Off-Kilter

Posted on Sat Aug 17th, 2019 @ 2:07am by Lieutenant Sandra Adamson

Mission: For Whom The Bell Tolls
Location: USS Majestic, Sickbay
Timeline: MD04, 1530
1236 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

A brief sigh of relief escaped Lily's lips as she exited the security offices and made her way onto the turbolift. Her initial round of departmental face to face meetings was nearly completed, and a quick turbolift ride down to sickbay would conclude her schedule for the day. A quick glance of the duty roster showed her next bridge shift wasn't scheduled until the following day, though the ship was comfortably navigating on its own as the crew continued their journey towards their negotiations with the Claddin Empire.

"Okay, let's have a look here," Sullivan muttered to herself as she pulled out her PADD and browsed through the personnel files. She idly thumbed through the list until she found the ship's chief medical officer. "Okay, let's see, Starfleet Academy, CMO of the Katana, CMO of the Majestic - ah, simple enough."

Of course, any trained member of the medical staff would be more than capable of handling her initial physical. There was no guarantee that the CMO would even be present when she arrived, but Sullivan had learned long ago that it didn't hurt to know a face and a name prior to meeting someone for the first time. Lily placed her PADD back in her jacket pocket and made her way out of the turbolift and down the deck eight corridor.

The double doors into medical slid open with a pneumatic hiss. Looking around, Sullivan found a nurse and approached with a smile. "Hello ma'am, my name is Lilith Sullivan. I made an appointment earlier for my on-boarding physical, is it a good time?"

Nurse Patterson looked up from her work. "Lieutenant Sullivan, yes, just get yourself a seat on the biobeds, the doctor will get to your shortly" She got up and walked to the office.

"Like, all of them?" Lily giggled as she plopped herself down into a sitting position. She feigned as if she was going to get up and move to the adjacent bed, before thanking the nurse for her assistance. Legs not quite reaching the floor, she let them dangle as she took in the surrounding facility. It was never anyone's intent to spend any significant time in sickbay, so the time for looking around was now.

Sandy was going to medical reports from the other doctors, and looked through some requests for medical research. There were also several requests for the medical labs. She send in the permissions, when nurse Patterson walked in. "Doctor Adamson, Lieutenant Sullivan is here for her physical, ma'am."

Slowly Sandy got up and said, "Thank you, Nurse, I am coming." She took out her medical tricorder and walked on to sickbay. She had already read the medical file of the lieutenant prior before. "Hello, I am Doctor Adamson, Lieutenant. How are you at the moment?"

"Doctor Adamson, nice to meet you," Sullivan smiled broadly as the ship's CMO approached. "Oh I love your hair, I've always been envious of that shade of auburn, it's very pretty!"

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Sandy replied. "It's my own hair color."

"Gorgeous! Anyway," Lily continued her train of thought. "yeah, I guess I've been feeling alright. It's just the usual restlessness and trouble sleeping switching from a planetary cycle back to a starship, but it sorta happens every time I cycle back out starside. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Sandy had started to scan Lily in the meantime. "I do get that from your bio readings," She said, "But nothing out of the ordinary. Is there something I should know about, that is not in you medical file?" She made some notes on a PaDD.

"Uh, well actually, there was something I wanted to get on the record. Have you had anyone reporting any strange, inexplicable phenomena recently?" Sullivan queried. "The reason I ask is that I was giving myself a tour of some of the facilities earlier this morning, and I swore I could hear a voice speaking as clearly as I am to you now. When I turned around, there was no one there. I've spoken quietly with a few other crew - I don't think I'm alone on this."

"Yes there have been some reports of incidents," Sandy explained. "Normally with routine physicals I don't do a brain scan, but..." She moved her tricorder up to near his face. She then looked over her scans again. "Hmm...." She said in thought as she turned on the bed monitor. She looked on the screen and nodded. "As I thought. It seems you have the same condition as the other report." At this point she ready to step to the captain. This is beginning to become a ship wide problem.

"I gotta say, it's slightly concerning when you word it that way doc," Lily sulked a little, not liking the explanation she was being given. The numbers appearing on the monitor meant very little to her. "What other symptoms have people been reporting?"

"Other symptoms I have encountered have been, seeing dead spirits, waking up in bed not remembering what happened the night before and strange dreams, but so far we have encountered them with telepathic species, Vulcans, Romulan, and our bartender is half Aenar," Sandy sighed as she brought up an image of Lily's brain. She pointed to her cerebral cortex. "There is your problem." She pointed at a small device of unknown origin.

"What the heck! What is that? Do you think I am going to be okay for duty?" The level of concern in Lily's voice had risen by a few abstractions.

"You will as soon as we disabled the device," Sandy explained. "Or at least that is the working theory for now. We don't know enough about the devices to be certain."

"Yo doc, not gonna lie, that is very spooky. But I'm no medical expert. If you say it's going to be alright, then I'm okay with it." An involuntary shudder coursed through Sullivan's spine like an electric shock. "I've never been happier to only be able to hear my own thoughts. How widespread are we talking about here?"

"Ok, for now we will leave the device," She continued explaining. "I would like you keep record of everything you experience. If there is something you feel is not right and need my attention urgently, let me know right away." She put her hand on Sullivan's shoulder. "I know it sounds worrisome, but until we know more, I don't want to put you at more risk than you currently are."

"Okay, I trust you doctor," the look on Sullivan's face relaxed ever so slightly. "But otherwise, everything within normal parameters? Am I okay to get to work?"

"Yes, for now," Sandy said. "and like I said, Let me know if something changes."

"Will do, thanks." Lilith hopped down off the biobed and began to walk to the exit. She thanked and waved goodbye to Nurse Patterson as the doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss. The relief of being done with most of the on-boarding meetings had been offset by the anxiety caused by Doctor Adamson's discovery. A pang of hunger resonated, so she made a turn towards the turbolift in search of food.

"Well little freeloading chip in my brain," she muttered to herself, "let's go see what other sort of trouble we can get in, shall we?"

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Lieutenant Sandra Adamson
CMO

Lieutenant Lilith Sullivan
CFCO