Things never seemed to calm down around this station. Over the past couple of weeks Alistair had been kept busy trying to keep the crew of StarBase 901 intact. His most recent visitor was the newly assigned science officer, Lieutenant Paul Deveraux.
"What were you thinking, Lieutenant?" asked Cherrin of Deveraux as he looked over the Lieutenant's newest shoulder wound.
"Don't you get a little couped up in here, mon ami?" said Deveraux in reply as he moved aside a small portion of his collar in order to give the doctor a better look at his handiwork.
"Not really, Lieutenant." Responded Cherrin as he grabbed a nearby medical tricorder and began to scan Deverauxs nearly healed wound. "You did a pretty good job in fixing up your shoulder, except there seems to be a residual trace of an unknown substance in the deeper recesses of the wound."
"I was in a hurry at the time. By the way, would you please stop calling me by my rank, Doctor? My name is Paul." Said Deveraux as he grimaced in pain in response to Cherrin's touch.
"As you wish, Paul." Said Cherrin as he reached for a nearby laser scalpel. "I'll need to temporarily reopen the wound in order to clean it out. Don't worry, it won't hurt much."
"Sacre-bleu, whatever you say, doctor." Said Deveraux as he lied back on the bio bed in preparation for the procedure.
That was the last thing that Deveraux remembered before he slipped into an unconscious haze that seemed to last for only a brief moment. When he awoke the pain in his shoulder was nearly imperceptible.
"What was that?" asked the groggy officer as he tried to sit up in the bio bed.
"I had to sedate you for the procedure.
The foreign substance was very close to a large nerve bundle, and to minimize the amount of pain you experienced I had to knock you out while I removed it from you system."
"Any traces of the substance left in me, Doc?" asked Deveraux as he lay back down on the bed.
"Nope, I seem to have got it all. Your shoulder should be a little sore for a couple of days, but you should be careful about over using your arm for a while." Replied Cherrin as he cleaned up his work area. "Until you're completely healed, I've put you on light duty."
"Light duty, eh. Believe me, Doctor, this is the least of my worries," said Deveraux as he remembered how well his first meeting with Captain Wallace transpired.