Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Side Sim - Sickbay - 15 minutes after the Bridge presentation finishes
[snip]

Cross always felt comfortable around Glen and it showed, she sat on her desk looking at him ‘’ My hypothesis is that darn psychiatrist coming on the ship has made you feeling uneasy about what happened in the past’‘.

“There is no question of that!” Glen said. “The funny thing is that the man thinks he is doing good by bringing it all up. He would say that you need to confront your fears and anxieties in order to fight them, or some other psychiatric ****! Pardon my Klingon! …when all he is doing is making it worse!”

“So, how do I get rid of him?” Glen mused out aloud.

‘’I do believe Hunter knows him more then anyone else on board, I suggest you talk to him’’ Cross got down from the desk she was sitting on ‘’I’ll go and get him right now if you want?’‘.

“There is no need for that,” Glen said. “I can call him to come to me whenever I wish. That’s what it’s like when you are the Ship’s Captain!”

Cross rolled her eyes ‘’I suppose being the Captain has its perks, how’s the headache mild, severe?’’ she asked just to know what analgesic to give him.

“It’s not a severe as earlier,” Glen said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to make it down to Sickbay. I’d probably say it’s mild now, I guess. The thoughts are harder to dispel - that whole idea of a parasitic being crawling inside my skull - it gives me the creeps!”

Cross came back with a couple of painkillers ‘’ Two every four hours, if the pain increase don’t hesitate to call me ‘’ the female doctor bit on her lower lip not quite knowing what to say ‘’Though our horrible experiences were different and have caused us fear and terror I do understand ,have lost count of the disturbing, harrowing nightmares that make me wake up screaming. I know there is nothing I can do about it…maybe in time it shall become a distant memory’‘.

“Do you mean to say that Doctor Wong’s experiments with coloured water in flasks didn’t help you?” Glen joked. “But at least you have Joe! I’ve seen you two together recently, and he will be your rock… And I guess now that I should get back to some work. I had to leave Joe to deal with the press conference and presentation, and the first contact with the Sybyl as I had blacked out. I can only hope that it went okay… Actually, I’m sure it did and they really don’t need me. it will have been good for Joe to step up… Ask Doctor Hunter to come here now for me and I’ll speak to him immediately while the iron is hot. I want to get his grievances aired and sorted out, and to find out the truth about this unlikely alleged ‘spy network’, and you say that he’ll know the best way to make the Wong problem go away too. At the moment, they are my priorities.”

‘’Don’t remind me of the flasks with water!’’ Cross exclaimed as the vision of throwing back the glasses against the wall come back ‘’she walked over to the door, stopped and looked back at Glen ‘’Yes the Cmdr and I, even if we don’t see eye to eye most of the times,he will forever be tied to my heart.Captain he is the biological father of my son’’ the female doctor stared at nothing as rooted memories tumbled one after another .Now walking out of the office Cross looked around for Hunter.

On seeing him with his back towards her and without a sound Cross walked over ‘’Doctor Hunter ,the Captain is in my office and he wants to see you now’‘. Some thing flew what ever it was Cross had no idea, the male doctor turned around slowly ‘’ Cross how many times have I told you not to creep on me like that?’’ Hunter asked still in his usual soft tone ‘’I’m going and you can search for the scalpel that happened to fly out of my hand’‘.
He made his way to the CMO’s office, wondering what was the reason for the Captain to call for him.

As Hunter entered the office, Captain Glen could see straight away that Hunter was uneasy about the reason for this meeting, however he wasn’t sure what to say to make him at ease.

“Hello Doctor Hunter, I wanted to have a chat with you about several things. Is that okay? Take a seat please? The first thing is that Doctor Cross thinks that you’re unhappy about a few things and given that the reports I get back from Sickbay tell me that you are an outstanding Doctor, I wanted to try and put those right for you.”

Hunter raised his hand next to his forehead ‘’Captain’’ then sat down ‘’Yes Captain, Cross is right I am not just unhappy but furious and its due to Cross refusing the treatment she needs’’ still with the soft tone he went on ‘’I may have finally convinced her to co operate, she’s afraid that if her health goes back to how it once was she would return to her old ways ,I told her there are medications that can mellow down those urges for stimulation…at least I do hope there are ‘’.

“I fully agree with you there,” Glen replied, “I’ve just told her that I’d be happy to pull some strings, and get her to see a Genomics specialist, but she seemed very lukewarm to that idea.”

He felt the urge to scratch his head and after some thought went on ‘’Might as well say all, a certain Thomas keeps coming in sickbay with one ailment after another, having been on the ship for three years I did realize that he’ll do anything to get time of work ‘’ Hunter took a deep breath ‘’One day he came in with a broken nose resulting from a fight, I gave him some painkillers and told him to come back in an hour for the simple reason that doctor Kim a plastic surgeon would come in to star his shift and do a better job then me ‘’ Hunter communicated in a verbal manner as things had transpired, never giving the Captain any idea or come to a conclusion that he was right or wrong ‘’The new Cmdr happened to be there and he was not pleased with the way I handled the patient and told Cross exactly how he felt. ‘’She told me to leave sickbay and go work in the science dept for some days plus the CMO wrote everything down in my file’’ he stopped to think before continuing ‘’ A few days ago this crewman come in this time with an inflamed appendix ,obviously I got him into the OR as soon as possible ..........he is in sickbay recuperating’‘.

“I see!” said Glen, rather puzzled. “These weren’t the kind of concerns that I expected to hear from you! I was told that you felt unhappy that you weren’t being told about ship visitors and Bridge operational decisions, but not that it was about the attitude of the XO and CMO. I don’t really want to interfere directly in the operation of Sickbay, but I will certainly ask the Commander for his side of that incident. I’ll also ask Doctor Cross why you were sent to Science as I’ve been told that your work as a Doctor is exemplary, and I can quite understand people getting a little snappy under the pressure of work from time to time. However, you do need to be both a team member and to be able to take orders without an argument. Leave that with me then, it doesn’t seem to be an error that can’t be sorted out. If what you say is true then you are owed an apology.”

A small smile formed at the corner of his mouth ‘’Got punished for being naughty cause the Cmdr saw it that I as a doctor, should have kept the patient in sickbay and not send him away with a handful of painkillers only to come again an hour later ,still there are no ill feelings towards each other… let bygones be bygones ‘’.

“I really wanted the XO to deal with these human resources matters, but as you also have a problem with him, then I also received a complaint about you from a junior Bridge officer, Lt. Kahuna,” Glen added. “I’ve been mentoring Kahuna through his Bridge officer exams. He is young and lacks confidence, and he said you went up there and started throwing your seniority about. He also made the bizarre claim that you ran a network of redshirts as spies from Sickbay. Doctor Cross has assured me that you are not another Doctor Kim evil doppelganger. However, when I checked, it did appear that Security officers were coming to you in Sickbay after their duty had finished. Can you account for that at all?”

‘’Last but not least its the psychiatrist Mr Wong and though many consider him a jerk, in my opinion he is not. Guess the only thing that bothers me is that he has no experience working with the crew on a ship ‘’.

“Well, actually, Doctor Wong was one of the other things I wanted to ask your help with. I really want him off my ship, just as much as everyone else.”

This time Hunter smiled ‘’Your cat was in sickbay and Stanley went berserk as he has a phobia of germs’’ thinking about the incident the doctor chuckled ‘’You should have seen his face’‘.

Glen smiled. “I’m sorry, this is most unprofessional of me, but I would have liked to have seen it too!”

“Doctor Wong is far from being a stupid man,” Glen said. “I often find that very intelligent people are a little eccentric in their manners. While he doesn’t have much experience with working on a Starship, he does have experience of being embedded with United Earth Defence military units. He also means well. He wants to treat Doctor Cross and Commander Milligan just as much as you do, and he is at the top of his game in Psychiatry. The problem, and I think you are aware of this already… the problem is that following some of our previous missions, the whole crew were sworn to secrecy about what took place. It is more important to keep those secrets than the health, or even the life, of any individual. So, the burden we all carry is that none of us can talk about anything that happened. However, things that we experienced are the very same things that are causing the mental anguish and post traumatic stress. I’ve attempted to explain this to Doctor Wong but he either didn’t understand or thinks he can treat people without opening up that Pandora’s Box. I can’t see how he can treat the symptoms without knowing the cause. I have no idea who sent him here, and neither does he, but he is causing chaos on the ship. He is stirring up old memories, best kept buried. He is involving himself in matters in which he has no concern, just like the cleaning and sanitisation that you mentioned. I think it’s time for him to go, but I can’t order him to leave as he has orders from above me. Doctor Cross said that you have spent the most time with him, and that I needed to speak to you?”

• Glen, CO

Hunter waited until the Captain finished speaking ‘’I did forget to mention the incident on the bridge,the security who was there ended his shift and was talking to the security we had here. I heard him saying that they picked up a ship coming our way,wondering why the rest of depts had not been informed… yes it was stupid of me to act while I was angry and high in tension..my bad’‘.

The doctor stood up pacing and thinking about that incident ‘’I went to the bridge myself asking why sickbay was not informed? Captain my line of thinking is that at least we would be informed and not all of a sudden the ship will go on high alert and the crew is unprepared. You might understand more then I do that things can change in a blink of an eye ,I did not go to flex my muscles but with hindsight my attitude and judgment at the time was inappropriate I could just have contacted Bridge ‘’.

‘’As what happened before I joined the Merrimack ,all I know is that its classified and its non of my business to find out .You are right to be concerned especially since we have no idea what Mr Wong knows and if he does who might have told him?I know Cross was with child its in her medical file but only up until the second trimester, what happened after wards I have no idea . Its worrying now to think that the psychiatrist may know and shall bring it up with her ‘’ and indeed Hunter was troubled and concerned.
Hunter Dr.