A Steady Hand
Posted on Fri Jun 26th, 2026 @ 11:18am by Captain Saelira Venn & Lieutenant Commander Nathan Lake
1,506 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Prologue: Taking On Crew
Location: Sickbay - USS Resolute
Timeline: MD002 - 1600 hours
Sickbay had the clean, watchful quiet Saelira had always associated with places that were waiting for trouble.
Not empty. Never that. A medical bay aboard a Sovereign-class ship was rarely still for long, especially during crew transfers. There were final intake scans to finish, medication profiles to reconcile, old injuries to compare against new baselines, and at least one officer somewhere who believed avoiding medical check-in counted as a personal achievement.
Saelira stepped inside without ceremony, pausing just long enough for the doors to close behind her. The main ward was active but controlled. Biobeds hummed softly beneath diagnostic arches, a nurse checked inventory against an illuminated tray of hyposprays, and a junior medic crossed the room with the careful speed of someone who had learned not to run in Sickbay unless the floor had already chosen violence.
She had read Dr. Nathan Lake’s file.
Human. Thirty-seven. Starfleet Medical, shipboard medicine, emergency response, command-level department experience. The record was solid, but records rarely carried the parts that mattered most in a crisis. They didn’t tell her whether a doctor could keep their hands steady when the deck bucked beneath them, or whether they understood that sometimes the person bleeding least was the one most in need of being seen.
That was what she wanted to know.
Dr. Lake was near one of the diagnostic stations, dark hair slightly less ordered than regulation probably preferred, attention fixed on whatever the display was telling him. He had the look of a man already listening to the ship through the people aboard it.
Saelira waited until he had finished what he was doing before speaking.
“Doctor Lake,” she said, warm but not loud enough to pull the whole room towards them. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything that will accuse me of poor timing.”
Her eyes moved briefly over the controlled bustle of Sickbay before returning to him.
“I wanted to come down and meet you properly. A captain should know her Chief Medical Officer before the ship gives them both a reason to regret waiting.”
Nathan looked up from the computer display after hearing someone nearby. The patient file he had been reviewing disappeared from the screen with a tap of his finger. Patient confidentiality at play.
He recognized her immediately. It was Captain Venn, the Resolute’s commanding officer. Nathan had reviewed the staffing roster while en route to the Resolute before he arrived onboard. The rest, in his experience, was usually learned face to face.
“Captain.”
He straightened from the console, though not stiffly. Nathan had never quite mastered the art of looking overly formal.
His eyes briefly moved around Sickbay. He caught:
A nurse updating patient records.
An ensign pretending not to be nervous during a physical.
A crewman reorganizing supplies for the third time because they clearly hadn’t found anything better to do.
Everything was functioning exactly as it should. At least for now. It’s exactly how Nathan wanted it to be, but then again, he had only been onboard for a day and hadn’t yet been formally introduced to a majority of the officers.
Nathan folded his hands loosely behind his back.
“I think this is the first time in my career a captain has come to introduce themselves before some explosion. I actually appreciate that.
Saelira’s mouth curved, the amusement quiet but there in her eyes.
“Then I’m pleased to have arrived before the explosion,” she said. “I’d prefer not to make that the traditional way we meet.”
She stepped a little farther into Sickbay, keeping herself clear of the staff moving through their routines. Medical departments had their own weather, and she had no interest in standing in the middle of it just because she wore the fourth pip.
Her glance moved once across the room: the nervous ensign, the nurse at the records station, the crewman giving the supply shelves more attention than they possibly deserved. It had the feel of a place still settling its bones around a new doctor, but not badly.
“You seem to have things in hand,” she said, looking back to Nathan. “Or at least well enough that no one is bleeding on the deck, which I’ve learned to appreciate as a starting point.”
The warmth stayed, but so did the attention beneath it.
“How are you finding the ship so far? The honest version, preferably. I’ve read the transfer reports. They’re useful, but they rarely tell me whether someone has found the coffee, the nearest quiet corner, or the one system in Sickbay that insists it was working perfectly until a new chief looked at it.”
Nathan laughed softly. It wasn’t forced or overly polite. At least he hoped not. It was actually the laugh of someone who appreciated the question.
“My office, ma’am.”
Saelira’s smile deepened a fraction.
“That is an encouragingly practical answer,” she said. “An office tells you a great deal about whether a person has arrived, or is only passing through.”
Her eyes flicked briefly towards the room beyond.
“Lead the way, Doctor.”
As he led her to his office, he answered the question.
“The coffee was actually the first thing I located. Years of emergency medicine have taught me to establish priorities. Coffee is always the first one.”
His eyes drifted briefly toward a nearby replicator.
“The coffee aboard the Resolute is respectable. That’s already earned the ship several points.”
Saelira followed at an easy pace, her smile lingering.
“I should hope it’s respectable,” she said. “We only finished restocking it this morning. If the coffee failed inspection before the ship even left dock, I’d have questions for Operations.”
Her eyes moved over the office as they entered, taking in the early signs of someone beginning to claim the space.
“But I’m glad you found it. A good CMO and passable coffee are both things I prefer not to do without.”
Nathan moved toward the replicator.
“Would you like some coffee?”
Saelira gave a small shake of her head.
“No, thank you. It’s a bit late in the day for coffee.”
She waited until he had settled before taking the seat opposite him. The humour stayed for a moment, then eased naturally into something more practical.
“I did want to talk about Sickbay while we have a quiet minute,” she said. “You’ve only been aboard a short time, but you’ll have seen enough to get a first impression.”
Her gaze moved briefly towards the office door, where the ward carried on beyond it.
“Is there anything you need from command before we get properly underway? Staffing, equipment, procedures that look awkward, anything you’d rather fix now than fight with later.”
Nathan took a seat behind the desk. He didn’t immediately answer as he sipped his newly replicated coffee. He also took a second to glance through the office’s interior window overlooking the main ward. The same nurse was still updating records. The same ensign was still pretending not to be nervous. And the same crewman was now organizing supplies by what appeared to be size instead of inventory code.
Nathan suspected that wasn’t actually helping anything.
A faint smile appeared before his attention returned to the captain.
“Honestly, Captain, nothing right now. But I will say that is usually a good sign.”
His eyes briefly drifted toward a dataPADD displaying departmental readiness reports.
“When a medical department has serious problems, they tend to announce themselves fairly quickly.”
Saelira nodded, satisfied rather than surprised.
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “And I’ll take a medical department with no immediate disasters as a gift. I’ve served on enough ships to know that doesn’t always happen.”
She settled back in the chair for a moment longer, not quite ready to rush out just because the formal purpose of the visit had been met. Through the office window, Sickbay continued on around them: quiet voices, routine checks, the soft hum of equipment waiting for its next argument with biology.
“I’m glad you’re not seeing anything that worries you yet,” she continued. “Still, take the next few days to look properly. Staff, supplies, procedures, whatever catches your eye. If something needs attention, bring it to me. It doesn’t have to be a crisis before I want to hear about it.”
There was command in that, but not pressure. More an open door than an instruction carved into the desk.
“And for what it’s worth,” Saelira added, her smile returning, “I’m glad you’re here. Not just because your file says all the right things. You seem steady, and I value that.”
She stood then, smoothing the front of her uniform more out of habit than need.
“I’ll leave you to your coffee, Doctor. Welcome aboard the Resolute.”
Captain Saelira Venn
Commanding Officer
USS Resolute
Lt. Commander Nathan Lake
Chief Medical Officer
USS Resolute
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