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Doctor-Captain Meeting

Posted on Mon Oct 23rd, 2017 @ 12:06pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Cassiopeia Yale Md

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Captain's Ready Room

The bridge was quiet when Doctor Cassiopeia arrived via the turbolift. She was greeted by a couple of curious stares, but mostly, the skeleton crew looked bored with their mundane tasks. Cassi didn't dawdle though and was ringing the chime to the Captain's ready room before anyone could ask for her story.

She passed through the doors after she was beckoned to enter. Trill, she instantly noted once she was in the room. Realizing she should say something, the moment of silence became awkward, Cassi introduced herself, "I'm Doctor Cassiopeia Yale. I'm here as your Chief Medical Officer."

"Welcome aboard. Please, have a seat. May I get you a drink? We have a lot to discuss and while your clearance level is still being upgraded to Sigma 9, I don't foresee an issue so I'm going to answer what questions I can. Our Intel Chief, Commander Eneas, will have to brief you on the rest, but at least I'll be able to point you in the right direction." Smiling brightly for a moment, Enalia's smile then faded as she moved the scattered PaDDs from her desk to an open bin so she could use her desk's holographic display - one of the handy features Starfleet Intel had installed for her that she'd found to be immeasurably useful.

After Enalia was finished clearing her desk and her desk terminal was ready, she stared at Doctor Yale a moment longer. "And one more thing before we start... Every Medical Chief this ship has ever had since being christened USS Hera has been killed within a month of being assigned to the position with the exception of one and we don't speak of him... Please break that cycle."

The captain's dark, brown eyes drilled into the doctor. With a warning like that... Cassi shifted her weight in unease. "Challenge accepted," she said, though the confidence was certainly lacking. "I do like to avoid dying whenever I can. I assume their deaths were accidental circumstances?" Accidents could be avoided, secret vendettas against people holding medical degrees would be a different story - and a little harder to defend against.

"For the most part, yes..." Enalia's tone wasn't the most reassuring and she knew it, so she elaborated. "One fell down a turbolift shaft about eighty decks during an away mission, one was vaporized by plasma in a freak shuttle accident on the main hangar deck, one was transported into a bulkhead somehow, one was murdered by Syndicate junkies for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, one was on his way here when his courier shuttle ran afoul of a cosmic filament and destroyed his ship... I'm sorry but during your time here, I'll be forbidding you from going on any away missions or moving from this ship by any means other than a docking ramp except in an emergency or with command approval. I hope you understand."

Cassi nodded accession as she counted the review of deaths on her fingers. She was almost relieved by the news of staying on the ship, but accidents still happened on board the Hera.

Clicking a few buttons on her terminal, Enalia brought up a file listing without breaking eye contact with Cassi. She spoke as the file list scrolled continuously. "Also, you're going to have to format your internal office computer and reset the EMH backup system... The one Chief that did last a while filled it with homo-erotica holo novelas that he spent his days writing with the former Intel Chief. Do you have any questions or objections so far?"

"I have a lot of questions, but I don't think this is the time or the place to ask them. I think it may be best, actually, if I try to forget most of that information once I've sanitized Sickbay." She tried for a brave smile. "I hope your travel restrictions correct the issue."

"As do I," Enalia replied, also smiling bravely as she cleared her display. "As for your actual job, have you been briefed on Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's condition? That's probably the easiest place to start..."

Cassi nodded, "Yes, some. I met with the executive officer and he briefly explained the situation but not the details. He indicated I can talk with one of the science officers for more detailed information."

Enalia nodded and pulled up a few readouts of the belt that Nexi and Farenia had been made. "Crewman Dedjoy has been heading up the science side of things. As I understand it, in her culture given names are earned by great achievements. If she hadn't already earned one in geology right before coming aboard, I think she'd have earned one in biology for this. The scanning and quantum field tech she's cobbled together on such short notice is nothing short of amazing. She's even invented a new quantum-bio phase discrimination filter on the fly. Unfortunately, even having been watching over both Nexi and Farenia that whole time, I don't have much more knowledge than that about this specific black blood they're infected with. I could however tell you more about the blood of another demon that we had interactions with... Though that might be best saved for when you're more settled in."

"I'm sufficiently curious now; I won't be running away any time soon." Cassi answered. Maybe ghost stories weren't the best way to start a new job position, but it couldn't be any worse than a long list of deceased doctors.

"Alright then..." Pulling up another set of files, the door to Enalia's ready room automatically sealed and the familiar hum of an all encompassing security grid force field could be heard activating around the entire room. Then some security camera footage of a normal Nebula class bridge, which looked nothing like the bridge module currently mated to the Hera, popped up on the holographic display over her desk. At first everything looked normal as Enalia explained the situation. "I'll spare you the details of what the test was about - just suffice it to say we summoned something... evil..."

Activating playback, a black transport sequence teleported another version of Enalia onto the bridge, but unlike the one sitting in the command chair, this one looked like it had crawled out of a swamp or a grave. Immediately, several security people open fired on it, but though it took a couple hits, it leaped to the helm officer and there was a crunching noise as the demon spread its jaws wide and literally bit the officer's neck in two. A black inky substance then spread from the demon and glowing red eyes opened as two hounds seemed to materialize from it, which then went around attacking the rest of the bridge crew. in the end it was unclear if anyone made it off that bridge alive, but since Enalia was sitting there in the room showing this video to Cassi...

Once the destruction was done and the only moving thing left was the demon and her two seven eyed hellhounds, she found the last active security camera, smiled inhumanely into it with teeth as long as knives and eyes as deep and black as singularities and just froze there. Waiting. Enalia then shut the video off and released the security hold on the room. "That's the kind of thing we're trying to kill, only this time it's had two hundred thousand years to hide and plan our destruction rather than two."

"Where is - that being? - now?" Cassi asked.

"Thankfully dead. We finally killed it on our last mission as we were investigating the older demon, the Master." Enalia answered, intentionally leaving out what it took to do so.

"Well... I suppose I should go get settled in," Cassi said. Though she wasn't sure she could actually settle in with the looming monsters she had witnessed. She didn't want to know how it could be worse, but her imagination was never optimistic.

Enalia knew the look in Cassi's eyes as someone who didn't want to have seen what they had just seen. It was too late now though. "I'm sorry for having to have had shown you all this. It's better to know what we're up against than not though, I think." Standing and coming around her desk, Enalia offered a handshake and a friendly smile to Cassi. "Welcome aboard the Hera. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask."

Cassi grasped the Captain's hand, returning the firmness she received. "I'll do my best to take care of the crew. And I'll make a list if I find that the Sickbay isn't fully stocked. Thank you, Captain."

 

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Comments (1)

By Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan on Mon Oct 23rd, 2017 @ 8:29pm

Sure, just go ahead and scare away the new CMO why don't ya? LOL. Enjoyed reading this post.