The Doc Is In (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 13 Jul 2024 @ 8:49am by Commander Morgan Tarin

2,167 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: May 15, 2392

[ON]

Nusien had been waiting about a week or so aboard station Regula I. He had tried to get as much information about the ship as he could. The past mission logs and the crew manifest as well as the status of the crew was made available to him. However, every time he tried to inquire about the ship's whereabouts he was told simply that the ship was on mission.

The voice of the station's computer informed him that the Galileo had put into dock. So, with all due hast he made his way through the station and to the air lock where the Galileo had docked. A security officer greeted him at the airlock with a sidelong gaze. Nusien knew that not many people had seen and Edosian and his three legs and arms can be a bit startling. "Greetings Ensign. I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Nusien the new Assistant Chief Medical Officer for this ship. Where may I find the Captain?"

After a moment of staring the Ensign grunted, and checked the PADD that Nusien handed him. The orders were confirmed. "Ummm, sorry sir. Yes, the Captain is in her Ready Room." "Thank you Ensign." Nusien replied and boarded the ship.

Nusien had never been aboard a Nova Class Mark II and the ship impressed him as he made his way through. He was pleased to see that the corridors had been widened. This was something that effected him directly as he walked on his three legs. As to the layout of the ship Nusien familiarized himself with it while aboard the station. In short order he found himself on Deck 2 and standing in front of the Captain's Ready Room. He checked his uniform and pressed the door chime.

A short pause followed the introductory prompt which softly sounded inside the administrative office with a distinctive hi-low chirp. "Enter," finally replied a woman's voice with dry and neutral inflection. The small door hissed open to present the interior of the ready room in all of its sparse and compact glory. A single large rectangular viewport provided an exemplary window out to the bright and colorful surrounding star clusters and solar nebulae of the Pleiades Cluster; a simple couch was situated across the far wall next to a small coffee table; and at the far end of the room was a replicator station adjacent to the head's entrance. On the other side of room behind a large desk sat Commander Morgan Tarin, Galileo's newest red-collared Human captain. Several stacks of silver PADDs were vertically compiled atop her workstation and it took a few seconds for her to acknowledge the new arrival's entrance and pry her eyes away from her LCARS terminal and present administrative tasks.

Nusien came to attention, which for an Edosian looked rather awkward. He had his left and right arms down at his side. His third arm however, which protruded from his chest was moved to the side with its hand upon his hip. This was to avoid it seeming that he was touching his crotch. Something he learned in the Academy was that image was everything. "Captain Tarin. I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Nusien. Your new Assistant Chief Medical Officer reporting as ordered." His semi robotic voice covered the excitement that he had at this assignment.

Another moment of silence passed while Tarin's lithe fingertips continued to tap away at her console while forming her daily debriefing to transmit to Starfleet Command back on Earth. She finally paused her work in order to not keep the new officer waiting, and slapped the large black button at the bottom of her terminal to collapse the screen. She leaned back in her chair then rose from the seat and tugged the front of her uniform jacket down in an attempt to dismiss its creases.

The man she now saw inside the ready room was...unique. She, herself, was tall for a Human woman but even as she stood to her full height, her head tilted up to look into his slitted amber eyes. He was slender in form and possessed a striking burnt-orange skin tone along with a wide and flattened head. Perhaps most distinctive were his limbs - three legs and three arms, with one protruding from the middle of his chest. The Edosian. Tarin had never personally met one of kind before yet had been curious to see him in the flesh ever since receiving his transfer orders to Galileo. Human curiosity was a powerful force which prompted her to look him up and down with intrigue before speaking.

Her arms clasped themselves professionally behind her back while she gave him a curt nod of acknowledgement. "At ease, lieutenant," she ordered before gesturing to a nearby chair in front of her work table. "Take a seat. I hope your journey here to Regula I was uneventful?"

Nusien regarded the Captain just as she regarded him. She was tall by human standards with an athletic build. He could see that she commanded respect from those around her, and yet she had a serene dignity about her as well. In Nusien's experience he had found that these were qualities needed to be a Starship Captain. Yet Captain Tarin seemed to have them in abundance. At the order to at ease he allowed his posture to relax to the slouching style that he normally had. The slouched posture allowed him to fit through doorways rather easily. Other than that there was little change to his posture.

"Forgive me Captain but I would rather stand. The chairs in your office, like most on a starship are designed for bipedal lifeforms. This makes it rather uncomfortable for me. My journey to Regula I was quite relaxing thank you. I was able to play some music for the pilot and get some much needed reading done. Not the least of which was familiarizing myself with the ship's crew and medical files." Nusien took a look around the Ready Room. He knew that you could learn a lot about a person by how they decorated their private spaces. The Captain was no different, at first the office looked sparse. However, if you looked close enough you could see where the personal touches were.

"Of course," replied Tarin to both his preference to stand as well as the apparent due diligence he'd performed for this new assignment. "Crew turnover's been low...for now. We're very far from the core of the Federation with a limited supply chain to reinforce our assets in this sector. What you see is what you get out here, for the most part," she began to brief. "Command calls this area the new 'frontier' and for good reason; resupply convoys usually arrive at three-month intervals but depending on how lazy Starfleet Operations is feeling during any given quarter, that can stretch to six months. Regula I's never completely run out of supplies in the two years I've been station here but we've had a couple close calls." She tilted her head lightly to the side and gave him a wry smirk, "I hope you haven't forgotten your field medicine training?"

Nusien returned the half smile. "No ma'am I have not. I prefer field medicine. I specialize in emergency medicine and diagnostics. With my medical degree in diagnostics, I am one of a small amount of Diagnosticians within Starfleet. So, being out on the frontier where the medicine as well as the space is unknown, suits me quite well. I am curious. Has the ship come up against any unknown medical ailments?"

"Unknown?" The question caught her slightly unprepared which prompted a short hesitation for consideration. Thoughts of Galileo's recent search and rescue mission to Cold Station 31 flooded her memories, specifically the debriefings she'd received from her away teams who'd encountered abominable humanoid creatures altered by the very fabric of cross-dimensional travel. Would that even qualify as an 'ailment'? Of course, the classified nature of the cold station's research meant there was little she could speak to the new medical officer about. Instead, she slowly shook her head. "Not since I've been in command - which is admittedly only a month and several days. Captain Saalm, the previous CO, would have a better answer for you. But you're welcome to peruse the ship's logs when you have time. Galileo's a science vessel through and through and I'd be surprised if it hadn't had at least one run-in with unclassified viral or bacterial strains. Or organisms."

Tarin returned to the chair behind her desk then sat and activated her LCARS terminal. "Do you have your transfer orders with you?" she queried, wondering if he still had his PADD containing the relevant information.

The prospect of coming into contact with an unknown ailment was something that excited Nusien, and one of the reasons he took this assignment. He liked the idea of working with the unknown and working on his own projects. "Yes Captain I do. I apologize I should have led with that I suppose." He presented the PADD to the Captain.

She waved a casual hand to dismiss his apology then took the offered administrative device from him. A couple taps against the control surface linked its contents to her LCARS terminal which she then used to review his service record and Starfleet history. Many long moments of silence ensued while Tarin perused the lieutenant's confidential background details, Academy history and previous starship deployment report. "You served aboard the Tudor for your residency before being promoted to deputy medical officer; and I see you had a run-in with the Irridian flu and another ailment which affected your captain," she remarked before looking up at him. "Tell me about those incidents."

"About five years ago Captain Jenkins of the USS Tudor was stricken suddenly with illness. He could not get out of his bed and he had become exceptionally pale overnight. He was transported to Sick Bay and I began a differential diagnosis on the patient. The Chief Medical Officer had turned the case over to me as I am a Diagnostician, and this is literally what I went to school for. As I worked with the rest of the medical team a number of tests and theories were checked and worked out. However, the Captain's conditioned worsened. After checking his previous transporter trace with his current status it was found that his hemoglobin was exploding in his blood vessels. From that point we worked out a cure by using blood and bone marrow transfusions. This cured the disease. Prior to this incident this disease was unknown."

Nusien paused for a moment. This was something he had learned during his time with humans. While Edosians could speak essentially non-stop, humans tended to enjoy pauses in speech. "A year ago the Tudor was sent to Draven IV to quell and outbreak of Iridian Flu. This should not have been a problem for any of us, this type of flu is pretty standard and treatable. However, upon arrival we found that it had been killing people by the hundreds. The discussion of how we can work the problem without infecting the ship began. I volunteered to go to the surface and see what went on first hand, knowing that I would not be able to return to the ship. The Captain approved my request and when I arrived I quickly learned that something in the planet's soil mutated the flu virus and the standard cures not only did not work, but the virus worked too fast to investigate. I decided to infect my self and work from my own blood a treatment plan. Despite this risk, I was able to synthesize a treatment medication using my own t-cells. I was granted my promotion to Junior Grade Lieutenant for this act."

While the new deputy medical officer spoke at length, Tarin intently listened and typed personal notations into her console regarding these new details of his prior deployment service. The incident involving Captain Jenkins was quite fascinating and was - in a morbid sense - the very definition of discovery...whether that be a microscopic organism hell-bent on killing humanoid life or a benign sentient life form. She glanced back up to him while he continued and delineated information regarding his unorthodox encounter with Iridian Flu. Once again she returned her eyes to her LCARS terminal while typing, yet her fingers slowed then stopped their tappings when he concluded his story.

Her sharp hazel eyes now stared at him with incredulity, her brow creased with perturbation. "You...infected yourself?" she repeated. "Under whose orders?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Nusien
Deputy Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

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