there, Cousin," Rize smiled, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "Can't begin to tell you what a relief it is to see you awake; you took a hell of a licking out there."

"Apparently so..." Kurumi said as she looked away. "I think I know what happened..."

Rize leaned forward. "If there's any way we can help, Kurumi, you just have to say the word."

Victor watched quietly as he continued to work. The explanation after the reunion was sure to be interesting. He however, was more concerned about getting a full set of reading, as some of the markers he was seeing were a little bit concerning to him.

"I... Was not aware that you had family on the Myogi as well." Ryosuke muttered. "Perhaps our two ships are more closely linked than I originally realized. Fascinating."

"Her mother and my father are siblings," Rize clarified. "We used to roughhouse in the back gardens a lot whenever her family was over. There was this one time I taught her how to put my nanny into headlock... poor girl quit the next day. Man, Kurumi didn't get the chance to see it, but Mom was pissed; must've gotten my ass grounded for a week after that little stunt..."

"So you're a menace?" Ichika remarked.

Rize blushed. "Hey, I was six; I didn't know any better at the time..."

The cousins being reunited had no bearing on Bree's immediate concerns but the psychiatrist in her filed the information for later. Family relationships could be complicated under the best of times, and while Karumi didn't seem to be too troubled, she was still in a vulnerable state as the monitors indicated.

A wry smile spread across Kurumi's face as she remembered those old days.

"Not to diminish your relationship, but as Captain of the Myogi, it is my responsibility to learn what caused you to lose control like that." Maho said. "Tristana is already sour that you came in and took her job, and she also doesn't like the Andorian in the room, as Tristana originally served on the Haruna under her previous captain, and Commander Th'udou replaced her first boss. I have no doubt that she is going to be coming to me at some point in the near future with a case file as to why you are unfit for the position, and in order for me to defend your ass from Tristana's wrath, I need to know the truth: Not just about what happened back in the holosuite, but also the tips from security personnel concerned about your wellbeing."

"I'm sorry for losing..." Kurumi said a tone of sadness in her voice. "I didn't mean to."

"Look, Kurumi, let's just set that aside for now," Rize assured her. "This silly little competition has no bearing on the matter at hand; we just need to know what happened out there so that we can help."

Bree couldn't argue the Captain's logic or deny the need for urgency, but she also felt for Kurumi. Whatever she had to say couldn't be easy, especially with an audience, having just barely returned to consciousness. "We're on your side, Commander. Whatever is going on, we will support you."

Victor silently pulled up a PADD and circled several neurotransmitter and neuro-active markers in her metabolism that were concerning to him. Cortisol. Serotonin. Tryptophan. Sodium. Phosphorus. Vitamin D. Glucocorticoids. Catecholamines. Her body had been running at a level of extreme stress for some time and he wondered what her neuroreceptors would say if he did a deeper scan. He could, and would given her injuries.

"Well..." Kurumi began to explain. "It all happened about three years ago. I was assigned to the Starship Amesbury. An old and underpowered Miranda Class Vessel. I had just made the rank of Lieutenant Commander when it happened..." she paused for a moment.

"The Amesbury was on a standard routine patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone. Nothing too special, just making sure the peace was there and all that. But that didn't matter to the Romulan ship that attacked us." She told them. She looked down at her bedsheets for a brief moment.

"You see, there was someone special on that ship to me." She looked up at Rize. "His name was Hiroshi." She said a tear coming to her eye. "He was my son. My partner Daiki worked down in Engineering. We had both decided that that would be our last tour, then we would settle down on Earth for a few years. I had accepted a post at Starfleet Academy to lecture there."

To be continued...

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