At 1500 one of the monitors chimed. Rebecca read the message on the screen and sighed, a routine supply delivery was ready to collect from the cargo bay. Routine deliveries never had anything they actually needed and was bound to just fill up the storage cupboard for months without being touched.

She headed toward the door to collect it, they slid open and she almost collided with Ensign Zoral on his way in. “Sorry,” he said flustered. “I mean, Petty Officer Thorne. Sorry.”

“Ensign Zoral,” she said with a smile, “Please tell me you’re here to complain about the muffins”

“The…… Muffins?” he responded with a look of confusion

“They’re too healthy,” she continued,

He responded with a small smile, realising she wasn’t being serious. “No, I, erm. Counsellor Venn you see, she said that I was avoiding sickbay. So I’m here, to say I’m not, because I’m here.”

Rebecca stepped aside allowing him to enter, “technically, but you’ve actually got to enter.”

She led him to a seat rather than a biobed, she sat near him. He was quiet for a moment, “I froze” he said finally “on the relay”

“You steadied,” she corrected

“Lt Cdr Korren steadied me”

“She did,” Rebecca agreed, “You’re part of a team, teams steady each other”

He remained quiet for a few more minutes, “Do….. Do you ever get used to not knowing what you’re looking at?”

“No,” Rebecca replied. “You get better at responding to something, that’s all.”

He glanced around the room for a moment, “do you have any more of those, um, bribes?”

She smiled and held up the tin, “of course, don’t chew”

He took one and let the mint cool the inside of his mouth. He sat for a few more minutes without saying anymore. Eventually he stood, without apologising, and headed back to his duty station. Rebecca grabbed her PADD again and entered: ‘Zoral communicated, didn’t apologise for existing, progress made.’

The Evening shift rolled in, Rebecca cleaned the counters and ensured all the supplies were stocked up. She tucked a couple of extra blankets into the cabinets by the beds because people always felt a little cold when they were being brave.

At 1930, Captain Traven entered. He had the look that Captains got when they were pretending not to be tired after a full shift. He paused just inside the doorway.

“Captain,” Rebecca said from across the room, I have something for you

“If it’s another PADD I’m going to throw it into the nearest star!” he replied

“Tea,” she said and watched as he tilted his head and walked a little further into the room

She put the cup into his hand. He lifted it, taking in its aroma. “Is this actual tea?”

“smuggled in from DS17 by a friend who is either very kind or very corrupt” she replied smirking, “it’s actual Darjeeling, it knows things”

He cautiously eyed the cup and then took a sip.

As he did so Rebecca continued, “I heard the chair,”

He froze for a second and then took the cup away from his mouth, “you heard the chair?”

“yep, it creaks when you’re carrying something,” she said. “The sound travels.”

“does it,” he replied and took another sip from the steaming cup. His voice softer now, “the crew?”

“Breathing, a little startled after the first run out, but less startled after a mint.”

He laughed in response while she continued “I use them to bribe people, everything changes once you have one”

He looked at the cups in their hands “does that include tea?”

She shrugged it off taking another sip, “Don’t lean to far back in that chair.”

“I’ll have Brunak oil it,” he replied

“Don’t do that” she said, “let it talk to you”

He considered what that meant for a moment and then surprised her and himself, “All right.”

They both finished their tea in quietness, and the Captain left soon after. Rebecca looked around sickbay, quiet again. She picked up her PADD and made a new entry, ‘Captain: tea helps, the chair will assist’

The night cycle wore on, she didn’t mind the longer shifts when something was happening. She went back to organising the storage areas, straightening bandages, checking med kits. She thought of all the people beyond the relays, the explorers charting new courses who would all hear each other again tonight because of the USS San Clemente.

At 2200, the doors swished open again, Sora Venn tiptoed into the room barefoot, shoes in hand. She stopped at the edge of the carpet, where the floor became hard.

“you’ll catch something running around with no shoes on” Rebecca said.

Her eyes lit up at the comment, “You know that’s not how it works Rebecca”

“have you read anything from the plant?” Rebecca asked gesturing toward the one lonely plant in the corner of the room.

“It likes you,” she said with a smile. Rebecca couldn’t tell whether she was being serious or not, she replied with a grin.

“The ship?” Rebecca asked

Sora’s smile faded slightly, her reaching to find the words to what she felt. “Quieter, or held, I suppose. Better now than earlier”

She looked around sickbay, at the biobeds now empty, with their readouts glowing a steady blue again. At the lights, slightly dimmer since the last time she visited, knowing that Rebecca had adjusted them earlier in the day. “You did good work today,” she said to her.

“We did,” Rebecca replied, also glancing around the room.

“sometimes the crew’s feelings keep me awake, you don’t have to worry” Sora explained eyeing Rebecca’s PADD on the desk.

“I know,” she replied, they sat together for a while, talking about the day, the crews experiences and home.

After which, Sora left, carrying her shoes out the door with her, almost like a lantern shining a light down the corridor. Rebecca added another entry to her PADD, ‘Counsellor, in touch with the crew, enjoys a natter when she can’t sleep’.

She placed the PADD down and turned back to the desk opening a new log.

“PO Rebecca Thorne, Personal Log,

Sickbay isn’t just where we fix what’s broken. It’s where we remember that most of us aren’t broken at all. Just a little worn out, startled or we’ve carrying something on our shoulders that we need to put down. Even for just a moment. Today we did just that, a pilot’s bravado, and engineers shame at handing over a puzzle, and ensigns fear of their inexperience, a captain’s chair that speaks when it creaks. We handed out lozenges with medals the crew could wear on their chests. We breathed and laughed.

The Network is up and running, explorers out in the black will hear each other again. I’m sure our next mission will be soon. In the meantime, Sickbay will be here, slightly warmer, replacing terrible coffee with a tea that speaks and making sure the plant doesn’t give away all our secrets.”

She closed the file and grabbed a piece of paper from a drawer. She wrote a note: ‘Take one, Doctors orders (sort of)’. She propped it up next to the tin of mint green wrappers and dimmed the lights to night mode.

She entered the corridor and the sickbay doors slid shut behind her. The hum of the ships engines continued and she tapped the wall with affection, as if tapping the shoulder of an old friend.

“Good Night Mente” she said