Posted by Lieutenant Daphne Frankenstein (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay - Dr McCall checks in

Posted by Cadet Alex McCall, MD (Doctor) in Sickbay - Dr McCall checks in

Posted by Lieutenant Daphne Frankenstein (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay - Dr McCall checks in
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Stepping across the threshold and in to sickbay, Alex immediately felt somewhat at home in the familiar surroundings, the comforting beeps and trills of medical equipment, so often the background noise to his life, as reassuring to him as morning birdsong would be to another.

He glanced about, taking in the layout and how the chief medical officer liked to arrange things, quietly filling away a few changes he would suggest once he was more settled in.

“Hello? Doctor?” He called, unable to see the senior officer that his briefing PADD told him to meet here.

Cadet McCall, MD

“Back here,” a voice called out from one of the sickbay beds. The voice sounded a little bit strained and there seemed to be another voice talking in a hushed whisper creating the dull white noise of someone talking to a patient. “If you are here for a check-up take a seat. If you are a doctor I need you back here stat.” The voice had the calm control of someone who was in the middle of something important but the tension only those in the medical field would understand as I need help.

Alex quickened his step, tossing his holdall in to a chair as he passed it, the call to duty so ingrained as to make the actions automatic. A couple of years in a busy ER department had gotten him quite used to dropping whatever sandwich, coffee, or nurse he had been holding when he heard that tone of voice. As he stepped closer he felt the slight tingle of the auto-sterilisation field do it’s work, the familiar feeling instantly concentrating his mind on the task ahead as he got his ‘game face’ on.

As the person entering sickbay came around the corner, they would see the medical chief hunched over a small object on the table. At first glance, the size and shape might lead one to think it was a baby or small child yet this was a cadetship and not one with children. The other person in the room was blocking the entering medical cadet’s view of the patient on the table.

Daphne quickly glanced up and saw the man standing there was in blue and felt a sigh of relief. “You,” she said, “I need you to get a set of mico clamps. Bring the 1 cm and the 5 cm ones. They are in the cabinet behind me, left side, the third drawer down.” Blowing a lock of hair out of her eyes she directed her attention to the other person in the room. “Nancy, I am going to have him switch out with you.”

Alex nodded his understanding , moved quickly over to the cabinet, and with quick deft movements selected the paediatric clamps, glad that whoever had set up the theatre had done so in a fairly logical and standard manner.

As with all guests of patients, NE Nancy shook her head wide-eyed but before she could protest Daphne shook her head. “Nancy he is a doctor and Timmy is going to be fine. I need someone with better skills than dissecting to help me get the ball bearing out of his esophageal cavity. He is going to be fine but when he comes up next to you I need you to hand him the clamp and go get a cup of coffee in my office. Glancing up at the cadet, Daphne locked eyes with the man. “Ready. Count of three. One…Two,” she led and then waited for the cadet to indicate three and that he was switching with NE Nancy to help complete the surgery.

Daphne Frankenstien CMO

“Three!” Alex slipped quickly into position, easing NE Nancy to one side as he did so, gently but firmly. Alex locked eyes with the Ensign and gave her his best reassuring smile.

“It’s ok Nancy, I’ll take it from here.” Alex quickly ran his eyes over the available scanning data, assessing the patients condition, and then turned a questioning eye on the other Doctor.

“Yes but Timmy is starting to panic,” Nancy said leaning around the doctor. “He has anxiety with new people and experiences.”

Nancy, Timmy said in his mind, how calm would you be if you realized the thing you swallowed was not a blackberry but a ball bearing so yeah....kinda not happy here. For the rest of the occupants in the room, only the slow blink of the turtle’s eyes would indicate the creature was feeling anything at all. He was not squirming or flailing even being on his back with his feet straight up in the air.

“Don’t panic Timmy. For the love of God stay calm,” Nancy almost half shrieked as she moved forward slightly blocking the light McCall was using to create a shadow where he was working. “Don’t go to the light. Stay away from the light!” Nancy wasn’t sure if turtle’s saw a light but if they did, she wanted Timmy nowhere near it.

Daphne was about to say something about Nancy needing a hypo and to chill the hell out but restrained herself. Having a hysterical guest in medical was not a new phenomenon. It was better for her to gauge how McCall handled a distraught scientist over a turtle. One day, and unfortunately, it could be a screaming patient with an equally screaming guest trying to distract him from his job. Every cadet on the ship knew the textbook maneuvers. What this cruise was mainly about was dealing with the unseen things school didn’t teach you.

“Timmy…Timmy are you still with us,” Nancy stroked his head screaming at the turtle increasing her volume as most people did when panicking.

“So what do we have?” Said Alex, in the clipped, precise tones of a professional. His patients and colleagues had always found his soft voice, well spoken British accent, with just a slight lilt, courtesy of his Native Edinburgh, to be comforting in a stressful situation.

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

“Well, Nancy said Tim here was wandering the lab and began to make retching sounds, then rolled over and stopped flailing. She brought him to medical. I scanned him and found the ball bearing obstructing his airway. I sedated him but his vitials are worsening. I mean it seems like it. My turtle anatomy and physiology is a bit rusty,” Daphne let out a small chuckle. “I thought I could remove it but I don’t have enough hands.” Daphne had made the first incision and was holding the area open and suctioning. Can you get in there and remove it?” The operation was simple except for the fact it was on an impossible small scale.

Daphne Frankenstien CMO

“Should be simple enough, I’ve a fair amount of experience in removing foreign bodies from places they aren’t supposed to be.” Said Alex, trying to get a clear view of the ‘patient’.

“Yes but this is a special case. Timmy is…unusual anatomy. Are you sure you are qualified to do this,” Nancy scrutinized Alex’s work holding her breath with each movement of his hand.

“Nancy Dr. McCall is perfectly capable of performing this. He has some experience,” Daphne tried to sound reassuring.

“Understatement of the year.” He thought to himself, thinking of some of the more.... exotic… cases he had had to deal with that had required a fair amount of discretion on his part.

“Yes but this,” she started to speak before being cut off my Alex.

“Nancy,” He said, making eye contact again with the slightly hysterical ensign, his tone firm,

“Alex,” she looked up at him.

“I need you to go over to the console and write down for me everything you can remember about little Timmy, here. Likes, dislikes, the temperature of his terrarium, salinity of the water, anything like that, it will be a great help when we plan his recovery.”

A bubble of laughter erupted from Daphne’s lips that she rapidly tried to cover up with a cough. Alex was good at handling crazy and at times sickbay had more crazy than emergencies.

Nancy shot Daphne a cross look before heading over to the console McCall had directed her to complete her task.

Busy work assigned, Alex set about treating the patient. he called up 3D computerized tomography of the turtle in question, rotating the image that hovered in mid air until he could clearly see the small bearing lodged in the critters throat, blocking the esophagus and noting the associate swelling that was starting to impinge on the trachea that was likely the source of the patients breathing difficulties. Rather than continuing with the mini-trach started by the other Doctor, Alex instead activated the medi comp and instructed the computer to create a miniature tube shaped force-field , similar to those created by the SIF of a starship that had suffered a hull breach, and activated this inside the trachea. With deft movements, Alex slowly expanded the field, creating a tunnel to allow the turtle to breath, his eyes watching the vital signs for any improvements.

“Nice work both with Timmy and Nancy. You have done this before,” Daphne complimented the man. He seemed to be in the zone so to speak. Stead hands, focused on his work, thinking out of the box: he was the type of doctor any ship would dream of having when the klaxons rang red.

Daphne Frankenstien CMO

Alex nodded his response to the compliment, his full attention on the imagery projected above the patient whilst his hands selected a paediatric sized scope by feel from the tray behind him.

Watching the image closely, he gently fed the long flexible filament of the scope through the ‘patients’ beak, and down the oesophagus, until he felt it resting against the hard blockage of the ball bearing. Eyeballing the projection, he extended the small gripping claw at the end of the scope, rotating it slightly to ensure he had a firm grip on the blockage before pulling the scope back firmly, bringing the bearing back along with it.

“There we go lil fella” he said, patting Timmy on his shell, “Let’s keep you sedated while we make sure that the swelling from the trauma doesn’t cause you any issues, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be back eating pizza in no time”

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

“Nice work there McCall,” Daphne nodded. The man had a bedside manner that was warm and friendly, not forced which was a talent of its own. So many doctors had the brilliance but not the other side required of medicine. Many times it was not just the patient you had to treat but a significant other, child, parent, or friend that had arrived with the patient. His use of a distractor task was effortless. His technical work was excellent even if it was on a turtle and not a person.

“Is he,” Nancy held her breath not sure if she wanted the answer. The bottom lip quivering, white knuckles clenching the PaDD in her hands, eyes large and brimming with uncertain tears of happiness or sorrow spoke volumes about how she would react to the open ended sentence she spoke.

Daphne took a step back watching the scene with the rapt attention of someone that in any other situation would be hand to mouthing popcorn from a bucket as she wondered what the next scene would reveal. Science people could be tricky at times. While they did not have the brawn of security, engineering and sciences thought really far out of the box at times. Depending on how the next few minutes went, Daphne debated about telling Alex what she had termed the great beaker brawl of ‘98. It was the class rotation before him but every medical student on the ship seemed to be picking out glass slivers from the science ensigns for hours after the event.

Lt. Daphne Frankenstien CMO

“Timmy will be just fine Nancy,” said Alex, letting his usually slight Scottish accent become a little more pronounced, for some reason people tended to be more trusting and found the accent reassuring.

“I’d like to keep him here for a few more days, just to keep an eye on him, maybe once I have had my own check up, we can go to your quarters and fetch his terrarium?” He glanced over at Daphne,

“Um…sure,” Nancy smiled and fiddled with her hair. Somewhere in all the chaos, Dr. McCall must have missed it was a lab animal and not a pet but Nancy was not about to clarify that mistake for now. “Until then, maybe I could hang around here. You know to make sure Timmy is recovering okay? Do you think I should stay the night here to make sure he is fine and doesn’t have a relapse?”

Daphne let out a snort as she tried to stifle a chuckle. “That is up to Dr. McCall. Timmy is his patient. I trust his judgment. I just don’t trust ball bearings,” she looked at Timmy and gave a wink at the amphibian. “And you little guy. I am going to suggest a purely vegetarian diet.” Reaching out, Daphne tapped the beak of the turtle playfully.

“I’m sorry, assuming you agree Doctor…. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name in all the commotion?”

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

“It is Nancy. Nancy Hall,” the science officer stuck out her hand. “You’re right it was so chaotic.”

“Nice to meet you properly Nancy, I’m Dr McCall, but please, call me Alex.”

Part of her knew it was wrong. Terrible and horribly wrong but at times she was a monster deep down. Coming around the table she patted McCall on the shoulder. “Great job with the surgery. I am going to grab some coffee and send for a cot? That way Nancy here can bunk out with Timmy unless the commotion might be too much for our littlest patient.”

Daphne mentally tossed a coin in her head wondering if Timmy’s prognosis was suddenly going to go from critical to here is the medication and come back with him in three days. She would find out soon enough. Moving to her office she replicated two cups of coffee. One for her and one for McCall who would be along as soon to debrief in her office as he booted Nancy Hall out or helped her set up the cot.

“Agreed, it can only help his recovery having a familiar voice around in an unknown environment,” He turned to Nancy,

“How about you go and get yourself some food and maybe a nice hot shower? We’ll have Timmy moved to a nice private area of the bay and a cot set up ready for when you get back. We can keep an eye on lil Timmy here in the meantime and you’ll feel one hundred times better in yourself, trust me,” he said, with his most charming smile, “I’m a Doctor”

Sitting in her chair, Daphne picked up a stylus and began to make some notes on the charts she had started before Timmy rolled in with Nancy for emergency surgery.

Lt. Daphne Frankenstien CMO

Alex came over to where Daphne was seated after escorting NE Nancy back to her quarters.

“So,” he said, “that was a fairly eventful introduction.” He stuck out a hand,

“For some more than others,” she laughed standing up and extending her hand. “Welcome onboard the Challenger.” Glancing at the clock she did the math in her head and realized the man’s coffee was probably cold. “I got you some coffee but it might be cold. Replicators over there. Get something and sit down,” she gestured to the machine and one of the chairs facing her desk.

“I feel like we need to start over here from the beginning, Cadet Alexander McCall, reporting for duty and a medical check in.”

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

“Daphne…Daphne Frankenstein,” she sat down and picked up her coffee.

Alex managed to limit his reaction to his bosses name to one eyebrow, which shot up of it’s own violation, resulting in a facial expression any vulcan science officer would be proud of. He took a slurp of his coffee to try and cover up his surprise.

“You did great work in there but I have only one real question?” Daphne took a long sip of her drink. “Are you really turning my sick bay into an amphibian bed and breakfast?” There was a humor to her tone and a smile on her face. Right now sick bay was slow. If it helped Nancy to bunk out on an open bio bed so be it. What Daphne was more interested in was Alex’s thought process about Nancy’s request. The one thing she was sure about was that there was a lot to Dr. Alex McCall than what was in his Starfleet file.

Lt. Daphne Frankenstein CMO

“Nancy needs to feel involved, otherwise we’ll likely end up with two patients instead of one and having to fill out all the paperwork for a CNS referral.” Said Alex, he was mostly kidding but kept his poker face in place.

“Besides, studies show that children react positively to the presence of known people and respond better when treated in familiar surroundings… who knows, maybe it works for amphibians too?” He said, shrugging and finally allowing a smile to break through his reserved expression.

Cadet Alex McCall, MD

“Good answer. Your bedside manner is exemplary. Usually, that is the hardest thing for docs to manage and learn. As a rule I tend to try and get to know everyone on a personal basis outside of sickbay. Depending on the ship you get that can be problematic. My friends Dr. Shan and Dr. Grecken are on a mythology class ship with close to a thousand people. The ship class is like a small floating city as compared with some of our other ships. Anyway,” she waved her hand dismissively as if to push away the extraneous story, “I have always found it easier to deal with patients in an emergency when they know you as Daphne and not as Dr. Frankenstein.” Taking a sip of her coffee she let out a chuckle. “Although with a name like Frankenstein I typically don’t have to distract them with a sleight of hand when the occasion calls for it. The name does that pretty well.”

“I can’t think why.” Said Alex, his expression carefully neutral.

“Your file shows you were an ER doc before joining up? What made you make the change if you don’t mind me asking?” In her experience, people signed up for Starfleet for two basic reasons. One they wanted out of their small one-horse planet and believed the recruitment posters about adventure and excitement serving the Federation. These people tended to be sorely disappointed because for all the Borg fights, ion storms, and clashes with hostile civilizations it was weeks to months in between of the mundane. The second type of person tended to join up because they were running from something. The something wasn’t always as mysterious as a secret past they were trying to escape. Usually, it too was more mundane such as a failed relationship, an overbearing family, or the events going on in their city or homeworld. The third other reason was a bender ending up at a local recruitment office but those people tended to be crewmen and not officers.

Alex was a mystery to her. He had a flourishing career in Scotland at a prestigious hospital Men like him didn’t usually up and leave for no reason. Whether he would share his reason or not was up to him.

Lt. Daphne Frankenstein CMO

“Oh, you know, I wanted to seek out new worlds…boldly go....etc ” Said Alex, maintaining his neutral expression as he trotted out the standard recruiting infomercial line.

In truth, he’d just needed to get away from the mess that was his old life and try to make a fresh start. His was hardly a unique story, in fact it was so cliché it was almost painful. Married too young after a whirlwind workplace romance, he’d either ruined his marriage by concentrating too much on his career, or, used his job as an excuse to hide from a joyless marriage. If Alex was honest with himself, even he could no longer decide which of those things was true… probably a bit of both. In time maybe he’d open up to someone about this stuff, but definitely not his boss on the first day… not sober anyway.

Cadet Alex McCall, MD