Posted by Cadet Alex Winters (Doctor) in Sickbay - Cadet Starr boarding exam

Posted by Cadet Simon Starr (Security Officer) in Sickbay - Cadet Starr boarding exam

Posted by Cadet Alex Winters (Doctor) in Sickbay - Cadet Starr boarding exam

As soon as Starr followed her instruction, Alex pushed a button. The scanner formed an arch over Starr’s body. “Would you like to see what the inside of your arm looks like?” she asked.

She’d rather ask, before confronting the Cadet with a fait accompli. Some people, she knew, preferred blissful ignorance in certain areas. Such as the intricate workings of their various bodily functions.

Cadet Winters, Doctor

It wasn’t the first time Starr had been asked such a question “I’ve seen a lot of the inside of myself” he chuckled, quickly adding “in scans, of course” realising how the first part might sound out of context. “So, let’s see what’s going on in this hand of mine shall we?” he said after the scan.

Alex nodded, glad – but not surprised – that Starr didn’t seem to be the squeamish sort.

On the console at the head of the biobed, a three-dimensional image of Starr’s entire body began to appear, layer by layer. Alex pushed a few buttons to restrict the output, so that it would only show the Cadet’s left arm. “Computer,” she said, “transfer the imaging data from biobed one into holoprojectors one and two.”

The computer chirped its acknowledgement, and a disembodied arm appeared in-between the biobed where Starr lay, and the next one. “Remove the epidermis,” she went on. With another chirp, the floating arm became a disembodied collection of bone, muscle, tendons, nerve tissue and blood vessels. Alex peered at it for a moment, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“Isolate the brachial plexus, and highlight me the the electrical signal traffic moving through it,” she said. One more chirp, and the arm became a roughly arm-shaped network of tendrils, surrounded by plenty of empty air where the bones, muscles, tendons and blood vessels used to be. What was left consisted of various long dendrites that traveled from axons in the spinal cord into the outer reaches of Starr’s arm, wrist and fingers. As the Cadet lay under the scanner, the computer visualized electrical signals traveling from his spine into his arm as bright flashes moving down the various nerve endings in his arm, almost too fast for the human eye to catch at all, let alone trace.

“Slow the animation by a factor of 10.000,” Alex said. The computer chirped again, and the nearly invisible bright flashes slowed down into easily traceable pulses, moving up and down the dendrites at regular intervals.

“Cadet, could you please clench your fist, please?” Alex asked. When he did, the number of pulses and the pace at which they traveled increased markedly. Alex saw no evidence that any of the pulses were being blocked or slowed down in any way. “Well, there goes one theory,” she said quietly, and then, to the Cadet: “The good news is, you don’t have RSI, or any other form of nerve damage.”

Alex touched a few buttons on the console. The disembodied arm restored itself, epidermis and all. Alex grabbed and reoriented it, until it floated horizontally about a meter off the floor. “Computer,” she said, “Isolate the blood vessels.” The computer did so, and again, a roughly arm-shaped object appeared, this time consisting only of blood vessels. It was at this point that Alex’ eye caught the irregularity.

The scan itself showed that in addition to a couple of tight blood vessels, one of them seemed to be slightly twisted. The knotting taking place there so minisicule that it’s very easy to miss.

Cadet Simon Starr

She smiled. “Mr. Starr, do you know what an aneurysm is?”

• Cadet Alex Winters, Doctor

Simon thought for a moment “ah, yes, an abnormality in a blood vessel. My mother had one in her foot.” Then the fact hit him “and it can be hereditary” he said, having that eureka moment. He chuckled to himself and said “at least it’s not on the brain” as the doctor pointed out where the issue is on the scan.

Cadet Simon Starr