Isolated

Posted on Wednesday, 22 July 2020 - 12:07pm by Emerick & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD

Mission: Operation: Jabberwocky
Location: USS Standing Bear | Sickbay

Work crews we're about the only individuals aboard the USS Standing Bear as it was docked at the Starbase. Personnel had all been granted shore leave, at least all of those who didn't volunteer themselves as work crew and one member of the crew who had nowhere to go: Emerick was part of the starship. He could not simply up and leave, join any of his shipmates on Risa or wherever they had plans to go. Instead, he was activated every so often and sent directly to Engineering to tend to a minor injury.

He was not expecting anyone to enter Sickbay unless they had to mess around with the ship's systems for there or just a walk in patient with a moderate plasma burn. Engineers were incredibly accident attractive. "Please state the nature of your medical emergency," he said as he walked out of Ryan's office. He had stopped greeting the crew that way some time ago, but it returned as strangers started requiring his medical care.

"No emergency Emerick." Ryan greeted. "How are you?" Ryan continued on towards his office. He'd had a few days off, and was feeling almost fully healed. It was time to get on top of the paperwork, and catch up on the latest medical journals. He was looking forward to it.

Emerick's immediate response was to simply wrap his arms around Ryan and hug the Chief Medical Officer. "It has been horrible. If I am not off-line, I am here alone and there's hardly a patient. Nobody stops by just to say hello. When I am needed it's usually the work crews in Engineering. I have had to tend to so many boo boos that I feel sufficiently less educated."

Ryan froze at the initial hug, but then relaxed and put his arms around Emerick. He gave the man a couple of pats, then pulled back, just letting Emerick rant for a bit. "Well, come on. You can watch me drink water and eat a sandwich, and tell me all about it. Ryan smiled and led Emerick into his office. He grabbed himself water and pb&j then sat on the couch.

Emerick took a seat at the Chief Medical Officer's desk. "I do not even know where to begin... everyone is gone. I do not know most of the people buzzing about engineering right now. They aren't unpleasant or anything like the half Klingon we had for a while, but they are still not very engaging. They are focused on repair work which is great, but their long hours and refusal to get rest have led to several accidents. I'm treating plasma burns left and right on a near-daily basis."

"That sounds pretty par the course for repair work." Ryan grinned. "Why don't we do something?" Ryan thought a moment. "Try out a program on the holodeck, your pick. You need some R&R too."

"You are the more adventurous type" replied Emerick. "I am content being here treating the occasional patient and overseeing the results of lab work and filing reports while you are away. What have you been up to anyways? Relaxing on the station?"

Ryan nodded. Emerick was right, of the two Ryan was the more adventurous, and that was saying something, as Ryan didn't consider himself all that adventurous. "I went ahead and had the full thoracic reconstruction. So spent the first full day in the hospital. I did manage to get a little shopping done though. I ran into nurse Kay'la on the base, and we hit the shopping area."

"I like Kay'la" replied Emerick. "She is interesting and has not treated me like a hologram. What did you end up getting on your shopping excursion, Ryan? Did you find anything interesting? I have always wondered what it would be like to be on a station. I've only ever been activated on the Standing Bear."

"I like her too." Ryan smiled. "She has really good taste in dessert." He then got to actually answering Emerick's question. "I restocked my art supplies and got a new shirt. I would like to make another shopping trip. I didn't have the stamina to go as long as I'd like to. I could record it next time, make an old styled vlog about it." He teased, but the offer was sincere.

"You've been busy," replied the hologram with a small smile. "Sharing dessert with the nurse? An office romance I should know about?" inquired Emerick. He normally would not have cared about the fraternization among the crew with the exception of the medical repercussions that it may have had; however with Sam no longer around, he wondered if the Chief Medical Officer was beginning to explore something with Nurse Kay'la.

"No. no no." Ryan quickly affirmed. "I like Kay'la but there's nothing romantic there." Ryan sighed. "I thought there might be something with Echo, but I've been wham bam thank you sir'd twice. That's not what I want. What about you? Anything on the Eyelaya front?"

Emerick nearly flickered with the sudden change of power flow to his holomatrix. "Absolutely not," he replied swiftly. "She is nice. She is a good person, but she is a friend. I think I have come to realize that I am not ready to explore those subroutines quite yet, and if I do choose to do so, I do not believe it will be with Chief Eyelaya. I do not have what it takes for a relationship right now. I need more time to study, but I have not found a good material. I have observed some of the crew, but they are too infatuated with one another. I believe the 'honeymoon' stage is an apt description."

Ryan snickered. "Well there's no hurry. I'm not sure I'm ready either. I will be making myself take more personal time though, especially now we have a second doctor. You could always take personal time as well. There's no reason you couldn't visit the lounge or holodeck off duty so to speak."

"We have a second doctor?!" Emerick was excited about that news. "I have not been informed about that and have not met them. Have you had the opportunity to meet them yet? What do you suppose that will mean about me and my usefulness?"

"I haven't met him either. I just saw the paperwork." Ryan smiled at Emerick's litany of questions. "Emerick, you are more than useful, you are essential. Who's going to help me with paperwork while I hide under my desk?" He teased. "Seriously though. Not only are you a trusted consultant, you are eyes are ears in parts of the ship I can't be in at the same time I'm here. During any critical or triage situation that's vitally important. Regardless of their being a second doctor."

"Thank you, Ryan" Emerick said with a nod. "Sometimes, I just need to be reminded that I am actually useful here. I cant do shore leave like the rest of you and I do not tend to get updated on crew changes like the rest of you, nor can I hop onto the transporter pad and be useful on an away mission. So many limitations."

"You also have a full medical database in your head. " Ryan smiled. "As for crew changes. At least with medical you can just access that, can't you? Or I can approve access, so you get notified?" Ryan didn't see how that could be a problem, and if it helped ease some of Emerick's stress, he was happy to do so.

"You may have to," Emerick replied. "This isn't Voyager and we are not lost in the Delta quadrant. I'm not serving as Chief Medical Officer, and to put it bluntly, synthetic life forms and research of them has been vaulted. I'm a hologram. I might not be an Android, but there's a reason a lot of my program and subroutines were made inaccessible to me...fear."

Ryan just gave Emerick a sympathetic look. "I'll see what I can do. In the mean time, feel free to pop into my office any time. You know I'm always here anyway."

Emerick nodded. Aside from being a gifted surgeon, at least on file as Emerick had not had to see Ryan scrub up yet, Ryan was the sort of friend someone even a hologram needed

 

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