Sickbay was its usual bustle of activity when Elodin Devan stepped out of his office. The past hour had been its usual headache of trying to make the next month’s schedule, as several of the nurses had asked for specific shift changes – some of which he could agree to, but others that would leave them understaffed. He’d been left with no choice but to impose a few double shifts, something he’d always been reluctant to do. He knew there would be some complaining from the staff, but it was either that, or refuse the shift changes they’d asked for…

He walked over to the nurses’ station and was preparing to bring the schedule up on the monitor when the Sickbay doors parted, and Lieutenant Gore, the ship’s new Security Chief, walked through.

Gore was not particularly enthused at the idea of ever visiting a sickbay, but it was part of any new assignment to take on the ‘dreaded’ Starfleet-mandated physical examination. Perhaps it would have been a bit easier if didn’t usually turn into a Barnum and Bailey show the first few visits because of his fairly obvious implants. Fairly few physicians had seen any of these in perhaps a century or so. The novelty did wear off over time, but going through the process every time had become a drag.

His glowing red eyes scanned the room. All kinds of tactically relevant information such as illumination and temperature levels, potential cover and emergency exit routes, location, genders, species, height and estimated weight of the personnel in the room, potential improvised weapons and other information flashed across his field of vision. Setting all of this aside, he looked for an officer among them. Any of them would do, of course, but perhaps meeting the chief medical officer would be a good idea.

“Lieutenant,” called out Elodin, catching the man’s attention and waving him over to a biobed. “I assume you’re here for your physical,” he said, quite confident that no one had summoned Security.

Guided by the voice calling to him, Gore turned to face the doctor. “I’m afraid not, Doc” he said assuming a serious tone. “I am here to escort you to the brig. I strongly advise you do not resist” he continued as he made his way towards Elodin.

Elodin stopped in his tracks and turned to face the new officer. “Aren’t you going to be a hoot on the Bridge,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He waved again at the biobed. “Come on, I don’t have all day.”

Gore had to laugh. “You are the first in my career to not fall for that, Doctor,” he said, making his way over to where the Chief Medical Officer was patting the biobed, an invitation to sit on it. Gore lifted himself a little bit and sat down. “You are also one of the first to not make a comment or stare uncontrollably at my implants.”

“Believe it or not,” said Elodin as he started setting up the biobed for the physical exam, “I’ve seen implants like these before. Not that specific model, of course, but close enough. Yours are an old model, but the ones I saw… You’d be surprised what we had to work with in some of the refugee camps.”

Gore nodded, causing one of the diagnostic lights to shine directly into his eyepiece. Painful, but it was his own mistake. Wincing aside, he responded, “Thats right, you are Bajoran. I assume you remember the Occupation,” he asked.

“Yes,” replied Elodin. “But even after the Occupation, we had to resort to these sorts of older implants, for the simple reason that there was nothing else available, unless you were in one of the major cities on Bajor itself. Resources were very scarce on the moons or in the more rural areas.”

He took note of Gore’s photosensitivity, and dimmed the lights a bit. “Have you ever been evaluated for cloned implants?”

The relief of the dimmed lights was welcome to Gore, more than he would admit. “I have, yes. However, I am not interested in them.” He held up his hand, miming the Doctor to stop his recommendations that he knew were coming. “I know they would be self-calibrating, and I know they would allow me to see better, and to be able to handle things better with the added function of tactile feeling for my arm and hand, but the tactical data I am able to see when I look at something is extremely beneficial to me, especially with my background and in my current role as Chief Tactical Officer and Chief of Security,” he said. “And the arm piece gives me additional strength and agility, which could be, and has been, quite helpful.” He thought about asking the Doc more about himself, but he sensed the Doctor didn’t care to talk about it, at least, at this stage in their working relationship. Instead, he pivoted the conversation. “You and the Captain are about the same age, I think, and you both are Bajoran. Did he participate in driving the Cardassian Occupation off of Bajor? Did you two know each other back then?”

“I didn’t know the Captain until he came on board this ship a few weeks ago,” replied Elodin, making notes in Gore’s medical file. “I know he was involved in the Resistance, but I don’t know any of the specifics. There were reasons why msot of us were kept uninformed of other cells’ activities – you can’t be tortured into revealing what you don’t know.”

He adjusted the medical scanners and performed additional scans. “Besides the implants, what can you tell me about your medical history?”

Gore understood the implications of what the Doctor was telling him. In a way, his own past was the same, keeping all of the agents compartmentalized as to ensure nobody knew too much, and no one agent could affect the greater organization any more than his own small part. In that way, he related to both the Doctor as well as the Captain, and had a newfound respect for both, not that he would share that information, of course. “My medical history is, how shall we say, extensive. I’ve had my skull cracked three times, suffered innumerable concussions, had all but two of my original teeth replaced, broken my neck twice, broken by back in five different locations, had both of my lungs lacerated by my ribcage, one one time, and the other one a different time, broken all but one rib, my spleen has been replaced as well as my ventricle valve on my heart with a cloned version of my original. My liver was severely damaged and one third of it was removed, but the doctor at the time told me it is the one organ in the Brekkian body that regenerates itself, so I am not sure that counts. My pelvis was crushed at one point, and I lost one testicle because of it. Thankfully all that stuff down there still works though, if you know what I mean.” He inhaled and continued. I have broke my left femur twice and my right one three times. My right kneecap is also artificial. Finally, I sprained my left ankle a few weeks before I came aboard. Now that I think about it, my feet are just fine. I’ve never had a problem with either of them,” he said, swinging his feet like a child from the biobed.

Elodin nodded and ran a hand through his thick blond hair. This case was among some of the more unusual he’d seen in his career. It was pretty much pointless to take down a medical history, since just about every organ in the Lieutenant’s body had been replaced. The best he could do was to establish a baseline based on current observations, so he’d at least have something to refer to should the need arise. But was this the Brekkian’s true baseline?

“How are you feeling today? Anything bothering you?”

Gore thought for a moment. “Other than my frustrations with some of the paperwork needed to do as a Department Head, I cannot think of anything,” Gore teased. “No Doctor, nothing physically is bothering me. I feel just fine.”

The medical officer finished typing a few notes in the Lieutenant’s file, before shutting off the scanners. “All right,” he said finally. “I think I’ve got just about all I need here. Unless there’s anything else you think I should know?”

Gore smiled, his red eye shining brighter somehow, giving off an eerie red and black shadow on top of his cheekbone and across his brow. “Nope Doc, nothing today.” He hopped off the biobed like he was 12, being released by Doctor Elodin to return to duty. “Thanks a bundle, Doc Elodin. Have a great day!” Without waiting for a response, which was the custom of his world, Gore marched towards the exit. As he reached it, two crewmen came through. Based on how he was walking, sure of himself and his station, the two cleared the way for him, one to the right, the other to the left, standing at attention until he passed. 

OFF

A JP long in the works, by:

Lieutenant GoreChief Security OfficerUSS Cygnus

and

Doctor Elodin Devan, Chief Medical Officer