Let's get physical

Posted on Thursday August 2nd, 2018 @ 4:40pm by Lieutenant Commander Sarissa Slane M.D. & Ensign Ayasha Thornton & Thorn Ironhart
Edited on on Friday August 3rd, 2018 @ 12:51am

1,481 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Season 2: Mission 1: Day after Day
Location: Medical
Timeline: tbd

Sarissa was on duty. It was a rather light day. She'd read the reports on the incident in the cargobay and made the proper reports and suggestions. Filing them she retrieved a new large red leaf tea mug from the replicator.



She took a long pull from the mug. It didn't taste normal to her. She recycled it and asked for orange juice instead. It was colder but the taste was better.



The medical bay door hissed open, and a woman walked in, carefully, shoulders tense and ready to bolt. Medical bays were never comfortable, especially ones she'd never been in before. "Hello? Anybody aboot?"



Sarissa heard the doors swish open. She beat the Ayashato the front room and greeted the new arrival. Looking down, she offered, "You must be the new arrival. Miss Thorn I presume?" She offered.



"Yes, ma'am..." Thorn's voice trailed off as she looked up to the woman towering over her. The pointed ears were nothing new, but they were still worlds away from the other human subspecies Thorn had encountered in the past. She wondered if this one was more closely related, for a moment. "I was ordered here for a physical."



"Always a wise precaution." She pulled out a stepping board from the biobed for her shorter patients and asked. "I need you to sit on this bed." Sarissa turned to retrieve scanners and a medical tricorder.

"I was able to retrieve partial medical records from your ship. There are some interesting items and I need a baseline examination to see how your health is." Sarissa said plainly.



Thorn gave an annoyed sigh at the news of the partial medical record. Nonetheless, she pushed herself up onto the bed and sat down, letting her feet hang a solid six inches above the ground. "I know she was acting in my best interest, but I told her to encrypt that. So what kind of experiments do you need?"



While the medical scanners would note most of the lasting damage from brutal injuries Thorn had received over the course of her childhood, and a cursory evaluation of her skin would show the scars, it was the ones around her implants that would be the most interesting. Like how the corner of her inbuilt data-pad was exposed and the skin more rent at some points than others, as though someone had tried to remove it. Or similar scars and nicks in the metal of the ports in her back. Hesitation marks would reveal a large chunk of her surgical scarring to be both very old and self inflicted, likely during the original healing process.



An even taller young human woman entered in blue tunic. She rolled in a small table on wheels that held a variety of instruments. “Thank you Ensign. I want you to help me with this physical. Do you have any objections to helping me instruct our newest Medical tech Miss Thorn?” Sarissa asked.



"None whatsoever, ma'am," the tiny woman on the bench responded cooly.  "So... Do I need to take anything off or how does this work?  Where I come from, we didn't really have the medical technologies to match eyes and MRIs, which I can't get."



Ayasha grabbed the scanner. Walking over to the patient, she offered. "This is non-invasive. Just stay still and breath normally.' Waving the scanner in a repetitive motion, it took a minute to complete. Sarissa looked over the scans. "Well done ensign. I'll need two sample receptacles and a retrieving tool." Ayasha left the room to get the items.



"Miss Thorn. You have a number of deficiences that need treatment. Some I am sure you are aware of, with the extra items on your body." Sarissa noted. 



"Like?  I mean, I know there are some issues, but..."  A sharp beeping filled Thorn's right ear as an alarm she'd silenced many times that day filled her ears.  Again, she silenced the blood sugar warning with a touch of her thumb.  "I've lived with this body, good, bad, and ugly, for Goddess knows how long."



"We should be able to correct most if not all of your ailments. Though I will  need two small samples to plan the best way to get you healthier. But the I can correct something right now without waiting. She walked to the replicator and asked for couple of protein bars in different flavors and an additional orange juice. "Brace yourself. This will be a new sensation for you." Placing the hypospray on her neck, it hissed and sent a time release ghrelin hormone through her bloodstream. 



Whatever the doctor had injected immediately made something deep within Thorn turn over.  Something primal, crushing.  Her stomach hurt, she felt weak, shaky, like her body was suddenly sapped, but yet the smell of orange juice and protein bars was suddenly ovewhelming and delightful, and the sudden flood of saliva in her mouth didn't help her voice this.  Overall, Thorn did not like this feeling.  Not one bit.  Something wanted her to reach out and take the bar, fight for it, claim it as hers and fend off any challengers.  She knew, somehow, that it would be very difficult to remain civil as her body got used to the sudden surge of a long forgotten hormone. 



"I'm not sure I want that fix, ma'am," she managed.  "This kinda hurts."



"You will eat, or I will have you feed intravenously. This is not a request."Sarissa commented. "It hurts because you aren't used to it anymore. The same reason you are not fully developed. Trust me and I can make you better."



"I ate, though..."  She had to think about this for a moment, her brain was going slightly fuzzy, focusing on the plate of protein bars and the glass.  "Yester...day?"



Reaching out and taking a bar, shakily, she brought it to her lips and took a bite.  Right before half of the bar found itself in her mouth, and Thorn chewing vigorously as she tried to talk around it.  "Ish goo!"



Sarissa waited for Miss Thorn to finish chewing. Ayasha came back in with the sample vials. She heard enough. Walking up to her, she said in soft tones, "I know this is all new, exciting, and scary all at the same time, but your other people have been here a while and they trust us and fight along side us now. Doesn't that count for anything. Doctor Slane is awesome, if she says she can help, she can. I've see things that defy comprehension. Medical miracles. At least give us a chance?"



Swallowing the mass of bar proved to be a bit of a challenge, as Thorn hadnt found herself hungry in over a decade.  Still, she managed it and listened to Ayasha's comment.  "Where I come from, this kind of care usually only comes with military service, and even then, it's rarely capable of doing things like making me want to eat half the galley."



"Your response was due to the lack of a proper balance of hormones. Ayasha is going to take a small blood sample and a tissue sample. This will allow us to repair most if not all of the damage. Given your age, I don't yet know how much I can adjust your size yet, that will need to wait until the results come back."



With a deep pull of the orange juice, she marveled at it for a moment, relishing in the warmth and lessening of the blinding hunger as her latest hormone shot started to wear down into something more bearable.  "I know my body was modified in ways I may not fully understand.  I thought I just forgot how to feel that, and then somebody stabs me in the neck with a hypospray and suddenly everything's on the menu.  If your people can help fix what was done to me, I would be honor bound to make that up."



Thorn suddenly stood and bowed gently, before wolfing down the rest of her protein bar.  She fully intended to hit a food replicator for something more appetizing, but this would suffice while she went over the physical and the uncomfortable questions about her various scars with the doctor and her assistant.  But more and more, the tiny, heavily scarred stellar prospector found herself seeing a possibility of some deep seated desire she'd never really admitted to herself.  If what they were saying was true, she could grow up.

 

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