Medical Review

Posted on 13 Jun 2020 @ 7:39am by Lieutenant Jennin Rhula & Lieutenant Dijaat Parker

1,952 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Sentience
Location: Sickbay, USS Black Hawk
Timeline: MD 2 || 1045

Dijaat made his way from main engineering towards the medical bay in order to complete his first physical since coming aboard the ship. He had made a point to read up on the Chief Medical Officer before leaving his office and entering sickbay. Dijaat looked around before settling on a place to sit and bouncing onto an empty biobed to await the arrival of the chief medical officer.

"Who are you?" Rhula asked, noticing the stranger perched on a biobed as he exited his new office.

Dijaat had tilted his head slightly, "Lieutenant Dijaat Parker, Chief Engineering Officer," He identified himself calmly. "I only just reported aboard a short while ago."

"Ah." The Bajoran continued on his way to the pathology lab.

"I can come back another time if you're too busy?" Dijaat asked with his head slightly tilted to one side.

Rhula stopped again. "I'm always busy, but I'm not sure how my level of activity impacts you. If you want to wait here for....whatever, that's up to you."

Dijaat wasn't entirely sure what to make with the attitude from the Chief Medical Officer. It wasn't the first time he'd ever encountered an officer with such an attitude, but it was certainly the first time he'd ever encountered a Doctor with that sort of attitude. "I'm afraid that I don't fully grasp your attitude?" He asked, but this time his tone had shifted and his accent was coming out a bit heavier.

All he could think was that most Doctors had decent bedside manner and this one seemed to have quite the opposite, "Is there a problem that I'm not aware of? A joke that I missed?" He asked, "Something to that effect that I'm afraid I'm not fully understanding?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Rhula answered. "I was on my way to my lab and just happened to find you sitting here. You seem lost, so I assume you're here on purpose. But what that purpose is, I don't know."

Dijaat must have missed that part, "Well it is customary for officers who've just reported aboard to complete their physical examination. I apologize for missing that part of the conversation somehow... I thought I'd mentioned it earlier?" He questioned while muttering the last part so quietly that it was inaudible. "That is why I'm here."

"You didn't say that," Rhula said. He sighed before approaching the other man. "What doctor is your appointment with? You did make an appointment, right?" The Bajoran went to a wall display and accessed the appointment schedule. "Parker, was it? I don't see any appointment for a Lieutenant Parker."

Dijaat was utterly confused and scratched his head, "When I checked aboard the last ship I was on it wasn't necessary to make an appointment to see the ship's sickbay staff?"

"How disorganized," Rhula muttered. "Did you want to schedule an appointment? The Yeoman out front can help with that."

"Wait... Do you have to have to make an appointment if your leg has been cut off and you're bleeding profusely too?" Dijaat asked sarcastically before bouncing off the biobed. "Because it would be pretty disorganized to not do that too wouldn't it..." He muttered the last words underneath his breath. "Sure, "I'll go make an appointment." He said calmly and headed towards the yeoman.

Rhula watched the other man walk, on two complete, non-bleeding legs towards the reception area. Putz, he thought, using a word he'd learned from Doctor Cohen, his Human friend he'd worked with on Bajor.

Just before the fully ambulatory man exited the exam room, Rhula sighed. "Hold on," he called.

Dijaat turned around slowly, "Yes?" He asked and tilted his head slightly. His Scottish accent coming out a bit strongly as he contemplated the day that something mechanical went wrong and he could demand that the Doctor make an appointment for a repair crew.

"Sit down," Jennin ordered. "I'll get someone to deal with you." He was already running through the list of which physicians were on duty.

Dijaat raised his brow, "Is this some sort of prank?" He asked suddenly and quite sarcastically, "The appointment was the prank part right? What's next a bunch of balloons fall from the ceiling," He pointed upwards, "And, then you activate the Emergency Medical Hologram, by saying the words activate EMH?"

The EMH suddenly appeared, "Please state the nature of the-"

Dijaat looked at the EMH, "Computer turn that bloody thing off," He snapped realizing all too late that his irritation levels had reached a dangerous point. The hologram suddenly vanished and Dijaat thought maybe he saw an annoyed look in the hologram's face. He went over and plopped down somewhat roughly on the biobed, "Alrigh'..." He scowled.

"Damn," the Bajoran said quietly. He'd forgotten about the EMH. This whole interaction could have been avoided entirely if he'd rigged the EMH to start automatically when someone entered Sickbay. Something to fiddle with later, I suppose, he thought.

"No need to get angry," he said to the other man. "Just schedule an appointment next time." He consulted his PADD and saw that the only other physician on duty had back to back appointments for the next two hours. He looked up at Parker. "Lucky you, Lieutenant," he started, setting down his tablet. He picked up a medical tricorder, rolled a stool up to the side of the biobed, and sat down. "I'll be your doctor today."

Dijaat took a deep breath and eventually relaxed. "Okay," He said and dropped his shoulders. At that point he would have honestly rather had the EMH back, but said nothing about it.

"Don't sound so excited," Rhula said sarcastically. "You're in good hands. I am the CMO after all. Somehow." He leaned forward towards the small bedside display and keyed in his access code. A few more entries brought up Parker's medical records.

"You're Romulan," the Bajoran stated. "Don't see many Human/Romulan hybrids. Even after they allied during the Dominion War."

"Yes," Dijaat said somewhat more relaxed than before. "My Mum escaped from Romulus a few years before I was born and settled in Scotland where she met my Dad." He answered with a shrug, "I don't even know if anyone was ever aware of her escape except for the Federation ship that located her escape shuttle."

The Bajoran looked at the other man. "Congratulations. You're the first Romulan I've met." He stood up and rounded the bed, going to get a different hand scanner out of a drawer. "Alive, at least," he added, his back to Parker.

"Fun," Dijaat answered, "Besides my mother and my sister, who's only half Romulan like myself, I've never actually met another Romulan before now. Strange to hear I'm sure," He responded.

"Anything you'd like to tell me about your medical history before I start probing you?"

Dijaat raised his brow at the suggestion about probing, but said nothing to that effect. "Besides everything that's in my medical history I have nothing further to add."

"Not much of a talker?" the Bajoran said, starting to run a handheld scanner specially tuned to Vulcanoid physiology and genetics. It wasn't actually a question, but he'd phrased it as one, curious if the other man would take the bait.

Dijaat eyed the Bajoran for a moment, "Oh I talk plenty, but then I find that my crewmates start imitating my accent behind my back and what have you." He said and shrugged, "Not that it really bugs me all that much anyway."

"Talk then!" Rhula urged. "Something to take my mind off of this dull work."

"Wait, if you think practicing medicine is dull work then why did you become a Doctor?" Dijaat asked the Bajoran with a hint of bewilderment in his voice.

He stopped his scans and looked at Parker. "I assume you know about the Occupation?"

Dijaat nodded, "Of course I know about the Occupation... Nasty bit o' business that was too. Don't think my father ever stopped talking ill of Cardassians after the Setlik Three thing. My grandfather was killed in that fight, and a couple of my friends lived through the Bajoran Occupation before their families managed to escape."

He didn't need for the Bajoran to explain further about what the Occupation was or if he had been there because a number of Bajorans that Dijaat knew had been. "So you became a Doctor because of the Occupation?" He asked.

"Something like that, yes." His eyes glazed over as he stared off at the bulkhead beyond Parker. "People needed to be cared for. I wanted to do something. To help." He paused, memories flooding into his mind. The children starving to death. The elderly shot simply because they were too old to physical labor. Bajorans of all ages beaten so badly by Cardassian soldiers that they never recovered.

"What I learned though," Rhula said, drifting back to the present, "was how to watch people die. I was as much a tender of the dead as I was a fixer of the living."

Dijaat nodded, "Sorry that you had to go through all that," He said solemnly, "I only ever heard stories I never experienced any of that so I cannot say that I understand what that's like. To do so is a lie and that is something I avoid."

"Not a liar, hmm? Good to know." Rhula returned his attention to his tricorder. "I prefer working in a lab now. Oh, and dead patients to live ones now. Their suffering is over." He began moving the handheld probe through the air near the other man.

It was a bit odd for a Doctor to have that preference, but he understood the comment. "Do you get much time in the medical lab here on the ship?" He asked and then, "That is if this ship has a medical lab." He hadn't really checked the specifications in full just yet which was foolish for an engineer.

"Before my recent promotion to Chief Medical Officer, I was ship's pathologist. Which means I ran the medical labs," he explained. "Technically, I'm still the pathologist. They haven't replaced me yet." He tapped at the tricorder screen. "I'll still spend time in my labs. But my new duties require that I have a wider perspective than just the labs. I'm sure its like that when one becomes a department head, regardless of department."

"I understand," Dijaat answered with a nod while waiting for the medical examination to conclude.

"Everything appears in order," Jennin said after another minute of scanning.

Dijaat nodded again, "Good to know," He answered and before springing to his feet, "Am I free to return to Engineering then?"

"If that's where you want to go. I'm done with you though, if that's what you're asking."

Dijaat bounced off the biobed and headed for the door, "Thank you Doctor and good luck with your medical research," He said as he went through it. And, away he went down the corridor towards engineering thinking to himself that this Chief Medical Officer was quite... odd.

Retreating to his office, Rhula took off his glasses and set them on his desk. He pulled a small photo out from a drawer. It wasn't in a frame, he'd never bothered with one. Small tears welled up in his eyes. Talking about the Occupation often triggered him; it was something he was used to. He looked at the picture, memories of a his past life playing in his head.

"I hope the Prophets are taking care of you," he said quietly to the picture before putting it away. Using his uniform sleeve, he wiped the tears away.

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