Posted by Lieutenant Tandra Mika (Chief Medical Officer) in side-sim: This Feels Familiar (TAG Mika)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Medical Officer) in side-sim: This Feels Familiar (TAG Mika)

Posted by Lieutenant Tandra Mika (Chief Medical Officer) in side-sim: This Feels Familiar (TAG Mika)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Sharah had spent several days working a project n the medical labs. She worked well in the labs because the samples and data didn’t have thoughts and emotions. It gave her a lot to focus on. Lt Semenza even asked her to stay, after telling her he was transferring over. Sharah appreciated the offer but she wanted to work with patients. Many of the medical staff wondered why he had made the decision and who would take his place. Sharah was content however it worked out. As long as she didn’t have to take the job.

Walking into medical was like any other day. Her Medusa like curly black hair was pulled back in a tight French braid and her uniform neat and crisp. She grabbed her lab coat and a tricorder and went to review the files for the patients who were staying. But something felt…different. Well different from the normal familiar minds of the Viking medical staff. This was new but familiar. She was better at ignoring things, tuning them out even if there was a lot of noise. But this bugged her, and she kept looking up and around trying to identify it.

Finally with a small sigh she moved toward the familiar presence. Which led her toward the offices. Glancing through the door Sharah was stunned. “By The Four Gods! LT MIKA!”

Fayth, med

Mika was off duty then, getting her new office ready. Any more her office setup was a little… Bland. It was the transfers. She’d set everything up only to take it down. But she always at least put her pictures up. She’d already hung them on the wall by then, and now she was organizing and setting things up the way she preferred them.

She was interrupted by the loud calling of her name by a familiar voice, quickly looking over. And who else was there but… “Fayth! What a coincidence, huh?” She said cheerfully, smiling at her old friend.

~ Lt Mika, CMO

Sharah couldn’t believe it. She was so excited to see Mika she did something she rarely did, she rushed over and hugged her. Mika was in the Academy class before her, but Sharah hadn’t met her until her cadet cruise on the Challenger. Mika had been her CMO. She was a brilliant doctor, an excellent teacher and she had saved Sharah’s life.

Sharah had exchanged letters with her first DH since she left Challenger. In fact Lt Mika was the best only person she was still in contact with. A thought that made Sharah feel very sad and alone. But here she was, in the CMO’s office. “You’re replacing Semenza! I didn’t know you were coming to Viking.”

Fayth, med

Mika exchanged letters with a lot of people. Sharah, Aili of course, one of the other ex Challenger DHs, and Hannah Asimina, of the Saracen. She hugged Sharah and grinned. “It was a sudden change. The ship’s first officer contacted me, said they needed a CMO. I’d been thinking about going back to being a doctor, so… I said yes.” Then she smiled again and looked at Fayth, “but you and me, in medical again! I would’ve never guessed.”

~ Lt Mika, CMO

Sharah could feel her excitement over being in medical again. “Best decision I made, coming back to medical.” Sharah had moved to sciences after she’d been offered a position in Ark Angel for her botany work. She’d made the switch back first chance she got. “I think there might be a conspiracy. Korczak is here too.” Challenger’s CNS. He had been the counselor for both herself and Mika. “And Caelin Weir. I don’t know if you remember him, he was in the class after me, an engineer. He’s on board too.” Sharah had changed some, she wasn’t as fresh faced idealistic anymore, she certainly looked healthier, not so tired as she had, and despite tipping her head from time to time as if listening to something, she appeared more present. “I can’t believe you’re here. Last I heard from you, you were on the Intrepid.” Sharah shook her head, “What made you want to transfer back?”

Fayth, med

“Korczak! What a surprise!” Mika said. “As for Weir… The name sounds familiar but I must have only known him briefly.” Mika looked a little different, too. Her once short hair had grown out, just below her shoulders and she pulled it back into a pony tail. In her time as the Challenger’s CMO, she’d been new to the position, less sure of herself. Now she seemed calmer, more confident.

“I only know Weir because we ended up serving on Ark Angel together.” Sharah sighed, “I’ll admit finding out Korczak was here, made me really nervous at first. Honestly it still does. My cadet tour didn’t exactly go smoothly. I’m always afraid he’s comparing those failures to now. The man is like a blank wall though, so I have no idea.” Some things hadn’t changed apparently.

She nodded to Sharah’s next statement. “I was, I was their CNS. They were a great bunch, too.” The next answer was a harder one. “I got out of medicine because I needed a change… but the longer I was away from it, the more I missed it. I’ve actually really enjoyed both jobs, though.”

~ Lt Mika, CMO

“I loved working the arboretums on Ark Angel, but I missed working in medicine. I’ll always love my plants, but I missed being in sickbay.” Sharah took in the still unsettled space and a feeling of contentment. All of Lt Mika’s books and photos, made it her feel like she was back on the Challenger having one of their weekly meetings. That tour wasn’t all bad, but it had been harrowing.

Fayth, med

“Failures? Sharah, you were fantastic.” Mika shrugged, “Everyone has their difficulties. Especially as cadets.” She gave Sharah a more thorough look and smiled, “And besides, you seem like you have things more under control than you did then.” One of the pictures on her wall was of her and Sharah, in the Challenger’s Sickbay. Her books had a wide variety, the top three shelves were various medical and psychological books and textbooks, the next two were various fictional books, and the bottom shelf looked like journals or notebooks.

~ Lt Mika, CMO

Sharah shrugged. As true as that was, most cadets didn’t end up with a deadly parasitic infection and almost get their brains eaten from the inside. She had finally been willing to admit that the chaos that infection had caused to her telepathy had more than just influenced but overshadowed everything during her tour. She was lucky she had the discipline she did. Mika’s comment did make her think. Did she have it more under control? She thought about her conversations with Markus. “I don’t know if I would say more under control, but I am looking at it from a different perspective. It helps…most days.”

Fayth, med

That was a ‘perk’ all of Sharah’s own, though medically, it had been a highly interesting case. Mika had written a medical article about the parasite and its effects. Mika nodded and smiled. “Well, I’m just about done in here, we could tour the ship? Or just sickbay if you don’t have much time.”

~ Lt Mika, CMO

“You’re the boss, Lt. Do I have time?” Sickbay on Viking was nothing like Challenger. All the staff were experienced and competent doctors and nurses. They didn’t have to be supervised all the time, or their hands held. Though Sharah did remember feeling grateful to have someone looking over her shoulder those first few weeks. “Have you had a chance to tour medical yet though? It’s really top of the line, kind of like a doctor’s play ground.”

Fayth, med

Mika shook her head. “I got here yesterday, did my onboarding and checked out my quarters. And…” She gestured to the office, “you can see what I’ve been up to this morning.” Sharah’s description had her interested. “A doctor’s playground, huh? That good?”

~ Lt Mika, CMO

Sharah nodded her eyes getting that look all doctors get when presented with new state of the art equipment, even if they don’t know how to use it yet. “The Viking class isn’t new, but this ship is. Something happened on the old ship. People are…” Sharah searched for the word to describe the feelings amongst the previous crew, “haunted, but more, by it. But when this one was commissioned everything was updated. All brand new, all state of the art. The facilities aren’t as large as a starbase, but we can do anything they can. The surgical suite have the new variable stasis fields that were approved last year, and the holographic imaging systems are breathtaking. To be able to see in real time and enlarged what you are working on. It’s pretty amazing. I hope we never need it but it’s nice to have.”

Fayth, med

Mika clearly shared her enthusiasm. “That sounds fantastic! As much as I’d rather avoid an emergency, I can’t wait to see them in use.” All of her placements had been on older ships. She’d never worked with state of the art equipment. She stepped out of her office. “What about the imagining and scanning equipment?”

~ Lt Mika, CMO

“You have to see it.” Sharah led her out and past main sickbay and into room off to the side. There was a single biobed and all the standard equipment. Looking up at the ceiling, Mika could see several holo-emmiters. “So we can bring a patient in here and run any scan or imaging we need. Or it can be done with the mobile equipment and then uploaded here.” She picked up a microtome and did a scan of her arm. Then turning to the control console she input the readings and hit a button. In the middle of the room a 3D holographic image of the scans she did of her arm appeared. “You can zoom in and out, twist it around to get a different view, and even have the computer remove different components.”

“You can even take the images from the Electron Resonance Scanner and combine it with neurological and cardiovascular scans to see how everything is moving and flowing as well. And wait till you see what the readings from a Detronal Scanner.”

Fayth, med