Calibrations, Medications and Examinations

Posted on Saturday, 9 July 2022 - 4:27pm by Lieutenant Konata Hiiragi & Lieutenant JG Charles McCullen

Mission: Operation: My Unfair Lady
Location: Charlie's Quarters
Timeline: Four hours before departure

ON:

Charlie McCullen had spent the past five hours holed up in the empty shell of his new quarters sitting at the built-in desk and console, pouring over thruster performance curve charts, fusion reactor output ratios and impulse engine field dynamic tables. He had been working on finding the most efficient balance between fusion reactor power output, manoeuvring thruster output and impulse engine power for various scenarios.

Cruise and standard manoeuvring scenarios were easy and took little time, but mapping for the more complex situations the ship might encounter took a little longer. Working out the right balance of engine thrust to thruster output using the available power from the ship's fusion reactors without overloading plasma conduits blowing out the thrusters or overtaxing the reactors, while trying to find the sweet spot between speed and manoeuvrability within the limits of the inertial dampeners and structural integrity fields, involved complex calculations based on experience, guesswork and countless scenarios run through the computer.

He had managed all of the basics, things like orbital manoeuvres and general cruise adjustments, and had gone through all of the standard Starfleet evasive and offensive manoeuvres plus a few of his own devising. The final one he wanted to program in was being a pain in his ass. Manoeuvre McCullen Romeo Charlie One.

The young lieutenant blinked slowly twice, trying to drive away the growing headache that was building behind his tired eyes. "Okay, computer. Reset for a new scenario. Increase fusion reactors alpha-five through bravo-twenty to maximum output. Reinforce plasma conduits alpha seven-five and bravo four-two. Deactivate aft thrusters and transfer all power to ventral thrusters. Deactivate forward thrusters and transfer all power to dorsal thrusters. Increase inertial dampening field to maximum output and increase gravity plating output by twenty percent. Deactivate helm control safeties." The computer beeped and chirped at every instruction, and then on the virtual helm control he had set up on his console, he executed the manoeuvre, pushing the starboard ventral and port dorsal thrusters to the maximum to spin the ship into a barrel roll, then using the forward and aft ventral and dorsal thrusters to throw the ship forward into three dimensional roll, spinning the ship on both lateral and longitudinal axis.

On the various dials and charts he had pulled up, numbers started turning orange and red as the fusion reactors went to maximum output, plasma conduits strained to deliver power to the furiously burning thrusters, the structural integrity field had an aneurysm and the inertial dampeners desperately tried to keep everybody from being smushed into broken bags of blood and crushed bone. The first ten times he had tried it, he'd blown out plasma conduits three times, overloaded the fusion reactors once, broken the ship four times and had twice turned the theoretical crew into mince.

This time, it was the virtual ventral nacelle which snapped off, smashed into the dorsal nacelle and within seconds, generated a feedback shock pulse back into the warp core. A half a millisecond later, what had been the USS Standing Bear-A was a very hot, very angry explosion. Charlie sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes, wincing at the headache and deciding, probably an hour or two too late, that he needed a break and an anti-inflammatory.

He stood, wincing at the slight pain in his rear from sitting too long on a hard chair and made his way towards where he thought, if he remembered correctly, sickbay was located. It only took him ten minutes, two wrong turns and one slightly awkward silence in a transporter room to find his destination. He winced slightly at the change of light as he walked through the doors to the medical area.

Konata had spent most of her first day assessing the situation involving her predecessor's catatonic state and rearranging her new office to her liking to help get some ideas on how to tackle it. True, she might have gotten caught up in wondering if this was what it felt like to be one of the "big dogs" with your own office, and time might have slipped away from her, but it was evident from the scans Konata took that Dr. Selin's life was not in immediate danger, so Konata wasn't as concerned as someone else in her position might have been. Then again, Konata worked under a motto tossed around on the lower decks of the Suzumiya: "Concern for patient safety demonstrates lack of confidence in one's own abilities."

Konata was just about ready to wrap up and pass things off to Charlie Shift when she noticed someone wearing red walk into Sickbay.

Guess catching up with Taz over at Selena's would have to wait a little longer... Konata thought as she got up from the chair and exited the office to greet the newcomer.

"Looks like you're just in time, sir;" She said, initially unaware that the man in red was actually of lesser rank than her. "I was just about getting ready to call it a night and leave things in the hands of Charlie shift. What brings you in today?"

Charlie managed a slight grin, amused at the lieutenant calling him sir and surprised to find a human, or at least someone who was part-human, who was A) not a child and B) shorter than he was. The doctor's blue hair and Asian features gave her a distinctive look. It reminded him of a particular early 21st-century Japanese kawaii-metal metal band he'd had a brief obsession with and gave her a distinctly child-like look he could very much relate to.

"Hello, uh... ma'am," he greeted her, unsure of whether to call her Lieutenant or Doctor and going with the third, neutral option. "Sorry to bother you, but I've got a headache... not too bad, just... eye strain I think, and I've got more work to get done. Could you, uh... give me something for it, or... uh, something?"

Konata put a finger on her chin.

"Well, a minor headache is probably treatable with some Acetaminophen." She said. "But, thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, I can give it to you in a wide variety of forms. Would you prefer a hypospray or some old-fasioned pills? Or do you want to go even older school and drink some of that nasty liquid stuff?"

"Uh..." Charlie responded intelligently. He had never considered alternate versions of medicine, but consumption did not seem like a very good way to deliver medication. He wondered if she was some kind of medical historian, running around with leaches and metal scalpels, and he had to hold back a grin at the thought of it. "I'll take the hypospray, thanks."

Nodding, Konata walked over to a case containing pre-formulated hyposprays of various over-the-counter medications. After not finding any Acetaminophen hyposprays on the shelves she could reach, Konata sighed and went to go grab a stepstool, returning to the case with the stepstool and climbing onto it only to find the hypospray she was looking for on a shelf that was just barely out of her reach. As she grabbed an Acetaminophen hypospray, she noted that they were a little low on the Acetaminophen hyposprays, and she'd have to make a note for Charlie shift to synthesize more.

Stepping off the stepstool, Konata returned to Charlie and presented the hypospray.

"Here; take 1 dose every six hours while symptoms last, but no more than 3 doses in 24 hours." She instructed, though the hypospray only had 3 doses in it to prevent a potential overdose. "I'd administer the first dose for you, but I think it's pretty self-evident why I wouldn't be able to without a stepstool."

Charlie's eyes had followed the doctor as she moved around the room and he couldn't hide the quirk of his lips as she presented him with the hypospray. He had never been tall at only 5'4", ninety percent of the time he was the shortest person in the room, so it was kinda funny to suddenly feel tall. But he wasn't about to say anything rude, being the new guy in town. Which reminded him. "Uh, yeah. I should probably get my onboarding medical out of the way, I only joined the short-uh-ship, uh..." Charlie could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, but he steadfastly ignored it, "uh, about six hours ago, ma'am."

Konata's shoulder's sagged.

"I knew it wasn't going to be this simple..." She grumbled. "Right, follow me. We'll get you taken care of."

As Konata led Charlie to a biobed, her betazoid senses were alerting her about the conn officer's emotional state, though she couldn't decide if it was nervousness or some other kind of stimulated stated.

"So, tell me; you get nervous whenever you go in for physicals?" She asked as they approached an unoccupied biobed. "Have a seat here for me."

"I get nervous," Charlie replied, shrugging one shoulder and giving her a lopsided grin. He had gotten used to explaining his own particular brand of weird to medical professionals and counsellors. "Social anxiety, mostly. Or so I'm told. I can do course calculations in my head and I can fly just about anything, but people? I am not good at people."

"Well, you really shouldn't get too worked up over a physical, they can be relatively painless..." Konata explained. "Well, unless we find out you're behind on vaccines, but all getting worked up over physicals does is throw off our numbers." Konata grabbed an oximeter. "Can I get a finger from you?"

"The physical," Charlie explained, obliging the doctor with a finger, "doesn't bother me. It's... the communication part that I find, uh... well, it's hard."

"How do you figure?" Konata asked, checking the readings from the oximeter. "Hmmm... The readings are a bit high, but still within normal range. You see what I mean?"

"Doctor," Charlie grinned, realising he had no idea what the lieutenant's name was, "if I could figure that out, I'd be out-doing a half-dozen counsellors. I do see."

"Guess you really can't teach an old dog new tricks." Konata said as she strapped the blood pressure cuff to Charlie's arm and began taking the conn officer's blood pressure. "You know, if you're ever interested, I have a program that could help you with your social anxiety."

Charlie hesitated, he wasn't sure how to tell the doctor that he'd been in and out of counselling since he was 14, that a single program wasn't going to cure what was built-in to his psyche. He'd learned to manage it, found ways around it and, when the chips were down, ignore it if he had to. "Uh," he stalled as his mouth caught up with his brain, "thanks, doctor, but I'm, uh... fine. Really."

Konata shrugged, seemingly indifferent to her patient's plight. Though she could sense the turmoil within him, it was difficult for her to get a clearer read on the non-telepath.

"Alright; no worries." She said. "I'm just going to check your eyes and ears really quickly, then I'm going to have you lay down for me."

Konata grabbed a light and proceeded to shine it in Charlie's eyes. The man's pupils contracted exactly as they should. Spotting no abnormalities past the pupils, Konata moved onto the ears, which showed no signs of an ear infection.

"Are you undergoing any treatments for an ear infection that I should know about?" Konata asked.

"As far as I know," Charlie replied, blinking away the after-effects of the bright light. He was relieved the doctor had so easily dropped her investigation of his mental condition. His demons were his and were not for sharing. "I've got no medical, uh... issues, to report."

"Well, that's good." Konata responded. "The less ongoing medical conditions I have to treat, the better. Go ahead and lie down for me, and I'll do a full body scan."

Charlie obliged, swinging his legs up onto the biobed and laying himself down on it. "You know," he said, the idea coming to him unbidden and slipping out before his self-imposed filter could catch it. "I beamed aboard less than a day ago, all this data you're gathering is already in the, uh, transporter records."

"Yeah, well, redundancy is never a bad thing:" Konata said as she initiated the full body scan. "Besides, the full-body scan can catch things that transporters might miss. For instance, back on the Suzumiya, there was this conn officer that beamed aboard carrying a parasite the transporters failed to pick up. Yeah, pandemonium broke out because this guy felt he didn't need to report in for a physical. And the ironic thing is, the parasite that went on to infect something like a third of the crew could have been spotted and treated with a full body scan. I've pretty much sworn by the full body scan ever since."

Konata knew she was exaggerating the details, but what really happened didn't make a compelling cautionary story.

"My partner is an exobiologist," Charlie smiled sideways at the doctor, remembering one of Darys's impassioned rants, and how animated he'd get. "Trust me, I've heard aaaaall about the dangers of alien parasites and viruses."

"Well, then; I need not say more." Konata said with a catlike smile as she looked over the results of the scan and then looked up Charlie's medical record. "So, McCullen, was it? When was your last Tetanus shot?"

Charlie frowned, trying to remember when he had last had his immunisation boosters. He vaguely recalled getting several hyposprays all at once, but the when and what escaped him. "Uh," he stalled as he thought about it, "I guess a few years ago, I uh... don't really remember."

"That's what I figured..." Konata muttered, Charlie's delayed response confirming what she was seeing in his file. "Your file's showing that you're up to date on all your other immunizations except Tetanus. I'd recommend you consider getting a Tetanus immunization. I can schedule an appointment for you to come in at a later point to receive it if you wish, or we can get this taken care of now."

Charlie shrugged one shoulder, an odd movement while lying down. He'd never been asked for an immunisation shot before, his experience was that Starfleet doctors just gave you what you needed when you needed it. He'd never even heard of tetanus before. "Uh, might as well do it now." He told her, "I suppose."

"Alright, give me a few minutes to go fetch a hypospray." Konata responded. "You can sit back up while you wait."

Charlie sat up, swinging his legs downwards to hang a few inches above the floor.

Konata made her way over to the hypospray cabinets again, which were located out of sight from the biobed she had Charlie at, this time to a case with common immunization hyposprays. Fortunately, the Tetanus hyposprays were on a more reachable shelf, and she was able to grab one and return to the biobed fairly quickly.

"Alright, this shouldn't take long..." Konata said as she held up the hypospray to the base of Charlie's neck and administered the hypospray. "Aaand done. Well, McCullen; you should be good to fly. If you experience any side effects to the hypospray, don't hesitate to let me know."

Charlie reached up to rub the injection site and the slight itch there and slid off of the biobed, "Thanks, doctor." He told Konata

"Any time." Konata responded. "Just don't call during my off hours unless it's a shipwide emergency."

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