Medical Repairs

Posted on 20 Jan 2013 @ 8:43pm by Ensign Tavish Hunter & Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D.

1,170 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo, Sickbay
Timeline: MD -01: 1610 hours

ON

Ten minutes after the start of his shift and Tav had already copied the wall-board to a PADD and was on his rounds. Peers' to-do list was ever-growing, and the lower priority items were stacking up with only eight staff to work on them.

It served a purpose to get used to the layout of the ship and meet the crew, for Tav to take them on and make headway on clearing the list.

First stop, sickbay, and a faulty biobed. He entered the room and took a look around. The problem with biobeds was that they didn't often smoke or hiss or buzz when faulty, they just failed to register something.

He noticed a young woman dressed in the uniform of medical and made a bee-line.

"Good afternoon," he said, attempting to get her attention, not that his larger than average frame could be missed in sickbay.

Jessica glanced up, she had been trying in vain to get the biobed operational again but had ultimately resorted to calling down to engineering. It stood to reason that this yellow-collared ensign would be whoever they had sent up, but figured she should double check.

"Afternoon," She replied. "You from Engineering?"

"I am, Tav Hunter," he greeted her, extending his hand.

"Jessica Wilson," Jessica replied, shaking the offered hand. "We've been having problems with one of the biobeds."

"So I understand. This one?" he asked, indicating the biobed she was standing next to.

"Yep, stopped working during a medical, not the ideal time," Jessica commented.

"What seems to be the problem with it?" Tav asked, already kneeling down and opening the cylindrical toolkit he was carrying.

"No idea, it just shut down," Jessica replied. "I tried fixing it, did everything i could think of, even kicked it."

"That usually works," Tav replied with a chuckle. "Let me take a look."

He removed the panel covering the biobed circuitry and visually inspected it. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, no burn marks or obvious damage. Removing a small scanning device from the toolkit he began to check over the circuitry.

"Shouldn't take too long," he explained. "Worst case scenario is that you need a new control system, which I can replicate and install before the end of the shift."

"That's great news," Jessica smiled. "With a sickbay as small as this one we need every bed we can get."

"How long have you been aboard?" Tav asked, hoping to make some conversation to break the monotony of circuit examination.

"About a week, only came aboard at the end of shore leave," Jessica replied. "What about yourself?"

"A day," Tav answered, smiling to himself. So far everyone was fairly fresh-faced. "How are you finding it?"

"Its had its ups and downs," Jessica admitted. "Don't suppose you've been aboard long enough to form an impression yet?"

"Not really," he replied. "I'm beginning to, but this is my first shift, so maybe ask me in a week?"

"I'll do that," Jessica smiled.

The scanner beeped as Tav passed it over a circuit. It surprised him slightly, he had become more interested in the conversation than the work.

"Ah, found something," he said, turning his attention to the scanner. "It looks like one of the primary sensor control modules has failed."

"Sounds like the ticket," Jessica commented. "Any idea how that happened, or is it just wear and tear?"

"It looks like medical also got some experimental technology, the sensor module isn't really made to work with this circuitry," Tav explained.

He reached inside the bed and twisted a small part releasing it with a click and removing it.

"There's the offender."

"Experimental technology," Jessica scowled. "Does more harm than good me thinks."

"You're not wrong," Tav agreed, getting to his feet.

He headed for the replicator and ordered a new part, after placing the old one in for disposal. A few moments later a slightly shinier version of the same object reappeared.

"This is the older model, it should be a little more reliable," he suggested, going back to the biobed. "I'll make sure someone comes up and checks the others on the next service."

"That would be great, we'd really appreciate it," Jessica smiled. "The last thing we want is one of these things breaking down during a surgery or something."

"Well your surgical beds have redundancy built in," Tav explained as he fitted the new part. "But the standard ones don't, unfortunately."

There was a slight hum and a beep as the biobed came online and started it's self diagnosis.

"Ok, give that a try," he suggested, standing again.

Jessica smiled and placed her left hand onto the biobed whilst manipulating the controls and soon had a reasonble scan of her entire hand as the biobed's sensors got to work.

"Excellent," Jessica smiled.

Tav collected and reorganised his toolkit and shuffled his sleeve back down covering his tattoo.

"Is there anything else you need, while I'm here?" he asked.

"Um, I'm not sure," Jessica replied. "I've not encountered any other engineering problems."

Tav looked around the room, checking whether there was anyone around, but paying more attention to the young doctor, who was remarkably cute for medical. Perhaps that was just his opinion of what doctors should look like.

"I would suggest a drink," Tav said with a wry smile. "But I've only just started my shift."

"Yea, I can't see the two of us having a drink on duty is a particualrly good way to make a good first impression," Jessica commented with a smile.

"How about breakfast tomorrow then?" Tav asked, returning the smile. "I don't really like staying up after midnight if I can help it."

Jessica smiled slightly, this was the second offer of Breakfast she had had in a week, but she didn't see why, after all she had promised her parents that she would at least try to socialise.

"It'll have to be brief I'm afraid, I come straight off of Gamma Shift bridge duty and straight onto Alpha Shift here in sickbay, I'm heading off to my quarters in a moment to get what little sleep I can manage, just needed to get that damned thing fixed." Jessica commented.

"In that case, a coffee in the morning might be the only option," Tav said, frowning a little. "I'm on Beta so, we'll probably just pass each other in the afternoon otherwise."

"Sounds like a plan then," Jessica nodded with a smile.

"How's ten-hundred tomorrow sound?" he asked as he closed the toolkit.

He looked up at her and smiled slightly, hoping for a positive response.

"Sounds about right," Jessica nodded with a smile.

"Excellent, I'll see you tomorrow then," Tav concluded, collecting his toolbox and heading for the door. "Have a good evening, before gamma shift I mean."

"Not likely," Jessica sighed. "But thanks anyway, Good Evening."

OFF

Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D.
Medical Officer (Intern)
U.S.S. Galileo

Ensign Tav Hunter
Assistant Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Galileo

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