[Sickbay]: Round Four Scans and Vaccines

[ten_fwd_npcs]

There has been quite a lot of activity in Sickbay over the last couple of days. In addition to new guests arriving on the Enterprise, all of whom need to be cleared and vaccinated when necessary, there are the wounded who have come back from Alemar III and those looking in on them. Dr. Crusher has never been more glad that she isn't short-staffed.

While Lieutenant Worf and his security detail bring in the new passengers, Beverly ensures those recuperating have enough space and privacy. Beds may be limited, but nobody will be on the floor in her sickbay. For those who haven't been here before, Sickbay is fairly ordinary for a ship's 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, perhaps excluding the sun avatar, but Trance Gemini is as skilled as the Starfleet officers.

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


[ooc: Open log! For new characters (August and September apps), tagging isn't mandatory but ICly going to sickbay is. So 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, we have Julian Bashir, Trance Gemini, and Simon Tam on deck, with Beverly Crusher by request only. So please specify in the subject line of your tag who you would like. For those returned from the Alemar III plot, if you are not requesting a thread with a doctor but would like your character open for visitors, put "Visiting Post" in your subject line, or specify if it's locked to specific visitors. If you would like more details about sickbay, here's the wiki page. If you haven't made your intro yet, you can assume the doctors will want to see your character shortly after they arrive, and backtagging is love!]

Comments

[asklepian]

Excuse you, we have morals and don't experiment on people.

Julian is on the lookout for potential runaways, and goes to smoothly intercept Peter with a friendly expression and cheerful voice. "Terribly sorry to keep you waiting! We're a bit overrun, as you can see."

Seriously, what is with everyone trying to escape? Do you want to catch horrible diseases you haven't been exposed to before, and therefore have absolutely no immunity to? Does no one remember how terribly this works out?

[spideys]

"Uh -"

Peter stops in his tracks, feet slowing down, pivoting towards Julian.

"Uh - yeah, yeah, no problem, doc. I was just going to um -"

Escape. Definitely escape. He might have had vague plans of finding the captain and making some kind of arrangement but that would've made him look far too suspicious, so hiding was the next best idea. Peter's good at hiding. Years of making yourself mostly invisible in school, and then recently turning into a masked vigilante gives you a fair amount of expertise.

"- come back later, if it was too busy."

But ... guess they're not! Oh, joy.

[asklepian]

It's fairly evident that the young man is nervous. Julian doesn't know why--honestly, he doesn't really care either.

"You wouldn't want to skip out on vaccinations--there's plenty of microorganisms in a crew made up of individuals from dozens of worlds that you would have absolutely no immunity to. It'd rather make smallpox seem mild in comparison."

Julian waves him toward a biobed. "It's a simple scan and standard antibiotics and vaccines, same as anyone gets. We are in an unventilated, enclosed environment after all, no matter how large it seems."

[spideys]

"Uh huh."

There's a weightiness in the way Peter follows Julian's directions towards a biobed. Long and lanky-legged, he hops up and perches himself at the edge of the bed. Yeah, his nervousness is clear in his posture, but he can't help it, can he?

"A scan?" He's eyeing the equipment with a fair amount of suspicion. "Hey, uh - there's such a thing as doctor-patient confidentiality even in space, right?"

[asklepian]

"Yes, of course. Ideally, we won't even need it." But, well. Things happen. "It's just a precaution, in case something does happen. Your being here may not be intentional, but while you are, it's our responsibility to make sure you stay whole and healthy."

Julian stays not quite right next to the biobed, but he does move to stand in front of Peter. "Now I was brought here, same as you, so if I happen to get sent back to my own time you'll have to look for someone else, but as long as we're both here, you can come to me for anything. I promise, I've seen just as strange or moreso than anything you might be able to throw at me."

[spideys]

"I dunno, doc. I'm kind of - well, I've got this ... thing where -"

Peter shakes his head, shrugs helplessly.

He's actually not even sure how to explain it. He hadn't exactly explained anything to Gwen when he 'told' her, either. But he doubts slinging a web on Julian is going to clear anything up; in fact, it might just piss him off.

"Well, if this scanner can analyze DNA, it'll find that I'm not exactly 100% human in a sense.

"But uh - thanks. For the confidentiality."

[asklepian]

"Is that all? You're in good company, then. Considering the variety of people on a starship." Julian sounds casual about it because he really rather is, he could be considered 'not 100% human' himself.

"We're not about to kick up a fuss about something as little as that. Does that mean you have any particular medical conditions I should be aware of, outside the realm of...well, normality is a poor phrasing, because what exactly is normal...I do hope you can forgive me for that."

[spideys]

Is that all?

Wow. He's never even considered that that could just be it, considering how much his newfound power seems to be affecting every single aspect of his life. It's all-encompassing, and kind of makes for a hell of an existential crisis.

So, there's a bout of perspective for him.

"Uh. Yeah. I guess for starters, I've got accelerated healing abilities. All it usually takes is a good night's sleep and then I'm good as new; and that's after getting the stuffing kicked out of me by someone usually as superpowered as I am.

"I dunno if that'll affect the antibiotics and the vaccines."

[asklepian]

"Well, that's certainly convenient. I suppose that means you won't be paying us many visits."

Julian would certainly understand the crisis of self-identity--he went through it himself, years ago. He logs the scan--and it's certainly interesting, he'd like to take a closer look when a moment presents itself--with Peter's permission of course, he intends to be painstaking about the confidentiality.

"I've studied genetics rather extensively, engineering on higher lifeforms isn't legal within Federation space, dire circumstances aside, but we do have the capability--I'm getting the impression it's much more common elsewhere."

Julian studies the readouts for a moment, he doesn't think it'll be any issue giving Peter the standard vaccines. He picks up a hypo and goes to the medical replicator next to the biobed. "Just this left, and you'll be free to go--I'll have to make sure that it's working, but that'll just be a couple extra minutes."

[spideys]

"I don't even know that it's common back where I'm from ... it's in the early experimentation stages and -"

Peter shrugs.

Wow, he's never, ever divulged in even this much information before. Never thought he ever would (or could) and it scares him.

He swallows, lips pressed together in a tight line.

"I don't plan on visiting the sickbay much if I can help it, don't worry." He watches with wary eyes as Julian goes for the hypospray.

"What's your name anyway, doc?"

[asklepian]

"Good, we'd rather you not have to avail yourself of our services, all things told." Julian moves even much more slowly than even his normal relaxed manner, and doesn't go for the standard injection site at the neck, electing to use the upper shoulder instead, straight through the cloth of Peter's shirt. The only thing Peter should feel is the pressure of him holding the hypospray against his arm and activating it.

"Julian Bashir. Pleased to meet you."

[spideys]

"Nice to meet you too, Dr Bashir."

It's definitely not an injection method Peter's used to. He's glad he doesn't have to remove his clothes anyway, because beneath his long-sleeved shirt is his Spidey suit, and that's another set of questions he really wants to avoid.

"What's the vaccination for, exactly? And how does it work?"

[asklepian]

"Some of the more common extraterrestrial--used in the literal sense, as in not of Terra--bacterial and viral infectious agents that humans haven't been exposed to. It's an unfortunate side-effect of being in an enclosed environment with a crew spanning dozens of species. The benefits are far more numerous, but I could do without the Andorian shingles."

Julian tends to talk rather a lot, if Peter hasn't noticed that by now.

"It works like any other vaccination--using inert or harmless strains of the microorganisms to cause your immune system to build up antibodies for the specific agents. We've just streamlined the process considerably over the last century or so."

Julian is scanning the whole time he's talking, making sure that everything is going as intended.

"And there's also the fact that we've eliminated quite a number of diseases since the 21st century, and reintroducing them could cause...well, significant upset would be putting it mildly. That's what necessitates the antibiotics. You might be a carrier for something that's causing absolutely no harm to you, but should it be transmitted to me, for example, could kill me because I would have no immunity to it."

[spideys]

"All right, cool," Peter says, listening and comprehending everything the good doctor says. Which is good to know - good in that at least the science is more or less the same.

He waits, watching with the type of interest only a fellow science-nerd could have.

"Guess I didn't consider that the stuff I'm used to might actually kill someone in the future. Huh."

[asklepian]

Why fix something that isn't broken? It works, and many of their medical treatments are either inspired by, or still exactly the same, as they were hundreds of years ago.

"It's not something you'd often have cause to think about, I'm sure. But yes, epidemics are something we'd like to avoid."

Satisfied with the results of the vaccines, Julian closes his tricorder and smiles. "Alright, you're free to go. If you need anything else, please do ask."

[spideys]

Peter nods.

"That was ... suspiciously easier than I thought it'd be. Not that I'm - uh. Complaining or anything."

He hops off the biobed and straightens.

"Thanks, doc. And uh - no mention of my biology to anyone, right?"

[asklepian]

"Oh good, or I'd have to find some other test to run," Julian says jokingly. He really wouldn't. It's not like most of it can't be covered by a medical tricorder anyway.

"None at all, I promise you that. And with luck our paths won't cross in this room again." He'd much rather everyone avoid injury or illness where they can.

[spideys]

Peter can't help but look just a bit grim at that. Even if it is a joke. And a joke that Peter could have made himself, if things were the other way around.

Buuut at the moment, he's a bit sensitive.

He smiles, thin-lipped.

"Cool. Thanks." He runs a hand through his hair. "So - uh. Guess I'll see you around.

"Not in the sickbay," he adds.