by Dalton McKay
Stardate: 102023
Following The Ultimate Risk
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
Stardate: 102023
Following The Ultimate Risk
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
”It’s a good dang thing I ain’t made of flesh and blood today,” Dalton McKay muttered to himself, as he pulled the curtain closed and left TC Blane to dress in peace. “I’d be so plum tuckered out I couldn’t best a worm in an arm wrestlin’ match.”
“That would be an impossibility no matter how rested you were, Doctor.” A small, logical voice said from nearby. Dalton lowered the PADD in his hands and looked down upon the pointed ears and wrinkled nose of Lair Arie.
“Oh? And why’s that, ‘lil Missy?”
“Such a contest could never take place.” Arie replied, blinking serenely. “Worms do not have arms.”
“Well, now that you mention it…” Dalton looked at her and realized that, with no one here to visit today, the sight of Arie in Sickbay was cause for concern. “Everything okay? You feelin’ alright?”
“Actually,” Arie bit her lip slightly but instantly released it, and once again she squared her shoulders and stood as tall as she could. “I was wondering if I might have a moment of your time. I have a question.”
“A medical question? Somethin’ for school, maybe?”
TC Blane emerged from the curtained-off area, the slightest of smirks upon his face as he passed by. Arie looked up at him, one eyebrow raised quizzically. “Worms don’t have arms.” Blane repeated, shaking his head once before giving Arie a small salute and continuing on his way.
“Perhaps we could discuss this in your office?” Arie asked, forcing her voice to stay level and calm though her stomach was doing flips and rolls greater than any amusement park thrill ride.
“Of course.” Dalton gestured for her to lead the way. Once the door was closed behind them he sat down at his desk, set his PADD aside, and folded his hands. “Now, what is your question?”
“Is there…some kind of medication that you could give me that would…” She felt her resolve to ask him faltering, and hesitated.
“That would what, Arie?” McKay was now seriously alarmed. “Are you sick?”
“No.” Arie answered, almost too quickly. She looked around the room, more specifically at his desk. She stared at it, unable to take her eyes away no matter how much she wished to.
The sight brought back another memory she didn’t want to be having and stirred up sickening, familiar emotions that she did not want to experience again. Fears so big and dark and deep that they were keeping her up at night or worse, replaying horrific moments as if they were happening all over again in her nightmares. Some were things she’d actually seen; others, things she’d only been told of but still, they felt as real as if she’d witnessed them with her own eyes. “I was just wondering if there was something you could give me to prevent nightmares.”
McKay reached for a nearby tricorder, and he saw Arie flinch. For the moment, he did not activate it. “Havin’ trouble gettin’ enough shut-eye?”
Arie shrugged.
“We should get your mother down here, Arie. We should give you a good lookin’ over, nose to toes.”
“No!” Arie immediately stepped backwards, towards the door. “Please,” she added, forcing her voice once again to at least try to sound as grown up as she wanted to seem. “Mother is not aware that I’ve been having these difficulties. I do not wish to worry her. She’s…” Her voice faded away and became as small as she felt. “She’s been through too much already.”
“Well, I’m afraid there isn’t anything I can give you to evict the monsters from under the bed, little lady, at least, not without knocking you out so far past REM that it can’t be considered sleep anymore. Even then, I can’t give it to you at your age. I’m sorry.”
Arie tried not to frown, and mostly succeeded.
“I understand.”
“You know, if there’s somethin’ bothering you, it’s always best to talk about it,” Dalton urged gently, pointing toward the chair across from him. “Counselor Tryst ain’t back yet, that leaves me. So here I am. At your service.” He smiled gently. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
Arie blinked. “No.”
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what the trouble is.” McKay ran his hand over his hairless dome, clasped it at the back of his neck, and sighed. Arie marveled at the gesture a moment; he seemed at times, so completely human even though she herself knew how to reprogram his matrix to portray him as a much younger man with a much higher-maintenance hairdo.
“The trouble is that I am recalling unpleasant experiences when I sleep and I had hoped to avoid doing it in future.”
“I see. Would those experiences have anything to do with what happened to your mother? Or about you and Tam being in danger on the ship when things went wrong?”
What happened to my mother when? Arie thought, as she turned another shade paler. I’ve almost lost her too many times.
In her mind she imagined her mother’s limp, lifeless form, trapped in a body of water beneath an unnatural sheet of ice on a far off and unforgiving planet. She next saw her mother lying on the deck of this very Sickbay at her feet, her hair surrounded by a pool of her own blood…
“Arie?”
The child did not move or answer, and the remaining color drained from her face. She looked as though she was faltering and might lose consciousness. Dalton leapt out of his chair and steadied her.
“Hey, now, don’t go getting’ all woozy on me. You Bajoran women, always giving me grief no matter your size or rank. C’mon now. Sit.” He pulled out the chair and set her down upon it, and Arie sighed. Her head hurt, so did her stomach. It was her heart that hurt the most though, and that was the one sensation that she could no longer stand to cope with.
“Did you eat breakfast?” The doctor asked now, as he began to scan her with his tricorder.
“No, I did not.”
“Dinner last night?”
Her silence answered the question for her.
“I thought you said you didn’t feel sick,” McKay said, as he kept scanning.
“I am not ill, not exactly, I,” Arie started to become irritated. Her cheeks flushed as she suddenly reached up and pushed the Doctor’s hand, and the tricorder in it, away in an uncharacteristic display of frustration. “I cannot meditate efficiently due to lack of sleep. I cannot sleep because of the nightmares. I had hoped that you could give me something to prevent them but since you cannot, I will not trouble you further. Thank you for your time, Doctor. Good day.”
She rose from the chair but as dizzy as she was, her knees went weak and she started to fall.
“Okay, that’s it.” Dalton scooped her up in one arm and carried her out of his office, toward a biobed. “We’re not goin’ to say a single thing more until your Mama gets here and we find out what’s really happenin’ here.”
Arie sighed as she let her head thump back onto the pillow. The room continued spinning around her and she closed her eyes. “Please, do not call my mother.”
“Look, Arie, your Mama programmed me into this life and she sure as shootin’ can delete me right back out again.” He wagged a finger at her. “And she will surely do it if I have you here, in this state, and don’t notify her immediately. Not to mention what Daddy will do to me when he gets home.”
Knowing she was defeated, Arie offered no further objections. McKay hailed her mother, already at work in her lab, and she responded by saying she was on her way.
While they waited, McKay continued his initial examination. “No fever. Nothing too far out of whack, well your blood sugar’s a mite low but a muffin and some chocolate milk will put that right.” He nodded to a passing nurse. She smiled and then left to procure both items.
“I just need to get back to my meditation.” Arie said at last. “That is what will help me.”
There was something different about her, McKay noted, ever since things had gotten really bad on the ship. Instead of offering to help and sticking by the adults as she always had- and as her young friend Tam had- this time Arie had retreated, physically and emotionally, and had done nothing but meditate in his office until the crisis was finally over.
Moments passed in silence as McKay made notes. When he finally returned his full attention to the child, he had no idea that her mother had arrived and was now standing just a few feet away. “Why is it so important for you to be able to concentrate so hard on your meditation, Arie?”
“Because I want to purge myself of all my Bajoran emotions.” Arie announced. “I want to rid myself of them, and live, to the best of my ability, as Vulcan.”
“What?” Lair Kellyn’s voice startled her daughter, and the child jumped on the table. She didn’t sound angry. She didn’t sound sad. She sounded a way that Arie had never heard before, and so was at a loss to put a name to.
“Mother, I- I did not know you were there. I did not intend to-“
“Kellyn…” McKay put up his hands, his eyes urging Kellyn to show restraint and calm here.
“You…you want to…” Kellyn stammered, unable to find words to try to repeat what Arie had suggested she wanted.
Knowing her child as she did, Kellyn knew that she would never make such a statement lightly. She would only say such a thing if she truly meant it.
Arie’s eyes pleaded with her mother to understand, even as the rest of her face remained emotionless.
“Mother, I was going to speak with Father before I told you…but now, it is too late. So I must tell you, in all honesty that it is my intention to study much more deeply the ways of my Father’s people. I do not want to live by my emotions anymore. I…” she sat up and looked her mother straight in the eyes, entirely certain of what she was saying. “I will learn control. I will learn to live a life that is free of all emotion.”
Kellyn blinked, speechless, until finally McKay patted her on the shoulder and urged her to step back a little so he could continue his examination. “We can sort all that out later on.” He insisted. “Right now, somebody needs to eat breakfast.”
Dr. Dalton McKay
Long Term Medical Hologram
USS Serendipity NCC-2012