Post Number: 86 *The Doctor is In*

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:31pm by Captain Marius Pontmercy & Lieutenant Amanda Hemsley
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 3:31pm

1,322 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Obsidian

On:

Marius Pontmercy added the last sentence to his missive to Starfleet Command, asking for a personal chef for the crew, and pressed send. He hoped he would hear back from them soon, he knew how arduous it was having to go to the Arcadia while they waited for the personal replicators to be repaired. With that done, he glanced at his agenda, and nodded to himself. Tapping his comm badge, he leaned back in his chair.

"Captain Pontmercy to Lieutenant Hemsley. If you have time, could you come to my ready room?"

Hearing the captains voice over the com startled Hemsley for a second. She had been deep into her research on Pon’Far and potential ways of helping T’Shas through it. As often happens when you’re deep in thought, she had completely tuned out the world around her. It took her a second to get her bearing again, but then quickly tapped her com badge. “Yes Sir, I will be there in 20 minutes.”

Tapping her com badge again, she walked to the mirror in the other end of sickbay. “You look like hell” she softly said herself. Nothing major had happened that shift, but she was exhausted. Reports, meetings with other crew and some new members of her staff, mostly nurses, physicals and reports. Lots and lots of reports. All in all, Amanda haar kept herself busy throughout the day. The highlight had been lunch with Judith. Ration pack #6, Meatloaf with mashed potatoes. If you can call it that. It was more like an unrecognizable lump of substance made to vaguely resemble meat, and a dry heap of plaster. The gravy looked more like rusty water, and tasted about the same. ‘Ration packs, supposed to supply you with everything your body needs. Calories, minerals, sodium. Everything. Except taste.’ For an hour or so, engineering had to take the replicators on Arcadia offline for some maintenance. And of course, they had to do it at the only time Amanda could get away for lunch. So, her only option had been ration packs, to hers and Judith’s delight. “Honestly, how can Klingon ration packs taste better than Starfleet’s?”

She quickly splashed some water in her face, hauled a brush through her long blond hair, put some concealer on the bags under her eyes in an effort to look presentable for the captain. She might not always agree with the chain of command, when it comes to medical matters, but she respected the position and the man to much to not make an effort. After the briefing, she had quickly skimmed the public part of his service record and was impressed. Specially his actions as a young medical officer on the Howard.

She have herself one last look in the mirror. “You look… presentable.” With that thought, she quickly left her office, on her way to the captain’s ready room.

A few moments later the chime rang at his ready room door, and Marius called for the doctor to enter. When the young woman did so, Marius stood.

"Come in, Lieutenant, come in." He waited as she crossed the almost empty room and took a seat in front of him. "Thank you for coming, I know that you have a lot on your plate right now," he said with a rueful smile.

“Yes Sir, Thank you Sir. It’s been one of those days. It is physical day, so you know what that means. Back to back patients, on top of all the meetings and reports. Not to mention assessing the enormous damage to the infirmary. Which I wanted to talk to you about.” Amanda handed the man her pad. “As you can see, the infirmary is entirely demolished. There isn’t even one working biobed, let alone anything else. Which is why I am requesting permission to set up office on the Arcadia for the time being. I’ll set up a small field unit in the infirmary for any emergency that can not be directly transported to Arcadia, in order to stabilize the patient for transport. But as it stands, doing any real medical care there is out of the question. It’s best described as a death trap. And my job is to prevent just that, death. So that goal is irreconcilable with the state the infirmary is in.”

"Absolutely, make it happen," Marius said. "I also wanted to rectify an oversight during our Senior Staff meeting. I know that the shields and weapons are of huge concern, but so is our medical department. It makes absolutely zero sense to worry about all of that if we have nowhere to take people if they're wounded. So by all means, use the Arcadia, but I want Medical up and running asap. Send me a list, copy the Engineering Chief, and let's make it happen."

"Thank you sir. Commander McMahon already has a copy of that list and affirmed he would be coördinating with the relevant departments to get the infirmary running, so I can move my office to the base permanently." The thought of moving her practice to the base, and suddenly be responsible for the health and welbeing of almost 10.000 people, instead of the 200 on Arcadia made her gasp for breath for a second.

"You look worried, lieutenant" Marius said.

"I am at the start of my career, Sir. Arcadia is my first posting after residency. The common path to becoming Chief Medical Officer is to start out as a medical officer, move up to assistant chief and then becoming chief. But the powers at be decided I should become CMO right after residency." She took a sip of the water the captain put in front of her. "Thank you. I'm not complaining, sir. I just wonder if I'm ready for this responsibility. Specially on assignment where it seem the entire command staff had medical experience." Marius chuckled a humorless laugh.

"The USS Howard was a long time ago, and I'm far from an expert these days. We may have people here in other departments who know how to set a broken bone, but you are the expert. Out of however many candidates, Starfleet chose you for this position. Don't sell yourself short, it's a large base, but you're not alone. Eventually you'll have an ACMO, and you'll lean on him or her as I lean on Commander Haines and Lieutenant Commander McMahon." Marius looked out the viewport behind him for a moment before continuing. "In times like these we are defined by the situations that make us who we are. We all have an opportunity here to rise above our circumstances, and I know that you will do just that."

"I have been wondering why I was chosen. I heard Captain Michaels personally requested me?" Marius looked back down at his desk, uncertain. He searched through a stack of padds until he found the one he wanted.

"The only thing it states here is a personal note from Michaels. It said that you were highly recommended by one of your professors, and that he wanted the best to serve on the Arcadia." He looked at Hemsley. "People believe in you, it's time YOU had faith in yourself."

"You're right. I'm not a little girl anymore. And on Obsidian I have the opportunity to a medical department from the ground up. That will be good practice for when I get to run my own medical facility one day." With that, Amanda stood up, ready to get back to work, with renewed convidence. "With your permission, sir?" Mariusbstood as well.

"Of course, thank you for coming, Doctor. Dismiased." Marius watched as the young woman left his Ready room, knowing that she was a fine officer. She would do well onboard the Obsidian.

Off:

Captain Marius G. Pontmercy
Commanding Officer
Starbase 11 - Obsidian Station

Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Hemsley
Chief Medical Officer
Starbase 11 - Obsidian Station

 

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