Second Chances: Chapter 60
Stardate 52345
July 2375
U.S.S. Veracruz
Quatal System
Lt. B'Elanna Torres and Cadet Ku Lia Ika Nu were discussing Nu's proposal for an independent Advanced Engineering thesis over dinner in the Veracruz's mess hall. They had approximately twelve hours until the Veracruz arrived at AR-558, and Torres had put her crew on mandatory rest until that time. They would be busy as soon as they got to the planet, and she wanted them in top shape.
"Mind if I join you?" Dr. Nicki Sanders asked, taking a seat without waiting for a response. "Anyone up for a game of Velocity after dinner?"
"I've ordered my team on rest," Torres replied. "Including my cadet. Don't try to pull your rank to confuse her about whose orders she should be listening to." Nicki snorted.
"I wouldn't know how to pull rank if I tried," she said dryly. "It is good phaser practice, though," she said to Nu. The cadet had qualified—barely—on both the hand phaser and phaser rifle a few days before. Nicki had surprised most of the security team with perfect scores on her recertification. She chose not to inform them that she had been quite the competitive Velocity player as a kid.
"I'm going to go to my quarters after dinner, but thank you for the invitation," Cadet Nu said politely. She took another bite of her ice cream. Torres smirked and turned to her sister-in-law.
"She's eating ice cream for dinner, and you're just going to sit there and watch?" she asked. "What kind of doctor are you?"
Nicki grinned in delight. "You have become such a mother!" she said gleefully. "Which is ironic, because I am 95% sure that your daughter is eating ice cream for dinner as we speak."
Torres rolled her eyes. "Don't get me started on what your mother thinks is appropriate grandparent behavior," she said. "But hey, if she's the one who wants to deal with an overly-sugared quarter-Klingon preschooler, more power to her."
Nicki chuckled. "But to answer your original question, I'm the kind of doctor who knows that the Xahean diet consists mainly of simple carbohydrates and that ice cream is perfectly appropriate," Nicki replied with a smirk. Nu grinned as she finished her ice cream, and then rose.
"Thank you for the discussion, sir," she said to Torres. "I'm going to head to my quarters."
"Zero-six in the armory," Torres reminded her.
"Yes, sir," Nu replied. "Have a good night, sir, Doctor."
"Night, Nu," Torres said. "Get some sleep. Don't stay up all night working on the triquantum wave problem."
"Yes, sir," Nu said with another grin.
Nicki watched the cadet leave. "So, Velocity?" she asked once the doors were closed behind Nu. Torres chuckled and shook her head.
"Shouldn't you be getting some rest, too?" she asked. "They said to expect casualties."
"Quite a few," Nicki agreed with a nod. "Dr. Bashir sent a message to the Sickbay with what to expect as of that moment. He also said that they were expecting an assault from the Jem'Hadar tonight and to prepare for casualties from that."
"Then why…" She cut herself off in sudden understanding. "You have nervous energy you need to burn off."
"So much," Nicki said emphatically. "Gods, knowing that I'm going to be slammed is torture. I much prefer to be blissfully ignorant of how busy I'm going to be than to be given more than twelve hours of imagining the worst. If I go back to my quarters now, I'm just going to end up staring at the ceiling, coming up with progressively worse scenarios. Just one game of Velocity, please."
B'Elanna chuckled and shook her head in resignation. "I'd rather play hoverball."
Nicki snorted. "You wipe the floor with me at hoverball."
"Why do you think I prefer it?"
"Velocity is better practice before heading into a potential combat situation."
"In that case, I have a bat'leth program we could run."
Nicki snorted. "Why use a bat'leth when I've got a phaser?"
B'Elanna smiled slightly. "One game of Velocity," she finally agreed.
When she played Velocity against most opponents, B'Elanna's strength, stamina, and quick reflexes put her at an advantage. When she played against Nicki, though, she was reminded that Velocity was more about strategy and wit than physical attributes. And reminded that Parises had really, really good reaction times. Nicki scored four times without seeming to even try. B'Elanna made her work for the fifth point, but Nicki still pulled ahead. She finally got on the board, making it 5-1, and then Nicki quickly got her sixth point. B'Elanna could tell her that sister-in-law was getting tired, and it was a struggle for Nicki to score again before B'Elanna took the last two points.
"You would have had me if we were playing to 15," Nicki said. "I'm just…done." Her long blond hair had long ago come loose from its bun and she used her forearm to push loose strands back from her forehead. She gave B'Elanna an exhausted yet satisfied grin, which almost made B'Elanna do a double take.
Izzy had that same grin. So did Tom.
"Why did you quit playing?" B'Elanna asked. "As a kid," she clarified. She probably could take the next five points if they played to 15, but wouldn't feel too good about it in the morning.
Nicki shrugged a shoulder as she straightened. "Computer, reset," she ordered, and the disc, markings, and holophasers disappeared. "I wanted to get more serious about my dancing. That didn't leave a lot of time for Velocity." She frowned and looked away. "That's not it, though," she said a second later. "I mean, I did like dancing more, but really, Dad liked how good I was and Sydney hated how good I was. I was 12 and just cruising into that sweet spot of parental rebellion while wanting to be close to my sister. It was pretty easy to walk away from something that made Sydney jealous and Dad happy."
B'Elanna shook her head in wonder. "I wish I could have seen you guys as kids," she said, even though she had been two when Nicki was 12.
Nicki grinned again. "We were awful," she said. "I didn't even like us as kids. And then I got married before I could grow out of it." She was still grinning, but now it was that slightly-exasperated expression she had.
The mention of her marriage reminded B'Elanna of the fight that Nicki and Jason had been having before they left on the Veracruz. "You and Jason still fighting?"
Nicki shook her head. "No, we have a temporary reprieve since I can't do anything about my career while I'm here. I did have to promise him that I'll make a decision when I get back, though. What decision I make is probably going to be 100% influenced by how this deployment goes." She sighed and twisted her now-damp hair around her hand to retie her bun. "Starfleet's not as hateful as I thought it would be," she admitted. "I figured it would be an easy decision, four and done, but I like the work and I like my colleagues. I'm not too thrilled with being away from my family for three months, but is three months every four years worth the good parts of my job?" She shrugged. "I guess we'll have to see how bad these three months are."
B'Elanna couldn't imagine any other career, but now that she thought about it, realized how odd that was. She didn't have the traditional career of a Starfleet engineer; she had never been assigned to a ship, and since graduating from the Academy, was only on her fourth work-related trip out of the system—two trips to Qo'noS, two trips to Dominion space. She could easily do everything she did at Pathfinder as a civilian, but there was still something satisfying about putting on her uniform every day, and while she never thought she would say this, she really enjoyed teaching at the Academy and working with cadets. But would she stay after Pathfinder was done, after Voyager and Tom were back home? Would Tom still want to stay in Starfleet after it sent him to the other side of the galaxy? Would Tom's decisions for his career have any weight on her decisions for her career? Owen was always telling her how far she would go in Starfleet—he was confident that she would see captain, even believed she had the potential to head Starfleet Corps of Engineers someday—but she wasn't blinded by ambition the way Owen or Sydney were.
"I have to be in Sickbay at 0600 tomorrow to get ready to receive casualties," Nicki said as she brushed another loose strand of hair behind her ear. "So if I don't see you tomorrow morning, good luck. I should be down on the planet sometime in the afternoon."
B'Elanna would have been happy to have Nicki stay on the Veracruz as they took the casualties to Starbase 371, but Nicki had put her foot down and the chief medical officer agreed—there was no point in having a hybridologist with trauma training on the mission if she stayed away from where the hybrid officer and the traumas were. She was going to be staying on AR-558 with the security and engineering teams while the Veracruz went to Starbase 371 and came back. "I'll see you there," B'Elanna promised. "Sleep well."