Read Online Diplomatic Implausibility by Keith R. A. DeCandido - Free Book Online Page A

To that end, she applied to the Starfleet Medical Academy. When she barged into Beverly’s office, she was in her final year, and working at Spacedock’s medical facility. Where her classmates worked with patients, sat in on surgical procedures, and gained valuable experience, B’Oraq had been given all scut work and the simplest patients to handle.
    Beverly investigated, and it turned out that B’Oraq’s supervisor had, not unreasonably, assumed that B’Oraq—who had made clear her intention to return to the Empire after graduation—would not be practicing medicine at anything near Starfleet’s standard. B’Oraq pointed out that she intended to raise that standard, but she couldn’t if she never got the diversified experience her classmates were getting.
    With Beverly’s help, she got that experience, and the two of them remained in touch for the rest of Beverly’s tenure at Starfleet Medical.
    “I even managed to get some prosthetics on board,” B’Oraq was saying, opening a storage locker that was full of an assortment of limbs and other body parts, “though they’re not officially part of our manifest. But I got them from the same Ferengi dealer who supplies Captain Klag with his bloodwine, so I doubt there will be any problems.”
    “Well, B’Oraq, I have to say, I’m impressed. I was skeptical ten years ago, but it looks like you’ve done wonders here.”
    “As I said, I have only started.” She sat back down ather desk, indicating the guest chair for Beverly. “So how have you been?”
    “Busy,” Beverly said as she took the chair. “War is always boom-time for doctors. I’ve done more surgery in the last two years than I did in the ten years previous. But we did well. Ninety-nine percent of the people who actually made it to sickbay lived to tell about it.”
    “Excellent.”
    “I suppose,” Beverly said with a sigh.
The problem,
she thought,
were all those who never made it to sickbay.
    “As I recall, you had a son who served on the
Enter
prise
with you, yes? Is he well?”
    “Well enough,” Beverly said with a lopsided smile. “He’s, ah, not with Starfleet anymore. He’s—traveling.”
How do I explain to B’Oraq that my son is living on
another plane of existence when I don’t entirely under
stand it myself?
    She was saved from having to explain further by the door to the medical ward opening on a face Beverly had never expected to see again. “Kurak?”
    Kurak—now wearing the uniform of a commander—looked at Beverly and snarled. Then again, Kurak always seemed to be snarling. Her large brown eyes always smoldered with anger, and her lips were always pursed, when they weren’t curled in a snarl. “You! What are
you
doing here?”
    “She is my friend, Kurak,” B’Oraq said, then looked at Beverly. “I take it you two know each other.”
    “This
toDSaH
invited me onto her ship,” Kurak said before Beverly could answer, “for a demonstration of a metaphasic shield. When its inventor was killed, your
friend
accused me of the murder.”
    “Kurak, I—” Beverly started.
    “I do not wish to hear it,” Kurak said, holding up her hand. “I have business to discuss with the doctor. You will leave—now.”
    B’Oraq snarled. “This is not engineering, Kurak. In the medical ward,
I
say who stays and goes.”
    “It’s all right,” Beverly said, getting up, not wanting to start a dispute between doctor and engineer. “I should probably be getting back to the
Enterprise
in any case. It was good seeing you again, B’Oraq.”
    Well, there’s something I never expected to come back
and bite me on the rear,
Beverly thought as she left the
Gorkon’s
medical ward. Her attempt to sponsor Dr. Reyga, a Ferengi scientist, and his metaphasic shield was not one of Beverly’s proudest moments, seeing as it cost Reyga his life and almost cost Beverly her career.
To be
honest, Kurak has every right to be angry with me.
    She stood in the corridor, trying to adjust her