by Jack Hubbard and Zanh Liis
80728.18
Following Breathe
-=Sickbay, USS Alchemy=-
"So that's about it," declared the LMH. "Not much to see here equipment wise, though Alchemy is well appointed for such a small bay. Wait 'til you see all the neat toys they gave us to play with back at the ranch."
By 'back at the ranch', Hubbard knew that McKay was indicating their base ship, the Serendipity.
"Thank you for the tour, Doc. I appreciate your time."
"Happy to do it. Now that you're here I'll be able to spend much more time on the holodeck working on my tennis game," McKay said, and Hubbard was amused. Apparently, this particular LMH was not of the standard variety. *There must be some interesting engineers on this ship,* Hubbard mused.
"Before I let you get yourself settled in," McKay said, holding up an index finger and begging Hubbard's attention, "I should warn you, about the Captain. She's a little bit,"
"A little bit what?" The voice that was raised from the doorway stopped Dalton mid-sentence.
There stood Zanh Liis, arms folded as she leaned against the door frame casually, looking highly amused.
"Speak of the Bajoran!" Hubbard declared, trying not to laugh at the expression on the LMH's face. "You must be Captain Zanh."
"You must be Jack Hubbard." Zanh Liis extended her hand toward the man, observing that he had striking eyes and a firm handshake. "Sorry that I didn't get to greet you when you first came aboard, but as I'm sure Dalton has already told you, I'm actually on medical at the moment."
"Yes," Hubbard snapped into physician mode instantly. "Which reminds me, you are overdue for your next scheduled check up, no time like the present?"
Zanh realized that she had no good excuse to use to get out of it, so she complied, hopping up onto the nearest biobed. "Go ahead. Let's get this over with and then Dalton can get back to giving you his urgent warning about me."
"That'd be my cue to get while the gettin's good. Cap'n. Commander." McKay said, then his trademark twang was heard to ask the computer to deactivate the Long-Term Medical Hologram, and he disappeared.
"So, you like what you've seen here so far?"
Hubbard nodded, "Yes, thank you. I know you have your plans for me, but I'm hoping you can bring me up to speed on the Senior Officers. Morale, and important facts. I always like to hit the ground running, and I've had no time to brief on personnel files, Daystrom Institute and all. Besides, I always find the Captain is far more enlightening when it comes to the ins and outs of the important players on a vessel."
"My crew is one like no other," Zanh replied proudly as Hubbard began to scan her with his tricorder. "I'm certain that you've heard all of your past CO's say that of their crews, but I assure you. In my case, it is entirely true."
Jack nodded, "Yes, I've heard positive things about this crew." Hubbard frowned slightly. "Your blood pressure is a bit elevated."
"Only a bit?" Liis tilted hear head in amazement. "That's good news then."
"I'd like to run some blood work," requested Hubbard, deftly grabbing a hypo and wheeling around to the Captain.
Zanh removed her jacket, and rolled up her sleeve with a sigh. "Very well."
He withdrew the test sample and entered the hypo into an analyzer and began looking over preliminary readouts before returning to her.
"I have some concerns Captain, or to put it another way...you can help me out by sharing what's gone on of late. Very revealing when conducting these types of checkups."
"Well, if you've got concerns about our health, know that you're not alone. Been a rough road."
"Oh? Crew been through a lot of late, or just yourself?"
"Several members of crew, including myself." Zanh explained, bringing her fingers to the wrinkled bridge of her nose. She felt a headache coming on at the change in topic.
"You have access to all the relevant reports. Long story short, we encountered a 'helpful' alien race who did a lot more to us than help us."
"How so?"
"They telepathically manipulated some of the Bajoran and Terran crew, in order to try to 'heal' them of past hurts. But they got more than they ever bargained for when they took us on as lab rats." Liis turned a shade paler. "Some of us barely made it out of their experiment alive."
Hubbard brought up the Captain's recent medical history and his eyes widened. He noticed links in the reports to the medical history of another officer, the ship's previous Chief of Security Keiran O'Sullivan, and made a note to read both reports later from beginning to end.
"This Lieutenant Commander O'Sullivan...what is his status?" Hubbard asked.
He noted that the captain averted her eyes as she answered with a single word that spoke volumes.
"Reassigned."
Hubbard perked up...it wasn't unusual for him to test the water.
"Really? What's the nature of the reassignment? The reason I ask is no doubt it has ramifications on the well-being of those that were close to him."
"He was reassigned because he finished his work here." Zanh volunteered what she felt she could in the way of an honest response. "I am not currently at liberty to get much more specific than that. O'Sullivan was here by order of Temporal Investigations."
She let her words settle a moment. "But, if what you're asking me is, was it sudden and are there those it was traumatic for, then the answer would be 'yes' to both questions. I think of the whole crew, Cristiane feels it the worst."
*Though still not as badly as I do,* she thought sadly.
Hubbard nodded thoughtfully, "Thank you Captain. I know you realize that sometimes the ship's doctor has to be privy to certain details that other Seniors wouldn't...it's never my intention to pry."
"Understood."
"Do you have any concerns in particular that you'd like to discuss when it comes to your own health and your reinstatement to active duty, Captain?"
Liis had realized only recently that she really needed to start taking better care of herself. "I'd like you to offer some..." she paused, cringing at the very thought, "nutritional recommendations, as well as other stress-reduction techniques I might try in addition to the physical therapy that I am supposed to be doing on a regular basis."
She looked him directly in the eyes and lowered her voice. "I'd like to get back to work as soon as possible, Doctor. Downtime has never served me well, for any reason."
The last thing she wanted was more time to think.
"Far as those suggestions, that's easily enough done, I'll download the information to your comm console in your quarters...then...when we meet for breakfast, you'll be able to tell me what you've chosen as courses for action," Jack replied, it was his way of painting patients into a corner and not going along with any lip-service from them.
"I never eat breakfast. Unless you consider coffee breakfast."
"I do not. This is why I suggested breakfast instead of say, lunch."
"What is this 'lunch' of which you speak?"
Hubbard laughed, and sighed at the same time.
"I know, I know." She admitted. "If I'm going to live to see next Peldor, I have to do something differently."
Dr Hubbard smiled, "Well, it's a rare breed, the Starship Captain...higher maintenance than most. Think of all you do...all you're responsible for...often times, you put everything else ahead of yourself." He looked on in a knowing way.
Liis held her hands out, shrugging. "That's my job."
------------------------
LT. Commander Jack Hubbard
Chief Medical Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
USS Serendipity/Alchemy
LT. Commander Jack Hubbard
Chief Medical Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
USS Serendipity/Alchemy