sickbay, where you go to get sick

Posted on 16 May 2014 @ 9:01pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Crewman Finnix Pixis

1,495 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo Deck 3 Sickbay
Timeline: MD05 - 0300

ON:

Finnix was in sickbay as usual, but this time he was not on duty. He walked into sickbay wearing sunglasses, not a common fashion accessory among his people. Their eyes were engineered to interact with radiation in a less damaging way. He was in his civilian clothes. Pajamas, mint green linen shirt and pants to match. Fashion boring and colorless, just like the home world they came from.

He had an agonizing headache that made it difficult to see. He could feel the vasculature around his brain throbbing, over capacity. His walk had been more of a stumble and he managed to find a biobed and climbed on it.

"Is anyone here? I think there is something wrong with my eye."

His voice was strained and panicked. vision in his left eye was gone while the vision in his right was extremely blurry. Until he woke up a few minutes before, he'd had exceptional vision. They just throbbed along with his meninges and felt as if they would burst and hundreds of tiny shrapnel balls would fly out and kill everyone in sickbay. Was this a cruel joke? Was he some kind of human bomb that they let survive to cause more damage later?

Allyndra loved gamma shift, almost nothing was going on and right now was absolutely no exception. Though she had normally requested it so she could do research, right now the lab section was almost silent and blissfully empty.

No right now, she was in her office and practicing an old Earth song for the bar grand opening. She loved to sing, and had been told her voice was good, well amount Akkadians though she had sung for a few non-Akkadians and all had seemed to be quite pleased but did not understand the Akkadian words or nuances.

Thus, she had picked something for the compliment of most of the crew being mostly human. It was a little number from the nineteen thirties by "Kansas Joe" McCoy called 'Why Don't You Do Right'. Allyndra had listened to the various versions and had settled off one done by Any Irving. Thus she was merrily singing away and never heard the doors open.

Finnix managed to get his bearing enough to push himself into a sitting position on the biobed. He vaguely noticed the singing, the song was alien to him anyway.

"I can't see anything. Can someone please help? Computer, who is on duty in sickbay right now?"

[Doctor Allyndra illm Warraquim. Shall I page?]

"Please! Yes. Please page."

Allyndra was interrupted by the computer coming on stronger than her singing. It hurt her ears, but when it gave indication a patient was at hand she quickly headed out.

Allyndra recognized the person immediately as one of the staff Nurses. "Nurse Pixis?" Even as she approached she could see the tearing around the eyes. "Whatever has happened to you?"

"I haven't the slightest idea. I woke up with intense orbital pain. Increased lacrimation and sensitivity to light. I seem to have lost all use of the left. The only thing I can think of is that I visited the botany lab earlier to collect some specimens."

He explained it all in a single breath, feeling distracted by the pain.

Allyndra started the scan but also took a look touching gently. She always felt that touch and personal examination was better. "Looks like you have gotten some sort of irritant, a reaction to something." She looked up at the monitor. "Definitely, your having a immunological reaction."

Allyndra got an anti-histamine hypo ready put that to Pixis' arm. "I want you to lay back, do you feel any tightness of the airways?"

"No." he answered simply as he complied with her request.

"I think it was some kind of pollen or spore. I should never have gone down there. My people are just not well suited for close contact with flowering plants."

"Good," Allyndra answered to Pixis' response. "Does not sound like your going to have an anaphylactic episode."
She got some saline and a tissue and began to irrigate the most affected eye.

"Really? There are no flowers or such at home?" Allyndra asked as she worked on the one eye.

"There were, but they were rare in inhabitable areas. Only two of our twelve continents are inevitable. They're mostly desert covered, the plants that grow there are specially engineered to be useful to the ecosystem some way without causing any harm to people or animals. We were always prone to this problem, but it's been made worse by being surrounded by hypoallergenic plants. I was stationed at Starfleet Medical for six months before I came here and had to have bi-weekly antihistamine injections because the entire grounds are a huge flower garden."

Finnix had always been a very chatty person. It helped him cope with awkward and emotionally painful situations through self distraction. In this case, a distraction from the pain and creeping terror of sudden blindness in one eye. Dwelling on that would not be an ideal thing to do.

"Interesting," Allyndra said. "Well, good news here is that a bad reaction but treatable. I am going to prescribe some eye ointment that should take the rest of the swelling down." She smiled, "Should be good as new in about another day. You know the drill though, if anything worsens then come see me."

"But of course, doctor." the nurse said with a relieved sigh. Waking up that way had seriously startled him he was convinced he would just stay that way. The logic of a sleep deprived mind.

"Good, now I am going to put a little on. Look up please," Allyndra commanded gently and held the lid back with one slim fingered had while putting a dab gently with the other.
"So not very familiar with your world, while we wait," she let the lid go. "Would you care to tell me more?"

"Well, most people don't know much about Maxinar. Our government kind of likes it that way. It was very difficult for me to even leave the planet when I first decided to join Starfleet. They're a very secretive people. We were heavily genetically engineered for several generations, several generations ago. I don't really look very much like my ancestors. Just the skin color and our uncommon mating practices are the same from before."

Allyndra raised an eyebrow as Pixis talked, it was not dissimilar to her own world though slowly as the universe crowded in they were being forced to change.

"I am curious and you do not have to answer, but there was a reason for the genetic modifications or was it something done to you by others? Forgive me, but such things can lead to other problems such as this condition."

"Well," he said, feeling caught somewhat by surprise by her question, "I never really thought about it in those terms. But it was done to me by others. Specifically, the last of the modifications were made to my progenitors from six generations ago. The government forced the modifications on the population. They stole the genetic material from neighboring worlds. We have changed a great deal though and are currently a race of heavily modified lifeforms living as naturally as possible. Of course this, too, is enforced by the government whether the citizens like or not."

"It does not sound ideal. However, it does appear that you will be fine now. If you would like perhaps we can look into doing some immune-tolerance?" Allyndra asked.

He nodded emphatically in agreement with the doctor.

"I had no idea we had some many dangerous plants aboard. We had a great deal of hazardous fungus at my previous post, but it was all very well secured. There was no arboretum."

Allyndra smiled suppressing a laugh. "Very good, if you do not mind I will get a blood sample so I can adjust the regime."

"But of course, doctor." Finnix said, straightening his posture and waiting for the doctor to collect her specimen.

Allyndra got the sample and then rechecked Pixis once more. "I think your fine to go nurse, oh, and thank you for telling me a little about your home."

A large smile beamed across the Maxian's face.

"Any time. I love talking about home. Especially since no one seems to have heard of it!"

He hopped off the biobed and yawned.

"If there is nothing else, I need to go finish my sleep cycle. I was interrupted in the middle of my third hour."

"Yes, sorry, I do so love to learn. Now off with you, I can not have a sleepy nurse on duty." Allyndra waved the nurse off and then turned to go back to the lab.

OFF:

--
Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Gallileo

&

Crewman Finnix Pixis
NPC Lt. Teth Mir
Nurse
USS Galileo

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