Posted by Lieutenant Commander Brad Walker (Chief Of Staff/Second Officer) in Side sim: Sickbay Reporting in

Posted by Ensign James McNair (Trauma and Emergency Med) in Side sim: Sickbay Reporting in
<Snip>

“Come!” The voice on the other side sounded weary, either from staying up late and waking up early, or not sleeping at all.

James’ heart began to pound. He wasn’t usually one to care about what people thought of him; but that was before his demotion. He wanted to make a good impression. He knew he was a good Doctor, a great Doctor in-fact. He just hoped that the Commander would look past recent events and not judge him too harshly. He waited a moment, straightening his uniform and took a deep breath.
“Well this is it Jim.” He said quietly to himself and entered the office.

When James entered, he’d see a man slightly younger, slightly shorter, and somewhat stockier than him, hunched over a large mug of steaming coffee, waving the steam into his face.

“Can I get you something, Doctor?” Brad asked, looking up with red eyes. The reason was fairly clear, judging by the number of PaDDs now distributed in neat stacks on the edge of the desk.

Lt. Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

James looked at the man taking in the scene before him and gave Brad a knowing look. He remembered the long hours he’d spent awake filling out reports and catching up on paperwork the junior members of staff had submitted. It was a tough job and James was partially glad to be free of that particular burden. A moment passed before James responded.
“Command....” he began and then stopped himself letting out a deep audible sigh. There was another pause.
“Ensign James McNair reporting for duty. I’ve recently had my morning coffee so don’t worry Commander. If now isn’t a good time I could come back later?” He asked empathising with the Commander.

Ens. Dr James McNair (Trauma and Emergency Med)

“No, now’s fine. If you can make this last long enough, the caffeine might kick in,” Brad said, taking a deep, audible slurp of the coffee that ended up draining about a third of the mug. “There a story that goes with that false start when it came to your introduction?”

Lt. Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

James let out an audible sigh. He was still reeling from the events of the past few weeks that led to his posting to the Ogawa and it hurt to think about it. He should have known that the Commander would want to know the specifics of his posting. He thought about trying to be as vague as possible but experience had taught him that, people would find out soon enough. He would rather not relive the experience again but the Commander needed to know. James took a moment to gather his thoughts before responding.
“Yes there is, but before I go into detail I want you to know that I am a good Doctor with a previously unblemished record. I ask that you don’t judge me based on recent.....mistakes.”
He waited for Brad to reply before carrying on.

‘Oh boy,’ Brad thought. ‘This is gonna be good.’

Out loud, he said simply “Alright, promise.”

“I was Chief of Medicine at St Luke’s hospital on Earth. It’s a large hospital and I oversaw the medical department. I have always been more practical minded and never cared much for administration and left the general admin to my assistant. I preferred to actually see patients and teach rather than sit behind a desk all day. That was my first mistake. The hospital began to lose money. It was small amounts to begin with and then larger sums began to go missing. Had I paid more attention I may have discovered this earlier and could have prevented what was to come. We also had a rise in unexplainable deaths. Patients began dying that were otherwise stable. Before I had a chance to investigate I was arrested. There was a court martial and it was found that I had apparently been drawing regular sums of money from the hospital and using these to fund clinical trials on patients in the hospital. I was close to losing my license and being kicked out of Starfleet, fortunately I had an admiral friend who owed me for saving his daughter’s life and he managed to pull some strings and I ended up with a demotion to Ensign and assigned to the Ogawa.” James explained and then looked directly into Walker’s eyes.

The Chief of Staff had a pained look on his face, which had gotten slightly paler.

‘Oh God, another one. What the hell did I do to deserve this?’ Brad mentally groaned, thankful he didn’t have any Betazoids on staff.

“I swear I had nothing to do with what happened. I had no idea what was going on and I would never perform trials or experiment on my patients.” James sighed and waited for Walker’s response.

“Well, that at least puts you one up on the other parolee on the staff of what’s apparently now the USS Probation, staffed by the residents of Starfleet Medical’s Island of Misfit Toys,” Brad said, after a long minute of silence spent massaging his temples.

McNair (Trauma/Emergency Med)

Lt. Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

James frowned sightly at the Commander’s last comment not knowing what he meant. He wasn’t exactly overjoyed at the thought of being onboard a ship again.
“Well I don’t really want to be here either but here I am busted back down to Ensign with no choice in the matter.” James replied a little annoyed at the Commander’s tone. He then sighed deeply closing his eyes briefly and then opening them again.
“I think that’s punishment enough. Technically, I’m not really a parolee so I’m not on probation. And I never did any of the things they said I did. I know that’s what most people would say if they were accused of something but I didn’t. I’ve heard rumours that its still going on even though the culprit.” He pointed to himself “Has been dealt with.” He added. Brining all this up made him regret agreeing to take on the job of running the medical staff at the hospital in the first place, if he hadn’t then maybe he wouldn’t be in this position he thought to himself.

McNair (Trauma/Emergency Med)