I'm a Doctor, not a Tattoo Artist
Posted on Sun Jan 30th, 2022 @ 6:38pm by Uhlan Ezra Perez & Centurion Nancy Gable & Sublieutenant Seira t'Reiza
1,012 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Chapter V: The Calm Before The Storm
Location: Medbay, Ourainavassa
Casually, Perez twirled the rapier in their left hand. Not quite as impressive as the greatsword they usually used, but it made up for that by being light and perfectly balanced. with their right, they gestured at the Klingon standing opposite, brandishing a pair of mek'leth. "Come at me, you ugly brute," they shouted, and the Klingon snarled before jumping towards Perez, swinging his weapons wildly. Deftly, Perez sidestepped, avoiding the attack, and slashed the rapier across the Klingon's back. With a roar of pain, he swirled around and swung his blades again. Perez dodged, and rammed the rapier into his gut. The Klingon howled and collapsed on the ground.
The young Terran wiped their blade on their fallen opponent's tunic, before turning to the next - a towering Gorn wielding a huge bat'leth. Without waiting for an invitation, the Gorn raised the bat'leth high and charged right at Perez. Once again, Perez' engineered and trained reflexes prevailed, as the dropping bat'leth sliced through empty air where Perez' head had been moments before, and the rapier's blade arced perfectly through the Gorn's hamstrings, bringing the huge lizard to its knees. Just as Perez moved to strike the killing blow, however, the Gorn lifted its bat'leth and swung at their right arm. The blade connected in the same instance as the point of the rapier plunged into the Gorn's throat, and Perez shouted out in pain.
"Fuck! Computer, end program." As the holographic arena and its occupants disappeared around Perez, they pressed their hand against their right shoulder, their white shirt sleeve drenched in blood. "Ugh, the doc is going to kill me," they muttered, as they used the rapier to slice some material off their shirt and tied it around the wound bevore leaving the holodeck and heading for medbay.
The short way from the holodeck to the medical bay had been agony, but Perez, always the trained soldier, tried their best not to let anything show to the few crewmembers they encountered on the way. Finally, the door to medbay slid open. "Anyone home," Perez called out, before groaning. "Need a quick stitching up job here."
Gable's eyes widened at the sight of the Uhlan's blood drenched shoulder. "Hu'tegh! What happened?" she asked, already pulling out a scanner and dermal regenerator as she headed toward them.
Perez shrugged, trying their best to suppress a wince at the movement. "Training accident. Can you patch me up?"
"Of course..." The response held a weary and mildly mordant tone that might have applied either to the claim of 'training accident' - something undoubtedly due to a lack of safeties - or the question of whether she could patch a non-fatal wound. "Get on bed and take your shirt off - it's ruined anyway."
Perez nodded and sat on the indicated bed, taking off the indeed ruined white shirt in the process, leaving them in the black wrappings they wore around their chest - and, for the first time, revealing that their back and shoulders were covered in an intricate pattern of Japanese yakuza-style tattoos depicting a dragon surrounded by flower petals. A large gash was obvious on their left shoulder, and although the bleeding had slowed down significantly, their left arm was covered in blood. "How bad's it look, doc?"
"Wow, that's great." Seira piped up unsolicited at the sight of the tattoo from the nearby bed where she was now absently kicked her heels a bit while the medical staff interrupted her exam to attend to the more urgent matter.
"It's impressive work," Gable commented, starting to disinfect the wound before applying the dermal regenerator. She tipped an eyebrow at Perez. "I hope you don't expect me fix the damage to the design. I'm a doctor, not a tattoo artist."
"Eh, too bad." Perez shrugged. "Can you set the regenerator to not fully clean things up, leave a scar or something? That way, the interruption in the art won't seem so sudden." They turned to Seira. "Thanks, got it done when I finished training as a Commando. The name might not seem like it, but I'm originally from a place on Terra called Japan. This kind of tattoo has a lot of historical meaning to it there."
Nancy quietly rolled her eyes at the request - it was one she was more than used to after working with Romulans for so long, and honestly there was no reason to be surprised that a Terran would make the same. "I can't fix the art, but I can make it as ugly a scar as you want, if that's a better effect."
"You don't need to make it hideous, of course. I may be Terran, but I'm not a savage." Perez chuckled. "I'm used to these regenerators being a lot more painful, too."
"I recommend leaving just enough to make it clear it's a scar, not an artist's mistake." Seira shrugged her eyebrows. "Something nice and clean; but visible." Stripped to an undershirt for her own exam, she fingered the similar smooth, minimal scarring where her prostetic arm met her shoulder, then a few additional little faded pale or green-tinged marks, barely raised or flat and shiny, from other damage from the explosion and collapse she'd been caught in - there was somewhat greater scarring hidden still on her chest and abdomen under the shirt, but even that, and even with the delays to regenerate things fully after a full combat situation, it was far less than she would have expected, far more subtle. The Federation clearly had superior medical technology, for all they might be behind in some other areas.
Perez smiled. "See, that's an expert talking. Do it like what she has. Not that it is that much of a wound." They shrugged. "And not that it would be the first scar I've got. Or the last, I'm sure."
"I'll do my best." There was definite touch of snark in the response as Gable bent to close the wound, muttering under her breath. "I trained in medicine, not body art."
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