The Sickbay Tour

Posted on Mon Jun 24th, 2024 @ 9:47pm by Lieutenant Astrid Nyx & Commander Cornelius 'Kit' Hanlon

1,051 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go
Location: USS Fenrir
Timeline: Immedietly following "Meeting the Chief Medical Officer"
Tags: medicine,

[ON]

There was an excitement on Kit's face as they walked down the corridor of deck seven. Yes, there were still the station staff working and he stepped over a piece of the deck that had been opened to allow access to the inner workings of the ship. He looked at the woman beside him, chuckling softly. "I feel we should have a warning sign somewhere...this is why the general crew can't come onboard yet. We'd lose five in an hour."

Letting out a chuckle, Astrid said agreed, "A hazard sign or two might not go amiss. Last thing we need is an influx of sprained ankles before we're fully operational. Though," she added, "I have the feeling the medical bay on this beauty can handle just about anything."

"I saw the plans for it," Kit admitted and gave her a small nod. "Decent size too, they didn't shrink it down just because our general mission changed."

"I've been reading up on the systems they're installing, and the La Gene Co-Op's developed a totally new bio-molecular scanner. It uses an adaptive phased discriminator to isolate and analyze complex viral strains at the quantum level..." she caught Kit's eye as they skirted yet another work detail, busily soldering something inside an exposed access panel. "Stop me if I'm geeking out too hard," she finished with a grin.

Kit couldn't hold back his laugh, moving easily in the chaos of the people and panels. "You're talking to an Engineering, no such thing as geeking out too hard from someone who can tell different warp cores apart by the sound they make..." he said and turned left, leading her to the doors. He stopped, a slight frown coming to him. "They've not installed the new ones yet. I was hoping to do a proper reveal, where you'd get to enter and be all impressed...rather than just see right in," he looked at her and gave a small shrug, then motioned to the open hole that would become the sickbay's doors. "Here is your domain, Doctor. All yours."

Peering through the open space into the room beyond, Astrid let out a whistle. "They sure went all out on this refit, didn't they?" And indeed, several techs were busily installing biobeds around the edge of the curved room, while another was calibrating the diagnostic bed in the middle of the glass-surrounded isolation chamber. " She looked at Kit. "Think they'd mind if I took a look around?"

One of the techs overheard and jerked a thumb at the back of the sick bay. "This your theater, doc? We just finished with the office back there. No chair, though."

"Oh, that's fine!"

Without waiting for Kit, Astrid slipped passed the working crew and found the entrance to her new office. The slightly shaded glass door hissed faintly as it slid into the wall, revealing a cozy circular room with a preinstalled desk, and enough room left over for bookshelves and personality. She was already making plans when she felt Kit arrive at her shoulder.

"I'm impressed," she said with a large grin.

Kit watched her with warmth at the way she was taking the space in. He gave a nod, taking a deeper breath. He too felt excited. About the ship, about the opportunity. It hadn't been his first time as a First Officer, but never before had he been the first one under a new Captain, on what was essentially a new ship. "It's awaiting your mark. You're the Chief...decorate as you want, a far as I am concerned."

A sudden serious mood descended on Astrid at his words. 'Chief.' Yes, she was the CMO of a whole new starship now. It was sobering to consider the responsibility for all these lives that she had not yet met. On the Valkyrie, things had felt familial and familiar. There were strange cases and difficulties aplenty, true, but she had spent years there, becoming part of that crew, learning the flow of normality at the elbow of Dr. Voss, whose decades of experience had been a salve to Astrid's nerves. Now, she would be expected to have the answers. She would be the one in charge. The responsibility felt enormous.

Something on her face must have shown her inner process because Kit seemed to catch something, some change, his head cocked slightly.

"A bit overwhelming, isn't it?" Kit said, breaking the silence as he watched her. There was understanding in his eyes, recalling similar feelings in his past. At least he attributed her silence as that. "New ship, new sickbay...new crew. Most of us will have lost the social bonds we had formed on other ships."

She hesitated only a fraction of a moment before nodding agreement. "I suppose you've done this a fair few times, Commander?"

"This will be the fifth ship I have served on," he said as he looked at her before he shook his head. "It does not get easier, you just get better at prioritising. But this is the first time I will be part of something from the beginning...and there's comfort in that."

"What about the CO, the rest of the crew? Do you know anyone else here, or did you come in the same way I did?"

"I..." he paused, a small smile coming to him. "I've not been lucky enough to be posted with people I know. Ever. This is no different."

That must become a challenge, Astrid thought, but she did not say this out loud. It was a complicated mixture of emotions that she felt, like someone on the edge of a beautiful valley, poised either to leap and sprout wings or simply fall. Such risk, such reward. She remembered herself, answering Kit's small smile with another of her own. She would be looked up to here, and she needed to be respected by those above her in the chain of command. Her old crew had trusted her. Now, she just needed to learn to trust herself.

"Well, I'm sure it will start to feel natural in no time," she said. "Thanks for showing me around a little early, Commander. It's good to have a sense of where things will be."

[OFF]

Commander Kit Hanlon
First Officer

&

Lieutenant Astrid Nyx
Chief Medical Officer

 

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