Bon Voyage

Posted on 02 Jul 2017 @ 2:22pm by Ensign Kelly Khan & Lieutenant JG Daniella Blake & Ensign Quinn Mackie

6,345 words; about a 32 minute read

Mission: The Finnean Crisis
Location: Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 1 || 1900 hours

Underway.

Quinn, like his wonderful girlfriend Kelly, had been aboard the Black Hawk for the last few weeks, helping the construction team complete the Starship. Naturally, by this point, it was all a matter of configuration and customization, and if anyone knew the Captain, it was his former crew. Like Commander Teixeira, Ensigns Mackie and Khan were the closest to Earth with the necessary experience with Captain Geisler and could easily help "dial in" the ship to a configuration that the captain was comfortable with.

For Quinn, an individual who was intimately familiar with the Akira's computer core, he found his job to be quite simple, just time consuming. Now that the ship was finally underway, clear of the wormhole and rushing towards the Finnean Sector, he could finally relax. Using his privilege, he'd reserved the primary holodeck and loaded a new program for the both of them to enjoy, one of Joel Cherno's recent Vectorboard challenges. Sure, this wasn't the real thing, but thanks to the Holodeck, they'd never know the difference.

And there was zero chance of death. That's what he enjoyed the most. Thankfully, he'd been able to leave his shift early, so he fired off a message to his love and asked her to meet him on the holodeck at 1900. Now, with everything set up, he just had to wait on her to arrive.

Weeks had turned into days and days had turned into hours before shore leave was over and once more Ensign Kelly Khan found herself back on the ship. It was sooner than she had expected, but the senior officers got preferred treatment while the junior officers were the ones who had to give up the most. Of course, it was a thrill to be on a brand new ship even before the Captain and she had taken the time to get to know the navigation and helm systems quite well in those few weeks.

Now she was ready for some fun and her loving, handsome boyfriend had arranged for some of that on the holodeck just for the two of them. She had no idea what he had planned and dressed in a pair of leggings, a baggy black t-shirt and a pair of running shoes.

With her long wavy hair worn down, Kelly headed out of their shared quarters. She got a few comments and had to avert one medical emergency from a crewman who thought for some odd reason she was walking around with no skin on her legs. She was still laughing when she arrived at the holodeck where Quinn had told her to meet him.

Quinn had been standing outside the holodeck, leaving the program paused at the start, but fully prepared for the both of them. Between the rainbow hair and all of her zany features, Quinn thought he'd been prepared for anything she could throw at him. Had he not spied those muscle leggings in her drawer a few days ago, he would have been shocked by it. Well, not really, but he could hope he would have been.

"Hey!" he said as she arrived, embracing her and delivering a kiss. "How was your day?"

She returned the kiss, lingering for a moment as she hugged him. "It was really good, Tiger," she said. "I'm still getting used to the new ship, but you know how that goes." She looked at the holodeck. "So whatcha got planned this time? Running a Romulan blockade? Fighting with the Klingons? Coming to the rescue of a planet?"

Quinn chuckled, knowing that she was at least halfway serious. "It's thrill seeking, that's for sure." He pressed a button on a nearby panel, instructing the doors to part to reveal the rear quarter and the open hatch of a Argo runabout. Outside the hatch was the extreme-most upper atmosphere of Andoria. Though most of the planet was known for its cold temperatures, its thin air made for a challenge for vectorboard riders everywhere, not to mention the incredible ice trails they left behind.

Kelly looked around and then down at the turbulent atmosphere and tried to identify the planet below. "And here I am without my cold weather gear," she joked. "Or a parachute. You do know that freefall skydiving only ends one way, right?"

"Smooth landing, right?" Quinn said with a smile. "C'mon now! That's what safety protocols are for. Besides, I think Lieutenant Langston would kill me if you were in a holodeck accident."

"So we're going to jump out of a shuttle and not go splat?" she asked him. "As for Lieutenant Langston, I barely see him since we're on different shifts."

"Not go..." he said softly, wondering what she was getting at. He looked back into the holodeck and it dawned on in. "Oh!" he said. "Come on in," he said, stepping into the holodeck and calling for the arch. As soon as it appeared, he tapped a few controls to create a replica of the vectorboard he'd bought her with his winnings.

"Ohhh...now I see what you were planning," Kelly said as she stepped in and the vectorboard appeared. She smiled and moved over to it. "I was hoping to test this puppy out. Thank you again, Tiger," she said as she picked it up to go over the preset controls and made a few adjustments.

The holodeck doors closed behind them and Quinn went to the other end of the shuttle to gaze down to the planet below. "Sure is a beautiful sight," Quinn remarked. "This is just one of a few programs that came with the vectorboard. I hope it works pretty well for what we're about to do."

She looked at the panel on the vectorboard and her eyes went wide. "This is the Joel Cherno's vectorboard challenge!" she exclaimed. "How did I not see this before?" She turned to him. "Oh, Tiger, this is going to be fun!"

That excitement was something he both recognized and feared, though he learned a long time ago to just roll with it. Besides, the last time they were on a holodeck, they were running from Cardassians. If that was the standard he'd set, he'd have to find more and more ways to raise the bar. His only fear was hitting the ceiling. "The course looks rather challenging too."

Kelly cracked her knuckles with a wicked look in her eyes as she took an attachment to the board and put it on her right ankle. "Do you trust me, Tiger?" she asked him. "I mean, really trust me?"

"Really trust you?" Quinn parroted. He knew that look, and he knew he was in for it. Besides, there was no way he'd come this far and not go through with it. "Of course I do."

She took his hand in one of hers and lifted the vectorboard with the other before she walked to the edge of the open bay door. "This is going to be great!" she said before she kissed him.

He returned the kiss, but was careful not to let it get too passionate. Normally, he wouldn't mind, but they'd probably never get to the program if they really got started. "So, how's this work?" he asked. "I mean, I know we've done this before, but just once really."

"It's just like falling out of a shuttle," Kelly said before she jumped from the back of the Argo with his hand in hers and released the vectorboard with the other hand.

"It is falling out of a--AAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Quinn hadn't anticipated her yanking him right out of the shuttle like that. "WE'RE NOT ON THE VECTORBOARD!" he shouted. In the heat of the moment, Quinn neglected to remember that they were on the holodeck, otherwise he would have called for the program to pause.

She laughed in delight as the turbulent winds buffeted them, but she refused to let go of his hand. She looked around them and spotted the board coming up fast and moved to orient her body. "Just hang on, Tiger!" she called as it came in contact with her feet thanks to the attachment, then she pulled him onto it with her.

With her help, Quinn steadied himself on the vectorboard. It was hard to hear anything besides the wind whipping at their ears, not to mention how thin the air was up this high. By the time he was steadied, he noticed that he was in front. His instincts kicked in, which at this point were not worth much anything. All he could see in front of him was a bird's eye view of Andoria. He had no idea how to pilot this contraption, or much else what to do. "Wanna switch?" he called out to Kelly, glancing behind him to meet her.

Kelly thought for a moment, then lowered herself down to the board and began to crawl between his legs. "Little wider!" she called over the roaring wind. She knew the board was keyed to the attachment on her leg, but he didn't have one, so she reached to latch onto his left leg with both hands while she waited for him to accommodate her.

"Wider? Oh." Quinn finally realized what she was trying to do and parted his legs as wide as he could so she could slip through. "What does that thing do anyway?" he shouted above the wind, wondering what that was she'd attached to her ankle.

She finished crawling between his legs and worked her way to her feet slowly. "It keys the board in on my location in case I fall off," she shouted back. Finally on her feet again, she glanced down at the planet beneath them and leveled out their erratic flight. "You don't have one, though, so hang onto me!"

He wouldn't argue that! Quinn adjusted his stance to something not so wide and did his best to latch onto her, not too tight to keep her from being unable to fly this thing, but tight enough to keep himself from falling.

Kelly checked the controls again, then gave a nod when she felt him get ahold of her. With a smile, she oriented the board with the movements of her body, tapped her right foot twice and it shot forward into the wind and clouds. Moisture clung to their clothes and skin before she found a nice downdraft and remembered that she was supposed to ride the currents to find the way through it safely according to the challenge she had read about.

Without warning, the board seemed to drop out from under them even though it was 'tethered' to her but she squeaked when she felt gravity tugging at her and the fact that Quinn wasn't keyed to the board at all. She quickly brought the nose of the board up and accelerated forward so he wouldn't get pulled off and began to search for another current.

Quinn felt his feet leave the vectorboard for a few seconds. Were he not holding on for dear life, he likely would have been free falling. He felt his feet reconnect with the board, and Quinn wished for a moment he had magnetic boots. That way, he'd at least be able to stay still.

"Left or right?" "Kelly called over the wind as she tried to get a fix on the thermals showing on the small screen on the vectorboard. "Going down right now isn't an option!" Still, she was exhilarated by the rush of the wind and the sight of the planet far below them. It was a beautiful, if very cold world according to most humanoids, but the Andorians called it home and she suddenly wished she didn't mind the cold like they didn't.

"Left!" Quinn shouted. Hell yeah, she was right. Going down was not an option, even if this was a holodeck program.

She accelerated and blasted through another current which turned the vectorboard completely around and then a huge blast of cold air hit them from behind. Instead of fighting it, she lined up in the current and sped up until she was moving at the same speed as the wind. Her brunette hair flew back in his face and she regretted not tying it back, but she hadn't been on duty at the time when he had asked her to meet him and there was no time to do that now. "Wooohoo!" she called. "Now what?!"

"I've got no idea!" Quinn cried out. It was true. He might have looked at the program, but it might as well have been in Klingon. "It's a Joel Cherno program. What would he do? Tricks? Coast? He's famous at this."

"I'm not him!" Kelly yelled as she veered out of the current and circled around. "I don't even know what the program challenge is, but he wouldn't coast and he's usually solo on his board. Let's see what we can do!" She dropped down into what looked like a spiralling current on the display on her board and began to do a backwards three sixty turn while continuing to drop against the thermal, which caused her hair to blow past her face. "Move your hips with the turns!" she called out to him.

"With?" Quinn asked. The sides of his head might have been bare, but the hair on the top of his head was certainly longer than normal, and he could feel it whipping around as she turned the board.

"Yeah!" she called. "If you move it again, you'll end up seeing if you can fly!" She reversed the spin of the vectorboard to go with the thermal, but instead of going up, she continued downwards until the air was blasting past them before she came to a hover. The board shook violently as she fought against the current and glanced back at him. "Hold on tight, Tiger," she said. "I'm going to try a Cherno Rocket!"

All right then, he thought as he adjusted his stance more. It was a struggle, much more than he would have thought. Part of him thought the holodeck safeties were being pushed to their limits. Quinn knew he should have selected the medium setting. Why'd he have to do the most challenging setting? He reasserted his grip and shouted, "Ready!"

Kelly took a breath as she felt Quinn adjust himself and tighten his grip on her, then she stopped fighting the current and let the vectorboard shoot straight up before she began to spin it. She went faster and faster as they neared the top of the rise, then brought the board to a seventy-five degree angle before she turned the other way and dove straight back down the cone they had just climbed out of even faster than before.

If anything, Quinn was thankful that he didn't get airsick. The computer was doing an excellent job of handling the G-Force in the holodeck, and even generating the winds that came with operating the vectorboard. As the horizon jilted, tilted and turned with Kelly's actions, Quinn enjoyed the quickly changing scenery. He enjoyed it so much, he couldn't help but shout a loud "Woohoo!"

She smiled when she heard his should of exhilaration and levelled the board off a thousand feet lower than they had been. She half turned and gave him a smile before she turned her attention back to flying it and gave a wiggle of her hips which made the vectorboard fishtail. "Oh man, this thing is really responsive!" she exclaimed before she remembered that it was the holographic version of the board. "What do you think, Tiger?" She called over her shoulder. "Should we try a high speed loop de loop?"

"Loop de loop?" Quinn asked. He was finally enjoying himself, but he couldn't help but think that whatever this loop de loop would be extraordinarily bad yet exhilarating.

"Yeah!" Kelly said as she increased the speed of the vectorboard and headed into a rising thermal. "It'll be amazing! We just have to go really fast and find the perfect thermal!"

"Sounds like fun!" Quinn fired back.

She checked the display on the board, then used the thermal that she was headed to accelerate near the maximum rating on the board. "Hang on tight!" she yelled as she brought the board up at a forty-five degree angle, then past sixty degrees, then she passed ninety. At that point, she felt gravity try to separate her feet from the board and redlined it. Time seemed to stand still before the board carried past the ninety degree mark and she rolled the board over so she and Quinn were once more oriented with their heads toward the sky instead of towards the ground.

His grip on Kelly was barely enough to hang on. In fact, his right foot had escaped the vectorboard. His left, on the other hand held its ground. Had it slipped, he very likely would have either broken Kelly's attachment to the board or otherwise slipped off himself. At least the fall wouldn't have killed him, but slamming into the Holodeck wall would have given him a ticket to sickbay, and that was something worth avoiding at this point. Still, he shouted his excitement as they leveled out.

Kelly leveled out and she gave a squeak. "I know you love me, Tiger," she called over the wind to him as she slowed down. "But if you don't lighten your grip, we're going to be merged."

"Right, right," he muttered, realizing he was more fearful for his life than he initially thought. As prompted, he loosened his grip. At that very moment, the vectorboard hit a bit of turbulence. Quinn yelped as he lost his footing and slipped off the vectorboard. He tried to grab the edge of it right before he was totally lost in a freefall, but his fingers barely touched the outer casing, the hot engine searing the edges of the digits as Quinn tumbled away.

"Quinn!" she screamed the moment she felt him leave the board. She looked down to the left and right before she spotted him tumbling away below her and swallowed. "I'm glad this is a holodeck," she said before she brought the board around in a arc and began to descend. "I'm coming, Tiger!" she called if he heard her or not.

Somehow, Quinn managed to level out his tumble, but his freefall continued. The only thing keeping him from panicking was the fact that this was a holodeck simulation and that the safeties were engaged in some capacity. He could feel the G-Forces mounting as he fell, as well as the burning sensation on his fingertips as air rushed by. Quinn was forced to close his hand to keep the pain from protesting too loudly.

Kelly ripped through the air currents on her board as she got closer to him. "Just keep level!" she called out over the roaring wind. She was almost within reach when a strong updraft nearly knocked her off her board and forced her farther away from Quinn and a Klingon curse ripped from her lips.

As best he could, he watched Kelly's attempt to rescue him, reaching out with his uninjured hand as she neared, only to grunt in frustration as she was forced away. As he was falling, he had hardly any control of his decent, but he did try to twist slightly towards her in hopes that it would affect his direction.

She forced the vectorboard against the current and headed towards a thermal which would get her closer to him. As she neared, she forced more speed into the board so she could get under him and looked up while fighting against the thermals which now seemed intent on keeping the two of them apart. "It's going to take more than some blowhard to keep me from him!" she shouted at the wind when she saw that she was still not close enough.

"What!?" Quinn shouted back, unable to hear her amongst all of the wind. As he was practically unable to do anything, he looked down to see that the surface of Andoria was coming up very quickly. Based on his weight, rate of descent, and the gravitational constant, Quinn figured he had around fifty seconds or so before he hit the dirt. "Great," he mumbled. "I'm about to fake-die and the last thing in my mind is math."

Faster than before, Kelly brought the board around in a one hundred and eighty degree turn and rocketed towards him. "Get ready!" she shouted at the top of her lungs as she went against the currents. She got closer and closer to him and reached out one hand as she kept the board steady, knowing how close the ground was to them. She mentally factored in how much he weighed and how much further down his added weight would take them and the takeoff velocity of the board. If she was right, they had to be at least ten meters off the ground at a minimum when she got him back or they would both smash into the planet.

Quinn couldn't hear her, but he could see her rocket towards him. To the best of his ability, he kept his left arm stretched towards her. In fact, he took all that remained of his mental willpower and tried to slide closer to her in the air. Without any other means to propel himself towards her, his life now completely depended on her.

Fifteen meters went through her mind as she closed the gag and grabbed his hand with the assistance of a gust of wind that pushed her just close enough. She pulled him to her and felt the vectorboard suddenly dip down even closer to the ground and gave it maximum acceleration while angling upwards again. The ground came closer and closer, but with meters to spare, the board finally gave in to her demands and lifted them upwards again. "Qapla'!"

Quinn quickly secured his footing on the board as best he could. A small part of him had been frightened, after all, knowing that this was a simulation only went so far, especially with how real the holographic projections were. All he could do now that he was safe was laugh. It was quite out of character for him, but near-death experiences could change anyone.

Kelly slowly lowered the vectorboard down to the ground and turned in his arms the moment they touched down. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a soft kiss. "Holodeck or no holodeck," she murmured. "I was worried about you, Quinn. I don't want to lose you, now or ever. I love you too much."

"I love you too," he said before returning her kiss. He held her tight, refusing to let her go, at least for now. "Magnetic shoes," he said softly. "I should get a pair of those for vectorboarding."

She gave a half laugh, half sob as she hugged him. "I have a pair but didn't bring them...even if they wouldn't fit you, but yes...a pair is required. Or get another tether for you."

"Perhaps both," he said, trying to console her. "Come on, this is a holodeck, remember? I should have just paused the program. That way I'd just have a pair of burnt fingertips and not a heartbroken girlfriend."

"Burnt fingertips?" Kelly asked before she stepped back and took his hands in hers to look at them. "Quinn! You use your fingers all the time. We have to get you to Sickbay to get these fixed up!"

Naturally, he winced the moment she touched his hand. It was also the first time he'd looked at his fingers. They were clearly blistered and swelling. One of the blisters appeared to have burst, and some sort of pus was slowly creeping out. "Damn," he muttered. Now he really felt bad about not pausing the program.

"It's fine, it's fine," she said as she gently kissed the palm of his hand. "Let's just get you to sickbay. This was my fault. I was trying stupid stuff instead of staying safe. I should have known a Cherno program would require doing things that were never meant for two people on one board. Come on, Tiger." She took him by the arm instead of the hand and looked up out of habit. "End program," she said and headed for the arch.

Quinn reluctantly followed her. He wanted to stay in the holodeck, after all, they still had at least another half hour, but he did have to get checked out. Besides, there was a new task on his mind: fixing Kelly. "It's my fault, Kel. The program was my idea, and I had no clue it'd turn out like this."

"None of that," she said. "I'm not having it. I'm a vectorboarder and should have known better. We can work on a board for both of us after you get healed and introduce a new concept. Think of it, the Mackie-Khan Vectorboard. Now for couples who want to do crazy things together."

"That's something I can get behind," he said as they exited into the corridor. Quinn managed to save the program at the arch before leaving and shut down the system. "With your vectorboard knowledge and my engineering know-how, it shouldn't take us long to come up with that."

"Don't forget that Engineering was my secondary at the Academy," Kelly pointed out. "That combined with my Flight knowledge, we can make something which will blow everything else away. Not to mention your Operations skills. We can design a totally new board and take on the galaxy!"

Quinn chuckled. "Who needs Starfleet when you've got the retirement plan ready to go?" he joked. "Just kidding. But we should definitely do that. I think I can find some schematics for the vectorboard designs somewhere in the database and we can start from there. I can even see if Lieutenant Adan will give me some lab time for development."

"You better be kidding, but it's not really a bad idea," she mused. "I mean, it's not like we're going to be in Starfleet forever. We have to have plans for afterwards when we have four children, six cats and a dog."

"Cats?" Quinn asked, nearly stuttering. "Six of them?"

"It's so hard to serve just one of them," Kelly said as they walked, then stopped and turned to him. "And besides, they need others to socialize when they get tired of using us their own amusement." She suddenly did a double take and looked at him again. "So four kids and a dog would be fine?"

"I-I-I-I-I-" he stammered. Even during their time in Oregon, he hadn't thought at all of having children. Though he wasn't ready for them, he certainly wasn't opposed to that. Them. Kids. "We're... you're... not..." He stopped just outside the entrance to sickbay. "Are you?"

"I haven't actually checked," she said. "It's not like we had Sickbay while on Earth to remind us about our shots."

Now he actually had one more thing to accomplish while in sickbay. "Well, let's get this over with so we can get back to our evening." Whatever's left of it.

"Do you want to go back to the holodeck and practice safe boarding?" she asked with a mischievous grin.

"Depends on how bad my hand's messed up," he said as they entered the reception area. Quinn immediately flashed his hand to the nurse at the entrance station who directed them to the secondary ward.

"We'll get it taken care of," Kelly assured him. "And if it's too messed up, there's other things we can do that don't involve hands."

They arrived in the secondary ward, which was eerily quiet. This early on a voyage, Quinn could only assume that that was a good thing. The technician directed him to Biobed Three where someone would come check up on him momentarily. Quinn could only hope it was a friendly face.

After the technician let her know there was someone waiting to be seen, Dani couldn't help but blink. They were barely underway, and someone was already hurt? This didn't bode well with her. Was this an omen? Were things going to be just as hectic on the new ship as they were on the old one? She certainly hoped not.

The young nurse saved what she was working on and grabbed her tricorder before she approached the biobed. She blinked when she saw Quinn and Kelly were the ones waiting. "Well... this is certainly a surprise," she said, stopping in front of them. "What seems to be the trouble?"

Kelly smiled when she saw her fun-sized friend. "Dani!" she said happily before she looked back at Quinn. "Quinn burned his fingertips pretty bad on my vectorboard in the holodeck. Can you fix him up?"

"I can," Dani said, holding her hand out for Quinn's so she could assess the damage before she got started. "How in the world did you burn yourself on a vectorboard inside the holodeck?"

Quinn didn't even need to shrug. "Heat's not considered an unsafe concept," he replied to the nurse. "Once it gets above a certain temperature, sure, like boiling water. But, if you get into water in the holodeck, you still leave wet. The system won't let you drown though. So, it's the same with the engine elements on the vectorboard. They generate heat, but they won't let it get so hot that it'll maim you. Just leave a little mark, that's all. Right?"

All the petite blonde could do was blink. That was a lot more than she was expecting in the way of an answer, but she still had a job to do. Since Quinn didn't give her his hand so she could look it over, Dani took it to inspect the burns. "Right. I do believe you'll get to keep your fingers," she said, reaching for the dermal regenerator. "It won't take long, then you'll be on your way."

"That's good," Quinn remarked. "Kinda need those these days, working with tools day in and day out all of the time."

Dani powered on the dermal regenerator and began to run it over the burns on Quinn's fingertips. "Do you need anything for pain?" she asked, still working on the first finger.

He shook his head. "It just stings whenever I touch anything. Will that go away once this is done, or will I still have some nerve damage for a few days?"

"It's possible it can affect you for a while afterward," the young nurse replied as she moved on to his other fingers. "I'll tell you what we'll do. When I've finished up, you can pick something up and see how it feels. If it still hurts, then I can give you something for it. The plus side, any lingering pain shouldn't last long."

Quinn nodded, not really able to come up with anything in terms of a verbal acknowledgement. "Doesn't look like it's too bad of a burn," he remarked, glancing over to Kelly.

"Bad enough to blister and pop," Kelly said. "It won't happen again. Your fingers are too important. You should take something for it, Quinn."

"No burn is a good burn," Dani pointed out as she finished up with the dermal regenerator and turned it off, then placed it in the biobed next to him. "Of course... some are worse than others. Go ahead and pick it up. Let's see how it feels."

Hesitantly, Quinn reached over and picked it up. There was a tingle in his fingers from the healing nerves, but nothing shocking. "Just a bit numb I think," he said. "Numb and a tingle. Not painful."

"Kind of like the pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep?" the blonde nurse asked with a smile. "That will go away shortly. Everything is still being patched up again."

"Then I should be fine, right?" Quinn asked to be sure. This whole escapade had put a damper on their evening when it was just supposed to be a fun night. He didn't even know how to put this into recovery mode once they left sickbay.

"Yes, but if you have any problems, come back. I don't think you'll need to, though," Dani said, giving his shoulder a pat before looking from him, to Kelly, then back again. "You're all set."

While Dani was busy getting Quinn fixed up, Kelly suddenly remembered something. "Uh," she said. "Could we also get two contraceptive shots?" she asked Dani. "We sort of forgot while on shore leave."

"Absolutely, but before I give you yours, its standard to check you for pregnancy," Dani replied as she moved only a few feet away to prepare a hypospray with the contraceptive for Quinn. With that done, she moved over to the young man still sitting on the biobed and pressed the device against his neck before administering the medication. "Do you want to stay for this?" While she figured he would want to, she felt it necessary to ask Quinn beforehand.

Quinn nodded, taking refuge in the assurance she gave him outside that she was indeed not expecting. A little medical confirmation wouldn't hurt.

Dani reached for a tricorder and flipped it open, then began to wave the probe over Kelly. Her brow furrowed as she read the readings. When was the last time this thing was charged? "I... need to get another tricorder. This one says you're pregnant, but it's been malfunctioning lately. Just a minute," she said, walking away and leaving the two of them alone.

"That's a relie..what?!" Kelly exclaimed as the color drained from her face. She looked at Quinn. "What did she say?"

He wished he'd have stepped out. First there was his near-death experience, and now this. Quinn didn't reply to Kelly, but instead asked of the nurse, "If it's malfunctioning, then why keep it around?" He wasn't about to continue on the pregnancy line, especially since he wasn't ready for that life.

At all.

"I thought it had been disposed of already, but I guess it wasn't," the blonde haired woman stated as she returned with another tricorder, and began to scan Kelly again. "At any rate, it has been now." She looked between the two of them. "You're not pregnant. I sincerely apologize for causing any unnecessary stress or worry."

Kelly had almost gone off on Quinn for ignoring the question she had asked, but when Dani scanned her and confirmed that she wasn't, she sighed. "Do you have anything for my heart?" she asked. "I think it's going to explode."

Dani took Kelly by the arm gently and urged her to settle down next to Quinn. "That will go away momentarily. Just breathe in through your nose and out of your mouth," she said, loading a hypospray with a dose of the contraceptive for her, then pressed it against her neck.

After she sat down on the biobed, Kelly tried that for about three seconds, then looked at Dani. "It's not helping," she said. "It's still going to jump out of my chest."

"I think you're having a panic attack. Breathe, Kelly," the nurse said before grabbing a vial of another medication. She loaded the hypospray and looked down at her friend. "This should help. It's an antianxiety medication that will calm you down. I'm giving you the lowest dose possible, but it will help." Once the setting was adjusted, Dani pressed it against Kelly's neck and gave her the medication that was inside.

Kelly finally relaxed as the medication started to kick in. "Can you send me a monthly reminder for the shot, please, Dani? I'm too young to have any children just yet."

"I can send you both one if you wish it," Dani offered.

Quinn nodded his affirmation. After tonight's events, he wouldn't want to be caught unaware on this situation again. He gently rubbed Kelly's back behind the left shoulder, trying to help her relax.

Kelly looked back at Quinn and gave a small smile. "I promise not to ever make any more pregnancy jokes," she said. "I mean it, too. The rest, you'll have to deal with, Tiger."

Dani reached for her PADD and pulled up Kelly's file, inputting the data into it, then she proceeded to set up the reminder that would alert her the same day every month. With that done, she switched to Quinn's medical file and updated his record with both his injured hand, and what treatment had been used to get him patched up. After setting up his reminder, she saved everything and looked between the two of them. "Maybe we can get together outside of sickbay one of these days," she said, looking to Kel. "You know how to get in touch with me.. She offered them both a smile as she gathered up the equipment. " for now, I'll leave you both alone. Remember Quinn, any issues, come right back." With that, she turned and walked away.

"Well," Quinn said, looking over to Kelly. "As fun as tonight was, I think we both had enough excitement for one day." Who would have thought that the first day on their maiden voyage would have been so eventful?

For once, Kelly's boundless energy and enthusiasm seemed to have ran out and she looked at Quinn and nodded. "That sounds good to me," she said. "Time to go home and relax."

Quinn nodded, and reached over to help her down from the biobed. "You've got schematics on that vectorboard, right? I'm sure we can start figuring out how to make one for two."

She got down and took his hand as they headed out of sickbay. "On that vectorboard and every other one in existence," she said as they headed down the corridor and her voice faded away.

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