Malnutrition

Posted on 22 Aug 2014 @ 2:46pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Thaddeus Quint M.D.

724 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Pursuit
Location: USS Black Hawk, Sickbay
Timeline: February 1, 2388 || 1700 hours

Harvey stepped out of the turbolift and began navigating the corridors to sickbay. The ship had been quiet for the last hour and he was still waiting to hear from Noxa and Dash. Repairs were ongoing on the X'annon and at least now they had a direction on where to go. The Captain entered sickbay in hopes the Doctor had been able to uncover anything about the refugees.

Upon entry, Harvey could not spot Doctor Quint. Stopping a nurse on her way to check up on one of the Karemma, he inquired as to the Doctor's location.

The Vulcan nurse stoically directed the captain to the office in the back of Sickbay that Thaddeus Quint kept for himself. Sure enough the doctor was seated at the desk, keying information into the monitor before him. A number of PADDs were spread out on the desk, Quint occasionally pausing to glance at one or download some relevant information to or from one. He didn't even look up at the captain's approaching footsteps, intent on whatever he was doing.

"Doctor," Harvey greeted, though his tone was anything far from friendly. If there was one thing he didn't like about the command chair was that his hands were definitely not as much in the action as he preferred. If he was going to be stuck out in the Gamma Quadrant for a while, he would have to rethink his command policy...

"Have you had a chance to examine the refugees?" he asked, still standing just inside the doorway.

Quint's eyes flashed in annoyance at yet another interruption. He deliberately entered in a few more keystrokes, to get to a good stopping point on the report he was working on before looking up and evenly meeting Geisler's gaze. If people would stop interrupting him, not to mention piling more mundane tasks on him as Kos did, they'd have the reports they were impatiently demanding. The doctor was convincing this was yet another helping of the same.

"Yes, captain." Quint replied in a neutral tone, "Commander Kos mentioned something about taking them to guest quarters."

Irritated to have to ask about what the Doctor found with the refugees, Harvey bit his tongue. The doctor was clearly annoyed, and Harvey was doing everything he could to check his own frustration. "I'm sure Mr. Sherman can handle the room assignments for now. What have you found?"

That I may as well not bother writing the reports since every single person is individually going to pester me and make me give the whole report verbally. But even the less than personable doctor knew saying that would do no good. Quint had mentioned the quarters ever hopefully the captain was just wanting to know where they were, though he didn't expect to be that lucky. Since it was clear he wasn't going to get anything done until Geisler had whatever he wanted, regretfully turned away from his monitor, leaned back in his chair giving his full attention to the captain.

"He wasn't feeding the refugees. All of them consistently across the board were showing signs of malnutrition," Quint remarked almost grudgingly, "As I was putting in my report on the subject, I've put them all on basic dietary supplements and a nutritional regimen to counteract that."

"I'm no expert," Harvey led, shifting his weight onto the door frame, "but I'd think healthy cargo would bring in a better bounty." He paused right after he said that, realizing how cold it sounded. "There has to be more to this story. There's too many missing links."

"To be an expert you'd have to be devoid of a soul, I imagine," Quint remarked with obvious distaste, "Some six hundred years ago European slavers would cram hundreds of Africans into a small deck compartment. They didn't care if they all survived the ocean voyage, as that would only increase the selling price of those that did. Demand, I suppose. Anyone with a lack of morality to enslave someone isn't going to be concerned with ethical treatment."

"There's nothing ethical about any of this," Harvey commented, standing firm on his own two feet again. "Thank you, doctor. Let me know if there's anything else."

With a final nod to the doctor, Harvey turned and left sickbay.


===

Cmdr. Harvey Geisler
Commanding Officer
&
Dr. Thaddeus Quint
Chief Medical Officer

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