The Very First Exam - Part I

Posted on Sun Mar 31st, 2024 @ 3:43am by Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin & Lieutenant Commander Sakaan

977 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Season 1, Episode 0: "A Time To Heal"
Location: Medical Center, Deck 16, USS Yorktown

It was a very pristine sickbay, a very LARGE sickbay and it was yet to be bustling with activity. As it was, as it was the early days of the crew reporting to the ship and as yet, there were precisely two doctors (herself included) along with four nurses already on board. Minerva smiled as she closed the drawer that held her arrangements of surgery kits and heard the latch click. With a touch, it would unlock and slide out for easy retrieval, not that anyone but her would be using these particular ones. "Bridgit, I think I'm going to start pulling in some of the senior officers that are on board for their onboarding exams." The brown-haired nurse nodded and started tapping on a PADD, "Also, let Doctor Bartlett know to start with senior NCOs as the on board and Anthony can start scheduling junior officers and other enlisted for their own. We can always update that list as we get more medical personnel aboard and just fill in the spots with other new arrivals."

"Of course, Doctor." Bridgit made a couple notes on her PADD, "Did you have a preference on who to see first?"

"No, not really." Minerva brushed a long strand of reddish hair back behind her ear and looked at herself in the mirror. Aside from the Captain and Exec, who's the most senior officer on board?"

"That would be..." Bridgit consulted her PADD again, "Lieutenant Commander Sakaan, 70, Vulcan female, Chief Intelligence Officer."

"All right, bring her in, well, at least summon her to come in. Be nice about it, I don't want to have a hostile crew that will refuse to come to see us when they really need to." Doctor Minerva Zephyrin smile softly, "I'm sure I'll do enough to cause that issue my own self."

Bridgit bustled off to the nurse's station where they had monitors for all of the different rooms and biobeds, then tapped the comm switch, "Commander Sakaan, my apologies for disrupting your day, but Doctor Zephyrin would like to request your presence in sickbay at your earliest convenience today." She had a rather sweet voice, Bridgit did, but a reputation as being harder than diamond to change.

Breathing hard, Sakaan lowered the telescoping baton she had been holding at head height. Retrieving her commbadge from on top of her gym towel, she wiped down the nape of her neck as she tapped it. 'This is Commander Sakaan.' The Vulcan considered a moment, 'it is logical to get this step out of the way. I have been out of the service for a year after all.'

Grabbing her gym kit, she took a mental count in her head, 'give me twenty minutes to clean up and I'll report to Sickbay.'

Taking a quick trip to the sonic showers, Sakaan cleaned herself up as quickly as was possible with her mane of sweat-drenched hair. Slipping in to another set of cleanly replicated PT gear, she gave herself the once over in a mirror, nodding her satisfaction. Presentable, at least. Striding out of the gymnasium, kitbag slung across her shoulder and commbadge attached to her tank, she made her way through the mostly-deserted ship to Sickbay.

'Commander Sakaan, reporting as ordered,' she declared to the air.

"Oh, it wasn't an order, ma'am." Minerva said as she approached with a smile. The white lab coat and the stethoscope around her neck made her look the part for sure, even if the knee-length red dress today didn't quite fit the theme of cool colors, "I just wanted to start getting senior staffers through the run-of-the mill stuff early on, that way you're not inconvenienced with me trying to hunt you down later on. Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin, ma'am, please just call me Minerva, though, I like being less formal."

Standing at ease, Sakaan took in the younger woman, and nodded in understanding. 'Very well Doctor,' she replied, arching an eyebrow at her own joke. 'You don't like the Medical Department's uniform?' she asked, wondering at the casual nature of her attire aboard ship.

Minerva caught the humor in it, "It's perfectly fine, but it's just too formalistic for seeing patients. I want everyone who comes in here to be comfortable with themselves and with me, so I'm going to put on something a bit more 'normal'." She gave a half-shrug about the whole subject, "If I'm going to go see the Captain or be on the bridge, or something 'official', then the uniform goes on, because that's what a Starfleet officer is supposed to represent. If you'd prefer it, I could even do that now for you, if you'd be more comfortable around me?"

Looking down at her form-fitting PT tank and shorts, then back up at the Doctor, Sakaan merely responded, 'Perhaps both of us remaining in our current informal attire would be the optimal course for now.' Momentarily forgetting herself, she gave a slight twitch of a shoulder shrug as she explained 'I've spent most of my serving life out of our uniform. I have no objection to what others find comfortable working in.'

"I'm glad that we both agree that comfiness is something that's important. Now, if you wouldn't mind coming with me?" Minerva gestured towards the closest enclosed room, ignoring the biobeds that were near them, "We'll get this exam out of the way right quick, I won't even have to ask you to undress!"

'Nudity does not discomfort me,' Sakaan stated flatly as she followed the younger doctor through to the enclosed room. 'This does seem different from a standard Starfleet set-up,' she observed, looking around the small enclosed space. 'Usually when I'm being medically evaluated it's done by tricorder and bio-bed unless it's out on the frontiers.'

[To be continued ...]

RSS Feed