An Unorthodox Examination
Posted on Tue Apr 9th, 2024 @ 12:27am by Captain Takami Karibuchi & Commander Hikari Karibuchi & Yulena Shastakar & Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin
4,293 words; about a 21 minute read
Mission:
Season 1, Episode 0: "A Time To Heal"
Location: USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)- Main Sickbay, Deck 16
Timeline: After "On Crisis Resolution"
"The bulk of Deck 16 comprises a majority of our primary care facilities," Takami explained as she guided Hikari and Yulena into the main sickbay. "Given the Constitution III's intended role as an Explorer, it's anticipated that some of its assignments will see it serving on the frontier for extended periods of time, where medical resources may not be readily available. As such, sickbay is designed to cater to the ongoing medical needs of our crew, with facilities including intensive care units, biohazard support, radiation treatment wards, surgical wards, critical care facilities, null-gravity treatment, isolation suites, and full-service counseling; we even have a gymnasium on the premises that caters both to physical therapy and over welfare.
Yulena scoffed. "A gymnasium? When I was in the Ground Forces, we did not have such luxuries as a gymnasium; were we needing to stay in shape, our unit would drill en masse in the main assembly area."
She folded her arms and leaned up against the bulkhead. "25 push-ups at morning revelry to get the iron pumping; 50 more at midday to acclimate us to pain and fatigue; and at least 15 more bench-presses before turning in for the night; that tended to keep us a well-oiled machine..."
"And hopefully you're doing more than just those to keep yourself in shape, because if you overuse one set of muscles without utilizing the rest in a relatively similar fashion, you've got a higher risk of muscle injury, whether minor to severe depending on what exercise you're doing at the time." A woman that looked like she should still be in high school came out of her office in what was definitely not a standard Starfleet uniform, but given that the skirt and shirt were both of generally the right blue and she wore a white lab coat, it probably wouldn't cause much of a problem. She glanced between the three visitors, "And I don't suppose you all are here for examinations, a tour perhaps? Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin." She extended her hand to shake the others.
"Ah, Doctor Zephyrin; glad you could make it," Takami nodded, before shifting her attention over to Hikari. "Hikari, I'd like to introduce you to our Chief Medical Officer, Minerva Zephyrin; she was personally vouched for on Commander Fan's behalf, as the two of them have known each other since they were teenagers. Doctor, I'd like you to meet your Commanding Officer- as well as my baby sister- Hikari Karibuchi."
"Pleasure to be making the acquaintance, Doctor," Hikari replied as she shook Minerva's hand. "And, uh... you'll forgive me for being nosy, but you wouldn't happen to be related to one Beatrix Zephyrin, would you? I'm not sure if it's a common last name where you're from, but I couldn't help but recognize that name..."
"Commander Fan and I met when Vesuvian erupted near New Pompeii on my home world, we needed some assistance with the natural disaster." Minerva grinned as she shook Hikari's hand, "Trixie just happens to be my little sister, by about oh... Five minutes or so. She's really a peach and an amazing singer if I dare say so myself." She chuckled lightly, "It's been years since I've been able to play piano for her, but I'm hoping to make that a regular thing soon enough!"
"No way!" Hikari gasped, her eyes practically glistening in astonishment. "You're the sister- twin sister, at that- of Beatrix Zephyrin?!"
"Triplet sister," Takami corrected. "And ironically, all three of them are being assigned to the Yorktown; Beatrix has already secured a civilian business license to be running the bar up on Deck 6, while the eldest, Octavia, will be joining us as an exchange officer from the Roma Nueva military."
"Where she's the Prime Centurion, meaning the officer in command of, the First Cohort of the Roma Nueva Marine Special Forces." Minerva smiled, "But yes, we are the sisters of Trixie Zephyrin. Back when we were younger, before we split off our separate ways, we also were her backup singers and accompaniment. Tavi was a decent drummer, doubt she's kept it up, though. Triplets are rather auspicious in Roma Nuevan culture, either a sign of really good luck, or really crappy luck. It'll be... Interesting to see the first time those two see each other again, because they do not get along very well."
"How so?" Hikari inquired, tilting her head to one side. "If it's my business asking, anyhow."
"Oh my, I mean, this could be a bit complicated if I really wanted to make it that way, but thankfully it actually isn't." Minerva made a gesture, more a flourish with her hand as if there were something in it, "The Zephyrins have been an influential family ever since the colony ship Roma Vesta left Earth, even before that. But as an end result, we're a very high ranking family on Roma Nueva, with an unbroken line of Senatorii from the Founding. There has always been a Senatorus Zephyrin and my brother, the Legatus, will take over that mantle at some point in the future. However, no matter what, the Zephyrins have always entered public service to Roma Nueva, whether the civil service or the military. Me? I may be in Starfleet, but it's still 'in service to' the public, even if it's the Federation. Trixie isn't. Instead of joining some organization or entering politics, she decided to make her own way as an artist, a singer and musician who just loves to entertain people. Octavia doesn't seem to understand that as a well-known artist, Trixie is in a position to help her fans and others in different ways. Oh sure, she's made a lot of money, but she also goes out of her way to perform at schools, small venues, wherever she can..." She gestured with both hands as the right words left her, "I don't know how to explain better."
"No, I get the picture," Hikari assured her. "Let's see... while this would seem like a matter that Octavia's going to have to come around to her own terms, I will say that my door is open if ever you need me to work with her on that issue."
"Tavi is a bit too stubborn for her own good." Minerva admitted, "But deep down inside, she still loves Beatrix and she'll realize it before it's too late. I've got faith that blood is far more important than holding a grudge. No, I've never tried to sit her down to explain it, because she'd talk right over me about history and the family and how our parents wanted more and better for us than to go play around all day and night." She shook her head, "I may have to challenge her to a duel to get her to actually listen to me."
"Wait, a duel?!" Hikari squawked. "She's not open to talking things out?!"
"Welcome to the Vasilar Moldoviț School of Thinking," Yulena muttered with a deadpan expression. "Negotiation is for the weak, as they always say."
"Who said I was going to win it?" Minerva interjected with a bright smile, "Oh, I'm handy with a sword, we all got training in self defense and I was school runner-up in fencing in high school, guess who won? And I *was* the champion at Roma University, even did well in the university planet-wide competition. Dueling is just my way of smacking her up the back of her head to say 'Listen up, stupid!' Certainly not to the death or anything dumb like that." She actually laughed at the thought, "Just gotta get her attention and all, and talking at her to convince her she's wrong is the wrong way to do it." She smiled at Yulena, "But I'm afraid we haven't been introduced yet."
"Oh; my apologies for not saying anything sooner, Doctor," Takami quickly expressed. "This is General Yulena Shastakar from the Annexari Republic; I would presume that Commander Fan's already enlightened you in regards to their situation?"
"She has and I think it's going to be a rather interesting trip." Minerva gave an apologetic smile to Yulena, "It's not that I think pain and suffering of an entire star nation is 'interesting', but I started my medical career as a volunteer nursing trainee on my home world, then Vesuvian erupted and it seems that most of my Starfleet career has been spent responding to other disasters and medical crises on other ships or worlds. If it helps put anyone at ease, I am definitely an excellent trauma surgeon, even if I am a bit unorthodox about it."
"Regardless, I can assure that your expertise in this field will be invaluable for our assignment, Doctor," Takami smiled. "I'm sure that Commander Fan wouldn't have vouched for you if you weren't up to the task."
The lack of interaction by the Anexari General was beginning to intrigue Minerva and now she wished that she had gone ahead and done her preliminary research into Anexari biology already. Oh well, if wishes were horses... "Shuren has a lot of faith in me and I don't intend to disappoint her. But, while I have you all here... I know you're not staying on board, so you're exempt, however,Commander Karibuchi, would you like to get your onboarding physical exam out of the way?"
"Oh, but of course!" Hikari replied. "Might as well, since I'm here and all."
"Actually, Doctor, while you're at it, would you mind running a scan of General Shastakar as well?" Takami imposed as Minerva started to lead Hikari over towards one of the closed-off rooms,. "Starfleet Command informs me that her medical information isn't on file yet, and if we're going to be dealing with her people in the future, it'll help us to have some biological samples on hand for frame-of-reference."
Minerva glanced over towards the Anexari and gestured to one of the biobedxz, “If you don’t mind, General, go ahead and lay down on the biobed there. We’re going to set it up for a full scan, which should only take about ten minutes."
Yulena nodded stiffly before climbing up on the bio-bed land laying supine across its length, as instructed.
"Bridget!” Minerva called gently, the nurse at the center Stations head popping up in response, “I want a Level Four scan on the General, please, with reference markers for all the major organs, enzymatic content, analogs for things that aren’t baseline on humans, plus a full blood work up with chemical analysis. If we can synth it, prepare some culture tests and other precautionaries for storage, because I think we’ll need some on hand.”
The dark brown headed nurse nodded and reached over for a PADD to take notes on, while Minerva looked back to the Commander and gently guided her by a shoulder towards the room, “This should take us about ten to twenty minutes, depending on a couple factors.” She let Hikari go through the door first, closing it behind her and opaquing the windows, “All right, I’ll need you to take your tunic and pants off, please, you can leave your undergarments on.” Minerva opened a satchel that sat on a counter and pulled it a stethoscope along with a couple other tools of her trade.
"I must say, it's been a while since they've asked me to strip down for a physical," Hikari chuckled as she began peeling off her uniform. "I take it that you're an "old-fashioned" sort of doctor?"
"You could say that," Minerva said with a smile, "Don't get me wrong, technology is a wonderful thing, it saves lives all the time, but it takes the doctor away from the patient and turns them into a manager rather than caring for the patient." She pulled a medical tricorder out and placed it on the table next to the bag, gesturing the biobed for Hikari to hop up on, "But when you're with me, ma'am, the surgical term of 'going under the knife'? It's literal. Full support from the technology, but I know the human body and those of the other major Federation races and lots of others. It also helps out in the field, where we don't have the support." She puffed a couple of breathes onto the face of the stethoscope to warm it up, "I'm going to want you to take a few deep breathes. One thing scans don't pick up so well are the ends of breathes, where you can hear a wheeze or something going wrong if it's there."
"Well, I certainly trust that Commander Fan wouldn't be offering you this position if your surgical skills weren't up to par?" Hikari remarked, pausing for a moment to take a few deep breaths as Minerva instructed.
"My apologies, Doctor; that probably came off as a dig."
Minerva had moved the pad of the 'scope with each breathe to listen to different parts of the lungs from behind, then moved around to the front of the Commander to repeat the process, then nodded and settled to listen to the heartbeat, counting time as she listened for anything abnormal, then she lifted the earpieces out of her ears and wrapped the stethoscope around her neck again, rubbing her palms together to warm them again before she began to feel around the lymph nodes at the jaw and other known possible trouble spots, "Not at all, ma'am, Shuren knows my reputation rather quite well, plus she got to see me in action back when I was just a teen in the middle of my initial medical training. And you can always check with my last Chief on Richelieu if you really did want a reference, he didn't like the fact that I did as much without the use of tech as I could, but he never benched me." She gently moved one arm of Hikari's around, with a hand on the top of the shoulder, fingers draping down behind to feel the muscles move, repeating with the other side as well.
"Anything out of the ordinary, Doc?" Hikari asked.
"Not that I can tell, so far." Minerva had reattached her stethoscope to listen to gut sounds now, nodding as she heard what she'd expected to hear, taking the earpieces out, then went into a squat as she started feeling down Hikari's legs, paying attention to the very back, where the Achilles was, then running a hard finger down the center of the base of her foot, getting a strong Babinski reflex from each foot, then she stood with another smile, "Nothing that I can find from my own examination. You can go ahead and get dressed while I'm performing the scan."
Hikari nodded and began putting her clothes back on.
It was finally now that Minerva picked up the tricorder and was waving it slowly up and down the much shorter woman for about forty-five seconds, then closed it with a nod. "That looks good, Commander, perhaps a bit of celluloid buildup, but it's only beginning and won't affect your figure or looks for another five to ten years." She gestured to a chair that was in the room as well, "Please, take a seat, let's chat for a minute."
"Oh, but of course!" Hikari replied, quickly pulling up a nearby chair.
Minerva pulled the stool out from where it was recessed under a counter and perched herself on it, "This isn't anything medical or the sort, just a couple minutes to get to know each other a bit more than a hello." She smiled lightly, then it fell again, "I'm not sure what you have planned for me overall, Commander, aside from sticking me here in sickbay to grow mushrooms until you find a need for me, but I'd like you to know that I'm not just a statuette to be placed on a desk to sit around gathering dust until it's time to show me off. Oh sure, I can keep myself busy and occupied, may get back into the habit of singing and playing the piano for my sister while I'm at it, but I'm also fully combat capable because of my upbringing. The Dominion War was before my time, yes, but it changed the way Roma Nueva decided to take on the world stage. The Dominion swept through home in one of their offensives and wiped out our Home Defense Fleet. When they invaded, our Army took some pretty bad losses, but they held the line and even started to push them back until Starfleet was able to come in and take back the orbitals. When Roma Nueva rebuilt our military, one of the new laws that came into being was that the equestrian families would be required to take combat training to defend the commoners of Roma Nueva. Any citizen would be allowed to volunteer for the armed forces with a new 'class' created for those who served for twenty years. It sounds bad, but it's to recognize their service to the nation. Me? I'm able to handle a rifle moderately well, pistol as well, plus I'm officially a Reserve Officer in the Roma Nueva Navy, with the rank of Lieutenant as well. The sword I have isn't a decoration and I won't wear it constantly, but if this were an R-N ship, I'd be in a crapton of trouble for not wearing it." She gave a brief smile again, "There's a lot of other things to know about me, but you need to know that I'm not someone you have to stick in the back, behind everyone else just because you don't want to expose your medical expert to the dangers of the front line."
Hikari smiled. "I can appreciate someone who's willing to pull their weight in the line of duty, Lieutenant, so you'll hear no objections from me in that regard."
“It gives me a unique perspective.” Minerva agreed, “As such, you can also always come to me if you need advice from someone… Different, call it. Shuren is great and I know you’ll have others who will be more than willing to throw their own denarii in the pot, but my door is always open. Even if all you want is to have someone beat you in a pickup game of basketball or partake in a midnight game of chess or cards, no business required.”
"If anything, I'm the one who should be offering that!" Hikari chuckled. "But in all seriousness, it's good knowing that I've got someone here who's got my back; I'm probably going to need it after a day of putting up with General Shastakar..."
"Isn't that what healing is for?" Minerva asked, "Doesn't have to be all physical healing, it's good for the psyche too, without all the need for the mental mumbo-jumbo that a counselor makes you go through."
"Hey, I find that Counselors have their time and place," Hikari defended as she finished buttoning up her tunic.
"'Why do you insist on carrying a weapon?'" Minerva mimicked a higher pitched voice, "'Don't you know the Hippocratic Oath? First do no harm!' and 'There's something wrong with you if you think you can fight and be a doctor all at once.'" The doctor chuckled as she stood again, "Time and place with me is somewhere else. They just seem to question who I am. But, I suppose they might get worried about you if I keep you in here much longer."
"Good idea," Hikari nodded. "But thank you anyways for articulating your concerns, Doctor."
"I'll always bring up any concerns I have, Commander." Minerva guided her out with a hand on her back, then stepped out to her side. Yulena was already sitting up again and Bridgit made her way over to Minerva as she emerged and handed her a PADD with the results, "General, thank you for your patience. I was hoping that in addition to this we could get a general medical profile from your homeworld as well, just so I can compare that with your results here to ensure that we've got you in tip-top shape." Her eyes were scanning them even as she was walking, "And the good news is that there shouldn't be any overly complicated biomarkers that would prevent us from synthesizing your blood or at the least a plasma analog in case of emergency. Obviously we're going to do some comprehensive tests and I may ask you in for some intermediate testing to verify it'll work. Would you be up to that?"
Yulena shrugged indifferently. "Not sure what you're expecting to find, but I suppose I can make time out of my schedule for future appointments if it would bring you peace of mind."
"Now, now, General," Takami reminded her. "Let's not get mouthy with the Medical Staff; they're collecting data so that they're better prepared to be treating your people in the-!"
Minerva raised a hand to Takami to stop her, then approached Yulena to ply her own charm, "It's not to give me peace of mind, but as the Captain was saying, it's to help us treat you and your people in the future. If you're going to be on board for any significant time, I intend to be prepared for you to be injured severely. Murphy's Law states that 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. By having a blood substitute compatible with your system tested and ready for such a case, it actually reduces the chance that anything will happen to you. I'll inconvenience you as little as possible, General."
Yulena tilted her head to one side. "Is that supposed to be a consolation to me, Doctor? Because you'd be surprised at the sort of injuries that I am capable of withstanding."
“General,” Minerva began, then stopped. The humorous method she’d just tried to utilize was apparently going over this woman’s head, which meant that being more direct might be a better choice, “General,” She began again, “I have no doubt that you are resilient and I meant no insult to you. My job as a medical professional is to plan for the worst case scenario when it comes to needing to patch people up, Just like you have to plan for worst-case military scenarios. One of my sisters is a Centurion of special forces, we’ve had some interesting conversations.”
Yulena shrugged again. "If you mean to suggest that I am opposed to the idea of undergoing further testing, Doctor, that is hardly what I intended to implicate; I simply question the need to be splitting those tests up over an extended period of time, when all of our testing was carried out over the course of a singular day."
"Safety, General, safety." Minerva said with the same smile she had on before, "The Anexari are new to myself and the Federation, so I want to make sure that the technology and science of whatever we put together isn't going to do more harm than good. Running laboratory tests along with our science division will ensure that we make a mistake."
"Please forgive her... standoffish attitude, Doctor," Takami apologized. "She's still learning about our culture, so this just her way of coming to terms with how we do things around here."
"Nothing to forgive." Minerva said cheerfully, "Just wait until someone tries to ask me about my homeworld and how it works, then you'll see that I can be just as stubborn about things in regards to that. Trust me."
"Right, then," Takami nodded. "Is there anything else that you'll be requiring of us, Doctor?"
"One moment, please..." Minerva consulted with Bridget for a moment, then nodded and relieved the nurse of one of the vials, taking a few moments to retrieve a small case from another cabinet and nesting the vial inside before returning to the trio, "If you haven't gotten down to our Science section yet, would one of you be a dear and drop this off with Commander Regan? I'll have the proper synth instructions sent down before you get there in any case, but she can get started on her own rounds of testing as well and we'll compare notes."
"With pleasure, Doctor," Takami smiled as she took the vial. "Well, then, if that will be all you'll be needing of us, I suppose we'd best be getting on with the tour. Since I'll probably be heading back to the Hornet once we're done, best of luck to you and your sisters?"
"Thank you, Captain." Minerva said with emphasis, "I'm sure I'm going to be trying to be the peacemaker between us, no idea how it's going to work out. If you're ever back in the area, be sure to drop by, and I'll see you soon as well, Commander, General, for something or another, no doubt."
"One can only imagine..." Hikari muttered as the three of them began to file their way out.
Posting by (In Order Of Appearance):
Captain Takami Karibuchi
Commanding Officer, USS Hornet (NCC-42025)
Commander Hikari Karibuchi
Commanding Officer, USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)
General Yulena Shastakar
Annexari Ambassador-At-Large
Lieutenant Minerva Zephyrin
Chief Medical Officer, USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)
Bridget
Nurse, USS Yorktown (NCC-91781)
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