Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Side sim - Sickbay - Cobb dares to submit to a physical
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Posted by Lieutenant Fey Kastil (Chief Medical Officer) in Side sim - Sickbay - Cobb dares to submit to a physical

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Side sim - Sickbay - Cobb dares to submit to a physical

“Well,” he considered, through several ponderous chews of mint chocolate, “it’s been many years, in truth, since I’ve felt ‘at ease’ with anything. A remnant affliction from the war, I’m afraid. But I feel confident in saying that, while I might never grow to relish the prospect of a medical exam, routine or otherwise, that there is no other doctor onboard this vessel I would feel in safer hands with.”

With reluctance, he placed his treasured jar of cookies to one side and once more stretched out onto the biobed, a silent invitation for Kastil to commence her…probing. But then belatedly, something else she had said escaped the tangled depths of his consciousness to demand its own measure of attention.

“Our engineers are passing out from exhaustion?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“Indeed.” The Doctor pulled the tricorder back out to continue her scan of the Captain for all his injuries or internal damages. “The Engineering team has been stuck on sixteen-hour shifts to bring many of the unfinished work projects to a maintainable point. I understand that we needed to go, but the ship was not ready. Even my staff and I are working to find ways to extend our supplies to cover what couldn’t be added due to the early departure. We’ll still be able to function, though not very efficiently.
You’ll have to ask CE Hampton for more details, but I had to recommend an increase in water and sodium intake for his entire team. As you can see, that may not be enough as they end up back here once they can no longer keep up.”

“It was in no way my decision to take us out so early,” Cobb sighed, propping himself up onto one elbow to better see the CMO and the general space around her. “But alas, I am only the Captain. And in the ARU that seems to carry as much weight as a…well, as a chocolate shuttle. I don’t expect anyone to work miracles here though. As long as we have primary systems functioning correctly, then everything else can wait.”

The Doctor read the readout from the tricorder and walks over to a medical replicator where she puts in a request for medication that she brings back to the captain. “These are for your liver and kidneys, please take one a day for the next five weeks. One if you can stop drinking, but I’ll not force that decision upon you. Your prescription is set for the next five. There isn’t a lot of damage right now, this is mostly preventative.” She returns to the tricorder readouts, “You are also showing signs of exhaustion, which is understandable given the stress you are under. Increase your water intake by fifteen percent and your sodium intake by three. That will help you to rehydrate and retain the water. I also suggest taking time when you can for stress relief activities of your choice. This will help lower your blood pressure, however, if you find you can’t just let me know and I’ll prescribe something to lower that.”

“Stress relief activities?” Zachariah laughed. “You mean, like…like hobbies? Doctor, I’m a little old for holodeck fantasies and too out of shape for tennis.”

In truth, drinking to the point of semi-consciousness was the only escape from his duties Cobb still retained. It had been almost a decade since he had allowed himself to indulge in his other personal project. And while defeating the Breen lay claim to being his only remaining ambition, he could recall still with painful clarity the destruction that particular obsession had wrought.

The doctor looks at the cookie box she had given the captain earlier and retrieves another one that she hands to the Captain, “These are a lemon sandwich cookie with a strawberry jam. Not quite as decorative but still very delicious.”

• Doctor Fey Kastil

“Why, now you are just spoiling me,” the captain winked, eagerly accepting the gift and clutching it to his chest along with the precious box of shuttles and the ordered prescription of pills.

Sliding off the bed and preparing to take his leave, however, Cobb found himself hesitating for a moment, overcome with an unexpected desire for continued interaction with this most curious of individuals.
“So, apart from being overworked and under-equipped thanks to our good friends in the ARU, how are you finding the Leviathan so far, Lieutenant?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

The Doctor pondered on this for a moment, resting her chin in her fingertips in deep thought. “I find she has a lot of nervous energy. People are eager to work mostly to just get the job done so they can retreat to someplace safe. There are many floating rumors that the crew was assembled at the last minute by a team of Admirals and Captains that have a grudge against all of us for one reason or another. That Starfleet not only expects us to fail, but expects us to die and take the ARU with us so they don’t have to think about supporting such endeavors again. There is another rumor that the ARU plans to weaponize the anomalies in order to overthrow the Federation. The last, and most concerning rumor, is that you were hand picked to be Captain because you don’t have the spine to stand up to the ARU people.”

That stung. Damn fool! So enamoured had he been with her gift of cookies that he’d blinded himself to the scalpel at his back. Was it the same tale with all of his crew? Did every man and woman onboard this ship see Zachariah Cobb for the failed attempt at a man that he truly was? The Breen, the ARU, there was no real difference. Both rose up like the proverbial white whale to swallow this Jonah whole.

The Doctor stood up and walked over to the Captain to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “To those rumors I say this, we will survive in spite of those that would see our end. We will not allow the ARU to violate what makes Starfleet and the Federation the force for good we believe it to be. Lastly, each of us make up your vertebra, so as long as your crew works behind you, your spine will always be strong.” The doctor took a step back and sat back down on her chair. “That is the extent I will go with these rumors. Nothing more need be said on them.”

• Doctor Fey Kastil

Dear gods. Don’t let me break down.

Unexpected, this allegiance from another. Unexpected and wholly unearned. But she was, after all, only human. And while her equipment provided remarkable insight to his ligaments and bones, no tricorder could penetrate sufficiently to reveal Cobb’s abyssal soul.

For so many years had he been adrift, on this incessant sea of apathy and shame. In the dawn he had attempted to maintain his vessel with the hope that another might moor at his side. But as the years passed by and no company drifted onto his horizon, he had allowed the sails of his heart to become tattered and torn, the anchor of his soul to disintegrate with rust.

Her light was indeed a curious one, its tower forged from the willows of Algernon himself. But while her apparition struck fear into Zachariah’s heart, still her beacon revealed a new and safe passage to shore. If only he could bear what might be glimpsed of himself, were he to crawl out of the shadows and into the light.

And in that moment, as he had allowed her hand to remain on his shoulder, Cobb almost dared to believe that the strength to return lingered in him, still. For fortification lay in reach, from this crew who dared to trust him, who dared to believe in him. This crew who saw beyond the decades of misery and countless indiscretions, back to the warrior he had been so many aeons ago. Oh, what he would not give to indulge, for even a second, the fantasy that he, Zachariah Cobb, would not let them down.

“I…appreciate that,” came the whispered reply, voice hoarse from this scourge of antediluvian emotions, cheeks flooded by this new and terrifying saltwater sea. “And if I can live up to even a fraction of the faith you seem to have in me, then I will consider myself a great man indeed.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Doctor Fey didn’t have much else to add, a growing list of things she needed to accomplish slowly building in the background of her sickbay. “Have a nice day Captain, you know I’m here for you when you need me.” The XO hadn’t yet been in for his physical so she would have to go and find him. She got up from her seat and started putting together the kit of basic tools she would need to conduct her examination. Once ready she turned to the other members of her team, “I’m headed to Commander Ryder’s room, I’ll be back when I’m done with him.”

• Doctor Fey Kastil