Posted by Lieutenant Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Unforeseen Developments - Starting Over
Work. Work provided focus, work provided purpose, work provided exhaustion. It didn’t matter if the work was duty related or chores. Both allowed Sharah to work herself to exhaustion. Exhaustion was the only thing that brought sleep. The delta wave machine and the alpha wave inducer couldn’t be used on a regular basis. She convinced herself that things wouldn’t be so bad if she could just sleep. Today’s endevours had started early, leaving her quarters in the Fleet district to return to the hospital. Appointments and patients and collaborations and research. Tenkiller had been as good as his word. His team kept security on the ward tight, and there was no more interference. A perverse thought crossed her mind, that she wouldn’t mind a circus down there today. It would fill the hours. Then after her shift she put time in with the botanists or on her own private research. Some nights she worked so late she didn’t bother to leave the hospital. She slept on the couch in her office. As long as Eraras and Elbbirt didn’t notice it was okay. They were still after her about working too much, after the protests.

Today she was in the biochemistry lab. Her shift had ended…some time ago. She had spent all afternoon and evening the day before in the various gardens for the hospital and for the Fleet compound. Now spread in front of her where flowers and herbs galore. She was mashing them, steeping them and extracting the oil. Beside where she was working she had beeswax melting and in another pot she was adding the crushed herbs and oils to the melted wax. That she was then pouring into tin cans, letting them set and cool before putting the lids on. She had a rather impressive stack of different medications. When she was waiting she was making up jars of dried tea. Dr Zarath would be proud. That thought brought the first smile she had had in days, but it was short lived.

The only problem with her little plan? Exhaustion made the noise louder and more painful. She gave herself a small shrug. Her life would always have pain. She’d known that since she was old enough to understand what the doctors told her parents. It was the only way to get to sleep. Lack of sleep slowed down cognitive functions, could cause hallucinations, and other issues. She couldn’t afford that with her patients. Sharah felt ice travel down her back and turned to look, but she was alone in the lab. “As soon as I start yawning, I’ll go to bed,” she promised no one in particular.

Fayth, SFCMO

Yavia was manning the main nurses desk in the security ward. She only had a few more hours to go to her 12 hour shift. Temple lumbered back in. She’d gone to refill some of the medication vials that were low. Yavia looked up at her as she stopped at the desk. “I tell you what, Crockett. Fayth is a machine. She doesn’t stop. When she’s not doing rounds she’s always working on something. Works as hard as us nurses. I like that.”

Yavia grinned, “What’s she up to now?” Temple muttered as she opened the medication locker, “Biochemistry lab. Making some of those primitive medicines she’s always going on about.” Yavia huffed, “Hey, they might harken back to older medical practices but they are still sound. Fayth has made quite a name for herself, and her papers and programs have saved lives.”

Temple waved a hand at her, “Yeah yeah I know. Just seems…unnatural.” Yavia rolled her eyes, natural medicines being unnatural. Was Temple even listening to herself. The older nurse bustled about and into Holloway’s room and Yavia’s gaze turned upward focusing on two floors above her where the biochemistry lab was. She shook her head. When she got off her shift she found Fayth still in the biochemistry lab working. She walked in a shook her head. “Sharah? Don’t you think you’ve worked enough hours this week?” She took in the red rimmed eyes, the dark circles and general pallor of exhaustion. “Have you slept at all in the last few days?”

Crockett, SHNurse