First Steps

Posted on 02 Jan 2013 @ 3:12am by Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D.
Edited on on 02 Jan 2013 @ 5:12pm

860 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: Federation Runabout, En-Route to Vega Colony
Timeline: MD13, 0600hrs

[ON]

The Excitement, oh the excitement. The nervousness and the apprehension would come later of course but right now all that Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D could feel was sheer unadulterated excitement. After four years of medical school, and many more years of preparation, she was at last on her way to her very first assignment aboard a Federation Starship. Whatever else she might be thinking, whatever doubts she might be having about all of this the fact remained that in a very short time she would be doing what she had reamed off for over a decade; not only serving as a Starfleet Officer but as a Doctor! Even if she still had an entire internship to go first, but one step at a time, and besides what better place to get experience than on a Starship? In a way the small size of the Galileo would be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because, short of any emergency, the day-to-day medical requirements of the crew would be mercifully light, but the small crew would also mean that it was a tight-knit community, one that an individual as shy as Jessica would no doubt have difficult integrating with, but it had to be done.

But that was for the future.

Right now it was oh-dark-thirty, the middle of the night and she was still awake. She had left earth the previous morning, having said goodbye to her family she had boarded the Danube-Class Runabout that was heading out to Vega Colony. They had been travelling at maximum warp, for the Runabout anyway, and were due to arrive in a few hours' time and the task of reporting aboard and the like would begin. For now however Jessica was not particularly busy, not being a small craft pilot she had spent most of the trip on her bunk either sleeping or reading. She should have been trying to relax but all too often she found her attention moving from the fiction book she had downloaded onto her Padd and instead heading back to medical textbooks as she did a last-minute cramming session in case the CMO aboard the Galileo pulled a surprise exam on her or something. She wanted to make a good first impression, her own shyness would doubtless put a somewhat bad tinge on things and she didn't want to confound that by appearing to not know her stuff.

Jessica had been working hard for twelve years to get to where she was now, a Starfleet Officer and a Doctor to boot, and didn't want to let herself down on her first assignment by either doing something stupid or not being adequately prepared. It had all begun of course when she was ten and she had seen the healing talents of a Starfleet Doctor first hand, that event had inspired her to become a doctor herself and it fitted her personality just right. Whatever one could say about her failings she had a good heart was kind and just wanted to help people, which would probably make her an excellent doctor once she had the much needed experience. That was precisely what she was lacking right now, she knew the theory and knew the symptoms but actual diagnosing a patient would ba different matter, especially when you considered the consequences of a misdiagnosis could be dire. Like every other doctor she had taken the hippogratic oath after graduating medical school and to here they were more than just words, 'do no harm' was at the heart of her thinking, she wanted to help people, never harm them. She knew that doctors possessed great power to heal, but there was also the potential to kill.

One particular part of the Oath stood out to her.

"Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks." Jessica said softly to herself. "But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God."

She sighed. Never in her life had she felt so much responsibility resting on her shoulders. The responsibility to live up to the expectations of her family and her few friends was one thing, but this was something entirely different, she literally had life and death in her hands, it was an awesome responsibility, one that she hoped she would be able to live up to, for her patients sakes if nothing else. She glanced up as she felt the runabout drop out of warp, funny how after only being in space a handful of times she could tell the difference between warp speeds and the more acceptable speeds of impulse. The Runabout Pilot came on the intercom and reported that they were approaching Vega Colony and that they should prepare for disembarkation. Jessica swung her legs over the edge and stepped down, grabbing her bag as she did so.

It was time to go to work.

[OFF]

--

ENS Jessica Wilson M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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