Doctor doctor doctor

Posted on Saturday 15 December 2018 @ 23:46 by Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Commander Caroline Miller

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Following Nintey-Nine Problems
2692 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

To say it was odd to be walking back into a sickbay that used to be hers was like returning to a house where you used to live as a child, but now had different people living in it.

Caroline did not regret her career choice in any way though, and had made sure to keep her medical licence in date. An extra doctor that the CMO could have at their disposal during times of need was a useful asset.

Approaching a nurse, she asked "Any chance I could speak to the CMO or ACMO or both?"

The nurse Manning the reception/triage desk looked at the Commander. She didn't look injured and since they were still at Red Alert she was being selective about where to send patients. "Do you have a medical emergency?" she asked, grabbing an empty PADD to start a chart.

Among Michael's many talents was an eidetic memory. He had been sitting in his office as he monitored the progression of one Stephanie O'Hara. His thoughts drifted to the Engineer and why she seemed to have a death wish. It was the sound of the new voice that sent Michael back from his thoughts. He knew that voice he recognized it from his review of the orginal Merlin's medical logs. He did not want to stray too far from his data stream so he popped his head out of his office.

"Dr Caroline Miller welcome to Sick Bay we seem to be a little at odds a the moment. But step into my office and we will see what we can do." He spoke as he signalled the nurse not worry and to send her through.

"Thank you Dr Michael Ki," Caroline said softly not the slightest bit shocked he knew who she was. She herself, upon leaving the Merlin had made sure to keep track of 2 things, 1 - Who her replacement had been in case any handover in Sav'eena's recovery was required and 2 - where Galeraz had ended up. Thinking on the second for a moment she realised that would likely be a far more awkward meeting upon seeing him again.

As Galeraz had ended up surprisingly on the Merlin, it had seemed no correspondence between herself and the man in front of her had been required. Or perhaps he was under the impression she had died, as Sav'eena had. Why the Ship had no records on her transfer was something that was confusing her greatly.

She had of course read up on her replacement. Certainly his work on the Bendii Syndrome had been an interesting read to her. And he had her respect for the hours he had put in, as she could relate in her own research into the Floxiona virus, and her involvement in Floxaid in general. He also had a reputation for being a genius amongst other things. If anyone was to replace her, she was glad the Merlin had ended up with this chap.

"Whereas I would love this to be a nice introduction and chat to get to know each other Doctor, I am afraid to business it must be. I've been transferred back to the Merlin to take the role of Chief Counselor and we apparently will have a nontypical borg with us, should all go well in the next hour or so. One which the Captain wishes a behavioural analysis doing on and as much knowledge on physiology as possible to try find some answers to their current actions.

I have come to help, if required," she knew from her own research into the elder man that he was one for being on top of things," set up the containment environment and ask for some space to do my observations. Merely a loan until I get counselling fully up and running," she smiled at him. It was a small white lie of course. Had counselling been up and running they wouldn't be transferring the borg back and forth between their respective departments but going by her history of having been the CMO here, she didn't wish this man to feel she was standing on his toes in any way.

Cara needed coffee and she knew Michael had a carafe of freshly brewed coffee on his credenza. Having last seen him inspecting the Iso Unit she figured now would be a good time to raid the carafe so she headed to his office. Just outside the door Medic Tookl came by carrying a container he had filled with supplies from the storage room. "Doing some last minute shopping?" she asked the Catullan.

"A couple of FR stations are running low on backup supplies," Tookl answered.

"Way to stay on top of things, Took," Cara said with a nod, purposefully leaving the L off of his name.

The Catllan blushed and smiled then hurried on his way.

Without looking, Cara stepped through the open doorway of the CMO's office and took a step towards the credenza before realizing she was not alone in the office. She looked first at Caroline then over at Michael. It was her turn to blush. "Sorry, Boss. I didn't know you were here," then back at Caroline, "and busy."

Michael nodded in response to all that Caroline had said. "Well there is no need to worry about borrowing space. In truth I would feel much more comfortable keeping it here in Sick Bay. This is everyone's bay afterall so make yourself at home." He motioned toward the chairs in his office. "Ah Cara no need to apologize this is Dr Caroline Miller the Merlin's new Counselor. Dr Miller this is Dr Cara O'Reilly my Assistant Chief." He paused as he shot back a swig of sake. The man had been drinking a little more since the knowledge that the Borg would be brought aboard reared it's ugly head. "Can I interest you in any sake? Dr Miller I am glad that you are here. Having to pull double duty has kept me away from diagnostics which of course is where my passions lie."

Caroline smiled at the other woman, "A pleasure to meet you Dr O'Reilly. Is the sake non-alcoholic?" She answered the other doctors question, the smallest flicker of concern passing her features. She would hate to have to put a fellow officer on report on her first day.

"This sake is synthahol and is used for cultural reasons. I have a few bottles of the real stuff in the cargo bay to be saved for a special occasion." Michael replied with a grin. He appreciated the thought from Caroline but she did not understand the man yet.

Caroline immediately relaxed and smiled. "In that case I would be honoured to sample it and hope that at some point, less hectic on the ship you will take the time to explain to me your customs."

Michael poured a round of sake into the small sake cups. He raised one of the cups in one hand and placed the other hand underneath his cup. "Otsukare-sama desu" Michael said by way of toast, this was a way of showing honor to new arrivals and greeting those who would be working for you.

Cara walked over, picked up the small sake cup, downed the rice wine, fought making a face then went iver to the credenza and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Welcome to the Merlin, Dr. Miller," she said, changing the subject. "So are you a Psychiatrist or a PhD?" she asked turning back around and leaning her butt against the credenza as she sipped her coffee.

“I’m a fully trained medical doctor with specialities in xenobiology and internal medicine. Ironically I used to hold Dr Ki’s post on the Merlin a couple of years back and was involved in a mission with some cryogenically frozen Romulans which turned decidedly nasty. Let’s just say they were a bit of a missing link genetically and very unfriendly. It was somewhat traumatic. I had to get some counselling of my own having lost people in that incident and realised that there was scope for cross over in the CMO position and counselling.

When the opportunity to do a specially designed elective the academy started running, them also exploring this cross over, to train in mental health came up I decided to go for it believing it would make me a better healer,” she told her. Then she answered her question. “It hadn’t actually occurred to me but I can put the letters PhD behind my name now.”

"If those in command lose control of our situation we will need all of the experienced physicians available," Cara said with a smile. "Have you had any encounters with the Borg?"

"Well an ex borg, and some odd occurances with redundant nanoprobes," Caroline replied.

"Dr. Beans....Daniel Beannette, our Burn Specialist, just came to us from the Nightingale and they were the lucky ones to pick up the pieces after the Borg dessimated the Sekori Colony. He has been regailing us with horror stories about half completed assimilations and his team's attempts to save the life," Cara said, picking up a cookie from the plate next to the coffee carafe. "It seems that when an assimilation goes wrong the Borg simply discard the partially assimilated being which leaves someone conscious and fully aware of the poison mixing with their blood as it kills off their tissue from the inside out." She shivered. "To be honest it has those of us who have never encountered the Borg a bit...well...terrified."

"I would be happy to share with you everything I have on borg physiology," Caroline stated. Although scans of Commander Jones were in the ships computer.

"I have worked with the Borg on a number of occasions. However, the fact is we should not be worried about saving a drone. Our worry should be with preventing any possibility of assimilation. Dealing with the Borg on the level that we are currently is inherently dangerous and should never be done." Michael spoke as he leaned back and tented his fingers.

"Agreed," Caroline responded. "So what arrangements have we got in place to contain it in sickbay? And do we have a plan to stop it trying to assimilate? I mean I am no expert but we know the assimilation tech. Couldn't we just beam it away? Repeatably when it adapts and regrows?

It can't be that easy can it?" she asked pondering on it.

"That is what they are working on right now. Attempting to render it so it cannot assimilate. However, if need be we will beam it to space. Other options are to attempt to deassimilate it, but that would take a lot of the ship's resources and I am not sure that the Captain would want to commit to that. To start if it is complacent a standard forcefield should be fine to contain. If need be we can send the EMH in to treat it, this way there is no risk to anyone. Do you have any further ideas?" Michael hated everything he just said, hated that he had to say it. Most of all he hated that it had to be done.

Cara swallowed the last of her cookie. "According to what Beans says, the fluid they use to flood the blood stream with their nanites has adverse effects on some Humans and turns the blood into a chemical compound that begins to eat away at yissue," she said, repeating what she had said earlier only rewording it to get their attention since they seemed to have ignored her first report.

Caroline found it difficult to take anyone completely seriously who referred to a medical professional as "Beans", "Well the plan is not to let anyone get to the point of having any of that fluid in their blood stream. But what are you suggesting here? That we somehow drain the fluid from the borg to render it inable to assimilate?" she asked wishing the other woman would spit out the point she was trying to make. They didn't have the luxery of time here for her to be beating around the bush.

She was already formulating in her mind issues with this if it was even a feasible idea and if it was what she was getting at, they would need an accurate rate of nanoprobe replication and those little swines repilcated dam fast, to even begin to attempt anything like that and she wasn't confident that they could ever get them all even if they did find a way to get rid of the fluid.

Cara shook her head, taking a sip of her coffee. "I'm not suggesting anything at the moment," she said. "I have already admitted to not having any experience in this field. I'm just passing on information I thought might be useful." She finished her coffee and turned to refill her cup.

Caroline was confused. Why volunteer the same information twice and then give no explanation as to how it would be useful if you were not suggesting anything?

She stated politely, "Thank you for the input. I will make time to review Dr Beanettes research when we are not at red alert. So any other ideas on preventing assimilation and containing this Borg?"

Cara felt dismissed and didn't like it. This woman had only been aboard a minute and acted like she was queen bitch. Cara didn't like her and saw no reason to play kiss ass with her. "So glad I could be of service, Counselor," she said not trying to hide her Irish sarcasm. She looked at Michael, lifted her filled coffee cup and said, "thanks for the coffee, Boss. I'm going back to work," and she walked out of the office and headed for the store room to check in supplies.

Caroline turned back to Dr Ki and smiled, "What a charming assistant and such a lovely Irish lilt. She must be very busy," she observed. "Back to the Borg problem. Can we sever it from the collective somehow? Use it's confusion to our advantage?"

Michael gave Carloine a momentary baleful look. He did not like the way she spoke to Cara but that would have to wait for another moment. "My vote is to simply not take it out of the collective to begin with. There is not much that medicine can do when it comes to the Borg. In the aftermath absolutely but not in the here and now. Every idea that one can come up with to combat the Borg would be weaponized and used to destroy them. While I am all for the destruction of the Borg, I will not allow medicine to be that downfall. A contradiction in terms I know, but it is who I am and where I stand."

Caroline had caught the look from the other doctor but she had decided to rise above the situation by saying something positive about the assistant rather than focus on her somewhat dramatic storm out in the middle of a discussion. "The Captains orders are he wants a behavioral analysis on that borg. I'm not on the side of destroying them, I'm on the side of freeing those poor souls from that collective but neither is the goal here. The goal is to find out what their new objective is, if not assimulation. But we still need to ensure its contained .... just in case, as we both know the borg do not have a reputation as playing nice or listening to reason. Perhaps we need to get engineering in here?" she suggested. "I think your quite right though Medicine is not the solution."

Michael cocked an eyebrow up. "I think the surgical force fields should hold it back if needed. If Apollo wants it then it will be him to answer for it. I think we should get to work." Michael said as he stood and motioned for the door.

Caroline nodded. "I concur Dr Ki."

Lt Michael Ki
CMO
USS Merlin


Counselor Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin

Dr. Cara O'Reilly
ACMO
USS Merlin