Dr. McDonald Medicine Grouch

Posted on Sun Feb 18th, 2024 @ 10:09pm by Lieutenant Commander Kelly Kerrigan & Lieutenant Commander Oscar McDonald MD

1,243 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Lacertae Mortis
Location: USS Arcadia | Deck 07 | Sickbay

When Lieutenant Commander Kelly Kerrigan was reviewing some of the personnel selections that Captain Rohda Morelli. It had been perplexing to Kelly as to why Captain Morelli had chosen to snag Doctor Oscar McDonald for the USS Arcadia's five year mission ahead. That was until Kelly did more of a deep dive into man's service record and personnel file. When it hit him, it hit him hard.

The latest information from Admiral Robert April was not good. Whereabouts of Captain Rhoda Morelli had confirmed that she did manage to rendezvous with the USS Cayuga, and the Cayuga had responded to Parnassus Beta. No additional information was provided.

Kelly walked into Sickbay, initially intending to check in with his Chief Medical Officer. Now though? He was armed and equipped with a revelation. "I suspected I'd find you down here" he said to the man. "Settling in alright, Doctor?"

Glancing up from the assortment of requisition forms and reports sprawled across the surface of a biobed which he was presently using as a table, Doctor McDonald straightened as he pondered the question while ignoring the ache in his neck and lower back from his poor posture. Old age did not come by itself...

"That depends," he sighed, "given most of our supplies, including my new desk, will not arrive until tomorrow. What is the fascination Starfleet has with Tuesdays?"

He waived away his own question, "but perhaps we should start with easier problems to fix. Since you came looking for me, what can I do for you Commander?"

"Tuesdays," Kelly replied with a shrug. "It's not the beginning of the week, and it's not the end. They do seem to have a peculiar habbit to pile everything into tuesdays" admitted the lieutenant commander.

Straight to business but cordial enough. Kelly could handle that well enough. "I'm just doing what I can to check in on everyone. As First Officer and at the moment holding down the fort as it is, I'm running around everywhere. It came to my attention recently that you knew Captain Morelli before this assignment."

Knew… there was a look of amusement for a brief moment. “You have been doing your homework,” he said with grudging respect. “Although perhaps one could argue I did not know her well enough. Given that you know she is my ex-wife.”

Kelly nodded understanding that ex had a connotation that it did not last for whatever reason. "Be that as it may, Doc, you knew her enough to marry her unless it was a spur of the moment Risa chapel?"

He appreciated the comment about doing homework. "She requested your assignment to the Arcadia. I was a Records officer several years, doing my homework is second nature to me, but given your colorful performance evaluations I was curious as to why she'd request you...no offense. That's when I found the link."

“While we spent a great deal of time on Risa I can assure you, it never involved a chapel,” the physician told him drily. “Quite frankly, she wanted an experienced medical officer. A doctor and surgeon she could trust. And so she convinced me - as only she could - to postpone my retirement. And here I am. But she is… where, exactly?”

He had made enquiries but was still in the dark.

"That's need to know, Doc" Kelly replied. The red tape of command going up like a starship raising shields. "Which I am deciding as Acting Captain includes our Ship's Physician. Did the the two of you have any children together?"

“A daughter, Claudia,” he informed him as he leaned forward on the biobed, “My office is not finished but more private. Shall we? Just mind your step. I’d hate for you to be my first patient.”

Kelly gave an affirming nod, agreeing to the more discretionary location of the Chief Medical Officer's office. He joined the man, took a seat across from him. "Claudia you said? I take you haven't heard from her in while."

He took a deep breath. "The Captain left to rendezvous with the USS Cayuga to hitch a ride to Parnassus Beta to visit her daughter and grandkids, Claudia I presume?"

“Claudia, yes,” he said, his frown deepening as he turned to face the first officer, arms folded across his chest. “She lives there with her husband and three boys. We last spoke oh, I guess two weeks ago? Before I went to the conference on Vulcan certainly.”

"Doc, I have no easy way to say this" prefaced Lieutenant Commander Kerrigan. Kelly looked the man in the eyes. "Something happened on Parnassus Beta. Something bad. I don't know if Rhoda made it there or not, she definitely rendezvoused with the Cayuga, but Parnassus Beta was attacked by the Gorn. Starfleet Command is still assessing what happened."

“Oh…”

It took a few seconds for the words to sink in, another solid few seconds for the implications of those words to connect. The Gorn… his family…

He did not recall sitting down or even register the presence of a chair but he suddenly found himself sitting down heavily in one. Delivering news like this was part of his job and yet he was so rarely on this side, trying to find an anchor in a storm.

“If she wasn’t still on the ship, I can absolutely guarantee Rho would be finding a way to them,” he said quietly but with conviction as he shook his head. “But my daughter… she’s a teacher! Her husband is a farmer, the boys are so little… how …”

He ran his hands slowly down his face, trying to think. Trying to find some hope. “But she is her mother’s daughter. What is Starfleet actually doing? And why that planet? It has nothing! God I thought after the Klingon war this kind of nightmare was behind us all…. I need to get out there…”

"A barrage of questions, Doc," Kelly replied. "I don't know why Parnassus Beta was attacked. I'm not a tactical officer or intelligence officer. Best I can gather, the Gorn are expanding territory as quickly as they can" explained Kelly.

Lieutenant Commander Kerrigan understood that the Doctor wanted to be there. "I believe the Enterprise was responding. I'm sure other starships are en route. We're supposed to do a shakedown cruise. I don't think Parnassus Beta was what they had in mind, but I feel restless just being docked at a starbase."

"On that we are in agreement," the physican sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. The Enterprise... He knew his counterpart on that ship, and knew he was not only competent with a scalpel. Yet still, that urge was there to fly blindly into whatever was happening just so he could at least know for certain what was going on. To know if there was indeed hope. But when it came to the Gorn? How much chance could a backwater colony of farmers stand, even with help from one, maybe two ships?

"I trust if you hear anything...?" he began, standing up and tugging on his tunic, digging in to the resolve which had served him well during his long career.

Kelly nodded. "A gentleman's agreement, Sir. If I know anything, as soon as I know anything," he said promising. "You will be the first person I go to." With that, Kelly and Oscar conversed for a bit before parting ways.

 

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