A Fragmented Tale of the Four Tailed

Posted on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 6:30am by Ensign Siat-or-iian Elkovais & Lieutenant JG Alexander Mayweather

2,542 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X04: All the Friends We Can Get
Location: Sickbay

Siat-ori-ian Elkovais hobbled into sickbay with one of her teammates from the battle on Kannok helping her along. After the grenade had gone off, she'd lain on the ground for several minutes, drifting in and out of consciousness before her team had come back. With the order to fall back to the ship, they had bypassed the medical station that had been getting overwhelmed by other injuries and beamed back to the ship, her head still a bit muzzy from the concussion of a grenade in far-too-close quarters.

"Thanks, Evie, I think I can make it from here." She got out as they reached the biobed, leaning over it as her buddy helped remove the armored vest that had seen some usage. For now, leaning over the bed just felt good as it took the weight off her legs. The pain was real now, she knew that the blast had riddled her with bits of shrapnel, but it was better there than in her chest and face, just far too uncomfortable for her liking.

Alex looked up from finishing with his patient and cleared his tablet, walking over quickly. "Hello," he said, amiably. "What can--" he stopped as he saw the blood seeping out of tears in her pants and jacket. "Don't move," he said. "Tell me what happened?"

All four tails twitched simultaneously at the voice, but Torii managed to turn her head to look over, "Fragmentation grenade, I didn't get out of it's range fast enough, but turned away from it." She sighed heavily, "We were ordered to evacuate the ground right away, so I didn't even get to the triage center there."

Alex swapped his tablet for a tricorder and scanned her slowly. "Well, good news, bad news, good news," he said.

Torii stayed where she was, "Let's go with the good news first, I always like hearing good news."

Alex bobbed his eyebrows, looking at the readings. She had puncture wounds and a few slashes going up the back of her left leg, over her rear and up towards her back before they stopped by what he presumed was a protective jacket. "The good news is that none of the shrapnel did serious damage to you."

"That means I won't die? I'll take it." She paused for a moment, "But you said there's bad news as well, so what's that?"

"The bad news is, there's a lot of it, so I'm going to have to remove each piece and fix up each puncture and tear one by one," Alex said, gravely.

"I'll admit, I sortof gathered that from the burning sensation up and down my legs. I'm sorry for the amount of work you're going to have to put in." Torii gave him a sorry smile from her vantage point, ears flicking back and down in some sort of shame, "But, I'm presuming there's other good news, since you did go with Good, Bad and Good again. At least you didn't say 'Ugly' instead of the second good."

"The other good news is that you get to remove your uniform and get comfy on the bed," Alex said, walking over and pulling out a privacy curtain, surrounding them and the biobed to give her privacy. "Do you need help getting onto the bed to lie down?"

Torii's ears flattened to the side now as her face flushed red. Okay, this wasn't the worst possible thing, in fact it was something that wasn't too uncommon among fellow security officers as needed when changing into combat gear or for EVA exercises, but this wasn't that. "I think yes, I'll need some help with that. I'll also ask for some help um..." She paused as she tried to find the right words, her tail tips flicking back and forth, but there was no help for it, "Getting out of my uniform." She said in a small voice.

"Quite all right," Alex said, his voice gentle. "Happens all the time here." He knelt down and unstrapped her boots and carefully moved her leg, trying not to do more damage, apologizing as she winced from the shift with the shrapnel in here. "Almost got it," he said, getting one boot off, then removing the other, the lesser injuries on her right leg making it a bit easier.

He put them aside and stood next to her, putting his arms around her and carefully unfastening her pants and shorts, helping them drop to the floor. He kept his eyes politely on her shoulders as he helped her step out of them, then reached under her to support her legs and lift her up, helping her onto her stomach on the biobed. "Okay, good job," he said. "Hang tight and I'll get something for the pain."

There was a high-pitched whine as she had to somewhat bend her legs to help him get her on the biobed, face-down, then started to struggle with the zipper of the jacket, "Can you help me with this thing? I should have done it before you got me up here, but I didn't think of it and it's pinching me."

Alex came back with a hypospray and pressed it to her neck quickly, then came around and helped her pull her arm back out of the sleeve, then around to the other side and helped her other arm. He slipped the jacket away and folded it, placing it on the counter. He came back and gently rolled her shirt up a bit until he reached the end of her wounds. He clucked his tongue disapprovingly and scanned her once more before putting his tricorder down and returning with a pair of tweezers and a dermal regenerator. "All right," he said, "try to hold still and we'll avoid a bunch of scars."

Torii gave a sigh of relief as the burning and stinging pain faded away to just an annoyance rather than a hindrance and looked straight ahead. This was a very embarrassing position for her to be in and normally it would be one of the female nurses helping, no doubt, but they were all busy. Besides, he was being a professional about it, "I'll try not to.. If it helps, there doesn't seem to be any nerve damage to my tails, so that's a plus. I'll do my best to keep them out of the way." Her ears swiveled back and half-flattened towards him.

"Appreciated," Alex said, beginning his work. "So, Ensign Tails," he said, grinning, "are you always this lucky? Or did things get sticky down there?"

"Torii, I'm Torii Elkovais," She corrected him, a brief flicker of her right ear the only sign he could see of her amusement at the nickname, her smile not visible. "It wasn't fun down there. We got gassed in an underground tunnel and this suicidal woman just... Sprinted towards us after we fought off their attack. I don't know what was going through her mind, I had her cold and she just.. Reached for a grenade..."

"I'd imagine, what was going through her mind was that she had nothing left to lose," Alex said, removing another piece and sealing the gash. "There are few things more dangerous, after all."

"That's the truth..." Torii had a sharp intake of breath as a particularly large piece was withdrawn, "Emperor's Bones, that hurt!" Her tail-tips twitched as she fought for control, "So, how bad were the casualties overall? I wasn't able to get any updates from where I was and as I say, they just sent us back up to the ship."

Alex would normally massage the area where she hurt, but given how personal it was, he went for an alternative. He reached over and gently took her left ear in between his fingers, stroking and massaging it gently, activating an endorphin release as his other hand resumed removing pieces from her as far as he could reach.

The ear twitched between his fingers in startlement as he touched it, but it settled down and unconsciously her eyes closed as she arched her neck and pressed her head against his touch with a slight moan. That felt goooooooood.. The sensual touch, the gentle fingers... Suddenly, after she knew not how long, her eyes opened wide and she suddenly jerked her ear out of her hand with a harsh twitch and brought it forward, to the side and flat, "That's... um..." She flushed a bright red.

"Sorry. It's easier on the body than another hypo," Alex said. "And I'm doing my best to be a gentleman here." He had moved on past her rear and down most of her thigh. There were only two or three pieces left, and he quickly plucked them out. "All right, I need to finish patching you up. If you'd prefer another dosage, let me know." He grabbed his dermal regenerator and went back to work.

"I'll be fine.. I'd have been fine." Torii added after a moment, to save her dignity and she stayed quiet for a few seconds, "How did you know that would help? The ears are the most sensitive part of my people's body."

Alex gave a slight shrug. "There's a nerve cluster behind the human ear that, when stimulated, releases a similar endorphin rush. Your biology has a more distributed version of a lobulus auriculae, no doubt for sharper hearing and temperature regulation, and since you have conscious control over them, that means there would be a significant amount of activator nerves to stimulate. So, I gave it a shot it would give you enough of a distraction you wouldn't be bothered by the pain. It seems to have worked." He smiled at her and patted her arm.

"It did." She said quietly, glancing at him over her shoulder with her purple eyes briefly at him, "And you're right, it did stop the pain rather well, distracted me, I mean.. And it felt good." Torii admitted very softly, "You're good with your hands."

Alex paused as he got a glimpse of a perfect shade of amethyst and swallowed. Now it was his turn to blush. "Thank you," he said. He cleared his throat and returned to his work, moving down the back of her leg. When he finally reached the end of the path, he put the regenerator down and picked up his tricorder, scanning her once more. "Well, Ensign, you are not only going to live, you're going to do so for quite some time, I'd say." He scanned her again and paused at her head. He frowned and scanned again, slowly. "Looks like you had your bell rung, too," he said. "Headache? A bit dizzy? Thoughts feeling fuzzy?"

"No headache, but definitely thinking fuzzy and I'm glad I had help getting here." Torii gave a slight nod, "From the grenade, no doubt, or the trip down to the ground."

"Mild concussion," he said. He put his hand by her ear again. "May I again? It'll help blood flow while I heal the damage."

Both of the ears twitched simultaneously as Torii clearly was thinking furiously. They swiveled from side to side and flattened to the sides before perking forward again. Behind her, the tails twitched and lashed, one accidentally hitting him on the rear end, but then everything stilled, the ears half-cocked and partially flattened, "Okay, go ahead, if you think it'll help?"

Alex jumped slightly from the sudden, unexpected assault on his posterior, but held his composure. "Well, at the very least, it can't hurt," he said. He picked up the regenerator again and massaged her ear gently, running the instrument over her head and healing the minor bruising done to her. When he was done, he set the instrument down and picked up his tricorder, giving her one final scan and giving himself a moment more to continue to hear her purr.

As soon as she started to purr, which was deep in her throat and not something she could consciously control, she began to flush red once more. But the rubbing of the ear was just. So. Good and she again found herself pushing against his hand with her head, just like a kit that was getting affection from one of it's parents.

Alex finally released her ear and put his equipment away. "You're all set," he said. He smiled at her and blushed again slightly, although he wasn't sure why. "Give me a moment to slip past the curtain and you can get your things back on and return to your quarters."

The reminder that she was effectively half naked came to her suddenly, but she reminded herself that it had been necessary. It wasn't that she was seeing him as a potential mate or anything or even the same coming from him. No, he was a medical professional, she had been an injured patient, this was all above board. "There's no need to monitor me overnight? Or are there others hurt much worse that need you- the attention more than me?"

Alex opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again. Did she just proposition me? he thought. But he mentally shook his head. No, she was a professional and this was just a normal question of concern from a patient. Still, that smudge on her nose is incredibly cute.

"You should be safe to be on your own tonight, but if anything does feel off, you're welcome to contact me," he said. "We do have some other wounded in, but we're managing, but I wouldn't want you to have to stay in a compromised position longer than you have to. I'm sure you're tired from your ordeals."

“I won’t lie, today really took it out of me.” Torii agreed with him. “Not just a piece out of me. If I’m good to go, then I suppose I should get out of your fur.” She smiled at him, turning her face towards him, “If anything feels off, I’ll be sure to comm you, but I think you’re right: sleep is going to be the best thing possible for me. Thank you, Nurse...” She screwed up her nose slightly as she ran over their conversation, “I didn’t get your name earlier.”

Even cuter, his mind thought as he realized with a blush he'd never introduced himself, distracted by all the bleeding. "Mayweather. Nurse Alex Mayweather."

Tori’s nose unscrunched. “Thank you, Nurse Mayweather, for your help, I really do appreciate it.” Her eyes were bright.

Alex smiled. "My pleasure, Ensign. Hopefully I won't see you here any time soon," he joked. He stepped back to the curtain and, with a nod and a quick glance, disappeared behind the curtain.

“Don’t like repeat customers?” She called after him, hearing a chuckle fading in the distance as a reply, then she eased herself back into a sitting position with the slightest twinge, but not of pain, just soreness. That would go away, she knew and slid off the bed to land on her feet. Back to her quarters it would be. She picked up her clothes from where they had been discarded and grimaced, “The quartermaster’s going to kill me..”

 

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