Blood in Scales [Nelkar & Ilana]

[Sickbay]

Faintly, a light beeping and buzzing poked at the heavy blackness in the Cardassian's mind. What... is the name of Taspar is that? Nelkar's heavy-lidded eyes opened and squinted with the blinding light that came forward. Unfortunately, what came with it was a nauseating wave of pain. Nelkar was no stranger to pain... but he was groggy and didn't try to suppress the grimace that resulted from it.

Several moments of blinking and centering himself made him come to realize that he was in sickbay- which was (in addition to the fact that he didn't seem to be able to move) disconcerting at best- alarming at worst.

"Why have I..." he wondered aloud in a hoarse voice. Oh, yes. I remember. His last recollection was of a blinding light while he was in engineering. There had been burning pain from the plasma; then there had been darkness. Accursed Federation ships.

He was still unable to freely move, and the Cardassian sternly frowned. "Doctor?" he said, with a tone that was more suited to a Gul than a mere engineering ensign.

To say that Ilana was uneasy would have been an understatement. A number of Engineers had been brought up to sickbay after a plasma conduit had ruptured, each of them receiving severe plasma burns. The worst hit was a new officer on the Phoenix, another Cardassian by the name of Nelkar Epath, and, since she was of the same species and that was supposed to mean that she was an expert, she had been assigned as his primary physician for the emergency.

Having administered a light dose of stimulant to bring him 'round, she was currently hiding out of sight behind a monitoring console. She had activated a restraining field over the biobed to keep him down, knowing full well that he was likely to spring up and try to go back on duty before she considered him ready. Given her diminutive and weaker stance compared to most Cardassians, she wouldn't be able to stop him.

Hearing him call out for a doctor, however, meant that she couldn't hide any more, especially given the tone of voice he had used. Straightening her uniform, she tried to gather what little courage she had and stepped over to the biobed, leaning over so that she was within his field of vision.

"L-lie s-s-s-still, y-you t-t-took qu-quite a b-b-bad h-hit wh-when th-th-the c-c-conduit e-exploded."

Allowing his sight to focus also meant realizing that he could only see out of one eye. Possibilities ranging from a stuck eyelid to having burned out his eye entirely came to mind and were summarily put aside for further thought. A grey face came into his line of sight, which then focused into... another cardassian?

Nelkar frowned. "I am still on the federation vessel, yes?" he asked with more than a note of suspicion in his tone. The next thing he registered was the woman's stuttering tone. Most likely not a cardassian ship. Such an impediment... well, I wouldn't wish to be her.

The pain was growing into a throbbing agony, though dulled by some sort of painkiller. "Obviously. How severe are the injuries?" he asked immediately, in the same commanding tone as before.

"Y-y-yesn y-you're s-s-still on th-the Ph-Phoenix," Ilana assured him, making a mental note that he was probably suffering from a concussion, or just reacting to seeing another Cardassian. It wasn't like they were a common species to see in Starfleet.

She fought the urge to recoil, to scurry away and find somewhere to hide as the tone of voice her patient was using. In fact, Ilana did glance around the sickbay, seeking anyone who could take over from her, but saw no one. "Um... th-th-they are s-s-severe. Y-y-you w-were r-r-right in th-th-the l-line of f-f-fire, as it w-w-were."

Nelkar exhaled in resignation before glancing down at his immobilized body. Through his eye he could tell that the doctor wasn't lying. Most of his uniform was a charred, tattered mess, and the grey of his arms and chest -and, he assumed, his face- was splotched with ugly burns. He wasn't getting out of sickbay anytime soon. "Any permanent damage?" he clipped. Injuries that would affect his ability to complete his... assignment were not an acceptable detriment.

Even after asking, the Cardassian sighed again, before squinting thoughtfully at his attending doctor. Such a small little thing. Probably very young, too. Sometimes Nelkar was convinced he was on an entire ship of children. The fact that Ilana was practically waif-thin didn't exactly make Epath see her as any less diminutive.

"What's your name, girl?" he asked after a moment of visually scrutinizing her.

"N-n-no, n-no p-p-permanent d-damage," the young Cardassian told her patient. That much was true. What damage there was would take quite a bit of time to heal, given the extent of the burns he had suffered, but a few hours with a dermal regenerator and he would be fine.

She was very tempted to take a step back, out of his field of vision, at the scrutiny she was coming under from the older Cardassian. She dropped her stance, slouching slightly. Everything about her natural position suggested that she tried to get through life while attracting as little attention as possible. She had even gone as far as to replicate her uniforms slightly too large for her so as to conceal her skinny form.

When asked for her name, she stammered a couple of unintelligible syllables before managing to get out: "E-Ensign Ilana T-T-Telak,"

Nelkar would have attempted to touch his face had he not been restrained by the medical force field. That was something he hoped would be removed. A lifetime of experiences had made him... uneasy about being confined for too long. Still, the doctor's answer had satisfied the first part of his curiosity. He wouldn't die and he'd be intact through it anyway. Little thanks to the plasma conduit.

"I suppose the burns are the explanation behind my current partial blindness," he stated more than asked.

Nelkar felt a bit... useless, which accounted partially for why he was was so keen on displaying an air of control through his outward projections. Still, it brought him no joy to see the younger Cardassian shrinking away from him as though he were made of fire. He tried very hard not to allow her to remind him of his own children.

That was easier to do once her name was spoken. The name Ilana meant nothing to him, but the name Telak. Oh, yes. That name. There was likely not a single Gul in the Cardassian fleet that didn't know the name Telak.

That infernal traitor. This must be... his daughter? Of course. How else would she be in starfleet?

"You are the daughter of Vonar Telak," he said stiffly. "What an... interesting occurrence that we should cross paths." She is not to blame for her father's defection. Remember that, Epath.

Ilana felt a cold hand squeeze around her stomach as her patient made the link between her and her father. That was one reason that she tended to avoid contact with her own kind. Her father had been a traitor, a deserter, yes, but he had already paid a high price for it. It was just unfortunate that there was no forgiving some things in the Cardassian Union. While she had been young, only a toddler, when they had left Bajor, some still considered that the shame of the father should be applied to the child.

"Y-y-yes, th-that's r-r-right," she replied warily. "D-d-do y-you kn-kn-know m-my f-f-father?"

Ilana Telak wrote:

Ilana felt a cold hand squeeze around her stomach as her patient made the link between her and her father.  That was one reason that she tended to avoid contact with her own kind.  Her father had been a traitor, a deserter, yes, but he had already paid a high price for it.  It was just unfortunate that there was no forgiving some things in the Cardassian Union.  While she had been young, only a toddler, when they had left Bajor, some still considered that the shame of the father should be applied to the child.

"Y-y-yes, th-that's r-r-right," she replied warily.  "D-d-do y-you kn-kn-know m-my f-f-father?"

"Yes," the injured Cardassian replied with a low hiss. he was trying to keep the disdain out of his tone. "I daresay there isn't a cardassian who doesn't know your father." The irony of a cardassian on a starfleet ship being treated by a cardassian doctor from a traitor family was... not lost on Nelkar.

Still, outwardly his expression appeared to change. He look a little resigned, but amused in a very tired sort of way. "In all things considered, I am not the one to be passing judgement in this..." he said with a painted glance down at what remained of the starfleet uniform that he'd been stuck in.

He figured Telak would assume what he'd told starfleet- that he, too, was a defector.

He had lied... but it was fort he good of his current mission. Control your tongue. You've been at this far too long to give up your cover now. Two accelerated years at starfleet academy, and before that a veritable ring of interrogators at starfleet headquarters before they'd trusted him enough to allow him to join starfleet. Operatives of... his particular branch of affiliation did not give information so easily.

Ilana looked down at her hands, recognising the distaste in Nelkar's voice. She knew exactly why her father had left and taken all those who followed his line of thought, but it was a fact that was little known to other Cardassians.

Since Nelkar was wearing Starfleet uniform and rank, she had automatically assumed that he had managed to find a way into the service just as she had. Part of her wondered what had happened to him to bring him into Starfleet and not the Cardassian Fleet. Had be been disgraced somehow?

Scraping together some semblance of a backbone, she set her jaw and said: "H-h-he is n-n-not th-the m-m-man th-the Union p-p-paints h-him t-t-to b-be." As she spoke, she reached for the biobed controls, releasing the forcefield now that she was fairly sure that he wasn't about to leave in a hurry. However, she did pick up a hypo before hand, one containing a cartridge of sedative to jab into him if it became necessary.

With the release of the forcefield came a feeling of looseness to the Cardassian's joints, but when Nelkar attempted to move his arm, the taut skin of the burned area and the pain that accompanied its movement prevented him quite efficiently from doing anything much more than raising one of the injured limbs a few inches and setting it down. "Thank you anyway," Nelkar said out of politeness- traitor or no, being too rude to your doctor wasn't a wise move.

The hypo in her hand distracted him for only a moment- he was about to say 'that won't be necessary', but the words she said instead held his attention more firmly. In his head he practically sneered at the mere thought. Of course his daughter would leap to his defense. Then again... he knew even himself that so many bad decisions had been made by the Union that he'd grown weary of it all. He'd follow his missions... by the pull of duty and bound honour alone.

That didn't excuse desertion, in his mind.

"Forgive me if I'm not so... inclined to take into consideration what sort of man he is. besides, what I think... is of little consequence."

"I d-d-didn't expect y-y-you t-to," Ilana replied quietly. She moved back over to her console briefly, picking up an archaic element. She slipped the glasses onto her nose, moving back over to her patient and examining the burn to the side of his head again. He had mentioned earlier that he couldn't see out of it, but she hadn't been all that concerned about it. The burn to the side of his head had fused the skin of his eyelids together. His optic nerve was still undamaged, and the eyeball underneath had only sustained light damage, nothing that she couldn't fix.

"I'm g-g-going t-to h-h-have t-to use a l-l-laser s-s-scalpel on y-y-your eyelid, ok?"

Ilana had moved slightly out of Nelkar's line of sight. This didn't help the Cardassian's growing mistrust of the current situation- and when the skittish doctor returned with a scalpel in hand and glasses on her face, he could just feel the last of his confidence in the situation draining away.

Epath briefly weighed the consequences of questioning why the woman about to cut at his eye with a laser scalpel was wearing glasses, and decided that asking wouldn't keep the thing away from his face. Let us hope that your hand is steadier than your voice, doctor Telak.

"Very well," the former Gul said stiffly. "Get it over with, then."

Ilana's hand was, in fact, probably the steadiest thing about her. Picking up a different hypospray to the one she had filled with a sedative, she selected a cartridge filled with a local anaesthetic, guessing that he wouldn't want to be put back under for this. She pressed it as gently as she could into the side of his head then, after waiting a few minutes for the medication to kick in, went in with the laser scalpel.

The cut was clean, precise and neat, separating the fused edges of the eyelid with little mess. A quick run over with the dermal regenerator healed the new cut, but it would still need cosmetic reconstruction along with the rest of the burn sites.

"Y-y-you sh-sh-should h-have s-s-sight b-back in y-your eye n-n-now," she stammered quietly, putting the tools away.

Thanks to Telak's anesthetic and careful ministrations, Nelkar felt no considerable pain as his eyelid slowly unstuck and allowed him to open. It took several seconds for the sharp beam of light to become equal in perceived intensity to his other eye, but when it did he breathed a sigh of relief.

Everything seemed to be visually in order, aside from what appeared to be a light bit of blurriness- which he attested to minor, fixable damage that he needn't worry about.

"Thank you," the older Cardassian muttered as he resisted the urge to rub his eyes.

"Step one of many, I assume?"

While Ilana had been ready to tell him not to rub at his opened eye, he seemed to have reached that conclusion for himself, thankfully leaving it well enough alone. It was strange. She had expected far more of a fight from the Cardassian lying on the biobed, but he seemed to be pretty resigned to receiving treatment.

"I'm afraid s-s-so," she replied to his question, looking a little guilty at having to admit such a thing. He was being very patient so far, quite at odds with many of the personnel on the ship, but perhaps it was due to experience. "Y-y-you're b-b-b-being r-remarkably p-p-patient," she told him.

Nelkar was a bit amused by that. He was, perhaps, a little more on the side of good patience compared to others with his standing... but he didn't mind this doctor, daughter of a traitor or now. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Besides, he was in too much pain to move much more than he already was. The anesthetic dulled the burn's pain on his face, but the rest of his body was in near agony. The poker face he was managing to maintain was held in place only by years of vigorous training.

"Patience is a luxury I can afford," Nelkar said with a chagrined look on his face. He assumed that the doctor would likely resume hovering around him with a dermal regenerator... and keeping silent the whole time likely wouldn't make the nervous girl any more at ease. Evidently, he cared a little more than he should. She was much like his youngest son, Teklin.

"I see you've made quite a life for yourself on this ship. Your... family must be very proud."

Checking the readouts on the biobed, Ilana pushed her glasses a little further up her nose before picking out another cartridge for her hypospray, a painkiller this time. Quite a strong one too. The dermal regeneration she had to do was extensive and likely to be uncomfortable for her patient.

She smiled slightly as Nelkar spoke again, thinking about her parents on the colony they had set up in Federation space after spending so much time drifting and searching. "Th-th-they are," she said, pressing the hypo into the least-burned side of his neck. "M-m-my f-father d-d-didn't w-want m-m-me t-to l-l-leave th-the c-c-colony, b-but h-he accepted it e-eventually."

As the painkiller flooded his system, the burns' pain was washed away to a pleasantly tolerable numbness. Nelkar didn't exactly like it, but it much beat the alternative of letting Telak prod at him for a few hours with a dermal regenerator without it. A light look of relief replaced the tension in the older Cardassian's face.

Nelkar couldn't figure out why, but he was enjoying hearing this girl talk about her family. Even if the Telak family had no connections with the Union, it made him feel a little less disconnected with his own kind. Especially so when he was stuck among humans and other Federation species that tended to look at him with a loathing he couldn't bypass. I deserve a little familiar indulgence until this assignment is done.

There was also a mildly underhanded reason to asking these questions- to collect information. He didn't know whether his superiors would care about the daughter of Vonar Telak, but he'd been strictly instructed to report everything.

"I can see why he'd wish to be protective. How long have you been in service?"

After checking the biobed readouts again to ensure that the painkiller was having an effect, Ilana picked up a dermal regenerator. The healing process, despite the inherent Cardassian hardiness, would likely take several hours with the regenerators, and even then he was going to have to wait for his scales to regrow. She didn't envy him that process. It rendered the skin sore and tender while all the while itching madly.

She activated the medical instrument, starting to run it over the burns as she replied: "T-t-two y-years active s-s-service, p-plus s-several y-y-years m-m-medical s-s-school and th-the A-Academy."

Though not immobilized any longer, Epath remained remarkably still for someone being put back together with a medical device. Unknowingly, he was thinking of the same thing Ilana was- how aggravating the process of regrowing his destroyed scales was going to be. Starfleet unforms were only going to irritate him more.

At least for now it seemed tolerable.

Ilana's answer made him close his eyes briefly in disbelief. She truly was a child. "Take my advice- don't make it your whole life." There was an air of tiredness to Nelkar's suggestion. He'd stayed in too long and now he was firmly entrenched in things he wouldn't ever escape.

A small patch about the size of Ilana's palm of Nelkar's skin was now clear of burns and under her administrations with the dermal regenerator, was slowly growing. Her expression turned to one of faint surprise at his warning and she paused for a moment, her facial scales shifting slightly to form a thoughtful expression.

"I d-d-do n-not kn-kn-know wh-what else I w-w-would d-do," she admitted, starting to continue her treatment. "M-my t-t-training w-w-would allow m-me t-t-to f-find employment outside of S-S-Starfleet, I s-s-suppose."

Cardassian's range of motion for their necks was comparitively limited, so Nelkar couldn't exactly see what Ilana was doing do his neck. What he did know was that he could feel an uncomfortable tightening sensation that was mixed with a sort of relief- the only kind that came with the covering of raw or burned flesh with fresh skin.

"That's an option you should investigate. Just... don't make the military- starfleet- your life. Take it from an old man who made that very mistake." Referring to himself as an old man was strange to him, but Nelkar was slowly getting used to the fact that he was just that, especially on this ship.

"Have a family, pursue a different career. Pioneer a new field in medicine or research. The universe is quite large."

Nelkar Epath wrote:

Cardassian's range of motion for their necks was comparitively limited, so Nelkar couldn't exactly see what Ilana was doing do his neck. What he did know was that he could feel an uncomfortable tightening sensation that was mixed with a sort of relief- the only kind that came with the covering of raw or burned flesh with fresh skin.

"That's an option you should investigate. Just... don't make the military- starfleet- your life. Take it from an old man who made that very mistake." Referring to himself as an old man was strange to him, but Nelkar was slowly getting used to the fact that he was just that, especially on this ship.

"Have a family, pursue a different career. Pioneer a new field in medicine or research. The universe is quite large."

Ilana had never given much thought to the future. She had always been too focused either on the present or on the projects she currently had running. The future generally seemed like something that could wait, that she didn't need to concern herself with at that moment in time. She wondered now what things Nelkar had seen for him now to be warning her against taking the same path.

"M-m-my m-mother w-would h-h-have m-me f-find a m-m-mate n-now and s-settle d-down t-t-to h-have a f-f-family," the young Cardassian admitted shyly, "b-b-but I h-have a l-lot t-t-to r-repay t-to S-S-Starfleet b-before I c-can d-do th-th-that."

"What do you possibly owe them?" Nelkar asked, as much out of personal curiosity as professional inquiry. Obviously something had to have happened, allowances made before they could allow a Cardassian into starfleet... but even that was not worth a life sentence in fleet service.

Her mention of her mother made him smile fondly. Cardassian parents and their fixation on family. His family had been much the same... and his children had been one of the best things in his life. "I can understand that preoccupation. Even my wife was..."

Suddenly, Nelkar frowned and went silent. Over-sharing, Epath. It wasn't just that. Memories of a dead wife weren't good to cloud an otherwise pleasant conversation.