Lt Sesias entered the main sick bay, beside him is a Golden Retriever wearing the vest of a service animal. “ Excuse me, is Doctor MacDonald in?”

“Let me check Lieutenant, and may I ask. Why do you have a dog on a ship in the sick bay?”

LT Sesias, looks down and scratches the dog’s head. “Well that’s one of the things I wanted to talk to the Doctor about. She is a hologram, don’t tell her that though, something I’ve been working on for a bit. Not sure how much use her and her friends would be on a day to day basis on the ship. But doing my research I have read reports of animals helping patients get over emotional or mental issues that may be hindering their recovery. It’s been a side project of mine for a bit.”

The nurse looks from the dog to the Lieutenant back to the dog. “Ooookkkaayyy, let me see if she is in and has time for a meeting. Sir.”

Lt. Sesias sits down in one of the chairs. “Rose. Down, stay. “ Rose,the dog, laid down next to his feet on the floor, situated where she can see the room. Sesias looked over at the nurse “I’m also working on a version that would be small animals for children and families.“ 

Aimee approached from her rounds.  Nothing serious.  Just your typical bumps and bruises obtained during the normal course of a day on a starship. There was a mild case of Thorvian Flu going around.   It wasn’t really anything more than annoying to those inflicted,  but she didn’t need the whole ship going down with it either.. 

“Lieutenant,  what can I do for you?” She asked Sesias.

“Well doc, if you’re not too busy I wanted to discuss a few things with you. First, what areas of the ship would you want to use for emergency medical wards? And is there anything in particular besides the normal star fleet list that you would want prepositioned? I’m going to have some of my supply folks conduct  inventories on the prepositioned supplies in those areas that were already intended to be used by the last crew. Would you like to have a medical crewman on those teams? And in the same regards the medical supply storage rooms around the ship. Who knows how long it has been since some of those areas have been inventoried and checked for expirations dates.”

“Let’s step into my office,” Aimee said and led him across sickbay and into her office.   “Have a seat if you like,” She offered as she took her own.  Opening her computer she entered commands.  “It says the last inventory was completed by the old CMO six weeks ago.  Doing one myself is on the list, but I haven’t had time to do it yet.  As far as emergency medical wards…” She sat back in consideration, “Well the Mercy has 1,250 biobeds.  I am not sure how much more we’d need, but I suppose if we reached our 8,000 evacuation limit we could exceed our bed capacity.  At that point we’d have to use whatever space we have available.  Hallways, crew lounges, cargo bays etcetera.”

Sesias nodded at this statement “ That’s what I thought. Is there anything that we can do to help facilitate that if it ever comes to pass? I would rather be prepared for the worse and not need it than need it and not have it. Also is there anything you would like added to the medical supply rooms that is not there now. It has been my experience that different chiefs or department heads may want or use something besides what is the norm or they may like certain items over other items. Just want to make sure what we have in stock and on hand are the items that you prefer especially if there is anything  different than on the standard Star fleet medical supply list.”

 “To be honest,  I’m still settling in myself, and to be honest,  compared with where I cam from this is luxury. But I’ll tell you what; you be the first I tell when figure that out,” Aimee said.

Sesias looked back at Rose. “ My second thing deals with Rose here and her friends. I’ve been working with some friends of mine on a physical/emotional support animal that could be used on hospital ships or larger starfleet vessels. When I was on earth attending the academy we, my friends and I, came upon old literature that showed how animals were used in some hospitals and homes to help patients. Well, we know how it would be with a lot of animals on a ship so we started to work on a holographic version. I’ve been testing them out here and there and wondered if a situation warranted it would you be open to helping us test it here on the Mercy. We have also been working on another program that would be for families with young children on star ships to give them a “family pet” of sorts.”

“Go on.  There is considerable evidence that pets aid in healing. Probably mostly the mind, but that helps the body too.”

“Yes ma’am it does. I guess what I’m asking is would you be willing to allow me to activate and release Rose and some of her friends to the medical department to use if you or the other doctors think it would help. All I ask in return is feedback on them and their programming and over time if you think this is something that you think could work on stations or ships. Oh and if there are any particular breeds of dogs that you think would help more than others that would be beneficial to the project also.” 

Aimee thought for a moment,  and then nodded.  “Let’s do a trial run in Ward Four. This way we can look at it scientifically and determine an actual benefit here. They may be a distraction to the doctors and staff reducing care.”

“Thank you doctor Macdonald, I’ll send the information to the ward Four head nurse on Rose and her friends. may I suggest Rose plus two more for now. “ Sesias looked at his PADD. “Hmmm i think I know just the two. I’ll double check their programming but I think Sarge, a cocker spaniel, and  opal, a shi-tzu, would make a good test group. One of each of the dog size categories and with some differences in temperament should help give us the best test for the program.”

“Thank you for your time doctor, please let me know about the inventory and supplies and anything else operations could help with” Sesias stood and offered his middle hand to Doctor MacDonald.

Aimee nodded, “Absolutely.   And the same for you Lieutenant.”