Medical: I understand you have an interesting tale to tell...

Posted on Fri Nov 15th, 2024 @ 12:04am by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Commander Oscar McDonald MD & Lieutenant Chloe O'Connor MD

2,073 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Sickbay |USS Arcadia

ON:

Zai walked into medical and checked in. He waited for Chloe to call him. He was glad that he'd made an appointment with her rather then McDonald. She was a lot easier to talk to then he was and she didn't lecture as much as him and he felt comfortable with her.

“Lieutenant,” Doctor O’Connor called out as she peered around the corner, “let’s get you checked out.”

With that she gestured for him to follow and led him to what had become his usual biobed when he visited. “Hop on up, you know the drill,” she grinned, patting the top of the bed.

He sighed. "Some things have .... changes in my health situation."

“What kind of changes?” She ventured, fixing him with a look.

He sighed. "It's something that is unique to my people that may cause a tiny amount of medical upset." He held his thumb and pointer a tiny space apart.

“Uh huh,” she rolled her eyes, not buying that for a second. Folding her arms, she motioned for him to continue, beginning to understand why her mentor was as moody as he was. Tiny was relative. Tiny could lead to major issues. Tiny could lead to bad bad places.

He sighed. "Well so here is the thing. My people believe in a soulmate of sorts but for us it's a tiny bit more dramatic. When we meet that person if it's the right person they trigger something called metamorphosis. Our body change on a cellular level. It will change our appearance slightly." He held up his hand. "But that's only once we um... are intimate. Before that if we so much as kiss that person we go into metamorphosis prep which is quite painful and ... constant. It's to ready the cells for change. So like Vulcans during their Pon Farr we mate or die. See nothing big."

She listened in stunned silence. “You call that tiny?!” She demanded. It was far more than tiny. She shook her head, “in fact, no. You will be making an appointment with Dr McDonald to discuss this - in detail. We need every bit of information right down to known complications, treatments… and you need to learn the definition of tiny.”

With an exasperated sigh she shook her head, gesturing for him to lie down. “Let’s get your baseline scans done then you can make a date with Doctor McDonald.”

"Well....I've kind of already started the um... cell prep...I've already had a headache and nose bleeds...it's kind of starting."

“Lieutenant,” Chloe began, blue eyes like steel, “was I speaking Klingon when we last met? For I believe I was exceptionally clear in that you reported back her the second there was any change to your health, no?”

"Well technically the headache and nosebleed happened yesterday and by the time I got home I kind of just passed out. I came as soon as I woke up! That's why I'm here."

“You are aware sickbay has a 24/7 open door policy?” She chided him. “You should have come here, not home. That ‘passing out’ could have been the last thing to ever happen to you.”

He shook his head. "No no...we're far from that stage. We have quite a bit of time before it becomes critical. It will become critical after a year. But I plan to undergo the ceremony long before that."

“And if the headaches, the nosebleed and the passing out were due to something else?” She countered. This, she sighed, was why McDonald was the way he was. Everyone thought they knew better than people who had spent years in medical school. “Hold still while the scan runs.”

Her eyes tracked the readings as she scribbled notes, “okay, all done. Signs are good. Is the headache gone?”

"Yes." He paused. "I feel that there is one more thing that I should um... tell you about."

She peered up at him as she paused from making her notes, dreading more news. “Okay, out with it.”

He sighed. "So my symptoms shouldn't be more then a nosebleed here pain here and there nothing major...but as the clock ticks down there will be a few more drastic episodes. Just in case they happen while I am on duty I don't want anyone to um panic. It looks worse then it is."

“Oh he is going to love hearing this,” Chloe mused as she signed off on his chart. “0900 hours tomorrow, that office over there,” she gestured behind her, “don’t be late. It’ll put him in a bad mood.”

He sighed. "Sounds good." He paused "Thanks Doc."

***


Zai was back in the doctors office in the morning ten minutes early. He heeded Chloe's advice and he now waited to see the grumpy doctor.

“… enough coffee in the world,” Dr O’Connor commented as she rounded the corner with Ensign Dai, stopping she saw the engineer waiting. “If you don’t mind filling these, I am heading to the gym and then bed. I’ll see you tomorrow…. Lieutenant Zai. You are early. Good start.”

He grinned. "Here's to hoping he's smiling!" He waved at her waiting for McDonald to call him in.

“He was last time I saw him,” she assured him.

He grinned. "Well okay then." He watched her go and then waited until he was told the doctor would see him. Zai took a deep breath and hurried in lest the doctor tell him he was moving slow. He needed a happy doctor not an angry doctor.

Peering up from the report he was reviewing, Doctor McDonald gestured to the seat opposite. “I understand you have an interesting tale to tell, that I’m not especially going to like, I’d imagine, given the way Dr O’Connor has been so evasive.”

"Well now don't judge a book by it's cover or a story by it's...pain threshold. It's interesting I guess from a medical point of view." He smiled. "And it will hurt me a lot more then it will hurt you...if....its any consolation."

“Not if this conversation is anything to go by,” he quipped, setting aside his reports and leaning back, folding his arms across his chest. “Out with it. Details. I don’t need a history lesson, I need to know exactly what will happen, when or at least in what order and what treatment plan we can put in place.”

He finally moved further into the office and sat down. "Long story short. Like Vulcans we have a pon farr type occurrence but ours is more dramatic and with more rules. Basically our genetics work in that there is only one person for us. If we are um...intimate with someone who is not our match we die. If we mate with our match our entire body goes through a cell change all our cells so our hair is different, our eyes, and we age backwards all mirrored in our mate no matter what plane they are from. Now do you want good news or bad news?"

It was a lot to digest. “If that’s all, I don’t see why all the fuss!” he declared, his face impassive. “Always the bad, it is the season for it after all.”

"So the good news is I did not pick the wrong person and do something naughty but fun."

McDonald arched an eyebrow. Divorced many times, he was not one to comment.

He sniggered. "The bad new/amazing news is I found the person who would trigger my metamorphosis... We haven't...um you know but I did kiss him and my body seems to have recognized that it's time for my change and ... well my cells have gone into prep mode so by clock is technically counting down. So in addition to nose bleeds, head aches.... and minor aches and pains I will have two big events that can be....frightening if witnessed by outsiders. It's called... well the word in Capellan is long but translates to cell surge so it's a time where I will feel like pretty much all my organs are liquefying and every bone in my body is shattered at the same time and I will experience a lavender surge like veins bulging and purple stuff running all over. That will be ... uncomfortable to say the least and I have no idea when it will occur I guess closer to the year mark...but no body knows. I also can't be sedated or given anything for the pain so...I might be a tad loud."

“Sounds delightful. So to summarise, we cannot treat you or assist?”

"Pretty much." He scratched the back of his neck.

Calling up a copy of the engineer’s medical report he made notes, tapped a few menu options and then slid the PaDD across the desk, “you need to sign. Essentially a do not treat for that specific scenario. So me and my staff aren’t brought up on charges of malpractice.”

Zai sighed the order. "So yeah the only thing we can do is I guess monitor the cell changes to ensure nothing goes wrong but again that's where having a soul reader and soul weaver on board would help. Technically there is a pain suppression method but we'd need one of my people on ship along with a soul weaver."

He sighed. "So yeah it all sounds scary and there is a chance that I don't get through this but hey. It is what it is right?"

“Oh absolutely,” he muttered, shaking his head. “As for the people you need aboard, that is something you need to discuss with the XO and the captain. I cannot sign off on it when I don’t know the actual science behind all of this.”

He paused. "Actually doc...Can I ask you something?"

“You can always ask.”

"My people are settling on Betazed and I hope I am the first of them in Starfleet. So I think that perhaps me turning into a lab rat for you might help Starfleet with future Eleventh Tribe Capellans. The other tribes don't go through this so we are a bit unique but since we'll be absorbed into Betazed, a Starfleet world...it might help."

“This is a sickbay, Lieutenant, we don’t have lab rats. We have patients. Given we can’t treat you I do not understand what you propose here? If it is to simply monitor your condition, virtual signs and such, we can provide equipment and baring emergencies, someone to oversee them. Our science officer may even be interested in documenting your metamorphosis.”

It's not about that it's about maybe...we can find a way to make things easier on my people." He sighed. "You know what, never mind. That's why people dislike sickbay." He sighed. "Alright I think I'm done here. I should get back to work."

“Enjoy your day, Lieutenant,” McDonald offered, refusing to be baited. He was not hear to be liked, he was here to provide medical care and had just been told he could not do his job but could simply observe when it required people akin to Vulcan priestesses. “If you decide to use the monitoring equipment, please let us know.”

Zai gave a nod and walked out.

On the way out he looked at the ensign that Chloe had been talking to. "Excuse me do you have a second?"

Ensign Dai blinked in rapid succession as her high pitched voice replied, “yes Lieutenant?”

"I have an appointment with Dr. O'Connor tomorrow to get my daily shot for the condition I have."

Another series of blinks as she walked him towards the desk in the far corner, calling up the appointment schedules. “Lieutenant Zai, isn’t it? Mmm… okay, 0930 hours?”

"I'd like to cancel it and all further follow up so let me sign what I need to sign."

“I can cancel the appointment, no problem. It looks like Chloe was setting your next appointment once she had seen you so just that one is on the system. Nothing to sign. She may contact you though if the shot was for something important that may impact your health and ability to work,” Dai told him. “But she isn’t in until 0600 tomorrow so I doubt you’ll hear from her before then.”

He shrugged. "Thanks Ensign." He headed out.

OFF:

 

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