Physical Maintenance

Posted on Tue Jul 1st, 2025 @ 9:22am by Commander Cressida Vale MD & Lieutenant Commander Jalay Prinnet

1,526 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: February 2388

New arrival day had come and gone. It was Dr. Cressida Vale’s goal to get as many as possible into sickbay on Day One. It was never 100% but this trip was pretty good. Thirteen new arrivals, eight had their physicals done on Day One. That was up to ten by Day Three, and eleven by Day Four.

It was Day Six now. Those last two… That 84.9% was haunting.

She sent written messages to her two remaining prospective patients. They should hopefully arrive today…

For once, hope worked. The doors hissed open to reveal a nondescript Bajoran woman, stocky, with short skin. Lieutenant Commander Jalay looked exactly like her Starfleet file indicated she should, probably because the photo had been taken only weeks beforehand. Her eyes darted quickly around the unfamiliar space, as if looking for threats, before her gaze landed on Vale. She straightened her uniform nervously as she approached. "I believe I got a message from you, Commander... Vale? Doctor Vale?"

“Either works,” the Doctor replied. 12/13. 92.3%. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Commander Jalay. Please follow me to Biobed Two.”

They walked past a Human Ensign who a nurse-practitioner was helping with a shoulder problem to get to the second biobed from the door. “Take a seat, please. How was the journey out here?” Cressida asked as she collected a medical tricorder from the drawer.

"Well, let me put it this way. I'm still unclear whether perkiness is a general Human attribute, or whether it's something more specific to Starfleet ensigns, especially ones who are piloting me places." Getting up onto the biobed with a grunt, she looked at the tricorder. "I'm not sure what you're going to scan me for that isn't already in my Starfleet records. They're probably fresher than most that you get--I only graduated from the Academy a few weeks ago. Retraining course."

“Fair enough,” Cressida said as she started her scans. “I expect my readings to be nearly identical to the ones sent over with your personnel files, but we still prefer to have our own baselines.” She passed the hand scanner over the engineer’s torso. “Plus I’m sure you can appreciate the possibility that the Academy medical scanners were incorrectly calibrated. We test our equipment every hundred scans, which isn’t feasible in the Academy setting.”

"If you say so. I'm still getting used to the Federation way of doing things." Jalay couldn't resist taking a peek at the tricorder's screen as details of her anatomy popped up. She had to hand it to the Humans: they could define an aesthetically pleasing computer interface. It was so much more colorful than the Bajoran and Cardassian technology that she'd grown up with, all those reds and browns and greens and greys. "Have you been on the Guinevere long?"

“A little more than a year and a half,” Cressida answered. “It’s a good ship, crewed by good people. Commodore McEntyre is one of the better Commanding Officers.” She stopped her scan for a moment. “Anything I should be aware of, health wise? Recent complaints, especially since your last scan, near though it was?”

Jalay shifted uncomfortably. She glanced around the sickbay. It wasn't crowded, per se, but she didn't understand the way it was designed. There hadn't been medical privacy during the Resistance, but on Bajor, Prophet's Landing, and most of her other postings, medical bays had been designed with discretion. Not so much for these odd folks. The odd folks that you voluntarily decided to join, Prinnet. Get on with it. Shaking her head briefly in discomfort, she turned it into an intentional gesture that exposed her right ear--or more specifically, the gnarled twisted scar behind it. "How do you feel about a little neurosurgery between new colleagues?"

Cressida looked at the scar and read into the physical signs her patient was showing. The subtle and not so subtle signs of discomfort. “Do you want to continue somewhere private?” she asked. “We can activate a privacy screen over the surgical bay, or go to my office, or the private exam room next door.”

Emotionally, Jalay knew the private exam room was the better choice. But she was an engineer, a newcomer to Federation technology, and ultimately: curious. "Privacy screen."

“Right this way then.” Cressida guided her toward the surgical alcove and once they were through put on the screen. An opaque forcefield activated, hiding them from prying eyes and ears.

“Now then, you were saying something about neurosurgery?”

Jalay hopped up onto the surgical bed without prompting and pulled her hair back to expose the scar again. "I don't know how much you know about the Occupation, but a lot of us, especially the engineers, had universal translator surgically implanted by the Cardassians. They didn't want us to be able to conspire in our own language. Because the technology to interface with the translator was strictly controlled by the Central Command, we were stuck with them."

For a moment, Prinnet got lost in a memory from her time at the Dreon Spaceport. She'd been on her way home from a late night shift when she came across a Cardassian child looking scared and alone. He had barely been old enough to go to school. He had lost his communicator, his identichip, and his way. The translator embedded in Prinnet's head had allowed her to communicate with him and help him find his way home. For her trouble, the boy's parents had had her interrogated under suspicion of kidnapping.

"Long story short," she finally continued, "Bajoran doctors captured enough Cardassian medical equipment after the Withdrawal to be able to disable the devices, but our medical science isn't advanced enough to take them out. Something about them being too interwoven with our neural pathways. And I can't imagine they were designed to be removed. Mine's just taking up space now, so I wondered if you could see if it's possible to remove." She kept her voice intentionally casual, neutral.

Cressida looked closely at the external scars and then brought up her tricorder for a more detailed scan. “It’s certainly something I can look into. Our medical technology about the Guinevere is top of the line but no better than what was available to you at the Academy. Hmmm…” It really was integrated into her brain. Removing it would be tricky. But would it be impossible?

“I’m going to study this further,” she told her patient. “I might be able to do something. But I’m not doing it unless I know I can do it without damaging the surrounding brain tissue.”

"My brain thanks you," Jalay assured her with a sideways smile. She shook out her hair and started re-gathering it into her customary low ponytail. "I'm not in any rush, it's not going anywhere. I didn't even ask the Academy doctors about it, actually. I wanted to make sure I could even transfer into Starfleet properly first... I wanted to contribute something before taking something so big in return."

“That’s commendable, Ms. Jalay,” Cressida said with a smile. “Well, other than that bit of pending neurosurgery I don’t detect anything wrong. You’re fit for duty. Anything else I can do for you?”

"Practice Humanian with me some time? I've been learning it in my off hours so I don't have to rely on translators if I don't want to." Prinnet fiddled with her combadge to set it to non-translation mode, then did her best San Francisco accent: "My name is Jalay Prinnet. I am from Bajor. Where are you from?"

“Yes, of course,” the doctor answered. “Nice to meet you, Prinnet. My name is Cressida. I am from Titan, which is near Earth. I speak many languages and would love to help you practice.”

"Hello, Cressidah. Nice to meet you. Tiytan is near Earyth." Prinnet fiddled with her combadge and then spoke with her normal translated tone. She looked a little sheepish, but still proud. "I think I got most of that. Prayctyce caught me a little off-guard. Practice? Thank you, Doc--ah, Cressida. I'm sure you have doctor things to do with your day, we'll have to practice when we're off hours sometime."

“The mess hall does an outstanding iced coffee,” Cressida volunteered. “Let’s find some time to sit down before alpha shift later this week. Coffee and linguistic training.”

Ice in a hot drink? Will Human wonders never cease? "That sounds nice. Count me in. Thank you for everything." Jalay hopped down from the surgical bed and nodded her gratitude at the doctor.

“Not a problem,” Cressida said. “See you later.” Once the new Chief Engineer left, Cressida cleaned up the equipment that she’d gotten out for the physical, finalized Prinnet’s paperwork…

…and, new tricorder in hand, set out to find the last person who still needed their physical.

END


Commander Cressida Vale, MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Guinevere

Lieutenant Commander Jalay Prinnet
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Guinevere

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