Meeting the Nurse

Posted on Tue Jan 22nd, 2019 @ 7:53pm by Lieutenant Jane Sinclair MD, DVM & Petty Officer, 1st Class T'Kal

1,514 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 0 - Christening of Legacy and Crew Arrival
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: 2261.182 0900

The Captain has just finished her exam when T’Kal stepped into sickbay. She was in her uniform, a short blue dress with a red cross on her insignia. She carried a duffel bag over her shoulder. She had only just boarded the Legacy minutes earlier and wanted to check in with sickbay, and her boss, before finding her quarters.

Jane approached the Vulcan crewwoman. “Can I help you?” she asked.

T’’Kal set her bag down and stood with her back straight. “Petty Officer First Class T’Kal reporting in, sir!” she said, eyes locked ahead past and over Jane’s head.

Jane smiled. “As you were. I don’t stand on rank, and our Captain tells me neither does she. I want you to call me Jane. In a crisis, Doctor is fine, but never sir or ma’am.”

T’Kal relaxed and looked Jane in the eyes. “My apologies...Jane. My previous assignments have stood on rank. Please, call me T’Kal. I am to be one of your nurses.”

"Nice to meet you, T'Kal," Jane said. "And no need to apologize. You didn't know. Let's move your bag over to my desk and we'll talk a moment. Ooh!" Jane exclaimed, a new idea forming in her head. "I skimmed your file before I boarded. I understand you're a certified Nurse Practitioner. Is that correct?"

T'Kal picked up her bag by the strap and moved it over to Jane's desk. "It is correct that I am a Nurse Practitioner," she said. She allowed a slight smile to form on her lips. "As to whether you understood it, I cannot be certain."

Jane was awestruck. She had known a handful of Vulcans in her time, but she had never met one who told a joke. T'Kal was concerned that her attempt at humour was inappropriate, but those concerns dissipated when Jane's smile widened. "I think you and I are going to get along just fine, T'Kal." Jane waved for the nurse to come with her to a biobed. "Here's what I'm thinking. You need to do your initial medical exam. So do I. I'll do yours, and then you'll do mine."

T'Kal followed Jane to the biobed and propped herself up onto it. As she lay down, she said "That should also allow you to evaluate my performance. I would appreciate your feedback, Doc---Jane."

Jane got out a medical tricorder and began to run her scans. At this hour, sickbay was practically empty. Most of her staff hadn't come aboard yet, and those that had were still settling in. "So tell me about yourself, T'Kal," Jane said. "Where are you from? Do you have a family?"

T'Kal's expression softened noticeably, and any hint of a smile disappeared. "I was raised in ShiKahr, on Vulcan, but moved to Earth as an adult. My husband, Sten, lived there for many years raising our children. Unfortunately, my daughter T'Mir and son Torik were on Vulcan at boarding school during the disaster."

Jane stopped in her tracks and put her hand on T'Kal's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I can't imagine..."

"Indeed," T'Kal replied, "but I accept your sympathy and attempt at empathy. Sten remains alive and is caring for our youngest daughter, Solan, on New Vulcan. Regrettably, my difficult pregnancy means she is my last child."

Jane resumed scanning. Readings seemed normal for a Vulcan of her age. The scanner picked up the damage to her uterus, but clearly T'Kal knew about that. She would check against the file later rather than bring it up now.

"Okay," Jane said. "My turn."

T'Kal sat up and got off the biobed while Jane got onto it. "Will we be doing the heart rate test as well?" she asked as she began running the medical tricorder over her superior officer.

"I don't see why not," Jane replied. "We have a private space with a divider curtain. And we're both professionals. Wot? Never been in close quarters with another woman when you're both in your skivvies, T'Kal?" Jane smiled, hoping to make her joke clear.

The Vulcan returned a slight smile. She then scowled at some of her readings. "Your bone structure. It's denser than normal."

"Oh, that's normal," Jane reassured her. "Gravity on Vega IX is about 1.3 Gee. Not much more than standard, but enough that early colonists were a bit uncomfortable. Their children, however, were perfectly adapted. As they grew, their bones got a bit stronger and denser, to deal with the strain." Jane smiled widely again. "And though the data doesn't show a correlation, I personally blame the higher gravity for my height as well. Any other readings?"

T'Kal pursed her lips. "Nothing out of the ordinary. You appear in good health." She stepped forward and reached her arm out to the Doctor, who took it and let herself be helped up. The two went to the heart stress testing area.

"Now, what's the first thing we should do?" Jane asked as they reached the machine.

"Decontaminate," suggested T'Kal. "These are designed to make people sweat, and the woman I saw leaving a moment ago appeared to have been perspiring."

"Correct," said Jane. "I always wipe the surfaces down after a test, but you arrived just as our Captain was finishing with it, so I didn't have time." She took out a pair of cleaning wipes and gave one to T'Kal. Within a few seconds, the entire machine was clean. T'Kal closed the privacy curtain and the two stripped down to their undergarments, matching supportive tank tops and boxers. Jane had a short laugh, as she realized the same thoughts had gone through both of their heads: that they knew it was their physical today and wore more modest undergarments than normal. They also took off their boots and put on slippers. T'Kal was the first one to lie down on the machine.

"Alright," Jane instructed. "Feet on the steps and begin walking. I'll need to increase resistance rapidly, to adapt to your Vulcan physiology." As T'Kal started running, Jane calibrated the machine to Vulcan settings. It wasn't long before sweat started to pour from T'Kal's forehead, running into her hair. "Ooh, we should have maybe tied your hair up, shouldn't we?" Jane said sheepishly.

"Not a problem," T'Kal said, panting heavily. "I'll shower when we're done here."

After a few minutes, T'Kal was given the go-ahead to slow down and stop. Still breathing deeply, she slowly sat up and stood from the biobed. Jane passed her a towel and began wiping down the table with disinfectant. "Take a moment, and then we'll do me."

The same procedure repeated with Jane running at maximum capacity. Her breathing got heavy much earlier than the high-stamina Vulcan's did. She strained to keep the necessary pace for the amount of time demanded.

"Dr. Sinclair," T'Kal said. Jane was about to correct her when she realized it was because she was being spoken to formally. "Understanding that you outrank me in every conceivable way, I must issue you an order."

"Oh?" said Jane, her eyebrows raised at the prospect.

"Yes. Your readings clearly show how rarely you exercise. I believe you eat well, but you need cardiovascular and muscle workouts regularly. I demand that in the next few days you go to the gym and spend at least one hour there, and then go every two or three days for the foreseeable future."

"...Wot?" Jane asked, confused as to where this was coming from. Sure she hated most sports and working out, but surely she wasn't that out of shape!

"Jane, if you want me on your staff, then you'll need to respect my opinion as a medical professional," T'Kal said firmly. "This is my assessment of your health from this test. You asked me to run this test for you. I have told you the results. You are out of shape and as a Starfleet Officer you need to rectify this."

"Fine," Jane said, fake-pouting but accepting the diagnosis. She got off the bed and wiped down the surfaces. "Well, now seems like a good time to shower. We'll reconvene later."

Jane and T'Kal slipped their uniforms back on and exited sickbay, T’Kal grabbing her bag on the way out. They turned in separate directions towards different turbolifts. Jane was impressed with her new Nurse Practitioner. Skilled and a bit of a sense of humour. The two should work well together.

She also thought back to her first meeting with the Captain. Cindy was bubbly in a way that made Jane smile. Her warm demeanour and rank-means-little attitude was a nice change from what she was used to. And she was absolutely gorgeous. It took a good deal of professionalism and control to watch the screen and not the beauty in her blue bra and panties running and sweating on the biobed.

She finally got into her quarters, stripped out of her uniform and sweaty undergarments, and hopped in the shower. And while normally her showers were relaxing and comfortable, this one, she decided, should be cold.

RSS Feed