Checking in for the checkup

Posted on 26 Sep 2016 @ 12:04am by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Edited on on 28 Sep 2016 @ 6:18am

1,744 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo: Sickbay
Timeline: MD -06, 1600

[ON]

Amaranai had been on the ship for a little more than an hour. She had been to her quarters, unpacked her bag and that was about it. She knew she had to meet with the XO and the Chief of Security and Tactical - and she would, obviously - but she was avoiding those for the moment. Her biggest problem, however, was that she wasn't avoiding everyone.

Amaranai didn't care for doctors. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She liked them and appreciated them when she was sick or injured but in general, she didn't like them. They had attitudes like they knew everything and chose to perform tests just for the sake of doing it.

A memory reached her - this won't hurt a bit. It was a doctor when he had to give her her first hypospray. She was three or four and it hadn't hurt a bit - it hurt a lot. Of course, that was pain to a three year old. She had been to a doctor at various times in her life and had never enjoyed the experience, so she had a feeling she wasn't going to enjoy this one either. But, Amaranai wasn't ready for listening to a speech on responsibilities or duties so she would stick with the doctor for the time being. At least it wasn't the counselor.

Allyndra was looking over the list of check ins. She had one that was due at 1600 and so far a no show. She pressed the comm in the office. =^=Lieutenant Franklin, this is Commander Warraquim, please report to sickbay=^= Allyndra winced thinking it sounded a bit harsh, but then again, this was an organized service. She could always smooth things over afterward.

Amaranai was caught off guard by the voice from above and realized that she was slightly late to her own appointment. She was going to have to focus more once she was on duty if she was going to keep the ship safe.

Entering sickbay, Amaranai looked around and saw a woman reading a PADD.

"Excuse me," she said. "I'm Lieutenant Franklin. I'm here for my exam."

"Ah!" Allyndra looked up and smiled, "Amaranai then, I am Allyndra the Chief MEdical Officer and also Second Officer. I do not like ranks and surnames in sickbay. Please come to the office if you would."

Amaranai looked at the woman as she spoke. She was very striking but looked as if she would break in half with the slightest bump. She was a little taken aback by the statement about rank or surname and didn't move when requested to enter the office.

Though Amaranai didn't like doctors, there was something very different about this one - Allyndra. After a moment, Amaranai entered the office and sat down.

"So, Allyndra," Amaranai said.

Even though she had said as much, Amaranai was uncomfortable calling the doctor by her first name.

"What do you need from me?"

"Well we need to get you check in done but I thought I could ask if anything has changed, if you have any questions for me about me or the ship in a setting that was not.....if you pardon the observation, so clinical." Allyndra smiled.

This was not what she had expected when she had first entered Sickbay. Amaranai thought that she would be poked and prodded (and not in a good way) until the doctor had gotten enough samples and would send her on her way. Allyndra, however, wanted to talk. Not that there was anything wrong with that but it was just out of the ordinary. She thought for a moment and then spoke again.

"Well," she started. "I don't think anything has really changed since my last checkup on the Gemini. I might have lost a few pounds, but nothing drastic." She paused. "There is one thing," Amaranai continued. "And I don't mean to be rude . . ." another pause. "What species are you? You're beautiful and I just wanted to know if there are others like you or if you're the only one."

Suddenly, Amaranai felt her face flush slightly though she wasn't embarrassed by it, she just kept staring.

"No there are several million more. However, I could count on one hand how many are off planet. Anyway thank you for the compliment, we refer to ourselves as Akkadians. We are an allied world to the Federation but not a member. Feel no shame, we do not know if we do not question. It is a philosophy on my world and why I ask any newcomers if they have questions." Allyndra then smiled and made a nod of the head. "Besides, the usual, please get on the bed, stick your tongue out if you have one, that sort of thing becomes so clinical and I think de-personizes one."

Amaranai nodded as she explained her species and the fact that many of her kind were not off their home planet. It seemed interesting, then, that she was. Amaranai had to smile at her comment about the standard clinical exam.

"So then," she started. "What made you decide to leave your world and join Starfleet?"

"Well several factors. One is that when I lost my husband I was disconsolate and second, though I did not know it at the time, the Guild Mother had decided that I might be a worthy successor. We have been a very isolated world and it was felt that we needed to explore a little about the rest. We had allied ourselves with the Federation and thus it seemed the best was to direct me to go to the Academy and become sort of eyes and ears if what the Federation proclaimed was really the way it worked."

Amaranai didn't need to make a comment about her dead husband because she could sense that the woman did not want her pity.

"Then I hope that you have learned a lot about Starfleet in your travels," she said. "And that you have been shown enough positives to possibly recommend to your species that they formally become a member of Starfleet."

She paused a moment and looked at the doctor.

"Did you have any questions for me?"

"While I realize that one should never take things on face value, I am a bit curious how you came to security. Please do not take my observation wrong, but most security types I have met tend to be......burly, I believe that is the word."

Amaranai smiled at the comment as she thought about the question. She had grown up with a bully for a brother, so that had been the beginning of her learning to defend herself. Her time making mischief simply added to her own abilities and skills, though, thankfully she was able to turn her life around.

"I wouldn't say it was an overnight thing," she started. "I think having a brother that was a bully and would beat me up sometimes made me want to be able to defend myself. When I got to the Academy, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to be until I realized that Security and Tactical would be a good fit for me."

She paused for a moment.

"Once I really got into the classes, I found it very empowering that people would discount my abilities either because I was small or because I ws a girl. It made kicking their asses even better."

She smiled again.

"And you are correct," she continued. "Most security types are burlier than I am but I feel more at ease behind a weapons panel than a phaser."

"Ah, understood. There was a Klingon girl in the Academy made a mistake about presuming too much....," Allyndra smiled at the memory and then waved a hand. "Shall we get that scan then and I just need a DNA sample?"

Amaranai smirked as she considered how many people had underestimated her over the years and how much it had pleased her to humiliate them.

"Yes, if you're ready," she said.

"Very good, come on then," Allyndra got up and waved for Amaranai to exit the office.

She waited and then pointed her chin toward biobed three, the one next to the office. "Hop up there and we will get the scan started." Allyndra waited and then got things started and went to fetch a vial and swab for the DNA sample.

Amaranai stood and moved to the biobed that had been indicated. She hopped up easily and waited for the scan to start. As she waited, Amaranai considered all of the times she had been in a doctor's office - from broken bones and cuts to actually being wounded in the service of Starfleet. No matter how much she needed the medical staff, she never enjoyed the time, even as simple and easy as the scans were.

"Everything looks quite well, and close enough to your last one on record so just one final insult. Please open your mouth and I get a quick sample." Allyndra made a swab of the cheeks and placed the swab in the vial, coded it and then made a notation on the PaDD. "There you are all clear on your medical. Hopefully I did not detain you overly long."

It was strange that Allyndra would call the DNA swab an insult, though, Amaranai figured that it was a little bit of a discomfort but still opened her mouth. Amaranai was also glad that everything in the scan had come up normal - well, normal for her, she imagined. She nodded when Allyndra said she was cleared.

"Not a problem," Amaranai said. "I'm just glad that everything is fine."

Amaranai hopped off the biobed and smiled at Allyndra.

"Thanks, Allyndra," she said. "It was nice to meet you and I look forward to speaking to you again in a non-professional setting."

"As do I, well off you go. Flee away from the second most dreaded place on the ship." Allyndra saw the odd look and added, "Counseling is usually even more dreaded then a call to sickbay. We just poke your body, there they poke your mind."

Amaranai couldn't help but chuckle at the comment as she was dreading her counseling appointment. She waved nonchalantly and headed out of Sickbay back to her quarters.

OFF

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Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
USS Galileo

LT. JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security and Tactical
USS Galileo

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