You head towards the Medical Bay.
Medical Bay
Even the circulation of air can't quite keep the antiseptic smell from this room. Immaculately clean, the tiles of the floor are the same pristine white as the walls. Gadgets and gizmos abound. The highest medical technology available for all the races that might conceivably come to the station are present. A pair of beds near the door provide places for emergent cases, their bioscan devices ready for monitoring. Doors lead to rooms for surgery, short-term care, and long-term care. (OOC note: To set your room doing, try 'I'm '.)
Contents:
Julie, standing by the door.
Clara, working on budget requisitions
Obvious Exits:
Short Term Care Chief's Office Elevator Lounge
Clara is seated at a desk near an open filing cabinet, a fairsized datareader pulled up with rows of numbers, and a large file folder of documentation half filled out in front of her. She pauses in reading to type at the terminal, then nudge through the cabinet again.
Julie ambles in, pausing to breathe in the smells of medbay before meandering further into the room. Again she pauses, spotting Clara, but after a moment makes her way up to the desk. "Clara?"
"Hmmm?" comes the answer from the doctor with her head bent over a cabinet drawer, flipping through pages. Finally Clara glances up, holding her place with one finger, and manages a somewhat absent smile. "Evening...Julie? Don't tell me Maintenance got a hold of you already?"
Julie blinks, and glances down at herself, and shakes her head. "Er, no. I'm taking a break from decorating my quarters." She pauses and inquires, "Do I need to be worried about Maintenance getting a hold of me?"
Clara chuckles and flips through another few files to finally extract the proper sheet, then makes a notation into her keyboard. "Not really. Not unless you set fire to your cooking area. Getting all settled in, then?"
Julie mhmmms, eyes flicking to the datareader and folder. "Yeah, which sort of brings me to why I came down. Perchance did my orders come in yet, do you know? I apologize... you do look rather busy."
"Your...oh! Your orders, yes. Actually, Riley would have those, actually. I imagine he's still at work, if you wanted to check over there." Clara glances down at the paperwork and rubs at her eyes with her thumb and index finger. "You've arrived at our favorite time of year. Budget proposals and requests."
Julie glances briefly in the direction of Security. "If you're this busy, I'm sure he's busier, and doesn't need to be bothered by the likes of me. Favorite, eh?" She cocks her head before asking, "How long has it been since you took a break?"
Clara pauses to consider that frankly, then answers, "Three hours. I went over to the library and ran into a friend and chatted for a bit." She shrugs and pokes a finger at the datareader to flip to a new page. "Okay, maybe not -favorite-," she admits, grinning broadly.
Julie's mouth quirks slightly, and she turns to take the few steps to the coffeemaker for a cup. "Budget requests not withstanding, aren't you the one who told me she likes her staff to work normal hours?"
Clara smirks vaguely at the paperwork and jots down a few more figures on the form, then folds her arms over it to watch the coffee getting. "I most certainly do. And I'm not physician on duty, thank goodness. Jones is, although he's back in long term care right now. Have you met him and Vryce yet?"
Julie shakes her head, stirring cream and sugar into the cup, and turns to lean back against the wall to take a sip. "Haven't had the chance, I'm afraid. I'm rather looking forward to it. Especially this Vryce fellow." Tilting her head, she calculates aloud, "So Vryce'll relieve Jones while you sleep. /If/ you sleep. Then you've the shift after that?" She shakes her head. "No wonder y'all were in such a hurry to get another doc in here."
Clara waggles a pen at the younger woman, noting affably, "I'll sleep." She glances up at the wall chrono and explains, "I usually go home about the same time Addison does, so probably in a couple hours here. We've been pretty hurt for another doctor, though, yes. The powers that be were convinced we could hold down the fort with just the three of us."
Julie snorts lightly. "I take it the powers that be have never tried to run a medbay with a mere three doctors who can't even take a day off. Or been treated therein."
"Treated, yes," Clara replies, wearily amused as she gestures back towards her office. "However since we do our best to make it a pleasant experience, they figured everything was fine. I would like to send Jones off for a week, though. He and his wife need to scamper off on a honeymoon, still."
Julie nods amiably. "Well, if you and Vryce can stand one more week with no days off after I get on the roster, I've certainly no objection to pulling double shifts. It'll be nice jumping back into work."
"Double shifts? Oh, Julie, I'm not going to ask that of you right away," Clara assures gently. "We'll give you a bit to settle in, and then the three of us togther will do seven days of eight hours a day apiece. Besides, I went on vacation...um. Three months ago? Not long at all. As soon as I got back, essentially."
Julie inclines her head after a moment with a doubtful, "If you say so." An eyebrow rises as she takes a drink. "Got back?"
"Mm-hmm," Clara replies, glancing down to add another few numbers to the form. "From Outpost Seven. I'd been tranferred there." She grimaces a moment, nose wrinkled. "A null gee research station...Naval run."
Julie blinks, cup pausing in another ascent. "Begging your pardon, that assignment, um, doesn't seem suited to you. Snafu?"
"-Big- snafu," agrees Clara, twirling the pen over the fingers of one hand. "Ordered by...someone. Indeterminate. But no, they most certainly didn't want an Infantry MD. You folks have all sorts of interesting tricks to combat null-gee effects. It'd be nice if they'd teach them to us, too," she adds, chuckling.
Julie pauses to dissect words and tone, looks briefly and faintly surprised, and quirks a small smile at that last. "I'm surprised the Chief hasn't offered to teach you."
Clara blinks several times at that. "Do you know, I don't think either of us even thought about it? I got shipped out just two days after getting the orders...and hopefully it won't happen again. I'll have to bug him to show me the ropes, just in case."
Julie nods her agreement, turning to refresh her cup, and lifts the pot in a 'want some?' gesture. "It would seem a wise precaution. Just in case... someone... decides to be silly again. So you're hoping to be here permanently then?"
Clara nods affably, to both questions, holding out her mug. "I'd love some, if you please, thank you. And yes, I hope so, at least. Can't ever really plan on anything. Military life is never certain, but you know that."
Julie carries the coffeepot a few steps over to fill the taller woman's mug, then returns the pot to the warmer. A faint grimace skips across her expression, partially hidden by her cup as she takes a drink. "True enough, and life is full of surprises. I hear you're quite popular with the locals."
"Me?" This seems to honestly surprise Clara as she reaches for a sip of the freshened cup. "I can't imagine why, really. I don't even know many of the locals."
Julie gestures more-or-less toward the Java Quarter. "I met a couple last night who said you saved their lives. Roland... it was Italian... DeMario, that's it. And a young lady calling herself Aliana? She confided to me that all the food in the mess is poison." Is that a twinkle of amusement in Julie's eyes? Perhaps.
Clara bursts into laughter, shaking her head and eyes closing for a moment. "Oh, good heavens. It's normal mess hall food, is all. Aliana had a reaction to some preservatives in gravy and went into systemic shutdown from anaphylactic shock. So we did what was necessary. She and DeMario are nice people, certainly. Very kind."
Julie nods, definitely amused now, though her bland expression doesn't change. "I did have to wonder what happened when she told me she's allergic to gravy. Are non-staff often treated here then?"
Clara explains with utter seriousness, "I'll treat anyone here who needs help. The Complex isn't exactly a place that many people come without need, so usually it's just staff, delegates, their staffs, and the Bonded...but my doors are open to anyone who needs help."
Julie shakes her head slightly. "Forgive me, I was not criticizing. I was curious."
Clara half grins and stops the pen twirling to add another row of numbers to her form, then carefully turns the page to the next form. "I didn't take it as such. I was just explaining how I work."
Julie nods, making inroads on her coffee. "Glad to hear that policy. I'd hate to be called in to explain why I didn't turn away this person or that."
Clara laughs and shakes her head, still penning in numbers, but well able to chat at the same time. "Not a chance. Quite the opposite. I'd want to know the circumstances if someone were turned away."
Julie nods her approval, her expression becoming slightly more animated. "Good. Sweet Areh, you're refreshing." Speaking of which, she turns for another cup of coffee with plenty of cream and sugar. "Did you know the breakability of Niko and the Chief seems to be legendary?"
Clara can't help but smile up from her work at that. "Me? Thank goodness. I was sure I'd flub my first command in a massive way. Legendary, though?" The grin remains, but turns faintly puzzled. "How so?"
Julie's eyebrows rise a quarter inch. "This is your first command?" She nods, leaning back against the wall again. "One of the first things I was told last night in that heavenly bakery in the Java Quarter was to expect to see a lot of those two in here."
Clara leans back in her chair, dissolving into laughter at that. "Not if either of them can help it, you won't." She attempts to stifle the snickering with a sip of coffee, eyes still dancing. "But yes, this is my first command. I'm only a year older than you are, actually."
Julie's mouth quirks wryly. "I had wondered about that. You look younger by a bit. I'm just surprised they handed this choice an assignment to somebody who'd never commanded before."
Clara shrugs slightly, obviously agreeing. "I was fairly baffled myself. Evidently Honalee...the former Cheif Medic, hunted through records, and needed a xenobiologist who was also a counselor. Not the most common of combinations. Like you...I needed someone good in emergency medicine, but also in pathology."
Julie ahhhhs softly. "That explains that mystery too, then. We've a good spread of specialists here then?"
Clara nods and finally leans forward to snap off the datareader and tug the crystal from it to replace in a boite of perhaps nearly a dozen other similar data storage devices. "Mm-hmm. Vryce is an endocrinologist and an internist, and Jones studied first with Honalee, then with me on thoracic surgery. He's doubled in otolaryncology and pulmonary distress."
Julie nods, her expression faintly approving again. "Sounds like a well-meshed team."
Clara closes her folder after a final notation, explaining with quiet reverence, "Honalee was a brilliant woman. -Is- a brilliant woman. I've worked hard to follow her example. I call her for advice a lot."
Both of Julie's eyebrows rise this time. "I see. So... you wouldn't be too upset if I were to call you if, for example, I've got a Floridan in here complaining about rashes resulting from his own pollen." Her slight grimace indicates this was not a hypothetical Floridan.
Clara blinks owlishly at the question, then half grins at it. "We'd probably want to get Jones in here for that, actually. Kramer, too. But I'd come tag along and provide any help I could. Floridans aren't the easiest to diagnose or treat."
Julie nods slightly. "Especially when you'd never seen one before." A faint blush outlines her freckles. "I just..." She shakes her head. "That's good to know."
Clara logs off the computer terminal, then slides the cabinet shut before turning to face you seriously. "Julie, I've seen your transcripts. You're a brilliant physician. But with the thousands of species in the galaxy, not one of us can know everything. That's why we work in teams, so we can support each other. Never, -never- be afraid to not know something. Just ask. Even Vryce will answer a question, and help until you've got the procedure down pat."
Julie's blush blossoms like a Floridan in spring. "I... will do that. Thank you."
Clara tucks folder, datareader, and boite into the upper desk drawer before locking it, then reclaims her coffee and drains another measure, grinning. "And don't be surprised if we come crying to you for help on something we don't know. Works both ways."
You're trying to make poor Julie qualify for a fire engine lookalike contest, aren't you? The younger doctor takes a drink of her coffee to hide her expression. "I'm honored to assist."
Nah, just mention anything risque, and Clara would beat her hands down in that contest. She finishes the last of her mug and rises, stretching her arms out in front of her. "Ooooh, long day. We're glad to have you here, certainly. I was thinking, would you mind going on the schedule in four days?"
Julie coughs lightly, actually looking rather sheepish. "I was hoping for sooner than that, actually, if those orders come in, but I trust your discretion, of course."
Clara's brows scoot up as she considers this, scooting her chair in and leaning her hands on it. "Would you like to come in tomorrow morning and do a shift with me, just to get into the swing of things?"
Julie nods immediately, her own eyebrows rising fractionally. "Sounds like a plan." She hesitates, then notes, "Begging your pardon, but you look like you could use some sleep. Perhaps a pleasant hour or two with the Chief to wind down beforehand."
Clara glances at her wristcomm, a rather sappily fond look crossing her face for a moment, then tugs at her lab coat. "Sleep would be lovely, yes. Okay, my official shift is from 0600 to 1500. You're welcome to show up anytime during it. Until morning, then?"
Julie ;nods amiably, turning to refresh her coffee again before stepping toward the door. "I'd best dig my bed out and get some sleep myself then. Night, Clara."
Clara passes her own cup off to an intern with a murmur of thanks, and heads towards the door as well. "If you're headed to the third floor, I am too. I'll walk you up there?" she offers, heading towards the door herself.
Julie pauses, waiting politely for Clara to catch up before continuing on. "Sure." She almost grins.
Clara heads towards the Second Floor Elevator Lounge.
Clara has left.
You head towards the Second Floor Elevator Lounge.
***** Travelspam deleted *****
You walk towards the Third Floor Elevator Lounge.
Third Floor Elevator Lounge
While it is as tastefully decorated as the other levels, this elevator lounge seems a bit more homey and less 'designed'. Perhaps it is because the occupants of this level, the Complex personnel, are less transient than the populations of the other two housing floors. Large area rugs are spread over the black marble floors to muffle the sound of footsteps. For some reason this level also lacks the occasional tasteful potted plants lurking in corners. A comfortable bench is set up along one wall, and over it is a corkboard of notices.
<< To see a directory of tenants, type +view corkboard >>
Contents:
Clara
Obvious exits:
Stairs Elevator
Clara pauses in the lobby and sketches a lazy salute and grins. "G'night, then. See you in the morning," she offers, then turns to head off down the final hallway.
Julie automatically returns the salute, not at all lazily, and heads briskly for her own corridor. "Looking forward to it."
Clara unlocks the door to room Z13 and goes inside.
Clara has left.
You unlock the door and go into room G8.
Q-HTML V2.1 (evaluation copy) by Craig Cockburn created this page on 19-Apr-1999 at 10:58:34
