Accidental Meeting

Posted on Sun Aug 20th, 2017 @ 11:42pm by Lieutenant Alexandra Alves M.D. & Lieutenant JG Lita Williams M.D. & Crewman E.M.H. Galen

2,427 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Pulling Together
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Current

ON

Galen was active in sickbay.

One of the staff had activated her for help with a sudden influx of patients while the doctors were elsewhere on the ship. Three crew members had eaten something that disagreed with them on the planet below.

With shore leave the duty rotation was light, but the required minimum number of personnel were assigned to each shift. The current staff could handle the needs of the patients, even reduced in number. However the doctors were not currently in the medical bay, They had been recalled and would be returning soon, but if they had been in the medical bay Galen was sure the nurse would not have activated her at all.

It had been months since she had been requested for anything. She had been inactive for most of it. After completing several rounds of diagnostics and forwarding them to Greg for review she had shut down most of her processes. Two weeks ago during a routine backup she had started browsing the ship's libraries, mostly literature, in an attempt to broaden her understanding of 'imagination'. So far it had been rather enlightening.

The general lack of enthusiasm for the system was not unexpected; the reactions of carbon-based life forms faced with a potential rival to their usefulness was well documented. She also understood that her primary purpose was to provided assistance during emergencies. Still she found the lengthy periods of inactivity...disappointing.

Galen stood over a moaning woman who was lying on a bio-bed clutching her stomach in pain. She gently pressed a hypo to her neck and heard the hiss as the device transported a dose of medication below the patient's epidermis.

"Please try to lie still," Galen told the woman, laying a soft hand on the woman's shoulder in a comforting manner, "you will be feeling better in a moment." The woman nodded and stopped shifting quite as much.

Alexandra was quietly singing a tune to herself as she entered sickbay with a pot containing a tiny miniature bush in her hand. It was an ancient song she heard recently somewhere, about a mango tree. The mini-bush was given to her by Veronica as a present. She said it was from the arboretum lady, who told her that such small pieces of flora can bring a relaxing atmosphere to an otherwise cold and sterile room, so it might find a nice home in the CMO's office. Alex wondered on this surprising new interest her daughter showed towards plants. It was truly weird from someone who'd rather climb a tree than plant one, she wondered, walking to the rhythm of the song, moving her hips and her head to it.

When she looked around in sickbay, she noticed one of her colleagues treating a woman at one of the biobeds. "Please, continue.", she glanced at them, as she passed them by, then, she suddenly got a strange feeling. She didn't recognize the woman, despite looking through all the biographical files of her new medical staff. Maybe she just slipped her by, or she was a new addition to the crew, joining here, at Vulcan. Nevertheless, she took a few steps back, walking closer to the doctor and her patient.

"Ensign.", she nodded to the woman being treated, "I hope it's not something contagious." Then, with a gentle smile, she turned to her apparent colleague and extended her hand towards her, "Sorry, I don't think we've met, doctor."

Lita Williams stepped into sickbay at that very moment. Noticing Doctor Alves with her hand extended, she walked up to join the two of them. "Well!" she said cheerfully, "it's certainly a relief to see I'm not the only one still meeting the full staff."

"Good afternoon.", Lita smiled at her new assistant CMO as she noticed Lita entering the room. "Hope you're enjoying vacation as much as I do."

"Gastrointestinal distress caused by the ingestion of foods ill-suited for her species digestive system." Galen reported, then added in a less serious tone, "She ate too many mollusks without taking the proper enzymes." She replaced the hypo on the tray beside the bed. "I have administered the 2ccs of asinolyathin and a dose of proteases to assist with digestion. She should be alright in an hour or so." Galen looked over at the other two beds also occupied with moaning patients being attended by nurses. All had received the same diagnosis and treatment. "I believe they all shared the same meal."

Turning away from her patient, she faced the two doctors. She had not met either of them, as they had both come on-cord during her inactivity. However she kept up-to-date on all new personnel. "Doctor Alves, Doctor Williams," she smiled at them both, "I am Galen. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Alex raised an eyebrow listening through the dry and extremely detailed explanation the strange doctor gave on her patient's condition, which was apparently a single stomachache. Alright, she might've come aboard at Vulcan, but what if she's actually a Vulcan, she thought in herself, and looked at the woman's ears, just to be certain. No poits whatsoever. Still strange.

"Pleased to meet you, Doctor Galen.", the CMO replied to the woman's introduction, "It seems you have the advantage of already knowing who we are. But I don't know anything about you, to be honest. Noone notified me about your visit... or transfer.", she explained with a puzzled look, "Also, it's standard procedure to report to your department head before taking up duty."

Lita hated to be dressed down. It was (and always had been) the worst feeling in the world. But Doctor Galen did not seem the least bit upset by the CMO's suggestion. Bless her, she certainly had thicker skin than Lita did.

"I apologize Doctor." Galen shook her head. It was again disappointing that these two women, her colleges and direct superiors, had no idea who she was. She stepped away from the patient who appeared to be resting more comfortably, not wishing to disturb her. She raised her arms in a frustrated gesture. "It must have been an oversight that you did not receive the full technical specifications on all of the medical systems on board the Calypso when you first arrived. I will see to it that they are forwarded to you at once."

Galen continued, "I am the ship's current Emergency Medical Holographic system. MARK 8." The was a note of pride as she spoke. She was after-all the latest, most advance model. "I was installed as a beta-run of my program 31 months ago." Galen looked back and forth between the two doctors as she spoke. There was however, a nervous cast to her voice. She wanted them to like her. "I have not been activated for some time now." She added a quirked smile as she tried to joke, "Although that is probably a good thing, as it means the ship hasn't had any dire emergencies lately."

The obvious signs of surprise and confusion came to Alex's face, as well as some embarrassment, as she suddenly realized she has mistaken the EMH to a real doctor. That was kinda embarrassing indeed, especially as she tended to pride herself with being a judge of good character for the first sight. This whole situation was kinda awkward, and she wished she could just end it by simply turning the holographic doctor off. "Errrr... I'm truly sorry... Galen.", she spoke up, trying not to seem too dull, "I don't know who activated you, but I'm sure there's no current emergency on board."

For her part, Lita wasn't the least bit surprised that she had forgotten the name given to the Calypso's EMH. Why would she do otherwise? "Another year, another model," the ACMO murmured. "And I see the testing time between iterations continues to get shorter and shorter."

"At least, they've given it a female personality this time.", Alex murmured to her colleague, "I remember those EMH Mark Ones back from my Academy days, they were unbearable. That Doctor Zineburg or whatshisname should've chosen a better template than himself."

"Goodness, I hadn't thought about that model in forever!" Williams said, the pretense of muted conversation forgotten in recalling the memory. "The slightest bit of power disruption and he'd drop all of his tools! And the bedside manner?" She shuddered.

"Oh, yeah, exactly.", the CMO nodded, "I wonder who did approve of those."

Lita turned to the EMH. "Surely, you must know?"

Galen smiled. She enjoyed talking about her 'history'. "The Mark One, based on Doctor Zimmerman's personality, pioneered the development of the E.M.H. system. There were bound to be issues, as with any new technology. Doctor Zimmerman chose his own personality as the template for the matrix by the simple fact that it was easier. No one had ever succeeded in designing a matrix of such complexity before - with the exception of Dr. Noonian Soong; but then his androids required years of interaction before they became viable..." She paused realizing that she had started rambling. "Sorry." She apologized, then clearing her throat she continued. "It's a shame that the original E.M.H. model was so...abrasive." Galen raised her hands in a futile gesture and sighed. She liked to think of the Mark One in a more positive light, but could not ignore it's shortcomings.

"'A shame' is a bit of an understatement," Lita said under her breath.

Galen held up a hand in front of her as she spoke. "I would however, like to hold up a more pleasant example of the Doctor, who served aboard the USS Voyager for seven years before continuing his career here in the Alpha Quadrant. His experiences and those of his friends offered much insight for later models." Galen put on a charming smile. "I hope you will not judge me based on past experiences with older versions of the technology." Her smile turned slightly silly. "I promise that I will not drop anything if the power fluctuates. They fixed that problem."

Galen looked back at her patient who was now fast asleep, her expression changing to one of satisfaction. "To your earlier comment Doctor Alves, I agree that this situation is not an 'emergency', but I am glad for the opportunity to help out. It is gratifying to fulfill one's purpose, and it gets very lonely back in the Core." Her smile faded as she thought about how much of the literary library she had already gone through.

Williams looked from Alves to Galen. "Are you saying that you're conscious when you're not here?"

"Well, I'm sure everyone needs a purpose.", Alexandra rolled her eyes, getting a bit bored by all this talk from the part of a computer program.

Galen noticed Doctor Alves' expression but decided not to make anything of it, although her eyes might have rested a moment too long on the doctor's as she looked away. Pretending not to notice something was not a skill she'd had much practice with.

Galen moved her head from side-to-side in a non-committal gesture in answer to Doctor Williams' question. 'I was off-line for most of the time as is standard, however I had to monitor and submit several scheduled diagnostics to my development team." She made a wry face. "Nothing too exciting really. I thought that while I was active I might take advantage of the opportunity, so I accessed the literary library." She paused for a moment, "Literature is interesting, but no substitute for conversation." She smiled warmly at the two women.

Lita gave Galen an indifferent shrug. "Huh. Well that's a new one on me: the computer spending time teaching itself what it already knows. What a marvelous new feature." She turned to Doctor Alves. "Orderlies. I think they would be really good at porting beds and equipment around sickbay for us. Maybe even as an interactive reference library. You know, something a little more personable than just talking directly to the computer."

"Well, that's interesting.", Alexandra thought out loud, "I really like literature."

Galen chuckled at Lita's comment. "You just described my first three months of interactive testing."

"Sounds convenient.", the CMO replied, dismissing the holographic woman's comment, "In fact, I often wish I could get a more emotional reaction from the computer when I look up something. Like if I were actually talking to someone."

"Speaking of which," Lita added. "Now that the CMO and ACMO are on-site, you can go ahead and shut yourself off now or whatever. Just get us caught up on the state of things here first before you...'go'."

"Right.", Alexandra nodded, "We can handle things from now on."

Galen nodded and picked up a PADD from a nearby table. The quickly downloaded the patient's data to it and held it out to Alex. "The patients are resting comfortably," she glanced back at the other two who had also been treated by the nurses, "and can be released to their quarters in a hour, just to be sure that the proteases has had time to work." She gave the two a friendly smile, hoping to leave on a good note. "I am glad that I help."

"Thank you.", Alexandra said with a fake-ish smile, "Thank you for providing assistance."

Although it wasn't necessary for her to do so, Galen addressed the computer out-loud, "Computer, deactivate E.M.H." There was a momentary pause and then Galen disappeared from the Medical Bay.

Lita sighed once the E.M.H was gone. "Well, at least it seemed to have something approaching a bedside manner. I guess that's something."

"Yeah.", Alex nodded in agreement, "But it's still so weird. I mean, computer programs replacing doctors. Real flesh and blood doctors."

"Yeah," Lita echoed. "Weird." There was something about this particular E.M.H that lingered in the back of her mind. As much as she didn't want to admit it, and as much as she still detested the notion of the computer directly serving as a professional health provider, she did find the personality of Galen to be irresistibly endearing. She found herself half considering the notion of bringing the program back online again, to speak with her outside of the context of medical care. Another time perhaps.

"Let's get back to work.", Alexandra suggested, while half thinking on the conversation they just had - with a hologram. Interesting.

OFF

Lieutenant Alexandra Alves
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant JG Lita Williams
Assistant Chief Medical Officer

Crewman E.M.H. Galen
Emergency Medical Hologram

 

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