A/N: The main character was requested by KK, so after I did some research I couldn't resist. As usual, I don't own Star Trek or anyone or anything. I'm just taking them out for a spin.
Strom sat at the window of the transport staring blankly. The past three years had been hard, to say the least. It was all a matter of perspective though, as he thought it through. His best friend, Yuris, had been sent away and all credentials removed, after the Dekindi interspecies medical exchange. Yuris had lied by omission to him, to them all, hiding his deviant behavior. Deviant, Strom thought half closing his eyes, it was considered deviant-not anymore. Things had changed. Things were changing.
He turned fully to the window swallowing hard his thin lips thinned even further. The Kir'shara had been brought to the High Command, and the world fell apart. His world fell apart and had not stopped falling apart.
Yuris had be reinstated by the medical board. For that he was grateful. He would always be grateful for that. At the same time, the same thing that freed Yuris was now imprisoning him. He sighed deeply. It wasn't actually prison, it was more like banishment. Politically motivated and sanctioned banishment. No charges were filed on him, nothing so dramatic. Just a quiet demotion from Oratt's staff, and assignment to Earth.
The foundation of the Federation, this new thing called "Starfleet" and the translation of the Kir'shara, were the collateral roads to where he was going now. The true reason, he was being sent to Earth, was his complete lack of ability to change with the times.
He turned away from the window, looking down at the book in his lap. The complete translated works of Surak, translated by Skon. His fingers drummed across the red leather of the thick volume. It had been a parting gift to him by Dr. Oratt, who had been banished to a different post as well, for the same reasons. Their leaders called it, integration education, in light of joining with the fledgeling Federation of Planets. They were to expand their horizons, study the works of Surak, and if he extrapolated correctly; modernize his thinking.
He closed his eyes, running his surgeons' fingers over the latinum inlaid lettering on the outside cover of his book. He had spent seventy years thinking the way he thought, believing the way he believed. He had refused training on the newly "acceptable" mind melding, at his superior Dr. Oratt's suggestion. Looking back on it, even now, he would not change mind. The sharing of one's thoughts and feelings, it seemed to him to be a terrible and unneeded intimacy. Then there was the newly established thoughts on humanity, their sudden worthiness….
Strom took a long slow breath, letting it out gently as he meditated on suppressing all the dark emotions this whole circumstance inspired. He was being banished from Vulcan to Earth, for an indeterminate period of time, to work with human doctors and nurses, learn, and teach, as this new Starfleet prepared it's people for deep space missions and exploration. He was being sent to a cold, wet planet, with illogical, emotionally motivated beings. Somehow, though he failed to see the logic of how, this was supposed to aid him in assimilating into his own culture.
His fingers stroked his new book of Surak as he let all his doubts and questions rage in his mind. Perhaps, one day soon, he'd be able to open the book and read the contents. It would be logical for him to do, but every time he opened it to the first page, Strom found he could not reconcile what he knew of Surak's teaching and even the first few lines of the book in his lap. He was having a crisis of logic and faith, which had brought him to where he was now, banished until he could see the error of his ways.
A tall thin middle aged male doctor stepped to the podium. Before him stood twenty five of the highest level nurses Earth had to offer. He had vetted them all himself, each meeting exacting criteria. All had to speak at least vulcan, and the best spoke vulcan and at least one other alien dialect. They were all nurse practitioners, the highest level of nurse and each had grades he considered nearly perfect. This was the cream of the crop, and he had found them all himself. He was more than pleased. "Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen," he began adjusting his microphone, "As you know, you've all been gathered together today to embark on an historical medical journey." he smiled at them all as he continued, "Today, you are being accepted into the first wave in a seven wave plan to build the first medical ranks of our newly formed Federation's Starfleet medical facility. We are, as we speak, breaking ground on the first -of what I know will be many- Federation medical research and teaching hospitals. You all stand at the door of our future, as the first wave of medical pioneers. From you, and what you learn in the next several years, we will be able to train thousands of doctors and nurses serving in the deepest reaches of known and unknown space. You are going to be the foundation on which countless human and alien lives will be saved." He paused a small time allowing for some applause, "One week from now, our first vulcan and andorian physicians arrive, each of you will have the pleasure of being assigned to one. Together, you will learn and teach, and two years from this date you will be the first teachers and administrators of the first teaching hospital of it's kind in the entire universe."
He paused and the room filled with passionate clapping. He smiled at the room of people, while motioning for his aids to begin passing out the packets he had prepared, "Half of you will be traveling to Vulcan or Andoria. The other half of you will be remaining here and taking on either a vulcan or andorian doctor, to aid them in every way. You will spend the next two years with them, learning from them, and teaching them as well. Some of you that remain on Earth will be working here, in San Francisco, while others will be with your people across the globe at some of the finest hospitals on Earth. You will find your assignments in your packets. We'll adjourn for lunch, after lunch we will prepare you to leave tonight so you can prepare your new home facility to receive our honored guests. Good luck, ladies and gentlemen, good luck as you boldly go where no one has gone before."
As people got up to make their way to the reception hall a tall blond female nurse approached him with a small frown. He paused, "Nurse Sabrina Howard is it? You look like a woman with a question."
She smiled at him, holding her packet up, "Dr. Thornhill, my packet doesn't contain a vulcan or andorian name. It reads that I'll be here, in charge of the nursing staff in the emergency wing."
"Yes, that's right. You are an alternate, in case anyone on the team washes out." Dr. Thornhill answered in a pleasantly professional tone. "I mean, we hope that doesn't happen, but we had to build in the possibility of failure."
Sabrina's shoulders dropped, "Did I miss questions, or fail some kind of entry test?"
"No, no, no, "Thornhill laughed, "Not at all! There was no margin for error on the tests, you passed perfectly! This was a completely arbitrary choice. Luck of the draw, I'm afraid. Not to worry, Nurse Howard, if you go through this cycle and aren't needed for an alt, you'll be first on the list the next round of this process. Next round, I am told we are getting Tellarites, so you never know!"
Sabrina forced a smile, "Great." she said thinly, all her hopes dashed to the rocks to truly be a part of this pilot program. She had studied the vulcan language since she was five years old in montessori school, and had been paying for very expensive andorian classes for over a year. Dr. Thornhill was standing there grinning like an idiot at her, as if what he was telling her was the best news all day. "Ok then, guess that's how it is." she was not going to blow up at him and risk getting kicked out of the program completely. Thankfully, Dr. Thornhill nodded and turned from her to join everyone else at the luncheon.
She took a few moments just watching him leave, then insult of all insults another doctor approached him and she overheard him ask Thornhill when HE left for vulcan. She stopped dead and just shook. Her nails were digging into the black paper of her packet. Sabrina was on the verge of yelling a profanity when a young man approached her with the same colored packet as she.
"Hi, um, I'm Jon Kinkle," he said with an awkward smile, "Um...Nancy told me you were Sabrina Howard."
Sabrina took her eyes off the back of Thornhill, turning them to the auburn haired young man now standing before her, "Oh, yeah, I'm Sabrina Howard." she put on her best nurse with a patient cheerful tone.
He held his hand out to shake hers, after the shake he held up a black folder, "We are both on the same team it looks like. Ummm, you got stationed here too? Did you get a vulcan or andorian?"
Her nurses smile strained, "No, I'm heading the emergency department. I am an alt, in case of any drop outs."
"Ummm, ok. Well, I got a vulcan and ummmm, Pierce Striker, who ummm you'll meet, he got an andorian. Ummm, we all are going to have an office together, ummm even you." he pulled out the schematic for where they were going to be in the hospital. Ummmm, so, ummmm we'd like it if you'd join us for ummmm, lunch."
Sabrina sighed. It was hard to listen to Jon talk with all the verbal pausing, but otherwise he seemed like a nice guy. Even though she wanted to stalk off to be alone she found herself nodding, "Sounds great! We are going to be spending some time together for the next few years, seems only right we three christen our new working relationship over free lunch."
"Ummm yeah!" he said with a chuckle. "Ummm, you're gonna like Pierce!"
"Does your packet tell you who you got as far as vulcan?"
"Ummm yeah, ummm, Dr. Strom, ummmm...well when we eat I'll show you the file."
"Sounds great." she said softly, "What dialects of vulcan do you speak?"
"Umm, well, Shir'kar, ummm, the common."
Nodding she walked with him into the banquet hall. There was a younger looking black man waving his black folder at a table in the center of the room. "I take it, that's Pierce?"
"Ummm, yeah. He just graduated John's Hopkins." He waved back and made his way through the servers and nurses milling around, "Hey, ummm, Pierce, this is Sabrina. Umm, she's the one who will be in our office."
The young man stood, "Oh, Hi! Nice to meet you, Sabrina. I ordered a pitcher of tea and coffee for the table, since you guys weren't here. Hope that's ok."
"It's lovely, "Sabrina said with a smile to both young men, "I drink tea constantly, never been a coffee drinker."
"Umm, c-cant survive without my coffee." Jon said with a giggle.
"Same." Pierce chimed in, "So more for you on the tea side of things."
Sabrina couldn't be angry with these guys, and in some ways she thought it would be easier if they were arrogant prats who she could, through force of thought, wish ill things on so she could take their place. "More for me." she said with a soft, albeit sad, smile. The one thing she noted of the rest of the people around her, was they were younger than her. Not that she was ancient, but at 31, she was the elder of the group. Pierce looked to be twenty-one at best, and Jon, probably twenty five. Next to them, she was practically a fossil. If Pierce just graduated, then he was going to need guidance, a mother nurse, like she had when she was wet behind the stethoscope. As for Jon, she suspected he was going to need some help too. The verbal pausing he did nearly drove her to distraction, she couldn't imagine what that might do to a vulcan ear. She picked up her glass of tea, "Here is to team Sanfran! May we be the best of the best!"
Both men smiled at her raising their coffee cups, "Ummm Team Sanfran!"
"Team Sanfran!"
They all sipped their drinks, and Sabrina finally took a seat between the two men. It's not the job she wanted, but maybe this was where she was supposed to be. Running the emergency department was prestigious, after all, not perhaps what she wanted to do but still a feather in her cap. She wasn't going to be completely out of all the action. If she was sharing an office space with these two, then she may well have access to both the andorian and vulcan.
Glancing at Thornhill who looked like a man overly pleased with a joke he just told, she still wanted to gouge his eyes out, but she was going to show him just how valuable she was. Looking back to the men at her side, who were studying the menu now, even if she did that by making two kids successful.