When The Sickbay Lights are Dimmed Low

Posted on 06 Mar 2014 @ 11:26am by Petty Officer 1st Class Viru Evek & Lieutenant Olsam Mott

2,010 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo, Sickbay
Timeline: MD 9, around 3AM

ON:

The young Cardassian crewman quietly entered sickbay, wearing his duty uniform. His hair was disheveled and his face was bloody, with an obviously broken nose and his possibly broken eye socket. He felt dizzy and had an ever present throbbing pain in his head. Aside from that, he felt very alert and jumpy.

Sickbay seemed to be empty, he didn't even see any of the nurses or techs milling around.

"Hello?" Evek called out to the room, his voice low and shakey.

Olsam bolted upright on one of the biobeds, sheet still over his head, looking like a patiently risen from the dead. He flailed with the sheet to finally remove it and spotted Viru standing near the doorway, bloodied and beaten. Alexion Wylde had caught some sort of stubborn cold just before departure, so Olsam had volunteered to take the usually quiet Gamma shift; he was accustomed to being asleep at that hour, so it had seemed natural to just lay down for a few moments...

"Oh, hello," he said, hopping off the table and dragging the nearby medcart along with him. He gestured toward the biobed nearest Viru and gave him a sleepy smile. "Did your attackers follow you on to the ship? You look horrible. Medically speaking, that is. I'm sure all the ladies and/or men find you quite handsome when you aren't bleeding."

Evek was unamused by the doctors question and his expression represented that quite well.

"This was an accident." the cardassian said as he tried to get comfortable sitting on the biobed. Every position seemed awkward.

"It happened at the gym."

"The gym? At 0300?" Olsam asked, doing a cursory scan before getting quickly beginning treatment; there were several wounds that needed immediate attention to keep from making a big mess in Sickbay. "What happened?"

"Well, an officer was there. He was using kettle weights and lost control of one and I was standing in the wrong place."

"I think you're probably the most unlucky crewman I've ever met," Olsam said, satisfied with the dermal re-generator work that stopped the bleeding. "Your nose is broken, you have an orbital fracture, and you've lost a little more blood than is healthy. The officer didn't see fit to accompany you to Sickbay? That's rather rude."

"He wanted to, but I told him I would be fine on me own. I know the way here, after all."

"I'll say," Olsam replied, exchanging the dermal re-generator with the osteogenic re-generator. "Hold still, I don't want to grow a bone in your eyeball. That's a joke. I don't think that would actually happen. I've never really tried, though. Maybe it could. If it did, I could probably fix it." He looked around the device at Viru and grinned. "So what were you doing in the gym? I don't get there much myself..."

"I was running. On a treadmill with my head mounted display, using one of my augmented reality programs. I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings."

"I see," Olsam said, finishing up the regeneration of the orbital socket. He held the osteogenic re-generator at his side, evidently waiting to fix the fractured nose. "If you were wearing your head mounted display, you'd think there would have been an abundance of synthetic material in your wounds; you know, from when the weight smashed into your face..."

"Are you saying there isn't any synthetic material?"

"Are you saying you're sticking to your story?"

"Yes. Because it's the truth and I find it strange that you claim there is no synthetic material left. Are you sure you're reading that right?"

"Did you go see the counselor?" Olsam asked, fully grabbing Viru's head with one hand and activating the osteogenic re-generator along his nose. "Because I think I'll have to make a recommendation you be treated for compulsive lying. If there was synthetic material, don't you think I would have found it? I'm a pretty competent doctor, you know. I'm surprised you don't take a basic field medic course so you can try to patch all this up yourself to cover your tracks better. Of course you'd probably just slice off your foot with a laser scalpel and claim you lost it in the waste reclaimator, right?"

"Well what do you think happened, doctor? Some crazed crewmember hit me in the face with a heavy metal object to intentionally harm me. I don't even know anyone on this ship besides you and Miir. I've spoken to Lt. Stace maybe twice? My room mate is never around. Who would I be covering for?"

"Yourself, perhaps?" Olsam suggested, raising an eyebrow in question as he worked on the nose; the unique Cardassian cartilage was providing a challenge.

"For what? Why do you accuse me of lying every time I see you, Dr. Mott?"

"Probably because you lie every time I see you, Petty Officer Evek," Olsam said, knitting his brow in concentration. "Be still, stop fidgeting. Cardassian noses are very difficult. Do you plan on telling the truth, or should I just sedate and interrogate you on behalf of the security department? It's a lot easier telling me than them. You know how they are, shoot first and then shoot again later. Basically, you can either tell me or get shot."

"I really just don't want to implicate anyone else. This is really all my fault, no matter how you look at it."

"This is soundly oddly familiar," Olsam said, finally finishing up his work on the nose. He replaced the osteogenic re-generator on the medcart and retrieved the medical tricorder for more detailed scans. "As long as you're not covering for a murderer, I can probably keep it to myself as a matter of confidentiality. I'm mostly an ethical doctor."

"Well, you know I'm a chemist, right? I managed to sneak some banned chemical compounds aboard and some other stuff. Nothing too crazy, mescaline, various hypnotics, catnip, whatever. So I ran into this officer at the lounge. I couldn't sleep, apparently neither could he. I offered him something I had in stock, we went back to his quarters, he sort of had a meltdown when it went into effect and started trying to fight me."

"Oh," Olsam said, lifting his brow and making a few adjustments to the tricorder to scan for illicit substances. "I'm not exactly the Federation Attorney General, but do you think it's a good idea to be dealing illicit substances on a ship this size? Someone is going to catch you." He replaced the sensor wand back into the tricorder and snapped it shut loudly. "Someone who isn't ethically bound to keep it to themselves. Do you suppose the crewman is fine now, or is he in the process of initiating a warp core meltdown?"

"I think he went home and passed out. The substance was supposed to calm him and help him get some sleep. But it didn't initially have that effect."

"Oh, right, there's no variability in experience with psychotropic substances, right, Chemist Evek?" Olsam frowned at him. Kids these days. "I suppose you're going to dispose of the remaining substances to avoid a repeat, yes?"

"I am definitely considering it. I was also considering keeping them for personal use. At least some in case of emergency. You know, if we get boarded or something and they abduct us and disembowel us and cram our abdominal cavities full of their egg sacs. We lay hooked up to life support while the tentacled spawn burrow into our respiratory and neurological systems...."

The Cardassian just stopped and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, somewhat slackjawed. Either deep in thought or devoid of it.

It took a lot to disturb Olsam, but Viru had managed it. "Uh, well, that's vivid. Maybe it's best to just store them in a wall panel and not distribute them to the crew...or yourself. Just to save yourself the trouble of having to keep coming in here and making up stories."

"Perhaps you're right, doctor." he looked to see where the doctor's tools were and whether he was done repairing his face.

"You know, I really am normally quite honest. It's just something about doctors. You people are so damned sinister and threatening."

Olsam laughed. "People have called me a lot of things - a lot - but never once sinister or threatening. You can lie to Dr. Allyndra, if you like, but there's really no need to lie to me. I'm usually pretty harmless."

Evek blinked at him.

"So you aren't reporting me to security?"

"Should I?" Olsam asked, though it seemed more a question posed to himself than Viru. "I can break my confidentiality if your actions posed a threat to yourself or others... Hmm, I guess that technically happened: you suffered two fractures and who knows what that other guy could have done." Olsam tapped his chin thoughtfully then shrugged. "Just tell me who the other crewman is so I can check on him, try to refrain from distributing illicit substances so we're not both implicated in a court martial and we'll call it even. Oh, and don't do any other dumb stuff."

"I would really rather not say who the other crewmember was, sir"

"Am I just supposed to take your word that he's all right? Shouldn't be too hard, given how trustworthy you are...right?"

Evek rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Why are you sleeping in sickbay?"

"The officer on duty was ill, so I'm filling in for him. I'm usually asleep at this hour, so I was napping until someone needed medical attention. Lucky for you I was here and not him; he'd probably have thrown you in the brig."

"Maybe you should go check on your room mate."

"Who, Teth? He probably is a little lonely without me to keep him company. I think I help regulate the temperature in the room, too. I suppose I could go on break for a bit. That dumb EMH will kick in if anyone wanders... Wait. Why should I go check on him? Did you give him the drugs?"

"Well I certainly have to force them on him. I mentioned them in passing and he took great interest in what I had available. But you know, counselors. They're all kind of like that."

The emotion drained off Olsam's face until it was as disturbingly flat as his voice. Given his usual jovial nature, the effect was eerie. "What did you give him? Names and dosages, now."

Avoiding eye contact and feeling very caught he tried to remember. "30mg of an alpidem derivative I have been working on. And 2 grams of nepetalactone."

Olsam turned to the medcart, exchanged a few items in a medkit and then turned to look at Viru. He appeared to be quite serious. "You'd better not be here by the time I get back, you lying little coward, unless you're looking for more than two fractures and a bloodied nose."

The Bolian roughly shoved his way past Viru, muttering as he stalked toward the door. Almost the moment he was gone, a somewhat petite human male shimmered to life behind the Cardassian. He took note of his patient by looking him up and down once before speaking, "Please state the nature of your medical emergency."

"I've already been treated, doctor. Why did you activate?"

"Standard operating procedure dictates that the Emergency Medical Hologram will activate when no medical personnel are available, and a patient is detected in Sickbay," the EMH responded. Its head ticked to the side. "Would you like to close out your patient file, Petty Officer Evek, or do we require further assistance?"

"No." the Cardassian said looking toward the door the Bolian had run out of, flailing his arms wildly. "I'm fine. Thank you anyway."

[OFF]


Lt. Olsam Mott M.D.
Assistant Chief of Medicine
USS Galileo

&

PO1 Viru Evek
Chemist
USS Galileo

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