“Shrinking the Jarhead” – Part I (Backpost)
Posted on 24 Feb 2019 @ 7:07pm by Lieutenant Amiri Aldana 365, D.V.M., M.D. & Lieutenant Junior Grade Wyndsor Emerson, Ph.D. & Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Walken
Edited on on 25 Feb 2019 @ 4:58pm
Mission:
Ka Hakaka Maikaʻi - The Good Fight
Location: Main Sickbay
Timeline: After "Missing Beings"
Tags: Sombra, 3CW4YMF696F
Kyle had been dreading this, he was never one to enjoy any kind of doctor visit and no matter how many times he had been to one he always seemed to annoy or upset the doctor. After taking a few minutes he entered sickbay looking for the Chief Medical Officer who was to give his new physical after his stint as a P.O.W.
After a while a large tri-colored canid entered the main room from somewhere out of sight, presumably one of the personal work offices of the various medical staff. The canid – who might have been recognized from his bio pic – had large proud pointed ears, medium-length fluffy fur; soft to the touch, and a long fluffy tail. They sported a medical-teal vest with several patches on it. One read ‘Medical Service Animal’ another read ‘Working – Ask to Pet,’ as well as a few others with insignia and a place to display an ID with credentials.
The canid – a male – crossed over and sat in-front of the new guest and regarded him with a curious expression and a slight tilt to his head. His tail wagging lightly. With a quick thought he alerted ‘Alpha’ to the man’s presence.
The marine looks down at the creature, “Oh hello there.” He reads the patches and resists the urge to pet it, even thou it didn’t look anything like his old dog it brought back the memories of her. “Don’t mean to borrow you just here for a physical, looks like I came at a bad time since the CMO doesn’t seem to be here…and I am telling this to an animal.” He looks around but thankfully it looked like no one heard him. “Well, that’s good that no one sees me.”
Just then the CMO did appear out of hir office. S/he approached from the male’s left giving hir a slightly profile view. “Sees you do what; talk to Sombra?” S/he smiled with a slight wag of hir Kazarite tail. “People do that all the time,” s/he added with cheer in hir voice. Stopping next to Sombra and touched his crown lightly. “This is Sombra by the way; my… assistant. I’m Doctor Amiri Aldana 365, the CMO. What brings you to sickbay?” S/he would have given the male a traditional Kazarite hug, but s/he had a guess he might be one of the marines who were recently rescued, and s/he wasn’t sure what to do. S/he decided to wait and see what he’d do.
“Well it’s one thing to talk to your own animal, but someone’s you don’t know, and people start to think you are crazy.” He laughed softly. “I am Sergeant Kyle Walken, I was one of the few survivors of the Wyoming. Captain Bolingbroke wants me to get a new physical since I was redeployed here on the Hawaii. I’m also sure they want to make sure I don’t have any lasting damage from my time on the Gorn ship.”
Aldana smiled, “well I’m sure in this case I think it’s fine, Sombra may be my service dog, but he’s also a registered therapy dog. Besides, everyone on my father’s side can talk to animals.” S/he gestured to the main biobed. “Well let’s get started, shall we? Please remove your top and have a seat over here.” S/he led the way.
Meanwhile Sombra stuck close to ‘Alpha’. Currently sickbay wasn’t busy and there were few others around, so he was able to stay out in the open.
“Well, that is interesting to learn,” Kyle spoke softly as he took a seat on the biobed she gestured too. He then removed his undershirt and looks the doctor in the eyes. “What’s next Doc?”
Aldana smiled as s/he looked at him briefly to be sure there wasn’t anything obvious of note; cuts, contusions, malignancies, scaring or other things visual. S/he finally got a good look at his whole face and made a note of an old wound on the right side of his face. She didn’t react however; it wasn’t anything s/he hadn’t seen before. Besides s/he figured if he wanted to bring it up, he would. S/he brought out a PADD and put in a request from the database for his medical records. “If you wouldn’t mind laying back please. I can bring up the surgical arch, it can make much more detailed scans than a medical tricorder.
Sombra sat near-by. It wasn’t often he could be out in the open, and he enjoyed the space as he observed in curiosity.
Kyle lays back on the bed so they could bring up the arch and do whatever scans they need to do to him. “Alright Doctor I’m an open book so begin to prod and poke your way to make sure I’m healthy and still fit for duty.” He jests.
Aldana smiles warmly at the marine. S/he is beginning to like him. As s/he activated the arch and it began to close around Walken, s/he commented if you feel the slightest bit of discomfort and want out, let me know.” S/he broke into a grin, “do you like being poked and prodded? I can look into the possibility of an old-fashioned proctoscopy,” returning the jest.
“A doctor with a sense of humor? I think I have officially seen it all now.” He laughs at her joke, he never liked having these arches over him, but it was something he had to get used too. “So, what’s your story Doc?”
Amiri winced, there was that shorthand for ‘doctor’, that s/he wasn’t fond of. For some reason it made hir hungry for rabbit… or was it duck? “Please, you may call me ‘Amiri’ as long as no one else hears. S/he cocked hir head as s/he activated the scan field and considered Walken’s question. “Well, that depends, which aspect of my life fascinates you the most?” Then s/he thought of something. “We first arrived onboard as Assistant Science Officer during the Bre’el mission. Shortly after that our CMO defected and I was promoted to CMO in his stead.”
“Well…Amiri, I’m just curious. I’ve only been here a short time and I haven’t really gotten the time to meet a majority of the crew. Well the crew that will humor a Sergeant, I’m not the most interesting or important person.” He laughs again quietly at his own comment. “But the jump from the study of science to medicine is a major jump, were you a medical doctor before or was this a situation that was thrusted upon you?”
Amiri smiled as the scanners did their thing; hir tail flicked lazily and happily. “Oh, I don’t know, I’m sure I could think of at least a few of us who might find you interesting.” S/he listened to his question. “Actually, I had my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine before I started in Starfleet. I graduated from the academy and then moved onto Starfleet Medical Academy where I finished my M.D. and got my first internship. I only took a lesser position as ACSO because I wanted the U.S.S. Hawai’i and there were no medical positions open.” S/he paused, “I’m not too familiar with marine ranks, why wouldn’t people have patients for a Sargent? Besides, it seems like you’ve at least one good story to tell.”
“Interesting, so I take it you are an animal lover then?” He spoke unable to do much else since he was stuck in the surgical arch. “Oh, it’s not that people wouldn’t have the patience for me because of my rank, I’m a ‘jarhead’ we tend to be good at fighting. I couldn’t tell you how to fly a ship, fix a ship, or perform some surgery on someone. But if you need someone to break another person’s nose, I can do that.”
Aldana smirked for a moment. “I’m sorry, it’s just that humans seem to have more than one meaning for a “lover,” but I guess you could call me that. I’d guess most Kazrites generally are.” S/he thought about his comments. S/he thought carefully about how to respond to the ‘jarhead’ statements. S/he considered if s/he might have similar feelings or misgivings. “I don’t know about others, but I try not to judge a book by it’s cover. I’m surprised people still use that slang. Isn’t it meant as derogatory? I guess I try to treat each person with fairness and equality. I know some judgements are unavoidable, but I try not to make broad generalizations about any-being.”
The scans finished and the arch retracted automatically, and Sombra perked up and sniffed the air at the sound.
~It’s alright ‘luv.’~
Aldana retrieved a PADD and downloaded them along with Walken’s medical records. S/he double-checked his vaccination history. “Looks like you’re over-due for some booster shots, and some new ones for this area of space. There are some general ones I’d like to give you too due to having been on a Gron ship for so long. Okay?”
“You must be mixing up a word, ‘Jarhead’ is just old slang for Marine, nothing derogatory about it.” He sat up once the scans were finishes. “Well I guess I can’t talk my way out of these shots, do what you got to do Lieutenant. Once it’s all through I should be cleared to active duty and get my team into ship shape.”
Aldana considered Walken’s comment. “Hmm, yes, but I thought it was initially intended as an insult implying that Corpsmen had empty heads so they could be filled with whatever the militaries of the time wanted to throw at them?” Doctor Aldana got out a hypo spray and prepared it for the first one. S/he held it up. “Luckily there’s only two you need, one is a combination shot. Where would you like it?”
“Wrong actually, during the twentieth century, the American Navy called the Marine that due to the high collars on their uniforms. But they embraced the name and it still inexistent to this day.” Kyle explains as he presents his left arm to the Amiri. “Alright I’m ready.”
“I’m sorry,” Aldana felt about surprised how blunt and straight forward Walken had stated s/he was wrong and corrected hir. S/he wasn’t sure how that made her feel. S/he wondered silently why Walken kept on mentioning he was ready. Did he need to psych himself out? Maybe Gorn still used needles? “Thank you for putting me on the correct path. The doctor accepted the man’s arm, “this should hurt a bit,” and pressed the hypospray to the inside of his elbow before pulling it away again. “There.” S/he started to prepare the second one before he knew it the second one was completed too. S/he let go of his arm. “There shouldn’t be any, but please report it immediately if you experience any side-effects.”
“Sorry? You don’t anything to be sorry for Lieutenant, no one knows everything.” He smiled and rubbed his arm after the injections. “Never was a fan of needles as a kid but you got to do what you got to do.” As he got up, he began to put his undershirt back on. “If that happens you will be the first person to know, anything else or am I good to go?”
The Doctor was confused at Walken’s comments about needles. Medical technology had largely phased out needles almost two-hundred years ago, but s/he decided to ignore it and merely shrugged. “As for me, yes, you’re finished, but unfortunately given your recent ordeal, I am constrained from approving you for duty until I get the agreed approval from a psych-professional. I suggest Doctor Emerson; she could help you with that.”
“You are not the first person to say that, I’ve tried to get in contact with Doctor Emerson, but I guess she must be busy.” Walken answers honestly, he knew it was important, but he still felt it unnecessary. “You may have a better chance to get in contact with her if you do tell her I’m ready to get this psych eval over with.”
The CMO cocked hir head confused. “Busy? We’ll see about that. Yes, I can give her a try right now if you’d like. One of the best things we can do for you right now is to get you reintegrated back into society. You’re right it is best to get this over with.”
Aldana tapped hir commbadge. -=/\=-Doctor Aldana to Counselor Emerson.-=/\=-
“Emerson here. How may I help you, Doctor?”
To Be Continued…
Doctor Amiri Aldana 365 D.V.M., M.D., LT, SF
CMO
&
Kyle Walken, Sgt, SFMC
2MSOT/EL
&
Dr. Wyndsor Emerson, Ph.D., LTjg, SF
Chief Counselor
