((post Waydi first contact disaster))
Safely ensconced in her quarters finally, Katriel winced when she caught sight of her reflection for the first time. An inch long disruptor burn remained on her right cheekbone, and an angry red slice stretched diagonally down the length of her neck on the left. Neither were painful anymore, but the severity of the original injuries were such that multiple sessions with a dermal regenerator would be necessary before the visual traces would be eliminated entirely. The physician on the Sahara, satisfied that he had done all he could, had given Katriel leave to take care of the remaining damage at her leisure.
“Computer, please cancel my appointments for the next three days and hold them for rescheduling.”
The computer chirped its confirmation as Katriel trudged over to the bed, falling back onto it with an exhausted sigh. Stars knew she wasn’t exactly vain about her appearance, but she knew from previous experience that her patients would frequently be too preoccupied with her well-being to concentrate properly on themselves, so it was generally better to just reschedule when possible.
“Incoming subspace communication from Brian Sedai, U.S.S. Sirocco.”
“Damn it,” Katriel muttered to herself, hauling herself into a sitting posture. “Computer, accept transmission, audio only please.” Another computer chirp confirmed the link had been made.
“Hello, Brian.”
“Hey, Owl. Something wrong with your video feed, or are you answering calls in your underwear today?” Brian’s warm tenor sounded through the room with humor.
No, I just know you’d freak out if you could see what I looked like right now. She bit back the response. “Ha, ha, ha. Sounds more like something you would do. In fact, didn’t I hear that one time you and … what was her name… Sarah something?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. WHO told you about that??” Brian sounded incensed. Katriel could just picture him, eyes narrowed, with his head tilted towards the ceiling as he considered which of his friends he’d have to strangle for telling his innocent baby sister about one of his less dignified moments.
“Oh, ah, I don’t recall,” she fibbed, easily, and tried to push away the flash of guilt for the little pile-up of white lies she was feeding him. It’s for his own good, she reasoned, he’d worry for nothing otherwise.
“Mmmrrrr,” was Brian’s skeptical response. “So how’d the diplomatic meeting go? I haven’t seen anything in the news about you starting an interstellar incident, so couldn’t have been that bad, right?”
“It… ah…” This time, she wasn’t quite able to come up with a lie fast enough. Even if she had, it’d have been too big.
“Katriel?”
She exhaled. “Not… so well. The Klingons knew about the meeting. We were barely started when they ambushed us.”
“… stars. You’re all right? How many casualties?”
Katriel got to her feet, feeling unable to sit still while recalling the events. “The Waydi Ambassador was one of the first to fall. I… I had my sabre with me, so we were able to fight our way back to the beam-in point. We lost none of our party, but before we could warp, the Brunton – the diplomatic corps escort – was destroyed.”
A beat of silence went by before Brian’s voice returned.
“… Well. I’m sorry for that. It must have been harrowing. Good thing you’re pretty quick with a blade. Or used to be, are you keeping up with your drills?”
“There wasn’t a reason to, until now,” Katriel grumped, pacing around her small bedroom. “I’m sore now, but I did okay, I guess. Klingons aren’t exactly the quietest thinkers.”
“Not a negligible advantage, for sure. But they have superior weight on you. You’re sure you’re okay?”
Katriel grimaced as he touched on precisely the reason she got the slice down her neck to begin with. She had gotten into a blade lock with a Klingon Blademaster which, in hindsight, had been an exceptionally stupid move and a mistake she’d likely never make again. It had lasted only a couple breaths before she had been overpowered and just narrowly spun back and out of the way.
“Yeah, just a scrape or two. Nothing to write home about.” Just don’t ask me to turn my video feed on.
“What’s going to happen next? With the Waydi?”
Katriel sighed as she paused by the bookshelf, running an idle finger over random items on the shelves. “I don’t know. The ship we rendezvoused on did manage to get away, so it’ll report back to the Waydi and… well, who knows what they’ll say?”
“I’m sorry, Owl.” Brian’s tone had just the right amount of sympathy. Katriel often thought he’d make a better counselor than her. “Tough break all around, isn’t it?”
“Mmm,” Katriel murmured her assent, her eyes turning sad as her fingers swept over a photo frame that contained a happy looking couple therein. Her fingers dropped away as she turned, shaking her head and changing the subject. “So! How’s your work going? Did you ever get the right composition of soil for those seed samples?”
“Well…”
((kind of continues here…))