Into or Out of trouble?

Posted on Friday, 27 March 2020 - 2:18am by Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD & Emerick

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Timeline: 1:23am

ON:

Ryan thought he was being sneaky as he slipped into sickbay and tried to head to a private room unnoticed. He was caught quickly by a nurse, which was actually a very good sign, he was more and more pleased the more of his staff arrived. He waved her off though, plastering a fake smile on his face and ensuring her nothing was wrong. Once he reached the private room, he gingerly raised himself up to a bio bed and tried to reach for the scanner. He couldn't reach it with his left, and couldn't twist enough to reach it with his right. His whole left ribcage resembled a poorly put together puzzle, and he honestly couldn't tell by feel if he'd cracked, broken, or simply bruised something along that side. It hurt, that was all he could ascertain until he ran a scan. With resigned realization that he'd need help, he called for the EMH "Computer, activate the EMH."

The emergency medical hologram was activated on command. Fortunately this time he was actually facing his patient rather than when he was activated by the Chief Petty Officer from the Engineering only to appear facing a bulkhead with his back toward her. Unfortunately though his program was having an unintentional sense of humor at his expense as his matrix had stabilized with ease minus the uniform. Instead, all he was 'wearing' were boxer briefs the color of the medical department, a deep bluish teal. "Please state the nature of --" he began and quickly felt something was not right. This whole scene was not right. "I'm a Doctor not a gigolo" he said confused as to what he should cover.

Only a few brief seconds later he realized who his patient actually was. "What the hell?!" he shouted. He looked around and could see the man was trying to be stealthy. The EMH rolled his eyes and lowered his voice. "You're the Chief Medical Officer of this starship, not a crash test dummy" he commented. "What happened?" the EMH inquired. "And why am I almost naked?" he added rambling on. "Hey," he said in a slightly alarmed tone "I'm not that kind of hologram. I'm an emergency medical hologram, not an emergency hospitality hologram."

Ryan couldn't help but chuckle, which was a horrible idea. A brief guffaw and he stopped breathing altogether, a wave of pain coursing across his left side.

"Computer, don't sass me" he said to the starship's computer which he had a complicated relationship with. "Add a standard medical uniform to the emergency medical hologram" he ordered. His matrix flickered briefly, but when it stabilized again he was fully clothed in the proper uniform. He quickly retrieved a medical issue tricorder from the equipment cabinet and scanned the man's anatomy. "Doctor, you have two broken ribs" he reported to the man.

The brief pause for Emerick to get his uniform situated allowed Ryan to focus, and finally take a careful breath. "Damnit." He mumbled. He hadn't been hit all that hard, but he couldn't say he was actually surprised. "Would you be so kind as to fix that?" He asked, trying to offer a friendly smile, which came out more like a painful grimace.

"Would you be so kind as to not break your ribs" countered Emerick. "Yes, I can tend to your ribs, Doctor Rose, but you need to tell me what happened. I will have to file an official incident report about this" he added closing the tricorder. "Lie down on the bio bed, I will grab the osteogenic stimulator and begin healing the breaks" he said to his patient who was also his 'boss' in a way.

Ryan eased himself down to a prone position, thankful that it was the EMH there. Emerick wasn't mollycoddling him, and he appreciated it. "Just a training accident in the gym. A self defense course. I zigged instead of zagged and took a kick to the ribs." Ryan explained. "I'm just glad it was just me and Petty Officer Tuval, otherwise it would be embarrassing."

"Petty Officer Tuval must have some brass knuckles" replied Emerick as he set up the machine. He didn't believe the Doctor would provide him with anything other than the truth. "You need to learn to zag better otherwise you're going to be seeing more of me...and hopefully not in the anatomical sense damn computer. She has a terrible sense of humor" he added. The stimulator began it's work as Emerick brought the biobed scanner across Ryan's body.

"I normally zag much better." Ryan didn't elaborate, but gave a small smile to Emerick. "Have you annoyed any engineers lately? Maybe you've been the victim of a practical joke."

"Annoyed? No" he replied with a smirk. "Though I don't know how fondly the Chief Engineer is. She turned me off and I'm not very pleased about that" he added. "I don't know Petty Officer Tuval, what are they like?"

"Yes, I remember. I wasn't too pleased about that either. But she assures me the power fluctuations are taken care of. I'm afraid the clothing algorithm or lack thereof is beyond me, but if you'd like I can ask somebody to take a look. As for Petty Office Tuval, he's a very dedicated security officer, he keeps all those who are willing to put in the work in shape."

"So was this a date thing or just a two guys sweating and throwing punches showing off their masculinity sort of thing?" asked Emerick. "No need to have anyone poke around my program, it's the ship's computer. She and I don't get along" he said shaking his head.

"Stop, don't make me laugh." Ryan complained, but good naturedly. "It was just one Doctor trying to keep in shape and up to par on his self defense skills. Sounds to me like you might need to buy the ship's computer some flowers though." Ryan smirked.

Emerick nodded "I may have to do something to broker peace with her if this starship is going to be out in deep space" he replied. "Try to lie still a few minutes while your bones regenerate and heal up, but you know deal...I file a report and you don't do anything too strenuous for at least a week or so" he added. "What's the obsession with self defense? Plan on being boarded? " asked Emerick.

"I'll take it easy, I promise." Ryan, unlike the stereotype, was not a bad patient. He wasn't fond of needing medical attention, but then who was? "I certainly hope not. Not all of us can continue to function at peak efficiency as long as the ship has power." He gently teased. "I wouldn't say obsession. It's an excellent way to stay in shape, and an all defense self defense doesn't hurt my delicate pacifist nature." Ryan wasn't above teasing himself, and his tone at 'delicate pacifist nature' showed that.

"Hey, if we get boarded by pissed off Romulans I'm as fucked as the rest of you flesh and blood skin sacks" replied the EMH. "They would pick my program apart an analyze me. Ferengi? Sell me on the black market and I'd probably end up working on Free Cloud. Cardassians? They'd keep me operational and remove my ethical subroutines" he lectured. "I'm quite happy being property of the Federation" he added.

Ryan just nodded, effectively shut up by the EMH's outburst.

"I know" he said to the Chief Medical Officer "I'm having a tangent. I do not get to socialize very often" he said simply enough. "If you hadn't activated me I would not have been activated for who knows how long...how pacifistic are you?" asked Emerick.

"It's ok." Ryan thought for a moment. "Why don't we test the holo generators in the lounge? You can buy me a drink and we can talk pacifism."

"Is this two dudes at a bar...well mind my appearance can be altered" replied Emerick "or is this a date" he added. He was not being entirely serious, but he did want to know how to proceed with his social etiquette and graces. "What do you drink?" asked the EMH.

Ryan held it to a grin this time. "Why don't we say two friends having a drink. Mostly, water, but I enjoy a ginger ale on occasion." Sure it wasn't alcoholic but it was tasty. "I am married by the way." He couldn't help but tease Emerick a bit.

"How vanilla of you" countered the EMH though making no clarification nor specifying whether his remarks be in regards to the ginger ale or that the man was married. "I accessed your personnel file earlier, but I skimmed through the boring bits" added Emerick nonchalantly. "No offense I'm sure your spouse is delightful, but personal lives were not prioritized in my programming... unfortunately. I'll make more of an effort to do so with socialization subroutines. Your surgical skills however were noteworthy."

"No offense taken." Ryan assured him. He slid off the bio bed, carefully. "So, did you want to get out of here and stretch those socialization subroutines?"

"I'd say race you there, but for starters I can just get there instantly" stated the EMH "secondly, you shouldn't be running in your condition, and lastly it's nearly 02:00 hours. There will be hardly anyone in the Mess Hall at this hour" he noted. "However, I would be delighted to meet you there and hear about your pacifistic philosophy."

"Great. I'm just going to change, and I'll meet you there." Ryan headed towards the showers in sickbay.

"Beware of peeping Toms" said Emerick with a smirk. "I'll be in the Mess Hall with a ginger ale waiting for you, Doctor Rose" he added with a pleasant nod before he transferred his program to the Mess Hall. It was not somewhere he would frequently go unless there had been some sort of emergency there; however, he would be exploring his socialization subroutines.


OFF:

Dr. Ryan Rose
Chief Medical Officer

Emerick
Emergency Medical Hologram

 

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