[Sickbay]: Round Eight Scans and Vaccines

[ten_fwd_npcs]

O-kay, so things have been a little ... odd on the ship. Some people have been acting rather out of character, ducking their duties for romantic escapades or complaining that their good friends aren't quite themselves. Romance may be in the air, but the CMO has other ideas. Like maybe an alien pest who likes to play tricks on people. Her sickbay hasn't gone unaffected, but luckily the strange effects are beginning to wear off and people are returning to work. Still, she's prepared to treat anything. Just please assure her you were safe and responsible if you, uh, made a special friend.

If this is your first trip to Sickbay, you may be surprised to see that it's a fairly ordinary-looking hospital. There are no terrifying devices or humming machines you might see in a sci-fi thriller. The biobeds along the walls are equipped with biofunction monitors, but look fairly standard. Instead of silver trays filled with metal tools and sawblades, there are an array of small devices that look as harmless as cell phones. As for the staff, they're all well-groomed and friendly. As a matter of fact, all personnel look harmless. Well, relatively harmless.

If you're new to the ship, no doubt you've been escorted here by the security team. Nothing to worry about, the doctors just want to make sure you aren't carrying any viruses or are vulnerable to terrible space disease. Once you've been checked over — a quick scan from a tricorder and any necessary vaccines — you'll be free to go. Lollipops are optional.

"All right, step on in," one of them calls out as you enter. "Don't be afraid. It's just a scan and a hypospray, nothing to worry about."


[ooc: Sickbay is, as always, OTA! For new characters: tagging isn't mandatory but IC going to sickbay is. If you'd prefer to skip threading with one of our doctors, you can handwave that your character got a clean bill of health and a shot and were sent on their merry way. For those who are tagging: if you have a preference which doctor sees your character, please specify in the subject line of your tag who you would like (Beverly Crusher, Julian Bashir, Sam Wilson, Mack Gerhardt, and Merlin are definitely on deck, with possible appearances by others). There is a post up in the OOC comm with more details if you have any questions.]

Comments

[dust_of_life]

"A scan?" she repeated. Somehow, that didn't put her mind at ease. She hadn't really been thinking about Enquirer stories about alien probes and such. Not until now.

Because she seriously doubted he meant a CAT scan.

And anyway, she obviously didn't have any kind of head trauma.

Well, she'd have to rethink her strategy for resistance. And as some kind of small mercy, it seemed like the doctor was eager to please. So she'd try to keep him talking for the moment. "What kind of scan?" she asked. "Show me."

[asklepian]

"With this," Julian says, picking up a tricorder. It doesn't look like much of anything--a little larger than a cell phone, folded shut. When he opens it, the display glows a little, but it's very simplistic when he turns it in his hands to show her.

"It will show your resting heart rate, metabolism, temperature, that sort of thing. It provides us with a base line in case you happen to, God forbid, need medical treatment while you're aboard the ship."

[dust_of_life]

It stood to reason that the people wearing the same funny space pajamas she'd seen Beverly wearing in Zelien also had the same Brookstone gadgets. Fatima examined the tricorder, not trying to understand how it worked, but to compare it to the one Beverly had turned on her in Zelien, the morning after...

Well. She was trying not to think of Sam.

At the very least, Dr. Bashir managed to lower her hackles another few degrees. Although her dhampir metabolism would probably lead to a line of questions all the same.

"A..." Oh, what was that word? "...tripod?" No. That wasn't right.

[asklepian]

Or similar, at least, since Julian is wearing his grey-shouldered uniform from Deep Space Nine.

"Close, it's a tricorder. I presume you've seen one before." He would ask, but it is rather standard equipment, she mmight have seen a crew member carrying one and asked what it was.

At any rate, he's seen a lot stranger than someone with an enhanced metabolism--he has one himself. For different reasons, of course.

[dust_of_life]

She nodded. "I knew someone in Zelien who had one."

...which was a completely meaningless statement, wasn't it?

Fatima sighed, closing her eyes for a second, annoyed at herself. "I was in a multiversal hub when this...Q...thing-person-mabob whooshed me up here. I knew someone in...Starfleet." She opened her eyes again. "She had one of those. Zapped me with it a couple of times."

Which was, in a sense, Fatima granting him permission. But she gave him a gesture as well, inviting him to scan away.

[asklepian]

That...sounds like a story. Perhaps sometime he'd ask.

"Really? Who was it?" He sounds genuinely curious as he sweeps the tricorder over her, noting physiological differences--such as that enhanced metabolism--but he doesn't make much comment on it. It's something of note, but not much more.

So no, he's not planning on dragging her into the science lab to poke and prod.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima held her breath as he made the pass with the tricorder, like she was waiting for some kind of blow that never came.

Not that she was complaining.

Credit where credit was due, this guy was clearly a skilled physician. Absolutely professional. Stellar bedside manner.

"Her name was Beverly," she said, figuring there was no harm in sharing. Beverly had been one of the bright spots to her experiences in Zelien. And one it was easier to talk about. Sure, she missed Beverly. But not quite in the same way that she missed...

...well. She didn't want to go there.

[asklepian]

He's quite glad you think so. He tries.

"Doctor Crusher?" Julian sounds somewhat surprised--he's sure she would have mentioned, or he would have heard from the rumor mill, if something like that had happened to the Enterprise's CMO. Word like that traveled at warp speed on a ship like this.

[dust_of_life]

She'd been so proud of herself, not making the stupid and very American assumption of, 'Oh, she's one of you, maybe you know her.' It almost made her laugh. Until she remembered, of course, that she certainly didn't wish Zelien on anyone. And if he knew her, it meant that someone he knew was suffering there.

Wonderful.

"Yeah," she said. "Beverly Crusher. You know her?"