We've Got Doctors Covered

Posted on Wed Jun 7th, 2017 @ 1:37am by Lieutenant Alexandra Alves M.D. & Lieutenant JG Lita Williams M.D.

2,213 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Vulcan - A Restaurant in the Capital
Timeline: Shore Leave

ON:

"Shall I contact medical aid on your behalf?"

Lita Williams blinked. "I'm sorry, what?" she said distantly. The world came into focus. A restaurant. On Vulcan. Touristy spot. She was going to meet with the Chief Medical Officer of the Calypso for the first time. Her new boss. "Oh, excuse me. I was lost in thought. Um, there's no need to call a doctor. I'm a doctor. And I'm waiting for a doctor. We've got doctors covered."

The Vulcan maitre d' held her gaze.

"Sorry," Lita said again. She winced timidly. "What was your question?"

His brow barely moved, but she was certain that it did, furrowing ever so slightly. "Will you require the use of your reserved table at this time, or would you prefer to wait and join your party here before proceeding further into the dining area?"

The Assistant Chief Medical Officer blew out a sigh. She hoisted herself up onto her toes for a series of measured bounces, all while she looked up at the ceiling. "The table," she said finally. "Show me to the table."

"Very well. Walk this way," the Vulcan insisted, and he stepped out from behind his podium. She followed him to a dinning booth set deep in the center of several large, multi-colored wide palmed plants. It was actually quite a lovely scene. She suspected it was designed solely with tourist comfort in mind.

"Would you like me to bring you a beverage?" he asked her as she slid into one the booth's bench seats.

Lita looked up at him, brushing imaginary dust from the shoulder of her Starfleet uniform. She was nervous, in the mood for just shy of a half-gallon of wine right about now. "Water?"

The Vulcan inclined his head. He stepped away from the table without speaking another word.

The café was easy to find, as it was a popular tourist spot. Alexandra guessed her new assistant CMO chose this location exactly because of that. Leaving her daughter back home in their quarters, she promised Veronica the meeting won't take long, and they'll go visiting a local zoo right after. As she made her way to the place, she thought about the strange coincidence it took the Calypso to get a new CMO and a new assistant CMO almost exactly at the same time. But she felt lucky to get a bright, young and capable doctor to help her. She read through Dr. Williams' bio, and got all out positives vibes from it.

Strolling through the busy place, among the tables, Alex - happy to leave behind her uniform, wearing the informal attire of light-coloured shorts and a similarly coloured, small top to fight the immense temperature this planet had to offer - was looking for her new colleague, hoping she resembles at least a bit her photo in the bio file. Fortunately, she soon found the short, blonde woman, who - in real life - was looking a lot more lively than her official profile picture.

"Doctor Williams, I presume.", she smiled a wide smile as she walked to the woman's table.

Lita could feel a torrent of emotions overtake her, like jumping from a sauna into ice cold water and then back again. The tension of anticipating this moment had drawn so taunt that its arrival was nearly overwhelming. The first thing that struck her was, well, how striking Alexandra was -- intimidatingly so. The woman radiated beauty, from her smile to her skin to her hair. The younger doctor forced herself to rise up from the table, a stack of PADDs tucked under one arm. "Doctor Alves, I'm thrilled to meet you!" she said almost breathlessly. Rather than shake her new boss's hand, Lita began shoving PADDs at her. "Sir, I have plenty of references here for you, and my current research work, a paper that I've been working on, some samples of my lab work, and this one here has an up-to-date list of my certifications and qualifications."

"Nice to meet you too.", Alex said with a smile, as she looked at the younger doctor who was at least six inches shorter than her. Did she really say 'thrilled' or did I mishear it? Then, her new colleague bombarded her with an armada of PADDs and a swarm of word concerning their contents, talking at such a fast pace, she had to concentrate to catch her words. "Hey, hey, this can wait!", Alex shook her head with a gentle smile and shoveled back the PADDs to their owner, "Now we're on vacation, at least, I guess so.", she then added, and looking around, sat down to the table. "I wonder if they serve Açaí Juice in this place."

The Vulcan server came to the table as he saw Lita and her guest take their seats. "Now that all parties have arrived, I shall note the dishes that we are able to prepare in a reasonable time frame given your species expectations for meals following arrival at an eating establishment. Those items are: Plomeek or shav-rot soup served alongside saffir, tilvat, or yonsavas. We also provide a selection of T'coraca and T'mirak rice, and today we are especially suggesting our patrons engage in a meal consisting of mollusks due to an unexpected surplus in our stores. We, of course, have replicator facilities if you so desire. I am also able to retrieve beverages and bring them to your table on your behalf." He set his eyes on Alex. "I am able to provide Açaí Juice."

Lita barely heard the man, her focus set to carefully arranging her PADDs back into their original stack once more.

Alex almost burst out laughing listening through all this meaningless bubbling the Vulcan waiter presented them with, trying to be as precise and formal as possible, but not considering how comical it might sound to a human. He sounded almost exactly like Doctor T'Lass from her previous ship, Alex thought, remembering just how often she wished she could stun her former colleague with a stun phaser. "Thank you. Açaí Juice will be just fine.", she then looked at the waiter, rolling her eyes, "I'll decide on a meal maybe later."

"I've actually read though your bio and service history.", the doctor then looked back at her new colleague, "Quite impressive.", she added with a gentle grin, then asked, "So, what brings you to the Calypso?"

"Oh, well, I've always wanted to contribute as best I can to improving the state of medical -- " Lita cut herself off, noticing only now how carefully she had been organizing her PADDs. She looked up at Alex. In that moment she made a decision. "I hated my last boss," she blurted out. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't say that. It's just that he was incredibly meticulous, and not in a productive way. He liked PADDs to be perfectly aligned on a table. Like, perfectly." She sighed. "I liked what I was doing, I liked the work, but my working relationship with that man was rough from the beginning and it just got worse and worse as time went on. Frankly, it was pure hell getting out of bed every morning."

The waiter returned with Alex's drink and another glass of water for Lita. The younger woman immediately picked up her glass and drank, her gaze averted to one side, nervous to make eye contact with her new boss after so much unfiltered honesty. She wasn't sure how Doctor Alves would react, but she knew that she didn't want to risk a repeat of her last posting.

Alex listened with wide eyes how her new assistant told about her problems concerning her former superior officer, with such honesty one can rarely expect from anyone. It surprised her, especially since the woman was talking to her new boss. Then, it seemed she realized she might be telling too much and started to avert eye contact with her.

"Well, I hope, our work relationship will be much different.", the doctor then spoke up, and with a glitter of humor in her eyes, added, "But beware, I also have some pet peeves. I like to decorate my office with my daughter's latest drawings. I also like to listen to music during work, occasionally dance to it. I love to ask my co-workers about the dreams they had the previous night. And above all, I can barely tolerate anyone not wearing a smile at work. If that happens, I feel an unbearable urge to ask them what's wrong and try to help them if I can."

Lita felt a wide smile draw its way across her face. Her cheeks burned red, though she wasn't exactly sure why. This posting was turning out to be everything she had hoped for after the nightmare of the last one. At least so far. She was glad now that she had erred on the side of completely honesty with Doctor Alves. Too much of her time on Deep Space 12 had been spent tiptoeing on eggshells around the quirky and inane administrative needs of the CMO. She would rather be transferred away to another posting before this one even began if there was a chance of that happening again.

"The sweetest thing in the universe.", Alex pointed to her glass of juice, "But whenever I drink it, I have to book myself an extra few hours of exercise."

Williams perked up at the comment. "I'm surprised to hear you say that, Doctor," she said. "You wouldn't believe how many arguments I've been in with people to get off their butts and move around to burn off calories instead of constantly synthesizing 'healthier' foods (she was sure to air quote the word with her fingers). Don't get me started on weight loss shortcuts. The quick and easy fix isn't always the right one. That's actually been the focus of my research, to push back a bit on all the tech improvements that Starfleet Medical keeps releasing every few months. I realize that people want their bad food, but they also have to be willing to put in a little bit of extra work when they indulge."

Alex had to think for a moment to make sense of all the information the other doctor was saying, but then, she just laid back her head. "Oh, I love everything sweet. You should see me when I get my hands on a chocolate cake.", she grinned, "But I always keep a constant exercising schedule. It dates back to the days I was playing soccer as a kid."

"Well, I'm curious.", she then said, pointing out the other things her new colleague was saying, "I've read what you once wrote about the EMH program. You described it as, quote, a most inhuman piece of technology which takes away the human aspects of medicine, such as care and love, replacing it with a cold artificial intelligence, definitely a step in the wrong direction."

"You -- you read my paper?" Lita said, her surprise evident. "Well, yes, that's pretty much how I feel. They train us to turn hospitals into conveyor belts -- sick people in, healthy people out. It's become so clinical that even, well, even a machine can do it. But I think there's more to healing. If we would all just spend a little bit more time with our patients, if we actually listen to what they're saying instead of just burying our noses in our medical tricorders, then we can actually make a connection; make a difference. Unfortunately, it looks like the trend is to just build better and better conveyor belts." She took another drink from her water, emptying the glass. She realized that her throat was dry because she was talking so much. She forced herself to take a steadying breath.

"Well, I must say, I wholeheartedly agree.", Alex said after a moment of silence, "Some people forget that our connection to the patients and the care we give to them matters just as a much as the tools we're working with. Or even more.", she explained, drinking some from her drink, "And about the EMH... Don't worry, back at medical school, I promised myself I'll never use it."

"I read your work, too. I chose the Calypso because I wanted to work for you. I think we're going to get along very well together, Doctor," Lita said. She held up her empty glass in salute. "Here's to never using an EMH."

Alex was surprised of Lita's kind words, and couldn't decide if her new assistant was just telling this to compliment her boss, or she really thought so. Someone choosing this assignment because of me?, she shook her head, as she looked at the younger woman.

"I hope so, Doctor.", she smiled, and decided it was now her round for an honest compliment, "I've been an assistant CMO myself for quite a few years. I know it's a difficult position. But I'm very sure you'll fill the role well.", she said, and with a grin, raised her glass of juice to drink up the last few drops, "To never using an EMH."

OFF:

Lt Alexandra Alves M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Lt(jg) Lita Williams M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer

 

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