[Sickbay]: Round Nineteen Scans and Vaccines

[ten_fwd_npcs]

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 — even the more unusual aliens.

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 and open until the next one goes up for latecomers! 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. There will be a post up in the OOC comm shortly with more details about Sickbay and which doctors are on deck this month, if you have any questions.]

Comments

Paging Simon Tam! OTA Otherwise

[radical_hacker]

Edward's bright red ponytail almost bounced behind her as security led the hacker to sickbay. She was a bit confused but once she got a look at the biobeds and some of the monitors her brain started spinning. "So need to pick someone's brain about the mechanics, the tech alone is unreal!" she giggled. But in spite of a few leftover bruises from her scooter's crash landing (and very well hidden ADHD even she does not know about given medical care in her time) she's a healthy young woman in her 20s.

[osirian_doctor]

"I'm hardly an expert, but I, uh, might know somebody."

Simon had spent most of the time since he'd first arrived here educating himself about the technology and techniques in use here and the differences between his own world and time and this one. He'd become familiar with the devices in Sickbay, but his understanding went to their clinical use, not their mechanical properties.

How the devices actually went together would be more Kaylee's province, given her natural skill with machines.

Simon approached the young woman with a tricorder in one hand, his manner more professional than friendly.

"Would you like to come with me? I'm Doctor Tam."

[radical_hacker]

"Ok and I'm Edward." Ed's cheery nature never seemed to fade. "I'm just curious since I'm just more at home behind a computer myself." she attempted to explain. She followed Dr. Tam along,"And hopefully its ok about my brain picking? There's just so much difference in the tech alone plus well its been awhile since medical care was even an option." she admits. She figured the less known about her life as a bounty hunter the better.

[osirian_doctor]

"The technology does take some getting used to," he conceded. "Uh, fortunately, you won't need to know how to use these."

Simon is the one doing the medical exam, and he's had more than a year of study, practice, and training on these machines now.

"I think most people are curious when they get here."

He gestured to one of the biobeds.

"If you could sit here, Edward. I just need to do a couple of scans and log some details for our records. Is there anything I should know? Any, uh, existing medical conditions or injuries?"

[radical_hacker]

As Edward hopped onto the biobed she admits,"My scooter crashed into a pillar when I got snagged so there's some bruises. And well life was on the road so food was hit and miss but beyond that I'm in decent shape." As she spoke her ponytail seemed to bounce as her hands were in full gesture mode.

(Beyond the ADHD and bruises from the crash she's in good shape all things considered. She's bound to be immune to at least one not so normal bug given being from 2080 as well.)

[osirian_doctor]

Simon nodded.

He knew, now, something of that sort of life and the deprivation it caused. Only something; not as much as Mal, Zoë and the others, but he'd lived on the edges of civilization on Serenity, and he'd seen the results of that uncertain existence. It had been an awakening for a man raised to the privilege of the Core.

"You'd been eating well before you got here?" he asked. The tricorder would tell him most of the things he was asking, but after months of doing this, he knew that it was useful to know thing from the patient themself first.

He held up the tricorder and started scanning.

[radical_hacker]

"Pretty well all things considered, another feast period since some are better than others." Edward nodded. She figured it was the best way to explain her duel life as a bounty hunter and hacker. She also saved woolongs to keep the bad periods hopefully few and far between. But she had lost a little weight but it was nothing too worrysome given her life on the road and sometimes lack of cash.

[osirian_doctor]

"Yes, I ... know what you mean," he agrees, with a slightly distant look in his eye. It's always a feast period on the Enterprise, but on Serenity, there were times when all they had to eat was protein molded into shape, that never tasted anything like what it was supposed to represent.

"The good news is that there's always enough to eat here. One of the benefits of technology that allows you to create food out of its molecular components."

Idle chitchat, however, has never particularly been Simon's strong point, so then he falls quiet as he lets the tricorder do its work, PADD ready to record the results.

[radical_hacker]

"Cool." the hacker nodded,"Got a crash course on them overnight and well knowing feasts will be a factor period wise is a good thing." Edward mused. "All the tech intrigues me, so much to learn and understand." since most of the time tech was the one thing that made sense to her. But Edward's eyes were scanning the room and making mental notes: sure she basically had to go legit (even through she was by her time's standard) but she would not stop learning.

[osirian_doctor]

"Well," he said, looking down at the tricorder. "It doesn't seem that the hard times have done any damage to your health. In fact, apart from a few bruises, you seem to be quite healthy."

It took another couple of moments for something else in the reading to make itself obvious. Simon studied the tricorder, then frowned, a little, and activated the biobed. He typed something into his PADD, then studied the computer for a moment before he looked back up at his patient.

"Edward, I'm going to get the biobed to do a scan on you. While it does that, I'm going to ask you some questions. Do you find that you often have difficulty concentrating, or finishing things once you've started them?"

[radical_hacker]

Edward was confused but figured there was an explanation, more than like something from when she crashed into that pillar. "There are times its hard to concentrate, been called flighty more than once. But put Ed in front of a computer and I'm in the zone." she attempted to explain. Computers made sense and when she was in the middle of a bounty she was pretty unstoppable.

[osirian_doctor]

"Would you say you were restless? Disorganized? Impulsive?"

He listed the symptoms clinically, almost distractedly, as he focused on the readings from the biobed. He knew exactly what he was looking for; he may have been trained as a trauma surgeon, but he'd spent years researching psychiatric trauma and psychiatric illness, before he rescued River, after he rescued her, and since he'd arrived here, for when he got back home or River arrived here.

Although he was logging everything the tricorder and biobed were telling him, as was the standard procedure for these checkups, there was one thing he was particularly interested in, and that was Edward's brain activity.

It showed him exactly what he thought it would.

[radical_hacker]

"Restless, yes but in terms of needing action. Somewhat disorganized but can find anything I need in my bag. Semi impulsive since Ed has throw caution to the wind moments." Ed was going over the questions Simon asked as she spoke. She may have had no idea what it was and used her quirky nature to throw bounties but there was something going on within the hacker's brain.

[osirian_doctor]

For a moment, the way she spoke made him smile, sadly. There was something singsong about it that reminded him very much of River in her more lyrical moments.

"I thought that might be the case," he said. "The, uh, scans are finished, and there's something you should know about. According to your brain scans, you don't think the same way that most people do. It's a condition that can lead to inattention, trouble focusing, restless activity, impulsive or reckless behavior, difficulty finishing tasks, trouble prioritizing things that don't seem important, a lot of things that can make it hard to do things in day to day life."

He paused and took a breath. "Does any of this sound familiar?"

[radical_hacker]

"Ed's confused." Ed had slid into her 3rd person mode as it was called by one of the crews she traveled with. "Medical care sorta went downhill after the gate accident too." she confessed. "But a lot of its adding up." she admits,"The flighty unless in the middle of a hunt, my need for action, being a little crazy during hunts." her voice trailing off. "Maybe this means Ed's really crazy..." but her mind was spinning. If she was crazy then how could she have been working as a cowboy all this time without anything major crisis wise (stuff going wrong on hunts not withstanding of course)?

But something did slip out,"Then how does that explain my computer skills? Ed's mostly self taught."

[osirian_doctor]

"You're not crazy," he said, firmly. "Thinking in a different way to other people doesn't make you crazy. Sometimes it can make you a genius."

That was as much speaking about and to River as Edward, and he realized it as soon as he'd spoken, but the point was still true.

"I'm not sure what they call it in this time, but in mine, it was Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. If medical care isn't good in your time, it likely wouldn't have been picked up. Many people manage without anyone ever realizing their mind works differently to other people's."

He shrugged. "You're interested in computers. You can probably focus fairly well on things that are important to you."

[radical_hacker]

"2080 and after the gate accident everything went downhill on Earth, medical included." Ed was piecing things together as she spoke. But she was also making mental notes: she had things to dig into and was going to see the bugs in her brain as code to understand. She finally revealed,"Computers always made sense: the codes and everything. Was a white hat hacker in my time." knowing how people sometimes did not understand the world of cowboys. "So now what? What is there options wise besides embracing my weird."