Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side sim: Hanging Around The Lounge (OPEN)

Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in Side sim: Hanging Around The Lounge (OPEN)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Solal Segal (Oncology and Immunology) in Side sim: Hanging Around The Lounge (OPEN)
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Dira reached down to pat Frigga on the head with affection. In some ways the dog was now a touchstone for her when she didn’t have one, as strange as that was.

Frigga closed her eyes and sighed happily at the attention. When Myqian stopped she nosed her hand until she continued patting her.

Dira shook slightly with a quiet laugh as looked down at Frigga. Yes, for the time being, the canine would likely not let her be, for both their benefit. She didn’t mind though and once again resumed a smooth firm motion over the dog’s silky head. It was almost meditative for her. An extension for something she couldn’t actually do right now.

Solal gestured toward his PaDD. “Old medical study game.” Other than that, he didn’t really have any plans. Check for a letter from V’alura, maybe. If not, then… read medical studies? End up working, maybe. Or just meditate and go to bed. His plans weren’t interesting. They never were. He gestured to Myqian’s drink. “I take it you’re up to… partaking in the drinking of alcholic beverages?” It wasn’t a judgement, but an observation.

~ Solal

She grinned. “Absolutely. It’s not often I can indulge and today seemed like a good day for it. Besides, no bridge duty for me for a couple more days, so less of an issue.” Never mind that she had indulged more recently than she had in awhile. It was exactly this sort of weird confluence of events that had her saying ‘Why Not?’ more often lately. Never mind that Kane had poured her those really strong drinks, enough that Bonner had felt it prudent to offer her her ‘cure’. Myqian’s fingers turned the colourful drink on the table. “Don’t know what it’s called as I asked for a surprise,” she said with a slight shrug, glancing between Solal and Alexis. Even though she was being social, her underlying unease was far too present for her own liking.

“What’s the study game?” Dia asked, nodding her head to PaDD.

Commander Myqian, XO

Alexis was actually interested to know what the game was. She had heard of a few when at the academy, but by the time she got there she already had her MD so much of her course work was basics required of all officers and then actually working at Medical command. And since some of the staff recently decided trading gossip was a productive use of their down time when ‘bored’ maybe she could give them this game. If it was challenging for Solal it should challenge the rest of the staff.

Bonner, AMO

“It’s a text based medical scenario game… not too different from games in Earth’s early computer history. It gives you a medical scenario and you tell it what you would think or do. Then it tells you what happens based on your choices. Like a text play by play of a medical case based on historical medical cases. It’s nothing too interesting but it’s a better use of free time than reading fiction or something.” Solal explained, turning his PaDD on to show them.

~ Solal

“Oh, I don’t know. Medical history is full of interesting things. Sounds not too dissimilar to stuff some of my classmates and I did back in medical school. One of my friends loved medical trivia. It got to be excessive at times, but I will say that I sometimes find the random facts stuck in my head useful,” Dira said with a grin. She didn’t dare comment about the productivity of reading fiction. What would he say if he learned she sang and love open mic nights?! Or rather she used to. She was still trying to figure out who Dira Myqian was an XO and was starting to see more clearly how right some people had bene about how she separated out the pieces of herself. Somehow she had to bring them all together. How? She had no idea.

Commander Myqian, XO

Alexis nodded, “One planet’s worth of medical knowledge and history is enough to give years of study much less the quadrant or galaxy. I wonder if we could adapt it to include current medical studies and results? It would keep the staff busy. I found the primary staff in their entirety gossiping rather than working the other morning. They need something to do.”

Bonner, AMO

He’d say open mic nights were an illogical endeavour, no doubt. It served no purpose besides pointless entertainment, just like reading fiction. “Random facts always come in handy at the strangest of times,” Solal commented almost without thinking. It was something his parents liked to say. He nodded to Alexis, “I know of a programmer who could do that. We’d just need to send her the medical studies you want to add.” With the added bonus of not having to listen to his co-workers gossip all afternoon while he did charting and paperwork, he would be more than happy to ask V’alura to do it.

~ Solal

Dira grinned. “Sounds like a good way to keep people’s skills sharp, and their tongues less so. Though I’m not sure they’ll be gossiping quite the same going forward. And if they do, I’ll have something for them to do too,” she said, almost conspiratorially. But really, as long as the chit chat wasn’t being harmful to anyone, she understood it to be a part of a crew that had bonded or was in the process of it. The trouble came when it embarrassed someone or hurt feelings. No good could come from it then.

Commander Myqian, XO

Alexis looked across at Solal, “Be glad you weren’t there. Cpt Taylor heard them too. Made the entire Primary Sickbay alpha shift clean using sonic toothbrushes.” Alexis didn’t quite shrug. “I understand that people feel the need to socialize with their peers but the excuse of ‘I’m bored’ escapes me. If you don’t like the work you are doing why would you join Star Fleet? Where you are under orders to perform the duties that were chosen when signing up.” The words ‘most illogical behavior’s could almost be heard hanging in the air.

Bonner AMO

Solal shrugged. “I wouldn’t have been involved in gossip either way.” He nodded to Alexis’ question. “It does seem illogical to choose to join Starfleet to do duty that ‘bores’ one. Even the ‘boring’ parts of duty are part of the job.” He often agreed with Alexis, she was the most logical human he’d ever met, certainly the most Vulcanlike. It made him like working with her.

~ Solal

Dira considered this and nodded her head back and forth. “Yes, it’s true. But not all those that join Starfleet are given the full picture of a life in Starfleet. Perhaps some grew up listening to family members talk about all the exciting stories, since rarely do many people like to talk about the less exciting stuff. Or maybe they had a particularly unrealistic recruitment where the mundane bits were left out. Can either of you say that the mundane tasks were a reason you joined? I certainly can’t. It doesn’t mean we didn’t expect them, but I can guarantee after twenty years of talking with all sorts of people that not everyone really thought about the down time and less exciting aspects of a life in space.”

Commander Myqian, XO

Alexis considered the picture that was often painted by instructors and recruiters. “Well we cannot control how individuals describe their time in Star Fleet, but the reality can certainly be explained during orientation and during classes at the Academy. It serves no good purpose to,” and she actually air quotes, ” paint ‘a glorious and exciting career’s without the realities. I think that Star Fleet basic training does this better with the enlisted crew because I have rarely seen them slack the way officers do. It is a deficiency and a mistake that should not be allowed.” Alexis shrugged then at Myqian’s last question. “I did. I prefer to stay busy and enjoy the mundane tasks. There is as much to learn and discover there as the rest. I knew Star Fleet would provide much more of that and keep me much busier than the small family practice I worked at before joining the Academy.”

Bonner, AMO

Solal thought back and nodded. “Academy instructors make it a point to tell students, at multiple points throughout the courses, that if one is here looking for glory and excitement, they will be sorely disappointed. Not to mention ‘excitement’ means someone dying, perhaps someone you know. There were no illusions of grandeur.” His accent came out a little harder on the French loan word, mangling the ‘r’. “If one does not enjoy the mundane, in our field the routine physicals, the belly aches, the arthritis, and ‘man flu’s as it seems to be called, then they have no business as a doctor, they will not enjoy the job.” His parents had told him that once, when he was in medical school. “The ‘boring’ makes up ninety percent of our job - if not more.” He put quotes around boring, it was such a human concept. As if they had invented a word for ‘lacking too much in excitement to be worth doing’.

~ Solal