Medical Tinkering

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2020 @ 4:37am by Lieutenant Min Seong & Lieutenant Commander Lukas Carter

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Med Bay
Timeline: Backdated Post
1136 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Min frowned. On the list of people she had yet to speak with on their own physical health, the chief of engineering was toward the top of her list. The man had thus far evaded her check-ups, but he would not be able to any longer. She was insisting they were mandatory (even if she did not officially state as such during their little meeting. Pah, meetings).

It simply happened to be convenience that one of her young nurses decided to snap one of the handles of one of her few biobeds off. After sending the frustrated ensign to sit down and think about his actions (and subsequently wonder how exactly he had performed such a feat), she leaned over to the still-working console to give a small message to the engineer.

Please Lieutenant Commander Carter, I require your assistance up in Sick Bay. It is of mild urgence.

Several minutes later Carter appeared in Sickbay sporting a day old beard and heavy bags under his eyes. "What do you need, Doctor?" He said, hefting his technical kit.

"Yes." By the time Carter appeared in her Sickbay, Min had taken to seating herself atop the broken biobed, hard at work organizing patient files on the nearby console. Upon seeing him, she pointed toward the broken handle. "We had an unfortunate accident and I would rather not have a safety hazard on my hands. Is there anything you can do about this? If not, I suppose I could wrap some gauze around it..."

"Mein Gott, who ripped that off?" Carter exclaimed. He crouched down in front of the broken handle and looked up Doctor Seong. "Don't tell me we've got a Klingon loose on the ship you didn't tell me about?"

Min's shoulders shook with her silent laughter. "Absolutely not. Just an angry crewman full of adrenaline. Or so he tells me. He may or may not be taking a gauntlet of tests right now... just in case we missed something in his physical." The last thing they needed to worry about was an angry member of the crew with steroids in their system... or worse... "I'm certain that's an adequate consequence. Well, that and the lecture I'm going to give him when he's finished."

"I need to be careful who I get into a boxing match with on the ship," Carter mused. He considered asking who the crewman was, but Lukas knew that conversation wouldn't get very far. No doubt Min couldn't divulge who it was, and if he was in the mystery patient's shoes, Carter knew he would prefer not to have this moment shared with the rest of the crew. Turning his attention back to his area of expertise, Carter tapped on one of the jagged bits of aluminum and looked up at the Doctor. "Do you want the handle replaced or the edge sheared off?"

Min looked up from the medical scanner she had held up to see his basic vitals. "Hm?" she set the scanner down, innocently looking between Carter and the broken object in question, as if she hadn't had a nefarious plan to make sure he was in tip top shape. "Shearing it off should suffice until we can get the resources. Handles on beds aren't exactly the most necessary thing, I would think."

"Good," Carter said, hefting the broken handle. "I can melt this down and use it for something else. Maybe I should start a scrap metal drive, like they had after the War." He tossed the handle into his kit and rummaged around for a plasma torch. "How are we doing on medical supplies?"

"Any sort of resources pool may be a good idea." Min seemed to endorse the thought of creating a more cohesive idea of sharing with the rest of the crew. "I'll definitely see what other scrap we have lying about to start off with. Supplies are another matter. We don't have the resources to simply make more penicillin or gauze. Easy enough to make do for now, but for any future illnesses or injuries.... Well, we may have to see how it pans out for now."

"Scarcity of penicillin and gauze," Carter said with a sigh. Having found his torch, the engineer adjusted the intensity of the beam to a lower setting and aimed it at the jagged edge of metal. "If Archer could survive in hostile alien space alone and without reinforcements, we can survive out here." He began cutting the final piece of aluminum free and glanced at the doctor. "That's what we have to keep telling ourselves and the crew."

Min rose a brow in a rare show of amusement. "Oh, I have full faith that we will survive as long as we can. Hopefully long enough to allow for us to contact Starfleet and insist on long-term survival training. Clearly someone did not think that was a possibility, or they did and they decided to remove that from the curriculum." She set her medical tricorder down, satisfied with her own covert readings. "Truly, we can grow more penicillin with enough moisture and a slice of bread, even if it is radiated. I'm sure we can find a way to reproduce gauze easily enough... but the lack of resources is what would stop us. But, I've had enough time in less fortunate areas of Earth to know how to ... get creative, so to speak. I just have to hope we don't have another surplus of injuries."

"That's a nice dose of optimism, Doctor," Carter said. He ran his plasma torch across the gurney frame one last time and studied it for imperfections. "Should be all set now. Find whoever tore this off and make sure they aren't anywhere near my engine."

"Oh that shouldn't be a problem," Min said with a delightful hum. "I've made them an honorary nurse's assistant and now he's at the mercy of my medical staff. I have a slight feeling he will be too busy surviving that to be quite so angry in the future."

"I hope you're kidding, Doctor," Lukas said, hefting the broken handle. "I might ask for a house call for my next physical instead of coming here and being at the tender mercies of your new assistant."

Min laughed. "I am not, but he won't be something to worry about. I'm sure he'll learn his lesson in a few hours. Hopefully you won't need another medical examination in that time." She hopped up onto the bed, smiling warm. "But I'm sure you're quite busy. I do appreciate your time."

"Not a problem, Min," Lukas said. He finished gathering his tools and snapped his tool kit shut. "See you at the next staff briefing."

OFF:

Lt. Cmdr. Lukas Carter
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Min Seong
Medical Officer