A Doctor, an Engineer, and an Emotional Support Fox

Posted on Mon Dec 5th, 2022 @ 12:36am by Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral

2,434 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Icarus Files
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: 1 day before launch

Some officers put off their annual physicals for far too long, requiring the doctors to schedule appointments or get their commanding officer to order them to Sick Bay. But some left them so long, the doctor had no choice but to take matters into their own hands.

And so, Jayla had packed a med pack and went directly down to Main Engineering. Lieutenant Teral had missed way too many physicals and she wasn’t messing around with any of the other methods of getting to do it. No, it was time to go straight to the source.

She quickly located the chief engineer’s office and poked her head inside. Nobody there. That would have been too easy. So, she found the nearest engineer and and asked, “would you know where I can find Lieutenant Teral?”

The young man working at a console quickly turned when he heard a voice behind him, seeing someone in a blue uniform addressing him. Oh wow, she was pretty. "I last saw him in the upper level addressing warp core issues. Do you want me to call him, or...?"

Jayla gave the young man a sparkly grin. “Thanks, but I think I’d rather corner him myself,” she replied. And with a wink, off she went.

On said second level, she saw only one engineer fiddling with all the random bits engineers fiddled with. “Excuse me,” she said cheerfully as she approached “would you be Lieutenant Teral?”

Aarix was almost halfway inside the wall, trying to reconnect things to solve the warp core efficiency problem he had brought up during the staff meeting. He had consulted with Ensign Richards, who he learned specialized in warp core mechanics. She had just solved the problem and a group of engineers were scattered throughout the department fixing different components of the core. He heard a voice say his name, but didn't move to see the person, instead keeping his focus on the wires and connectors in front of his face. "Depends on who's asking."

So that was a yes. “A totally adorable girl who desperately seeks your attention?” she offered, barely holding back a giggle.

Aarix stayed half-buried in the wall for another moment before wiggling himself out of the space. There were some grime smudges on his face and uniform, and once he cleared the frame in the wall he grabbed a towel nearby and wiped his hands. It was then that he looked up at the woman, seeing the blue of a non-engineer. He saw the med kit in her hand and asked, "everything ok, doctor? Did Frederick get his hand stuck in a manifold again?"

“Nope!” replied Jayla, still cheerful as always. “You’re way overdue for a physical.”

A sigh escaped the engineer's lips when the word "physical" was spoken. Initually, he had been avoiding it, but lately he had just been too busy to schedule something. "I'm in the middle of something, can it wait?" Aarix asked.

“I’m afraid I must insist,” replied Jayla. “You really have put it off way too long. So! You can either come to sick bay with me or I can do it right here!” Again, she gave him a cheerful smile.

"Isn't it a violation of patient privacy to do... whatever it is you need from me, in main engineering?" Aarix asked, rising to his feet. He walked past the woman to a console to begin typing.

“Only if I give you your results,” she pointed out. “But I can take all the readings and samples I want.”

This woman wasn't going to budge. For a moment, Aarix considered pulling rank and ordering her to let him deal with it later, but not only was it an abuse of power, she could also counter with her elevated doctor privileges and take him off duty. He didn't want to let her do the physical in engineering either, because being scanned while working was worse than mosquitos during the summer season of the northern tundras on Earth. Not to mention how embarrassing it was to be followed around by a doctor and potentially be told to do certain things for this physical. With a sigh, he finished typing on the console before addressing her. "Fine, I'll go with you to sickbay."

Jayla would never have admitted it, but she didn’t like performing remote physical any more than her patients liked getting them. But, the bright smile she gave him probably spoke her relief louder than anything she could save. “I’ll do my best to make it quick,” she promised. “Follow me.”

Aarix didn't want to be difficult, so he nodded and gestured for her to lead the way. On the way out of engineering, he grabbed a PaDD from another engineer and began to read it, using his peripheral vision to follow the doctor. After a moment, he realized he was being rude, so lowered the PaDD and looked ahead. "So... what are your thoughts on the ship?"

“It’s nice,” she replied. “Not as big as some I’ve been assigned to, but definitely more state of the art. I’ve got one of those bio beds that takes a full body scan and provides me with a 3D rendering of any and all body systems. It’s really cool. We were testing it out on each other.”

"Interesting. Is the rendering some sort of projection, or is it only accesible from a console?" At least Aarix could pretend to work with the tech talk.

“Holographic projection,” she answered. “It just sort of hovers there above the bio bed. How about engineering? Any cool toys down there?”

A holographic projector for the purpose of visualizing repairs might be a tool worth creating. Making a projection wasn't as hard as it seemed... perhaps the doctor would let him take a look at the bio bed so he could see how it worked. "Well, we have a terminium polarity emitter to keep the matter-antimatter injector functioning. It's this little device in the injector that helps identify anomalies. Though the micro-optic transporter matrix is a handy little tool that serves a variety of purposes, like getting a component into a tight spot or delivering a wrench to someone who forgot to grab one."

There was a pause as Jayla puzzled over some of those words. “I won’t pretend to know what any of that means,” she said with a grin as they entered the turbo lift. “Main Sickbay.” The lift began to move. “But if you say it’s useful, I believe it.”

Aarix gave a half smile as he entered the lift, stopping beside her. "I think a mechanism to display a holographic projection would be useful too. May I take a look at that bio bed while we're in sickbay?" Maybe if he could distract enough from the real purpose of their adventure to sickbay, he could get away without a physical.

But, alas, it was not to be. “Absolutely,” replied Jayla. “As soon as I’m done with your physical. I’m sure it would be easily adapted to engineering needs.”

Drat. Was this woman a wind-reader? Aarix merely nodded, doing his best to hide his disappointment. The sooner this could be done with, the sooner he could go back to work. The turbo lift doors opened, and he gestured for the woman to lead the way.

Jayla cheerfully led him to exam room three, barely even registering that Silver followed as soon as she stepped through the door. “Right up on the bio bed,” she told him. “Silver, no! Go lie down,” she told the little fox, who was doing his play dance at the newcomer to Sick Bay.

Aarix knew to expect a variety of questions, pokes, and prods, but he didn't expect a blue and white creature to dance around his feet. "Hello there, little one," he said with a smile, before sitting on the bed.

Silver, of course, took this as an invitation and he attempted to jump onto the biobed. Because of the old injury to his back leg, though, he only managed to get his font legs up. He scrabbled at the side of the bed with his back feet trying to get up there.

With a sigh, Jayla lifted his hind end onto the bed. “He is now your best friend,” she informed Aarix as she activated her tricorder. “He likes his neck rubbed.”

It was admittedly funny to watch this little thing try to jump onto the bed that was clearly taller than him, and Aarix let out a brief chuckle as he watched the struggle. "I've never seen this species before," he commented, extending a hand as an invitation for the creature to approach. Animals weren't that common in the colony, but the ones he did see were generic Earth pets, like birds and cats. Even during all his previous postings, it was rare to see a pet.

“He’s a horned fox,” explained Jayla as Silver happily approached Aarix and sniffed his fingers before nudging his nose under them. “It’s not usually legal to keep them as pets, but he was injured, which makes him unable to jump, which means he can’t hunt. His species can usually leap at least twice as high as he just failed to. I had to get a special permit to adopt him.”

"Interesting," Aarix replied, watching the fox nudge his hand. Remembering her suggestion, the engineer turned his hand over to gently scratch the creature on the neck. "Well, he's quite cute."

“And friendly,” agreed Jayla, beginning her scans while Aarix was occupied. “He thinks everybody exists to pet him.”

Aarix turned his attention to the doctor, watching her already start her scans. Damn, she was sneaky. The smile faded somewhat from his face as he watched her work. "So... do anything exciting lately, aside from discovering the wonders of your sickbay?" His expression was more neutral, but his hand was still occupied by the fox nudging into it.

"I just came off an extended leave," she replied. "I worked at the Symbiosis Commission hospital for a few months. That's where I found Silver. He wasn't really interested in anybody until I did some research and found out how to talk to him. So, I suppose that's exciting. Oh! And cliff diving."

The engineer tilted his head slightly. "Cliff diving, huh? If you're interested, I have a holodeck program that lets you cliff dive into Valles Marineris on Mars. It's a hell of a sight." Removing his hand from Silver, he scratched his nose before running his hand through his hair, the action fluffing it out. "Where did you cliff dive?"

"Trill," she answered. "I grew up in a house that sat on a cliff. It's in the middle of nowhere. Growing up in the middle of nowhere makes you creative. And brave. I think I was about five or six when I first went cliff diving. Dad took me. Mum chewed him out for it." She grinned. "Also, yes, I think I would love to try that program."

A little chuckle left Aarix's nose in a couple short huffs of air. "I can relate to that, to an extent. I didn't grow up next to a cliff, but living on Mars wasn't easy either. One small thing could cripple the entire colony's ecosystem. After all, the planet is otherwise uninhabitable."

"Well, at least Trill was a little stable more than that," she replied, making an adjustment to her tricorder and continuing her scans. "I think you win on the difficult upbringing." She gave him a grin. "Any complaints? Medical, of course. I'm sure we all have general complaints." Another grin- or perhaps the same one- graced her features.

"It wasn't too bad, just had to be vigilant." Aarix thought for a moment before opening his mouth to reply, only to feel a twinge in his nose. He quickly brought his arm to his face just in time to catch the sneeze, then blinked in surprise. Where did that come from? He sniffed instinctually following the sneeze. "Excuse me. I don't think I have any complaints aside from the usual gripe about being pulled from work for this," he responded with a half-smile.

Jayla frowned and turned her tricorder to his nose. Very mild allergic rhinitis. Probably dust kicked up during upgrades. She made note of it and moved on. "I would apologize, but I'm not actually sorry," she told him with a cheeky grin. "And anyway, look at the bright side: you won't have to come back for another year." She closed her tricorder with another grin. "Let me just get some blood samples and you can be on your way."

"Yeah, I know, you have a job to do as well, so it's nothing personal," Aarix said with a wave of his hand. It was odd for him to suddenly sneeze like that, but dismissed it knowing that he had been up close and personal with all kinds of equipment today, and maybe there was some dust or something that finally started to bother him. His relief of not having to come back for a year was quickly diminished by the knowledge that she was going to take his blood. The one artifact of the colony attack when he was a child that he could never get rid of was how he felt about seeing blood, usually with injuries. It made him sick to his stomach. "Just don't show it to me when you're done," he said, a sudden tension evident in his voice.

"No problem," she replied, readying the hyposyringe. "You would be surprised how many people don't like the sight of blood. Even some nurses go woozy. Look away now," she instructed, and when he had turned his head, she pressed the hyposyringe to his neck and extracted the blood. The phial quickly disappeared into her pocket. "All done!" she announced cheerfully. "You're free to go. Unless of course you wanted to check out that fully body scanner."

Aarix turned his head when instructed, focusing his attention on the little fox next to him instead. Guess it was a good thing the creature stayed in the room. He turned back to her and gave a relieved smile before a glimmer reached his eyes. It was the look of someone ready to tinker. "I absolutely want a look at that scanner."

With another sparkly grin, Jayla said, “follow me. Come on, Silver!” and the three of them returned to Main Sick Bay.

 

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