Jaxom walked into Sickbay, taking a minute to stop and get his bearings. There was something slightly different about the layout of this one, though thankfully he had not spent much time in any sickbay before. He had been fortunate to avoid some of the more common training injuries, and life aboard a Station had been pretty calm. 

He had expected an intake medical though, after all people were a lot like the inner workings of a starship. You could know all the specs, but every so often you needed to get your hands on the parts to really know what was what. He was also curious to see what sort of regimen was kept onboard a vessel, as the station had been much more self driven. He had used holodeck programs and occasional spars to keep in shape, but he knew crew use space could be more limited on a vessel. 

“Good day. I was asked to report to Sickbay for my medical exam. Jaxom Nadir, newly transferred to the Valkyrie. I believe Lieutenant Commander t’Rehu is expecting me,” Jaxom said as nurse came forward to greet him. He hoped he had the pronunciation of the name correct, it was hard to parse from a simple message.

“I’ll take this one personally, Janice, thank you.” Hilea said as she gracefully took the PADD from her nurse. Hilea walked to stand in front of her new patient

“It’s tah-Rayhue.” She corrected. “Quite understandable considering how little proper Rihannan is spoken within the Federation.” She said with a pleasant smile. “It’s something I have learned to endure. Like many things in life that are immovable.”

Dressed in immaculate duty blue uniform, she had a blue lab coat over it. “The part you may be unaware of, is that, you are always taking over Operations.” She handed him a Padd.” This is a copy of my original files with links from the current CEO.  I was also part of the refit teams for a year. The sarcastic remark appropriate for this would be, no pressure.” Hilea added with a wider smile. Something her Romulan training and upbringing had to be adjusted with her new crewmates. 

“Now, sit on the bio-bed please.” Hilea asked.

“Please to meet you tah-Rayhue,” he said, taking the time to work through the pronunciation as she did. He was lucky to have an ear for music, and usually, languages came to him with practice so he was hopeful he wouldn’t be struggling with it long. As they moved over to the bio-bed, he noted the mention of Rihannan and made a mental note to see what he could learn from it. He couldn’t learn every language spoken in the galaxy, but a few simple greetings for a fellow officer was a habit he had seen others do on the station. 

When she passed him the PADD, and he read through it he couldn’t hide his surprise. “You were on the retrofit team, and you are a ship’s doctor? No pressure is one saying that comes to mind, the other is to ask you what time vortex you were using to have enough time to accomplish all of that,” he said, blunt admiration in his voice. He was definitely going to have to give the computer a look for any information he could find.

Sitting on the biobed, he laid down as directed and waited for the sensors to do their thing. “I will have to give all of the notes and logs a proper read-through, but what can you tell me of our girl? There are always things that notes can’t convey, and every vessel has a personality. I should get to know the Valkyrie, and I’m a captive audience right now,” he said, gesturing to the bed he was on. 
 

As if to answer his first question, Hilea, took her left hand and captured her black hair behind her pointed ears. “I thought it was impolite in human culture to ask a lady her age?” She said, teasing the young officer.

“Well that’s true enough. Although, we are also known for saying curiosity killed the cat, so I suppose Human culture has never been good at following our rules,” he said, joking back to her teasing.

Hilea continued as the Lieutenant recovered, a slight smile revealing her deception to let him off the hook. “I wasn’t on the team that did the refit for the Valkryie, so I can only tell you what I have observed in the short time I have been here. I don’t see any obvious deficiencies. The refit team was as thorough as I would been, barring the last few things the Engineering team is currently correcting. I believe Lieutenant Morishita is in charge of Engineering.” 

Grabbing a medical tricorder, Hilea turned back to Jaxom. “I appreciate the mix the Excelsior brings to the table. Like me, I have had to adapt and am still useful. The rest you will have to attempt to find out for yourself. Dindair daendle.” Smiling even wider, she turned to her equipment tray.

Deftly palming the scanner from the tricorder, she waved in a uniform practiced manner. Tell me about your sleep and diet.” Hilea asked as she continued her scans. 
 

“Oh, sorry about that. I misunderstood you then. But I will definitely take a look at all the changes that were made, and I am sure meeting with Lieutenant Morishita is on my list of shore leave things to accomplish. I hope to be at least a little organized by the time we cast off,” Jaxom said, listening to the noises from the scanner and to what Hilea was saying. 

“Dindar, daniel? I have to say I don’t think I have ever heard that before? Is it a saying? And I agree with you about having to adapt, and be useful. I saw a lot of that with the variety of ships that came to the Station, I think it’s probably one of the things we do best with the Fleet. Using ships in a myriad of ways,” he said with enthusiasm as she palmed the scanner and the questions turned to the familiar doctor speak.

“Meals I tend to just pick a replicator rotation and stick with it for awhile. There is usually a standard mix of proteins, greens and other things to try. Sleep is either feast or famine I suppose. If I had to generalize it, I probably live on too little sleep and more coffee than I should, but that seemed to be the whole station if I’m honest.”

At the mention of coffee, Hilea’s nose nearly wrinkled involuntarily. It was a vile substance to her. Burnt, ground bean water. She knew it had pros and cons medically, but the smell could be toxic to her sensitive nose. “Perhaps no caffeinated coffee 4 hours before bed. There are several excellent teas with sedative qualities in the database, or even warm milk before bed. ” She turned and sipped at her redleaf tea, warming her hands on the mug as she did so. Mentally she was also preparing herself for the next part of the examination. Hands on. It was something she had always done since scanners and tricorders hadn’t always been around. It was also the best way to learn anatomy to her mind, solidifying the connection on what parts went where and how it all interconnected on that individual. 

“Any soreness, sprains, or extended pain?” Hilea asked as she added. Starting at his neck, she felt his glands and pulse. prodded the abdomen for rigidity and tenderness. 

“Dindair daendle.”  Hilea repeated as he looked at her. In fluent Rihannan, she added. ”Perhaps the UT hasn’t had a chance to learn good luck”

Jaxom was surprised when she decided to examine with him with her hands, but not enough to be worried about it. Maybe there was something going on with her scanner he thought to himself, listening as she told him about the various drinks on the databank. “Well warm milk will be a hard pass for me, I am not overly crazy about it to start with. Once we aren’t kids anymore, milk just seems like something you add to a drink. But I could try the teas, some nights coffee definitely makes taking the edge off harder,” he said as he felt her prodding along his abdomen.

“No aches or pains worth mentioning. I slept rough on the way over to the Valkyrie, just a small bunk cot really. But there were a couple stretches in the computer that seemed to do the trick. Once I get more settled, I will see what is in the holodeck for exercises. Otherwise feel good,” Jaxom replied and paused to listen to how she repeated the words. 

“Ah. So that’s good luck is it. Now I get what you meant when you mentioned Operations and the Chief. Although I think every engineer gets a little dose of grumpy when they graduate, like a hypospray,” he said joking as the examination moved along. 

Since Jaxom seemed to like it, she continued in fluent Rihannsu Hilea knew the UT had in the database. “Perhaps extra stretching. There are hot tubs next to the gymnasium.” But he also heard Atsaen extra stretching. ‘nhdh are descaey tubs adv) hhaehh-ahi iudaiht ehdhihss gymnasium.

Switching back to Federation Standard, Hilea added, “Other than that, a blood sample, yes I am that old school as you humans put it, and you are cleared for duty, Lieutenant.”

Listening as she went through some of the medical advice, he made a note to try and remember the phonetic sound of the Rihannsu Hilea spoke. He knew the translator would maybe give him the gist of it, and he smiled a little at the standard words that slipped in. He was glad to have met the Doctor, and if meeting the crew continued to go this smoothly, the Valkyrie promised to be a great opportunity. 

“Stretching and the gym it is Doc, and nice to meet you officially. I’m sure the department will be glad to hear it, we look bare bones on the ship so I think you will have more of these to come,” he said, as he held his arm out for the sample and watched as the red blood filled the vial. Once that was done, he finished with Hilea and headed out.