A Mix Up And New Direction

Posted on Thu May 2nd, 2024 @ 9:57am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Warrant Officer Iryna Voznyuk & Ensign Isaac 'Zac' Hughes

Mission: Contagion
Location: Med Bay
Timeline: Late 366
3287 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth stepped into sickbay and winced as she wanted to be anywhere other than there about to have a conversation with the doctor about a pregnant crew member when the woman should have gotten to know before her. It was a fluke of the medical system from when there had only been one doctor and the Captain had needed to be alerted to anything.

“Ensign? Doctor?” She called not at all sure for a moment which he preferred but she would soon find out she guessed when he answered. Ensign Hughes was not someone she had gotten to know much yet but she was sure after this disaster she was going to get to know him better.

It was eerie, Isaac had decided, being back in Sickbay on his own. It wasn't that it hadn't occurred already since arriving on the wrong side of his own timestream, but with Avira on board, holding down a shift meant more or less just working his way through a predetermined list of duties until the Andorian reported back again. In between, his focus had been on the establishment of the mental health service that required a framework before it could operate properly, and that was different enough that it still felt separate from the life he'd left behind. Now, knowing that he was the only trained physician on board was uncomfortably familiar territory, and it had started to occur to the doctor that that he was no longer particularly fond of the solitude.

It didn't make a visit from the Commanding Officer any less of a surprise. The very faintest of thoughtful frowns creased Hughes' forehead as he put aside the PADD he'd been working on and approached. "Captain. Is there a problem?"

"Hello... I know you asked to see me after the meeting but we have a little bit of a problem that we need to deal with as a team." She explained deciding to focus on the issue of Iryna before she got to herself.

A gaze that was oft-times far too pensive for its own good studied the woman as Isaac fought to set aside concern for the Away Team. He had yet to succumb to any urge to contact Manishie, mostly because he didn't suspect she'd be all that impressed if he broadcast his fussing, but lack of communication only made room for speculation. Attempting to ground himself, Hughes folded his arms gently across himself and asked, "What sort of problem?"

She would just need to come out and say it as it was no one's fault when there had been other issues on their minds since the other universe crew had joined them." When there was only one doctor and one nurse onboard there was a fail-safe put in on the system, that has not been removed since we were lucky enough to stumble on you and the others, that I get alerted if Doctor zh'Kenarh hasn't accessed a medical result in a day. Mine and someone else's came through and the other person's results state she is pregnant."

There was no rational reason for the sudden increase in his heart-rate but, for a singular, disorienting moment, Isaac was concerned the Captain's presence was more of a personal touch than the seeking of his professional input. It was just one time. Outwardly, he paused with his mouth open before remarking. "That is...a concern." If nothing else, pregnancy opened up an entire can of worms they had not exactly covered every contingency for. "I take it this person isn't likely to have been informed?"

Beth could not deny that it was a concern but it also gave the Captain a little burst of hope that things were moving forward. “It’s Warrant Officer Voznyuk.” She stated holding out the PADD she was nervously holding.

The tiny burst of relief was very quickly smothered by a much deeper frown as Hughes took the device and flipped it around to read. "She didn't mention any symptoms when I treated her for her dislocation." The doctor paused, considering for a moment whether this new information needed to be elevated to priority examination given the course of painkillers he'd assigned the woman currently still supposed to be on light duties. "I'll need to get her in, this should have been factored into her pain management. There's no notes here about consultation, we're pretty sure she hasn't been told?"

Beth sat back in the bio bed and shook her head. “I have not had any notification and Gerhard would have mentioned something if he knew. A pregnancy would not be able to be hidden on a ship with our type of situation.” Beth said quietly. She was under no illusion that the information would have leaked out somewhere if there was some type of hint of it.

After a moment's hesitation to consider options, Hughes moved to the communication terminal. As much as there was some urgency to the situation, there wasn't much to be gained in causing anxiety before the marine even arrived and so he opted for a written attendance request, as soon as was practicable. "Would you like to be here for the conversation?" Ordinarily, confidentiality would have played into the possibility but Isaac wasn't insensitive to the fact that Voznyuk might have preferred the Captain's presence, even if it was only for the additional support of another woman.

Beth nodded. She would stay as long as the woman wanted her there or did not demand privacy. Beth was not one to outstay her welcome but she did want to be there to support. It was not long after confirmation that the MACO appeared looking confused. “What is wrong Sir?” She asked striding in before she added a quick. “Ma’am.” As she saw the captain.

As much as the situation was serious enough to warrant the swift reaction time, Hughes was still mildly surprised enough to glance up at the chronometer before moving away from his conversation with the Captain, which had mostly centred around the emergent need to add neonatal services to the list of current requirements. "That was quick," he remarked with a smile, and patted the biobed in front of him. 'How is the discomfort today?" It seemed a decently polite place to start, given the supposed bombshell he was about to drop.

Iryan narrowed her eyes as she walked further into the room and then sat down on the bio bed. She was not sure what was going on as this was unusual but she was not used to Earth Starfleet way at all. "Frustrating but not overly painful. Why?" She wondered. Had someone said that something was wrong with her?

The benefit of being a doctor was that you inevitably mustered a lot of experience in delivering unexpected news. Whilst some might have been tempted to beat around the bush to try and soften the blow, Hughes had a responsibility to tend to both his patients as a priority. It didn't stop him from offering the marine a gentle smile. "Something came up in your recent scans that Dr. zh'Kenarh must not have had time to follow-up before she left." He didn't add that he wasn't aware the other doctor had ordered any other tests, it was easy enough to assume that Voznyuk had sought a female's perspective and Isaac saw no reason to question her on it.

Iryna raised an eyebrow. “Something came up?” She questioned. Well wasn’t that just typical of her? If she was going to injure herself she was going to make a good job of doing it at the very least. How was she going to explain this to Nate? He had been worrying enough before he left but to come back to something else was going to strain their already fragile relationship she was sure of it.

"Yes." Isaac kept his eyes carefully trained on the woman and proceeded as factually as his supervisors had always insisted upon. "According to the doctor's scans, you're pregnant. Congratulations," he added, though it was difficult to know how that word really sat given the context.

“Me?” Iryna looked at the man and burst out laughing. That was not possible and if it was that was the universe's sick joke to make her a parent in the middle of this chaos. “Pregnant? Me?” She laughed again, looking at the Captain who was looking at her concerned.

Hughes swapped looks with Leroux, admittedly having a lot less experience with this particular reaction. "About 8 weeks, yes. I'd like to run some more tests to make sure your recent accident hasn't caused any complications. I can get a better idea of specifics then and answer any questions you have."

Iryna looked at the man as the words the doctor said filtered through her sudden mania and sobered instantly. “I… I cannot be 8 weeks pregnant me and Na… I haven’t had sex before a month ago since we left Earth.” She said quietly.

The doctor's eyebrows hitched slightly. "And you're sure that's accurate?" He winced at the words, which sounded like an accusation of promiscuity, but the dots didn't line up.

“I am very sure. I’ve only had…” She grew redder as they spoke. Why could she not be more open with this type of subject like the boys in the MACOs were. “Relations in the last month.” She moved uncomfortably on the bio bed before remembering she needed to stay very still for the scan to be completed.

"Hmmn." The non-committal sound didn't reveal much of Hughes' thoughts on the matter, but with his attention focused on preparing equipment, the absent-mindedness of it was probably understandable. Once everything was in place, he picked up a PADD in anticipation and properly addressed the woman lying in front of him. "We'll see what the scans tell us, and work from there. Have you had any symptoms? Nausea, dizziness, cramping?"

“Nothing, Sir.” Iryna said shifting into MACO mode now that her shock was wearing off. Nothing that he was telling her was lining up with what she knew. “I am up to date with my shot and I know my body.” She was very in tune with how her body worked and behaved and she knew she could not be.

"Well, this won't take long. Lie still for a few minutes longer and then hopefully I'll have us some answers."

As he stood and waited for the scan to complete, Hughes ran back over the initial report with a faint frown. As much as he obviously hadn't been looking for it at the time, he also would have said that he rated his own abilities enough that a pregnancy shouldn't have slipped past him when addressing her dislocation. The report was decisive though, even if it was based on a blood test without follow-up confirmation.

His frown deepened as something caught his eye. His gaze swung back and forth between the incoming readouts and the information in his hand. "Well, that's strange."

Iryna was more than happy to lie still for a moment and took that opportunity to close her eyes and just think on nothing. It was a MACO trick to get some sleep but she was using it to get some clarity over the situation and the situation did not make sense. The captain who had been quietly contemplating the world, the universe and her place in it perked up and looked at the doctor better. “Strange?” She wondered as Iryna sat up looking at him confused.

"One moment."

Painstakingly thorough, that was one of the hallmarks of Isaac Hughes' career to date. The patience that he exuded during normal intercourse translated to a tendency to approach his work with a very methodical desire to avoid taking short-cuts. It took him another moment, as requested, to cross-check the information he had isolated and then another few seconds, his brow puckered in a deeply perplexed frown, for him to speak up.

"Unless you've spontaneously decided to switch blood types, there's a discrepancy here that should have shown up in the initial cross-checks." Isaac glanced up again at the emerging scan, results and tapped on the screen a few times before his eyebrows drifted upwards slightly. "Huh."

“But the doctor was busy there was 2 …” Iryna started to go into her explanation when she realised how it could have happened and glanced at the captain. “Oh… um…” She glanced at the doctor and indicated the Captain who was rapidly turning white.

Whilst the penny was dropping elsewhere, Hughes was more focused on processing the updated information, which now sat as a complete contradiction to the initial report Leroux had brought to him. "Lie back down for me," he asked, keen to exhaust all avenues. He hovered for a moment with the scanner wand in hand, gesturing for Voznyuk to hitch up her shirt. Manual exploration failed to produce anything that the scans hadn't already confirmed, however, and eventually he set aside the instrument and looked the marine in the eye.

"It looks like you were right. I'm not seeing any evidence of pregnancy."

Iryna was staring at the man oblivious to her signal to deal with the actually pregnant person but she would go through his motions. “Yeah. Definitely no pregnancy from me. And I will be seeing you in a few weeks to continue that.” Iryna assured quickly standing up. She needed to get out of there before it became awkward. “I’ll just leave you two now.”

It was not the first, nor would it be the last, time Isaac Hughes had failed to decode the secret language of women. In his defense, his attention had been on his own sense of process and he had missed entirely the reference to a second person. Now, as Voznyuk excused herself, the doctor was left with two conflicting reports and some bureaucratic investigation to uncover how one of them was even possible. "I may have to contact Avira about this, Captain, something's clearly gone astray. If we can't trace the mix-up, it might be necessary to impose upon Engineering for some emergency diagnostics."

No one would accuse him of being fast on the pick-up but the silence that followed his musings was finally obvious enough for Hughes to glance across at Leroux, whose sudden vacancy was instantly, alarmingly, familiar.

"Okay, take a seat." Isaac caught the Captain's elbow before her legs gave out. Helping her into a seat, he crouched down to fix the pale woman with worried eyes. "Captain?"

Beth felt the pressure but everything was happening at such an alarming rate that her brain was not at all keeping track of her surroundings. “There is not computer issue.” Beth’s stated coming back to her senses hearing Isaac’s voice.

Preoccupied by retrieving his tricorder, Hughes asked, "Can we be certain?"

“I was here when Voznyuk came in and The Doctor was worrying and tired, getting ready to leave for the base. I think they are my results. I think the blood got labelled wrong.” Beth said looking at the screen. “My blood type.”

It was the moment where Manishie would have claimed you could hear the clunk of realisation. For a thoughtful man, Isaac certainly took his time catching up to the point at times, though he might have been forgiven in this case for opting for slightly less surprising conclusions first. He paused, lifted his chin slightly as the Captain's meaning finally sank in, and then proceeded with a slightly gentler approach. "Ah." Activating the tricorder, Hughes ran a quick scan and then moved to pat the bed that Voznyuk had just vacated. "Shall we verify then?"

Beth slowly pushed herself off the chair and rose to her feet. Every step to the biobed was hard work as her head swam with all the possibilities. Her heart was racing but she forced her body to respond and sat down on the bio bed for a moment before lying down.

"Same questions apply," Hughes continued quietly as he recalibrated the scanner for the same task. "Have you experienced any symptoms?"

“Yeah. I just thought it was my anemia and or stress.” Beth said looking at the ceiling above her deciding it was the best way to survive the embarrassment of all of this.

"I take it the timing lines up." It was a delicate subject, especially as Isaac was aware of the fact that the Captain's... The man most likely to be the baby's father had been left behind, which had struck the doctor as a little odd at the time even though they weren't technically going to be out of rendezvous range for a number of months.

“Yeah.” Beth turned bright red. She had not woken up expecting to have to discuss her sex life today. “This is just as awkward for me as for you, doctor.” Beth stated trying to not laugh but it was impossible when her nerves were officially shot.

"It's not awkward at all." It was kindly meant, if perhaps a little stretch of the truth. The situation had started out overly complicated, and Isaac felt perhaps that he wasn't the Captain's preferred choice for this kind of disclosure, but beyond that, for all she was his new Commanding Officer, Leroux wasn't someone the doctor had enough of a relationship with to feel anything other than concerned sympathy. "Though we will have to look into our systems to avoid mismanagement of confidential personnel files again. In the meantime..."

Isaac turned the scanner around and offered the dazed woman a gentle smile.

"Congratulations are in order, ma'am."

Beth nodded and took a moment to react as she was confused. She had never gotten pregnant with her dead husband and here she was having a very confused and intense relationship with a man who she was unsure was going to come back. "Thank you." She whispered looking up at the scanner. "Can I see the baby?" She wondered seeing the confirmation on the screen that she was indeed pregnant.

Isaac paused as he considered the request and then nodded, moving to rearrange the monitor. "It's still just a tiny little bean at this stage, though if we can coax the rascal into behaving, we might get a good look at a face. Currently, we're floating with our back to the scanner." He slid a hand beneath the Captain to help adjust her position and then handed her the scanner wand.

Beth looked at the man taking a new breath before she nodded and held it against her stomach. The advances in medical meant she would not need to remove clothing but she did need to press it close for the scan to work. She glanced up at the screen as she got a look at the baby her body was growing for the first time. It was nothing like she was expecting but she could see the vague features that over the next few months would grow into the what would be the first of the ships next generation.

As he watched, Hughes took a moment to adjust the magnification and centred the display on the tiny life growing in blissful ignorance of the significance of its existence. That done, he placed a reassuring hand on the Captain's shoulder and, patting it once, moved away to handle the updated paperwork at a distance to afford her some privacy.

Beth offered him a sad smile and watched him leave as she stared at the life she had created somehow so far from home in the middle of chaos. Well this was going to be an interesting conversation with her crew.