Posted June 3, 2023, 12:55 p.m. by Lieutenant Aurra Talisse (Chief Medical Officer) (D Grisham)
Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Alternate Timeline
Posted by Lieutenant Aurra Talisse (Chief Medical Officer) in Alternate Timeline
As soon as she boarded the Atlantis, Aurra got her room assignment from the Quartermaster and swung by long enough to drop off the duffle she carried. After that, she made a circuitous route to get to the bridge, making sure to stop by sickbay to establish its layout and crew compliment. It would have time to settle in her mind during her boarding check ins. As a Chief Medical Officer, the Re’marian had never served on a Mythology class ship before–it was so large it felt like a floating city among the stars. That was fine with Aurra, the larger the ship, the less the crew would succumb to psychological space illnesses.
“I’ll actually get to test that theory…” She remarked to herself in the silent lift as it stopped on the bridge. When the doors opened, curious looks glanced her way but no one said anything. Aurra gave a general nod to anyone looking in her direction and then headed for the ready room. Without skipping a beat, she palmed the chime and clasped her hands behind her body while she waited for admittance to the CO’s office.
—CMO Talisse
“Come,” Kelly yelled and made a waving motion once the door opened for Talisse to enter as she continued to hold a conversation with someone on her console. Holding up a finger she indicated that she would be just a second.
Aurra entered and stepped toward the desk, noting the upheld finger bidding her to wait.
“Exactly but I would hesitate to say it was entirely my away team’s fault,” Kelly took on a firm expression.
=/\=Your away team blew up a space port=/\= the voice almost shrieked with a wave of uncontrolled anger.
One brow raised at the accusation and a corner of her mouth turned up. ‘Blew up a space port’? Perhaps the crew of the Atlantis was a little wilder than others crews the doctor had served with.
“Well, that is an exaggeration, Sir. It was only the west pad and it would not have blown up if there weren’t illegal munitions below it that were being sold on the black market which if I am not mistaken was the reason you sent us to Belatator Prime in the first place.” Picking up her coffee Kelly took a sip and waited as the man on the other line spat out a series of reprimands, allegations, and denials about her point of view on the situation. It only ended when the sound of someone entering the office of the man on the other end of the comm call.
Clicking the button off, Kelly reclined back in her chair with a deep sigh. “Don’t you hate it when your boss is being a dork?”
Kelly Bordeaux CO
“You have no idea, Sir.” Aurra’s response seemed to come from an internal situation in her past. It wasn’t a flippant reply.
“Yes,” came a voice from outside the room. A man in the yellow of engineering standing at a console nearby glanced at them through the open door, his voice having an almost gravelly tone as if it was used to spouting ill-timed but honest observations.
Talisse turned to see who’d spoken—a tall, blonde, male in the gold uniform (?) of security/engineering was looking into the office from one woman to the other. Aurra caught his eye briefly and gave a slight nod.
He thrust one hand into a pouch on his tool belt and then took something out, pausing again to look between the two, his eyes finally resting on Kelly. “Especially when they make a habit of it, Captain.” The thing in his hand was thrust between his teeth in the corner of his mouth and once his hand dropped, was revealed to be the unlit stub of a cigar. Shrugging one shoulder pre-emptively he turned back to the console, carrying on with whatever task he was doing.
Lt Cmdr Nash, CE
“Me,” Kelly replied looking at Nash. “I was not the one that said Ensign Dumb and Ensign Dumber were going to be fine. I think what was you. In fact, I distinctly remember you saying ‘come on Kelz. They are just going to be looking around. There is no harm in looking is there?’ Turns out yes,” Kelly let out a small laugh. “Yes there was and I am still trying to smooth things over.”
Before either of them could say anything, the doors closed, leaving the women on their own.
“Captain, Lt Aurra Talisse reporting for duty. I’m the new CMO for the Atlantis.”
—CMO Talisse
“Pleased to meet you,” Kelly said extending her hand. “Sorry about the call before your arrival. We all report to someone and can only take a message so many times before your boss becomes suspicious.” There was a hint of humor in her voice. “So how was your trip over? Your quarters are acceptable I presume?” Taking a seat, Kelly motioned or Talisse to take a seat across from her desk and waited for her replies.
Kelly Bordeaux
Seating herself, Aurra relaxed a bit into the chair. “Everything is fine, Captain. I took the opportunity of stopping by sickbay before reporting here. You really have state of the art equipment on the Atlantic. I’m almost excited to see what kinds of cases walk through the medical bay doors—with so many crew, its bound to be interesting.”
She looked at the woman across the desk and wondered how a beauty like Bordeaux had managed to stay in Starfleet long enough to become a Captain. The woman was stunning and beauty was a commodity still appreciated by many species and cultures throughout the quadrant.
“I haven’t served on a ship this large before but I’m very happy about this posting.”
—CMO Talisse
“Well I am thrilled to have you but I should let you know that the Atlantis is not really a ship. It’s a floating city and I double as a mayor which at times can make you the town doctor. Welcome to Maybury.” Kelly’s tone was deadpan but she had a slight smirk.
The doctor had no idea what Maybury was but said nothing.
“It isn’t that bad and while that was half a joke, at times we have had to do double duty on both sides. The ship is large enough with enough of a civilian component that we have our docs and they have theirs. Our security takes precedence but the civilians have a small police unit of about 10 men. They all report to me. I only tell you this because if there is an emergency main sick bay is reserved for Starfleet but the clinic and hangar A are set up to house both civvies and Starfleet. There are more of us than them so it is usually them helping us out vs the other way around. Dr. Lauren Shan tends to volunteer some of her free time to the clinic so if you are ever looking for her that is where she will be.”
Aurra nodded. “That’s good to know. I’ll familiarize myself with the ship’s SOPs once I’ve gotten my check ins done. I’m looking forward to meeting my staff and members of command.”
“Tell me about your last posting,” Kelly asked.
Kelly Bordeaux CO
Taking in a deep breath, Aurra settled and crossed her legs. “The SS Excelsior, a long range scientific vessel. We were on a three year mission riding just outside the borders of Federation space looking for anomalies of any kind and following up on them. It was actually a chance for me to get in a lot of research on exo-viruses and their treatments because the Excelsior didn’t find many situations that needed its help. My time there was fairly normal.” She looked thoughtfully around the room. “However, from what I’ve heard about the Atlantis, I can look forward to some adventure here.”
—CMO Talisse
“We do seem to get our fair share of adventures,” Kelly laughed. “So you specialize in exo viruses or is it just a hobby?” Kelly had never met a doctor before without a specialization. Lauren was the brain, Ethan’s Mintaran friend Jasmine was organ cloning, and Dante’s plucky Malibu Dr Barbie adored kids. She had never spent a lot of time with a virologist which piqued Kelly’s interest.
Kelly Bordeaux CO
Aurra’s expression relaxed before answering. She was very comfortable speaking about the medical field. “My specialty is internal medicine, but about four years ago I began studying viruses in earnest. They really are fascinating.” There was something like admiration in her voice. “Many don’t submit easily to treatment even in this day and age, and we have a cure or course of treatment for most everything. The thing that drives me in my studies is that I’m sure viruses, or something like them, exist on other worlds where we haven’t traveled yet. I want to be familiar with their origin and life cycle so there is a chance of treating them when someone is eventually exposed.”
—CMO Talisse
“Biology is the underdog of the sciences,” Kelly let out a small chuckle. “Everyone wants to be the rockstar of science until they get a boo boo,” she agreed with Talisse. As sciences went, the physicists were the rockstars of sorts creating all the cool toys and coming up with ways to either blow things up or go faster. Biologists were often the more reserved, on the surface, of the sciences but as Talisse commented, it only took a single virus to wipe a civilization out. Then the biologist was pulling a hail mary more times than not saving everyone.
“So what is your pet project?” Kelly had been doing this job long enough to know everyone had a pet project they were eagerly awaiting for someone to slip a data PaDD across her desk and ask for funding via credits or manpower. Security was like kids at Christmas when they go a new phaser. Physicists were over the moon when they could siphon more power to run their fantastical simulations. Chemists tended to be quieter since they were usually making some sort of under-the-table fermented beverage.
“And please don’t let it be another animal or ecological project.” Leaning over the table, Kelly nodded her head at a picture of four people on her desk all in civilian clothes. One couple was her and Ian. The other was a devastatingly handsome blonde male and his obscenely gorgeous dark-haired wife. “Lexi there convinced me that if we were a floating city we needed a zoo. I was drunk enough that I thought it was a good idea. Now we have Noah’s Ark appropriately named since at times this whole ship can be a zoo. It’s more of a petting zoo for small fuzzy things than a full-on San Diego experience but the kids like it.”
Kelly Bordeauz CO
How much should she explain? She had a feeling Bordeaux understood more about the science of medicine than her last CO. She also knew her ‘pet project’ might not be to everyone’s liking. Looking across the desk at her commanding officer, Aurra chewed her bottom lip for a moment before responding. “I’m working with viruses and nanites. I want to combine the two so when we meet large populations infected with an illness or disability, we can physically treat them all even if we only have access to a few of them in several areas. Depending on the action the nanites are programmed for, you might not want everyone to receive the benefits at the same time. Using this method, where we allow the virus to carry and spread the cure in a more natural arc, the eventual ‘healing’ will appear more organic. We could even treat certain things with no one the wiser.”
—CMO Talisse
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