A Catch Up

Posted on Sun Jun 9th, 2024 @ 3:12pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Avira zh'Kenarh M.D.

Mission: Contagion
Location: Sick Bay
Timeline: Day 370
1911 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth knew she and the Doctor needed a catch up but she had specifically ordered that anyone who had been on the ‘base’ had a mandatory 24 hours off shift to check that they were fully rested and healed up from the effects of the gestational t'Sayxrosia. But that 24 hours had ended over 33 hours ago but with Hughes having requested her to return to sickbay at some point before he came to hunt her down she had decided that after her shift would be the perfect time and place to do it. She stepped into sickbay relieved to see that it was empty other than Daglish who was working away in the office and zh'Kenarh who seemed to be recalibrating a bio bed.

“Good evening Doctor.” She greeted before the door even closed. Daglish looked up but said nothing ducking her head quickly after a quick nod to the Captain.

"Commander." Avira looked up from the bed she was working on. "Is everything alright? Do we need some privacy?" She hadn't been allowed in sickbay for the past 48 hours, so she wasn't fully aware of exactly who was in the know regarding Beth's personal situation. It was not exactly something you could enquire about subtly without giving away the reason for your subtlety.

Lottie turned narrowing her eyes at the exchange and smiled. "I will take that hint and go and grab some coffee if no one has an issue with that." The nurse announced.

"If you do not mind Petty Officer," Beth said gently. The nurse very much did not mind having an excuse to grab a coffee. Beth waited until the door closed and she heard the foot steps going away. "I am fine Doctor. I came to check on things with you."

Avira looked over at the doors where Daglish just left through, wondering if a resort had been made. Then she turned to the Captain. "I'm fine, Commander." She tried to sound reassuring.

Beth looked at her before she burst into laughter. “Is this how I sounded and acted when you and Michael came to read me the riot act?” She wondered thinking back to when she had been concerned that she might be really sick with no help in sight due to what it would take to save her.

It took a moment for Avira to parse through exactly what Beth was trying to say. Her and Sloan had basically cornered the Captain when she had refused medical advice. "I assure you, Commander, this is nothing like that." It was true in a sense, the things affecting her were far reaching, not only to herself but also to the people who relied on her to be able to fix them up when they were sick or injured.

Beth was not at all convinced, she knew this woman after over a year and something felt off. "So what is it Avira zh'Kenarh? What has gotten you so pale?" The human asked and indicated the office where they could sit and talk for a moment before Nurse Daglish returned.

"I didn't realise my complexion had been altered by the recent encounter." Avira shot an involuntary glance at a nearby reflective surface. She smiled a bit at the Captain using her family name. She was one of the few on board that could properly pronounce it, after a couple of rounds of friendly feedback. "Next thing I know you'll be calling me Chiyaviraglin again." She sighed. This was the woman that relied on her to keep her crew healthy and about. "The station, the t'Sayxrosia. It affected me before we departed."

"Not likely to most people but I am not most people," Beth commented quietly as she took a seat relieved to be off her feet. "If I knew that using Chiyaviraglin would make any of this better I would do it." Beth levelled her with a calm look as she finally decided to tell her the truth. "Affected you how?" Damn space flora and them having no idea that something as it existed.

Avira pulled her hands from her pockets and stretched out her fingers in front of the Captain. They were perfectly steady. "Figures." Her antennae stretched out. "The first signs of the genetic defect I've told you about. They were supposed to take another decade or so to show up." Her antennae curled up, "Lately I've been experiencing tremors in my hands."

Beth wished that there was something that she could do to help the woman. "You have been under a lot of stress and stress heightens situations are you sure that it is connected to the genetic defect and not a reaction to something related to the space flora?" Beth wondered quietly. This did not change anything about the situation on the ship, the woman was the chief medical officer and tremors meant that Hughes would need to take a bigger role and they would train others up quicker than they had been planning to.

"I've been praised by the Imperial Guard for my steady hand under fire. Stress doesn't affect me in that way." Avira knew that at this stage there wasn't a medical test they could run on the ship that would show the degeneration yet. "I know my body, Commander."

“I was not disputing that Doctor. I was trying to be hopeful.” Beth bit her lip as she tried to think on a way forward in the conversation. “So what would you like to do with this new information?” She decided on finally.

Avira took a long, arduous breath. "I think we should let Doctor Hughes know and I should transfer my responsibilities as Chief Medical Officer." She hadn't really pursued the chief role when she signed up for the exchange programme, but now that she had the responsibilities thrust upon her with the untimely demise of the original Chief Medical Officer it felt like a huge loss.

"You are not handing the baton over just yet but we are going to let him know." Beth decided. She was not at all letting the woman back down and hide just yet. "You are my chief medical officer. You are the woman I would pick time and time again for this role even with what is looming."

"Looming seems like the wrong word now that it's reared its head." Avira felt like for almost a year now there was a storm brewing. The buffalo were restless and the sky grey. When she dropped the medical tray it was like thunder rolled in, and the buffalo started stampeding around the ranch. The disease was something that developed slowly, and she'd originally thought she'd have at least another decade. Now that it was here, she was sure she'd degenerate badly enough to be just another mouth to feed. It wasn't something that would get your blood in the hall of warriors.

"You are still here and still able to talk. I am not seeing anything this second that will stop you from delivering my child or teaching Cusauck how to do anything correctly around here." Beth said firmly daring the woman to argue with her. She could not see anything whilst they were sat there discussing things.

Avira's antennae twitched. Perhaps she was being a bit too dramatic for the current state of her being and illness. She had just hoped that her efforts to find something in order to slow it down or prevent it had bore fruit. Then again it was a genetic condition that had baffled Andorian doctors for centuries without much progress other than medication to ease the inevitable excruciating pain. Her jaw tightened thinking about the pain, which immediately reminded her of her father. The man that had drove her from her home and into an Imperial Guard recruitment office. "I'll inform Hughes. Make sure he keeps an eye on the disease's progression."

Beth nodded. It sounded like a plan to her thought she stared at the woman still. "Tell me more about this illness. What are you fears around it?" She offered hoping that she could understand the woman more.

Avira's antennae now curled up tightly at that question. "It's a degenerative nerve condition. It starts with a loss of fine motor function, and gets progressively worse. It can take years, decades even, to reach a point where function is impaired to a degree to be debilitating, but for most of the process it's accompanied by pain. Sudden bursts that jump you in the middle of the night, chronic pain that doesn't go away no matter what you try." She shook her head, "fine motor function is followed by gross motor function. Lose the ability to run, walk, stand." A deep breath, "Eventually it gets to organs, usually lungs and heart. So I have drowning in my own fluids to look forward to."

“It sounds like a human disease that we sometimes see.” Beth said thoughtfully as she leant over to the nearest console and brought up the human version. “But that is a long way away.” She pointed out. She refused to let the woman sink without a fight.

"We don't know that, because these first symptoms were supposed to be a decade away at least." Avira didn't know exactly what that space plant had done to her, but she was convinced it had sped up the process. Now that she was out of the plant there was of course a chance that it would revert to its old progression, but even then it had shaved a decade off of her life expectancy. "I apologise, Commander. I know that my life isn't over yet, but it's just something I hadn't expected to have to deal with so soon."

"No, you do not have to apologise Chiyaviraglin." Beth said leant over the desk and touched her hand gently. "You might not have started all of this as officially Leah Morgan Crew but you are my crew, my friend and as close to any family I have ever had. So you are not alone in whatever comes your way." Beth hoped the woman knew that. They had been through so much together and nothing would changed that connection between them now.

Avira appreciated the sentiment, and smirked a bit at the use of her full name. "Appreciated, Commander." She realised that the gesture to drop the title should probably be reciprocated, "Bethsabée." She inclined her head, antennae curling forward to make the bow seem deeper still. "I'll know who to come to when I need someone to push the wheelchair." There was a deep sigh at that attempt at humour at a dark situation.

Beth stopped as someone called her by her first name for the first time in a very long time. “Been a long time since someone has called me that.” She admitted before coughing slightly sitting up a little more. “I am sure my child will push your wheelchair happily.” She answered trying to a were the humour.

There was a sense of ease and optimism in the fact that the Captain thought she'd still be there long enough to have her kid be able to wheel her around. Avira was already making herself paranoid with every twitch and jitter in her extremities. It was goo to have someone that believed, truly believed, that it wasn't a warp five shuttle ride to the end of the line. "I'll let you know once I've talked to doctor Hughes."