Baby on Board (part 1)

Posted on Sat Jun 3rd, 2017 @ 9:44am by Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe & Senior Chief Petty Officer Helga (Hel) Lowe & Lieutenant Alexandra Alves M.D.

1,122 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: After arriving at Vulcan

ON

Ronnie had been experiencing lower back pain for the past week. Most of the time, it was a dull ache, but for the past few days the ache had grown into a pain that seemed to grow and then diminish every couple of hours. Today, however, the pain was radiating to her stomach and was coming every five minutes.

Even though it was her first child, Ronnie was pretty sure that she was, at last, in labor. Damion had already gone to security, so she sent a message to Illise that she would likely not be in that day and headed to sickbay. She didn't want to tell Damion, in case it was a false alarm. He would worry too much.

She waddled more than walked into sickbay, one hand massaging her lower back. "Could I please see the doctor?" she asked.

Alex was having a lazy day, finishing sorting out the medical records left behind by her predecessor. After a few days on the job, she realized that running the medical department on a Galaxy-class starship was very different from being second-in-command of the sickbay on a small vessel like the Benecia. Just the size of the crew in itself made it a much demanding task. Keeping a thousand people in check, including civilians and children, was not for the slackers. But she felt she was very much up to the challenge.

Reading through all those records, the doctor ordered the computer to play some light Caribbean-style music just to relax the mood, while daydreaming about kicking the football on the holodeck. It's been quite a while since she's been playing, and she felt a bit rusty. She longed for the dirty grass of the soccer field, and the feeling of muscle spasms and exhaustion after a glorious 90-minute game.

However, this quiet little afternoon came to a premature end when the doors slided open to reveal a young woman, apparently very much in the thirteenth hour of pregnancy stumbling in, asking for a doctor. Very well aware of what was going on, Alex quickly jumped up from her table and gently grabbed the woman's arm to escort her to the nearest biobed. So, it starts...

"No worries. You're doing great.", Alex smiled assuringly at the woman, while she led her to the biobed, "Relax, relax..." She grabbed a medical tricorder to scan the woman as she was lying down. "Nurse!", she shouted in the direction where she's last seen the currently on-duty nurse.

Helga had been taking inventory while sickbay was slow. As soon as the doctor called, she came into the room. "Yes, doctor?" She saw Ronnie on the biobed and smiled. "Is it time?"

"You can bet it is.", looking up from her tricorder readings, Alex smiled back at the nurse, whose name escaped her, but she was sure she'll memorize it soon, then quickly snapped into professional mode, "10 ccs of bicaridine, please."

"Yes, doctor," Helga said, turning to get the medicine.

"It's a mild analgesic.", she then turned back to her patient, "Everything's fine, don't worry."

The tricorder readings showed something unusual, which made Alex curious. According to the readings, the child on the way was apparently 1/4 Betazoid, which made the situation less easy than usually expected, but everything seemed fine. Apart from a longer and a bit more painful labor than in the case of normal human childbirth, it seemed there was nothing standing in the way of a new life soon seeing the light of day.

Alex tucked up the patient's shirt, and put her hand gently on the woman's stomach. Tricorder readings are fine, but the good old methods are the best, she thought in herself, as she gently moved her hand up and down, feeling the movements of the soon-to-be-born baby inside. "It's gonna be a wonderful baby.", she looked at the woman with a gentle and proud smile.

"Yes, she is." Ronnie smiled softly. "We're pretty excited about it."

"I'm sure you are. I felt the same when Veronica was born.", the doctor smiled back, then, she caught on the word 'we'. "Ahh, where's the proud dad? Doesn't he want to be here?"

"He does," Ronnie admitted, "But I didn't want to call him if it was another false alarm." She raised an eyebrow. "So, this is really it?"

"You can be sure, it is.", Alex smiled assuringly, excited herself about the 'new arrival'.

Ronnie grinned and tapped on her combadge. "Lancaster to Wolfe. Can you please come to sickbay? The doctor says it's time."

-===Security Office===-

Damion tapped his combadge a replied. =A="I'm on my way."=A= He said quickly before tapping his combadge again. He paused slightly and looked around the room as he was having a small meeting with some of his officers. "Umm... I have to go. I'm having a baby." He gave a slight smile before getting up and walking out. He started on a full run as soon as the doors to the office closed.

-===Sickbay===-

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself in the big hurry.", Alex said, as she stepped a few steps aside to prepare some equipment, "I'm Doctor Alves, but you can just call me Alexandra."

"Hi. I'm Ronnie. Ronnie Lancaster." She paused to focus on breathing while another contraction hit.

"Alright, Ronnie. Hold on.", the doctor advised and grabbed the patient's hand, when she saw she had a large contraction coming, "Nurse! Where's that bicaridine?"

"Coming!" Helga said as she walked into the room and handed the doctor a hypospray.

"Thank you.", Alex said as she picked up the hypospray from Helga, and injected the patient with it, "Alright. Now, relax. This will ease you. Lay your head down, please." With that, the doctor tapped a key on the computer, bringing the image from the biobed's automatic scanning interface to a monitor, which now showed a high definition, real-time image of the soon-to-be-born child inside her soon-to-be mother. "She's a beautiful little lady.", Alex smiled, "However, she won't come out of there easy. We should prepare for that."

"Is there a problem?" Ronnie asked, looking over at the monitor.

"Don't worry.", Alex said, calming her down, and switched to professional mode, "Everything's fine. It's only that Betazoid childbirth is a bit more complicated than ours, and the baby being 1/4 percent Betazoid in a human womb, we can expect some longer and more difficult labor,", she explained, "But I can assure you, everything will be fine.", she smiled, and then asked, "How's our little girl called?"

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster
Assistant Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Alexandra Alves
Chief Medical Officer

Senior Chief Petty Officer Helga Lowe
Nurse

 

RSS Feed