Physical Activity

Posted on Mon Nov 23rd, 2015 @ 8:19am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Lieutenant Commander Siivas McKenzie
Edited on on Mon Nov 23rd, 2015 @ 8:27am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck six, Sickbay
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Siivas,sickbay,bonnechance

One of the many among the long list of duties required of her upon checking into a new command was to deliver her medical records to Sickbay, and to receive a full physical from the ship's chief medical officer. It was a security precaution as well as a health precaution, to better screen out imposters while insuring that the crew member had been declared fit for duty by a qualified medical expert.

Lieutenant Charybdis was ambivalent about the procedure- she neither liked nor disliked doctors and sickbays. If she was injured they were useful, if she was not they were not... in this case, simple logic held sway in her mind. Her past experiences with medical technicians she had left forcibly buried so as not to harbor unreasonable hostility... and as a healthy specimen she saw no reason for concern when it came to the medical staff or their probes and examinations. She exercised, ate reasonably well and insured that she remained well within the Starfleet physical requirements regulations.

She insured that she had the correct data card containing her medical records in hand and once again wondered why Starfleet had opted that uniforms have only utility belts for away missions and no pockets. She held the card in hand and boarded the turbolift with a security ensign and a command yeoman, then took her turn to take hold of the lever and express "Deck six". When the turbolift arrived at its destination, she strode into the corridor and headed across to the double doors with the caduceus symbols on them, her sensitive ears picking up the sounds of a male voice on a tear just as she entered and the sound-deadening effect of the doors released, confirming it for her.

"I just can't believe it!" he was yelling off in another room, around at least two corners, "you're medical officers and you not only overdid it on the Vaseline but you forgot your shots and now I have to set up a nursery for THIRTY or FORTY of your offspring?"

She stood up straight, clasped her hands behind her back and waited, the very model of Vulcan stoicism... save for the fact that reflecting upon this made her smirk slightly as she raised an eyebrow at the scene. She cleared her throat slightly before speaking, to alert the excited party to her presence.

"If I am interrupting, then perhaps I can return when it is more convenient...?"

There was a sudden pause and then "God DAM!" and then through the thin sliver of passage she could see between the two rooms two gigantic brown tumbleweed-like things rolled out of the room to the left silently.

A petite black-hair Asian-descent Human appeared in the walkway, Chief Nurse by the look of her and came forward with a soft smile on her lips. Her skin was golden, her hair was short and a little wild but her uniform was impeccable. "Lieutenant Charybdis, good of you to be so prompt. I'm Head Nurse Xian, if you would follow me?" She didn't offer to shake hands and merely nodded, keeping a careful distance outside of their respective personal zones.

The science officer fell in step behind the petite human as she led the way. "Of course... with all of this activity I can imagine that you are being kept quite busy. Punctuality can be essential in these cases, after all." She debated giving in to her curiosity and decided that it was better to ask the question than to dwell in ignorance.

"So what was that all about?"

Xian sighed and cocked her head slightly, as if considering. "Two of our crew members overindulged and are now pregnant. I would be surprised if you knew the species but they are called Sulamid and they have live, multiple, births." She smirked as then entered a semi-private examination bay and Xian gestured to the biobed for the Vulcan. "Many, many multiples," she added with a slightly wry tone.

"So I gather... and you're correct in your surmission. Xenobiology is not my strong suit... I have a functional grasp of the races of the galaxy, but it is more of an overview than anything." Charybdis eased onto the biobed, carefully keeping her knees together as she did so. Not that the nurse was going to be shocked by her physiology, but these physicals included a psychological profile overview as well, and she would prefer 'Exhibitionist' not be attached to her file from the start of her check-in. That would likely be found in a performance evaluation later.

"I suppose that I should remedy that if I am to be shipmates with some of the more diverse galactic species. Or perhaps thirty or forty more..."

"I've scanned your file earlier," Xian murmured softly before continuing at a normal tone. "Yes, the Sulamid can be rather surprising. I expect they'll both drop about twenty or thirty offspring apiece."

Charybis considered whether a wisecrack about tumbleweeds in the hallways would be in poor taste, and was still considering it when the medical door opened and two other medical petty-officers entered, both covered in what looked like coolant, hydraulic fluid and a number of other colorful liquids. One was a Deltan female, the other a white-haired and blue eyed Vulcan female. Her left arm was burned, the Deltan had her hand clamped on the arm about the burns as they came in.

Another Deltan, the Chief Medical Officer clearly, came out of his office nearly at a run, slid to a stop and glanced at a biobed across from them. They nodded, headed towards it as a eight-foot wide and high tentacled purple and brown thing appeared from a side corridor and handed him a medical kit with two of it's multitude of tentacles. A single eye on a long tentacle peered at Charybdis for a moment before the entire creature disappeared back around the corner like an octopus slipping back into a tiny hole.

He nodded to it as he took it, glanced at Charybdis and then turned to the other two and took out tools to begin working on the damage to the Vulcan's hand and forearm.

Starfleet training covered basic triage and first aid, but this was neither. They were in sickbay, the Chief Medical Officer was present, he had ample trained medical personnel on hand, those were third degree burns that were in need of sterilization and treatment, and Charybdis had nothing to offer the situation except to get in the way should she attempt to intervene or attempt to lend assistance. Thus she just observed the situation as it unfolded... stereotypically stoic Vulcan behavior was often a handy fallback, she had found.

As Xian worked, she ignored what was happening behind her though she spoke softly, "If you'll pardon the observation, you're rather atypical of most Vulcans, present company included."

Charybdis raised an eyebrow and cocked her head slightly to the side. Was it her current behavior the nurse was commenting on or what she had read in her file, she wondered. Either way it seemed odd bedside manner while treating a very injured patient, to her mind. What purpose the question served was unclear, but it certainly seemed out of place. While a dozen possible replies presented themselves, she opted for silence.

Xian paused, drawing a hypo and turned to look at the CMO, who without looking up nodded as he was working to regenerate the tendons under the sterifield.

Perhaps they had worked together for many years and built a rapport that required no communication... they certainly seemed efficient together. She supposed that was to be expected- the chief medical officer and his chief nurse on a starship such as this one would have to excel in their fields. She watched the patient... apparently she had subsumed her consciousness to isolate the pain with mental discipline. Convenient, she supposed, but not worth the price, to her mind... to live with such self-imposed constraints, constantly boxing onesself off from one's own feelings seemed like a prison sentence to her. The road to Kolinahr may have brought peace to those who sought its perfection and clarity, but she would prefer to wrestle with her passions.

The the CMO closed the dermal layers with new pink skin after plastering a synthetic over it to provide the network for the cells to regenerate over, the Vulcan sighed and smiled at the Deltan woman and then the Chief. The Deltan woman released her grip on the Vulcan's forearm and then settled it on her upper arm in a gesture of intimacy and comfort, no longer concentrating quite so fiercely.

The Chief settled back and stretched his back as Xian pressed a hypo to Charybdis' upper right arm and gave her a small injection, before taking another set of scans.

Charybdis was unfamiliar with Deltans, both their culture and their capabilities; to her they appeared to just be bald humans, but something was certainly happening there. She resolved to investigate and bring herself up to speed on the galactic races... obviously Starfleet was far more diverse than she had encountered thus far in her career and at the academy, and it would not do to be left behind. On the Antares the only other non-human aboard had been a Tellarite engineer... apparently on this Earth vessel humans were the minority.

"Welcome aboard lieutenant," Xian handed the padd to the CMO as he approached, having turned the minor tasks over to the Deltan med-tech who had accompanied the Vulcan med-tech with the bad burns.

"Thank you, Doctor. Good to be aboard," she replied.

He took it and thumbed it without even looking at it before smiling at Charybdis and nodding to Xian, who took herself and the padd off and into the back out of sight.

"Lieutenant," he nodded to her, hands folded behind his back, "I am Siivas MacKenzie, Chief Medical Officer. Your data shows that you're to become the Chief Science Officer?"

"I am called Charybdis, Lieutenant MacKenzie. Pleased to meet you. I... was unaware that I'm to be Chief Science officer... my orders packet did not indicate that position to me. Although I understand that there are currently a number of crew changes occurring, so you may know more of this than I."

"Oh?" he cocked his head and address the air, "Computer, position of lieutenant Charybdis aboard USS Bonne Chance please?"

+At this time Lieutenant Charybdis is a recognized crew member, science officer, no shift assignment or official duties have been registered+ the computer replied drily.

"Thank you," he told you.

+You're welcome Doctor+ the computer responded uncharacteristically and as he had been waiting, head cocked and smiling slightly, now grinned as he looked at Charybdis. "So not the Science Chief yet but I wager you'll make it," he chuckled. "The captain of this vessel is rather stiff," Siivas tapped his upper lip with his right index finger, "so I'd probably be the last person to hear about someone else's promotion. But then, he seems to be paying for some karma in this life from previous incarnations, if you consider what he ended up with for crew."

The fam-kursu Vulcan female on the other side of the room chuckled.

Charybdis cocked an eyebrow and a smirk spread across her features... seldom were Vulcans given to such displays, so perhaps she might blend in more than she would have expected. She leaned in conspiratorially towards the doctor. "If the Captain is... stiff, as you say... then it is entirely likely that I'll end up an ensign again before I make Chief Science Officer. My methods are, shall we say, somewhat less than conventional. But I certainly appreciate your confidence... " She grinned at the bald man openly.

"There," Siivas chided her warmly, "I think we all feel better now that you're being yourself. And don't worry about it, he's been subtle about giving permission for us to do what needs to be done and looked the other way. You just have to remember not to have the knee-jerk reaction, like I did and to do what needs to be done, subtly."

"I'll definitely bear that in mind... I think I can manage subtlety on occasion, though it certainly isn't my strong suit. To be perfectly honest, I'm very excited about this assignment... five year missions, explorations, diplomatic missions, first contacts, cataloging anomalies and charting systems... the possibilities are endless. And this ship is a technological marvel... I'm very much looking forward to exploring her and familiarizing myself with her systems."

Her exuberance was honest, and while a Vulcan grinning ear to ear was not a common sight, she made it look natural. It seemed she was taking the Chief Medical Officer's advice to heart rather quickly.

"Good," Siivas nodded once firmly. "Oh and if you tell her to use my conversation protocols with you, she'll talk to you like a person and extrapolate what you mean based on prior conversations, so you don't have to keep restating the damned questions." He chuckled at that last.

"Curious and curioser..." she muttered. "I'll definitely bear that in mind as well. So have you any further advice for me, Doctor, or are you prepared to test my physique and psyche to declare me fit for duty?" She sat up straight at that and cocked an eyebrow as she smirked playfully.

"As attractive as I'm sure you are to most males," Siivas smirked back, "I'm the competition. As far as your fitness to serve, Xian already registered that on the padd I gave her. This little que and ay was about me getting to know you and to see if I thought you were special or the typically squeaky clean highly perfect Starfleet officer."

Charybdis fought it as best she could, but her most concentrated efforts were nowhere near sufficient. It began with a titter, which became a guffaw, which in the process of trying to be stifled became something of a snort, which in turn cascaded into a full force gale of laughter. It didn't last long, but when it was done, she was left wiping her eyes and sighing.

"Ohhhh... aheh... ah, no, Doctor MacKenzie... I don't believe that anyone has ever accused me of being anything even remotely resembling the typically squeaky clean highly perfect Starfleet officer. And somehow I doubt that anyone ever will... I'll do my duty and fill my post to the best of my ability, but... heh."

She slid off the biobed and offered her hand to the physician. "I think we're going to get along just fine, Doctor. Glad to be shipmates with you."

Siivas took her handshake and smiled slightly at the sense of her he got. "Welcome aboard Charybdis," he told her and released her hand. She offered him the Vulcan salute with a waggle of her severely arched eyebrows.

As she turned and departed, he remembered something his father had once said about his mother "her back porch swung like a tire swing caught in a tornado". He didn't know what that had meant until just now. If he hadn't had the scans, he would have assumed she had dislocated her hips.

Shaking his head he turned and found S'tal watching the departing Vulcan female aft section. "I think you might want to get cleaned up before you start down that road," he chided her wickedly. "Git!"

 

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