Posted by Lieutenant Fey Kastil (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay - Cobb seeks out some curious company

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Sickbay - Cobb seeks out some curious company

Posted by Lieutenant Fey Kastil (Chief Medical Officer) in Sickbay - Cobb seeks out some curious company
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

The Doctor waves a dismissive hand and smiles at the Captain. “Worry not dear Captain, twas but a letter from my dear sister since we’re too far from Earth to do a live feed. She is healthy as always, still feels sad about not being able to accept something of her last girlfriend that tore their relationship apart, and desperately wants to know where to send the mountain of confectionaries that she completed from her stress baking.” The doctor gave the captain a sly grin and leaned forward on her desk. “You know, you could arrange a position for her on the ship. Captain’s personal Chef maybe? We’d only need to clear a couple of rooms to ensure she could have an adequate kitchen to meet her particular demands, and a medium cargo hold for fresh ingredient storage.” The Doctor grinned mischievously as she leaned back into her chair. “This isn’t what you came here for, what can I do for you Captain?”

• Doctor Fey Kastil

Well, there was an interesting notion and no mistake. All thoughts of propriety momentarily discarded, Cobb stepped fully into the Doctor’s office and headed immediately for the nearest vacant chair, resting his forearms on the headrest as one might do a supporting wall.
“You’d allow your sister to get involved in all of this?” he looked around him, as if ‘this’ was painted on every surrounding surface. “Would you not be worried for her safety amongst the things we have contained on the lower decks?”
There was no hint of accusation in the captain’s tone. Only pure, unmitigated curiosity.

“Still,” he shrugged as his stomach protested for confectionery over concern, “if she has a mind to bake away her troubles then perhaps it’s only right for us to offer assistance? What say we discuss the matter further? If you have the time, that is?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

The Doctor nodded and poured a couple of cups of peppermint tea for the two of them. “Peppermint is a natural stimulant, you’ll get as much as you do from caffeine without so much crash after it wears off. I have plenty of time Captain, how might I be of assistance to you today?” The Doctor took a long sip from her tea and savored the flavor. Of course, sitting on the doctor’s desk was a plate of tea cakes to go along with it.

• Doctor Fey Kastil

Cobb was unable to hide his disappointment at the peppermint tea. When he’d suggested drinks he’d been imagining something a little stronger and more fulfilling. Still, the cake had not gone unnoticed so perhaps the occasion remained worth saving.

Settling into a chair on the opposite side of the desk, Zachariah reached for his cup and, after skimming a few sharp breaths across the steaming surface, he ventured in for a taste, every feature of his face painting his horrified reaction. “It tastes…” he wanted to identify it as days old chewing gum, but attempted to maintain a more gentlemanly demeanour, “…exactly as I expected, given the name.”
Still, it was having a somewhat settling effect on his stomach and before long, any anxiety Cobb had been feeling regarding this meeting had been dissipated by the warm swell of the tea, allowing him to recline comfortably in his chair. Really all he needed now was a good nap.

“So,” he continued to fill the silence with an attempt at amiable chatter. “Is your sister truly looking for a new outlet for her baking talents? I mean, she’d be subject to all manner of background checks before they’d allow her to step a foot on this vessel. As you yourself know only too well. But, perhaps it might be worth it to find an appreciative audience?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

The Doctor came around the desk again to recline the Captain’s chair, placing his feet in a comfortable position on a low-end table next to the desk that would allow him to still reach the cakes on the desk. “To be the first Three-Star Chef on a Federation Vessel in deep space would be enough notoriety and attention to put her up for that fourth star. I believe she would revel in the challenge of being able to serve her level of skill to a full ship’s crew. I’m sure your belly will really appreciate it too. As for her background check, there would be only one negative mark on her record and it’s the same one that is on mine. A fight broke out at her first job and she tried to break it up, when she was punched, I responded with a table. It was my first bar brawl…and it was in a tea shop.” The Doctor pulled out the news article on a PaDD, something she kept because she was proud of it.

• Doctor Fey Kastil

Unaccustomed to, and in no way prepared for, such personal attention, Cobb’s initial reaction was to resist the reclining of his chair and the elevation of his feet. But truly, what place did he have to argue against a doctor’s wishes when it came to personal comfort? And so he remained silent and allowed the CMO to shift his body into any configuration she saw fit. In truth, the end result was exceedingly comfortable.

As for the information on her sister, well, this was developing into an increasingly attractive prospect by the second. Of course, he’d have to clear any such assignment with Roebuck, but the Admiral knew Cobb enough to identify a well-filled stomach as one of his primary motivators and perhaps fond enough to be willing for the occasional luxury.

Of course, the revelation on the tea-shop brawl had been wholly unexpected and the captain failed to suppress a deep belly laugh at the mental image it conjured.
“Why, Doctor, I daresay that I would have expected nothing less,” he continued to chortle. “Tea tray, hypospray, cup and saucer, I imagine you as a woman who can handle herself in most situations. And perhaps doubly so with your sister at your side?”

His laughter dissipating, the notion that he was perhaps signing up for ‘double trouble’ with this pair of unorthodox sisters on his crew paid a fleeting visit to his consciousness. But as he reached out and sampled one of the cakes, any lingering doubts saw themselves buried beneath a mountain of vanilla sponge and chocolate chips.

“Let us put wheels in motion then, my dear Doctor,” the captain announced around a mouthful of cake. “I shall have her application sent to the Admiral this very afternoon, if that it truly both of yours wish?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

The Doctor responded by turning the console around to share the image of her sister for a moment. The girl was, for all appearances compared to her sister, very normal looking. Clearly shorter than Fey, her hair is kept short which is normal for most kitchen work and she has a few hand scars likely from kitchen accidents based on the kind of lines the scars create. With a few strokes, Fey starts recording a message almost entirely in Spanish based on the movement of her mouth and some of the harsh sounds that come from the Doctor’s throat. If she had not been so close to the Captain at the time, the universal Translator would have hidden any hint that she was speaking another language. “Thank you for the recent shipment of confectionaries, the crew very much enjoys them. So much so that the Captain has accepted my suggestion to bring you aboard as a crew Chef. Please send him and Admiral Roebuck your resume, application, and a sampling of your talents as well as any requirements you will need to be accommodated. I know you prefer to use real food over replicated materials but we can’t exactly maintain a farm on the ship for you. Captain, do you know if the Admiral has any allergies? I’d rather not have another peanut incident on her record. Oh, also let her know if you have any.”

• Family Doctor Fey Kastil

Slightly taken aback by the reveal of an additional party to their conversation, Cobb swallowed his mouthful of cake, cleared his throat, quickly ran a hand along his beard to dislodge any stubborn crumbs and then, with a bow of the head, announced to the woman on the viewscreen, “I am Captain Zachariah Cobb of the USS Leviathan and I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss.” Then, formalities dispensed with, he added, “Your baked goods have gotten me through more than a few dark moments on this voyage and for that I offer you my most sincere gratitude. And hopefully, a place for you to continue the production of such wonderful delicacies and most definitely a place where they will be appreciated to their full extent.”

As for the question of allergies, the captain had to pause for several moments as he mentally poured over his own, dusty past, before declaring, “Allergies? For Roebuck, none that I am aware of. For myself? An absence of alcoholic content can sometimes induce melancholia, but other than that…” he chuckled then cast a nervous glance in the direction of Kastil, only too aware of the doctor’s professional opinion on his fondness for a drink or several.

Then, his expression growing tense, he leaned in towards the terminal and added, “Miss, I take it your sister has informed you of the nature of our missions here? And…of the things that we keep contained onboard this ship? It is my hope that you do not spook easily.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

The Doctor suppresses a laugh, she probably should have clarified what she was doing first. Fey reached out and tapped on the computer to pause it. “Captain, she is a Civilian on Earth, we can’t do a live message without prior authority from STRATCOMM and those are usually reserved for family emergencies like family members in the hospital or a death in the family. This is just a video recording that I plan to send to her, she won’t get it for three days, then it will take her about seven days to send a response and the next wave of food for you and the Admiral to sample. If you would like, I’ll give you a chance to re-record your part.” The doctor’s stomach and chest shake with the suppressed laughter.

• The Laughing Doctor Fey Kastil

“Oh,” Cobb sputtered. It had never occurred to him that direct communications with family members would be restricted. But then why would it? Not a single soul existed back on Earth, or indeed anywhere in the four quadrants, who held a desire to hear from Zachariah Cobb.

He leaned in again and studied the screen more intently then, as if to prove the matter in his own mind, made a humorous face at the woman’s image. When she did not react he sat back again, mostly satisfied.

“Ah, no need, no need,” he dismissed the Doctor’s offer with a wave of the hand. “I am sure you will have explained our circumstances as best as confidentiality would allow to your sister before she made her decision.”

So, a few formalities aside, that was settled then. The Leviathan would soon be graced with a new and exceedingly talented chef to add to their ranks. But while the captain was indeed happy with the turn of events, it was not the reason he had sought out the good doctor in the first place.

“Well then, all family matters aside, how are things in your department?” he decided to abandon his seemingly futile attempts to persuade the woman to drink with him and instead got down to business. “Are you still inundated with exhausted engineers?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Doctor Fey let loose a sigh as she sat back down in her own chair. “Engineering is fine now, no more exhaustion and they’ve taken to a more manageable rotation. As for my own department, we’re out of ideas for missing equipment and stores of non-replicateable components. I’m rather hoping whatever the Einstein has in store for us is easily managed, otherwise we’ll not be equipped to handle it. This is something you already know though, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. Now it’s just frustration when we take inventory or look for specific tools and materials but can’t find them.” The doctor took a drink from her tea as she thought about more going on in Sickbay. “Doctor Feira has taken to be GLaDOS’s personal doctor as she’s also a cybernetics specialist. I brought her on board in case of amputations but she proved to be helpful with the former borg. Doctor Korvoh misses his family, in his normal Vulcan way. The other doctors are taking things in stride as they can. To keep minds occupied I have everyone working on a new major to add to their Doctorates.”

• Doctor Fey Kastil

Cobb stared into his tea and allowed his frown to intensify. “So I guess when the ARU say they’ve spared no expense, it’s a load of baloney then? Or,” he raised his head to meet the Doctor’s eyes with his own, “are the non-anomalous crew not considered worthy of spending money on!”

He felt angry. For weeks he had been stressing to Roebuck and his puppet masters of the need to offer the crew the same standards of care that they gave to the anomalies. But if one was not a monster, then one was instantly expendable. Or so it seemed.

“I’ll put in another request,” he offered, already knowing that it came to little more than hot air. “In the meantime, the Einstein is crippled. She won’t be heading anywhere except for the base once this anomaly has been squared away. So if there is anything worth salvaging from over there, you have my full permission to make it yours.”

Sitting back once more, Cobb gulped down a few more mouthfuls of the tea, the initially jarring taste of peppermint now easing across his palate in a not-entirely-unpleasing manner.
“And how about you, Fey?” he asked more gently. “How are you finding life onboard the ship? Not troubled by the things in captivity?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb