Posted by Lieutenant Commander Edelu (CMO) in Sickbay - Annual Physicals - Slade

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Edelu (CMO) in Sickbay - Annual Physicals - Slade

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in Sickbay - Annual Physicals - Slade
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[Personal Message – To: Lt. j.g. Vanessa Slade | From: Lt. Cmdr. Edelu]

Vanessa sat at her desk and opened the comm message that appeared on her console. “What the,” she said taking a sip of her coffee and burning her lip as she wasn’t paying attention to the hot drink over the message she was reading. “Ugh,” she moaned as the dribbles of coffee left her mouth and traced a path down her shirt. “And I just put this shirt on.” Her exasperation was not with the message so much as the foiled third attempt to drink her cup of coffee.

Subject: Annual Medical Evaluation – Appointment Required

Counselor Slade,

I imagine we’re alike in at least one way: we both prefer conversations to diagnostics. But even counselors are not exempt from annual medical reviews, I’m afraid.

As I work to familiarize myself with this crew—and with the unique rhythms aboard the Genesis—I’d like to begin by inviting you to Sickbay for your physical. Nothing invasive, just a quick scan, perhaps a few questions, and you’re free to return to the deeper work of untangling hearts and minds.

Please let me know what time suits your schedule. And if you wish to bring a calming blend of tea to settle your own nerves (or mine), I won’t object.

With respect,

Dr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

The first shirt was ruined by tripping over a jump rope lying on the floor of her quarters. She had never had a use for it but from time to time she pulled it out and attempted to use it but always ended up twisted and tied in the length. Boxers all used it for training but she always ended up tripping so Vanessa tended to only used it for calisthenics in her quarters.

While she was not in security, Vanessa did partake in PT most mornings. It was not to get in shape but more keep up her stamina. She had some leave coming in a few months and it coincided with a marathon on Parvet V. So she kept pace with the security officers. No that was a misleading. She kept pace with them for a loop or two before falling back to maintain her pace. This also allowed her to drink her coffee, normally. Today however, as the group lapped her, a large hand the size of a dinner plate pulled the thermos from her hand as she lifted it to her mouth causing a few dribbles of brown liquid to fall onto her tank top. The gruff but teasing tone of one of the command staff reminded her that coffee was not a hydrating beverage. A water bottle replaced the coffee filled thermos along with a good natured challenge to catch her coffee if she could. The small irritation was quickly replaced by her laughing. It had only been a year, but people only teased you when they liked you and Vanessa was fitting in with the crew for the most part.

Closing her console, she got up and decided to just head to sick bay after changing her shirt in her quarters. Five minutes later, she walked into sickbay.

Vanessa Slade CNS

The door hissed open, and Edelu looked up from his PADD. He recognized the officer by posture alone before her full features came into view.

“Counselor Slade,” he greeted warmly, setting the PADD aside and rising from his stool. “Right on time—or fashionably early, depending on how one defines punctuality aboard this ship.”

He offered a hand in a quiet gesture of welcome rather than formality. “If you’d follow me to biobed three, we’ll keep this simple. Just a standard scan and a few routine questions. No hyposprays, no treadmills, no invasive hypotheticals.”

He turned slightly, gesturing toward the back corner of Sickbay, his eyes twinkling ever so slightly at the jest.

“Come,” he added. “Let’s get you cleared before anyone else desperately needs your services.”

Dr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

BUMP

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

Vanessa let out a small chuckle. “People trying to avoid you,” she teased him. “I have never understood why they want to skip physicals. Whatcha got,” she said hopping up on the biobed. Raising the cup in her hand, she took a sip of her coffee and waited patiently.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Edelu retrieved a tricorder from the nearby console, the soft chirp of its activation filling the space between them.

“Ah, yes—the great Starfleet pastime,” he replied with quiet amusement. “Evading the doctor until the doctor finds you. It’s almost a sport on some ships.”

“You are far more eloquent and tactful than I was when I was a nurse. If they did not come to me, I showed up right where they were working, in the middle of their lunch, staff meeting, etc. You want to waste my time I am gonna waste yours.” Vanessa let out a laugh thinking of how many times she had to do that before people started showing up with the proverbial bells on. “I will say it only took one or two times and it was never a problem again. I also became somewhat of an urban myth. Show up or the Lock Ness Monster came looking for you.” Taking a long sip of her coffee, she waited for Edelu to begin.

Edelu’s mouth curved just enough to suggest a smile, the sort that lived more in the eyes than on the lips.

“A bold strategy,” he murmured, scanning the first readouts. “Though I suspect you and I would make a formidable team in the fine art of preventative ambush.”

The tricorder hummed softly as he moved the sensor along her shoulder line, gaze flicking briefly between the instrument and her expression. “An urban myth, you say? I’ve never had that honor. But if the Ness of your legend is anything like the Ness of my homeworld’s folklore, I can understand why compliance improved.”

His tone stayed light, but there was a quiet note of camaraderie in it—an acknowledgment of a fellow clinician who’d learned that sometimes medicine required a little theater.

“Now,” he added, adjusting the settings with a deft twist, “let’s see what truths your own legend has left behind.”

He stepped to her side, adjusting the biobed’s settings with a practiced flick of his fingers. “Fortunately, you’re making my job easy today. And for that, Counselor, you have my gratitude.”

“You are welcome,” she said with a grin and nod of the head.

The tricorder hummed softly as he began the first sweep, his gaze split between the readout and her expression. “Coffee before a medical exam,” he added lightly, “bold move. I’ll be generous and assume it’s decaf.”

“Ehhh,” she said making an X with her arms over her body. ” Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change?” There was no reason to lie. The lie detector in his hands was going to show him what she already could guess about her bloodwork. elevated blood glucose, non-esterified fatty acids, elevated liver enzymes, and higher than normal cortisol levels. This was attributed to the copious amounts of coffee she drank but also several other factors.

He glanced up briefly, his tone gentling without losing its humor. “Any new aches, concerns, or reasons I should prepare for a stern counseling report about my bedside manner?”

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

“Depends on what you say when you read the tricorder,” she shot back in a playful but semi-serious tone.

Vanessa Slade CNS.

Edelu’s brow lifted slightly, the faintest glint of wry amusement in his eyes as the tricorder completed its pass.

“Mm. I think we may have just found the real Jeopardy category for the day—‘Things Your Doctor Will Gently Scold You About.’”

He adjusted a control and began a slower, more detailed sweep, his voice even but not without warmth. “I won’t wager yet, but… yes, I see the telltale signatures. And no, Counselor, I don’t believe the ship’s diagnostic protocols are broken.”

A pause—long enough for the soft hum of the biobed to fill it—before he glanced toward her coffee cup. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll write my report without using the word intervention… if you commit to reducing your caffeine intake by at least twenty-five percent. I’m not the Loch Ness Monster, Counselor—but I may have to start haunting the corridors until you do.”

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

“Well that is going to be problematic because I don’t see that happening.” Vanessa was honest in her reply. This also wasn’t her first rodeo with a doctor. “If I were to guess what you are finding it doesn’t all have to do with my coffee consumption. My cortisol levels are directly related to dealing with my family. Sir,” she applied the honorific in a humorous manner, “you have no idea what they are like. We are close but that doesn’t even really define our relationship. We talk daily and on a side note…they think I am currently on Vulcan and not the USS Genesis.”

“Any readings off with my liver come from the hang over I am slowly nursing off from last night in the lounge. It was trivia night. Anything else is probably due to the coffee so I can give you no coffee off duty after 0200 hours twice a week?”

“Also the name Ness is a sort of nickname. Only my family use it. They call me Nessie half the time and circling back to how work knows about it…did I mention we are insanely close? It is all connected,” she made a circular gesture with her hand.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Edelu’s mouth curved just slightly—less a smile than the shadow of one—as he closed the tricorder and set it aside.

“Mm. Family-induced cortisol. Lounge-induced liver enzymes. Coffee-induced… everything else. A very tidy diagnostic chart,” he observed, the words as dry as the Mintakan desert.

He straightened, folding his hands loosely behind his back. “I won’t press—today. But for my own professional due diligence, I’ll note that should any complaints of irritability or difficulty focusing cross my desk…” His brow arched in quiet emphasis. “…I may be forced to consider that an open invitation for more decisive measures.”

“I will take this under the strictest of medical advisements,” she assure him. Vanessa had no real intent of following through. Everyone had their vices from alcohol to recreational narcotics. Caffeine was the least of them but she could respect his profession and dedication to his field. Edelu would be remiss if he didn’t mention it.

There was no threat in the tone—only the faint glint of humor in his eyes and the sense that, beneath it, he meant every word.

“For now, Counselor,” he added, “we’ll see how your twice-weekly 0200 curfew treats you.”

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

“So what does your people have for vices,” she asked now that the eval was completed. Since there was not a line at the door it didn’t hurt to spend a little time in the chit chat zone.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Edelu’s head angled slightly, a faint shadow of thought passing across his features before he answered.

“In a bronze-age society, vices are… scarce,” he said at last, his tone as even as ever. “There is no industrial refinement, no synthetic indulgence. What exists is born of the earth—and serves purpose as much as pleasure. A fermented root to ease hunger in lean months. A bitter leaf to dull pain or keep a hunter awake on watch. Nothing is wasted, not even the darker comforts.”

He let the words rest a moment, hands folded neatly behind his back. Then, with the same measured cadence he used when choosing which scalpel to take from a tray, he decided.

“I have not abandoned all of mine,” he continued, his voice carrying the quiet weight of admission. “There is a herb we call sarel-dashk. Smoked, its fumes open the lungs, clear the senses, and—when taken in meditation—bring the mind into alignment with what my people name the Balance. It is both vice and ritual, temptation and discipline.”

The faintest glint of wry amusement touched his eyes as he glanced at her. “Not quite coffee, Counselor. But enough that, perhaps, I should be wary of throwing stones in glass houses.”

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

BUMP

Lt. Cmdr. Edelu, M.D. ○●●
Chief Medical Officer
U.S.S. Genesis

His comment intrigued her. “Most primitive society’s are heavily laden with vices which usually involve sex, drugs, and alcohol. Same as on farming colonies. When there is nothing to do, people find things to do.” She instantly was suspicious of this idyllic society Edelu came from. No place was vice free. It could be that Edelu never participated in any of it but that also would speak to his psychological profile. He could be an introvert in his society which would explain why he participated in the persuit of enlightment like activites and seeking knowledge or that he didn’t fit in entirely with his society. Being elevated to a healer in his society could have placed him in more of an isolation type situation. Again, this was not too different than Starfleet. The Captain and XO often lived in self imposed isolation due to not wanting the crew to see them as peers.

Vanessa Slade CNS