Decker the Halls

Posted on Sun Nov 30th, 2025 @ 11:19pm by Chief Warrant Officer Karzen Son of Arjune, Son of Ragan MD, MPH & Technical Sergeant Decker

1,120 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: A New Dawn
Location: Infirmary
Timeline: Current

Karzen looked down the list of crewmembers who hadn't stopped in yet for their physical. The list was getting smaller, at least. That was something. He selected one at random and hit the all-call button.

+taps+ Technical Sergeant Decker, +taps+ he said. +taps+ This is the Herald of the All-Knowing and All-Seeing Great Bird of the Galaxy, speaking to you from on high. Stop touching yourself before you go blind and report to the Infirmary for a check-up... and if you really have been touching yourself, do have the courtesy to wash your hands first. +taps+

{Wh, what, what in the hell!} Decker thought, but it hit him he had been warned about the new doctor, +taps+ .... +taps+ but Decker took a second to respond, +taps+ what do you need? +taps+ Decker asked, trying to keep his cool.

+taps+ Maquis medics weren't known for their record keeping,+taps+ Karzen said into the comm unit on his desk. +taps+ What I need, Technical Sergeant, is for you to come to the Infirmary so I can do a quick physical. If it motivates you to come to the Infirmary, you can consider this request an order. +taps+

+taps+ On my way, +taps+ Decker said, deciding that he won, forcing the doctor to tell him why he needed to see him. It didn't take him long to get to the infirmary. The doors slid open, and he stepped into the small infirmary. "Alright, doc, let's get this over with," Decker said.

"A pleasure to meet you, as well, Technical Sergeant Decker," Karzen said. "Pardon the ruse. I decided if I pissed you off, at the very least, you'd come up here to tell me off in person. Please, lie down on this biobed here. I haven't disabled the euthanasia button on the other one yet, and we don't want any accidents."

Decker took a deep breath. He wasn't annoyed, well, he was, but that was on him. "Okay," was all he said as he got onto the bed. "You are gonna see a lot of damage," he said, and that was true. Hell, he had what, almost 25+, hell, maybe 30+ years of combat, and brutal combat.

"Yes," Karzen said after the scans had been running for a bit. "I can see what you are saying. You can tell me more about that or not as you see fit. If not, I won't be offended. I spent several decades in the cockpit of a Nyberrite Alliance aerospace fighter. For me, zigging when I should have zagged was almost guaranteed to be fatal, so I made sure I was hit very rarely and shot down even less. What do you need to know if you contracted any illnesses over the years? For example, have you contracted Kirelian pneumonia, or perhaps a virulent social disease we should be concerned about that hasn't completely gone away? You weren't brought to me, which is surprising in a way, but that tells you had little access to skilled medical care."

"I would watch your tongue when talking about people you have just met, or people you have never met. The medics I served with were some of the best," he said, but stopped, realizing that he was clenching his fists. "..... let's just get this over with, take whatever scans you need, and whatever samples you need," he added.

"I'm sure they were, Sergeant," Karzen said. "I merely meant that, at least during your time with the Maquis, you didn't have access to high-level medical care. I was about as high as you could have gotten for those years, and even that depended in part on what I could access in terms of equipment. Even the best medics require the right tool or the ability to simulate it. Some of these injuries are quite a bit older than that, though, yes? The Border Wars, perhaps? That was a very nasty time. I was at Setlik III in '46, when the Cardassians decided we were the staging point of a Starfleet invasion force for a war that hadn't started yet. I had been a doctor on the border for 17 years at the time. I hadn't seen fighting like that since before medical school, when I was a combat pilot in the Nyberrite military. I tried to join Starfleet, but this was before the now famous Ambassador Worf, and Starfleet didn't want a Klingon, let alone a half-breed Klingon/Rihannsu like me, and one who'd served in a foreign power's military, to make matters worse. Instead of joining the fleet, I stayed on the border, on the front lines of the war, and took care of people no one else seemed to care about." Karzen smiled wryly. "It seemed the 'honorable' thing to do."

Decker's ops were further north, and even heading into the Elorg Bloc region, "Do you always talk this much, doc?" Decker asked, his voice sounding a bit softer, but still with a hint of annoyance. Knowing that he'll be getting used to it, but for now, it was a lot.

"I will do no harm or injustice to them," Karzen muttered quietly to himself. "No, Sergeant," Karzen said to Decker. "Sometimes I talk more. I'm at an age where I say what I please. Most of the time." The old Klingon made his final notes on Decker for this visit. "Done. Get out. Or stay, if you have more to say." Karzen's voice took on a more compassionate tone, for him, anyway. That last is an open invitation, Sergeant, should you have anything to say. All evidence to the contrary, the Great Bird of the Galaxy gave me not only one mouth, which I have been known to use indiscriminately, and two perfectly functioning ears, which I have been known to use expertly and with compassion."

"Thanks, doc," Decker said as he sat up and slid off the bed, "no offense, but we don't know each other, and that is no fault of your own, but until we do, apologies, talking is off the table for right now," Decker added before walking out.

Karzen hadn't thought Decker would have anything to say at this juncture. Like Decker, Karzen had seen the pachyderm, albeit from two angles different from Deckers. First from the cockpit of a fighter, next from a medical point of view. Decker would either come to understand that and accept that Karzen was more than just a medic, or he wouldn't . Regardless, it was Karzen's job to see to the health and safety of the crew and that's what he would seek to do. Decker wasn't a health or safety issue at the moment, so he would leave the man alone... unless or until the situation changed.

 

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