Friends and Memories

Posted on Sun 15th Jul, 2018 @ 1:41am by Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD

453 words; about a 2 minute read

It hadn't struck me, how close a friend I consider Chlamydia to be until today. I'm not normally the kind of man to debate whether to enter someone's office when I'm upset to talk to them or not. I hesitated today because part of me didn't want to bother Chlamydia with everything that was churning in my head as I amputated Brooklyn Wellington's arm.

I wasn't entirely there. I was in a medical tent with bombs going off in the distance--some of which I had made--and dealing with a flow of incoming wounded that just wouldn't stop. We were trying to obliterate a Cardassian mining facility deep in the Tozhar Mountains, and it was rough going. That was the facility that Gul Nerak operated, and he ran a tight ship. There were no bored, slouching people on guard duty at that place.

Our people had to bomb it to pieces, just to breach the outer walls, and from there, it was pitched battle to take out the ore processing complex. This was back when the kids were still young--only three years after Irel died--so I'd begged off being an active-duty fighter and worked as a full-time medic, instead.

I thought that night would never end. I and the other people with me who could halfway pass for surgeons were swamped. We didn't know what was going on outside the med tent, but it sounded like imminent death every few seconds--all night long. If it wasn't Resistance bombs going off, it was the whine and scream of Cardassian phase disruptor cannons. They ionize the air, and the laser scalpel I used on Wellington, along with the scent of her blood, set me off. It was like I was in two places--back in the mountains and at the same time in the starbase OR. In her case there was crushing damage, which was new to me. Explosives will typically break a limb apart, not crush it.

So my frame of mind when I went to stand outside Chlamydia's office door was shaky, to say the least. But there was that beautiful music coming through the doorway, and listening to it was a blessed relief, because it grounded me in the present. We rarely had beautifully-played music to listen to. We cherished instruments when we could find them and had someone who could play them, but if we needed to pack lightly and move fast, we had to leave them behind.

I am rambling a lot here. All I'm really trying to say is that today gave me a deeper appreciation of the friendship I have with Chlamydia and showed me in what high regard I hold her. I am lucky to have such a friend.

 

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