Serena was used to orders and information being yelled at her and around her in stressful situations and still managing to understand every word. She had to or otherwise people died. Doctors, her fellow nurses, even the medics that brought in casualties, they all communicated information in a specific order so they understood conditions clearly even when all that was spoken were abbreviations.
But once in a while there were moments when she had to pause and wonder if she actually heard right.
So when the XO specified her berthing assignment and a question completely out of left field, her brain briefly derailed as she had to go back in her head to check if she heard wrong.
Nope, the man just asked if she could sing.
“Uhh, well… I’m not… sure?” She managed, confused. “I mean, I’ve been dragged to karaoke nights a couple of times, and who doesn’t take advantage of the nice acoustics in the bathroom? But other than that, I haven’t really done any singing. Why do you ask, sir?”
He grinned. “Opera group. We’re hijacking the auditorium two nights a week to practise. Putting on a show in about 8 weeks. You in?”
“Opera group?” She repeated, hoping that saying it out loud might actually make a lot more sense than it did in her head. If he’d asked if she danced, she might have given him a more concrete answer, but there she was apparently being recruited to sing opera by her new XO; a completely new experience in more ways than one.
“But I’m not even sure if I’m any good, sir,” she reasoned. “And I’ve never even watched any opera before. Though I did see a production of Ramayana once, I have no clue if that counts.”
“Iggy,” a deep voice interrupted as Barrington, CO of the Alkahest, headed across the bridge from his ready room. “Leave the new crew alone for at least a day before you start trying to recruit them.”
He transferred his attention to the young woman standing in front of his XO. “I take it you’re my new critical care nurse, chief,” he said. “Good, just in time. I’m just heading down to medical now, if you’d care to join me?”
The new arrival definitely had a presence you couldn’t ignore, and as soon as she saw his face, she understood why. Wow, first the XO, then the captain. Was BuPers somehow assigning good looking people aboard this ship?
“Good morning, sir,” she chirped with a smile. “Yes, I am, and… uh, yes I will. Thank you, sir.”
She wasn’t familiar where her quarters were relative to sickbay, she wasn’t even sure yet where on the ship she’d end up being assigned. Considering it was practically a floating hospital with engines, she could end up being placed anywhere from Urgent Care, Emergency Medicine, to the ICU. It was probably best to figure out her work assignment first before she dropped her gear off at her new place.
She turned and smiled at the XO. “A pleasure meeting you, Commander. And, uh… I really do hope you can get engineering to fix the coffee issue. It’ll be chaos aboard for sure if they don’t sort that out soon.”
Iggy smiled, wide and charming. “The pleasure is all mine, chief, and thank you. They’ll lynch me if I don’t, for sure. Hopefully, I’ll see you around.”
“Commander, station control is asking if we are ready to depart?” One of the bridge officers announced and, with a smile, Iggy turned to take the centre seat.
“And that,” said Barrington. “Is our cue to depart as well. Hand that over,” he ordered, motioning toward her bag. “As part of the critical care team, your quarters aren’t far from main sickbay and Intensive care, so we can drop that off on the way down.”
Reena wasn’t quite keen on the idea of having the CO become her personal bellhop with her luggage, but even as he spoke without an edge in his words, there was just a way he delivered them that made it hard to ignore what he wanted you to do.
It was like being back at the High Temple again, and face to face with the Priestess Superior.
So she ended up passing her bag to the taller man, though she did so with the requisite momentary hesitation just so he knew she wasn’t too eager to let him carry her baggage. “You just read my mind, sir.”
