Lt. JG. Vhysa'lia - Deep Questions and Shallow Answers
Lich
(( Primary Sickbay – Deck 7, USS Artemis-A ))
Meeting her new co-workers was Vhysa’lia’s main quest at the moment, hence her interruption of Dr. Bancroft’s work. He hadn’t appeared to be in the middle of anything too time-critical, nor focus-intensive, so they didn’t feel bad about it at all, even if it was perhaps a little rude. He didn’t seem to mind much though, thankfully, even if he seemed a bit startled initially.
Vhysa’lia: It is a pleasure, Dr. Bancroft. ::slight pause, looking around and taking the sights of sickbay in:: It looks like we’re both somewhat new here together - you, to the Artemis, and me to this department.
Bancroft: ::with a cautious smile:: I assure you, Lieutenant, the pleasure’s mine. And you’re quite right – I’m new to the Artemis. But I do recall seeing your name on the counseling roster. ::a beat, lightening slightly:: Decided to trade in the inkblot holos and feelings journals for bonesaws and protoplasers?
She nodded, exactly. Counseling was fun, but it wasn’t what they wanted to be doing right now. It somehow just… didn’t feel like they were doing enough. Not making a big enough impact on the crew, not helping as many people as they could, not spreading Kobali goodwill across the people of the Federation…
Vhysa’lia: Counseling just wasn’t the thing for me, I wanted to be back doing something more… hands on. I’ve missed it! ::huge grin:: But enough about me, how are you liking the Artemis? ::gesturing to his work:: You’re certainly fitting in already, the whole ship seems to be full of… “work-a-holics”, I think is the phrase?
Whether or not that was truly an accurate description of the ensign, she had no idea, but it was enough of an in to get him to talk more, she hoped.
Bancroft: ::mildly:: I wouldn’t say I’m a workaholic, but I do love the work. ::gesturing to the trauma cart:: I also don’t like leaving things to chance. Around here, problems tend to evolve if you don’t catch them early.
Another nod, that was something universal, it appeared. Problems left alone tended to multiply. They’d seen enough of that in the past - a kyn’cheya that slipped through the testing, just squeaking out barely above the threshold for “concerning attachment to past life”, suddenly having a crisis that spiraled through their entire ship in a moment of stress… it wasn’t common, but it certainly wasn’t unheard of.
Bancroft: ::more upbeat:: I love it here on the Artemis. She’s like her crew – purposeful, dramatic, competent, and just slightly unhinged. ::a beat, wryly:: And, nobody’s tried to airlock me yet, so I’m calling that a win.
Now that was an Artemis-exclusive. Even aboard the Nayus Convoy, the small fraction of the Kobali fleet that she had called home ever since being brought aboard and reanimated, there had been no threats of airlocking, joking or otherwise. When your entire life took place aboard a ship, threats like that felt all the more real.
Vhysa’lia: Oh, you’ve avoided that then, have you? I haven’t had the pleasure of any extended interactions with our dear captain, but I think I’ve got a bit of ::fingers make air quote signs:: “diplomatic immunity” from airlocking. Might cause a small smidge of a stir if an exchange officer got thrown out unceremoniously like that.
They grinned at the joke, fairly certain that any “diplomatic immunity” that they might lay claim to in all likelihood didn’t exist. But it certainly wouldn’t be ideal for relations, she suspected, if that was how her time on the Artemis ended.
In front of her, Dr. Bancroft had pulled over another collection of medical supplies. Clearly, the past mission had shaken up things well and good with the department, in more ways than just personnel transfers.
Bancroft: With your leave, Lieutenant, I’d like to get this tray of equipment reset, refurbished, and back in order. ::glancing over:: If you’re serious about getting hands-on again… I’d be grateful for your help.
They smiled at him again, pleased at being “included” in the busywork.
Vhysa’lia: Oh, of course. That’s why I’ve popped over to bother you, I’ve got nothing going on right now. Might as well roll up my sleeves and help out!
With that, she did indeed roll the sleeves of her uniform up, pushing them above the elbows, before grabbing a tricorder to start scanning the various bits and bobs in between them. It wasn’t necessary, but it did make her feel a little more “proper”.
Bancroft: ::lightly:: Do you ever wonder what we’re really doing here? ::beat, then quickly:: Not on the ship. I mean here, in Sickbay. Whether we’re actually helping. Or just making people comfortable while the universe chews through them a little more slowly.
Well, that was a concerning question. You could take the counselor out of her office, but you couldn’t take the counselor out of the officer. Or something like that, attempting to replicate human idioms wasn’t always her strongest suit. But still. Something was clearly up with this Dr. Bancroft, something was weighing on him, something that they took note of to poke at later perhaps…
But to his question, of course there was a point, to her at least. Suffering wasn’t noble. Dying comfortably, even if it took longer (even if it took a whole life), was preferable to dying painfully quickly in all cases. And in an entirely pragmatic sense, not that she would ever voice this opinion to her new colleagues, a peaceful death ensured a far more seamless psychological transition to a new, second life.
Bancroft: That was a bit deep for small talk, wasn’t it? My apologies. I forgot to put on my manners this morning. ::beat, softening:: Tell me about you, if you would. Did you get your degree at Starfleet Medical? Or somewhere else?
Vhysa’lia: ::wink:: Don’t worry, you can’t scare me off that easily. I’m Kobali and sometimes, frankly, it feels like every conversation I have is ::air quotes again, somewhat awkwardly, with one hand holding a dermal regenerator mid-scan:: “deep”. Just what comes with the species, it seems.
Not that they were interested in answering his deep question just yet. Better to just brush it off, and get the more surface-level inquiries out of the way. Those would make for a better impression, most likely. And it was more fun to talk to someone who was talking to her as a person, rather than as a philosophical conundrum. Better to talk school, for now, as both pairs of hands made quick work of the tools in front of them.
Bancroft: Response
Vhysa’lia: But yes, you’re right, I didn’t get my degree at Starfleet Medical. I did all my training back in the Delta Quadrant, with a few brush-ups on the Artemis recently, in preparation for joining the medical department. My Kobali education was quite thorough though, in case you’re at all concerned about working with someone who doesn’t remember the same professors you suffered through. ::laugh::
It was in her medical files (if he’d looked them up, she had no clue) that she wasn’t even a decade old, but that didn’t mean she was inexperienced or unqualified for being in this department. Far from it. Their medical education had been accelerated, as it was with all Kobali, building upon the foundation of half-remembered knowledge from their kyn’steya. There was no need to sit through the years-to-decades of schooling that most other species had, not when the grand majority of them started their lives with fully-developed brains and experience to draw on subconsciously.
Bancroft: Response
Vhysa’lia: Oh, I dabble, you know. A good deal of the work that I was doing before I came here was helping acclimate some of our kyn’cheya, our newest, to our society. You wouldn’t believe the sort of medical problems that can arise in those cases. ::shrug, then a look of curiosity:: I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of… interesting cases?
Best not to get into the weeds of the details there, lest they scare off a new colleague with too-flippant remarks about death. And it wasn’t as if the skills she’d picked up in the genetics labs for the Kobali Medical Corps were likely to be relevant in the Federation, not with their restrictions and suspicions on genetic engineering. All the work with patients in the sickbays, however, and their multitude of problems… that would always be relevant.
Bancroft: Response
Tags/TBC :)