the building blocks of energy

Tilly shooed off the officers but remained.

“Look, I’m not a doctor, but I know that wasn’t just losing balance,” Tilly whispered. “Let me help you. Please. I know it’s not my place to say this, but I can’t watch you destroy yourself like this. I can’t even imagine how Dr. Culber feels. Please, take a break. Just sit down for five minutes and drink that water.”

“I can’t ju- wait, what? In charge? Of here?” She motioned around the room. “Oh my god. Oh my god! I mean,-” she calmed herself down, somewhat. “Thank you, Lt. Stamets. I won’t let you down, I promise.”

Tilly shook her head and frowned. 

“No, you’re not. Don’t get up. Let me get you something to drink, and you can let the blood come back to your head.” 

She barely stopped herself from adding, ‘Too bad sense won’t do the same thing.’ But Tilly was working on her impulse control, which meant forcing a filter between her head and her mouth. She soon returned with some water and handed it to him.

“C’mon, drink up.”

Paul almost definitely should have listened, and not gotten up.

Did he, though? No. Of course not. By the time Tilly returned, he was up and trying to wave off the concerned officers hovering around him. “Tilly, I’m fine.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I just lost my balance for a second.”

He really did need to get better at lying. There was a clear difference between losing his balance and actually losing consciousness.

“It wouldn’t be soon!” Tilly scoffed, waving him off. “And I’m not being reckless! I want to explore, and I can’t do that just stuck on this ship!” She lowered her voice. “I’m going stir crazy, Lt. Stamets. Please!”

“You’re going to say ‘Not yet’ no matter what, Lt. Stamets. I’m never going to be ready because you’re never going to want to take the risk, but it’s my life, and I’m already out here during a war anyways. How much worse is this?”

My muse just passed out in front of yours. How does your muse react? || @cadetxtilly​

Truthfully, Paul had felt it coming on — it’d started with spots in his vision, easy enough to ignore. And then everything started to tinge black, and he felt incredibly lightheaded. But he hadn’t reacted quickly enough, and was about to tell someone to get Hugh. Until he was very rapidly losing consciousness. He didn’t even feel his body hit the floor, and truthfully was unaware that he had until a few moments later when his eyes flickered open and he looked around.

“But Lt. Stamets!” Tilly protested. “I’ve been on an away mission before! I survived a rampaging tardigrade! Can’t I come on this away mission, too? Please?”