Circuits like you should come with a health warning...

Posted on 21 Jun 2012 @ 10:05am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.

2,824 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD08 - 0030hrs

[ON]

As the comm channel to his father closed, John decided that the best thing for him to do, at least for now, was to just get a quick bite to eat and grab some sleep. Thankfully, with a replicator in his quarters, he wouldn't have to go very far to get exactly that.
Standing up from the small desk, he headed towards the aforementioned piece of technology, not entirely sure what he wanted to eat at that precise moment. Deciding to peruse the menu, John reached out and tapped a few commands on the panel above the gap into which hopefully something edible would appear. Perplexed, he watched as nothing happened.

"Thats odd...."

For a moment, it looked as if the computer was just taking a few moments to decide whether or not to follow his commands, before the entire panel went dark and the sound of a power relay winding down could be heard in behind the cover. Usually, John would have taken the easy option and summoned an engineer, but right now, they were all busy enough with more important repairs, and the last thing they needed was to be bothered by him.
Taking a firm grip of the maintenance panel, John gave it a tug and was more than pleased when it came away in his hands with a satisfying thunk, revealing the inner circuitry of a standard issue replicator.

Not entirely sure what exactly had caused the issue, John decided to begin working through the problem in the proper sequence, his first port of call being to remove the gel pack from it's mounting to get a better look at the power capacitor in behind it.
A simple enough operation to perform, all it took was the unlatching of a couple of retaining bars, and the pack, slightly warm to the touch as always, came away in a second, allowing him to carefully deposit the precious technology on the floor alongside the now-redundant front cover.

The power systems looked to be unaffected, but to be sure, John reached out to remove the main capacitor from it's dock and give it the once-over with a tricorder. Of course that's what he would have done, had it not decided at that moment in time to reveal it's nature as a faulty component. Just as his hand made contact with the device, an arc of energy came forth, licking the side of his hand with plasma, enough to singe even the hardiest officer's skin, and causing him to recoil in pain.

"Argh! Dammit!" He called out as he looked down at his hand to survey the damage. Plasma burns were never comfortable, and against his better judgement, it was time to finally pay a visit to Sickbay - something he never enjoyed doing on any posting. Especially for something as simple as burning one's hand on a malfunctioning replicator.

Grabbing his now-throbbing hand with the good one, as if protecting it again from some unseen aggressor, John headed out of his quarters and straight towards Sickbay, taking only a short while to reach it, and feeling both apprehensive, and grateful at the same time as the doors slid open and he headed inside, still clutching his wounded limb.

Rubbing her hands across her face, Pola then took one final look at the PADD infront her, detailing the numerous medicals done today and the treatment given to each patient. Trying to cover up a yawn, she gave herself a moment or two before pushing back her chair, wincing at the pain in her ankle, a sign for her to try head for bed, but of course she knew that this wouldn't be possible, she'd promised Brayden shed meet him after her shift and she always kept her promises.

Limping out into main sickbay, she nodded her head at her gamma shift staff before heading for the door. As the sliding motion occured infront of her, Pola found herself taken by surprise as a large chest almost walked into her. Stumbling slightly she held out a hand to gain her balance before taking a step backward and looking up. Surpressing a sigh as she saw who it was, the Doctor tried to smile, "Commander, you're the last person I expected to see. Is everything ok?"

Grateful that he had not had to go to the effort of summoning a member of the medical staff to Sickbay, John held up his hand towards the doctor to let her get a look herself as to why exactly he had bothered her so late in the evening, not only by requiring her medical services, but also for almost flattening her as she moved to leave her post.

"Got into an argument with a replicator, and the replicator won....I could do with being patched up if you've got five minutes?"

Looking down at the hand, Pola carefully held Jonathan's wrist in order to get a proper look at the damage he'd sustained. The burn seemed to have been confined to the exterior side of the right hand. The skin had been broken indicating the burn was second degree but looked like it could be easily repair with dermal gel and a dermal regenerator. "Hum...if this is the damage a replicator does to you in an argument I'd hate to see how the replicator fared."

Smiling gently through her tiredness, Pola indicated for John to take a biobed as she gently released his wrist and grabbed a tricorder to get a better look at the damage. "Should I ask why you're getting into arguments at this hour of the evening?"

Taking the hint and heading over towards the biobed, John had to do his best to stifle a yawn that was more than sufficient to hint at his level of tiredness after his shift.

"I was trying to channel my inner Quinn....thought I could save one his boys a job with a faulty power converter and ended up making a barbeque out of my hand instead....my own fault, should have checked it had powered down before sticking my hands in there anyway"

Picking up a tube of dermal gel, Pola took John's hand in hers she she rechecked the damage. "I need to get the gel on this before I can figure out what needs to be done next. Is the pain bad enough that you need a painkiller?" Stiffling a yawn, Pola looked up at her boss and gave half a smile. The gel had a mild analgesic but this may not be sufficent depending on his pain threshold.

"Nah you're ok Doc....I've had enough singed epidermis incidents over the years that I'm used to them by now - phaser burns mostly of course, but the idea is the same...just as long as you don't have to amputate" He joked as he felt the cool gel make it's way onto the skin. Strangely soothing, he was glad that the dull throb was finally starting to receed.

Massaging the gel gently into the burns, Pola stayed at this for a number of minutes before pulling back. Picking up a nearby hand cloth, she wiped the residue from her hands before picking up the tricorder and starting a scan. Feel the pain in her own ankle, she grabbed a chair and pulled it over, enabling her to take her weight off of her feet. "Sounds like you like to punish your body in that case. Scars from swords, phaser burns..."

"Yeah...well...tell that to the various people who have tried to shoot stab or kick the sh....Starfleet stuffing out of me....guess it goes with the training - can't be a tactical officer without having a few fights of your own"

Looking over the readout on the tricorder, Pola frowned slightly as she looked over the results of the scans. It was showing that a majority of the burn was confined to the epidermis area of the skin, this could be easily repaired with a dermal regenerator. The part which was concerning her the most was a small area of burn where it had penetrated midway into the dermis portion of the skin. Because of the depth, the Doctor was going to need to use a combination of an autoscuture and dermal gel to rebind the skin and repair the deep damage.

"Well the good news is it's nothing permanent. You do have slight second degree burns where you skin has ruptured. I'll be able to use the dermal regenerator on the lesser of the damage. The rest I'll use a combination of the dermal gel and an autoscuture. You'll be left with slight scarring which I'll be able to repair in a few days and you'll be as good as new."

"Lucky me - wouldn't wanna find my boyish looks destroyed by a rogue replicator" John acknoeledged as he felt the last twinges of pain dissolve into nothing. Every time he saw a dermal regenerator in action he was always a little impressed that such technology, even if it was a day to day piece of equipment, existed.

"I doubt I'd be as good on the phaser range with only one good hand afterall. Thanks Doc...I appreciate it"

Using her good foot to move her chair across to a tray of instruments, Pola gathered the equipment she would require, "Don't women typically go for the scars these days rather than the pretty boy looks? Something about a man's man." Grinning playfully, Pola moved back over infront of John, taking his hand again, to start running the dermal regenerator over the effected area, repairing what she could before bringing out the autosuture.

"I wouldn't know Doc - married to the fleet and all that. Starfleet protocol et al." John replied, watching intently as Pola performed her craft. He had always been impressed by doctors, even if he was a little apprehensive of any and all medical treatment. The ability to heal, even if alien to him beyond the use of a basic medkit and a tricorder, was something that had been useful throughout human history.

Moving aside the dermal regenerator, Pola looked closely at the hand before being satisfied it had done the repair it would be able to do. Taking the dermal gel, she started to apply a second layer to the area the more sever damage had been isolated to. Tryin to hide a yawn, she kept her focus on the hand, "You know you still have to answer that question I asked in the holodeck."

For the first time in a while, the Lieutenant Commander's memory had decided to go blank on him. With the amount of stress and hard work involved in this mission beginning to take a strain on everyone involved, it was becoming more and more difficult to remember the more frivolous aspects of the mission, at least for John.

"You'll have to jog my memory there...right now all I have in my head is transfer requisitions and battle tactics.."

Smiling softly, Pola realised it might be best not to look at the XO when she asked the question. Keeping her vision on his hand, she replied with a light laugh, "I asked you what your memory of your first kiss was."

Secretly, John had hoped that she would have forgotten that conversation by now, he had let his guard down only for a short while and had found himself giving away secret information. In his mind he could see the look of the intelligence services, manifesting in the face of Lt Coleman frowning with disdain at his actions.

"First kiss huh? Well I guess that should be classified information....it could be used to implement psychological warfare against the first officer of a Federation starship should he ever be captured by the enemy...a serious concern for any member of Starfleet you understand!"

A wry smile spread across his face as he tried to wriggle his way out of the conversation as he had done several times before with several different people over the years, and always managed to succeed.

Grinning as she looked up, Pola grabbed the cloth to wipe her hands clean again before picking up the autoscuture. Moving a piece of loose hit behind her ear, she realised now she couldn't let this lie. "Ah come on, Doctor/patient confidentiality means I can't let it go beyond these doors unless you're going to put yourself or others at risk. Is the information about your first kiss that explosive?"

"Not explosive...just...private....plus talking about someone who's dead like that just feels a little bit...sullied"

John acknowledged, looking down at the rapidly repaired looking hand in front of him thanks to a little light work by their faithful doctor. He made a note in his head that once he was gone here, it would probably be a good idea to make sure he had an engineer repair that replicator of his rather than risking another trip to Sickbay with anything worse than a burned hand.

Trying not to flinch at John's comment, she realised he'd obviously forgotten about the conversation they'd had the other night about her Grandmother. Keeping her attention on closing the wound, she waited a few moments before answer, "Sometimes it's a good thing to talk about those we shared special memories with, it helps to keep their memories alive."

"Not much to say Doc....we grew up together on Mars...went to the Academy together...graduated....I got assigned to one ship, hers to another....mine was just lucky enough to not get blown up during the war...."

John replied, his voice trailing off towards the end as he thought of that fateful day. Whilst he had been lucky enough to escape the destruction of his first posting, he knew full well that many in the fleet had not been so lucky.

"Mine was under an apple tree at the academy. His name was Thomas." Moving away the autoscuture, she visually checked the repair before picking up her tricorder and rescanning the site. "And if you've done your maths, you'll now know you have ammo against me I'll trust you not to use."

John took a moment to think back to his Academy days - it seemed that they shared at least one common trait, the soldier and the healer, in that they both knew of the small, secluded apple orchard just off the main campus at the Academy.

"I know the orchard well....I...might have spent a little time there myself...if you catch my meaning Doctor....now we're even."

Rubbing her thumb across the slight scar, Pola gave John's hand back to him before smiling slightly and turning to grab a tube of gel. The man who's mind was always alert and prepared to fight actually had a soft side, and she had to admit she was surprised. This was despite it occurring to her he'd showed a soft side in the holodeck. "The scar might itch for a bit, your body is still helping with repair under the skin. If it starts to hurt, or any numbness occurs, give me a call immediately. Otherwise I'll expect you back in 3 days and we'll remove that scar."

"Excellent care as ever Doctor - thank you" The commander smiled, looking down at his now much improved hand, in fact, with the exception of the small scar that would be eliminated in due course, you wouldn't have known that there was ever an accident - much to the XO's relief.

"I'll do my best not to get into a fight with a replicator again any time soon"

Holding out a tube of dermal gel to her boss, Pola covered up another yawn before smiling, "Id recommend that alright. We don't want anymore scars messing up those pretty boy looks. Use this gel for the next 12 hours to keep the skin moist."

Laughing as he took the tube from her hand, John made a mental note to make sure he actually followed medical orders this time instead of ignoring them whenever they didn't agree with him.

"Now that would be a shame. If you're done patching me up I've got a hot date with my bed scheduled....my mistress The Bridge has a terrible habit of keeping me away from her"

"No woman likes to be kept waiting, never mind factoring in being stood up all together. I'll wish you a good night and sweet dreams Commander." Pola smiled as she pushed her chair back, wincing as the pain in her ankle got worse when she climbed to her feet. "Don't forget, back here in a few days."

"Yes ma'am!" He acknowledged with a joking salute, before heading back towrds the sickbay doors, and finally, to bed.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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