Hey I Know You

Posted on Jan 01, 2017 @ 6:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Aerdan Jos
Edited on on Jan 01, 2017 @ 6:50pm

Mission: Aftermath

"Hey I Know You" (Continued from "You Can't Go Home Again")

~*~

Location: USS PHOENIX
StarDate: 2.161231.2200
Scene: Sickbay

~*~



Dear Gods it was quiet in here.

Then again it had been a quiet ride back. His trip to Andor had given him much to think about. There was unrest in the Federation in the wake of Edgerton's dramatics. Terrans had grown powerful - this much had been made abundantly clear, no matter which side of Edgerton's rebellion one was on. And it made a lot of other races nervous, including his own.

When he touched foot on Andor, Aerdan Jos found himself a minor celebrity for his role on the PHOENIX. That was an odd feeling for him. He was a normal-born member of a normal-family in a low clan. Like all the low clans from the harsh northern plains, they weren't considered a major force in the internal Andorian politics.

And yet, the low clans had the largest population of members who ventured out into space, and therefore the greatest understanding of what all had actually happened out there. And that meant there were many people clamoring to know more.

It had been good to go home. It had been good to reconnect with family. But in the end, he was glad to get off into space again. To stop worrying about internal politics and start worrying about putting people back together again.

It was quiet in here.

Cade was still working for Federation medical. Aerdan kept expecting him to pop out of some office and start barking at him again. No such luck. Ben Ford had retired with his family, in a desperate bid to keep them safe. Suvek was very influential with Starfleet medical and had opted to help clean up the mess left in the wake of the collapse of Edgerton's grand plan. Now he had to get used to a completely new roster, which was not the introverted Andorian's favorite thing to do by any stretch of the imagination.

He rapped the edge of the PADD against his desk in the dimmed lights of his new office. It still had 'new office' smell. He didn't like it. He was reading up on his assistant. One Sofia Andersson, who had the distinctive mark on her record of being a supporter of the Neo-Essentialists.

His first gut reaction was to clench up as the suspicion that had been ingrained for the last year rose up as an automatic response. And yet Kane let her onboard and hadn't killed her. So that had to mean that there was more to this story than met the eye.

Plus there was a roster of wide-eyed newbies and one experienced surgeon: Kalanda Lora, a Rekarian trauma medic. He had never met her either. Tomorrow would be a nice, fun gauntlet of meeting new people.

His antennae perked up. Something was going on out in sickbay...

“Are you here for your standard check-in?”

Hmm, sonorous tones. A deep, calm and rather confused voice. That would be Ra-Drei, the Efrosian orderly. He was young for an Efrosian and he still held himself with that aged grace his race was known for.

“Ah, yeah, I’m here for my check-in.”

That voice was... familiar. Or was he going crazy? It sounded like... well, it sounded like Phia without the bitchy superior overtone that always colored her words and drove Cade Foster crazy for good and ill. It also sounded a bit like Xana Bonviva - same accent.

Ok, now he was curious. He got to his feet taking his PADD with him and peeked out just in time to see a young blue tinted girl cross her arms in front of her chest and mutter.

“There’s going to be a lot of people here I’ve got to figure out."

"I think that comes part and parcel with any large cosmopolitan grouping of sentient creatures." Aerdan offered, walking forward towards where she was sitting. "Anyone in particular that you're trying to figure out?"

She lifted her head peering curiously up at him. She looked a little familiar, too. Was she at Jake and Xana's wedding? Maybe a ship's party? His antennae twitched downwards. The past all blurred together.

"Anyone. Everyone." She offered back half with a smile and half with a huff. "Half of you have no sense of humor."

"Most of us have no sense of humor." Aerdan returned gently, with a bit of a smirk. He knew full well that most of the time he could be included in this.

"Was that a joke?" She peered at him.

He drew a breath in through his teeth and craned his antennae forward at her. "Maybe."

Iphie smiled, the expression slowly dawning across her face. "You always were bad at jokes."

"I was not." He countered back a little too quickly.

Wait, was he? When did he meet her? His eyes widened.

"Iphie...?" He queried gently, questioningly as his mind drew out a name from its past catalogue.

That prompted a grin from the young blue woman. "Hooray, you remembered!" She put on a mock pout to emphasize the next words. "Here I was thinking you had forgotten me entirely."

"In my defense, I changed a whole lot less in the last eight years than you did." he countered.

She opened her mouth and almost blurted out 'that's 'cause you're old' and then opted for "That's 'cause I grew up to be awesome!"

"Which prompts a good question - what are you doing on the PHOENIX?" ::His antennae tipped forward as he started to call up her medical history on his PADD.

"Oh you know, a little of this, a little of that..."

He clicked his tongue at her. "That's hardly an answer..."

"Tending bar." She shot back as casually as Cade Foster would shoot insults.

Aerdan did a double-take. That struck him as odd. And yet fitting. And yet odd. "Really?"

Another huff from Iphie. "No, I'm actually a waste extraction supervisor whose working on a tribble powered clean energy waste disposal unit. It's self replicating..."

He blinked. Antennae curled forward. Blinked again. Antennae pressed backwards. Pause. "Bullshit."

She grinned and burst out laughing in a sudden cascade of mirth. "Oh my God, I totally had you going for a second there, didn't I?!"

"No." He replied all too fast.

"Yes I did! Yes. I. Did!" Tears were streaming down her face.

Aerdan huffed, going back to his scans, trying to hide the fact that he was turning a remarkably unique shade of navy. "Hey, it looks like you are going to... live. Unless you have any outstanding medical questions, I'm not seeing any contagious diseases or anything that would hamper you badly during space travel."

"That was quick..." She returned in a teasing tone.

"You're a civilian. I only have to put Starfleet officers through the full medical exam paces." He took in a long, slow breath, regaining his composure. "So unless you have any concerns, I think the next time we'll see one another is if things get bad enough on this ship for me to solicit a drink."

"You should stop by and see me before things get that bad. A little relaxation is good for the soul." She winked.

"I'm sure it is." He was dismissive in his usual 'I automatically dismiss attempts at socialization' sort of way, and yet he was still interested. "Once again - any medical concerns you have?"

~*~
NRPG: I'll leave off here. Maybe you can decide what kind of food he is...
Also: I will post more tomorrow. I have half an Andor post done, but it wasn't gonna get finished to sneak in under Jerome's deadline. So here you go, I'm here!
~*~

Jamie LeBlanc
Lt Commander Aerdan Jos
Chief Medical Officer
USS PHOENIX

"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"

~Julian Beck