Scott Fisher took his hanky, and blew his nose. He had been sneezing all morning, his eyes were red, his nose was runny, and he felt clammy. Every muscle and joint felt achy, and he just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. In fact, he didn't even feel like talking (which probably said a lot about how sick he truly was). He coughed, and sneezed again. He couldn't believe he was sick, he didn't normally get sick, but more importantly how in the world did he get sick. No one he had been around had any flu like symptoms. Even Cadence, who he felt was nothing but a bundle of germs, poo, pee, and spit up, was an issue. Unless he was allergic to her.
He briefly toyed with that thought.
No. He wasn't allergic, but he was definitely sick. Was it a cold? The flu? Some virus that was going to kill him? All right Fishsticks, you are overreacting here, he thought to himself then said aloud, "No I'm not." At that, he noticed all eyes were on him. He squinted to see the men and women in medical teal staring at him. He hadn't even realized his feet had carried him to sickbay, but well... here he was, standing there framed by the open portal. His left hand had gripped the bulkhead. "I think I'm sick." and with that, collapsed to his knees then fell face first onto the deck.
-- A Few Minutes Late --
Scott's eye lids fluttered open, his bright blue eyes searched the ceiling. Where was he? Then his mind did a mental snap of the fingers, and he realized he was in sickbay. On a bio bed. His blue eyes shifted to see a man standing over him. The man had pointed ears, and the eyebrows were only slightly upswept. Vulcan perhaps? Or Romulan? That was a possibility. The other man looking down on him, Brunali for sure. "How did I get here?" He remembered sneezing, but how he ended up at sickbay still perplexed him. "I mean, I know I walked here but there seems to be gaps in that."
The man that Scott had seen, the one with the upswept brows was just a another patient on his way out, but had been kind enough to help Einar get Scott onto a biobed. As Einar pulled away from the man's neck with a hypospray in hand, the young Brunali stood there standing. "You got here on your own" replied Ensign Einar. "Well, you got to the threshold of the Sickbay doorway then it was all over. You collapsed right there" added Einar gesturing. He shrugged. "I cannot tell you about the gaps nor can I tell you much at this time except you need to stay still and wait for a Doctor" he said with a sigh.
"Granted, our Chief Medical Officer we were getting has been reassigned elsewhere and Doctor Feigenbaum is away on a conference. We are rather short staffed at the moment" said the Brunali Nurse. "I hope you don't mind, but I'd prefer if the Emergency Medical Hologram had a look at you" confessed Einar. In a hushed tone, Einar added "This is my first year as a uh Nurse."
"Oh, well no worries, this is my first posting on a starship," Scott said, he wasn't feeling great but his words still came out bright. "It all washes out in the end, eh. Anyway, whoever you have is fine, I just want to get out of here. Well first, I should probably find out what is wrong with me." He hoisted himself up on his elbows and immediately regretted it. "Woooo sickbay just spun there a moment." He laid back, not wanting to dare getting up again. "I think I will lie here for a moment and let your EMH do his thing."
Einar tried to comfort the sick science officer. "Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram" said the Nurse aloud and he waited for the EMH to appear. He had only ever used one of these things once when he was a Medical Technician, but it was a much older model.
As soon as the EMH materialized, he pulled out a tricorder and began scanning who he perceived as his patient. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Oh look! I have a real patient and not another pointless diagnostic! Cheers mates!"
"Yeah cheers," Scott said. "I don't understand why you say 'please state the nature of the medical emergency'? Shouldn't you be telling me what my medical emergency is?" He shook his head and immediately regretted in. "I'm sick, I don't know with what, I passed out over there." He pointed toward the entrance of sickbay. "Or, well, at least I think I did. Anyway, I ended up here. I haven't been feeling good for a couple of days, sneezing a lot, sometimes chills, I've had a headache for days. Maybe it's the flu, but I don't know, you are the EMH, I'm just the patient who needed to state the medical emergency." He looked to the nurse. "Oh, and if I'm dying, please inform the captain, he is my emergency contact."
"Mandatory programming and all that," the EMH buttered as he went about scanning his patient. "You're not dying but you do have a particularly nasty strain of Bolian influenza. If untreated, it could cripple or kill you in about a week. Or you could fully recover. That depends on how strong your immune system is, really." Setting his tricorder aside, the EMH loaded up a nearby hypospray and administered it to Scott before continuing on in a chipper British voice. "You should be feeling better soon, but I'm putting you on reduced duty for 48 hours. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids."
Einar had listened to the small conversation between the EMH and the patient. He appreciated the Emergency Medical Holograms assistance or well rather oversight in this matter. He still wasn't sure if he was ready to take a leap on his own any time soon, but felt better with the EMH than he did entirely on his own. "Mk XII" Einar said whispering a bit to Fisher. "It's a weird 'personality' but I've work with several makes and models. Trust me, the original Mk Is had the worst personality, and Mk IIs were practically walking lemurs, a good personality, but a bit too human and easy to startle or offend."
"I can hear perfectly well, thanks," The EMH whispered, leaning in and smiling conspiratorially with a glance to each of them. "But yes, many of my predecessors were abysmal by many standards. I, however, am based on a British actor from the early twentieth century. Naturally suave, unflappable, and outgoing with a likable personality and the medical knowledge of the entire Vulcan Science Academy's Xenobiology department and full empathetic programming. Did you know that I'm programmed to be able to experience various common ailments if needed?" And there he paused dramatically. "Or so the brochure says. I'll let you make your own deductions." He then returned to arranging the tools next to the biobed to where they should be.
TAG
