Belated reporting in
Posted on Sat Mar 16th, 2024 @ 5:25pm by Captain Zseeq & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D'BrooNi- Haistro
2,082 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Short Treks
Location: Captains ready room
With all the craziness that had occurred - the younger side of the crew suddenly becoming some sort of borg and taking over the ship, Mel had made sickbay her priority before reporting in. The Captain would have had other things to deal with for sure.
Now they all seemed back to normal, she could follow protocol. Hopefully he had a opening.
She pulled her jacket down in an attempt to smarten up, a feeling of sadness overcoming her realizing her pregnant belly and baby was gone. As fast as it hit she pushed that into the far reaches of herself, silencing all her hosts. Now meeting her new CO, in her new life moving forward was not the time for them all to have an opinion in her head.
One last deep breathe, she pressed the chime to the ready room.
Captain Zseeq had been sitting in his Ready Room making final preparations for their departure from San Francisco Yards. The entirety of their damage from Frontier Day had been mended and Command had authorized the Saratoga to begin her first assignment. While he'd looked forward to this day, he wasn't looking forward to where they were going. Returning to the Maelstrom hadn't been on his BINGO card, but Starfleet had other plans for him.
Sighing, the Captain brought up an updated crew manifest. While the Saratoga was prepared for its mission, she was still vacant in several high profile roles. Starfleet informed him that they would pick up their newcomers at Deep Space 12 when they arrived in the Maelstrom, but he wasn't thrilled about heading back there either.
Hearing the door chime, Zseeq looked up, "It's open."
Mel walked in and stood to attention. "Captain, Commander D'BrooNi-Haisto reporting in. I am your new CMO sir."
Flicking at the holodisplay to minimize it, the Deltan Captain looked up at the new Chief Medical Officer and nodded. He had been familiar with Doctor D'BrooNi-Haisto from his experiences in the Maelstrom and with Captain Brell. He was happy to have at least one familiar face aboard. Rising to his feet, "Welcome aboard, Doctor. Are you settling in well?"
"I am thank you sir. As is my youngest. How are you settling in?" she asked wondering how many people took the time to check in on the CO.
The Captain had forgotten that the doctor would be bringing a child aboard. Saratoga, by design, had not been outfitted with the family berths common to most exploratory vessels, but some minor exceptions had been made for some personnel. Starfleet Command had explained to him that he couldn't very well have space for his child aboard and not make the same allowances for his crew.
"I've been well, for the most part, just trying to get some final paperwork done before our departure. I never realized how much writing a Captain had."
Mel smiled. "Yes I am familiar. My recent husband certainly had plenty. It got worse when he became a commodore. Although I'm sure there will be different sorts for captaining a ship opposed to running a station. I'm imagine its something that you will settle into sir and it get easier." she said positively.
Zseeq nodded with a bit of solemness to his words. The Deltan Captain had known of Commodore Keiben Haistro and his fate, having actually briefly met him during a previous assignment. When Zseeq served as Captain Iy'dan Brell's XO on Deep Space 12, Zseeq was given temporary command of the garrison support ship, the Geronimo. During an assignment, Geronimo had been assigned to convoy duty and traveled to Deep Space 21 alongside a freighter convoy. During the visit he'd had a brief run in with Commodore Haistro, but only a temporary one when the Geronimo was docked at the old Cardassian station. It was at least a fun visit, but he didn't have an opportunity to meet with Doctor D'BrooNi-Haisto at that time.
"I certainly hope so. Paperwork is not why I joined Starfleet," the Captain informed. He grabbed a datapad, "One of the items I was just reviewing is probably of interest to you." He gave the PADD to the Doctor, "This is the notice from the Quartermaster. Our extra cases of Hyronalin have been brought aboard." Hyronalin was the standard treatment used to counter the effects of radiation poisoning and, with the radiation levels in the Maelstrom, something they needed on hand at a moment's notice.
"Thank you captain," Mel said. "I will organise a schedule to inoculate everyone. Are there certain areas of the ship where the staff are more exposed than others?"
Zseeq nodded, "I like that you're already putting your plans into place, Doctor. Saratoga received some minor retrofitting to her ablative armor when Starfleet decided to assign us to the Maelstrom. I'm confident that the upgrades will offer us some level of radiation shielding and defense." A hologram of the Saratoga appeared on the desk, the ablative armour being outlined along the hull. "Now, all bets are off if we enter into combat. With the Kessok being enigmatic, the Romulans having refugees out there, and the Klingons having some annexed systems anything's possible. Plus, the Cardassians have been known to operate there and have expressed interest in several star systems. They even fought a brief war with the Federation over the Maelstrom in 2378."
"So it could get "hot" in combat situations and the area they are sending us too has "drama and history," Mel summarised. "What a colourful part of space the Federations sending us too," she smiled genuinely not phased. "I promise you sickbay will be ready for anything. I run a tight ship,"
Also with 7 previous hosts she had seen may colourful situations.
"May I speak to you on another matter Captain?"
The Captain had wanted to get back to his paperwork, but he knew that it would be better to continue with the Doctor rather than break. "What's on your mind, Doctor?"
"Well actually its two sir," Mel said with a hint of a smile. "As you probably know from experience getting every crew member through their annual medical, well lets just say we can experience resistance. If the CO leads the charge so to speak, well we certainly get less. So I would if your willing like to get you booked in?"
Captain Zseeq looked at the Chief Medical Officer, every potential excuse running through his head as quickly as possible. He - like every Starfleet Officer - hated physicals and he was certain there was something to get him out of his. At least he wished there were. "Alright, Doctor, get me scheduled. I'll also order the Senior Staff to complete their physicals."
"Yes the second is slightly more strange. My file has this sealed up as the knowledge of it, well if it got out to other hands they may be people who might decide to disturb a locked down ancient experimental base or worse try get a hold of my DNA for testing or experimenting. However I am allowed to disclose events to my superiors. One of the earliest missions when I was on the USS Corpernicus, we discovered a hidden ancient T'Kon base. It was powered down and untouched for well however long the T'Kon had been extinct for. Our away team disturbed things and woke up some rather disturbing experiments that the T'kon had been running. Biological ones.
There were "creatures" in status. One of them trapped me in some sort of device and it rewrote some of my DNA to T'Kon. Well actually that's incorrect. Its didn't rewrite it. It brought it out so to speak. It seems my race, the Trill. The humanoid part are an offshoot of the T'Kon. Clearly there's been many changes evolutionary but some of our background unused DNA matched there's and us now active it me," she paused to let him process that." It saved my life though. Afterwards the creature saw me as its master and maker. It allowed us to escape."
The Captain was surprised by what he'd heard about the Chief Medical Officer, slightly disturbed to hear something so challenging. They all knew that there were risks with their assignments in deep space, but the potential to have oneself changed in such a way way down right frightening to the core.
"Starfleet Medical has cleared you for continued service?" Zseeq questioned, wondering if the modifications met the criteria for genetic engineering.
Mel nodded. She sensed what he was really asking. Hell there had been several Admirals and much debate in her time back at HQ. But at the end of the day she hadn’t willingly had anything modified. Was it even modified if it was part of your redundant DNA anyway. Big questions had been grappled with.
She had submitted to all the tests even helping run them that they wanted. It hadn’t changed her ability to be a doctor in any way. Merely opened up more gifts like some of the other telepathic races already in Starfleet. Hell it had only kicked in with Keiben that she knew of and that most likely due to the whole “imzadi” Phenomena.
Finally, one of the Admirals had voiced some sense – They didn’t have enough medics as it was. Did they really want to throw out someone with a 20-year career over something that couldn’t of been prevented and was no longer affecting anyone?
The only consideration now was the T’Kon now on DS21. But that clever admiral had said that Mel may be best placed as a potential link/representation to them. Starfleet didn’t want to bite their own nose off. Living beings from the height of a ancient technological civilisation could be very useful friends.
“Yes I’m cleared for continued service,”
"That's good enough for me then," Zseeq answered honestly. "Hell, with the modifications that the Borg and Changelings made to people during their little coup a few weeks ago this is something that I think we can handle."
He was genuine with his answer, but he knew that there were a lot of concerns throughout Starfleet and the Federation right at the moment over the challenges of genetic engineering and their impact upon the galaxy. With what the Borg had done to people there were a lot of concerns over how far their programming went and, more concerning, could a bad actor reactivate the changes and make our own crews go bad again. It was a scary prospect, best left for people of much higher paygrades than he. Supposedly Commodore Crusher of Starfleet Medical had devised a method of removing the implants, but many were still fearful.
He glanced at the chronometer, "Do you have any thoughts on how we can best handle our recovered crew or if we are at any type of risk from them?"
"Going by Commodore Crushers' method no. I've read the papers and watched some HQ medical streams on it. The number of patients they have tested things on before rolling it out now were good numbers and fully observed. I have already pulled a list of who was affected and I have the surgical experience along with a couple of others, to start checking and removing any implants. The risk is more the mental effect on any staff. They have found some people starting to remember some of their experiences as Borg," she told him. "The counselors may be busy sir."
"Somewhat fitting that the Saratoga is one of the first vessels not to have a Counselor as a member of the Senior Staff," the Captain chided, his voice showing his annoyance at the decision. The ship did have counselors aboard, just none who were among the senior team.
"I trust your judgement, Doctor. Perhaps meet with the Security Chief to discuss the situation as well. There may be some... outbursts."
"I will get that scheduled Captain," Mel replied. She waited patiently to see if had anything further to suggest or if she was dismissed still standing at attention.
Reaching to the monitor at the side of his desk, Captain Zseeq opened a new window on the display screen. Keeping his attention on the Doctor though, "Was there anything else, Doctor?'
"No sir. If its okay with yourself I will leave you to your paperwork. Have a good day sir," Mel said.
"Thanks, Doc, you're dismissed," the Captain answered as he prepared to leave the drydock.
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