Medical Meetings

Posted on Wed Dec 22nd, 2021 @ 12:18am by Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Ships Doctor Hiram Maitland M.D. & Beya & Commander Kaleetha Sloan (*)

Mission: Mission 14: Holoworld
Timeline: MD04 13:00
3115 words - 6.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Kaleetha was quiet. She was more quiet than she had been in a long time and she did not know if that was because something in her was telling her to shut her mouth and just listen or whether she was feeling worse. The science officer lay on the bio bed looking around at the sickbay as she waited for someone to look at her wound properly. If she had not bled out by then a few more moments would not matter at all.

She could not believe she was on that class of ship. It was like every dream that she had ever had first grown-up at the Atlantis museum and now being on a constitution ship it was amazing even if the ship had seen better days and was old enough to belong in a museum itself. “I cannot believe that this ship is the class it is?” The woman finally spoke up unable to keep it to herself.

"I'm afraid so," the ship's in-house physician stepped into the room from behind a partition that had been erected to allow Kaleetha some privacy. He hadn't been briefed in extensive detail on the patient, other than that she was a Romulan Starfleet officer coming in wounded. "Can you lay back for me? I'd like to examine your injuries, and we can get to work on a repair. I'm Dr. Maitland." He smiled as he spoke, a somewhat purposeful expression that didn't meet his eyes, though his tone was mild.

"Of course," Kaleetha smiled and lay back down without issue. She has noticed the look he gave her but decided to not comment. He was doing his job as she did her own. it was not the first time where she had received looks and whispered words and was very much why she had thick skin. "She belongs in a museum." She said fondly. It was easy to see appreciated the ship class.

"Perhaps so, although a museum would certainly be far less interesting for our crew," Hiram joked with a little huff. He carefully lifted Kaleetha's shirt and rolled over a stool to sit and examine the area, bringing out a sterile wand to wave it over the jagged edges in neat, symmetrical lines. "I've got a dermal regenerator here so this shouldn't take too long, but I'm afraid it will hurt. I'm going to give you something for the pain," he explained. "Do you have any allergies to medication?" he asked, selecting the 5mg ampule of morphenolog from his kit and loading it into the jet injector.

A short distance away Beya approached the other Romulan. This one was less severely injured and considerably smaller, but she approached cautiously; not only did Romulans tend to be even more paranoid toward Orions, but she suspected that just like with men, sometimes the little ones were more trouble because they thought they had something to prove. "I'm Beya," she said in her best no-nonsense medic voice, lifting a medscanner. "And going to check you over."

Kali had seen enough the last ten years in the rougher areas of space to be...cautious...of random Orions to perhaps something closer to the degree her parents would have been pleased with; but an Orion in a medical role couldn't help but remind her of Divash a bit, and the mutual issues they'd both faced during her time in the fleet as officers judged sometimes on nothing more than just a first glance at their species. And besides, if anyone was going to try and off her here, they could've done it long before now and with a lot less trouble.

"Sure." Kali shifted slightly and reached up her left hand to unhook the side of her silk wrap-shirt and peel it off, hissing slightly as she drew the right side off but leaving the black camisole tank on underneath. Whatever work Kaleetha had managed on her ribs and collarbone before with the little kit on the other ship had probably been undone by hitting the deck hard to dive out of the collapse the other day; but on the other hand, without the partial repairs beforehand, it would probably have been even worse by now after that incident, so she wasn't about to complain...Other than the nasty review she was absolutely going to be writing the cruise company on every site she could find after this.

That was easier than expected... Beya nodded and checked the medscan readings, though she could guess most of them by visual assessment alone after the Romulan disrobed (though the ease of that spoke to other conclusions - this was not someone with typically uptight Romulan ideas of 'modesty'). "Cracked ribs, collarbone hairline fracture, torn and strained ligaments, contusions... basically all over your upper body." She picked up a hand osteoregen. "I'll work on the fractures first. Are you going to be insulted if I ask if you want anything for pain?"

Kali chuckled slightly. "No. I'll take something." She shifted slightly again on the bed/table, leaning back somewhat.

Kaleetha had not been paying attention to the man and came back with a sharp shock as the wound hurt. She looked at the hole in her side from the avalanche they they had narrowly missed. “Um… no allergies.” She assured quickly. Pain relief would be a welcome change from the last few days where they had ran out of anything useless in the first aid kit. “I might be able to sleep a little now. Are you going to sleep Kali?” She mused trying to resist the need to keep talking. It was not with keeping up the Romulan appearances that everyone seemed to think she was. She was barely able to keep up any type of appearances so it was a struggle that she might not win.

"No." In comparison to the ease with which Kali seemed to currently be treating the situation overall, the slightly flat way the denial of any plan or agreement to sleep belied that any level of general trust beginning to develop did not extend to sleeping in plain view and access of an unknown number of unknown parties. Even after the crash on the cruise ship in fact, she'd slept with her back to the wall; and it would have been impossible for another party to tease out if it was something her parents had taught her to do when she was a child; or something more recently learned and practiced from a decade or so in increasingly lawless spaces. "Though I wouldn't say no to some coffee, actually, if you have any?" She looked hopefully at Beya as the other woman administered the painkillers and started to work.

"Coffee, we can do," Hiram answered her, making certain his voice came across warmly. "It'll have to wait until we're finished up here, but we've got a full spread in the galley as well, if you're hungry. All right-" he injected the morphenolog into Kaleetha. "You'll feel some discomfort, but that should help you with the bulk of it," he told her honestly before switching on the device and slowly applying it to her side in short, even strokes, giving her time between each one to adjust before going back at it. It was slow and steady work, but by the end of it, with Hiram's more advanced device, it was unlikely it would even leave a scar.

"I am tough," Kaleetha said looking away from what he was doing otherwise she would get distracted with the process and not be able to talk. "I am sure I used to be tougher..." She winced as the discomfort. "It cannot hurt more than when I did it in the first place." She assured watching Kalahaeia as she ventured into wanting coffee. "You would think you have not had coffee for days. It was one of our staples." The officer found herself teasing as the morphenolog kicked in.

"What can I say." Trying to hold her arms and torso rigidly still for Beya, Kali resorted to shrugging with her eyebrows again. "Never met a pilot or an intel officer who wasn't a complete caffeine addict, and I've been both, so I got in the habit."

"Not as bad as some," Burnie said, appearing at the door, head shaking in near disbelief. It had taken a moment before he could speak, or believe his eyes enough as to whom he was speaking to. He'd come down to see the Starfleet officer who'd sent the original distress signal - he wasn't a fool; he knew most people on the crew didn't exactly have positive feelings toward Starfleet and so figured he'd make for a better welcoming party - but here was someone he actual knew, someone he'd served with years ago. "Can't tell you how disappointed I was to learn medbay wasn't the spot for super strong coffee here."

Kali blinked repeatedly, just as shocked, mouth dropping open slightly at the sight of Burnie; she hadn't seen the man since they were both posted to Starbase 83, but she had expected him to still be...well, at some posting somewhere in the fleet. Or even if he'd somehow been among the cadre of officers who'd followed Picard years ago in resigning, she'd have more expected to find him now heading research for some dangerously edgy start-up planning to harvest energy by blowing up a star or something, than wandering around in an ancient refurb starship. "...How did you end up here?" She slightly waved one hand at the ship in general.

"Long story," Burnie deflected, unwilling to go into history he hadn't shared with most of the crew. He ducked his head a moment before looking back up at her with a lop-sided grin. "You though, let me guess...punched an admiral?"

"Three admirals, actually." Kali said sardonically. "All I could get through before security had me surrounded..."

"Wow - new record!" Burnie laughed, flashing a teasing grin. "Are you the reason the cruise ship went down then? Punched out the captain and control room for bad service?"

Kali rolled her eyes. "No; but if I see them again, I might, or more likely their corporate folks; I have no idea why the ship went down, but their emergency supplies were shit, and if it turns out they all evacuated without bothering to check the 'dead' they left behind for a pulse..." She shook her head, letting the threat trail off into however one might imagine it would end. "I expected if you left the fleet, if anything I'd find you starting some crazy venture to harvest energy by blowing up a series of small stars or planets or something..."

“Introductions please.” Kaleetha called slightly amused. It was all the woman had been about in the last few days. She wanted revenge on corporate.

"-and that should be good as new," Hiram murmured softly to the Romulan on the bed in front of him. "Let's try to get you to sit up. Can you raise your arms up and press them against my hands as hard as you can?" he held his palms up, testing her strength upward and down, along with her range of motion. With the regen having done its job everything was a little stiff but within normal parameters. "Just try to take it easy for a few days, and you shouldn't notice any permanent effects," he told Kaleetha.

Kaleetha slowly turned to press her hands against his relieved to see that her motion seemed to be fully there after everything. She no longer felt weak but that could be the fact her blood was no longer leaking out of her no matter how slowly it had been happening. “I am sure Doctor that I will take it easy. I do not have any plans at the moment so that should assist that. I appreciate the assistance that you have given me.” She slowly sat up and looked at the pair who knew each other expectantly still wanting an introduction.

"Oh. Uh." Kali looked sheepish for a moment at the omission, and perhaps at the way her vehement feelings and actions had once again gotten away from her in a sense, making her look younger than she was...or perhaps when one adjusted for lifespans, making her look exactly as young as she in fact was. "This is Burnie." Kali waved her free hand slightly at him. "I have no idea why he's on this ship or what he does on it, so I'll let him tell you that; but we served together in Starfleet on Starbase 83 for a few years, about 14 years ago, where he was one of the engineers and I was the sector intelligence officer." She grinned for a moment. "He likes making things go 'boom'." Now, Kali likewise gestured at Kaleetha to Burnie. "...This is Kaleetha, the other survivor of the crash, or at least, the other one besides me who got left behind, if it turns out everyone else evacuated. She's the one who rigged the distress call. She found me in the kitchen stuffing my face with cheesecake a few days after the crash."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Burnie said with a nod to Kaleetha. "I'm Michael Burnstein, Burnie to my friends," a tip of the head to Kali acknowledged he regarded her as such, "and I'm chief engineer on this ship as of about a year ago. Unfortunately, there are surprisingly few legit research centers interested in blowing up stars or star systems, so I'm just working as a civvie engineer now."

"Commander Kaleetha Sloan. I would love to blow up a star. Ultimate scientist dreams. The research. I would have taken you in on any number of the teams I've run." Kaleetha said brightly before she frowned. "We really should investigate what happened over there? Has Starfleet been contacted? Fenris Rangers?" Kaleetha was under no illusions that Starfleet was able to do anything but an event as big as a civilian cruise ship.

"Sadly I did not know to apply to your research group," Burnie said with an exaggerated sigh. The one he'd been in had been a blast - literally at the end - but he hadn't been given any options for transfer after that. It wasn't something he chose to discuss though. "We've looked around engineering, but major sections are sealed off and given the structural condition of the area cutting or blasting our way in wasn't a viable option." He frowned slightly at that; he still thought he might have been able to manage it, but the risk hadn't been worth it.

“Yeah we met the structural issues ourselves. How we both ended up a bit more beaten than we would have been if you arrived a few days ago.” Kaleetha commented as she pulled her tee over the best top that she wore and slowly rose to her feet. It no longer hurt to breath so that was a bonus. “There has to be somewhere between us all that we have not looked. We never did work out why the holograms ignored us.” She said directing that to Kalahaeia.

"My bet is on cheap programming." Kali said acerbically, targeting her ire to parties far from them. "It would fit with the rest of their hideous emergency setup or lack thereof."

“But it responds to these guys.” Kaleetha noticed. “We were passengers and it responded to us. It should have been designed to respond to us in an emergency more than people who are not in the manifest.”

"Yeah, that part is weird." Kali said, shrugging her shirt back on as Beya put her equipment away. "Though it could just be a weird glitch from aforementioned cheap programming. Though the doors didn't like us either, which was pretty weird too." She flicked her glance over to Burnie. "You got anyone aboard good with data recovery? Both of us--" She waved a hand at Kaleetha, "--tried to recover the ship's data and event logs from the bridge, but it was all flutzed and corrupted, big time; we couldn't get anywhere with it."

"Huh. That should've been black-boxed when it was going down..." Burnie rubbed his chin a moment, considering potential reasons. It had to be more than cheap programming as those were regulation and pretty strictly enforced. "I could take a look, and maybe see if Liha has any old Galae tricks to try."

“It should have been but they literally act like we are invisible.” Kaleetha stated. She had spent many hours thinking on what could be the cause but each time she had come up with something more and more ridiculous as a rational. “I thought I was dead and a ghost for a while because of it.” The science officer said with an embarrassed laugh as she scratched the back of her neck.

"That is kind of odd too," Burnie agreed. Given his own background, messing with flight record data had flagged as the major issue, but weirdness with the holograms was worth checking out and it was possible the two weren't unrelated. "We have a new Ops crewman who has some background in holoprogramming from what I understand. He might be able to work out why."

“I would like to come back across with you if the doctor is happy for me and I promise to rest and not overdo it,” Kaleetha asked looking to the doctor. She wanted answers to what was happening and the only way that was going to happen was going back over there.

"I'd give it a few hours," Hiram said, "just to make sure everything settles-but as of now, you are technically free to resume normal activity." His eyebrows arched, pointed. "Just ensure that you do your best to take it easy. Our facilities here are limited, and you were lucky your injuries were not more significant."

Kaleetha was suitably chastised into behaviour enough to keep out of trouble. She could do that to allow her body to rest up a bit after the last few weeks. “Is there somewhere we can both rest then?” She wondered.

"I'll ensure you are both assigned to a set of temporary quarters," Hiram nodded.

"Count me in." Kali shrugged again, this time human-style with her shoulders, addressing her part directly to Burnie without bothering to ask the medical staff's permission one way or another. "If nothing else I still have a couple of things of mine to retrieve from the ship."

"Knives?" Burnie asked with a half-teasing smile.

"Money, mostly." Kali grinned.