Promptitude

Posted on 28 Apr 2013 @ 5:09pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Dawn Meridian & Ensign Varek & Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessica Sandywyne & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark

2,738 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 05 - 0525 hours

[ON]

Pushing an antigrav cart ahead of himself, Andreus Kohl deftly navigated the corridor between the medical laboratory and the intensive care unit. Kohl couldn't seem to stop blinking and yawning, and so he picked up his pace -- if only to encourage oxygen flow to the brain. As he glanced in on the CMO's office, Kohl gave a friendly nod as walked on by. Kohl strode into the ICU with its harsh lighting, and he avoided looking directly at any reflective surfaces. He was looking rough, he just knew it. Dark circles were in their infancy under his eyes and he hadn't bothered to brush his hair during his thirty-second sonic shower. Kohl slowed his antigrav cart, which was piled high with cases of hypospray cartridges. He patted his hand against the cases, and he asked, "Anyone in the mood to give shots?"

Laying on her back Jessica ignored Kohl for now. She was calibrating the biobed and using herself as the test subject. With a pad in one hand she was scrolling through the settings and was matching it to her own records and the tricorder that was scanning her from the foot of the bed.

"I'm sorry, sir?" Varek asked, looking up from the neatly arranged hypospray tray he was organizing. He gave Kohl a curious look. Of course he was not 'in the mood' to give shots. "Is there a need to give hypospray injections?"

Nodding at Varek, Kohl said, "Inoculations." He lowered one of the cases onto an instrument tray beside a couple of empty hyposprays. "Captain Saalm has ordered them for all of the planetary away teams."

"Very well," Varek said, immediately picking up a hypospray. He took up one of the vials in nimble fingers and with practiced ease slid it smoothly into the empty hypospray. "What dosage?"

"Ten CCs of deinoduraline," Kohl replied. He was a bit more casual, a bit rougher, with the medical equipment. He slotted a deinoduraline cartridge into the base of a hypospray and then slammed it in with the heel of his palm. Once he heard the click of the cartridge locking in place, he spun the hypospray around and set the dosage controls. "As long as their medical records show they need it."

Varek eyed the other officer's hypospray as he spun it around. "Of course."

Looking Varek's way, Kohl offered the Vulcan a nod with the sort of bobbing motion that silently said: thank you.

Scarlet Blake ducked into the, by now, familiar Sickbay. Her routine had been thrown for the day as she was on one of the later away teams. She held a sleepy Lily in her arms, carrying her close. It felt strange, she didn't often walk into one of her work places with her child in her arms. "I know you've got all the prep on your hands, but does anyone have a moment just to take a look at Lily? She's not feeling too good and I'm having to head off ship later."

Kohl had his hand in a case of hypo-cartridges, but he looked over at Scarlet's entrance. "Of course, Scarlet," Kohl said encouragingly. He pulled his hand out and waggled a finger across the compartment. "Bring her over there on biobed two."

"Thanks, Andreus," Scarlet gave a quick smile to Kohl, who she was thrilled to see back with them. She laid Lily down on the bed, who had half gone back to sleep with the early hour and not feeling well.

"Need any help?" Delainey asked, offering a gentle smile to Lily and Scarlet. She couldn't resist offering her services where children were involved, though she didn't want to overwhelm the little one.

Scarlet smiled gently to her fellow counselor before looking between her and Kohl. "She has a fever, headache and sore throat. She doesn't want to eat because of it, and it seems a bit swollen?" she tried not to sound too worried. She didn't want to come across as an over protective mother, and she knew it was most likely just one of those things that children got, but, well, Scarlet was worried, she couldn't quite help it. "Her temperature's got higher in the last hour, so I thought I should bring her in."

There were children on the ship then? Jessica was used to far more than she'd seen here. On civilian ships most crew brought their families with them, since they'd be gone for months if not years at a time, in her experience anyway. She liked children as much as she liked anyone of any state of being and normal doctors and nurses could be scary, at least she was neither of those. Rolling her shoulders slightly and shifting she moved so that her head was hanging down from the bed as she watched the others upside down, continuing to work with her hands as she did so.

"Bat lady - " Lily's eyes were half open as she watched the upside down woman, pointing to her with confusion, her voice half croaky as she spoke.

Scarlet pressed her lips together to suppress a smile. "No, sweetheart, she's just trying to fix the bed," she said softly to Lily, hoping the comment didn't cause offense.

Jessica made her eyebrows wiggle and bringing her feet up into the air and tumbled from the bed to the floor in a mostly graceful action. A wild smile on her lips the nurse squatted down to Lily's height. Looking across the room she did her best to keep the girls attention while her mother talked, keeping eye contact and a smile, "I bet you'd make a good bat when your better."

Lily smiled softly at the antics, and usually it would have been a loud giggle. She'd have to practice being upside down so she could do it as well as this bat lady.

Having crossed Sickbay, Kohl took position beside Lily's biobed. Falling into the habit of his career thus far, Kohl stood back against the bulkhead in a supportive stance. He looked to Carlisle, as a medical doctor, with some deference. "I'll take a blood sample," Kohl said. He looked to Carlisle, offering it as a suggestion, but he also looked to Scarlet for permission.

Scarlet nodded gently to him with a small smile, stroking Lily's arm gently. "Just a little hiss and tickle, remember?" she said quietly, but the girl was already half way back to sleep again, her skin flushed with the fever. "Sorry, I know the timing's not great with everything else you're trying to get done around here." And Scarlet herself had to get to work and prepare for an Away Team later on. She just hoped Verity wouldn't bale as her evening and over night babysitter when he knew Lily wasn't feeling too good. "I just wanted to make sure, you know?"

Delainey waved Scarlet's apology off gently. "You were absolutely right to bring her in, Scarlet. You don't ever have to apologize for being a concerned mother," she added gently, offering a nod to Kohl before turning back to her tricorder. So far, it looked like Lily had a common case of infection, but Carlisle knew children had to be monitored closely.

As he took a step closer to Lily, Kohl pressed the tip of the hypsospray against her upper arm. He brushed his thumb over the control to begin collecting blood. Kohl told Carlisle, "I'll take it to the lab for complete blood count and to test her electrolytes." Kohl looked down at the hypospray and he triggered it to stop as its cartridge filled with the blood sample.

"Sounds good," Delainey replied with a nod. "In the meantime, I'll give her some pain relief." She turned around and headed to a nearby cabinet.

Scarlet had to admit, she felt better for not being lectured on wasting doctors' time. She rubbed Lily's arm gently, but the girl had already curled up on her side. She looked to Delainey, smiling gently. "Thanks. Hopefully she can sleep it off, whatever it is," she shook her head, knowing that some smaller things were considered better for a child to fight off themselves, to help develop the body's natural immunities.

"I'm sure with rest, she'll feel much better," Delainey replied, administering the drug with a quiet hiss.

Dawn was beginning to think the crew was deliberately conspiring to let her sleep as little as possible as often as possible. It was five. Five as in five hours past midnight. She wasn't sleepy really, but there was a lightness in her head that only came from not getting enough sleep. It didn't help that she was on Beta shift. Or that she had always had trouble getting to sleep in the first place. She gave a small wave as she walked in and promptly decided preparing medkits was right up her alley. It was mindless enough that she wouldn't have to think too hard. Hopefully.

Kohl returned Dawn's wave as he made his way through the ICU, headed for the lab. Looking to Dawn, Kohl recognized the look in her eyes. He was newly assigned to Beta shift, but he was already starting to feel her pain. Kohl widened his eyes in an expression of exasperation and then shared a knowing wan smile with Dawn.

As the morning wore on, patients milled in and out of sickbay to receive their inoculations. Unenthusiastically, Liyar ducked in behind two science crewmen. It was just after breakfast and he was hoping to get this done as quickly as possible. He had thought that his physical would include such inoculations, but clearly that wasn't the case. Liyar rubbed his wrists behind his back and stood near an empty biobed, waiting for a doctor.

Varek approached the newcomer and nodded to him. "One moment, Lieutenant," he said while turning towards the hypospray tray to switch out the empty vial for a new one. Dreadfully efficient, the medical officer did not seem to be paying much attention to his patient and Liyar might just as well have been another emotional human.

Liyar watched Varek come closer to him. He gave little indication that he noticed the doctor's heritage at all, standing immune and dispassionate as expected. Once Varek finished loading the hypo cartridge, Liyar rolled up the sleeve of his left, unmarked arm and held it out silently.

Varek pressed the hypospray to Liyar's arm and pressed the injector. "You may go," he announced.

Liyar tugged his sleeve back down over the metal psiclamp of his wrist and twisted it in an idle movement. He stood straighter and grasped his hands behind his back. "Th'i-oxalra," he said curtly in Modern Golic. He bowed his head once and turned to leave.

Varek nodded to Liyar and let him go without delay.

Vulcans are weird, Dawn decided, and not for the first time.

A little while later, Gabriel Stark bounded into the Sickbay, looking like he had far too much energy for the time of day. He came to a standstill, stretched his arms out to the side before arching his whole body with a sigh, smiling brightly. His body relaxed and dropped out of the stretch, his eyes shining. "Shots?" he asked in general to whoever was listening.

"I do not understand this crew's propensity for calling a hypospray 'shots,' " Varek said as he approached Gabriel, "That is an archaic term for an outdated instrument. A hypospray injects a micro-stream into your dermal layer without piercing it." He readied the instrument in question and pressed it against Gabriel's arm without even bothering to roll his sleeve up. "You may go," he said abruptly, turning away and leaving Gabriel with his injection and a medical instrument history lesson all in under a minute.

"He is asking if you want to join him drinking fingers of barely passable disinfectant for the purposes of inebriation," Jessica replied without looking up. It would be interesting to see Varek throwing the hypospray at Stark in an attempt to inject him, maybe the computer could play an overture.

Gabriel couldn't help but laugh at that, grinning. "Well it would certainly liven up trips to Sickbay, if all meds were mixed with alcohol and taken in shot form. Hey doc!" he called to Varek with a grin. "Thanks for the shot!" he lifted his hand in greeting before turning and moving away, whistling to himself.

Dawn raised an eyebrow, turning away from what felt like her thousandth medkit to watch Gabriel leave. If the crew needed anything, it was definitely not alcohol. Although it would be fun to watch, she'd probably have to deal with the aftermath in counselling. And it wouldn't be the good kind of aftermath, either.

Varek watched Gabriel leave and glanced at Jessica. "Is this an instance of 'joking,' petty officer?" he asked. "Sometimes the human idea of humor is difficult to understand."

"Nope," Jessica looked up and blinked at him. Vulcan's had hundreds of years to get used to humans by now. She'd been taught a little about Vulcan culture, if they were so bright then surely they knew what a joke was. If he didn't then it wasn't her job to explain.

"How illogical," Varek observed before turning back to his work.

Wobbling her head Jessica silently mimicked him, joviality wasn't illogical. If she wasn't making jokes then maybe she crack up instead, chasing the Vulcan around the room while painting camouflage on her face. Smiling she looked up, maybe she should.

Dawn looked at the pile of medkits she'd thrown together with something between pride and disgust. She was almost positive that no two were arranged in exactly the same way; she'd been paying too much attention to little girls, Vulcans, and bat-women. Still, they were close enough, and they could all save lives just as well. Probably.

Biobeds as operational as they were going to get in her hands Jessica started clicking her fingers as she looked around. When on duty but not actually doing anything, it was so very easy to get bored. Pacing over to the woman who didn't seem to be doing anything right now she looked over her shoulder, "Does it have a name?"

Dawn blinked. "The medkits?"

"The modern art instillation," Jessica pointed at them, "Calm before the storm, or Mister Medkit?"

Dawn cocked her head at the pile of medkits, her brow furrowed. "Phineas," she decided at length. "Phineas Medkit, Ph.D." He was almost as instrumental to saving lives as any of them, so the doctorate felt appropriate. Then again, so early in the morning, she wasn't sure anything wouldn't be appropriate.

"Dawn, we should quest for a golden fleece, you, me, Phineas and captain humourless," flicking her eyes towards Varek. Jessica was joking but did so stoically stone faced, brown eyes serious.

Dawn nodded. Captain Humourless described Varek pretty well. Really, it described most Vulcans pretty well. Still, they could be so severe it made her laugh, sometimes.

"Is there anything else we need to do?" Jessica had completed her own list for the morning, so it was either something else or something boring.

Dawn peered around the bay with her hands on her hips. After a moment, she shrugged. "I think we've done about as much preparation as we're going to manage." And I still might be able to catch up on a bit more sleep before the mission. "Phineas is done, pretty much everyone is inoculated, and the biobeds are calibrated." Dawn gave Sandywyne a pointed look. "I hope."

"They don't have the vibrate function I wanted but they'll do," Blinking she waved her hand back towards them, "Sleep sounds nice."



[OFF]

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Chief Counselor/Doctor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

PO2 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Galileo
(PNPC: Lt JG Scarlet Blake)

PO2 Jessica Sandywyne
Head Nurse
USS Galileo

Ensign Varek
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

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