Aspen awoke with her tab stuck to her face, having fallen asleep on it while reading. The kitten on her screensaver was meowing loudly with its tail dancing about, acting as her alarm clock. Tapping the cat’s head, it stopped meowing and purred for a couple seconds, then went silent. About forty five minutes before the Meili’s day cycle and about an hour before the ship left it’s dock to head towards the border of the Alpha Centauri system.
Rolling out of bed, Aspen stood and stretched. Moving towards the open area of her room, she lowered herself to the floor and began a set of pushups. Counting to fifty, she changed positions to crunches, then lunges. Working up a slight sweat, as she finished, Aspen exited her room and made her way to the sick bay quarters showering area. As she exited, she checked the time on her tab once more. Almost time to meet with Dr. Holt.
Aspen returned to her room and began to dress for the day. Instead of her typical Navy issue BDUs she now dressed in scrubs, the pale gray matching top and bottoms matching well with the black non-slip low top shoes she was issued as her on-board uniform. Aspen quickly brushed her hair out, then pulled it into a loose ponytail behind her head. She grabbed her stethoscope from her footlocker and draped it around her shoulders. Checking her appearance in the mirror built into the wall of her room, she nodded to herself and determined she was ready to meet the day.
Aspen left her room and made her way down the hall, scrolling through the news headlines on her tab as she made her way to the cafeteria window in the common room. Several other crew members milled about the common room, nursing cups of coffee, and in one case sleeping face down on the top of a table.
Aspen waited in line and stifled a yawn as the crew member in front of her retrieved their coffee. Stepping up to the window, Aspen nodded in greeting towards Ericka, “Mornin’,” she began to pour herself a large cup of hazelnut coffee.
Ericka nodded in return and placed a large croissant on a plate, then set it on the counter, “And how’s our newest SRT this morning?”
Aspen gave a small smile as she grabbed the croissant and blew on her coffee, “I’ll let you know in a couple hours. Haven’t decided yet.”
Ericka gave a laugh, “Well, hopefully it’ll be all good. See you later, Aspen!”
Aspen raised her coffee to Ericka and made her way back towards sick bay. She took a cautious sip of her coffee and grimaced. The hot acidic brew was a par below what she was used to from even Navy’s boarding school selection, but the glorious caffeine which it supplied was something she knew she simply wouldn’t be able to start her day without. Taking a small bite of her croissant, she was pleased to discover a chocolate filling, the flaky and buttery crust practically melting away as she bit into the pastry. If all of the pastries aboard the Meili were of this quality she could almost forgive the quality of the coffee.
Aspen quickly finished her croissant before she reached sickbay, and cradled her coffee as she entered the waiting area. David sat in one of the waiting room chairs, his head thrown back as he snored loudly. Shaking her head in amusement, Aspen stepped past him and entered the patient care area.
Dr. Holt was sitting at a terminal already, a cup of coffee also in his hand as he stared at the screen in front of him. He looked up as Aspen entered, “Ah, good morning Aspen,” he set his coffee down and changed the screen on the terminal in front of him, “We have several physicals to do today, and are taking any emergent cases of course.”
Aspen nodded, “Do you have anything specific you’d like me to do for the physicals?”
“I’ll have David check the patients in and then you’ll assist me with their workups -, vitals, blood work, ECG, so on,” Dr. Holt looked at his screen, then back to Aspen, “We have the group of Marines and yourself. We’ll do yours at the end.”
“Works for me,” Aspen set down her coffee and moved towards the exam area, “Do you do physicals on every new member of the crew?”
Dr. Holt nodded, “And any who would need it. If we have a crew member who gets injured or has a major illness - say an arrhythmia, we would follow up with them with a more focused exam.”
Aspen tilted her head to the side, “Do you typically get cardiac patients?”
Dr. Holt shook his head, “We have the occasional supraventricular tachycardia patient, but after a quick cardiac ablation with the A.I surgeon tool we usually resolve it. Captain Marcus has chronic atrial fibrillation, though, so he gets regular ECGs and diltiazem to try to prevent a rapid ventricular response episode.”
“Has he had one before?”
“It’s been a few years. Twenty milligrams of intravenous diltiazem knocked him down from a heart rate of like one sixty to ninety, but I bring him in here about once every two weeks for a checkup. He gets grumpy as hell about it, but he does understand the need for them.”
“That’s understandable, Captain Marcus is probably super busy, and even if he wasn’t anyone would be bothered by having their routine messed with.”
Dr. Holt chuckled, “That man is beholden to no others on this ship, but he knows that when I say he needs to do something he damn well better do it. His health is paramount to the smooth operation of this ship.”
“Doctor’s orders,” Aspen smiled, taking a sip of her coffee.
A chime sounded in the sickbay, the ship-wide PA system activating, Captain Marcus’ voice sounding through, “Good morning Meili, we will be leaving dock in about fifteen minutes. A power cycle test will commence, but you will otherwise not notice any change between now and when we leave. Those of you who are new to the ship, welcome. If you have any questions, please ask your direct supervisor or commanding officer.”
Aspen looked at Dr. Holt, “Power cycle?”
Dr. Holt sighed, “They cycle power through all of the ship’s systems before we leave dock to ensure everything operates as it should. Bridge, engines, living area, air scrubbers, and so on. We have a dedicated power source for sickbay that is linked with the S&R bay down the hall so if the ship somehow loses all power, we can still deal with medical emergencies and run rescue efforts.”
Aspen nodded in understanding, “Do you know which way the ship is going to go when we leave?”
Dr. Holt shook his head, “Not a damned clue. Don’t care either. That giant screen in the common room is linked with the view from the bridge of the ship, when we aren’t docked and outside of meal time hours it shows the view outside the ship as well as the plotted course on a map of the solar system. I think the last time I looked at it we were skirting around an asteroid field on our way back here and it was just a bunch of floating rocks.”
Aspen raised her eyebrows, “Makes sense, I was wondering if there were any windows like the ones on the shuttle I was on the other day.”
Dr. Holt shook his head again, “Not on a ship this big. Too many points for failure. Everything is done with cameras, except the windows on the airlocks of course.”
“So… What does the ship actually do once it’s in space?”
Dr. Holt shrugged, “Patrol. We fly around, sometimes the folks on the bridge will ping sensors off of something and they’ll study it for a bit. We also respond to distress signals and such, not that there are many in this system since most of the ships flying around are Federation. Also we’re on the border of the system, so it’s not like there’s a reason for other ships to be out here anyway.”
Aspen nodded her understanding, “Maybe I can get up to the bridge one of these days and see what they do.”
“Captain Marcus would have to give you permission, of course, but I don’t see why he wouldn’t,” Dr. Holt stood from his terminal and poured himself another cup of coffee from a drip pot in the corner, “It’s really not that exciting up there unless you are one of the technicals.”
“Technicals?”
“Sonar techs, cryptological techs, y’know, the technicians. Everyone just lumps them together and calls them technicals. They actually make up the majority of the crew on the boat, only the engineers down in maintenance have nearly as many members.”
“That makes sense. I didn’t make it down to maintenance or up to the bridge yesterday when I was touring the ship.”
“Well, like I said, the bridge is boring. And I doubt the engineers would have let you past their preparation room anyway, they are fiercely protective of the hyper-helical engines.”
Dr. Holt and Aspen both looked up as the door from the waiting area slid open. David poked his head into the room, “First one’s here, doc.”
Dr. Holt nodded, setting his freshly poured coffee down, “Send them in, then.”
David disappeared and a short second later, the door opened again to reveal the Marine officer, Second Lieutenant Washington, the scowl that seemed a permanent fixture on the short man’s face deepening when he spotted and recognized Aspen, “Great, let’s hope you aren’t as sloppy with your medical professionalism as you are with everything else I’ve seen so far.”
Dr. Holt narrowed his eyes as the second lieutenant, “Second Lieutenant Jeffery Washington, you will do well to not insult my staff the second you step into my sick bay,” he moved to his terminal and began to open his chart, “Now, drop down into your skivvies and allow Aspen to assess your vital signs and draw her samples.”
Washington grumbled, but obliged to the order. Shedding his crisply starched uniform and neatly folding it, he sat on the exam table and indicated for Aspen to begin. She raised an eyebrow at the man’s muscular form, immediately noticing the scarring across his upper chest and shoulders from what she could only assume were gunshot wounds, but kept her mouth shut, not thinking it wise to comment.
Grabbing a monitor and a tray of phlebotomy supplies, Aspen quickly got to work. Placing the blood pressure cuff on the second lieutenant’s arm, she quickly placed the electrodes on his chest and captured a twelve lead view of the electrical activity from the man’s heart.
Washington grimaced as she punctured the vein in the bend of his arm, but voiced no complaint as Aspen did her work. Quickly filling the test tube vials with the officer’s blood, she bandaged off the puncture site and walked them over to Dr. Holt and watched as he placed them into a machine which whirled them about before making several beeping noises.
“Read me off his vitals and check out that ECG while I do the exam, please,” Dr. Holt walked over the second lieutenant and began to auscultate the man’s chest, prodding seemingly at random as he closely examined the man’s skin and body, noting things on a tablet as he worked.
Aspen walked to the terminal Dr. Holt had been standing at and began to read off the vitals transmitted from the monitor, “Blood pressure one forty six over eighty eight, heart rate seventy two with a normal sinus rhythm, pulse oximetry reading ninety nine percent. Respiration sixteen.”
Dr. Holt frowned, “Hypertensive but not majorly so, Second Lieutenant Washington, do you take medications for that?”
The officer straightened, “I do, atenolol. Had it this morning as prescribed.”
Dr. Holt nodded, then looked to Aspen, “The ECG?”
Aspen swiped through a couple of screens and brought up the ECG, “Sinus rhythm, but shows left ventricular hypertrophy.”
Dr. Holt nodded again, “I wouldn’t be surprised to find all of our Marines on board with left ventricular hypertrophy with the way they train their bodies, ‘athletic heart,’ as it were. I’d be concerned if they didn’t all appear fit enough to run a few marathons back to back.
Second Lieutenant Washington cleared his throat, “Are you finished, sir?”
Dr. Holt walked over towards his terminal and waved over his shoulder, “Yes, yes, be on your way Second Lieutenant. We’ll contact you directly if there’s anything wrong with your blood work, otherwise check your tab for the results. You may leave.”
The officer nodded and dressed quickly, leaving without saying thank you or goodbye to Aspen or Dr. Holt.
Shaking his head, Dr. Holt sighed, then turned to Aspen, “If we keep all of these physicals as short and sweet as that one, we’ll be done before midday. Good job.”
Aspen beamed at the praise, nodding, “Thank you, sir.”
David appeared as the door opened again, “They just power cycled the ship. Next patient is due in five minutes.”
Dr. Holt retrieved his coffee and took a sip, “Send them in as they arrive, David. We’re going to try to make this a short day,” watching as David nodded and gave a lazy smile, exiting back through the door.
The overhead speakers chimed once more, and Captain Marcus’ voice echoed in sick bay, “And we’re off, folks. We have a thirty hour flight to the edge of the system and then we will begin patrol patterns. Business as usual, folks.”
Aspen tilted her head as she listened to the captain’s announcement, “He was right, I didn’t even notice,” she looked to Dr. Holt, “Are all the border ships like this?”
Dr. Holt frowned and set his coffee down, “What do you mean, ‘like this?’”
“So… Weird? Nonchalant,” she gestured vaguely across the room, “This is my first assignment outside of A-school but there’s no way this is normal Navy behavior.”
“Ah. Yes, well, when you are so far detached from the command of the Federation, things tend to get done in their own way,” Dr. Holt tapped on his terminal a couple times, “The Meili doesn’t follow the same rules as the other ships in the Navy because Captain Marcus deems it so. And it works. The crew has high morale, the ship stays clean and functions well, a way of operating the Federation should use as an example.”
Aspen nodded her understanding, “It makes sense,” she prepped the patient area for their next physical, wiping the area down and loading fresh electrodes for the ECG.
Dr. Holt tapped at his terminal a few times, “We are still a Federation of Sol ship, though. Sometimes I wonder if the command staff on the ship forget that.”
Right as Aspen was about to open her mouth to ask what Dr. Holt had meant by that last statement, the door slid open once more. Turning to greet the newcomer, her ears immediately went hot and she blushed heavily. Tara stood in the doorway giving her a huge grin, “Heya, Aspen!”
