Lose a finger or lose you're commission

[DaveJohnson 0]

"Lose you're finger, or lose you're commission"

A log by Lt Jg David Johnson

 

David lay on a bio bed in sickbay his hand elevated and in an isomorphic arm restraint. It was the end of what had been a very frustrating few hours, which had started with yet another unsuccessful attempt at conversation with Lt Cmdr BobO and ended with David temporarily losing his finger because he was following an order. So far following orders had not worked out the best for David. As he lay there he thought of each instance since he had come aboard where following orders without question had gotten him. He was ordered to shoot a fellow officer and did so which landed him in the brig for a week. He was ordered to check out a "funky smell" in the shuttle bay which had led to a good deal of frustration, and he had been ordered to go and search for any ducks that had might have been overlooked which had now landed him in sickbay, with a finger missing from his hand. The fact that some brilliant surgery had been performed by Doctor Trillium to reattach the finger was the best thing that had happened to David all day. All of the orders that he had been given which had led to trouble had been relatively simple ones. Who would have guessed that shooting an intruder who turned out to be a fellow officer would have gotten him thrown in the brig, or trying to retrieve a duck would have gotten a finger bitten off. It just didn't make sense to David, who when he had been given those orders didn't hesitate for a moment to carry them out. After he had gotten thrown in the brig he had made a promise to himself that he would be more careful about following every order he was given so blindly and up until now things had worked out a little better for him. He had earned the friendship of several higher ranking officers, most notably Joy, who had given him some sound advice regarding Lt Cmdr BobO and he hadn't encountered many problems that we're easily overcome. But, when he had been ordered to look for stray ducks he didn't hesitate for one very simple reason; they we're ducks. Not Klingons or Borg, or Cardassians or any other violent species, just ducks. So when he found a duck looking very happy near the cargo bay David didn't think twice about trying to grab it. But, this duck was smarter than David had thought. It not only evaded him causing him to fall flat on his face during his first attempt but it also outwitted him, by pecking his finger clean off, while trying to escape. The duck had shown an act of compassion when it dropped David's finger, but it didn't change the fact that David had been beaten by duck. Not by a Klingon, a Borg or a Cardassian, but BY A DUCK! After the duck had bitten off his finger and waddled away looking as happy as could be, David was not only in physical pain, but emotional pain as well. Once again following orders had caused something bad to happen and he began to wonder whether it was really worth it. He knew that disobeying orders could lead to a court martial or even worse. But what was worse; losing a finger, or losing his commission? The answer was quite simple. Losing his commission would have been far worse than any physical or emotional pain he had been forced to endure during this latest ordeal. He knew that so long as he kept following orders, so long as the orders made sense, which in this case they did, he would go far, and one day maybe he would be the one giving orders and his experiences might make him think twice before giving orders that might put the people under him at risk. Then again, he knew that when he got accepted to the academy that he was going to have to take a lot of risks, especially if he wanted to get ahead in his career. If he was careful about everything he might just drift through his career without getting noticed and that wasn't what he wanted. It's not what his father or mother or grandparents or great grandparents had done and he wasn’t going to be the weak link that broke the chain of great Starfleet officers in his family. Each time he had to deal with something like this would make him stronger as a person and as a Starfleet officer and provided that he learned from his mistakes and his experiences it would hopefully carry him far. And, just as he had learned from the shooting incident he would learn from this one as well. Dr. Trillium had told him that he would have a scar from the surgery. If nothing else, that would provide an ever present reminder to think twice before doing everything and to follow orders, but with some reservations, especially if there we're ducks involved

Edited August 4, 2006 by DaveJohnson