Getting It Over With

Posted on Fri Aug 12, 2016 @ 1:27am by Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Commander Caleb Ryan & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan

3,799 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Interlude - Day 1
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD 1/1200

Aleczandra scowled as she and her father walked into the infirmary. “Do we have to?” she growled at him under her breath, looking around at all the doctors.

“Commander Aldrex pretty much said so,” Caleb reminded her. “We’ve put it off long enough. And it will be good to have someone that knows about your…condition, in case something happens.”

“Dr. Desatu knows.”

“Someone on board the station.”

“Dr. Bennet knows.”

“She’s your counselor.”

“And a medical doctor.”

“She’s not the CMO. She can’t stick your records behind a classified firewall,” Caleb pointed out, looking around for the Chief Medical Officer. Part of him wouldn’t mind catching a glimpse of Dr. Oliver, but he wouldn’t acknowledge that feeling.

“You know, me missing lunch to do this isn’t good.”

“Ah’ll get ya somethin’ on the Promenade.”

“Then I’ll be late to school.”

“Do ya want ta go back to classical Tellarite epic poetry?”

Aleczandra cringed. “I’d rather listen to Vogon poetry.”

Caleb frowned. “Doesn’t that cause internal hemorrhaging?”

“No, that’s the Azgoths of Kria. Vogon is only the third worst poetry.” Aleczandra paused. “Well, fourth. Classical Tellarite epics are worse.”

Amia saw Caleb and Aleczandra come in. Today's combination of hair colors on Aleczandra were, as always, a delight to behold. "Hello, you two," she said as she approached them. "What can I do for you both?"

Aleczandra just scowled. Caleb took a breath and released it before saying, “We need to talk with you privately,” he said. “Do you have a secure exam room?” He looked around. Sickbay, as usual, was bustling on a large station. “And this can’t be delegated to any other doctor.”

"If you would like to talk to me then I'm available to you. I wouldn't delegate you on unless it was too unimportant for that to matter or if I were compromised on my own involvement. In this case, it seems very much the opposite of unimportant to you and I have no reason in the universe to be unable to help, so…please come this way." Amia reassured them they were about to get her full attention.

She led them to the Quarantine Consultation Room, which was away from everyone else and lockable. She keyed in her occupancy of the suite and was granted access. The room was large but sparsely furnished. It had a usual purpose that demanded easy cleaning.

"How can I help you?" the CMO asked as the suite door swished closed and registered a no entry status towards anyone on the outside who might accidentally stumble in. If the suite would be needed for a medical reason, there was an intercom that could be used to hail the occupants and remove them in plenty of time, so this was the safest and most secure place on the level.

“Thank ya, Dr. Telamon,” Caleb said. He glanced at Aleczandra, who pointedly looked away. “It’s about Zandy. You should have her medical records, if you want to pull them up.”

"I will do that, with your permission, both of you?" Amia just had to check that Zandy was all in agreement on this too.

Aleczandra sighed. “I guess,” she said. “I feel fine,” she assured them. “We never worried before.” She shifted nervously, still fearing the worst, even after the discussion with Commander Aldrex. But she was a minor, and had little say in any of this, she knew. It was frustrating! She couldn’t wait until she turned eighteen!

"It's very high priority. I'll have to up my log in level. Oh! Wow!" Amia gasped on first look. "Can...I'm going to have to read this carefully. Can I get you something to drink while you wait?" she offered. "I won't keep you long, but if you'd like something I can get it." Her eyes were still scanning across the padd as she was offering the refreshments.

“Ah can get it, Doc,” Caleb said, directing Aleczandra to sit. “And before ya say anything, there’s only a handful of people that know about this, and Ah’d like it to stay that way. The only reason we’re here is because your husband insisted,” he said crossly.

"I can imagine he would have," she commented distractedly, not really taking that in yet as she still read avidly, taking in the shocking contents of the records. When she finally got to the end she put the padd aside and looked up at the two of them. "I... er... well, I can see why this has to be so highly classified." she said, almost speechless. "And I can also see why it blew Cade's fuses.... Well, probably more Aldrex's, but none the less... I guess we should do a physical check over and see that nothing is going wrong first of all. Is that what you were expecting, too?" This needed to be handled with diplomacy, judging by the storm clouds on the faces of Commander Ryan and his daughter.

"Don't shoot the medical messenger though, will you?" she added, getting the strongest feeling she was getting branded with the role of bad-guy in this.

“That’s what we expected, yes,” Caleb admitted.

“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Aleczandra protested, crossing her arms.

Caleb ignored his daughter. “We thought doctors might be forced ta inform the Symbiosis Council an’ they’d come and reclaim Naqiis…no matter what the consequences to mah daughter,” he said quietly.

"I don't know what a Trill doctor would or would not be obligated to do, but I'm a Starfleet doctor and my oath was sworn that I would do no harm, so the prospect of removing a symbiont at the risk that it or its host could be badly affected would go against everything I believe in and am sworn to protect. It would also go against what Starfleet expects of me," Amia reassured them both calmly and gently.

"If -- and it would be yourselves who would be the ones to decide this -- but if you wanted a new host to be found for Naqiis, and if and only if doing so would not compromise Aleczandra's health or welfare in any way, then we might talk about what you wanted to look into, but that is a very long way away from this check. Personally, I suspect that any decision to remove Naqiis would probably jeopardize both the host and symbiont equally. I know there's been a lot of talk about a temporary host carrying a symbiont for a short period just to get it safely back to wherever it needed to be, but there are two things that worry me about that.

“One, how long is a short time, and I'll lay odds that it's never been done for as long as you have carried Naqiis; and two, what happens to the empty host once the symbiont is safely delivered but they are left with a physique that has adapted to carrying and is now physically forced to unadapt again.

“I don't like what my medical and scientific conclusions are, based on my experience of nature and the ways of physical interdependence as I've witnessed it. I would need a great deal of convincing that it would be safe, and I'm only talking about that elusive short period.

“What we have here is a significantly longer period than anyone has ever put to the test, and I don't do live guinea-pig tests! And all this is only if you were desperate, both of you two and Naqiis too. And even then I'm still not sure I could be prevailed on to even contemplate it. So seeing as you don't want me to, and seeing as I'm already not happy to, then I think we have a unanimous decision on how to go forward," Amia explained.

Thinking a little more as she read off the readings of the med-scanner on the biobed, Amia frowned and then added, "Of course, there's always the possibility that Naqiis is not suitably matched to Zandy even now and if we were considering whether it's likely to do her more harm to stay joined than it would to try out the removal unknowns that I was just talking about, then we'd be in a whole different ball game. Do you understand how that is different?" she asked, hoping this U-turn thought was actually something that also made sense.

“I…I guess,” Aleczandra said quietly, startled by the doctor’s vehemence.

“That’s very different than what we know of the Trill,” Caleb admitted. “They put the symbiote first. Even my wife’s dying thoughts weren’t about me or Zandy, but about Naqiis.”

Aleczandra winced as her mother stirred within her.

“We weren’t sure it was somethin’ we could trust, so we only told people we knew we could trust.” Caleb nodded to the highly classified medical records on the screen. “Ah looked at the research. The success rate of an unjoining is dismal for the host. If they don’t die right out, or soon after, they’re doomed to a life of medicated biochemical and psychological issues like depression or bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and the suicide rates are astronomical. And that’s with the benefit of Symbiosis Council prescreening and counseling of hosts. Zandy never had that opportunity.”

Caleb lovingly put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “So far we’ve been lucky an’ the Joining seemed to have gone well. Ah figured a few years in like this we would be fine.”

“There haven’t been any problems,” Aleczandra asserted, glad the doctor wasn’t a Betazoid.

“At least nothin’ that can’t be chalked up to teenagers,” Caleb teased his daughter.

Zandra stuck her tongue out at him.

“So ya prob’ly want an updated scan, Ah suppose?” Caleb asked. “That one’s about a year old. Ah’d…consider it a favor if we could keep it classified,” he told her. “Ah still don’t trust the Symbiosis Council as far as Ah can throw ‘em.”

"I'm very happy to do a new scan. I would have advised it in due course," Amia said, very happily setting up the biobed with its multi-scanning functions. "And you don't even need to ask. All records are confidential between doctor and patient. In fact, technically, I shouldn't be discussing Zandy with you present, as she has the right to her own privacy and confidentiality, but as it stood, you presented as a pair looking for advice. If you, Zandy, are in any doubt about having any consultations with your dad present, then we can and most definitely should have some separate ones. For the initial basics, however, I would like you to please hop up onto the biobed and you can look at the results first, then we'll see what we can all discuss together and what feminine things we might need to make a little more modest and personal for you."

Caleb frowned. “She’s a minor,” she reminded the doctor. “That’s why Ah’m involved. She’s mah daughter. Mah responsibility.” He crossed his arms defiantly. “An’ medical confidentiality isn’t the same as what Ah’m talkin’ about,” he pointed out. “Ah want it really classified. As in it doesn’t leave here unless Ah authorize it.”

Aleczandra gave Amia a long-suffering look, as if to say, See what I have to live with? Gingerly she got onto the bed and lay back. “I feel fine,” she said.

Amia held up her hands in a surrender gesture and spoke in a soothing doctor's voice. "I didn't mean to offend you, Commander. I was just pointing out that, although she is a minor, she is also someone who has some legal rights to privacy and some female needs that are not within your scope any more. It's always worth remembering to allow a patient to remain an individual in your mind at all times, no matter how young you perceive them to be, especially in my profession." She set the scanners running and then added, "I also respect your need for security for this information and your daughter's secret." She watched as the scans and results rolled across the monitor at the rear of the bio bed. She adjusted the tiny LCARS light controls on the arch itself and more data streamed up.

Caleb frowned and uncrossed his arms. “Thank ya, doctor,” he said. “Ah ain’t lookin’ ta pry. Ah don’t need the details on…female needs.” He cringed a bit. “Ah just need ta know mah daughter’s healthy, an’ Ah don’t want secrets kept from me. Ah’m her father. Ah’m responsible for her.”

"I know," Amia said, surprisingly softly, and touched the back of his hand, portraying an empathy of some kind. "It's a Joined Trill's spouse thing," she whispered hoarsely, some deep pain reaching up. "I really felt what you said about your wife, rest her soul, her last thought being for the symbiont and not you or your child." Amia subconsciously touched her stomach protectively.

"We're never able to compete with the symbiont, so we can't fully meet soul to soul like individuals can. And if you even get close, you've only related to one of its partnerships, you're in level one of a ten level game. The rest are even more disconnected than you can ever reach. It's like a relationship with a crowd of strangers, and while you love the one you consider to be yours, the rest might be people you can't even like. So how do you relate to your own level then, knowing that another dozen or so are in there somewhere?" She had changed to a normal level of volume because it was rude to exclude Zandy, and anyway, she might also understand what Amia was struggling with.

"I often feel like I'm in a relationship with a conjoined set of quins, four of them facing in a different direction and perhaps even more than just five, but up to any number, all stacked up somewhere unseen but further back that you can see…all in the relationship with you because they have to be. They're physically there, no matter how successfully they appear to have switched themselves out. How do we, as non-Trill spouses, know for sure that they do switch tactfully out? And if they don't...isn't it like being intimate in front of an audience? How many of them are there at the same time? Are they present all at once? Or can they only appear one at a time? Cade never talks about it. I asked, but he found something else he needed to talk about and I took the hint...." She stopped and realized she was talking too much.

"I'm so sorry. This is about you, Zandy. I'm so sorry to go on about me. Please take no notice," she apologized, deeply embarrassed that she had let so much out that was so deeply private. She had never shared those thoughts or questions before.

Caleb looked at the floor. He had forgotten Amia was married to a Joined Trill. He heard her words, felt them himself. He had fallen in love with Mika at the Academy. And then she had been selected for Joining. He had been so afraid to lose her, but he couldn’t deny her the opportunity so few Trill were allowed and which Mika had aspired to. She had been so…different when she returned. Wiser. Less tolerant of his twenty-something antics. He’d had to change, to grow up, to be worthy of the new Mika, but it was something he was more than willing to do. It had taken a long time, but he finally had won her heart once again. She rarely talked about the others, but they were there, Kinony in Mika’s sudden, more adventurous lovemaking, Delald in Mika’s new interest in music, Skelina in the tender mother Mika became when Aleczandra was born. Rayst, Ranel, Cistay had all left their mark. Only Juheni did she refuse to talk about.

Aleczandra just glared at the adults, covering her own anxiety with teenage pique. “Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just lying right here,” she snarked. They didn’t know just how hard it was. They couldn’t know. She wondered if Commander Aldrex might be someone she could talk to.

Amia felt bad. "Aleczandra, I'm sorry," she repeated. "Do you have memories from all Naquuis' previous hosts? Are they with you all the time?" she asked. "I just wonder if they can help you -- and us -- with this question we're trying to ask about you and your well being? I have to assume that they care as much as we do."

Aleczandra shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “Hard to tell who’s who.” It was sort of a lie. Only her mother, Juheni, and Kinony were really strong, the three most recent hosts. The others were there, but quieter, happily at ‘rest’. “And, I mean...it’s not like I’m hearing voices!” she said. “I’m not crazy!” Right?

Caleb looked at Amia and shrugged, at a loss for words. He didn’t know much more about Joined Trill. “It was deeply personal. Mika didn’t talk about it a lot,” he said. “Just the basics.”

Amia nodded with feeling. "I know. Cade is like that. It feels like they don't trust you to know any more," she said, and then on retrospect hoped she hadn't sounded testy. She didn't want to feel testy about it. He had the right to privacy about it and she didn't mean to intrude, but it was like big lumps of him that were shut off to her and that did sometimes make her feel remote from him on a deep level.

"No, Aleczandra, you're not crazy at all," Amia reassured the teenager. "I would probably find it really hard if I had to do what you've done. I'm very respectful of your strength and calm." This was a very honest comment.

Aleczandra shrugged. “Don’t have much of a choice,” she said. “It’s either buck up and get back on the saddle, or never ride again. Dad taught me that.” She looked at her father and then back to Amia.

“So everything chill?” Zandra asked when the arch dinged that it had completed its scans.

Amia was watching the readout scroll. There were some comparison figures that weren't exactly what she had hoped to see. She frowned as she tried to take in the whole picture and work out what exactly she was seeing.

"Well..." she began.

Caleb straightened up and stepped forward with concern. “What, Doc?” he asked, almost a demanding tone in his voice as fatherly concern took over.

"There are some discrepancies." Amia didn't see any point in hedging about on this. "The former scans show very normal biologies, but the new ones are, well, quite significantly different with regard to androgens and oestrogens." She looked at Caleb's face and realized he had no reason to know about such things. "Female hormones and chemicals," she explained. "And there are some very different patterns in the brain scans too," she muttered.

"Zandra? Are you experiencing different feelings or having any unexplained mood swings? Nausea? Headaches? Anything at all that's unusual?" she asked the patient with a concerned expression.

Aleczandra looked a bit worried. She glanced at her father. She didn’t want him -- or anyone -- to know about the voices, the blackouts. “It’s probably just my time,” Zandra said dismissively. “I’ve been feeling just fine otherwise,” she lied.

With the surge in adrenalin that the scans recorded, Amia raised an eyebrow and glanced from daughter to father and then back at her screen. Caleb didn't seem to have noticed it, but Amia knew there was a conversation to be had here. She debated with herself whilst pretending to be busy working out the scans.

Should she call the girl out in private and tell her she knew she had been hiding something, or would her father find out and hit the roof that his daughter was spoken to without him being present? Did the girl deserve -- even have a right to -- privacy on this? Or did the parent have a right to know what was suspected? She settled on the side of speaking to the daughter alone and risking the not insubstantial wrath of the protective parent later. It was a risky call.

Amia buried the scan result behind another that she had saved too and carried on as if nothing unusual had occurred.

“Can I get down now?” Aleczandra asked into the silence.

"You are a little anaemic, Zandy. I think I need to prescribe some tonics. You know, vitamins, minerals, that sort of pick-you-up. Do you want to stop by after school and get them?" she asked with her doctors' inscrutable face in full ON mode.

Aleczandra shrugged. “Sure, that’s fine,” she told the doctor. “Told you I was fine.” She smiled and hopped down off the biobed.

"I'll get something appropriate mixed up for you in the pharmacy here. Would you like to call back on your way home from school?" Mai'ya said, totally casually. "It'll be only a couple of hyposprays of medicine so it won't take long at all. I can give you some vials to take home and use to top yourself up over a period of a few weeks. We'll have you right as rain in no time."

“Yeah, that works,” Aleczandra said. “But I really am fine. Probably just need to hydrate more, right?” She flashed a disarming smile. This is why she hated doctors!

“Thank ya, Dr. Telamon,” Caleb said. “And remember, this is classified.” He indicated Aleczandra’s medical records. “No one sees those. It’s mah daughter’s life ya hold in yer hands.”

"I will keep these sealed and I would never discuss any patient's details or care with another. I shouldn't even be discussing this with you, but we've been over that and settled on the whys and wherefores of that one," she assured him.

“Very good,” Caleb said, perhaps a bit curtly.

“I’ll stop by later,” Aleczandra assured the doctor. “Thank you.”



Lt. Cmdr. Caleb Ryan
Chief of Security/Tactical

Aleczandra Naqiis
Caleb’s daughter
NPC Caleb Ryan

&

Cmdr. Amia Telamon
CMO - DS5

 

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