The check up
Posted on Sat Jun 25th, 2016 @ 3:14pm by Dixoho Saa (*)
Edited on on Sat Jun 25th, 2016 @ 3:14pm
Mission:
Mission 1 - Bridges
Location: SS Mary Rose: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 22 10:00
1579 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure
Talon had been sitting in Sick Bay looking things over. It was actually an upgrade from the places he usually practiced his trade. However, it was less than he expected. He tugged on his earring as if needing to hear some kind of wisdom from his grandfather or another family member. He was going to miss not having a holodeck available. He would often use one to converse with his deceased grandfather, whom he programmed with a medical database. He found his grandfather less tedious than using the computer.
Not hearing anything, Talon pinched the ridges of his nose. Maybe the other doctor had already been working on updating Sick Bay. He had yet to meet him. Perhaps at the party Talon had planned.
"Hi!" A voice called from the doorway of the old fashioned office.
Turning, Talon recognized the familiar redhead. "Saa, what a pleasant surprise. Here for a checkup?"
"Dixoho!" The redheaded Trill said with a pout on her pretty face. "Suppose so... Rueben sent me here." She sighed.
"Dixoho then," Talon teased. "But just so you know, Saa is easier to pronounce."
Talon motioned to the sparse Sick Bay that needed to be fully stocked. "I hope you don't mind the old way of doing things. I don't even own a tricorder." The woman shrugged and hopped onto the bench.
"Never worried me before but if pronunciation is an issue call me Dix." She murmured.
"Okay," Talon teased, "Dixie it is! You may call me Joss, my given name."
Talon lead Dixoho to the nearest biobed. He pulled his leather sack, which he had when Reuben met him. Reaching inside, Talon pulled out a stethoscope, a sphygmomanometer, and a thermometer. Joss pulled out his own personal PADD, which he used to keep records. He had Reuben's MAR on it, tracking the medication he was giving the man.
He started a new file, labelled "Saa, Dixoho." As he labelled it, he asked her, "Dixie? Any previous medical concerns I should know about?"
“Do I get to call you Tally or is that just your nickname for your new girlfriend?” Dixaho teased him a little as she sat down gracefully. “Nothing that I can remember apart from usual childhood issues.” She was very healthy for someone who had grown up on a merchant cruiser for her entire life barely getting to breath fresh air or see grass.
Talon raised a brow at the "Tally" and the "girlfriend" remarks. Saucey! he thought. He liked his ladies with a spicey side. Of course, with the type of ship this was, he could imagine that they all had that adventurous, sexy attitude.
"It's the truth... i heard all about her at the party." She teased him back.
"Exactly, what did you hear?" Talon asked with a grin, his interest peaked. "And from whom?"
"Oh just that you have a new friend. So how much truth is there in it?" She wondered ignoring the whom, on a ship this small everyone spoke about everyone apart from the Captain. No one discussed Rueben.
He chuckled, putting the stethoscope around his neck. Talon took Dixoho by the wrist and began taking her pulse, while also registering her respiration by watching her chest rise and fall. He recorded the normal numbers on his PADD. "Pretty good on pulse," he informed her.
"And, I have a lot of new friends, thanks to a new endeavor," Talon responded to her earlier question.
"Pfft...Lungs?" She wondered softly. If anything would be wrong be that from all the recycled air she had breathed in.
"Getting ready to take a listen," he answered, putting the stethoscope into his ears. He took the bell of the scope and listened for her breathing, from her back. "Take a deep breath for me, then exhale." He repeated this several times. Dixaho did as requested knowing that even if he heard the labour breath he couldn't do anything about it.
"Hmmm." Talon took his PADD, reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of reading glasses. His eyes got tired when he worked with a PADD. Talon typed in some notes. Then looked up from his PADD.
"I'm sorry it's taking a few minutes. We get used to modern equipment, and it's interconnectivity, that the older ways seem slow."
Talon picked up the sphygmomanometer . "One more reading I need, your blood pressure." Dixoho laughed a little, the equipement he had seemed modern up to what she had seen growing up. Any medicine she had seen as a child until she was fifteen had been herbs and mambo jumbo.
"I've never been on a ship with modern equipment." She admitted softly.
Talon secured the cuff around Dixoho's arm and began to pump it up. As he did so, he asked, "How long have you been serving on ships like this one?" Dixoho winced at the pressure on her arm.
"Since birth so 25 years." She admitted looking faraway for a few moments.
Talon listened for the familiar rhythm of the blood flowing through the brachial artery. When it began, he took note of the systolic pressure. When it faded away, the diastolic. Talon ensure he noted everything in Dixoho's new file. When he had finished, he removed the stems from his ears.
"Most everything is good, Dixie," Talon started. "All your vitals are in the normal range for a healthy young lady as yourself."
"Most everything?" She wondered in a soft voice raising an eyebrow at his statement. Most everything sounded like something was wrong?
"Nothing I'm overly concerned with," Talon reassured. "Just a little rattling when I listen to your lungs. That's why I asked how long you've been on ships. You haven't gotten much fresh air, have you?"
"Nope just a 100% recycled air." Dixoho assured softly staring at him almost sadly before her facade came back up.
Talon took his reading glasses off to look her in the eyes. It was his way off showing his caring attitude for his patients. Hopefully, she would take his advice.
"Some fresh air might help, if you can afford to take time off," he encouraged. "In the mean time, I can whip up a simple saline that spray through your nose. It will get down and break some of that up."
"Where would i go to get some fresh air?" She wondered softly crossing her leg looking at the older man with a smirk on her face. She had never been to Trill and she could only count the time on her hands that she had ever been planet side.
Talon placed a hand on Dixoho's shoulder. "Anywhere would be great, as long as it has clean air. You could visit my home world sometime. Or vacation in Risa and really enjoy yourself."
"Were heading to civilian outpost of Heg’La Station which is a years travel away." She said softly standing up. Has Rueben informed this new crew member that they were heading to the Kaleb sector right on the edges of Federation Space?
"It's up to you," Talon stated, "but you've got to get fresh air once in a while, Dixie. If it were me, I'd take a break for a while. When I have the saline spray, I'll bring it to you."
"Need to earn money somehow sugar." She said softly. It was either using her navigation and astrometics skills or sell herslef and she knew which one she preferred. "I will take that as my hint to leave." She muttered folding her arms across her chest.
Talon thought that response meant something he didn't see below the surface. The ladies he had known kept things there in their emotions. He wished the were more straight forward. But unfortunately, his clientele were often disappointed and kept there true emotions hidden. Sometimes, things would be easier if he were Betazoid.
"We all do, Dixie!" Talon responded. "You don't have to leave, unless you have pressing business. Anything else you needed to talk about?" The woman looked at him for a few long moments before she sighed softly shaking her head. Her long red hair fell in her eyes.
"No... No it's okay." She assured picking up her hard wearing jacket tugging it on.
He suspected this type of ship didn't house counselors. So, he was probably the closest thing to one that the crew would know. He was open to it, as long as he didn't need to give advice. He'd give choices and people could make up their own mind. Like the choice he gave to Reuben between his medicine or the alcohol during the party.
Talon patted Dixoho lightly on the back. "I'm available if you ever need to talk," he sincerely offered to her. Dixoho shook her head.
"Don't need it... thank you." She added as an after thought needing to get out of the sickbay as soon as possible.
Talon thought that a strange way for the red-headed Dixoho to leave. He wondered what he had done to make her feel so uncomfortable. He made a practice to be kind and gentle, but also truthful with his patients. Maybe she'd open up more when he delivered the saline injector.
Salt and water was what he needed. He knew where he could get both, the mess hall. Off he went to retrieve what he needed. Then he would make the delivery.
OFF
Dixoho Saa
Astrometrics Officer
SS Mary Rose
Talon Joss
Field Medic
SS Mary Rose